Dwight Longenecker's Blog, page 317

Annunciations and Angels

Christian over at Smaller Manhattans has an interesting post about Annunciation paintings. He goes through and explicates the Isenheim altarpiece and picks up some interesting points that are packed into the picture.



While we're sharing Annunciations, to the left is one of my favorites. But Van Eyck, Gabriel looks so happy, and see the dove descending--so small and pure? And the whole thing takes place in a gothic church.



See the robes of Gabriel? So celestial and so crystal clear and real--as if the artist knows that it is the spiritual realm which is hard as diamonds and more real than this physical realm.



See how the artist catches a supernatural luminosity in the whole painting. It is as if these characters transcend their physicality and the whole dialogue is infused with supernatural grace--as it is. So the form and the content are one. The painting--as the blessed Virgin--is 'full of grace'.



However the treatment of light in the painting is not superficial as it is in impressionistic works. We are not studying the play of light on the surface of the material world. Instead this painter captures the essence of the light within. Study again the light in the two faces. They are like jewels.



Remember what Therese affirms: "In heaven each grain of dust will be a diamond." Then remember your own destiny in Christ is to be a child of the light and remember what the priest poet Hopkins writes, in Nature is a Heraclitean Fire: "I am all at once what Christ is, ' since he was what I am, and This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, ' patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,  Is immortal diamond."

Lots of Little Churches?

It is commonplace within Protestant circles to believe that the early church was similar to the church today with its proliferation of different denominations, and that just as Protestants today say, "It doesn't really matter what church you go to, as long as you love Jesus"--so it was in the early church.



So were there lots of different churches in the first couple of centuries? Yes, there were actually lots of different groups. The uncomfortable problem for the Protestants is that these different sects were identified by the apostolic church as heretics and schismatics.



In his famous work Against the Heresies Irenaeus--the saintly Bishop of Lyon wrote about all the different little groups who made claims to authenticity and gave them a sure fire way of knowing the truth:




"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors to our own times—men who neither knew nor taught anything like these heretics rave about.




"But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul, that church which has the tradition and the faith which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. 


"With this church, because of its superior origin, all churches must agree—that is, all the faithful in the whole world—and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition" 

Those who say there were lots of little churches around in the early days have a point. It's not much different now I guess--except in scale. The principles are the same, and Irenaeus' words still ring true.

When a Catholic like myself asserts this truth it makes many Protestants howl with rage. I understand. They look at the Catholic Church and they see her human failings. They see her seeming arrogance and her apparent sinfulness. They also see the genuine goodness and love and faith of themselves and those in their churches and compare it to Catholicism and often it seems like the Catholics they know and the Catholic Church they experience doesn't match up.

How on earth can it be that the Catholics are 'right' after all? It just seems too crazy from their point of view. I understand. I used to be there. And yet, and yet, when those who look more deeply into it open their minds and hearts in a genuine search for the truth other mysteries open up, and other ways of seeing are given, and these new ways of knowing and seeing are not opened up merely by apologetical arguments.

People ask why I converted to the Catholic faith, and it was the quote from Irenaeus above as well as a multitude of other factors great and small which brought me to the banks of the Tiber and made me swim.

The End of Anglicanism

Joseph Bottum muses here about the future of the Anglican Communion. Nothing new to CofE watchers, but a reminder about the power shift in the global church.

Holy Heroes

We just gave a copy of this new booklet from Holy Heroes to all the kids in OLR School: It is two books in one. The words for the new translation of the Mass are on one side and best loved Catholic prayers for children are on the other side. This is just one publication from Holy Heroes--a company that churns out excellent materials for children by children. What I mean is that the audio CD that goes with the materials is delivered by older children--so that the learning is from child to child. This is a brilliant idea and the kids love it.



Check out the Holy Heroes website to see what they've got: Catholic coloring books, audio CDs with Glory Stories--stories of the saints, prayer books, CDs and books for the rosary and more.

30,000 Protestant Denominations?

Are there really 30,000 Protestant denominations? Evangelicals say this Catholic apologetical claim is bogus.



A fellow who converted from Catholicism to one of the Anglican sects says he is an objective student of the Catholic faith, and that he has done his homework, gathered the facts, sorted it all out and decided that the one true faith is an Anglican sect called the Anglican Church of North America. (This should not be confused with the Anglican Catholic Church or the Anglican Orthodox Church or the Orthodox Anglican Church or the Traditional Anglican Communion--or any of the other 100 or so Anglican "churches" listed here. (BTW, I should point out that this webpage is not compiled by biased Catholic apologists, but is part of the bona fide Anglicans online information page.)



I have asked John why his particular Anglican church should be the right one and the others wrong, and he has come up with some sort of criteria, but then we have to ask, "Who decided on the criteria?" So the circular reasoning goes on.



Anyhow, for anyone who would like evidence--that would be hard, scholarly evidence not biased by some sort of Catholic apologetical viewpoint, I recommend that you check out this webpage. That is if you want the facts. If you want to continue trading in hyperbole, half truths and propaganda--well don't check it out. Among other sources you'll find that the numbers are gathered by a very scholarly gent named Barrett who is not a Catholic apologist and has no axe to grind, and in fact is a former Anglican missionary.



So what shall we do with the claim that there are many "Catholic" churches?--Liberal, Traditional, etc etc? There is but one Catholic Church united in faithfulness to the magisterium and the teaching of the Holy Father. There are, however, we must admit--many groups and individuals within that church who are disobedient to the Holy Father and rebellious against the full teaching of the Church. Their existence does not invalidate the full teaching of the Catholic faith. Instead it validates it as darkness validates light. The disobedience and unfaithfulness of some Catholics shows the unity of the church, and that unified teaching exists--otherwise there would be nothing for the disobedient Catholics to rebel against.



The existence of unfaithful Catholics simply proves the existence of the true faith--which is a rock over which some will stumble and a rock which, for others, will be a stepping stone.



If anyone wants to find what the teaching of this true church is it is easily found in the Catechism and the teaching documents of the church and the teaching documents of the Holy Father. This is a simple task for anyone who wishes to discover the truth.

John of the Cross and T.S.Eliot

Eliot was much influenced by John of the Cross. Here is a tribute and allusion to him from Eliot's East Coker:




  You say I am repeating
Something I have said before. I shall say it again.
Shall I say it again? In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
    You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
    You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
    You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
    You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not.




Do you read T.S.Eliot? You ought to. 




Especially his Four Quartets. They are the most spiritual poems written in the twentieth century, and Eliot was, above all, a mystic. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise, and certainly don't be swayed by that crap about him being a misogynistic, anti-Semite. There's a smear campaign going on by the liberal intelligentsia because Eliot was un-apologetically Christian.




PS: It was T.S.Eliot who taught me the word 'inchoate'.

Smaller Manhattans

Go here for a very well written piece about the phenomenon of being Catholic in Greenville South Carolina of all places. It's written by my friend Christian LeBlanc--who is a truly cultured--not cultural--Catholic (even if he does come from Louisiana). By the way, he's also the architect of record for our new Our Lady of the Rosary Church. Check his blog regularly. He's always got something innaresting to say.

St John of the Cross

Go bald headed saints!

Anniversary

Fifth anniversary of my priestly ordination today. I thank God for the graces of that day, and humbly pray that I may be made worthy to bear the priesthood of Christ the King.



Little detail: the stole I am wearing in the photograph as a deacon is the stole with which I was ordained as an Anglican priest.

From Joe

There's one particular troll who turns up in the combox from time to time--a fella called Joseph D'Hippolito. I usually just delete his comments because they're so ugly, but the latest one is so choice I thought I'd put it right up here for everyone to read. Feel free to comment...



Joseph says:



Dwight, you can enable comment moderation for a thousand millenia and you can delete comments that you don't like for another 10,000 millenia, but you can't change or ignore this truth:

You will go to Hell unless you renounce your religious bigotry and recognize that anyone who embraces Christ as Lord and Savior -- regardless of whether they're Catholic -- become God's adopted sons and daughters.

Your stance has nothing to do with being a Catholic. It has everything to do with your pompous, snobbish, egotistical attitude. If you were Anglican or an evangelical, you would have the same attitude.

I wish you had as much courage to look into your own soul as you do to dismiss readily people whom you have never met (and I'm not talking about myself, here). 




On reflection, I think Joseph might have inspired a new alter ego...Ex Catholic Kevin...