I have been wanting to buy a CD of Khachaturian's "Spartacus" ballet since hearing it on the local classical radio station. But since all music purchases are off until this theology grad student gets a summer job, I will content myself with this video of Matthew Cameron's lovely piano transcription of the ballet's Adagio, performed on CUNY-TV.
If you would like to hear more, Cameron's version is not commercially available, but many versions of the ballet are available on Amazon.com, including one by the Vienna Philharmonic.
All commissions on Amazon purchases made through this blog go toward helping pregnant women who suffer from hyperemesis gravidarum, an extreme form of morning sickness. For details, click here.
Mary Ann Glendon's five minutes of fame A guest post by MICHAEL J. NEW
It is no secret that Notre Dame's selection of President Barack Obama to deliver this spring's commencement address has generated a firestorm of controversy both on and off campus. Considerably less attention has been given to the fact that Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon will be receiving the Laetare Medal at Notre Dame's commencement.
Since 1883, the Laetare Medal has been awarded annually to a Catholic "whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity." It is considered the most prestigious honor for American Catholics.
This honor is richly deserved. In addition to her position as Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard, Glendon has served on the President's Council on Bioethics and as the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. As a public intellectual and as a diplomat, Mary Ann Glendon has impressively served our Church and our country.
Of course in the eyes of many believing Catholics, the awarding of the Laetare Medal to Mary Ann Glendon does not in any way "make up" for the selection of President Obama as commencement speaker. The frustration, hurt, and disappointment that many are feeling right now is certainly understandable.
However, Catholics who are unhappy with Notre Dame's decision should take heart. Two important facts have gone underreported by the mainstream media:
1) Mary Ann Glendon will get to make an acceptance speech
2) Her speech will come after the conclusion of President Obama's remarks.
As such, Notre Dame is offering Professor Glendon a once in a lifetime opportunity to rebut President Obama's remarks to a captive audience.
The pressure will of course be considerable. Countless pro-lifers and Catholics will be literally be praying for Glendon to deliver an effective response to the President. Appearing shrill or bitter would certainly be a mistake. Indeed, Glendon needs to use this opportunity to offer gracious, but forceful argument about the importance of the sanctity of human life to what will literally be an international audience.
This will doubtless be difficult, but if the past is any indication, Mary Ann Glendon will certainly be up to the task.
Michael J. New is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama and a visiting fellow at the Witherspoon Institute.
A young Catholic man, whom I believe I met once at a party, "friended" me on Facebook recently, and shortly thereafter invited me through that site to a "Discovery Seminar."
The three-day intensive event, which is sponsored by the Association for Christian Character Development, is described on its Facebook event page as "A three-day experiential learning environment that affords the opportunity for you to discover and realign the belief systems which govern your life, such that you experience a transformation in your ability to love others as Christ loves you, liberating your conscience to fulfill God's unique purposes for you with freedom, passion, and power."
Not only consciences will be liberated. According to the seminar's registration form, participants' wallets will be liberated of $325.
Most of my concerns are for Catholics who might attend the seminar under the impression that, because one of its "trainers" is of that faith, it will strengthen them in their Catholicism. However, I believe there are reasons why non-Catholics should be wary as well.
In a nutshell: I am old enough to remember Werner Erhardt, founder of the large group awareness training (LGAT) known as est,™ as my mother attended numerous Erhardt-influenced events when I was a child and brought me along. Erhardt's colleague John Hanley founded a New Age human-potential organization, Lifespring, that trained ACCD founder Dan Tocchini. That experience leads me to question whether LGAT techniques are a good or fruitful means of deepening people's walks with Christ.
I don't doubt that there are good people who have gotten involved with the ACCD, nor do I doubt the testimonies of those who say they have benefited from them. But, as former members of the Legion of Christi and Regnum Christi have told me, the wheat gets mixed in with the tares. An organization claiming to "subscribe to the tenets of orthodox Christianity" could not gain disciples if it were made up entirely of people of unquestionably bad character.
There are numerous pages on the Web containing criticisms of the ACCD—formerly known as Momentus and as Mashiyach Ministries, and of its programs, particularly its "Breakthrough" seminar. The most informative one includes a Q&A explaining why the group's methods cause concern. One of the prime issues is whether psychological techniques that include isolation, confrontation, and "Weep and Wail" tactics influenced by primal-scream therapy should be used in a Christian setting:
Why are you so disturbed about activities just because LGATs use some of them? They are just neutral forms which can be productively used by anyone, Christian or not.
Some are just neutral forms, and we see no problem with these. However, others are not neutral, but can cause psychological or physical harm. ... Some also embody a philosophy which lies at the core of LGATs but not of Christianity; or are physiologically manipulative, which makes participants unduly vulnerable.
I have a couple of other concerns. For one thing, there is the whole issue of whether laypeople with no Catholic theological training should be providing intensive spiritual guidance to Catholics temporarily isolated from the outside, without supervision from Catholic clergy or religious. This also hits home for me, as it is the reason why I am currently pursuing a master's degree in theology from a Catholic university. In the wake of my book's publication, when people started asking me theological questions, I wanted to be able to answer them from a point of view of knowledge.
Likewise, a sense of public accountability, and the concomitant need for checks and balances, should be a concern for everyone who gives spiritual guidance. When I speak publicly, I usually have the advantage of having a priest in the audience who can and will correct me if I say something wrong. The ACCD Web site gives no indication that it has any advisory board, and the Facebook page for the "Discovery Seminar" does not indicate that a priest will be present at the seminar. I don't like that. A three-day seminar, closed to the public, gives "trainers" who do not hold degrees in Catholic theology a lot of opportunities to say things that can be counter to the faith.
Finally, there is the issue that ACCD founder Dan Tocchini is an ex-Catholic who credits his experience as a trainer for Lifespring as reported by the Los Angeles Times in its 1994 article on Momentus, "Faith or Fad":
"In Catholic schools, I learned a lot about the Bible and Jesus Christ," he says. "But knowing truth is very different from being true. . . . In Lifespring, I saw that people were able to take on principles and use them like second nature in a short period of time. I wanted to learn how to (use the same teaching methods) to make biblical principles more (real) in people’s lives."
Another ACCD trainer, Jean Marie Jobs, was likewise raised Catholic but left the faith when she became "born again."
I realize that my Catholic friends who are interested in the Discovery Seminar or have benefited from it are seeking in good faith to deepen their walk with God. But I can't help wishing they would seek guidance from organizations led by faithful Catholics, not ones who have left the faith.
It does seem that some Catholics' desire for Protestant-founded spiritual direction reflects a failure of catechetical training on the part of the Church. As Steve Kellmeyer says, "If people don't have Aquinas, they will follow any ass who comes along."
Reading W. Norris Clarke's Person and Being (Aquinas Lecture) at Starbucks in Catholic University's Pryzbla Hall this afternoon. The book was recommended by my thesis director. (For a clue to my thesis's theme, see here.)
News you may have missed: EU directive would protect animals from lab tests—at expense of human embryos
From the UK Catholic Herald:
The European Union is to radically restrict laboratory testing on animals - by insisting human embryos are used by scientists for research instead.
Toxicology tests on animals will be permitted only after similar research on tissue taken from human embryos has proved fruitless, according to a proposed new directive from the European Commission (EC).
Before scientists can test any new medicines on animals they will first have to determine that no other method is "reasonably or practicably available". Such methods, according to the EC, include testing human embryonic stem cells - a procedure controversial in most European countries because the embryos are destroyed during the process of extraction of such tissue. If the EC directive is approved by MEPs next month it will be binding on all 27 EU member states, including Britain. ...
Katharina Schauer of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (Comece) said that the directive "may have the possible outcome of obliging member states to use certain toxicology tests aimed at reducing animal testing, and so involve the use of human embryonic stem cells".
"This would constitute a blatant break from the current stance of the European institutions, which thus far have always tried to respect member states' rights to determine in each country whether research using human embryonic stem cells is allowed or not," she said, adding that the EC aimed to push the directive through with minimal debate.
"The problem is that the destruction of human embryos, which currently are the unavoidable source for the production of human embryonic stem cells, is considered a lesser evil than animal testing practices," Miss Schauer said. [Read the full story.]
Although Google's automatic English translation of the review is choppy, it looks like Sporniak was prepared to find my book lame because (1) the cover made it look as though it were for teenagers, (2) he assumed it was a product of the American abstinence-ed movement, and (3) I dedicated it to the Virgin Mary and St. Maximilian Kolbe. (Actually, since I didn't want to ruffle feathers at my Protestant U.S. publisher, I left out the "Saint" prefixes in the hope that it would look like I was simply dedicating the book to friends. It says, "To Mary and Maximilian, with gratitude for your inspiring examples and prayers.")
Thankfully, Sporniak seems to have gotten a pleasant surprise—or, rather, a shock. "Actually, it is difficult to write about this book—its authenticity shocks," he writes. "You have to read it."
UPDATE: Polish reader Mary F. has sent me her own translation of parts of Sporniak's review, which is clearer than Google's translation. Here are a couple of choice quotes:
Do you remember when I wrote about Nouwen? In the book 'Intimacy' he presents conversion as a transition from the phobic reflex of capturing of and gaining power over another person to[wards] spiritual intimacy that makes us helpless before God and the other person. Only in the area of this intimate vulnerability/ helplessness and sincerity might happen great things : love, forgiveness, death and resurrection. D. E. relates/ describes exactly such 'transition', thus becoming completely vulnerable/ helpless before ... the reader. This is hard to compare with anything. Only "Confessions" [of St. Augustine] comes to mind.
... I was once writing that sex addicts, when they are genuinely becoming healthy, through their own suffering and negative experiences, have insight into the pure essence of sexuality. "Thrill of the Chaste deals exactly with this [issue\. It not only describes [the process of] healing, but the very essence of sexuality.
I would not say that negative experiences in and of themselves produce wisdom; rather, in the words of Mark Shea, "Sin makes you stupid." But if Sporniak is saying that one can sense the sacredness of a human faculty by how badly it goes wrong when it is misused, he is right on the money. Corruptio optimi pessima; the corruption of the best things are the worst things.
Towards the end of the review, Sporniak writes, "I will not summarize this book in detail; it is better to read it yourself." How wonderful! I hope his readers take his advice, and that they come to hear me speak in Poland next month.
"We know how deeply disappointed truly pro-life Obama supporters must be by the radicalism of the President’s decision [to remove all limits to federal funding for human embryonic stem-cell research]. Democrats for Life (DFL), to its credit, has forcefully condemned the decision, making no secret of feeling betrayed by a president that it had gone the extra mile to work with in an effort to find “common ground.” A few days after the decision was announced, prominent Obama supporter Dr. David Gushee, a distinguished Evangelical theologian, publicly rebuked the President for “a series of disappointingly typical Democratic abortion-related moves.” We hope that you, too, will speak out against what can only be described as a moral atrocity against the weakest and most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters. On this, pro-lifers like you who supported Obama can find common ground with pro-lifers like us who found his denial of the full and equal dignity of unborn members of the human family to be disqualifying. Let us speak out with one voice against this grave and shocking injustice."
If your head has been spinning trying to keep up with recent political attacks on the Catholic Church, you're not the only one. Today in National Review Online, Father Thomas Berg and Michael Augros give a rundown on the latest manifestations of the "last acceptable prejudice."
Teaching the hard doctrines Homily for Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
By MONSIGNOR ROBERT J. BATULE
Moses was first to prove himself in the Exodus. With the Egyptians in pursuit, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the escaping Israelites were led to safety. The Egyptians, meanwhile, died on the seashore. (cf. Ex 14:26,30) Next he was to vindicate himself at Sinai. There, Moses received and announced the Decalogue from the Lord. (cf. Dt 5:5)
Parting the Red Sea and presenting the Ten Commandments could have been easy next to the challenge for Moses in today’s first reading. In this text from the Book of Exodus, God commands Moses to “[g]o down at once to your people . . . for they have become depraved.” (Ex 32:7) The depravity, the text indicates, stems from the Israelites making a molten calf and worshipping it. (cf. Ex 32:8) False worship and immoral conduct are often found together.
When he is called by the Lord, Moses is tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro. (cf. Ex 3:1) God takes His servant away from one flock and places him at the head of another one, the flock of His people. At the time, this flock is under cruel Egyptian oppression. The oppression, when it is relieved by the hand of God, does not mean for the Israelites that they are home free, morally speaking. Far from it, in fact. Enslavement at the hands of others is no immunity against making ourselves slaves to sin in the future.
Moses is the divinely appointed leader of a people with hopes and fears; aspirations and misgivings; desires and failings. Moses and others like him are given to peoples who show their leaders affection and respect; kindness and solicitude; decency and honor. Those appointed as leaders are wise to build on these usually generous conferrals from the people they govern. And, not surprisingly, they are disinclined to put these favors at risk by engaging unpopular subjects.
Obviously, then, we cannot overlook the serious charge given to Moses in today’s first reading, that is, to confront the depravity of the people in his care. This really is a consideration for every moral leader of every time, including our own. How does a moral leader address the disorders of the soul present in his people and not place in jeopardy the relationship he has with his congregants?
John Haas is a moral theologian. At a symposium on the priest as a moral teacher and guide in 1990, he observed that there is an “unfounded timidity of many priests to teach the hard doctrines of Christ, whom they represent.”
Think of it for a moment. When was the last time you heard a mention of contraception or homosexuality in the pulpit?
Preaching on moral issues is never easy and for many different reasons, too. But recall that John Haas said timidity is unfounded. It is possible to treat difficult subjects from the pulpit with confidence and even boldness because of the example given to us by Saint John the Baptist. Jesus mentions him in today’s gospel. (cf. Jn 5:33) Jesus refers to him as having testified to the truth. (cf. Jn 5:33) He is a burning and shining lamp, Jesus says. (cf. Jn 5:35) John brings light to the darkness of our lives. (cf. Jn 5:35)
John, we know, paid a high cost for this. After telling Herod that it was not right to take his brother’s wife in marriage, he was thrown in prison and was eventually killed for his witness. (cf. Mk 6:17-29) But John was a free man. And his freedom was real because he abided in the truth. Abiding in the truth may not elicit praise from others (cf. Jn 5:44), but it will bring praise from God as Jesus promises in today’s gospel. (cf. Jn 5:44)
We should not fear the truth, but we can still wonder about the persons involved when we speak about violations of the moral law. Even here, we are not without good example.
In Saint John’s Gospel, the evangelist records how an adulterous woman is brought forward. The Pharisees and scribes then appeal to Moses. “Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women . . . [W]hat do you say?” (cf. Jn 8:3-5) Jesus, the new Moses, admonishes her and sends her on her way, “Go and from now on do not sin any more.” (Jn 8:11)
It seems awfully obvious but nonetheless it must be said. The moral leader detests the sin but loves the sinner. Even with this approach, it will not remove pastoral tension because of the inclination there is to reject not just the admonishment but the one who administers it. The admonishments we make, though, are admonishments in the name of the Lord. The Lord’s name is on all the commandments, including those which may be broken by moral leaders. All who are called to observe the commandments are destined to be judged by the same Lord.
In the Farewell Discourse, at the Last Supper, Jesus prepares the apostles for their mission with these words: “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (Jn 15:20) This Lenten season commemorates the Lord’s persecution while He was on earth. The Lord also promised in the same Farewell Discourse that He has overcome the world (cf. Jn 16:33). He indeed has. And so will moral leaders who proclaim the Lord’s word in season and out of season. They, too, will overcome the world by the power of the Spirit Who converts the timidity of our hearts into the zeal of saints.
Unmarried women 'bearing' witness to needs unmet by single lifestyle
A guest post by KIM PAYNE
A Self magazine article published on MSNBC.com titled "Single, pregnant, and panicked" attempts to explore the reasons why so many women in their twenties—old enough to know better, reporter Laura Beil practically states—"botch" their birth control and end up pregnant.
The reason is lack of knowledge about birth control, the article concludes. It recommends giving young women strong doses of education in birth control, stressing to them that they have to think about not getting pregnant every day, and educating them still more about birth control.
However, if you read the story, the featured women end up pregnant simply because they aren't using birth control at all, or are using it very inconsistently. This is described as "confusing" and "distressing" because it defies reason: if you know sex causes babies, and you know contraceptives prevent babies, then women who say they don't want babies would use birth control and avoid conceiving them.
But they aren't using birth control, and their sad stories of pregnancy and rejection by their sexual partners are a heartbreaking read. All the more so because I believe the author misses the real reason why these young women are getting pregnant despite their knowledge of human biology: their intense and all too human desire to be loved.
If what Dawn Eden describes in The Thrill of the Chaste as our culture's Universal Single-Person rule, "Sex should push the relationship," is the dating standard these days, then the New Corollary is, "A baby should push the commitment."
While our society has changed with the legalization of premarital sex, birth control, and abortion, women's deep desires for love, commitment, and family has not. Hence, the continuing popularity of romance novels that occupy acres of space in bookstores today. All those stories tell the same story: the man physically desires the woman with a passion that is breathtaking, violent, and beyond all reason, but the minute he discovers that she is carrying his child, the hero's lust immediately turns to love. He restrains himself, cherishing her as the mother of his heir and marrying her in the end. I assure you, after reading numerous books of this genre in my college days, that the swashbuckling hero at no time ever growls at our heroine, "Get rid of it."
I'm not saying that the women featured in this article are the product of the romance novel industry; I am saying that these books tap into the primal female fantasy that unconsciously plays in our heads since puberty. And whether we as women realize it or not, we say to ourselves, "That is how it is supposed to be."
And that is how it is supposed be if it is according to God's will, albeit love first, marriage second, and babies third. But women are confused these days about how to achieve this in their lives, believing that the fruits of the gift of love will produce the love itself. That is, the baby will bring about the love and commitment they so desire, rather than waiting on God's plan for their lives. Which is the same concept as the Universal Single-Person Rule of believing sex will produce the relationship (and maybe the love).
This emotional dynamic is demonstrated by the story of Kortney who, after giving up the baby to her sister to adopt, couldn't bring herself to pursue a relationship with her one night stand: "The baby’s father, now divorced, had wanted a relationship. But he waived legal claim to his son, never wanting so much as a photo. 'That got too hard for me,' [Kortney] says. 'There was so much baggage between us.'" The rejection of their son was a rejection of Kortney as a woman which she apparently could never overcome. It simply wasn't how it was supposed to be.
I feel such sorrow for Kortney and the other women in the article because in the end, it is the baby that is cast as the villain in these stories. Prevent the baby and you will prevent the pain, is the message given to them. That is the "education" promoted by the experts in the article, when the women desperately need ministering instead.
They need a ministry that teaches them about Real Love and that they are worthy of a love so great. And most importantly, they don't even have to wait for it. God is already their lover. We do not have to wait on Him to "get ready," or grow up, or make sure the timing is right. He isn't waiting for Himself. He is waiting on us. He is waiting for us to cut off our shackles and run to Him. By identifying our addictions and asking Him to heal us from those enslaving attachments we can run, not walk or stroll, but run excitedly towards Him. All we have to do is ask.
"So I say to you, 'Ask and you shall receive; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.' For whoever asks, receives; whoever seeks, finds; whoever knocks, is admitted."
"Those of us Catholics in the under-40s, who were born after Vatican II, and who only recall two Popes in our lives, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, are inheriting the wasteland of the culture wars that have decimated Western society. Like appeasement makers of old, we are led by Catholic priests who announce that a Catholic university is 'honored' by the presence of an individual who intends to persecute Catholic institutions that do not bend to his will. We are soft, and we are too willing to shrug our shoulders and say, 'What can I do?'
"If my experience over the past several days provides any wisdom to anyone reading these words, it is that each of one of us must raise our voice in alarm when the moment is right to do so. Oftentimes it is our lot to remain silent, or unheard, because we cannot chase every monster, defend every outcropping. Let it not be said, however, at the end of our lives when an accounting is called for, that when the battle came to our turf, we failed to stand up to be counted."
"God's that wonderful Saviour who walked the highway looking for you because He loved you. And when He couldn't find you, He climbed up on a Cross, hoping that He could see you from that elevation. And then He died rather than let you die."
I have something very special to share: the voice of a man I believe is an unacknowledged saint.
He is Father Daniel A. Lord S.J., and his voice is on a recording of an interview, followed by a sermon (from which the quote above is taken), both recorded in 1954, less than a year before his death at age 66. The interview and sermon comprise an ultra-rare long-playing record with the eye-popping title So I'm Dying of Cancer!.
As David Endres wrote in America on the 50th anniversary of his passing, "Though now forgotten by many, Lord was a larger-than-life figure in the seemingly confident, cohesive preconciliar church in America. Catholics, especially the generation that came of age during the interwar years, were undoubtedly influenced by Lord’s work. He directed the sodality movement and edited its popular magazine, The Queen’s Work, wrote hundreds of literary and dramatic works and led the crusade to safeguard Americans from immoral films." (The "Daniel A. Lord" tag below will take you to some excerpts I have published from his books and some of his approximately 300 pamphlets.)
The recording of the Lord LP comes from the collection of Kliph Nesteroff, a Canadian freelance writer disc jockey who is fascinated with arcane and off-the wall expressions of pop culture. (His blog, which, like his radio show, is called Generation Exploitation, features an exhaustive history of the line of Christian Archie comics.) Kliph has been extremely generous to upload the album onto the Web at my request after I heard a snippet of it on one of his radio shows.
Side 1 of the LP (the first half of the MP3 recording) is an interview with Father Lord by George Cushing for the Detroit radio station WJR, later rebroadcast by Montreal station CJAD and released on the Genesian Meme label. Given that it is after his diagnosis of terminal cancer, which I believe was in January 1954, and that Father Lord mentions during the interview that he has just given the commencement address at Marquette University, I would place it in May 1954. Five months later, he entered the hospital in St. Louis where he would pass away on January 15, 1955.
It is striking to hear the contrast between Cushing's subdued, concerned tone—which is understandable, given his subject's illness—and Father Lord's buoyance. The Jesuit's fortitude is disarming. Refusing to sugarcoat his condition, he places the subject of his impending death firmly within the context of an undeniably vibrant life.
Also striking is Father Lord's response to Cushing's attempt to draw a parallel between the cancer of the body and the cancer of Communism. Instead of taking the bait and throwing out a simple slam against the ideology, he responds with a challenge to listeners. The best strategy for defeating Communism is the same as that for defeating cancer: "Develop your healthy cells." His point (which he makes even clearer in the sermon that follows the interview) is that it is not enough to merely attack a bad philosophy; one has to uphold and live out a good one. The challenge is particularly relevant in the face of contemporary threats to marriage and the culture of life.
Following the interview, we are treated to Side 2: a rip-roaring sermon delivered to a Canadian audience, perhaps during the Toronto trip Father Lord mentioned in the interview that he was to undertake later that spring. Again, it would have been within months or perhaps only weeks before his final visit to the hospital.
The sermon is very rich and has given me great food for thought, such as Father Lord's observation that, while priests—including himself—often focus on the Ten Commandments, Jesus focuses on the Love Commandment. His message is not that the Ten Commandments are unimportant, but, rather, that moral teachings must be understood in light of the call to love. In this way, I think he was anticipating the work of later theologians such as Servais Pinckaers O.P. and laying a foundation for those who would defend the Church's moral teachings in an increasingly secularized world.
READ MORE: Father Lord's autobiography, Played By Ear, is available used from Amazon.com and may be read online for free at the Internet Archive.
GIVE BACK: The audio file of Father Lord's talk is hosted by noncommercial radio station CITR. If you would like to express your thanks to CITR with a donation, details of how to donate are on the station's Web site.
P.S. It is my hope that the Jesuits' Chicago Province, to which Father Lord belonged, will introduce Father Lord's cause for canonization. He was an untiring servant of God in his earthly life, and I believe he is quite busy in heaven and eager to take on more work. He is one of several saints and saints-to-be whom a friend of mine, petitioned for intercession while undergoing chemotherapy; that same friend just got the wonderful news that his treatment is working.
Mark, who is a friend, is currently undergoing chemotherapy. He has told me that he feels people's prayers; please remember him in yours.
*All commissions on Amazon purchases made through this blog go toward helping pregnant women who suffer from hyperemesis gravidarum, an extreme form of morning sickness. For details, click here.
I am terrifically excited at the prospect of seeing Poland for the first time, speaking there, and visiting the holy sites. As an added bonus, since my Polish publisher, W Drodze, is owned and operated by the Polish Dominican order, I will get to stay in historic Dominican priories. And how wonderful to be in Poland for Divine Mercy Sunday! Here is the tentative schedule:
April 16: Arrive in Warsaw in the evening, stay at Dominican priory in Sluzew (one of the newer priories, established 1934)
April 17: Appear on live national morning television show “Tea or Coffee”; give an interview to Warsaw Radio; speak at Warsaw's Master Academy of Love.
April 18: Speak to students of the "Soli Deo" club at University of Warsaw; meet book readers at the Warsaw Catholic Book fair.
April 19 (Divine Mercy Sunday): Speak at Dominican priory in Wroclaw (established 1226); speak to students from the Wroclaw University Catholic chaplaincy; stay at the St. Elisabeth sisters' priory.
April 20: Speak to students at Dominican priory in Kraków, the oldest Dominican house in Poland (established 1222).
April 21: Sightseeing in and around Kraków. Depending on time and transportation, I am hoping to visit Auschwitz and the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy. Back to Warsaw in the evening, and return home the following day.
Many thanks to Niall Mor for suggesting the phenomenal headline.
'Thanksgiving in Time of Desolation' By FATHER DANIEL A. LORD S.J. (1888-1955)
The following is from Christ in Me (Bruce Publishing, 1952), a book of thanksgiving prayers to be said after Mass. Father Lord intended it especially for nuns and other religious who receive Holy Communion daily.
1. Lord Jesus, present in my heart, I confess to you the sorrow and desolation of my soul. I ask you to speak to me, to console me, to give me the vivid realization that God my Father loves me, that you my Saviour have come to me as my nearest and dearest Friend, and that the Holy Spirit dwells within me, waiting to light my darkened way and warm my chilly soul if I will only give Him the chance.
2. How easy and meritorious it is, dear Lord, to serve you when you are sweet and tangible and my way stretches smooth in the white and gold of the sunshine! How hard it becomes to serve you when the clouds lower, the thunder rumbles, and the earth seems to quake under my feet! Yet my service when things are easy is perhaps hardly worthy to be offered to you. When your grace is making my tasks light and my burdens sweet, when my cross is entwined with roses, what have I really to offer to you, my Saviour? Now I have something worthy to present to you. I give you my service because I find service hard. I offer you obedience because inwardly I rebel against obedience. I smile despite the loneliness of my heart. Because I myself am sad, I will hurry to do what I can to make those around me happier. That may be worthy offering to you, dear Saviour. May I ask your acceptance of this offering?
3. "Into each life some rain must fall, some days be dark and dreary." Do you mind, dear Lord, if I quote thoughtfully those rather commonplace lines of a poet? Today those words happen to be particularly true for me. Life is measured in sunshine and rain, in laughter and tears, in happiness and pain, in crowns won and crosses borne. No life can be exempt from this motley division and diversity. I cannot expect to be different from the rest of mankind. For some the early days are easy and the latter ones hard. To some is given the disappointment of never reaching your house or following their desire to enter your services. Some know the pains of sickness. Some are weighted by a sense of continuous failure. I must have my share of trial. May I then, dear Lord, accept what you send me now as my portion of the darkness of Good Friday? Life knows only a very small proportion of unhappiness compared with the happiness that you constantly shower on the world. Perhaps what I now experience is my rightful share of unhappiness. Let me be aware how trial and storm sent or permitted by you hold the implicit promise and unspoken hope that, knowing storms and problems now, I shall know not too remotely my full share of happiness and peace.
4. A soul is tempered in trial. This too is platitude; but to my consolation it remains absolutely true. I have too deep and unreasonable a pride; surely I cannot continue to be proud now that I know how far down I can go into depression and near despair. I have a love of physical comfort; but now I know that physical comfort fades in the presence of spiritual trial. I could easily be cold and hard toward others; never again should I be otherwise than tender and sympathetic with others' weaknesses and sorrows, for I have known weakness and been acquainted with sorrow. I have learned pity because of my need for pity.
5. Lord Jesus, it is your desire to see me happy. In religious life I was meant to know real peace and joy. You have been good to let me know my sorrows early. Once the storms have passed, I can be certain of my share in serenity. If now you are silent, I can wait in the certainty that you will speak soon. The cross is heavy now. But your shoulder is under that cross, waiting for proof of my courage before you take it wholly upon yourself. You are giving my soul its trial by fire; out of that trial it should emerge purified, tender, merciful, and kind.
Lord Jesus, I accept my time of depression. I ask you to use that depression for my soul's advancement and for the development within me of deep understanding for the trials of others. I await your voice whenever you are ready to speak again. I look forward to the peace you have promised we shall someday know. Out of my depths let me rise to a new stature of purity and courage. It may well be that I shall find you in the depths before I shall find you upon the heights.
Amen.
FURTHER READING: Father Lord's autobiography, Played By Ear, is available used from Amazon.com and may be read online for free at the Internet Archive.
Father James Martin S. J. on Joseph, saint of the hidden life of holiness
Just in time for the Feast of St. Joseph, Father James Martin S.J., author of My Life With the Saints,* offers a beautiful video tribute to the carpenter who became the foster father of Jesus. He raises some points that are new to me and enrich my prayer life.
*All commissions on Amazon purchases made through this blog go toward helping pregnant women who suffer from hyperemesis gravidarum. For details, click here.
Looking through the archives of a priest blogger who goes by the "Exorcist" moniker "Father Damian Karras," I found a beautifully written slice-of-life essay that seems like a natural for one of those "Best Catholic Writing" anthologies.
I wish I could republish the entire story, "Smell the Coffee," here with Father Karras's permission, but his blog does not include any contact information. Below is a snippet; do go to his blog to read the rest. The language starts out harsh, but "saints can afford to be dirty," as Chesterton says.
Raul is a pain in the ass.
I imply no moral judgment here. It is a fact, pure and simple.
Raul likes to ring the rectory doorbell at 5:45am on Saturdays. Saturday is the one day of the week that I do not have to be up early for Mass at any of the three parishes I celebrate at on Sundays and during the week.
I doubt that Raul knows this. If he did I would have begun this post with, “Raul is a malicious pain in the ass.” That would most definitely have been a moral judgment.
Raul rings the bell adamantly and shouts, "Padrecito!! Padrecito!!" I can only assume, even in my sleep smeared semi-consciousness, that Raul is trying to get my attention.
Groggy and alarmed, I stumbled downstairs and opened the door the first five or six times that Raul roused me, half expecting to find someone bleeding profusely from gang inflicted shotgun wounds on the doorstep. I would not have minded getting up at 5:45 for that. Not as much, anyway.
But no, no comatose victim gasping for breath, no hugely pregnant woman on the verge of childbirth, no family of transient workers seeking refuge from immigration raids ... just Raul.
I knew nothing about Metallica (as you can see from the first paragraph, my obsession was with obscure 1960s pop), so I'm sure any questions of mine that show some awareness of the band were suggested by my editors. My own personality comes through in the more offbeat questions like, "What have you been reading lately?"
Two years earlier, I had asked the same question to Los Angeles songwriter Ben Eshbach and he had answered The Man Who Was Thursday, by G.K. Chesterton. Buying that book on Eshbach's recommendation led, over time, to my conversion to Christianity and my entering into full communion with the Catholic Church.
I leave it to you, dear commenter, to hypothesize, with copious puns, what my life might have been like had I followed Hammett's initial reading recommendation. One thing's for sure; it would have been in tents.
My friend Steve Kellmeyer's new Notes on the Culture Wars site is styled as a Drudge Report for Catholics who don't want to wade through the apparition stories on SpiritDaily.com. He relies too heavily on WorldNetDaily for my taste, but he does have links to many good stories that I had missed, including Kathryn Jean Lopez's piece on "The Washing Machine Vs. the Pill" and Bishop Martino's letter to Sen. Bob Casey.
Here are two more photos from my brother's wedding March 6 at Kibbutz Palmachim. As you can see, it couldn't have been more beautiful, with the Meditteranean Ocean as the backdrop.
UPDATE: The show went very well, with some great questions from listeners. If you missed it, you can still catch it on Saturday night when it is repeated at 10 p.m. Eastern time; tune in on NextWave Live's Web site or your local EWTN Radio affiliate.
As Creative Minority Report's Matthew Archbold reports, Steele's previous statements show that his latest quote is consistent with a previous statement.
Also, Steele smiled and agreed when a CNN host compared the Republican National Convention to a Nazi gathering.
Personal to Catholic priests and religious: Please help Legion of Christ/Regnum Christi members get pastoral care
I wrote earlier about the urgent need for Catholic priests and religious willing to provide pastoral care to those suffering in the wake of recent revelations about the Legion of Christ's founder, Father Marcial Maciel.
Nearly two months since news leaked that its superiors were telling members that Maciel fathered a daughter (and were admitting for the first time that Pope Benedict had good reason to remove him from public ministry), the Legion's crisis remains unresolved. A rumored official statement from the Legion that would address “the difficult circumstances created by the recent discovery of the double life led by Fr. Maciel and the need to restore peace, trust and apostolic vitality within the spiritual family he founded" has yet to materialize. Without an organized and public effort on the part of the institute to restore the trust that has been lost, many current and former members of the Legion and Regnum Christi are hurting spiritually and potentially face a crisis of faith.
Since the crisis broke, ReGain, the support network for former members of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi, has provided a list of pastoral-care resources on the front page of its Web site. Thanks to the efforts of those pastoral-care providers who have made themselves available in the wake of the crisis, numerous people have already been helped.
If you are a priest or religious, please consider allowing your contact information to be included on ReGain's site so that current or former LC/RC members who need pastoral care may contact you directly. Write ReGain via the contact form on its Web site, or write me and I will forward your information to the organization. ReGain's list of resources includes a disclaimer stating that inclusion on the list does not constitute an endorsement of its entire Web site.
Having returned from my brother's beautiful wedding in Israel, I now need to focus on my grad-school studies. Save for a photo or two of the wedding, I do not expect to post again to this blog until at least the beginning of next week.
When I resume posting, I hope to have details of my upcoming tour of Poland, which will begin just after Easter. I cannot begin to say how excited I am about the tour, which comes in the wake of the publication (by the Polish Dominican-owned W Drodze) of the Polish translation of The Thrill of the Chaste.
UPDATE, 3/12/09: Thanks to your wonderful response, Amazon is temporarily sold out of cheap ($5.49) Thrill's! But don't despair; the book is still available at the normal discounted rate of $11.19. As mentioned below, all commissions on Amazon purchases made through this blog go toward helping pregnant women who suffer from hyperemesis gravidarum; for details, click here.
[Original post:]
If you're looking for reading material for your young-adult group or campus ministry, or just want to spread the word about chastity, Amazon currently has 16 copies of my book The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes Onat the bargain price of $5.49.
Normally, Amazon sells The Thrill new at the discounted rate of $11.19 (it lists for $13.99). The bargain-price copies are dealers' overstock and so are not always available from the site. I clean out Amazon's stock of them when I can, because they cost less than the author's rate that my publisher charges me.
All commissions on Amazon purchases made through this blog go toward helping pregnant women who suffer from hyperemesis gravidarum. For details, click here.
It was inspiring to attend the Philadelphia Natural Family Planning Network's annual conference yesterday, where I had the honor of being keynote speaker, and see the great good work that highly motivated lay people can do to serve the needs of the Church and world.
Conference organizer Dr. Lester Ruppersberger, a board-certified OB/GYN, did something highly unusual—and I would say quite daring—for an organization dedicated to promoting natural family planning. Normally, pro-life conferences focus directly on countering abortion and the contraceptive mentality, with perhaps one speaker discussing chastity. The PNFPN event, by contrast, was entirely devoted to promoting chastity as the foundation of a culture of life.
Particularly impressive was the breadth of perspectives from which the speakers addressed chastity. For that, credit must go to the local organization Generation Life, from whose current or former ranks all the conference's speakers except myself were drawn. I was especially impressed by engaged couple Jessica Bayer and Matthew Chominski, who discussed chaste dating, and Mark Houck, founder of The King's Men, an apostolate that encourages men to fulfill their roles as leaders, protectors, and providers.
I have high hopes for Mark, as he is a compelling and deeply authentic speaker who is providing a distinctively Catholic voice on a topic that is normally the domain of Protestant writers and speakers such as John Eldredge. Drawing upon his own experience in overcoming an addiction to pornography and its concomitant habit of self-abuse, he stressed the importance of building up habits of virtue and living a Eucharistic life.
It was refreshing to hear someone come out and say what I have personally felt since converting to Catholicism: While intending no disrespect to our Protestant brethren, Mark said, "you cannot be chaste without the sacrament of reconciliation and the Eucharist."
Taken literally, it is an unfair generalization. Catholics certainly do not have a lock on chastity. But, from a practical standpoint, I know that I was unable as a non-Catholic to live chastely to the extent that I can now that I have recourse to the sacraments.
The Eucharist enables us to fully live out our liberty in Christ. This is part of the great good news of the Faith, and it is this joy that Catholics should be witnessing to the world.
Do come to see me in the City of Brotherly Love if you can—details below.
March 7
Philadelphia Natural Family Planning Network, annual conference, Trinity Parish Center at Our Lady of Good Counsel, Southhampton, Pa. I will be the keynote speaker, giving two talks, one on my life story and one on "The Thrill of the Chaste." For details, visit pnfpn.org.
In Tel Aviv for my brother's wedding, so blogging will be sporadic if at all until my return on Saturday. Please pray for my brother and his wonderful bride.
Eden told the audience that before she came to this joy, her romantic life was driven by "the Sex and the City rule," which is the idea that sex comes before love and that sex pushes the relationship. She argued that sex is in fact a much more beautiful and giving act when it follows love.
When sex comes first, Eden asserted, "you are really making a demand, saying 'you better not hurt me and you better stay with me.'"
Eden stated that sexuality cannot be the gift it is supposed to be when sex becomes a demand or a way to find love. Eden has experienced this principle in her own life; she stated that her relationships are now much more meaningful than they were during her hedonistic period. [Full article]
There is one typo in the interview—I am quoted as saying we "imagine God" when I said we "image God" (and I also made a mistake myself, saying conjugal love "prefigures" the love of the Trinity—that should have been "images"). But it is wonderful coverage and I am very thankful for it, and likewise thankful to Aquinas House, the Dominican-run Catholic campus ministry, for inviting me to provide an alternative to the college's annual "SexFest."
In the wake of my talk, Aquinas House associate chaplain Father Francis Belanger O.P. provided me with a quote to add to the testimonials on thrillofthechaste.com:
"Dawn Eden did us a terrific favor by speaking on chastity at Dartmouth College. She helped us make a bold statement in favor of Christian sexual morality during the College's annual sexuality event, which is at best relativistic and at worse obscene. We invited the whole campus to hear Dawn speak and got a great turnout. She was bold and inspiring in her presentation, using the idea of sexuality as self-gift as a key to open people's minds to the joy and truth of chastity. Her personal tale of transformation was especially pertinent for the students, who hear so much misinformation and error in this important area of morality. It was an enlightening and refreshingly different evening."
Late last year, having entered the M.A. program at Dominican House of Studies, I mailed Father Francis Canavan S.J. a copy of my first moral-theology paper, which I thought would interest him as it centered upon St. Ignatius of Loyola's Suscipe prayer.
He did like it, so much so that he urged me to consider teaching at a Catholic college once I got out of school, particularly one of the newer, smaller colleges that are strong on both academics and orthodoxy.
Up until that time, I had fantasized about becoming a professor, but was reluctant to set my sights so high. Everyone else in my family is some kind of teacher, and I had never thought of myself as having that gift. Being airdropped into a campus, giving a talk on chastity, and jetting off to the next college—that I could do. But facing the same group of students three times a week with a different lecture each time? That just seemed scary.
Well, it was scary for a beginner, Father Canavan allowed, speaking from personal experience—but he believed I was up for the task, and he wanted me to teach because Catholic colleges sorely needed good, faithful professors. He launched a mini-campaign to encourage me in that direction, starting by mailing me a newsletter for tiny but well-rated Magdalen College in New Hampshire (which had recently honored him), as an example of a good Catholic institution in a beautiful place that could use my talents. Shortly thereafter, in mid-January, he phoned a former student of his who was a department chair at a larger Catholic college, recommending me as someone who would one day make a good professor.
It was the sort of pitch that my father might make for me, and I was deeply touched. If I become a professor—and that has become my hope, despite fears of not being up to the task—it will be thanks to the inspiration that Father Canavan gave by showing such faith in me.
* * *
Of the many stories Father Canavan told me, two remain in my memory pretty much verbatim. I shared one of them last week; here is the other, which sticks with me because it captures both his wit and his humility. It takes place in the mid-1950s, a few years after Father Canavan was ordained to the priesthood. Father Canavan is in his 30s, a recent graduate of Woodstock College, where he received his sacred-theology licentiate. As the curtain rises, it is his first day of class at Duke University, where the order has sent him for doctoral studies. Here's how he told it:
"The young lady who was seated next to me informed me that her daddy was a vice president at General Motors.
"I tried to think of an appropriate response. So I told her that I had just graduated from a school where all the courses were taught in Latin, and all the exams were given in Latin.
"And she said to me, 'That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.'"
When I first met Father Francis Canavan S.J. at the Human Life Foundation's annual award dinner in October 2006, it was as a fan. I told him how much I appreciated his writing and asked me to tell me about his life. He obliged the request with great generosity, even though extended conversation in a noisy hall must have been hard for him, given his physical fragility and impaired hearing.
Our friendship really began a couple of months later, after I sent him a copy of my newly published book The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On. As an author, you learn there are two kinds of people in this world: people who read the copy of your book that you send them, and people who don't. Father Canavan responded to my gift with a beautiful typed letter that showed he had not only read the book, but really understood it (and you know how writers long to be understood). Best of all, he liked it—enough so, in fact, that he included his phone number in the letter and asked me to call.
Looking back, I realize that was when he began mentoring me, although it was so natural that I didn't think of it as mentoring at the time. He truly had the gift of encouragement, coupled with another gift so precious in intellectual giants: humility. Such genuine interest did he take in my achievements, showing such respect for my abilities, that only in retrospect do I realize I was being guided.
I now see that, throughout our friendship, he was trying to direct me towards continuing and intensifying my efforts to counter the lies of the sexual revolution. His vision of the culture of life was broad and deep, and he saw my efforts to promote chastity the way I did—not as a mere means to preventing abortions and sexually transmitted disease, but rather as an end, bringing with it a restoration of respect for the dignity of every human person.
In addition, I believe there is also another reason why Father Canavan responded to my book. He told me that, for a time, he had suffered from alcoholism and, with it, if I recall correctly, depression. I think he recognized that The Thrill of the Chaste was a recovery memoir, and so appreciated its emphasis on God's healing grace. During the 1980s, he had given inspirational talks to members of a Catholic support organization for recovering alcoholics, the Calix Society, which were compiled into a pair of books, The Light of Faith and By the Grace of God. I have not yet read them, but they are both available via the Calix Web site.
* * *
National Review books editor Mike Potemra says that when he used to converse with Father Canavan during the priest's periodic lunches with the Human Life Review staff, he felt "an unmistakable sense of the numinous from him."
"It was uncanny," Potemra writes, "it was a moment of stopped time, of a deep unity, of 'these things shall pass away but God's words will not pass away.'"
I had the same feeling, especially when visiting Father Canavan at the Murray-Weigel infirmary at Fordham University in the Bronx, where he spent his final years after retiring from his Fordham professorship.
The first time I saw him there was last spring, when I was visiting Fordham to witness a Jesuit friend's ordination to the priesthood. Despite being happy for my friend, I was going through a terribly anxious time. Two weeks earlier, I had been in the hospital for thyroid-cancer surgery which, though successful, had taken a toll on me emotionally and made the other stresses of my life appear more threatening.
All my worries lost their overarching importance when, with a scarf around my neck to protect my surgical scar from the bright June sun, I met Father Canavan on a park bench outside Murray-Weigel. It felt like slipping into untimed time—the kind of sharing of light and just being present for each other that I imagine the saints in heaven enjoy.
* * *
How Father Canavan imagined heaven may be seen in his commentary in the August 2008 issue of Catholic Eye,** which I have been granted permission to excerpt here:
If there is no God who created and rules the world, two consequences follow. One is that there will be no divine judgment on how we have lived our lives. And, anyhow, after death we shall not exist to be judged. The end of life in this world is an absolute end. The other consequence is that, whatever we hope to get from our lives, we have to get it here, because there will be no hereafter in which to get it. ...
In the post-Christian world, many simply accept that as all there is, yet my atheist acquaintances live decent lives with some regard for other people. Many seem to accept "live and let live" as the norm of a good life, and I respect that. But is that really all there is? Or do they avoid thinking about it?
I once was asked to officiate at the marriage of a friend's daughter. Before the marriage took place, I told the young couple that they had a choice between "until death do us part" and "I will love you and honor you all the days of my life." The young man seemed to be uneasy about "until death do us part," so I asked him what upset him. He replied that it "speaks of death."
That may be the explanation of the rejection of the idea of eternal life. People may regard no life but this one as the only one worth living. And, while we all know that we have to die, it is better in this worldview not to think about it.
That is understandable in a young child. A two-year-old's world consists of Mommy and Daddy who love you and care for you, and of visits by uncles and aunts who make a fuss over you. At age 2, you do not think of any life more than that. But, alas, we all grow up.
In my way of looking at this matter, going to see God, as the gospels promise us, can be symbolized in this present life by being taken by a friend to see a view from a mountain. You go up high and around a bend in the road, and before you lies a view of startling beauty, so beautiful that you could stand there forever just looking at it.
God is infinitely more enchanting than that, for He is absolute Being, absolute Good, and absolute Beauty.
In one of his letters, St. Paul describes the pagans of his time as being "without faith, without hope, without God in this world." I would not bother arguing with today's pagans if they demand scientific proof of Him. But if the choice is between eternal life with God and eternal nothingness, I choose God, for nothing else gives life a lasting purpose and a meaning.
More recollections tomorrow. _____________________________ *All commissions on Amazon purchases made through this blog go toward helping pregnant women who suffer from hyperemesis gravidarum. For details, click here
**Catholic Eye is an excellent monthly newsletter that does not have a Web site. It is published by the National Committee of Catholic Laymen, Inc., which shares its headquarters with Human Life Review: 353 Lexington Ave., Suite 802, New York, NY 10016. Subscriptions are $34.95 per year prepaid, first-class postage included.
since hearing it on the local classical radio station. But since all music purchases are off until this theology grad student gets a summer job, I will content myself with this video of 
at Starbucks in Catholic University's Pryzbla Hall this afternoon. The book was recommended by my thesis director. (For a clue to my thesis's theme, see 
and may be read online for free at the 
,* prolific YouTube diarist Mark Gauvreau Judge offers a beautiful and funny meditation on the natural desire for God.
