Ubi Petrus

No, not the song, although Augustine was quite fond of song as a form of prayer (think of his quote, “Qui cantat, bis orat” or “to sing once is to pray twice”). This is another extract from Living the Mysteries: A Guide for Unfinished Christians, a book I can happily say would be worth twice its price. If you don’t have it, get it – heck, buy two and give one to someone you love. But I digress.

I was caught by Augustine’s artistic representation of bread and the Mystical Body of Christ, His Church. It’s sad to think our use of language in this present day has dropped so low that we find very few who would be likely to image things in such a way (Sermon 272):

Why then in bread? Let’s say nothing on our own here, but listen instead to what the apostle says when he speaks of the sacrament: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10:17).

Ponder and rejoice! Unity, truth, piety, charity – one bread! And what is this one bread? “We who are many are one body!” Remember that bread is not made from a single grain of wheat, but from many. When you were exorcised, it was like a grinding. When you were baptized, it was like being mixed into dough. When you received the fire of the Holy Spirit, it was like being baked. So be what you can see, and become what you are.

This is perhaps my favorite topic of all time. I’ve often debated, should I have ever been in a position to give a homily of what I would speak. Most likely, given sufficient courage, I’d hit on the topic that “Can does not equal Should”, in other words, because you can do something does not mean you must do something or even that you should do it. Our Western society has been blinded by the blazing progress of science and has lost the ability to understand when restraint is more important than progress. Science for its own sake is meaningless to the point of being dangerous; it is science for the sake of the advancement of humanity that brings meaning and honor. My quote-a-day from Pope John Paul II gives this tidbit:

This reminds us of the attention we must pay to youth, to their intellectual and professional formation and, more generally, to their human, moral and spiritual education. It is especially important to teach them the value of life, of all life, from conception to its natural end, for life is God’s gift and we are not its masters. Many technical procedures lead a large number of our contemporaries to think that what is scientifically feasible is also morally acceptable, especially regarding the techniques of human reproduction. Science, which is a valuable help, can never be the sole criterion of moral discernment merely because it opens up new possibilites, the power of man over man, and, in a certain way, a mastery of living things. — Address to the New Ambassador of Canada to the Holy See, October 12, 2000

This story has been making its way around St. Blog’s for a little bit now. Many people have blogged about how distressing it is to see a Catholic (apparently only nominally so) university provide a speaking platform for an abortion provider, which by-the-by happens to be prohibited by the U. S. Catholic Bishops. If you haven’t noticed by now (and from the stats counters, not many have noticed much) I like to look for something other than what everyone else is talking about right away; not that I think the issue of a Catholic college providing help to an abortionist is not important, but others have covered that issue very thoroughly.

What really struck me though were the words this woman used. I was at once encouraged and mortified – a strange combination to come from a speech given by one person. First, as to how her group got started:

‘Our’ abortionist liked us, thought we were cool (which we were!), and we liked him, so it was a good arrangement all around. He eventually taught one of us, and then let others watch.

Eventually, the one he had taught then taught others.

Yes, abortionists, cool. Right. Who would ever have thought an abortionist, let alone one acting illegally, would have groupies. And then the fact that they taught each other. Have you ever played the “phone” game, where you whisper a message one person to another until you get to the end of the chain? The message is almost never accurate by the time it reaches the end.

Then there is the almost-heartening portion:

I performed abortions, I have had an abortion and I am in favor of women having abortions when we choose to do so. But we should never disregard the fact that being pregnant means there is a baby growing inside of a woman, a baby whose life is ended. We ought not to pretend this is not happening.

This is framed by one student:

Dr. Arcana believes that abortion can and should be done with grace, compassion and care. She said that giving life can be just as compassionate as taking life away. She accepted that abortion is the taking of a human life, and justified it by means of compassion.

Compassion and killing all in one bunch. You want to feel like there is a chance at redemption here, as she recognizes and admits that abortion involves taking a human life. But then she blissfully whistles right past that graveyard and calls it “compassion”. Why do I get the feeling this woman is also a strong proponent of euthanasia? Compassionate, don’t you know.

Heartbreaking is more the word I would use…

I’m getting close to finishing Living the Mysteries: A Guide for Unfinished Christians and I have to say it’s amazingly easy to see how reading the Fathers of the Church has brought so many to the bosom of Holy Mother Church. The constructs you often hear of as “modern” or “recent” inventions often have roots stretching back to the beginnings of the Church. One thing I had been told somewhere in my travels to the Church was that the concept of attending Daily Mass and daily reception of the Eucharist was a recent invention. It never bothered me if it were recent, but I should have known better – even the venerable St. Ambrose wrote about it (On the Sacraments 5.4):

The Latin, however, calls this bread “daily.” But if it is “daily” bread, then why do you take it so infrequently? Take daily what will help you daily. And live so that you deserve to receive it daily. He who does not deserve to receive it daily, does not deserve to receive it once a year. Holy Job offered sacrifice daily for his sons, just in case they had sinned in heart or word (see Jb 1:5).

So if the great Church Fathers talk so well about traditions such as receiving the Eucharist daily, those traditions some would say were “recent inventions” that needed to be “modified” or “set aside” for a “modern” Church… If their label as “recent” is shown to be erroneous, would it not also cast doubt on their assessment of what should be done with it? Indeed, one must occasionally look back to know which direction is forward.

Rocco tells us Boston has finally had its Auxiliary Bishops named. The empty posts are filling fast and furious these days.

As those of you adept at reading between the lines knew to expect, the Pope has named Fathers John A. Dooher, 63, and Robert F. Henessey, 54, as auxiliary bishops of Boston. The announcement comes but twelve days after O’Malley reemphasized his request in a meeting with the new Secretary of State.

I know it’s not my usual fare of semi-directed thoughts about Catholicism, but the Cory Lidle story has caught my attention. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a hard-core Red Sox fan, and I’m sure some think that would make saying anything positive about a member of the Yankees almost impossible. But it’s times like this that make everyone take a step back and think about what is really important in life. And if contemplating the truly important isn’t Catholic, I don’t know what is. Cory Lidle – father, husband, teammate, friend. Requiscat in pace.

Jayson Stark at ESPN has an excellent piece on this today. Go ahead and read it. It’s not in Latin, and it has nothing to do with Bishop Millingo or the celibate priesthood. It’s just about taking account of what’s important in life. From the article:

“I think it just goes to show how insignificant some of the things that we think are significant really are,” said Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson, a man who had once been Cory Lidle‘s pitching coach in Oakland. “We’re about to play a baseball game, and how important is that, really?”

That was the question they all were having to grope with Wednesday, at a time they least expected to be groping with any question more basic than how to attack Tom Glavine‘s changeup or Jeff Weaver‘s sweeping breaking ball.

How important were these baseball games? Who could have expected that, on the day of what was supposed to be Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, anyone could possibly answer: Not very important at all?

The Universal Indult rumor mill has started churning again, this time with word from very high sources. The CWN story is here and Gerald has also touched on it here. I think this could be a very good thing, if our Bishops are willing to go along with it and our priests are prepared for this rather significantly different experience. There may certainly be a lag between the issuance of the rumored motu proprio and its impact on the Mass schedule at your local parish. As with everything done properly in the Church, change is slow and a full understanding of the impact of that change is even slower.

I’ve been going through Living the Mysteries: A Guide for Unfinished Christians by Dr. Scott Hahn and Mike Aquilina to see if it’s something our RCIA participants can use during the Mystagogy period following their (hopeful) reception into the Church at Easter. I must say I’ve been more than impressed so far.

The book is designed to be used as a guide to Mystagogy, but also reads well enough to be used by anyone since, as the authors note, we are all “unfinished Christians” and should always be going through our own mystagogy. It’s laid out in four successive weeks of increasing depth (glory to greater glory as they put it) with very short readings from the Church Fathers for each day of the week. Perhaps my favorite part about the book thus far is the sense of excitement and joy you see in the Fathers’ writings; I think that sense of wonder, excitement and awe is something we find lacking sometimes in our modern Church. But if you can’t get excited about the Son of God assuming human form and accepting death to atone for the sins of each one of us, and then giving himself to us in His Body and Blood at every Mass, well, something is wrong. We don’t have to impress people with our knowledge of theology or philosophy to bring them to Christ – just our joy and excitement at knowing intimately our Savior will be enough.

Of course, a post wouldn’t be sufficient without a quote, now would it? So, from their day 4 reading from St. Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses:

After crossing the sea, the Israelites encamped in a place where the water was bitter and undrinkable (Ex 15:23). But into that water Moses threw wood, which made it a sweet drink to quench their thirst. The text matches our experience. When we give up the “Egyptian” pleasures that had enslaved us before the passage through the water, life at first seems bitter and difficult. We miss our former pleasures. But once the wood hits the water – that is, once we unite ourselves to the mystery of the resurrection, which began with the wood of the cross – then the virtuous life grows sweeter and more refreshing than any sensual pleasure, because this new life is sweetened by our hope in the things to come.

His typological explanation is more than enough to get me excited all over again. Giddy, even.

In this month’s edition of This Rock Carl Olson has an article on Christian Hope. I found the following quote rather motivational:

Hope is not only central to the Christian life; it is also a distinctive mark of the Christian view of life, death, and history. Christian hope, in fact, is a scandal and an offense to the skeptic, the agnostic, and the atheist. It is an affront to forms of Christianity that exist only as systems of morality without any basis in the actual source of Christian hope – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which conquers the great enemy of man: death.

So, in this frame, has your hope in Christ offended anyone today? Or rather, has your hope in Christ caused anyone to have to re-think their beliefs?