Upon this Rock I will build my church(es?)

I was driving down the road the other day and had to turn around and get a picture of this sign (click on the picture for a larger image). I had to chuckle when i thought how silly such denominationalism is — and the series of infighting and splits that must have brought this name about.

Think about it! Christians were first called Christians in Antioch in Acts 11:26. Jesus used the word Church in Matthew 16 and 18. From the 1st century, Christian communities were referred to as Catholic — the Catholic Church, as can be seen as early as the writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch. And Catholic it from then on. 

Then in the 16th century, Luther came along and broke with the Catholic Church and decided to ditch the name. His group became known as Lutheran. Then a large group broke away from Luther and his new denomination because they rejected the infant baptism of Catholics and Lutherans. They were called Anabaptists — “ana” meaning again — baptizing again.

This group was obviously spawned from the break with Luther in the 16th century (see my article on Baptist Successionism). They eventually shortened the name from Anabaptists to simply Baptists.

Then someone decided to start their own little church within the Baptist tradition when they began to send missionaries around the world — usually to convert Catholics. Their parent group of Baptists must not have been sending missionaries. It was worthy of a split. They must have set themselves apart and taken the name MISSIONARY Baptist Church.

But what happened then? Maybe the Missionary Baptist Church got old fashioned and stoggy and so there was another split and the Progressives started their own denomination. They happily called themselves the PROGRESSIVE Missionary Baptist Church.

But the Progressives started infighting about something or other and finally a group of elders or deacons rose up and split off again and started a new group down the street named the NEW Progressive Missionary Baptist Church.

Now what? Who knows! Tomorrow they may split again and make the FIRST New Progressive Missionary Baptist Church and the Second. And then it will probably split again into the NEWEST First New Progressive Missionary Baptist Church or the Holy First New Progressive Missionary Baptist Church. And then we will add multiple sects to the already 33,000 Protestant denominations.

Or maybe they will just chuck it all and call themselves the First Baptist Church and start all over again.

And probably, as actually happenings hundreds of times a day, many will leave these sects and return to the REAL First Missionary Church which understands true baptism and is always progressive. I happen to be speaking of the Catholic Church!

Man, am I ever glad that I left that nonsense and became a Catholic. I think the first name of the Church was the best — and the first teaching as well.

(Shared from Steve Ray's blog. If the picture didn't show up, it was of a church sign for the New PROGRESSIVE Missionary Baptist Church)

Fellowship of the Unashamed

I AM A PART of the Fellowship of the Unashamed.


The die has been cast. The decision has been made. I have stepped over the line. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is in God’s hands. I am finished and done with low living, small planning, the bare minimum, smooth knees, mundane talking, frivolous living, selfish giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, applause, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, the best, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith. I lean on Christ’s presence. I love with patience, live by prayer, and labor with the power of God’s grace.

My face is set. My gait is fast, my goal is heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable, and my mission is clear.

I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up or slow up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and spoken up for the cause of Christ.

I am a disciple of Jesus. I am a Catholic. I must go until He comes, give until I drop, speak out until all know, and work until He stops me. And when He returns for His own, He will have no difficulty recognizing me. My banner is clear: I am a part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed.

On Sexual Abuse in schools and churches

This was written by John Martignoni and worth sharing:

The priest sexual abuse scandal that was brought to light in the first few years of this new millenium is indeed a shameful chapter in the history of the Catholic Church. Every priest who preyed on and abused any child, in any manner, did an absolutely horrible thing and should be justly punished for their actions.

Having said that, however, I wish to offer a few observations that need to be kept in mind, particularly by those who would, seemingly gleefully, exploit this scandal to further their own anti–Catholic agenda. And, I want to make clear, that nothing I say below is any way, shape, or form, meant to excuse or somehow justify anything that was done by these priests who acted in such a shameful manner.

The first thing I would say is this: Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone. If anyone says something to you about the priests scandal, the first thing to do is to acknowledge that is was shameful, sinful, horrible, disgusting, and is indeed a blight upon the Church. But, if someone is trying to use the scandal to promote their anti–Catholic bigotry or some such thing, then the second thing to do is to ask this person if they can name a single Protestant denomination that has not had a minister or ministers commit sexual abuse. Or, one that has not had a minister or ministers commit murder, steal, lie, cheat, engage in adultery, or any one of a number of sins against God and man. They cannot do it because there is no such denomination.

Which means that if the sins of the leaders of the Catholic Church somehow prove that the Church is not of God, or that it is indeed the Whore of Babylon as many of them contend, then the sins of the leaders of any particular faith tradition “prove” that that faith tradition is not of God. Which means then, that there is no faith tradition that is of God, because there is not a single one that has leaders who are 100% without sin.

And, in point of fact, according to studies and surveys done in the last few years, it appears that the incidence of sexual abuse within Protestant denominations is higher than it is within the Catholic Church. Again, not to excuse the actions of a single miscreant priest, but to point out that if non–Catholic Christians are going to be righteously angry about the priest sexual abuse scandal (and they should be), they need to also recognize and be righteously angry about the sexual abuse scandals that are going on inside of their own congregations and denominations.

The Washington Post did a survey a few years ago that showed less than 1.5 percent of the estimated 60,000 men who have been priests in the previous 40 years had been accused of child sexual abuse. Now, there are undoubtedly a number of priests who committed child sexual abuse and were never accused, but there are undoubtedly a number of priests who were accused of child sexual abuse who never actually committed such abuse, but we can’t know for sure what these numbers are either way. The N.Y. Times also did a survey and found that about 1.8 percent of priests ordained from 1950 to 2001 had been accused of child sexual abuse.

So, those are the figures relating to the Catholic clergy, but what about the Protestant clergy? In a 1984 survey, 38.6 percent of ministers reported sexual contact with a church member and 76% said they knew of another minister who had had sexual intercourse with a parishioner. In 1990, a study found that 10% of ministers admitted to having had an affair with a parishioner and 25% admitted to having “some sexual contact” with a parishioner. In a 1993 survey, 14% of Southern Baptist ministers said they had engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior.” In a 2000 report to the Baptist General Convention, it was noted that in the 1980’s, 12 percent of minsters had “engaged in sexual intercourse with members” and nearly 40% had “acknowledged sexually inappropriate behavior.” One thing to note here, is that these figures dealing with the Protestant clergy do not focus specifically on child abuse, but include all manner of sexual sins. The point, though, is that it appears the incidence of sexual abuse amongst Protestant clergy is as serious, if not more serious, than it is among Catholic clergy.

However, specifically in regard to child abuse, in 2002, the Christian Science Monitor reported that, “Despite headlines focusing on the priest pedophile problem in the Roman Catholic Church, most American churches being hit with child sexual–abuse allegations are Protestant.” In Pedophiles and Priests, a work by Penn State professor Philip Jenkins, it was determined that between .2 and 1.7 percent of priests are pedophiles, while between 2 and 3 percent of Protestant clergy are pedophiles. So, according to this study, the number of pedophiles among Protestant clergy range from just slightly higher than Catholic clergy to as many as 10 to 15 times higher than Catholic clergy. Finally, the New York Times reported in 2007, that just three insurance companies that insure Protestant churches said they receive an average of 260 reports a year of children young than 18 being sexually abused by members of the clergy, church staff memers, volunteers, or congregants. In other words, the problem is not one that is found solely within the confines of the Catholic Church.

So, why do you hear so much about the incidence of sexual abuse among the Catholic clergy and little to nothing about the incidence of sexual abuse among the Protestant clergy? A few reasons, but I believe the most important one is that the nice people in the media hate the Catholic Church more than they hate any other Christian church and will use any excuse to try to bring her down. They hate the Church’s stance on abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, contraception, and many other such things. So, because they hate the Church so much, they go after her with great gusto every chance they get, and this priest abuse scandal was like waving a red flag in front of a bull for them.

Another reason for the spotlight shining so brightly on the Catholic Church, is that the abuses of a number of different priests were exposed all at the same time so it seemed like the problem was larger within the Catholic Church compared to anywhere else. The fact is, most of the abuse cases go back to the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. So, when they came out, they didn’t trickle out here and there, they came out all at once. And, because of the size of the Church, compared to any single Protestant denomination, it makes it seem like the problem is more prevalent in the Catholic Church because of the numbers you hear talked about. So, you hear about 40 or 50 priest abusers in one archdiocese on national media one night, while in the back pages of the Eastaboga Times you read about the sexual abuse perpetrated by Pastor Jones over at the 1st Baptist church. The thing is, though, that when you add up all of the Pastor Jones abuse situations in all of the Protestant denominations, it is apparently a bigger problem than that which exists in the Catholic Church.

Which means, again, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Now, is the situation in the Protestant churches something for Catholics to gloat over? “Yeah, we’ve got sexual abuse in our Church, but at least it’s not as bad as what you Protestants have, hah!” No, that should not be the reaction of anyone who calls themself a Christian. Sexual abuse, whether of children or of adults, is a crime that destroys lives, and it is something that we all need to pray comes to an end in both the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches. Just as no one should be trying to exploit the situation of the priest abuse scandal to “score” points against the Church, Catholics should not try to exploit the situation of the minister abuse scandal to “score” points against the Protestant denominations. We should all be equally outraged against all of these abuses and work and pray to lessen the incidence of such despicable acts.

One more thing to keep in mind, though, which provides a bit more perspective on the whole situation, particularly as to the motivation of the media – by all accounts, while the sexual abuse problem is bad in the Catholic world and the Protestant world, it is apparently many times worse in the public school systems around this country. It has been reported, by the Journal of Education Research, that as many as 17.7 of males who graduated high school, and 82.2 of females, reported sexual harassment by faculty or staff during their years in school. And consider this, in the State of New York, teachers accused of sexual misconduct cannot be fired. In a 1994 study of 225 cases of sexual abuse by educators, every single one of them admitted the abuse, but not a single one was reported to authorities, and only 2 or 3 of them lost their license to teach. Studies show that up to 5% of teachers sexually abuse children. So, have you heard about this on the nightly news? Of course not! Why not? Because the teachers’ unions and the mainstream media outlets are allies in many areas.

So, is the media zealous in their pursuit of these priest abusers? You bet they are and, quite frankly, I’m glad they are – or else a lot of this crap may have never seen the light of day. My criticism of the media is not that they shouldn’t be exposing abuse within the Church, they should be. My criticism of the media is that their outrage over the sexual abuse of minors appears to be rather selective, depending on who is committing the abuse. They need to go after all incidences of sexual abuse wherever it is found.

So, if someone comes up to you and starts railing on the Church because of the priest abuse scandal, you can agree with them 100% that it is something heinous and scandalous and that every one who perpetrated these crimes and/or covered them up, should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and their conversions should be prayed for to the full extent of Christian charity.

But, if they try to use the scandal to start questioning the underlying legitimacy of the Church…its authority…its teachings, then point out the facts as I have above, but also mention that the Church nowhere taught that the actions of these men were ever moral. These men in fact committed acts that were directly contrary to the Church’s teachings and to their oaths. Nor did the Church ever condone these actions. And that a few Bishops covering up for these abusers does not constitute the approval of the Church, it constitutes sin. Even if it is ever found out, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Pope himself knew about the sexual abuse and sought to cover it up or to somehow excuse it, that does still not constitute approval of the Church. It constitutes sin. The Pope can sin right along with the rest of us.

The sexual abuse scandal in the Church should rightly be condemned by one and all, but sexual abuse by ministers outside of the Catholic Church should be condemned just as strongly, as should sexual abuse within the schools. The Church should not escape scrutiny and criticism, but scrutiny and criticism should be applied without prejudice to all. Those who try to exploit the sexual abuse scandal to further their own agenda are loathsome people. Those who simply question the Church regarding the scandal should be given the full facts and the full context of the situation, and should be made to understand that it is not our problem alone.

Our Sad Society

"What has come to pass in our society is most lamentable. There is a terrible moral and religious void. Today all seem frantically directed toward material conquests: make money, invest, surround oneself with new comforts, live the "good life." Few think also of "doing good." God, who should fill our life- has, on the contrary, become a very distant star, to which people look only at certain moments. People believe they are religious because they go to church; but outside of church they want to lead the same life as many others, marked by small or big deceits, acts of injustice, sins against charity, and thus they totally lack coherence." Pope John Paul I

How true today as it was years ago when this was written, and we continue our downward spiral.

A Joyful Attitude

I was reading todays meditation from In Conversation With God by Francis Fernandez. It talks about how our attitude affects others. "Alongside charity we have to also show the world our joy...It is essential to the apostolate. Who would be attracted by a sad and negative critic or gloomy complainer?" (Ouch! I resemble that, as the saying goes, much of time.) "The apostolic fruitfulness of the first Christians was the result, in good part, at their joy in being heralds of the Good News. They were the messengers of the One who had brought salvation to the world. They shone forth as happy people in the middle of a world in anguish. Their happiness spread abroad their faith in Christ. It was a special gift that they shared in their families and among their friends....at every moment, since it was their reason for living."

I had to cringe reading this, thinking back on today as I grumbled and whined at work when it got hectic. I catch myself doing that a lot. I have to make a conscious effort to correct that! What do I have to complain about? I have a job, family, roof over my head and most of all my heavenly Father who is always there for me.

"Let us ask ourselves whether we reflect Christian joy in our ordinary life. We have so many reasons for being happy: the wonder of our divine filiation, the comfort of divine mercy, the knowledge that we are on the road to heaven..., the joy of being able to receive communion often!"

I think I definitely need an attitude adjustment. Per St. Josemaria Escriva in The Forge, number 858: "The first step in bringing others to the ways of Christ is for them to see you happy and serene, sure in your advance towards God." Bingo.

Neverending Light

Jesus, Light of the World
This is one light that will never go out
Fr. Tom Forrest, C.Ss.R

 I want to tell you a story about something that happened to me a long time ago. I had to take a plane trip from Boston to New York City. I got on the plane, and everything began to progress in the usual way. We got clearance from the tower, moved away from the gate, rolled out onto the tarmac, and then stopped moving. And we sat there, and we sat there, and we sat there. Finally, I looked out the window and what I saw was absolute darkness. There wasn’t a single light on in the airport. All the lights had gone out. Then the pilot came on the speaker system and told us that not only were there no lights in the airport, there were no lights anywhere in the city of Boston, anywhere in the state of Massachusetts, or anywhere in the New England region of the United States.

It was the “Great Blackout of New England.” That whole corner of the United States, where sixty or seventy million people lived, was suddenly without light. So, I had to get off the airplane and with great care find my way back to the house where I had been staying. There were no street lights. Traffic was jammed up at every corner. No electric trains were working. There was very little security protection for the people on the streets. Elevators in skyscrapers stopped wherever they were, most of them between floors. People had to walk down from the top of the highest buildings in the world, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, even one hundred floors, to get out on the street and try to get home.

Restaurants couldn’t serve meals. Shopping malls and movie theaters went totally dark. People couldn’t get to the hospitals. Mothers about to give birth had great difficulties. Doesn’t that sound sad? But that’s not the worst. Wait till you hear how sad it gets. For thirteen or fourteen hours, that whole area of the world was without television. How sad! What were they going to do with their lives? How could life be worth living without television?

Best-selling books were written about this great blackout. They even made a comical movie telling the story. And for years and years afterward, the people of that area shared with each other their personal experiences of where they were when the lights went out. That’s how powerful an impression the darkness made on them.

People Trapped in Darkness. Now, dear people of God, there are many people in this world, perhaps countless millions, who live their whole lives in darkness. Why? Because they are living without the light that has come into the world. They are living without the light whose name is Jesus Christ.

I’m not just talking about places like Africa or China where there isn’t a strong Christian tradition. I’m also talking about the West. In Europe and the Americas, the light of Jesus Christ is fading. In Ireland, for instance, for the first time in its history, people are saying that young people aren’t coming to church. And in the United States, statistics show how relatively few come to give God Almighty even one hour of the 168 hours he gives us every week.

We had better take notice of this fact because we--let me rephrase that--because you have the job of getting the light back on. It isn’t enough to say, “Well, we have Jesus Christ in our history. We have Jesus Christ in our art, in our music, in our literature.” No, we have to get the light of Jesus Christ shining brightly again in human hearts. And we have to start with our own hearts.

Living without the Light. Being without spiritual light is far worse than being without physical light. Without the light of Christ, we have no protection. The devil loves the darkness. He’s called the “Prince of Darkness.” Without the light of Christ he is free to kill our hope and fill us with fear. Without the light of Christ, we are unable to move forward, unable to grow in holiness as God calls us to. Without the light of Christ, we are spiritually paralyzed, just as those planes on the tarmac, those cars on the streets, those trains in the city, and those elevators in the buildings were paralyzed without the light.

Without the light of Christ, our human actions have no traffic lights. We have no red light saying, “stop,” to our selfish passions, emotions, and self-interest. Even more importantly, we have no green light telling us, “go, get moving,” in accomplishing the good works that God created and destined for us. We have no red light saying, “don’t do evil,” and no green light saying, “go, produce fruit in abundance.”

Without the light of Christ, human beings are engulfed in the utter darkness of egotism and selfishness. Do you know what the selfish person wants? He wants the right to be the only selfish person on earth. He doesn’t want anybody around him to be selfish, but he thinks that being selfish is his right. What a sadness!

Another darkness is resentment. If you have any resentment in your heart, please be healed of it. It does you more harm than the person you’re resenting. It’s poison in your life. Bad memories, bad relationships--this is the darkness for so many people. Greed is another one: wanting more than you could ever use. Imelda Marcos was said to have had three thousand pairs of shoes. I calculated that if she were a centipede, she could put on a new pair of shoes every day for two months. There’s also the darkness of addictions. What a horror in our world! People are addicted to alcohol, drugs, food. What are they hiding from? They’re trying to hide from the darkness, but they only enter into it more and more deeply.

Longing for Peace. For so many people, the darkness in their hearts makes it impossible to say, “I have peace. I have enough.” What a blessing peace is! This is what evangelization is all about. St. John called Jesus the light that shines in the darkness, then he went on to say that Jesus is the light that darkness cannot overcome (John 1:5). Jesus, and only Jesus, can fill our lives with light.

Have you ever lived through a hurricane? I have several times while I was in the Caribbean. During a hurricane, it’s as if your whole world is filled with darkness and wind and rain. But when the hurricane passes, it blows away with it every cloud in the sky, and the sun comes out again. After so much fear and worry, the world is filled with light. That’s the way Christ should come into our lives, bringing us beauty, bringing us color, bringing us goodness. Well, like John the Baptist, each of us must be a witness to the true light that gives light to every man. Our job is to turn the light on in this world so that people can walk in light and never return to darkness.

Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesied what would happen when the Messiah came. He said that the Messiah would shine on those who sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death (Luke 1:79). This isn’t the death that ends our time on earth. It’s the death called sin, the death called fear. This is what you must be doing as an evangelizer. And it’s your mistake and your sin if you don’t get at it. Zechariah’s next words tell us what we have to do: We must guide people’s feet into the way of peace. That’s what we do when we bring light into someone’s life. Now, if you’re in utter darkness, you won’t see where to put your feet. You won’t know where to walk. But the light shows you the pathway, and Scripture says the path takes you to peace.

How many people in the world are hunting for, yearning for peace? All the alcoholics, all the drug addicts, all those mad, mad, shoppers who think material things will give them peace. No, the Prince of Peace gives us peace. Jesus calls himself the Light of the World, the Light of Life (John 8:12). He doesn’t give light to your streets, he puts light, color, joy, happiness, and direction into your very life.

Live as Children of the Light. How good Jesus is to us! This is how he expresses his mission: “The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind” (Luke 4:18). Who are the blind? They’re the poor people we’re talking about, the people who are spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically blind. They have no understanding of where they came from, where they are right now, or where they should be going. They are emotionally paralyzed. But Jesus said, “I have come to the world as its light to keep anyone who believes in me from remaining in the darkness” (John 12:46).

Oh, it’s so beautiful, it’s such a wonderful, kind thing to do. We give it a fancy name--evangelization--but it really means bringing sight to the blind. What an incomparable act of love and kindness to light the pathway of someone who is lost in darkness! What an act of love it is for us to proclaim with Paul, “There was a time when you were darkness, but now you are the light in the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8).

It’s not that you have to go from darkness to light. It’s more than that. You have to go from being darkness to being light in this world. Paul goes on: “Well then, live as children of the light. Awake, O sleeper! Arise from the dead”--from the darkness of the tomb--“and the light of Christ will shine upon you” (Ephesians 5:8-14).

This is why we call the gospel good news. We can walk in the light. Without any doubt, evangelization is the supreme Christian service of teaching the spiritually blind to cry out like that man in the gospel, “Lord! That I might see!” (Mark 10:51). And so many blind will see if they just cry out those words.
 

The Point of It All

The point of Christianity cannot be contained in words because the point of Christianity is the living Christ. He is not an ancient ideal but a real person here and now, ready to barge in and transform our lives. Being a Christian is more like having your soul possessed by a spirit than having your mind clothed with new beliefs. It is more like being well-possessed than well-dressed. It is like being haunted by the Holy Spirit. We are haunted temples.

The love of God is the answer not only to (1) the quest for the supreme value–the summurn bonum–and to (2) the quest for the supreme reality-the fundamental principle of the cosmos-but it is also (3) the answer to a third quest, the quest for life's deepest meaning and purpose.

Kant said there were ultimately only three important questions:

(1) What can I know? (2) What should I do? (3) What may I hope?

What I can know is truth, truth about being. Since the ultimate nature of being is love–either in God or in some creature that reflects God–God's love is the answer to Kant's first question.

Love is also the fundamental value. It is the answer to Kant's second question, "What should I do?" On the two commandments to love God and neighbor "depend all the law and the prophets" (Mt 22:40).

Finally, love also gives my life meaning and purpose. It gives me a goal or a hope to shoot for. Hopelessness means purposelessness. Since the ultimate purpose of my life is to learn to love, love is also my hope.
What to Believe, How to Live, and What to Pray For

Thomas Aquinas said that there are only three things we absolutely need to know, and they correspond nicely with Kant's three questions: what to believe, how to live, and what to pray for. Aquinas then says that the Creed answers the first question, the Commandments answer the second, and the Lord's Prayer answers the third. Therefore if we fully understand just these three things, the Creed, the Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer, we will know everything needful, What do these three things have to do with love?

On close inspection, each article of the Creed, each of the Commandments, and each petition of the Lord's Prayer is a form of love. They can be rightly understood only relative to that center. Let us sample each of them to see how this is so.

"I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth." The point of each word of this first article of the Creed is unlocked by the key of love if we really think about it. "I"–what is the I? What is the center of the self? What most fundamentally determines who I shall be? Answer: How and what I love. Lovers of God or of self, of good or of evil, of persons or of things-these are different I’s.

"Believe"–what does it mean to believe? What determines belief? Is it logic and evidence? If so, why don't all believe the same things? The evidence and the logic is public and universally available. No, the key to faith is love. We believe only if we love. Trust is the middle term; only if we love, do we trust; and only if we trust, do we believe.

"In"–what is the difference between just believing that and believing in? To believe in God is to trust Him and to love Him. I believe that the sun will appear tomorrow, but I do not believe in the sun as I believe in the Son. Belief that something is so is just an opinion. I would not die for an opinion. But belief in someone is a personal relationship of faith and trust and love. That is worth dying for.

"God"–who is this God we believe in? "God is love."

"The Father"–God is our Father. What does a father do? He loves his children into existence and into maturity.

"Almighty "–why is God almighty? What is the secret of His power? What was the secret of Christ's power? He did not march on Rome with arms. He did not compel anyone's will with miracles. He did not even save Himself from death on a cross. Yet no man ever had more power over the human race. The secret of power is love. Amor vincit omnia: "Love conquers all." It may take time, and it may work invisibly, but it works infallibly.

"Creator"–why did God create? He needed nothing, being perfect and eternal. There is only one possible motive: altruistic love, sheer generosity, the desire to share His goodness and glory with others.

"Heaven and earth"–it follows that Heaven and earth, the whole creation, is a song of love because Love is the singer.

Do you see the pattern? Each article in the Creed, each word of the Creed, is about God's love. Rather than going through every other word in the Creed, I will assume that the pump has been primed and let you the reader finish the meditation. That would have more educational value than leaving someone else do it for you. All you have to do is to think deeply about the meaning of the words, and you will find God's love. You don't have to stretch the point. You don't even have to connect each article with love, as if love were something extraneous. You just have to look, and you will see love lurking there at the center each time.

The same is true, of course, for the Commandments. They are ways of loving. Everyone knows that Jesus made it perfectly clear that "on these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets"–to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is not just that the Commandment to love is the most important one. It is really the only one. "Love, and do what you will", wrote Augustine dangerously but accurately. It is dangerous because the saying seems to invite the misinterpretation that "doing what you will" could be anything at all. But it is accurate nonetheless because if we do love God, then we will love His will and His law. We will keep His Commandments, but out of love and not just fear or even duty.

Each Commandment makes sense only when you see it in the light of love. Take the first, for example: "You shall have no other gods before me." Why? Because God is an egotist? No, because God is a lover. What lover wants half the heart of his beloved? Also God is a realist. He knows that false gods simply cannot make us happy, however many times we are deceived into believing and acting as if they could. Love, of course, seeks the beloved's happiness. It is God's love of us, not self-love, that is behind His jealousy.

The one Commandment that may seem not to conform to the pattern–love does not murder, love does not steal, love does not bear false witness against neighbor–is: "Thou shalt not commit adultery." It seems that it is precisely love that does commit adultery. But it is not true love, not unadulterated love. True love respects marriages and will not lay them waste.

Each of the Commandments is specific and clear. They show us how to act out of love in different situations. We must love only the beloved and not graven images. Love honors the name of the beloved and does not take it in vain. Love takes time, a sabbath, a sabbatical, or a honeymoon with the beloved. Love honors the authors of its being, the father and mother whose love gave birth. Love does not defraud, deceive, debunk, debar, devour, or dehumanize. Love is the fulfillment of the law.

Finally, everything we are commanded to pray for in the world's most perfect prayer–the only one straight from the lips of God Incarnate in direct answer to the request, "Teach us to pray" (Lk 11:1)-is also love.

We call God "our Father" because we believe in His fatherly love and care.

We want His name hallowed and loved and praised, because we love Him and want others to do the same.

We want His kingdom to come because His kingdom is the kingdom of love.

We want His will to be done, even in preference to our own–we will the abolition of our own will when it is out of alignment with His–because we know His will is pure love. Ours is not.

If this is done on earth as it is in Heaven, then we will approach heaven on earth, the annihilation of lovelessness.

We ask for our daily bread because we know His love wants to give it. Love longs to fulfill the needs of the beloved.

We ask to be forgiven as we forgive because love forgives. "It is not irritable or resentful" (1 Cor 13:5).

We ask to be delivered from temptations against love and fromthe evil that comes when love leaves, because we know "the one thing necessary".

Finally, we praise His kingdom, His power, and His glory because they are nothing but the reign of love.

"Why do you speak of nothing else?" "Because there is nothing else." John the Beloved Disciple knew the point of it all.


(This excerpt is taken from chapter two, "The Point Of It All," of The God Who Loves You.)

Excerpt on Sola Fide

The Scott Hahn Conversion Story:

But the more I studied, the more I came to see that for the ancient Hebrews, and in Sacred Scripture, a covenant differs from a contract about as much as marriage differs from prostitution. In a contract you exchange property, whereas in a covenant you exchange persons. In a contract you say, "This is yours and that is mine," but Scripture shows how in a covenant you say, "I am yours and you are mine."

Even when God makes a covenant with us, He says, "I will be your God and you will be my people." After studying Hebrew, I discovered that 'Am, the Hebrew word for people, literally means, kinsman, family. I will be your God and father; you will be my family, my sons and my daughters, my household. So covenants form kinship bonds which makes family with God.

I read Shepherd's articles, and he was saying much of the same thing: our covenant with God means sonship. I thought, "Well, yeah, this is good." I wondered what heresy is involved in that. Then somebody told me, "Shepherd is calling into question sola fide." What! No way. I mean, that is the Gospel. That is the simple truth of Jesus Christ. He died for sins; I believe in him. He saves me, pure and simple; it's a done deal. Sola fide? He's questioning that? No way.

I called him on the phone. I said, "I've read your stuff on covenant; it makes lots of sense. I've come to pretty much the same conclusions. But why is this leading you to call into question Luther's doctrine of sola fide?" He went on to show in this discussion that Luther's conception of justification was very restricted and limited. It had lots of truth, but it also missed lots of truths.

When I hung up the phone, I pursued this a little further and I discovered that for Luther and for practically all of Bible Christianity and Protestantism, God is a judge, and the covenant is a courtroom scene whereby all of us are guilty criminals. But since Christ took our punishment, we get his righteousness, and he gets our sins, so we get off scot-free; we're justified. For Luther, in other words, salvation is a legal exchange, but for Paul in Romans, for Paul in Galatians, salvation is that, but it's much more than that. It isn't just a legal exchange because the covenant doesn't point to a Roman courtroom so much as to a Hebrew family room.

God is not just simply a judge; God is a father, and his judgments are fatherly. Christ is not just somebody who represents an innocent victim who takes our rap, our penalty; He is the firstborn among many brethren. He is our oldest brother in the family, and he sees us as runaways, as prodigals, as rebels who are cut off from the life of God's family. And by the new covenant Christ doesn't just exchange in a legal sense; Christ gives us His own sonship so that we really become children of God.

When I shared this with my friends, they were like, "Yeah, that's Paul." But when I went into the writings of Luther and Calvin, I didn't find it any longer. They had trained me to study Scripture, but in the process, in a sense, I discovered that there were some very significant gaps in their teaching. So I came to the conclusion that sola fide is wrong.

First, because the Bible never says it anywhere.

Second, because Luther inserted the word "alone" in his Germantranslation, there in Romans 3, although he knew perfectly well that then word "alone" was not in the Greek.

Nowhere did the Holy Spirit ever inspire the writers of Scripture to say we're saved by faith alone. Paul teaches we're saved by faith, but in Galatians he says we're saved by faith working in love. And that's the way it is in a family isn't it? A father doesn't say to his kids, "Hey, kids, since you're in my family and all the other kids who are your friends aren't, you don't have to work, you don't have to obey, you don't have to sacrifice because, hey, you're saved. You're going to get the inheritance no matter what you do." That's not the way it works.
So I changed my mind and I grew very concerned. One of my most brilliant professors, a man named Dr. John Gerstner, had once said that if we're wrong on sola fide, I'd be on my knees outside the Vatican in Rome tomorrow morning doing penance. Now we laughed, what rhetoric, you know. But he got the point across; this is the article from which all of the other doctrines flow. And if we're wrong there, we're going to have some homework to get done to figure out where else we might have gone wrong.

I was concerned, but I wasn't overly concerned. At the time I was planning to go to Scotland to study at Aberdeen University the doctrine of the covenant, because in Scotland, covenant theology was born and developed. And I was eager to go over and study there. So I wasn't particularly concerned about resolving this issue because, after all, that could be the focus of my doctoral study.

Musings of Thomas Merton

“New eyes awaken.
I send Love's name into the world with wings
And songs grow up around me like a jungle.
Choirs of all creatures sing the tunes
Your Spirit played in Eden.
Zebras and antelopes and birds of paradise
Shine on the face of the abyss
And I am drunk with the great wilderness
Of the sixth day in Genesis.

But sound is never half so fair
As when that music turns to air
And the universe dies of excellence.

Sun, moon and stars
Fall from their heavenly towers.
Joys walk no longer down the blue world's shore.

Though fires loiter, lights still fly on the air of the gulf,
All fear another wind, another thunder:
Then one more voice
Snuffs all their flares in one gust.

And I go forth with no more wine and no more stars
And no more buds and no more Eden
And no more animals and no more sea:

While God sings by himself in acres of night
And walls fall down, that guarded Paradise.”
― Thomas Merton

Wisdom of St. John of the Cross

“I came into the unknown
and stayed there unknowing
rising beyond all science.

I did not know the door
but when I found the way,
unknowing where I was,
I learned enormous things,
but what I felt I cannot say,
for I remained unknowing,
rising beyond all science.

It was the perfect realm
of holiness and peace.
In deepest solitude
I found the narrow way:
a secret giving such release
that I was stunned and stammering,
rising beyond all science.

I was so far inside,
so dazed and far away
my senses were released
from feelings of my own.
My mind had found a surer way:
a knowledge of unknowing,
rising beyond all science.

And he who does arrive
collapses as in sleep,
for all he knew before
now seems a lowly thing,
and so his knowledge grows so deep
that he remains unknowing,
rising beyond all science.

The higher he ascends
the darker is the wood;
it is the shadowy cloud
that clarified the night,
and so the one who understood
remains always unknowing,
rising beyond all science.

This knowledge by unknowing
is such a soaring force
that scholars argue long
but never leave the ground.
Their knowledge always fails the source:
to understand unknowing,
rising beyond all science.

This knowledge is supreme
crossing a blazing height;
though formal reason tries
it crumbles in the dark,
but one who would control the night
by knowledge of unknowing
will rise beyond all science.

And if you wish to hear:
the highest science leads
to an ecstatic feeling
of the most holy Being;
and from his mercy comes his deed:
to let us stay unknowing,
rising beyond all science.”
― San Juan de la Cruz

Saying What You Mean

No band played; no flags waved. A car honked. My son picked up his bag and kissed his mother goodbye. Then he shook my hand and said "So long." "Good luck, son!" I said. We walked him to the door. We waved, and the car drove away. Our son was off to war. I wish I could have told him how much I really loved him. Later I thought to myself how foolish we are with our children, always wanting them to fit our dreams, never accepting them for what they are.

Howard O'Brien never saw his son again; he died in battle.

(from A Contemporary Walk with Jesus, by Mark Link)

Hymn

Oh God beyond all praising,
We worship you today
And sing the love amazing
That songs cannot repay;
For we can only wonder
At every gift you send,
At blessings without number
And mercies without end:
We lift our hearts before you
And wait upon your word,
We honor and adore you,
Our great and mighty Lord.

Then hear, oh gracious Savior
Accept the love we bring,
That we may know your favor
May serve you as our king;
And whether our tomorrows
Be filled with good or ill,
We'll triumph through our sorrows
And rise to bless you still:
To marvel at your beauty
And glory in your ways,
And make a joyful duty
Our sacrifice of praise.

How to practice what you preach?

I know what I believe when it comes to my faith. I accept all teachings of the Catholic church and want nothing more than to follow Jesus Christ. Why, then, do I have so much trouble doing just that? I feel like such a hypocrite at times. I should be patient, kind, and loving and yet I find myself doing the exact opposite. I get irritable, I judge others, I hold grudges. I let stress rule my emotions rather than counting on God to handle things. I feel so totally inadequate at times! I have a little dog named LittleMan that I rescued several years ago. He was injured, bloody and very afraid when we brought him home. I sat with him on my lap and calmed him. I spent a lot of time with him; gradually he stopped shaking and started to come out of his shell. He has since become my best buddy. Everywhere I go, there he is. He looks at me with golden brown eyes full of devotion. He never fails to show me unconditional love. He trusts me completely. His favorite place is to be snuggled up next to me. There's a good lesson for me. When I feel stressed, put my trust in God, and snuggle up next to Him. Look at Him with eyes full of devotion and let Him take over. Feel the peace of His presence. He is always there for me as my protector and His love is never ending. Thanks, LittleMan, for the good example.

Journey

"MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."

Thomas Merton

About Angels

They really exist. Not just in our minds, or our myths, or our symbols, or our culture. They are as real as your dog, or your sister, or electricity.
They’re present, right here, right now, right next to you, reading these words with you.
They’re not cute, cuddly, comfortable, chummy, or “cool”. They are fearsome and formidable. They are huge. They are warriors.
They are the real “extra-terrestrials”, the real “Super-men”, the ultimate aliens. Their powers are far beyond those of all fictional creatures.
They are more brilliant minds than Einstein.
They can literally move the heavens and the earth if God permits them.
There are also evil angels, fallen angels, demons, or devils. These too are not myths. Demon possessions, and exorcisms, are real.
Angels are aware of you, even though you can’t usually see or hear them. But you can communicate with them. You can talk to them without even speaking.
You really do have your very own “guardian angel”. Everybody does.
Angels often come disguised. “Do not neglect hospitality, for some have entertained angels unawares” — that’s a warning from life’s oldest and best instruction manual.
We are on a protected part of a great battlefield between angels and devils, extending to eternity.
Angels are sentinels standing at the crossroads where life meets death. They work especially at moments of crisis, at the brink of disaster — for bodies, for souls, and for nations.


This is from a book by Peter Kreeft. Love it!

I Am The Great Sun

         I am the Great Sun

 
                      From a Normandy crucifix of 1632

                                  by Charles Causley
 

I am the great sun, but you do not see me,
   I am your husband, but you turn away.
I am the captive, but you do not free me,
   I am the captain but you will not obey.
I am the truth, but you will not believe me,
   I am the city where you will not stay.
I am your wife, your child, but you will leave me,
   I am that God to whom you will not pray.
I am your counsel, but you will not hear me,
   I am your lover whom you will betray.
I am the victor, but you do not cheer me,
   I am the holy dove whom you will slay.
I am your life, but if you will not name me,
   Seal up your soul with tears, and never blame me.
 

The Wisdom of Brother Lawrence

I have a very long list of books on this blog, and one I particularly like is called "The Practice of the Presence of God" by Brother Lawrence, a 17th century Carmelite lay-brother. The book is a collection of conversations he had with a friend, a group of letters he wrote to various people, and some of his spiritual practices. It isn't a big book and I think I read it in an evening. But I smiled throughout it and marveled at what a treasure he had found in being constantly in "the presence of God." To quote part of his second letter: "There is no sweeter manner of living in the world than continuous communion with God. Only those who have experienced it can understand...I would urge everyone to be aware of God's constant presence, if for no other reason than because His presence is a delight to our souls and spirits. It is, however, also necessary. If we only knew how much we need God's grace, we would never lose touch with Him." In one of his conversations, he explained that to be constantly aware of God's presence, it is necessary to form the habit of continually talking with Him throughout each day. A little effort is needed to form the habit, but after practice it becomes easy. He said he spoke simply and frankly to God, telling Him everything and asking for help when needed. All we have to do is recognize God as being intimately present in us. Then we may speak directly to Him every time we need to ask for help, to know His will in moments of uncertainty, and to do whatever He wants us to do in a way that pleases Him. This continuous conversation should also include praising and loving God incessantly for His infinite goodness and perfection.

What a wonderful concept, and what a great little book!

An Unfaithful Generation Seeks a Sign

The tragedy of our modern world is that it wants proof that God exists. There is no such proof. No amount of books, libraries or marvelous speakers can convince us. We enter into the unseen mysteries of our faith, the mystery of God, through an experience, an event, a happening, a miracle.....

Those of us who have been baptized have received faith as a grace from God, a very special gift. This gift has to be constantly reaffirmed. It is so important to continue to ask for it, to implement it and to act as though I believe. Then it becomes bigger than the whole of the cosmos. Then the whole of the world is in me and I am in the whole world because God belongs to me and I belong to God.

Through faith we are able to turn our faces to God and meet his gaze. Each day becomes more luminous. The veil between God and man becomes less and less until it seems as if we can almost reach out and touch Him.

Faith is a pulsating thing, a sun that nothing can dim if it exists in the hearts of men. As Saint Paul says, "It is the assurance of things not yet seen." (Heb 11: 1) That's why it is so beautiful. God gives it to us saying, "I love you. Do you love me? Come and follow me in the darkness. I want to know if you are ready to go into the things that you do not see yet, on faith alone."

And we say, "You're inviting me to what? There is nothing to see. I cannot touch you. I cannot feel you." And God replies, "I invite you to a relationship of love; your love of me, my love of you."

**This is from Servant of God Catherine de Hueck Doherty, who was born in Russia and founded the Madonna House**

Hard to believe some don't believe

How can people not believe in God? It seems so obvious to me. You see Him everywhere- in newborn babies and old folks, the sun, sky and stars, beautiful birds and butterflies, animals of every species, the oceans, the winds whether gentle or gale force, snow-capped mountains, the Grand Canyon, the deserts with ever-shifting sands, the perfection of the human body itself. But our schools bombard our children with the theory of evolution, as if it could all, somehow, just fall into place. When I look up at the sky on a clear night there is no question in my mind that there is a God. All those stars and planets hanging there, not crashing into earth or one another. Then I consider the earth itself, with perfect balance of light from the sun, gravity and oxygen to sustain life. The seasons, renewing life over and over. All the fantastic forms of life are so amazing! God must have had a good time creating everything. Watching the bird feeders on my back deck is a riot of color: red cardinals, yellow goldfinches, purple finches, black and white chickadees, red headed woodpeckers, gorgeous blue indigo buntings and bluejays, and the iridescent hummingbirds. There are butterflies and dragonflies of all colors. The bats swoop at night for the mosquitos, with their awesome built-in sonar. I look at the perfect, symmetrical markings of my dogs and the way their hair grows in a certain pattern. The salt water fish in our tank are so brightly colored, but are nothing compared to what's in an ocean coral reef. Animals are so fantastic, the world has so much beauty, and the marvel of the human body. How many millions of cells each of us have, along with the miracle of our brain, eyes, senses, skin, heart, liver, kidneys....all working together and supporting each other. Wow....what an amazing God we have.

Day one

I have never blogged before, which may become painfully obvious soon. Not sure if I have anything to say that will interest other people, and that's OK. Don't agree with anything I write? That's OK too. This can just be my sounding board. Sometimes I have things I'd like to post on Facebook or Twitter that are way too long, and I can put them here without abbreviation. I also may not post very often, since I work full time. Just happen to have a day off in the middle of the week, so here goes!


The older I have gotten the more I have discovered what truly is important in life. That is our relationship with God our creator. I have stumbled through most of my life without giving a second thought to why I am here, or how I got here. And sadly enough, I was raised in a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools. You can be surrounded by truth and not know or care. I think that's the case in most young people, who are trying to go with the flow and be accepted. Then after getting married you have so much going on, with kids, work and the stress of life in general. Not much time left for God, or at least that's the way it was for me. I went to church sporadically, daydreaming through it, ready to get out of there and on to the "important" things. Some of my family members knew better, and I'm sure their prayers helped get me back on track. It took awhile though, and I feel like I have missed much and wasted way too much time! So I've been working on it for the last 7 years or so, reading and praying, step by step. So much to learn, so little time left......