R. Thomas Richard's Blog, page 23

Bishops and Priests – Listen to Your Pope!

It is painful in this country, especially every election cycle, to bear the timidity of so many bishops and priests who do not confront the horrific culture of death that grows among us.  Catholics elect pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, anti-family politicians and then habitually re-elect them.  Even worse, some "Catholics" are these very politicians, working so effectively at destroying the very humanity of our country.  And what are so many of our bishops and priests doing, meanwhile?  So many are preserving and protecting the status quo at the parish and diocesan levels, giving nice homilies, dispensing sacraments, enjoying a religious career, and failing to do what the Church is sent to do: make disciples of Jesus Christ.  The Church was sent to continue the work of Christ: the work of conversion, sanctification and renewal in this broken world.  Instead, we are mostly a church in maintenance mode, hardly conscious of the command to mission that should define us.

Pope Benedict XVI recently spoke to the bishops of Brazil – and his words ring very true for our bishops here in America, especially in this time of national elections.   Speaking to the bishops of the different roles of the laity and the clergy, the pope said (and this is quoted from an article from Catholic Online)

"First, the duty of direct action to ensure a just ordering of society falls to the lay faithful who, as free and responsible citizens, strive to contribute to the just configuration of social life, while respecting legitimate autonomy and natural moral law…. Your duty as bishops, together with your clergy, is indirect because you must contribute to the purification of reason, and to the moral awakening of the forces necessary to build a just and fraternal society. Nonetheless, when required by the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls, pastors have the binding duty to emit moral judgments, even on political themes.

"When forming these judgments, pastors must bear in mind the absolute value of those … precepts which make it morally unacceptable to choose a particular action which is intrinsically evil and incompatible with human dignity. This decision cannot be justified by the merit of some specific goal, intention, consequence or circumstance.  Thus it would be completely false and illusory to defend, political, economic or social rights which do not comprehend a vigorous defense of the right to life from conception to natural end. When it comes to defending the weakest, who is more defenseless than an unborn child or a patient in a vegetative or comatose state?

"When political projects openly or covertly contemplate the decriminalizing of abortion or euthanasia, the democratic ideal (which is truly democratic when it recognizes and protects the dignity of all human beings) is betrayed at its very foundations. For this reason, dear brothers in the episcopate, when defending life we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, rejecting all compromise and ambiguity which would conform us to the mentality of this world".

Do bishops and priests and deacons read what the Pope is teaching?  I know some of them do, because I know some holy priests and deacons, praise God!  I do not know any bishops personally – not one – but what I don't hear from them or about them is deeply troubling.  How can they be so quiet about issues that matter so much!  Can't they see the wolves at the door?  Don't they know of the countless babies killed, the patients in their own dioceses being denied human care – even food and water – so they can be "allowed" to "die with dignity"?  Don't they see the culture in which they are immersed,  being dehumanized and de-christianized methodically all around them?  Don't they see the growing brutality, insensitivity and amorality that accompanies this increasingly decadent society, so driven by lust of every sort?  Don't they know that there is an answer: Christ?

What do the clergy do with their time?  Are they so overwhelmed with "important" worldly matters that the essentials of their vocation in Christ are set aside?  Are they so bogged down in the externals and the formalities that the interior life and light are lost?  Clergy are obligated to recite the Divine Office daily (Canon 1174) – is there time to truly rest in the Lord, and pray?  They read the lectionary and prepare homilies – is there time to listen to the word of God speaking within, in their own personal heart of hearts, listening not as a teacher of others but as disciple of Christ themselves?  Do they have time to listen to the Pope?

God help us!  Lord, give us your grace!  Awaken this sleepy and self-obsessed church, that we might be worthy to be called your Church!  This nation, this world needs the witness of Truth – now more than ever, as the tides of godlessness rise.  The world needs the Church; the Church needs Christ.  The Pope is faithfully proclaiming His Truth – is anyone listening?

Thomas

Fellowship of Consecrated Artists

This post comes with a request for comments and thoughts.  I'm envisioning a fellowship of artists – both the outwardly artistic and  the inwardly inclined – artists who are conscious of the religious and spiritual dimensions of true art.  I find such art in very scattered places, and in surprising expressions!  This is an "in-process" concern of mine, and what I am posting below is a first draft.  If you have any sympathy with what you read, please comment and give me your thoughts.

Mission Statement of Fellowship of Consecrated Artists

God gives to everyone a hunger for the good, the true and the beautiful.  God gives to artists a particular sensitivity to the good, the true and the beautiful – and to some among artists, He gives the ability to express these things in surprising and penetrating ways.  The artist, then, receives with his gift a responsibility: "to whom much is given, of him much will be required." (Lk 12:48)

The artist, like all men, must choose – what to say, what to express, what to write or paint or compose, and for whom, and to what end? The consecrated artist returns his art first and foremost and above all to God: the unique Creator and Artist above all.  First art is done for God, then in His name, for others.  The consecrated artist consecrates his art to the purposes of God, echoing His eternal creativity.  To God the artist is responsible.

For what is the artist responsible?  The artist can, by personal expressions of his gift, illuminate the darkness that oppresses so many in the world, with a luminance that in fact is of God: the light of the good, the true and the beautiful.  In this way, the artist is an evangelist of Good News, wakening men and women to a perhaps forgotten or lost nobility, dignity and value.

What are the proper subjects for true art?  All in creation is created good, and the good is beautiful, and truth is found in every moment sustained by God.  Man, broken in sin, can distort this creation in both his actions and his perceptions.  Yet such darkness is not our vocation, nor our rightful destination.  True art is a sign-post pointing home, whether plainly or hidden as in a parable, whether whisper-gentle or prophet-strong.

I envision a studio/gallery here or somewhere where such intentional art can be displayed, where people can see or hear the works, and talk and share and grow together on our common journey.

What do you think?

Thomas

What if God were one of us?

He is.  He made Himself one of us.  He came among us, He suffered with us and for us, and He showed us the way home.

Remembering 9-11

On this anniversary of the 9/11 Terrorist attack on America, I struggle for words worthy of the day.  So many died that day, so many relationships suddenly ripped apart, so many families abruptly fractured by the violent hatred of complete strangers.  And in the years since, so many brave men and women have stepped up to defend us, to defend those they love, to try to somehow bring justice to the horror.  I do not have the words worthy of any of them, yet they deserve so much more than my...

Republicans: Do Not Neglect the "Cultural Agenda"

Some Republican leaders are counseling the party to keep quiet the "cultural agenda": protection of marriage, right to life, and moral issues.  They counsel, money trumps morality: the economy is the issue to win with.

This shallow analysis got us into this dangerous mess!  A strong, vital culture is not one based merely on immediate self-gratification, self-preservation and self-indulgence.  There's not enough money in the world to borrow, to fill the true need in the human heart with...

Against the Idolatry of Certitude: Learning to Listen

Card. Ratzinger expresses beautifully a quiet necessity for all who would find Christ in Holy Scripture.  Needed is not a hasty grasping at the surfaces, but a patient waiting upon God's unfolding meaning.  Writing of Mary and Joseph as they finally found the missing boy Jesus in the Temple, they heard from Him an explanation they did not understand.  They heard His words -  "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" (Lk 2:49)  They did not...

Potency and Silence; Sterility and Noise

There is much fear and avoidance of silence in our very noisy culture.  Silence and solitude seem to threaten the souls of those who most urgently need them!  Yes, the soul needs the potency of silence and the embrace of solitude, as contradictory as that may sound.  In the openness of silence, in the receptivity of solitude, the soul can finally meet and embrace God the Lover of our souls.

Pope Benedict recently spoke of his closest "travel companions" on the spiritual journey of life – some ...

The Raincloud is coming….

The Rainclouds are coming... yes, the late rains are coming.

No, far more sweet than warm sunshine is the cloud of grace that comes.

More than the dry embrace, more still than clean rain wetness running down your face,

touching only the outside of things…

His grace that comes,

His late rains like the first and early rains, soak deep -

deep into the bones, deep into the heart, deep to flow life into hands and head and heart -

Life that cries Christ!  Life that pierces all darkness and leaves none...

Dialogue in the Wilderness

Dialogue in the Wilderness

Sun-bleach, and salty tides too,

Now bone-white, mere skeletons of trees,

Green no more – but see how they reach!

They speak like prophets in dialogue

even in the wilderness, even in the barrenness,

a prayer heard, that cannot fail.

Hab 3:16  I hear, and my body trembles; at the sound, my lips quiver. Decay invades my bones, my legs tremble beneath me. I await the day of distress that will come upon the people who attack us.Hab 3:17  For though the fig tree blossom not...

Holy Mass: Re-Creation or Recreation?

Jesus said, "Behold, I make all things new."  At every celebration of Holy Mass, Catholics are invited to step into that central moment in time when all creation was made new.  In this moment, time is suspended and the doorway to eternity is opened: human persons stand in the Presence of God the Holy Trinity!  We, the baptized in Christ, are gathered into His heart – into the eternal Love in God, our vocation and destiny.

All this is brought to us in every celebration of Holy Mass!  The...