I have been wanting to buy a CD of Khachaturian's "Spartacus" ballet
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.
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.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.
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.
"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."
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.)
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.This reminds me of the two-sentence summary of human history popularized by Mark Shea:
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.]
The blog of the Polish Catholic newsweekly Tygodnik Powszechny currently features a review by journalist and author Artur Sporniak about the Polish edition of my book The Thrill of the Chaste.
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 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.
... 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.
"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."
—From "An Open Letter to President Obama's Pro-Life Supporters,, by Robert P. George and other signatories, on MoralAccountability.com.
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."
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.
Monsignor Robert J. Batule is a priest of the diocese of Rockville Centre.
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."
Kim Payne blogs at Cotton Creek Sewing.
"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."
— William Newton, "Follow Up: Scandal at Notre Dame"
UPDATE: See continuing coverage on American Papist for the latest reactions to President Obama's planned commencement speech at Notre Dame.
FREE AUDIO DOWNLOAD: Father Daniel A. Lord, So I'm Dying of Cancer! (right-click to download MP3 audio file)
"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
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.
Today I received the preliminary itinerary for my first-ever tour of Poland. The April trip is to promote Dreszcz czystości, the Polish-language translation of my self-help book for grown-ups who missed the memo on abstinence, The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On.
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.
A friend of mine who is a Notre Dame Law alumnus is not pleased; see his open letter to the university's president.
More on the story from American Papist, LifeSiteNews, and LifeNews.
Comments closed. Take action instead:
To contact Notre Dame:
Phone: (574) 631-5000
e-mail form: http://president.nd.edu/contact-us
To contact the USCCB:
Phone: (202) 541-3000
e-mail: catholiceducation@usccb.org
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
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.
The clip is from Father Martin's DVD "Who Cares About the Saints?" If you like it, see also Father Martin's segment on St. Bernadette Soubirous that I posted earlier.
*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.
Raul wants coffee. [Read the rest of the story.]
The Singapore-based rock magazine BigO pulls a surprising museum piece out of its archives: my 1997 interview with Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett.
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.