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Why do priests wear black?

A couple of weeks ago during our RCIA sessions a question came up as to why priests wear the color black.  It’s a seemingly simple question, but one that gets right to the nut of why so many other seemingly simple questions about the Church aren’t clear – they simply have a long and involved pedigree and even then have disparate applications at times.  It’s a sure recipe for confusion.  So … to set it at rights, I’m going to lay out what I’ve been able to dig up so far on this seemingly simple question. [click to continue…]

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Playing word games

At some point yesterday in a conversation on plurk (a.k.a. YATESNS – Yet Another Time Eating Social Networking Service) someone wrote the very simple and oft-repeated phrase, “God is good”.  Well my contorted little mind realized that, depending on which word you place the accent you wind up with three very different meanings, but all of them valid.  Linguists fight this issue all the time, particularly in languages meant more for speaking than writing – inflection changes everything.

So which one(s) strike you the most?  We have:

  • God is good.
  • God is good.
  • God is good.

Leave something in the combox if this kind of wordplay strikes your fancy.  I think it’s both an intellectual exercise and a spiritual exercise, but maybe I’m rare in that belief.

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Vocations story

No, not mine, but a good friend of the blog.  As an all-around pretty cool guy, I’m glad he was interviewed for what was a very positive story you can read here.  Please, pray for all those involved in the story and those with whom they go to seminary, as well as their family and friends.  May Mary watch over them in a special way!

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De patientia

I just wanted to highlight a post from Fr. Zehnle at Servant and Steward.  He has already lived a most … interesting life, one that would break many a soul, but here he writes something that is, I think, of benefit to all of us.  He naturally writes it from the perspective of an ordained priest, but the lesson holds for everyone.  Instead of getting in his way, I ask you to read the whole post.

I must offer this to the Lord as my own sacrifice that my descendants, the spiritual children the Lord entrusts to me, might have a long life with the Lord forever. If I unite the sufferings of my life to those of Christ, the will of the Lord will be accomplished through me. If I do not unite my sufferings with his, I may hinder his will. Indeed, if a priest is to be an alter Christus, another Christ, his life must resemble that of Christ who suffered for us.

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CNS has the story:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has asked the former head of the Vatican’s worship and sacraments congregation, Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, to lead his 2009 Lenten retreat.

During the March 1-7 retreat, the 76-year-old cardinal will focus on the theme “The Priest Encounters Jesus and Follows Him.”

I do find the trailing comment in the story regarding Cdl. Arinze’s position on inculturation rather interesting in light of his other remarks suggesting that a false inculturation is indeed damaging both to Catholicism and the person it is intended to attract.  Am I missing something here or does that seem out of place?

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It’s not my place to say…

…that I’m proud of our Pope, but yet there is tremendous pride when you read a simple story like this:

Following the General Audience the Holy Father briefly greeted Mrs Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, together with her entourage.

His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.

Why does the Church need a Pope?  To remind people that there is always someone to whom you are answerable – even, indeed, if that Someone be only God Himself.  Though they may not fear their pastors or Bishops, the Pope in his role as Supreme Shepherd still shoulders the responsibility of pointing the right way.  May she, and those with her, take his message to heart, reform their ways, and become defenders of all innocent life.

Update: John Allen of NCReporter chimes in:

Not only was it unusual to issue a statement after a meeting with an official who’s not a head of state, routine Vatican declarations after diplomatic meetings also generally sum up the range of issues discussed rather than concentrating on a particular point.

In that sense, the statement can only be read as a rejection of Pelosi’s statements last summer, and, in general, of her argument that it’s acceptable for Catholics in public life to take a pro-choice position.

So while the fact he met with her signals an expected continuation of contact between the Vatican and the U.S. government, it cannot be said that her positions were given any leeway at all.  Despite any protests to the contrary, the defense of all life from conception to natural death is not a complicated issue.

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In case you haven’t seen it

Because, you know, you’ve been living under a rock these past few days or something.  There’s a new web site offering us the ability to pray the Breviarium Romanum without having to drop some serious change to do so (well over $200US the last I looked).  As excited as I am about this possibility, I really need to get crackin’ on my Latin if I am to make any good use of this site.  It should be noted that the folks running the site haven’t yet integrated the office of Matins, but even just starting with Lauds and Vespers would be great, let alone Compline and the mid-day hours.  Well done, good souls!

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Cross-checking the Good News

With Lent coming fast around the corner I thought this little quote was quite timely.  I’m trying to get back on track with my Bible and Catechism reading after some family events and a bout of illness, so expect these to come more frequently.  The quote I’m going to look at but briefly today comes from Matthew 10:34-39, where we find Jesus saying:

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household.  He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Goodness.  Far from the meek, humble and peaceful Jesus we think of, particularly when considered in the light of the Beatitudes.  Let us not forget, however, that in Luke’s Gospel  the Beatitudes are also followed quickly by the Woes (“woe to you that are rich…woe to you that are full now”, etc.).  Jesus just isn’t as simple as we’d like to make him out to be.  With Lent coming fast, now is a good time for us to check our understanding of who Jesus is and what He asks of us.

First He says he has not come to bring peace, but a sword (Mt 10:34); that certainly sounds dark, but let us take a trip back in Jewish history for a moment to another time when a sword played a prominent part, back to the story of Solomon’s wisdom, to the story we have come to know as Solomon’s cutting the baby in half.  For brevity, the story can be found in 1 Kings 3:16-28 – read it and come back.  What did Solomon use as an implement to divine the truth?  Not finely honed reason, not a well-crafted theological exegesis of the Bible, but a sword.  The one willing to do the right thing in the presence of imminent danger was found to hold the truth in this story, and so we must always be reminded that we too are always in some form of imminent danger of being judged by the Judge.  What shall we say, what shall we do?  Jesus calls us to the truth, and calls Himself the Truth – do we now take cover in a lie and hope no one will notice?  The sword of Justice is at the ready – which do we choose?  “I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

As if that wasn’t enough, Jesus goes on to tell us that even members of our own household will stand against us.  This is very clear to those who are converts, who so frequently lose contact with their family and friends for their decision; it was even more true in the early Church when those who chose to follow Christ were all too often turned in to the Roman authorities during persecutions by members of their own families.  But, for my money, the real doozy comes next.

He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:37).  As a father (and, obviously, a son) this at first seemed to be an insurmountable obstacle.  I must love Jesus more than my own flesh and blood, more than my parents, more than my children?  In a word, yes.  But it is not a calling to love our family members any less, but rather to love them differently.  We are not to love them just because they are our parents or children, but first because they are children of God, worthy of the Blood of Christ and then in a special way due to our familial connection.  It is not a lowering of their dignity to reframe our relationship in this way, but rather a raising of it.  No matter who I am in this world, no one due to their relationship to me can ever have a dignity even approaching that given them as a child of God.  “Jesus first, everyone else second, myself last”.

I have more thoughts on this excerpt, but for now that will have to suffice.  Any additional thoughts would be most appreciated.

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Pray, as if your life depends on it

Because, you know, in a way it does.  Certainly we can live without prayer, but as for me, life without talking to God and doing my best to listen to Him just doesn’t quite measure up.  I’ve been reading through Pope Benedict’s The Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine, the collation of his addresses on the early Fathers of the Church and came across a quote so good that I’m not going to wait until I write up a review of the book for it.  In his address on St. Gregory Nazianzen, we find:

Gregory teaches us first and foremost the importance and necessity of prayer.  He says:  “It is necessary to remember God more often than one breathes” (Orationes 27, 4: PG 250, 78), because prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with our thirst.  God is thirsting for us to thirst for him (cf. Orationes 40, 27: SC 358, 260).  In prayer, we must turn our hearts to God, to consign ourselves to him as an offering to be purified and transformed.  In prayer we see all things in the light of Christ; we let our masks fall and immerse ourselves in the truth and in listening to God, feeding the fire of love.

I just love those twin images – “let our masks fall” and “feeding the fire of love.”  It’s like drawing a picture with words.

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From the depths of evil come stories of grace

I’ve always loved stories about World War II, probably because I have fond memories of my paternal grandfather coming up to our house on Sundays after Church and regaling us over coffee with stories of his time as a Navy Sea Bee in the Pacific theater.  Needless to say, none of his stories were ever like this one.

Stanislawa recalls the conditions the sick inmates had to contend with: “In the winter, when the temperatures were very low, icicles formed on the ceiling from the breath and perspiration – one silvery rod next to another. When, in the evening, the lights were put on, they glittered beautifully. They looked like one great crystal chandelier. But under these icicles, people slept and sick women delivered their babies.”

I originally received this story from the Catholic Spitfire Grill Yahoo group – a good bunch of folks, should you wish to take a look-see.

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