Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 313

Mother of God Story

An inspiring story to celebrate the Solemnity of the Mother of God. Go here.

Prophecies for our Time

As we enter the new year, and naturally look to the future, think again of the struggle that is going on all the time between the Church and the powers of darkness. This review of Benson's The Lord of the World by my friend Fr. John McCloskey is a grim and sure reminder that we "wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the forces of wickedness in high places." The best thing about the review is an extended quotation from Newman about the great apostasy--which is putting personal experience above truth.



So Bl. John Henry Newman writes: (and remember Newman's writing is eloquent and dense--so it is worth reading and then re-reading)


Is there not a vigorous and united movement in all countries to cast down the Church of Christ from power and place? Is there not a feverish and ever-busy endeavor to get rid of the necessity of Religion in public transactions? … An attempt to educate without Religion? —that is, by putting all forms of Religion together, which comes to the same thing… An attempt to make expedience, and not truth, the end and the rule of measures of State and the enactments of Law? An attempt to make numbers, and not the Truth, the ground of maintaining, or not maintaining, this or that creed, as if we had any reason whatever in Scripture for thinking that the many will be in the right, and the few in the wrong? … An attempt to supersede Religion altogether, as far as it is external or objective, as far as it is displayed in ordinances, or can be expressed by written words — to confine it to our inward feelings, and thus, considering how variable, how evanescent our feelings are, an attempt, in fact, to destroy Religion? Surely, there is at this day a confederacy of evil, marshalling its hosts from all parts of the world, organizing itself, taking its measures, enclosing the Church of Christ as in a net, and preparing the way for a general Apostasy from it.




Now, and in the years to come we will see an increasing clarity in this struggle. Protestantism will move away from any pretense of being a supernatural religion. It will become one of three things: a dry exercise in fundamentalist Biblical exegesis applied in practical ways or it will be a superficially exciting blend of self help teaching and inspiring religious feelings or thirdly, it will be a fellowship of religiously inspired social activists. What it will not be is a supernatural religion claiming supernatural authority instituted on earth for the salvation of souls.



Catholics will also become clear about their mission. Those who have turned Catholicism into an inspiring self help program or a fellowship for social activism will die out. Their shallow religion will prove to be no religion at all, and those who desire this false religion will go to the Protestants where it will be done more effectively and efficiently. This new religion (which will grow out of Protestantism) will increasingly become the religion of the state. The anti-Christ state will realize that some religion is better than no religion at all, and as the Chinese have established a false Catholic Church, the American people will increasingly follow this hollow form of 'advanced' Protestantism.



The most insidious form of this new religion will be the evolution of 'conservative' Evangelicalism. It will lose it's Biblical roots and lose any sense of objectivity in moral or doctrinal teaching. The leaders will eschew all denominational affiliations and choose instead to graze among all the Christian teachers--taking a tradition here, a doctrine there, a worship practice here and a moral teaching there. Each one will be, even more than they have been in the past, a law unto themselves. Individual opinion and subjective sentiment will be their only guide. They will not be limited to Christian teaching, but will adopt and adapt Eastern religious practices and New Age practices as they seem to fit, and they will do so with slick marketing, high technology and attractive communication techniques.



As the old 'liberal' Protestantism dies out their social activism and moral laxity will be absorbed by this new syncretism. Trendy mega church pastors will make headlines for their work with the poor and their courage for setting up a church in the slums. They will campaign for women's rights and homosexual liberation. They will trumpet 'forgiveness' after divorce and remarriage, will admit that "sometimes abortion is a necessary solution to a difficult problem" and they will espouse contraception and overlook fornication and co habitation as "The way things are now." In other words, they will adopt all the positions of what we now term "liberalism" and they will do so while still wearing the coat of the "Evangelical Conservative." They will simply say they are "compassionate Conservatives."



In the midst of this, Catholicism will stand out as the only supernatural religion that remains. Because of this they world (and the false religions of the world) will join forces to oppose the Catholic faith. This situation will not be different than it has always been in the world.



It will simply be more obvious and transparent.

Receiving Anglicanism

Altarpiece at the new church of Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston, TX

On Sunday the Anglican Ordinariate for the United States will be formally announced. As we prepare to receive our Anglican brothers and sisters in this historic step towards church unity, what will the Anglicans be receiving from their step of faith into full communion, and what will we be receiving from them? Here's my list:



What Anglicans will receive from entering into full communion with the Catholic Church:




Ecclesial unity with the Bishop of Rome - The Pope!
Communion with over a billion Catholics worldwide
Validity of orders and sacraments
Marian apparitions
Evelyn Waugh, G.K.Chesterton, Flannery O'Connor, Hilaire Belloc
Unity rather than schism
The truth about Henry VIII
Peace rather than continual strife
Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Divine Mercy
Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Ireland, Bavaria, Austria.
New understanding and sharing in Catholic spirituality
Chartres, Mont St Michel, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur
Belonging to a church that transcends culture and class
Relics
Solidarity with Catholic bishops and clergy
The Sistine Chapel
New relationship with global Christianity
The Infant of Prague
Santiago de Compostella
Holy Cards
Communion with all the Catholic saints
Michaelangelo, Raphael, Carravagio, Leonardo da Vinci
A new understanding of English history
A final authority
Cohesive and comprehensive doctrinal and moral teaching


What Roman Catholics will receive from Anglicans who are entering into full communion through the Ordinariate:


An appreciation of English language, culture and history
The English choral tradition 
Wesley's hymns
Ad orientem celebration of the Mass
The General Thanksgiving
George Herbert
Preaching tabs, academic hood and preaching scarf
Choral Evensong
The Coverdale Psalter
T.S.Eliot and C.S.Lewis
The General Confession
Well educated clergy
Julian of Norwich
Lace and Incense
Our Lady of Walsingham
Needlepoint kneelers
The Caroline Divines
Altar rails
Anglican chant
Charles I - King and Martyr
Impatience with modernity
Nine Lessons and Carols
Altar frontals
John Donne and George Herbert
Tea and biscuits

Old Monk on New Virtue

What you thought were your virtues are probably just good manners. Don't be surprised if Christ breaks them to re-make them.

New Year New Hope

Worst Nativity Sets

No, this is not one of Fr.Z's posts on what he cooked for breakfast. Look closely. It's a nativity set made out of sausages and sauerkraut and bacon...not really what you would expect for a good Jewish family.



Go here for a picture gallery of the tackiest nativity sets this year.

Church Militant

I'm a few days late commenting on the broom brawl in the Church of the Nativity. It seems this sort of tussle breaks out quite often this time of year. I'm not surprised. I mean, what would it be like if I had to share a church with the Baptists and Episcopalians?



A good old scrap like this doesn't worry me too much. I would prefer it to the polite ecumenical discussions we used to have when I was an Anglican cleric. We'd all sit around and eat cookies and drink tea and pretend we liked one another, and then when it was all over we'd sit down and have a pint of beer with our mates and slag off the other side--and that was just among the Anglican clerics...



Seriously now, while I'm not in favor of broom fights, I am in favor of a bit more honesty and open ness in our debates with other Christians. We shouldn't beat around the bush quite so much. If we truly believe that the Catholic Church is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church we say it is, then we should stick up for our side and, (in holy charity of course) defend the faith.



One of the biggest problems with the Catholic Church today is that we are the Church milquetoast rather then the  Church militant. The problem with being the Church militant is that we cannot wade out into battle without being armed with humility. If we fight in humility then there is a certain insouciance about it. I'm talking about fighting in foolishness--like Don Quixote or St Francis.



If we stand up and fight with self righteousness we shall surely lose, but if we stand up and fight as fools we might just win--for all the world loves the impudent clown (except for the self righteous--who are the enemy after all)



Because of this I have a smiling respect for the clerics who threw brooms at each other and had their foolish humanity broadcast to the world. I'd rather have them than the nauseating scrubbed and smiling army of self righteous Christians who want to impose their smiling 'success' on the whole world.

Homilies from OLR

I have finally got the gadgetry working and my homilies from Our Lady of the Rosary will be posted each week. I will also make them available as podcasts from iTunes. They are free for several weeks, but eventually they will be bundled and available as downloads for a small handling fee.



I will post a link in a separate blog post like this and there will also be links in the right sidebar. I hope this is a help for my blog readers.



Here is the homily for Christmas...

Have a Blessed Christmas

I'm signing off for a Christmas break from blogging and writing. Many thanks to all my friends around the world who read this blog and support my work. Have a blessed and wonderful Christmas celebration. Here's one of my favorite Christmas poems to say thanks. Go here to enjoy it set to music.







In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter, long ago.




Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.

In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.




Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,

A breast full of milk, and a manger full of hay;

Enough for Him, whom angels fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel which adore.




Angels and archangels may have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;

But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.




What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

Christians Awake

Awake, mankind! For your sake God has become man. Awake, you who sleep, rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again: for your sake, God became man.
You would have suffered eternal death, had he not been born in time. Never would you have been freed from sinful flesh, had he not taken on himself the likeness of sinful flesh. You would have suffered everlasting unhappiness, had it not been for this mercy. You would never have returned to life, had he not shared your death. You would have been lost if he had not hastened to your aid. You would have perished, had he not come.
Let us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time.



from the Office of Readings - a sermon by St Augustine