Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 309

The Dark Lord Does it Again

Some time ago Mark Shea wrote a slam dunk article in defense of the resurrection. Now he's done one on the "Jesus never existed and the gospels are not historical" junk dished out by some sophomore who's read Dominic Crossan. Connect to it here.

The Vicarage Bedroom

Some time ago a friend of mine (we'll call him James) who was once an Anglican vicar opined that the introduction of women priests had an unexpected consequence in the bedrooms of vicarages across the land. What made him think was the ad in a church paper for a new vicar for what had always been a conservative Evangelical parish. After stating what sort of person they were looking for the advertisers added, "Marital status not an issue."



In former times, my friend observed, this would have meant "We are willing to accept an unmarried man for the post." What it now means is "We're not going to ask any questions about the vicarage bedroom." Indeed, he knew of parishes in the Church of England with just about every permutation of modern "marriage" possible. Two men living together, two women, divorced and remarried people, single women with children, single men with children after divorce, men and women co inhabiting....you name it.



James said, "I think what happened when women were ordained is that a certain understanding about Christian marriage was also shattered. Before women's ordination the man was the "father" of the parish. If he was a married man he and his wife and family became a kind of "first family" of the parish. If he was celibate he was father to all. Women's ordination broke that. Suddenly the family structure of the parish was broken and one of the unexpected consequences was that the family structure of the vicarage was also broken. If women could be priests, then the traditional family no longer worked, and what was happening in society generally soon became the norm in the Anglican parish and vicarage.



Today in the Daily Telegraph we have this article about Canon Andrew Clitherow--a high ranking Anglican priest who is embarking on his third marriage, and what is most interesting is that his bishop Nicholas Reade (who has always dressed up as an Anglo Catholic) states that "There is no reason why Canon Clitherow should not remarry. The Church has long recognized both the strengths and fragilities of human love and seeks to provide encouragement and support for those celebrating new relationships after the pain of separation and loss." 




This statement is just about as classic an example of mealy mouthed Anglican double talk as can be imagined, and the same squirmy language could be used to justify anything at all. So for example, faced with rioting and looting in the streets the Anglian Bishop would probably say, "The Church has long understood the cry of the poor, and sympathizes with those whose lives are shattered by poverty. We hear their desperate cry for help and understand that at times their poverty will erupt in rage and frustration." (Other examples may be submitted to the combox)




Meanwhile in the New York Times an article which is about as shallow, vicious and anti Catholic as possible has been published by a woman who wishes to impose the misogynistic and Manichean opinions of a medieval cleric on the twenty first century Catholic church. This article  suggests that the Catholic church will regard the wives of Anglican priests (who are married and granted a dispensation to be ordained) will all be wanton hussies distracting the priest from his holy duties. The woman who wrote the article should take the time to meet some of these clergy wives. She'd find most of them to be smart, funny, hard working, down to earth, thrifty, normal women who just happen to be married to a man who ended up as a Catholic priest. I can't help feeling the medieval academic who penned the article has been reading too many Gothic novels. Carl Olson fisks the article expertly here.




While we're talking about the vicarage bedroom there is this item from the other side of the world right here in Texas where a mega church pastor, Ed Young and his wife Lisa (pictured above) plan to spend twenty four hours on the roof of their church in bed together. The whole thing will be broadcast to their congregations, and they will have the opportunity to share their understanding of Christian marriage. A life they say that is full of exclamation marks!!! full of "passion, purpose and pleasure." Whaaat?  Whoops. They forgot to add the other word associated with the marital act "Procreation".




Last week it was reported that one mega church pastor here in the USA had set up a tattoo parlor in the lobby of his church to appeal to the youth. I wonder if Ed and Lisa have set up a botox, face lift clinic and tanning salon in theirs? It looks like they might be the main customers. But I'm getting off track...




I could keep writing this morning on this subject, but will stop--not only because I have other things to do than blog, but because I'm left speechless at the state of Christianity. 




No wonder thinking and caring people look at this foolishness and sneer, and lest we think that these folks are just extreme Protestant kooks we only have to look at the number of Catholic families where they've given everything for the double income, the trophy house, the trophy wife and the trophy 2.5 suburban kids to see that plenty of Catholics also live for  "Passion, purpose and Pleasure." They may not do it on the rooftop, but they do it for all to see because part of the "Purpose" is that everyone else can see how "successful" they are.




Lord Have Mercy.

Spiritual Warfare and the Atom Bomb

In 1987 I went on a personal pilgrimage hitch hiking from England to Jerusalem staying in monasteries on the way. I had many amazing experiences, and one of them was to stop at Nevers in France to see the incorrupt relics of St Bernadette. I've told the story before of how I met an unusual American woman who told me all about Bernadette and how I experienced the odor of sanctity. You can read that here.





But I don't think I have told many people that another person I met there at Nevers was a Catholic nun who survived the atomic bomb being dropped at Hiroshima. She sat next to me at dinner and told me how she and her sisters survived despite everyone else around them being killed. I wish I had had the sense to write down her story and stay in touch, but I was living that summer very much in the present moment, and didn't record everything.




Today I had a comment from a reader in England that reminded me that we are engaged in a war of cosmic proportions. The spiritual war is of greater magnitude and importance than the A Bomb. Here's the story she shares:


"Eight Jesuit priests survived the searing hurricane of blast and gamma rays during the atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. They were in a rectory only 8 blocks from the blinding center of the nuclear flash. Although everyone within a mile radius perished, all survived and they attribute their survival to the Rosary and living the Fatima message.


This is the incredible story of the late Fr. Hubert Schiffer, as retold by a priest who met him:


On the morning of August 6, 1945, he had just finished Mass, went into the rectory and sat down at the breakfast table, and had just sliced a grapefruit, and had just put his spoon into the grapefruit when there was a bright flash of light. His first thought was that it was an explosion in the harbor (this was a major port where the Japanese refueled their submarines.)




Then, in the words of Fr. Schiffer: "Suddenly, a terrific explosion filled the air with one bursting thunder stroke. An invisible force lifted me from the chair, hurled me through the air, shook me, battered me, whirled me 'round and 'round like a leaf in a gust of autumn wind." The next thing he remembered, he opened his eyes and he was laying on the ground. He looked around and there was NOTHING in any direction: the railroad station and buildings in all directions were leveled to the ground.




The only physical harm to himself was that he could feel a few pieces of glass in the back of his neck. As far as he could tell, there was nothing else physically wrong with himself. Many thousands were killed or maimed by the explosion. 




After the conquest of the Americans, their army doctors and scientists explained to him that his body would begin to deteriorate because of the radiation. Many of the Japanese people had blisters and sores from the radiation. 




To the doctors amazement, Fr. Schiffer's body contained no radiation or ill-effects from the bomb. Fr. Schiffer attributes this to devotion to the Blessed Mother, and his daily Fatima Rosary. He feels that he received a protective shield from the Blessed Mother which protected him from all radiation and ill-effects. (This coincides with the bombing of Nagasaki where St. Maximilian Kolbe had established a Franciscan Friary which was also unharmed because of special protection from the Blessed Mother, as the Brothers too prayed the daily Rosary and also had no effects from the bomb.)"

Have You Heard the Call?

Today's mass reading--beautifully set at the beginning of Ordinary Time--is the call of the boy Samuel. He is serving in the tabernacle when he hears the call of God in the night. He runs to old Eli and wakes him up twice before the old man tells him to respond to the voice of the Lord.



So he says, "Here I am Lord. Your servant is listening."



I am convinced that many do not hear the voice of the Lord because they do not wish to hear the voice of the Lord, and what troubles and puzzles me most is that those who most do not wish to hear the voice of the Lord are the religious people.



I am so tired of nice, all together religious people who treat religion as the cherry on top of the cake of their beautiful, organized, prosperous lives. How can they hear the voice of the Lord when their ears are full of the noise of their own wonderfulness?



Instead, behold this child in his innocence, who hears the voice of the Lord calling in the night. First he is able to hear the voice of the Lord because he is already serving him. Second, he can hear the voice of the Lord because he has the trusting heart of a child--free of doubt and cynicism and fear. Third, he responds to the voice of the Lord with simplicity and total trust.



He has no fear. He has no concerns. He does not worry about what other people think of him. He is like the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.






"Unless you become like this little child you cannot enter the kingdom."

March for Life

Here's the deal: I'm flying to Baltimore to preach at the Church of Mount Calvary--an Anglican congregation coming into full communion through the amazing Anglican Ordinariate which the Holy Father has created.



Then I'm going on to DC to join a group from Greenville who are on the March for Life. English author and EWTN personality Joanna Bogle will be there. I see that Katrina the Crescat will be there too.



I'm for a meeting. Let's get some Catholic bloggers together and see if we can have some fun tweeting and blogging from MFL.



Really folks, some people say MFL is on its last legs. Let me tell you, the numbers are greater than ever. We couldn't get tickets for the youth events. It's mega. Let's turn up. Let's have fun. Let's tell the world we're pro life.



So who else is going? Where are we going to meet up?

Deliver Us from Evil

I couldn't sleep the other night and was feeling despondent because of some choices I had made, and maybe I was a little down about some other things. Tossing and turning, my mood went from bad to worse. I guess I dozed off a bit, then woke again and experienced a very dark temptation. Not just a titillating thought or a vague desire, but something really and truly nasty.



I couldn't shift it. Then along with the temptation came a sense that I was losing my sanity. I was going to go crazy. I held my head in my hands and curled up. Then I realized I was under attack. I immediately sat up and said out loud, "In the name of Jesus the Lord, I rebuke you. Be gone."



At once the darkness lifted, I rolled over and went to sleep and woke up refreshed and lightened.



All of this was in the dark time of the night, and it is easy to write it off as a bad dream or some sort of half awake, half asleep trick the mind plays on you. I don't think so. I think it was real, and what I found so encouraging is that the name of Jesus really is powerful. The dark shadows that surrounded me really did lift. The diabolical temptation and disturbance was banished.



I recommend this to you as a part of your prayer life. Of course to call it 'exorcism' is exaggerated. True exorcism involves those sad individuals who are infested with demons and who need to be delivered by the authority of an proper exorcist. Nevertheless, diabolical temptations and attacks happen at lower levels of spiritual involvement and through the grace of our baptism all of us have taken authority over evil. We can be delivered from evil by saying an instant prayer like I did, or at even less dramatic level we can put up the barriers against evil through a conscious recitation of the Lord's Prayer itself with an emphasis on the phrase 'Deliver us from evil."



I once went to a day conference with the famous Protestant minister Dr. Kenneth McCall. He wrote the ground breaking book Healing the Family Tree. Some rather excitable women in the front row told him during a question time that they had a coven of witches living in their town and what should they do to get rid of them?



Dr. McCall just said calmly, "In most cases all that is required for evil to be banished is for two or three baptized Christians to gather together and recite the Lord's Prayer with a focus on the phrase 'deliver us from evil.'" It wasn't quite the dramatic answer the ladies were looking for, but it has stuck with me all these years.



We can take authority over the things that trouble us. We just have to remember to do so.

New Media

I'm expanding the blog with some new media stuff.



So dear readers, talk to me.



What kind of audio files would you download and listen to? I'm thinking people might listen when out for a walk or a run, or on the drive to work, so they want something around 10-15 minutes.



If I recorded a "Thought for the Day" or an apologetics or Bible study audio segment would you download and listen to it? Would you pay something for this? If so, how much? Would you buy five at a time in a bundle to listen to daily?



Would you purchase an audio book if it was me reading it? How much would you spend for an audio book?



Would you purchase and download an e-book? Would you download a bundle of themed articles in a kind of e-book of essays? Would you purchase such a thing as an audio file?

Party More

Not long ago I tweeted, "Pray More"



Today I sense that people out there are feeling blue. It's January. It's the bleak mid Winter. People are back to work. They don't have enough money. They spent too much at Christmas. They're fat because they ate too much. The diet and the gym seem like too much hard work. They're tired and the year has not yet begun.



A famous blogger says today that "She doesn't like anyone...So there." She wants to hunker down and retreat to her Anchorage I reckon... Don't blame her.



So let's get serious about having fun. I think we should all resolve to party more this year. Last evening we went out to dinner with some friends and the hostess went to great trouble to produce a delicious and different Polish supper. Yumm. Great conversation and great time together.



So let's do this more. Let's have people over. Let's cook for each other. Let's celebrate the Feasts of our Church as well as the Fasts. Look them up and plan ahead. What about Fat Tuesday? Let's begin Lent when it comes around with a proper party.



Here are some other ideas: For Easter get up very early on Easter morning like Jesus did and go for a swim or something bracing and crazy. Then have a big family dinner. Eat Lamb.



For Ascension take a hot air balloon ride or do a parachute jump for charity. At Pentecost have a big bonfire, fireworks and a cookout. Celebrate saints days by cooking food from their country and inviting friends from that nationality: St Juan Diego? Have tacos. St Therese? Five course French meal please. Drink Calvados which comes from the orchards around Lisieux. St. Francis? Eat at an Italian restaurant. St Thomas More? Drink English ale and read Shakespeare.



You get the idea. Cheer up.

Misguided Missal?

My attention has been drawn to the fact that I am quoted at this website called Misguided Missal. It refers to a blog post I wrote after my first introduction to the new translation of the Roman Missal last January. One or two of the prayers I first looked at seemed clunky and difficult, and I said so.



I should put it on the record (in case anybody is interested) that now that I am using the new translation that I very much like it, and don't find the words clunky and difficult at all. Rather, the long sentences and subordinate phrases cause me to say Mass more prayerfully and slowly. The beauty of the words draws me closer to God and I have moved from being a tiny bit critical to being a major fan.



I encourage you to go to the site Misguided Missal and see what you think. Before long you will realize that their grumbles are not really about the new translation at all. Instead they go on and on and on and on about being "deeply concerned" they're "deeply concerned" about most everything in the church--authoritarianism, sexism, patriarchy, repealing Vatican 2, clericalism, non collaboration, etc etc etc.



What is most tiresome about these folks is their whiny self righteousness. They've always got a pained, pious look on their face--a kind of hang dog, "suffering for Jesus" look. They give you a wounded smile and nod knowingly and say, "Well, of course we LOVE the church and of course we are FAITHFUL Catholics, so we will have to endure yet again the patriarchal structures and the harsh treatment."



But underneath all that pious, wounded clap trap they're just as angry as an old hornet. They're idealogues, and ideologies are fueled by rage.



The give away is in the last paragraph where they stamp their foot and tell us that "WE are Church!"



Right. I thought it was you guys all along.

Old Monk on Conversion of Life

Conversion of Life means Changing Everything!