R. Thomas Richard's Blog, page 22

Digital Spirituality

For the past weeks I've been getting to know my computer like never before. Many, many hours I've been sitting here at work, first to revise the web site (www.renewthechurch.com), and more recently to reformat my books on spirituality and prayer for the new e-readers, the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Noble Nook. Why? Glad you asked.

The world is in a dangerous position, more so than I've ever seen. And I remember the drills in elementary school, hiding under our desks, in preparation for possible nuclear attack! But this is different – a different and deeper danger, reaching down into the soul of America where we are now most vulnerable. America hardly knows who she is anymore. A profound moral confusion has crept in among us, and into many, many of us. Right and wrong have intermixed and blended. Reality and fantasy, truth and lies – the polar opposites that used to be fundamental to defining the character of men and women, have found a deadly compromise. We have become as a nation weak and shallow, and dangerously vulnerable to what is most dangerous and lethal: the lie.

So for some years I thought that our greatest need was truth – the Gospel truth of sin and salvation, forgiveness, righteousness and holiness. But I come to believe now that it is not doctrinal accuracy that we need, nor the teaching of Christian morality, nor the meaning of the sacraments. Yes, Catholics are poorly catechized on these important matters. But I have come to believe that prior to substantive knowledge, prior to right education, something else must be in place or it is all building on sand. We need to meet Christ; we need to encounter Him, and be encountered by Him. We need to come face to face, so to speak, with the supernatural and eternal that alone unmasks the falsity and hypocrisy and duplicity now so common and unremarkable. We need to find God and be transformed, lest we will never break the hold the world has on us.

So, back to my wrestling with website design, html code, .gif and .mobi and .prc and formats that e-book readers can work with. Maybe if I can get my two humble little books on prayer and Catholic spirituality out there, persons can be helped to pray and to grow in prayer – and there, in the silence and solitude of prayer, maybe persons can seek the One who seeks to be found. Until we meet Him, doctrine remains on the surface, morality remains law, sacramental grace remains much squandered and mostly lost.

We need to discover prayer, the holy communion of prayer. We need to touch Him and be healed. We need to be converted, and renewed, and consecrated and sent. The world needs a holy Church, as darkness needs light. And the darkness seems to be growing.

Thomas

When the Son of Man comes…

"When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith upon the earth?" (Lk 18:8)

Jesus gave us some troubling warnings, as His own Cross approached.  There would be dark times – times of an ascendancy of evil and lawlessness – before He would come again.  The world would not get better and better and then He would come and celebrate with us for the great success story of the Church!  The Church was sent to be light to the world, and to make disciples of all nations – but we were warned that the world would not embrace the Gospel and be converted easily.  No, only through great tribulation, rejection, persecution, trial and suffering would righteousness finally prevail.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church echoes this:

Catechism 675 Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers.

And again:

Catechism 677 The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgement after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.

These things come to my mind especially these days, as the Middle East seems on the verge of explosion.  Where are we headed?  What is to come from this?  Anarchy?  A radical Islamic union under one zealous Caliphate?  And is this the unfolding of the Last Days – the antichrist – the Battle of Armageddon – the final and epic confrontation of evil and the victory at last of Christ?  It is not so unthinkable in the near future as it once was, to many.

It is good to remember the word of Christ – He is Truth.  Yes, there was the Cross, and yes, there was the Resurrection and Glory.

Mt 24:4 Jesus said to them in reply, "See that no one deceives you.
5 For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Messiah,' and they will deceive many.
6 You will hear of wars and reports of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but it will not yet be the end.
7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes from place to place.
8 All these are the beginning of the labor pains.
9 Then they will hand you over to persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name.
10 And then many will be led into sin; they will betray and hate one another. 11 Many false prophets will arise and deceive many;
12 and because of the increase of evildoing, the love of many will grow cold.
13 But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.

Jesus told us:

2 Thes 2:3 Let no one deceive you in any way. For unless the apostasy comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one doomed to perdition,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God, claiming that he is a god–
5 do you not recall that while I was still with you I told you these things?
6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his time.
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But the one who restrains is to do so only for the present, until he is removed from the scene.
8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord (Jesus) will kill with the breath of his mouth and render powerless by the manifestation of his coming,
9 the one whose coming springs from the power of Satan in every mighty deed and in signs and wonders that lie,
10 and in every wicked deceit for those who are perishing because they have not accepted the love of truth so that they may be saved.
11 Therefore, God is sending them a deceiving power so that they may believe the lie,
12 that all who have not believed the truth but have approved wrongdoing may be condemned.

We need to keep our eyes on Jesus, and the eternal and the trustworthy that is from Him.  There are many, many uncertainties that test our confidence, and our values, and our faith.  Faith is a gift from God, but we must guard this precious gift and nurture it!  Presumption is foolishness, as Jesus told the devil who tempted Him in the wilderness: "You shall not test the Lord your God!"

Jesus promised that He would be with us "until the close of the age." (Mt 28:20)  Let us hold fast to faith, brothers and sisters.

Thomas

The Enmity Among Us

Eph 2:14 For he is our peace, he who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh,

15  abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace,

16  and might reconcile both with God, in one body, through the Cross, putting that enmity to death by it.

Paul is speaking here of that enmity dividing the Jew from the Gentile – the division broken and the enmity healed by His holy Cross.  This supernatural, powerful reorientation in the hearts of believers comes to my mind these days as we witness clash after clash of adversaries.  Human experience defines itself in terms of adversaries.  The human drama reduces itself to a binary struggle between two human groups.

Reformers in Egypt in the streets and the squares, protest the dictatorship of the now-former president; protestors now in many nations in the Middle East, demand democratic freedom or perhaps sharia law; protestors in the streets of Greece and of England loot and break windows to oppose government budget cuts.  Even in the popular adversarial games we in America choose for entertainment, one side battles the other side, my side battles their side, at the Superbowl or the World Series or whatever pinnacle the sport in question labels as the ultimate confrontation.  In politics, class warfare becomes the language of the game and we play it; the culture war gives us another arena, and again men are from Mars and women, Venus.  Here and there and everywhere, men divide themselves into two sides and thus the real war is reduced, simplified, transferred and avoided.

There is an enemy of souls – an enemy of human souls, and he is not human but is a spirit: the evil spirit, satan.  Jesus reveals this to us on the Cross, showing us that our common enemy has made casualties of us all indiscriminately.  The evil hand penetrated the human soul and he left a wound that makes us enemies of one another, and thus he has made us enemies of our very selves.  We find no peace with anyone, because we are not at peace within ourselves.  A war rages and it is not external only, but it begins within and it ends nowhere and not ever except at the Cross.  Only at the Cross will we find peace, interior and exterior.  Only at the Cross will we find social justice, and human rights, and freedom and victory.  Only at the Cross by way of deep, radical, transforming repentance and conversion will we find healing and peace.

If the problem was solved 2000 years ago, why does it persist?  We in the Church ought to ask ourselves that question, maybe as part of a regular Examination of Conscience before Confession.  Vatican II reminded us that we are all called to holiness and to the perfection of charity: how the transforming light of Christ would radiate in and illuminate this dark world, if we would hear that call to holiness and take it seriously!  Holiness and holy love – divine love, agape love, charity – ought to define the Church!  Instead so many of us limp from Sunday to Sunday in mediocrity, hardly distinguishable from the lost and the confused around us.  Have we ever stood under His Cross, and had His precious blood drip into our cold hearts to enkindle and enflame them?  Has His sweat fallen upon our lukewarm works to ennoble them?  Where is the fire of Truth that Christ entrusted to His Church – why does it remain so safely buried, while the world remains untouched, unchanged and crying in need?

Thomas

Prayer and the Four Pillars of the Faith

The Church speaks of the "four pillars of the Faith" for good reason.  The four together make for a strong and stable Faith – one that can persevere, endure and grow.  Something is lacking, if one or more of the four is lacking!  The four together reinforce one another, and the house is secure.

The four are most simply named Creed, Sacraments, Morals and Prayer.  The Catechism is organized with these four as major sections:

Part One: The Profession of Faith
Part Two: The Sacraments of Faith
Part Three: The Life of Faith .
Part Four: Prayer in the Life of Faith

We can see a certain logical order in this sequence: first is what we believe – the content of our Faith.  This is the Truth that we believe. Next the Sacraments include the means by which this Truth is made present to us: the means of grace that brings communion with God who is Truth.  Third, the moral life, includes the way in which this Truth is lived in human lives, by human persons.

The fourth pillar, prayer, which seems the simplest and most obvious, is perhaps the least understood of all.  Many Catholics think "prayers" when they think "prayer."  They think of this prayer or that prayer – perhaps memorized prayers that are trusted and often repeated by Catholics in general, or perhaps personal and spontaneous prayers that are uttered privately, maybe in silence, with great hope that the Lord will hear and answer.  But "prayer" in our Catholic Faith is much more – it is a treasure largely undiscovered; a gift therefore greatly unappreciated and undeveloped.

Here is one Catechism paragraph on the beautiful mystery of prayer:

2564 Christian prayer is a covenant relationship between God and man in Christ. It is the action of God and of man, springing forth from both the Holy Spirit and ourselves, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the human will of the Son of God made man.

Prayer is that relationship with God in Christ, the truth of which is understood by the Creed. Prayer is that relationship with God, which is enabled and nurtured by the grace and presence of Christ in the sacraments. Prayer is that relationship with God, which is lived out according to the moral life given us in Christ. Yes, prayer is that relationship with God in Christ; prayer is that blessed intimate covenant communion that is illuminated, enabled and lived in the other three pillars. How is it that our life of prayer is so typically neglected when it is so crucially important to us?

If our life of prayer is our covenant communion with God in Christ, why is it not our first concern, instead of, typically, our last?  We can see how it could be listed last in a logical sequence, because it is not even understood except by the support of the other three.  But ought it be the last listed in our concerns, our attention or our pursuits?  To ask it even more pointedly: if our personal relationship with Christ is dusty, stagnant and cold, then what good is accurate knowledge about Him, and meeting Him frequently in the sacraments, and even refraining from acting in ways that would dishonor Him?  Remember the hard words of Jesus to some on Judgment Day, "I never knew you."

Prayer is our covenant communion with God in Christ.  In prayer we come to know Him and He us, Person to person.  In prayer we walk with Him and He with us.  In prayer we remain in Him, and He in us.  In prayer we live our vocation from the beginning; in prayer we journey toward our eternal destiny with God the Holy Trinity.

Brothers and sisters, let us not neglect our life of prayer.   Each of the four pillars of the Faith directs us to God in Jesus Christ.  All four pillars together, like the four pillars supporting an altar, lift up our worship making it worship in spirit and truth – worship that the Father seeks and desires.

Thomas

The Holy Vocation of Catechist

What is the difference between a lukewarm Catholic Christian and the average pagan?  The lukewarm Catholic, sadly, is hardly distinguishable from the average pagan – on the street, in the voting booth, in court, behind closed bedroom doors, or in the workplace.  There is a difference: the lukewarm Catholic Christian – whether culpably or innocently – was entrusted with holy and divine grace that he squandered and wasted and perhaps even lost, as soon as it was given him.

We hardly know what we have!  Such radiant treasures have been placed in our care – seven sacraments like seven facets of a perfect diamond, flashing brilliantly in the full sun; we cannot look directly into it, into Him!  Seven sources of holy grace, each offering us communion with Him, each an intimate embrace, each touching Him, each the loving touch of God in return.

We do not know what we have.  We are like so many of the crowds, pressing upon Jesus, yet never touching Him:

Lk 8:42 … As he went, the crowds almost crushed him.
43  And a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years, who (had spent her whole livelihood on doctors and) was unable to be cured by anyone,
44  came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak. Immediately her bleeding stopped.
45  Jesus then asked, "Who touched me?" While all were denying it, Peter said, "Master, the crowds are pushing and pressing in upon you."
46  But Jesus said, "Someone has touched me; for I know that power has gone out from me."

 

We need true catechists, passing on the living and dynamic Faith of the Church – making, as Jesus commanded, disciples.  A true catechist is responding to a holy vocation.  Do we pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life?  Yes, we do and rightly so.  But are we praying for catechists?  And are we praying for true responders to the sacred vocation of marriage: husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, catechists who are making disciples in the Domestic Church of the Catholic home? From the General Catechetical Directory #80:

"The definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not only in touch, but also in communion and intimacy, with Jesus Christ". (CT 5) All evangelizing activity is understood as promoting communion with Jesus Christ.

 

All the "problems" of the Church today have one solution, ultimately.  The simplest of solutions: Jesus.  We need to meet Him, to hear Him, to touch and be touched by Jesus Christ.  We don't need to "study" the Bible – we need to hear His Word. We don't need to "get" the sacraments – we need to receive deep in the deepest places of our souls, His holy grace given us in the sacraments.  We don't need to learn more prayers, we need to pray and to meet Him in holy prayer-communion; we need to live a life of prayer.  We don't have attendance or budget problems – our crisis is the wrong kind of poverty of spirit.

He is so close to every one of us!  But He was close to the crowds too, as they pressed upon Him.  One touched Him.  One touched Him.  One touched Him.

Thomas

The Cheapening of Precious Life

The mass killings in Tucson, Arizona were another sobering reminder of the cheapness of life in the dark minds of some among us.  Surely we will hear more calls for gun control or banning, for censorship of "inflammatory" political rhetoric, for government control of talk radio and Fox News and the internet, for a Secret Service protection for every senator and congressman.  What I have not heard yet, however, is what seems to me to be the real foundation of the problem: life is cheap in this very confused modern culture of ours.  Abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide are real.  In the virtual reality in which many "adolescents" from pre-teens to thirty-somethings live, in the brutal video games where they get to pretend killing others to their heart's desire, in the horrific movies of inhuman carnage, our culture teaches that life is cheap.

Abortion continues to be a "right" in America.  A mother has the "right" to "terminate her pregnancy."  "Her pregnancy" is the substitute phrase for "the child now growing in her womb."  The child is not a human person – the chid is merely "her pregnancy", and she has the "right" over her own body.  The body of the child, the human person innocently growing inside of her, has no rights.  And this insanity makes sense to many here today.

Mother Teresa asked, "if we can accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"  America cannot answer her, because the only rightful answer is profound repentance.  We have created a monster culture, and we are choking on the bitter fruit of its savage jungle.

Man was made for life, and for truth, and for real love.  We need to realize that "virtual reality" is not reality.  Living vicariously through fictions and pretenses is not real, and is not living.  When life is empty, no wonder is it so easily cheapened!  When no light is seen, no wonder darkness begins to seem normal!  When no truth is heard, no wonder fantasy sounds right.   How has it come to this, and so quickly?  But it is still not too late, not yet.  Watchmen can still sound the alarm, leaders can still rally the people, men and women can still turn to God for forgiveness and for life; the door has not yet shut.  When will we learn to read the signs of the times?  Will we learn to read the signs, before that last day?

Thomas

The Cheapening of the Precious

The mass killings in Tucson, Arizona were another sobering reminder of the cheapness of life in the dark minds of some among us.  Surely we will hear more calls for gun control or banning, for censorship of "inflammatory" political rhetoric, for government control of talk radio and Fox News and the internet, for a Secret Service protection for every senator and congressman.  What I have not heard yet, however, is what seems to me to be the real foundation of the problem: life is cheap in this very confused modern culture of ours.  Abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide are real.  In the virtual reality in which many "adolescents" from pre-teens to thirty-somethings live, in the brutal video games where they get to pretend killing others to their heart's desire, in the horrific movies of inhuman carnage, our culture teaches that life is cheap.

Abortion continues to be a "right" in America.  A mother has the "right" to "terminate her pregnancy."  "Her pregnancy" is the substitute phrase for "the child now growing in her womb."  The child is not a human person – the chid is merely "her pregnancy", and she has the "right" over her own body.  The body of the child, the human person innocently growing inside of her, has no rights.  And this insanity makes sense to many here today.

Mother Teresa asked, "if we can accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"  America cannot answer her, because the only rightful answer is profound repentance.  We have created a monster culture, and we are choking on the bitter fruit of its savage jungle.

Man was made for life, and for truth, and for real love.  We need to realize that "virtual reality" is not reality.  Living vicariously through fictions and pretenses is not real, and is not living.  When life is empty, no wonder is it so easily cheapened!  When no light is seen, no wonder darkness begins to seem normal!  When no truth is heard, no wonder fantasy sounds right.   How has it come to this, and so quickly?  But it is still not too late, not yet.  Watchmen can still sound the alarm, leaders can still rally the people, men and women can still turn to God for forgiveness and for life; the door has not yet shut.  When will we learn to read the signs of the times?  Will we learn to read the signs, before that last day?

Thomas

Is your church spreading the Gospel?

The West in general, and the USA in particular, is in grave danger. The weaknesses are screaming in our ears, certainly in the areas of both economics and morality.

The West has been living on borrowed money for years, and creditors won't wait forever. The street riots in Europe, protesting government attempts to get people to grow up and live within their means, will come to this country. Some politicians are now "getting religion" economically – how sincere and courageous they are remains to be seen.

The West has been walking away from moral truth for years also. The "pill" has made cheap and easy sex the norm, and has helped degrade the meaning and commitment of marriage and family to become a mere arrangement of convenience. Thus, serial marriage-divorce-remarriage has left children bewildered and insecure, left like the rest of us to chase toys and pleasures instead of real meaningful happiness. After all, who believes in real happiness anymore?

The degraded sense of the once-holy sacrament of marriage with its privileged marital act once appropriate only in marriage, has opened the door for open homosexuality. Why not, if sex for pleasure is perfectly acceptable, why not with whomever one pleases, whenever one pleases, for whatever purpose one chooses?

Paul saw it then; we see it now:

Romans 1:21 … for although they knew God they did not accord him glory as God or give him thanks. Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened.

22 While claiming to be wise, they became fools

23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.

24 Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies.

25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and revered and worshiped the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26 Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural,

27 and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper.

29 They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite. They are gossips

30 and scandalmongers and they hate God. They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents.

31 They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

32 Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

This passage could be in the script for any evening news show on TV, any evening of the week. It could be the foundation for any sermon in any church in the West. And it ought to be!

How bad will it get, before we wake up? And grow up? And fall down on our knees in repentance? Alcoholics Anonymous has a proverb that each one has his own "bottom" that he has to hit before he can admit his addiction. How far down is the "bottom" in this fantasy-land of moral corruption and godlessness? How deep is this addiction to self-pleasure, before we see it is destroying us?

So – my question is, what is your parish doing about the growing crisis all around us? Is it enough? Is it anything at all? Is it making a difference?  What ought we be doing?

Are we working to teach and form our own members in the Catholic Faith?
Are we growing together in the Truth of God's Word with Bible Studies?
Are we intentionally deepening our personal prayer-life, and intimate relationship with God in Christ?
Are we sharing the Faith with friends – strangers – relatives?
Are we evangelizing?  Are we knocking on doors to tell people about the more that God has for them, and that Christ died to give them?
Are we guarding true moral principles on election day?  Are we refusing to elect any who are part of the degrading of Christian morality in our country?
Are we living a simple life, within our own means, treasuring what is truly of value, and not chasing the glass trinkets of a godless world?

Thomas

 

Advent Thoughts: He is Coming, but before Him, Trials

Our most defining characteristic as human persons is this: we are made in the divine image.  This explains our origin: God made us.  This explains our vocation on this earth: we are called to conversion and to return – to return to God, to a living and loving relationship with Him.  This explains our destiny: we are ordered toward an eternity in personal and divine communion in God the Holy Trinity and with one another.  God is the rightful and appropriate center in the life of a human person, and without this anchor in reality, man is lost.

Our culture is lost.  If there is a God, to this culture He is irrelevant.  This is, in a practical sense, atheism.  This explains why this culture has been called a "culture of death."  This explains the profound and essential confusion at the very core of our society.  We are a culture of people who do not know who we are, or where we are going, or why we are going there.

Recently I "went to Mass" as it is often said.  I participated in the holy celebration, the divine worship of Mass.  Holy Eucharist is always of infinite value, and there we most intimately meet Christ our Lord.  But I want to talk a bit about homilies in our celebration of Mass, because the Liturgy of the Word generally and the homily in particular prepare us for the Liturgy of the Eucharist.  The foundations of our right reception of the Eucharist are laid in our Catholic formation, but for many Catholic adults, formation in the Faith of the Church is mostly that gleaned in Sunday homilies.  Thus homilies are of great importance, are crucial, in the faith formation of adults and in their right reception of Christ in Holy Eucharist.

Too often the homily is a great challenge not to our lack of proper zeal and fidelity to Christ, but to our patient listening!  Not infrequently I struggle to remain in the pew with my mouth shut, because Christ and His people deserve so much more.  Too commonly the homily is merely nice, well-crafted and tranquil: a lullaby of platitudes.  The house is on fire, the family is asleep, and we are sung sweet lullabies!  We need trumpets!  We need a clarion call to (spiritual) arms!  We need watchmen at the gates and on the walls, crying out that the enemy is near, at the doors, and we are in danger.  We need zeal, and fervor – and we too often find impotence and sterility.

To believe in a God who is irrelevant to one's every day, thought and act is "practical atheism," no matter how sacramentalized a Catholic he appears to be.  We sin against God by such a lie.  The Catechism lists several ways we can sin against our privilege and our duty to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength:

Catechism 2094 One can sin against God's love in various ways:

- indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power.
- ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to return him love for love.
- lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love; it can imply refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity.
- acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness.
- hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary to love of God, whose goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins and inflicts punishments.

If this list can be taken as a progression, which it does seem to be, then we can see the slippery slope sliding down to a most horrible and grave transgression: actual hatred of Almighty God.  And we see how it begins, in an individual or a nation: indifference – the neglect or refusal to even think about God and His love – the reduction of God to irrelevance.  A God of no real import, no relevance or significance in our lives, solicits and deserves no gratitude, but rather at most only a lukewarm response to opportunities  of living true Christian charity and witness to the life of Christ.  Since God is irrelevant, Christ is as well – the whole Gospel story is quaint and traditional, but when Mass is over, so is any living acknowledgment of Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Beyond an expected, minimal and socially acceptable lukewarmness comes acedia – spiritual sloth.  An actual disgust toward God and the things of God.  He is, after all, so "twentieth century", so politically incorrect, so not modern and progressive.  Only one step remains for satan's complete victory: hatred of God, the supplanting of Him by pride, the complete rejection of the command that defines us as human persons: to love God with one's whole heart and mind and soul and strength, and neighbor as self.

The culture of death, growing in its cold grasp around our throats, is moving closer day by day toward this satanic communion with hatred.  Religious indifference in daily life permeates the nation; even in our worship we hardly acknowledge the fire of His authentic Presence.  The enemy is, truly, at the very door, and our watchmen sing us lullabies and preach to us platitudes.

Catholics, and all Christians, take the responsibility for your own awakening into your own hands!  Yes, the Church owes you more, but you owe God nonetheless.  Take up your Catechism!  Take up your Bible!  Take up serious and earnest and heart-felt prayer, and like the poor widow let your pleas not stop until we gain justice.  Weakened and hungry adults – having at best an eighth grade formation in the Faith – cannot stand against the sly and devious enemy.  You must seek, and find, a vibrant and growing adult Faith – strong against the deceptions and pressures now taking aim against us all.

Thomas

A Beautiful Song of Advent

Advent begins this Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010.  Advent deserves our prayerful attention – our prayerful preparation, and expectation, and our embrace.

Let us worship our Lord.

Thomas