Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1378

This goes out...

to all my peeps at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology and my homies at Blessed S.

Baby

needs liver transplant, prayer and $$$.

Prayer Request

A reader writes:

Thanks for posting this request. Unfortunately, Officer David Moore passed away on Wednesday. He was determined to be brain-dead and was removed from life support after recipients were found to receive donations of his organs, which benefitted nine people. His funeral will be held next week at Conseco Fieldhouse, where the Indiana Pacers play. Going under the assumptions that Officer Moore was Catholic (we attended Catholic high school) and that his basketball-arena funeral likely will not be a Mass, continued prayers for his soul would be appreciated.

May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Mother Mary, pray for him and all who love him. We ask all this, Father, through your Son Jesus Christ.

The Great Weddellian Discussion Continues!

Earlier this week, I posted a note from a reader and Sherry Weddell graciously chimed in with the requested reply.

Now the conversation has been picked up on Fr. Longenecker's blog and on Fr. Z' blog as well.

Sherry replies:

But what I find fascinating and so sad at the same time is that almost no one picks up on the main point of my original post:

This goes so far beyond a failure to catechize. We are two generations past that. We are on the edge of a demographic precipice that is going to make the post Vatican II fall-off look like a golden age. We are going to have to (gasp) GO OUT and make disciples.

In our culture, religious identity is not longer inherited, it is chosen. And reconsidering the religious identity of your childhood has become a right of passage for young adults. So we have to evangelize when they are children and we'll probably have to do it again when they are young adults.

I've written about this at enormous length over at Intentional Disciples (www.siena.org) and we cover all this in our seminar Making Disciples. We are still spending our time debating what happened nearly 50 years ago while our future walked right out the door and we didn't notice.

In the future, people will be fervent Catholics because they are disciples of Jesus Christ first who know that this is his Body on earth which he has provided for them and where he desires them to be.

We've worked in 40% of American dioceses now and I can tell you: cultural Catholicism is DEAD, DEAD, DEAD as a retention strategy for the American Catholic church in the 21st century.

In the 21st century west, God has no Grandchildren.

You know the mantra: If we don't evangelize our own, someone else will: evangelicals, Mormons, or a post-modern culture of vague agnosticism.

If you want Catholics, MAKE DISCIPLES.

If you want Mass attendance, MAKE DISCIPLES.

If you want vocations, MAKE DISCIPLES.

If you want people who will fill our Institutions and pay for them and care for them, MAKE DISCIPLES.

It is what our Lord has commanded us to do in every generation, but we thought that culture and institutions would do it for us. But those days are past.

And yet almost no one, on any of these blogs, seems to want to talk about Making Disciples. The only category they seemed to understand was "Catholic identity" and "Catholic culture". Which is NOT necessarily the same thing at all....

She has more to say, all of it typically insightful. Go to her blog and read the whole thing.

Tim Burke...

...feels pity for those working in the Death Industry.

One hopeful sign in Egypt

Some police took off their uniforms and joined the protesters. Meanwhile, some peaceful protesters shook hands with the police.

May Our Lady of Zeitoun intercede and let this revolt end in justice and peace and not a worse tyranny.

FOX Doesn't Care About You

The purpose of FOX, like all other MSM media is to sell beer and shampoo. They've cornered a niche market which squeezes beer and shampoo out of conservatives better than other MSM media. So they milk that demographic for all it's worth. But as their recent decision to give Fr. Cutie a venue for spitting on the Church makes clear, the #1 priority of FOX remains beer and shampoo sales. Should providing angry conservatives with ranters and quack pundits cease to be lucrative and midget mud wrestling become more profitable, FOX will drop the ideological pandering in a heartbeat and go for the mud wrestling faster than you can say, "Whore for Mammon".

The moral: Jesus Loves You; Caesar and Mammon, Not So Much. Get your thinking from Christ, not from people who want to exploit you.

Mike Flynn/Tom Kreitzberg bait

Reader Shane Coombs sends along the following:

As to whether or not today is St. Thomas' feast day?

Objection 1. It would seem that today is not St. Thomas' feast day, for in going about there is apparent no celebration or any festal atmosphere. Now the feast of so renowned and influential a man as St. Thomas clearly calls for great celebration. Therefore, today is not St. Thomas' Feast day.

Objection 2. Further, today is the 28th of January, whereas St. Thomas' feast day falls on the 7th of March. Therefore, today is not St. Thomas' feast day.

Objection 3. Further, Augustine writes that "the Lord suffered on the sixth day of the week, as is admitted by all: wherefore the sixth day also is rightly reckoned a day for fasting." Today is the sixth day of the week. Now a feast day is not considered a day for fasting. Therefore, today is not St. Thomas' feast day.

On the contrary, the Roman Missal reads, "IANUARIUS V 28 S. Thomæ de Aquino, presbyteri et Ecclesiæ doctoris"

I answer that, the remembrance of this or that holy person dates to the earliest days of the Church, wherein men sought to keep the good example set forth by these persons and petition them for their intercession before God. At one time these rememberances may have been kept informally or without some firm order, as groups of people are wont to differ as to when to keep some commemoration, such as when a man disagrees with his brother over whether it is best to keep a birthday on its precise date or on the weekend.

Now it is not fitting that there be confusion as to when to honor a saint's remembrance, for it is written, "God is not a God of confusion but of peace." Wherefore Augustine writes of establishing days of religious practice, "in those things concerning which the divine Scriptures have laid down no definite rule, the custom of the people of God, or the practices instituted by their fathers, are to be held as the law of the Church." Now the custom of the people of God and the tradition of the fathers is to entrust the dates of saints' rememberances to the Church, which has established that January 28th is to be the feast of St. Thomas. Therefore, today is the feast of St. Thomas.

Reply to Objection 1. That a given day is called a feast day can be understood in two ways. First, the people of some place may of extemporaneously choose to celebrate for some reason, such as after a battle has been won or a tribulation has passed, and in such a case the day is one of feast insofar as many have chosen to feast on that day. Secondly, some days are set aside for the celebration of some person or event according to a predetermined intention to celebrate on that day.

Now it sometimes happens that on a day that has been set aside for some celebration people fail to celebrate it, because of some more pressing matter that has arisen or out of apathy or because no man remembers that the day had been set aside. However even in such a case, the original intention to celebrate on that day is sufficient that the day ought still to be regarded as that very celebration.

Reply to Objection 2. The feast of St. Thomas fell on the 7th of March according to the calendar in use prior to 1969. Since that time, the Church has moved his feast to the 28th of January.

Reply to Objection 3. Because She is a good mother to Her children, the Church wishes to nourish the souls of the faithful with many examples of holiness according to which to live, just as a natural mother wishes to provide her children with as much food as is necessary to establish them in sound health. Now, a natural mother does not feed her children only once per day, but several times. In the same way, the Church offers many holy thoughts and spiritual nourishments each day, according to Her eastblished liturgy.

Now, it sometimes happens that two remembrances may fall on the same day which at first seem contrary to one another's spirits, such as when the celebration of a saint coincides with the rememberance of the Passion of the Lord. However, if one considers matters aright, it becomes apparent that no contradiction exists. For the Passion of the Lord itself was directed toward the salvation and glorification of souls, as is celebrated on a saint's feast day. Now the efficient cause is subordinate to the final cause, viz., the salvation of a soul is more important than the means according to which God brought it about. Therefore, it is fitting that the celebration of a soul in Heaven be reckoned on the same day as a remembrance of the Lord's Passion.

However, because those on earth still require the discipline of the soul and the application of Christ's Passion to their particular lives so as to avoid sin and merit eternal life, the Church still calls Her children to a certain penance on these days.

Steve Greydanus sez...

"The Rite" is pretty good.

I think I'll skip it. Not too fond of horror movies.

Attention Selfish People! Bayer wants you to know

that shopping at the Mall, having a "significant other" (note: not a husband! and gift-wrapped in a plastic box), a picnic by a waterfall, a trip to Paris, and buying a big house (although not because you want to fill it with children) are more important than children.



Also, keep your focus on the all the pretty tchotchkes you can buy with all your disposable income, not on the warnings about heart attack, stroke, and various other dire catastrophes that this stuff can cause.

Oh! Here's an interesting headline: Muslim Population Grows Twice as Fast as Others! Hmmmm. Well, back to buying things from China! Come on, girls! Let's get in the car and go find some ways to accessorize our Sex in the City lifestyle! This can only go on forever!