Blooming China

We're hearing a lot of talk about the Church in China recently. It's important to keep them in prayer as they try and surface. Efforts are in place, but our prayers are key.

Recently, a friend of mine from China went home with her fiance and came back with a wonderful observation that has given me so much hope for our Chinese brethren and I'd like to share:

We also had the privilege of attending Masses as often as we were able to during the trip. It was eye-opening for us to experience the "patriotic" Catholic Church in China. Our experience there was quite different from what we learned about the patriotic church prior to the trip. We were deeply touched by the total devotions to our Lord from the Catholics in China, and utterly amazed at the level of freedom people have to practice Catholicism! From what we could tell, the liturgy was almost identical to ours here in the US.

Daily Masses were well attended. On weekends, churches were packed with hundreds of believers! Their publications freely publish news in the Catholic world, from (the) Pope's schedules to local Catholic events such as retreats (and) Summer camps for students.

We once had a chance to ask a priest as to what the differences were between the patriotic church and the underground church. He sincerely told us that he believes the patriotic church is in the mid-ground, somewhere between the underground (underground church) and the above ground (patriotic church). More research is yet to be done, but we feel that the spiritual soil is much richer there than we initially perceived, and the harvest shall be abundant!

How amazing! The seed was sown long ago. Cannot wait for the harvest. How great it will be for all of us to worship Our Lord, girded in freedom.

May the Spirit be with all of our brothers and sisters in China.

Peace to the Underground!

Tu es Petrus

Well, Papa is in Australia for World Youth Day. Some of my dear friends are there. I spent some time in Sydney and what a backdrop for WYD. It really is an amazing place - almost segregated from the rest of the world, time, and space.


I enjoyed these remarks from yesterday:

In his address, the Pope thanked the Aboriginal elders who had welcomed him, asking them to transmit his "heartfelt greetings to your peoples". He went on: "I am deeply moved to stand on your land, knowing the suffering and injustices it has borne, but aware too of the healing and hope that are now at work, rightly bringing pride to all Australian citizens".

"Standing before me I see a vibrant image of the Universal Church . The variety of nations and cultures from which you hail shows that indeed Christ's Good News is for everyone; it has reached the ends of the earth. Yet I know too that a good number of you are still seeking a spiritual homeland. Some of you, most welcome among us, are not Catholic or Christian. Others of you perhaps hover at the edge of parish and Church life. To you I wish to offer encouragement: step forward into Christ's loving embrace; recognise the Church as your home. No one need remain on the outside, for from the day of Pentecost the Church has been one and universal".

Benedict XVI praised "the majestic splendour of Australia 's natural beauty" which evokes "a profound sense of awe. It is as though one catches glimpses of the Genesis creation story: light and darkness, the sun and the moon, the waters, the earth, and living creatures; all of which are 'good' in God's eyes".

Yet "there are also scars which mark the surface of our earth, erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption. .... And we discover that not only the natural but also the social environment - the habitat we fashion for ourselves - has its scars; wounds indicating that something is amiss; ... a poison which threatens to corrode what is good, reshape who we are, and distort the purpose for which we have been created. Examples abound, as you yourselves know. Among the more prevalent are alcohol and drug abuse, and the exaltation of violence and sexual degradation, often presented through television and the internet as entertainment.

"I ask myself", the Pope added, "could anyone standing face to face with people who actually do suffer violence and sexual exploitation 'explain' that these tragedies, portrayed in virtual form, are considered merely 'entertainment'? There is also something sinister which stems from the fact that freedom and tolerance are so often separated from truth. This is fuelled by the notion, widely held today, that there are no absolute truths to guide our lives. Relativism, by indiscriminately giving value to practically everything, has made 'experience' all-important".

"Life is not governed by chance; it is not random. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed and given a purpose! Life is not just a succession of events or experiences. ... It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this - in truth, in goodness, and in beauty - that we find happiness and joy. Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth.

"Christ offers more! Indeed He offers everything! Only He Who is the Truth can be the Way and hence also the Life". But "the task of witness is not easy. There are many today who claim that God should be left on the sidelines, and that religion and faith, while fine for individuals, should either be excluded from the public forum altogether or included only in the pursuit of limited pragmatic goals. This secularist vision seeks to explain human life and shape society with little or no reference to the Creator. It presents itself as neutral, impartial and inclusive of everyone. But in reality, like every ideology, secularism imposes a world-view. If God is irrelevant to public life, then society will be shaped in a godless image, and debate and policy concerning the public good will be driven more by consequences than by principles grounded in truth".

"Experience shows", said Pope Benedict, "that turning our back on the Creator's plan provokes a disorder which has inevitable repercussions on the rest of the created order. When God is eclipsed, our ability to recognise the natural order, purpose, and the 'good' begins to wane".

The Holy Father invited young people to be "alert to the signs of turning our back on the moral structure with which God has endowed humanity" and to "recognise that the innate dignity of every individual rests on his or her deepest identity - as image of the Creator - and therefore that human rights are universal, based on the natural law, and not something dependent upon negotiation or patronage, let alone compromise. And so we are led to reflect on what place the poor and the elderly, immigrants and the voiceless, have in our societies. How can it be that domestic violence torments so many mothers and children? How can it be that the most wondrous and sacred human space - the womb - has become a place of unutterable violence?"

"God's creation is one and it is good", Pope Benedict concluded. "The concerns for non-violence, sustainable development, justice and peace, and care for our environment are of vital importance for humanity. They cannot, however, be understood apart from a profound reflection upon the innate dignity of every human life from conception to natural death: a dignity conferred by God Himself and thus inviolable.

"Our world has grown weary of greed, exploitation and division, of the tedium of false idols and piecemeal responses, and the pain of false promises. Our hearts and minds are yearning for a vision of life where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion. This is the work of the Holy Spirit! This is the hope held out by the Gospel of Jesus Christ".

Birth "Control?"

Anyone else getting sick of contraception commercials???
I bet we see 2 for every half hour tv show we watch.

Now women get to only have one menstrual cycle per year.
Give me a break. Like that's good for the body?!?!?

What's next?

"If you're tired of having cycles and all those womanly things....our new 'pill' removes your entire insides - ovaries and all!"

Honestly, it's a bit ridiculous...

A Case For Chastity

Ok, so through the years I've always heard people refer to engaging in pre-marital sex as, "test-driving the car before buying it."
It always infuriated me, wondering if their "other" knew they were being looked at as a "machine" and not as another human being to be loved. Yes, even in my pagan days it annoyed me.

Anyway, after some time of hearing this over and over, I thought of a great rebuttal to this crude comment:

"Yes, but if you can test drive a car whenever you like, why would you ever buy it?"

"And if you don't own a car, how quick are you to toss it aside when something breaks or malfunctions and get a new "car?"
If you own a car, your more likely to cherish it, take care of it, and do whatever is in your means to make sure it runs."

Response for Life

Today in a local Catholic newspaper, the following Letter to the Editor was printed. My response to the letter follows. Hopefully the paper prints it:

To the Editor:
I read with great interest Patricia Zapor's June 13 Catholic News Service article "Professor Refused Communion over Obama Support" in a local newspaper.

Although [my wife and I] consider ourselves conservative, we have a strong feeling this year to vote for Sen. Barack Obama, chiefly for reasons of "change" and for reasons against Sen. John McCain's stance on the Iraqi war resulting in continual killings and devastation.

While we do understand Sen. Obama's stance on abortion, which is unfortunate, we understand Sen. McCain's stance on the Iraqi war that results in continual "murder" of our own soldiers and innocent lives.

If Pepperdine law professor Douglas Kmiec, an active pro-life advocate, and endorser of Sen. Obama, was refused Communion on the basis of his support of a candidate, what, indeed, is the Catholic Church's teaching on supporting either candidate?

Stanley M. Kochanek
Berlin, NJ

In response to Stanley Kochanek’s Letter to the Editor

With the horror of war, we must realize that the objective is not to murder the “innocent”, whereas in abortion it is the reason for it.

War is an atrocity, there’s no question about it. Abortion is double the atrocity, which is why it is the primary concern in the USCCB Voter’s Guide. If you review these several items of importance from the Bishops, you’ll see that Senator Obama is by far the worst candidate for the Presidency. By contrast, that doesn’t mean Senator McCain is the best. Thankfully, we have more than two choices.

No Catholic should be voting for Senator Obama who, in addition to supporting partial-birth abortion, believes an aborted child who is removed from its mother’s womb with vital signs can still be killed by an abortionist.

It’s reported that on average nearly 50 troops and civilians have lost their lives each day in Iraq.
Conversely, 126,000 innocent children are aborted worldwide every single day.

I agree with Mr. Kochanek.

Come November, a “change” in the “continual murder of…innocent lives” is a moral imperative.

At The Heart of Feminism

Dale O'Leary - who I am really beginning to enjoy - tackles feminism in this transcript from 1994. True feminism is to be applauded, but false feminism is something to be weary of and Mr. O'Leary discusses:

Before we begin to talk about feminism we need to lay a foundation of repentance. I have given many talks on the subject and no matter how careful I am, I find that when I am finished one or two women in the audience will be terribly offended by my talk. The interesting thing is that they are usually offended by something I didn't say I tried to explain the points that disturbed people more carefully, but frankly to no avail.

Since you may face the same problem, let me explain what I think happens. There has been injustice toward women by men. This should be no surprise to us. The book of Genesis tells us that the first fruits of original sin were the disruption in the relationship between men and women.

Continue reading...

Boticelli's Pieta

I could stare at this for hours...

Deceit is his game...

Back in my pro-choice days, I read that in certain ancient societies it was common for parents to abandon unwanted newborns, leaving them to die of exposure. I found these stories to be as perplexing as they were horrifying. How could this happen? I could never understand how entire cultures could buy into something so obviously terrible, how something that modern society understands to be an unthinkable evil could be widely accepted among large groups of people.

Because of my deep distress at hearing of such crimes against humanity, I found it irritating when pro-lifers would refer to abortion as “killing babies.” Obviously, nobody was in favor of killing babies, continue reading...

- Thanks, RM for the link.

Gentle is Jesus

"Gentle is Jesus in his looks, and in his words and actions." The face of our loving Saviour is so serene and gentle that it charmed the eyes and hearts of those who beheld it. The shepherds who came to the stable to see him were so spellbound by the serenity and beauty of his face that they tarried for many days gazing in rapture upon him. The three Kings, proud though they were, had no sooner seen the tender features of this lovely child than, forgetting their high dignity, they fell down on their knees beside his crib. Time and again they said to one another,"Friend, how good it is to be here! There are no enjoyments in our palaces comparable to those we are experiencing in this stable looking at this dear Infant-God."

When Jesus was still very young, children and people in trouble came from the country around to see him and find comfort and joy. They would say to each other, "Let us go and see young Jesus, the lovely child of Mary." St John Chrysostom says, "The beauty and majesty of his face were at once so sweet and so worthy of respect that those who knew him could not prevent themselves from loving him, and distant kings, hearing of his beauty, desired to have a painting of him. It is even said that our Lord by special favour sent his portrait to King Abogare. Some writers tell us that the Roman soldiers and the Jews covered his face in order to strike and buffet him freely because there was in his eyes and face such a kindly and ravishing radiance as would disarm the most cruel of men.

- St. Louis de Montfort

Kneel Before your God

If we TRULY believe the Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Savior, than there is only one logical way to receive Him into our mouths....kneeling with NO handling.
Call me Traditional. Call me Antiquated. I'll take it as a compliment.

Benedict is the MAN!
Unfortunately, we got away from the tradition of receiving while kneeling.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Receiving the Eucharist on the tongue while kneeling before the pope will become the norm at papal liturgies, said the Vatican's liturgist.

While current norms allow the faithful to receive the Eucharist in the hand while standing, Pope Benedict XVI has indicated a preference for the more traditional practice, said Msgr. Guido Marini, master of papal liturgical ceremonies.

Kneeling and receiving Communion on the tongue highlights "the truth of the real presence (of Christ) in the Eucharist, helps the devotion of the faithful and introduces the sense of mystery more easily," he said in a June 26 interview with the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. Continue reading...