Catholic Social Teaching and Pope Benedict’s Upcoming Encyclical

It appears that July 6 or so is the date we can expect the release of the much-anticipated encyclical from Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate – Charity in Truth. This encyclical has been in the works for about two years, and has apparently undergone some major revisions to account for the major circumstances of the current economic crisis. The Holy Father is obviously not an economist and so the purpose of this encyclical is not to set forth economic policy. However, in the long tradition of Catholic Social Teaching, he will set forth a powerful voice which calls for standards of justice and for a preferential option for the poor as the world rebuilds and perhaps reorders economic structures and policies.

As I said, this encyclical will stand in a long tradition of the social teaching of the Catholic Church. To help prepare us for its release and for its continuity with Catholic Tradition here is an excellent resource for major Church documents on Catholic Social Teaching. This site provides a host of papal encyclicals, episcopal statements, and other such documents, as well as links which allow you to peruse just certain important quotations from those documents. Enjoy!

Why I Chose the Augustinians

For anyone who is interested, here is a detailed description of the Augustinian formation program into which I have just been formally accepted. I am at the pre-novice stage. Next comes the novitiate, in Racine, WI, after which I make my first profession of vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and at which time I am officially considered a friar in the Order of Saint Augustine. These simple vows are one year commitments, which I may renew at the end of each year. Following that is the Professed Program, either in Chicago or at the Augustinian International House of Studies in Rome (pretty please!!!). Three years after making my first profession I am eligible to take solemn vows, which are the permanent vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and soon thereafter I would be ordained to the priesthood.

The one question that I have been frequently asked is, "Why the Augustinians?" There are so many paths to the priesthood available, either diocesan or the many religious orders of the Church. When I first began this journey I really only knew of diocesan priests, and I had begun the application process with the Diocese of Camden. At the time I was also in contact with the Dominican vocations director, Fr. Bill. It was at that time that I first began to read Augustine's Confessions, which I fell in love with. This is what inspired first my deep interest in Augustine, and then later my interest in the Augustinians. I happened to meet an Augustinian friar at a wedding of a friend of mine, and soon I contacted the Augustinian vocation director, at the time Fr. Jim McBurney, OSA. It was then that I enrolled in Villanova, the flagship university of the Augustinians, and found myself immersed in the very unique Augustinian culture.

The first selling point for me is the great emphasis on community found in the Augustinians, which is something we derive directly from Augustine and from his monastic rule. While I do appreciate my periods of solitude, I am very gregarious by nature, and I know that with my struggles with celibacy the reliance on a strong community environment is just what I need. This word, community, simply oozes from their very pores. At Villanova whenever you ask students what their favorite part of the Villanova experience is, almost every single time the response will be the sense of community. That is so important to me, and over the years now I have seen how the diversity of the Order strengthens everyone, and how supportive they always are of one another. It really is a beautiful thing to behold.

Beyond that, aside from the primary focus of the priesthood, bringing the Sacraments to the Church and preaching the Gospel, there are many areas of ministry to which I find myself attracted, and the Augustinians happen to be involved in all of them. The Augustinians operate parishes, they are involved in education, the do mission work (my province currently has international missions in Peru, South Africa, and Japan. The worldwide Order has missions in many other locations), they do military chaplaincy, hospital chaplaincy, and prison ministry, they are heavily, heavily, involved in social justice (this and education might be their two biggest ministries), to such an extent that the Order has permanent observer status with the United Nations (I think that's what it is – there is some sort of official relationship with the U.N. that is unique to the Augustinians among religious orders), they are theologians, they operate the great Augustinianum, the pontifical academy of patristics in Rome. Every single one of these ministries is attractive to me, and it is wonderful to know that while I do indeed take a vow of obedience and am bound to go wherever the Order sends me, they are incredibly supportive of any ministry in which a friar feels called, and typically will do whatever they can to help ensure that that ministry happens.

Because of our deep rootedness in St. Augustine, I have yet to meet an Augustinian who does not truly understand the human condition, does not have great compassion for the human spirit, and does not love profoundly. The school motto at Villanova is Unitas, Veritas, Caritas – Unity, Truth, and Love. This is a truly Augustinian motto, something which permeates the Order. I am very, very happy to now call these men my brothers. Now, of course, I just hope they can put up with me…

ETA: As has been pointed out to me, it is not permanent observer status that the Augustinians have with the United Nations, but rather they are officially recognized as an NGO.

Faith of the Martyrs

Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of the First Martyrs of Rome. This coincides with yesterday's Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul. In both cases we are recognizing the great persecution of Christians begun under Emperor Nero, who reportedly burned the city of Rome for no other reason than caprice (he wanted to see how Troy was burned, so he burned his own city). Christians in Rome under Nero and in subsequent times suffered unbearable persecution, torture, and gruesome forms of execution, from crucifixion, beheading (the most "humane" of all the forms), burning, and so forth. This time period also led to many instances of what we call "confessors," those who were not executed for their faith and refusal to renounce, but who were rather severely maimed in some way, frequently by the slicing of the Achilles tendon. As we now know, it was the faith of these martyrs and their willingness to truly take on the sufferings of Christ and to conform themselves so magnificently to the Cross in faith that led to such an explosion of growth in Christianity in the early centuries of the Church. From being tortured and killed beginning in the 60's A.D., it was less than 300 years later that Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, this in large part due to the blood of the martyrs.

Throughout the 2,000 year history of the Church we have many stories of martyrs, some famous, some unnamed. Frequently we find ourselves caught up in the gory details and spectacular imagery (think of St. Ignatius of Antioch writing letters as he was about to be fed alive to lions, or St. Lawrence being burned at the stake and proclaiming, "Turn me over, please. This side is cooked!"), and while this certainly draws our attention, in some ways it also misses the point. We all have something to learn from the martyrs, and specifically we learn from them their courageous perseverance of faith. It is faith which unites us to the Cross of Christ, and it is a desire for Christ and for God's will that ensures that our faith is always there, even when to us it appears to be absent.

We do not have to die a gruesome death or literally shed our blood to have within us the spirit of martyrdom. The spirit of martyrdom lies in all those who are simply willing and prepared to suffer for Christ and His Church, even if the opportunity to prove so physically does not offer itself. Nor should we seek such opportunities, but simply be prepared should they come. But there are so many of you beautiful Christians out there who suffer a form of martyrdom every single day, and without being aware, you prove daily the spirit of martyrdom within you! Many of you suffer and persevere in faith despite being constantly crucified by doubt. Many of you have suffered directly at the hands of the Church, yet through all your pain and anger you find a way to continue turning to Christ. Many of you are told by the Church that there is something disordered about you just by the way you were born, and yet however begrudgingly you continue to abide in the Church. Many of you have suffered great personal disasters in your life – physical violence, loss of dear loved ones, and so forth – which can cause you to doubt how good and loving God really is, and yet nonetheless you persevere in faith. You often think that you have no faith or that your faith is weak, and yet just the opposite is true. It is you who have the greatest faith, the faith to which we all must aspire, for you have the faith that pushes through with perseverance no matter how badly you find yourself just wanting to give up. It is you who have the true faith of the martyrs!

The Church gives us many liturgical reminders of the great examples of faith and virtue throughout the centuries, stories of so many varieties that we all may find those with whom we identify. But it is you, the spiritual martyrs of today, who bring such beautiful and authentic witness to the glory of God and the Cross of our salvation. And so just as I thank those martyrs before me, to you do I offer my thanks, as well.

Greek Question

Does anyone know of a Greek antonym for ευανγελιον, euangelion, from which we get "evangelist"?

God Knows Us Better Than We Know Ourselves

I've always been drawn to St. Peter. While I imagine he had great confidence in his skills as a fisherman, he does not appear to have believed himself capable of much greater than that. Mark's Gospel especially portrays him as always messing something up, always getting it wrong, always kind of stumbling along. Even at his greatest moment, when he confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the Living God, for which Christ offers him the greatest compliment and certainly the greatest of confidence boosters, by telling him that God is working in him, and declaring this Peter to be the rock upon which Christ would build his Church – immediately following this Christ accuses him of being Satan, because he still just gets it wrong.

That's the beauty of Peter. He gets knocked down, and he keeps getting back up. What I've come to realize recently is that one of the greatest blessings Christ could have ever bestowed upon Peter was by telling Peter that he would thrice deny Jesus. By telling him this, how much more powerful it was, and great a confidence builder, when after the resurrection Christ then thrice asks him to feed his sheep! By predicting the denial, by telling Peter that he knew he would act cowardly, Jesus is also telling him, "Peter, I knew that you would fall, but I also know what truly lies within you. I would not entrust my sheep to you if, just as I knew you would deny me, so also do I know that you will capably lead my Church, and when asked, you will even die for them just as I died for you."

How much is Peter like me, like us? How often do we fall? How often do we deny our Lord? But Christ does not judge us by our failings, because he knows that we are greater than that, better than that, and just as Peter received the gift of the Holy Spirit that enabled him to become what God was asking of him, so too do we have that same gift available to us. So if Christ does not judge us by our failings, let us not judge ourselves by them, either. We are called by God, called to be his children, called to be his Church. We are called to be holy, called to be courageous, called to be humble – we are called to be all this and more. Yet for what we give to God, he provides in abundance back to us. We give to God our desire for holiness, our desire for courage, our desire for humility, our desire for faith, our desire for hope, our desire for love – our desire for every virtue, and just by giving him that desire, he fills our cup with grace, good measure and overflowing.

This human journey is full of pitfalls, shortcomings, sin and error. But we must remember always what Augustine tells us, that God is closer to us than we are to ourselves, He knows us better than we know ourselves. It is for this reason that God does not judge us by these shortcomings, so nor should we. Let us judge ourselves by virtue of being children of God, and accept the grace to grow in our Father's love.

St. Augustine on the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, closing out the Pauline year. This is a feast that goes back to the earliest days of the Church, and their feasts have always been celebrated as one. The Office of the Readings today provides an excerpt from St. Augustine's Sermon 295, which can be found here (though it is possible that link will only be up for today, so if you view this after June 29 I think it will be gone. I could be wrong, though). Sermon 296 offers another fine example of Augustine's preaching at his best. This sermon we can date exactly due to certain references. It was delivered on June 29, 411, in Carthage, while Rome was still suffering the aftermath of being sacked. As an aside, I have always felt that there is a great parallel between the Donatists and the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), and so pay special attention to sections 14-15, which I believe are relevant both to our attitudes towards SSPX, and also the attitudes SSPX ought to take towards full reunion with Rome. What Augustine says about the Donatists we can easily say about SSPX. What he says about the Catholics who rejected the Donatists seeking to return to the Church, we can easily say about we who reject the members of SSPX. Humility and repentance are necessary for SSPX, certainly, but humility, repentance, and generosity are required of us. So here it is, Sermon 296. It's quite lengthy, just to forewarn:

1. This reading of the holy gospel, which sounded in our ears just now, is very apt for today's feast. If it also went down from our ears into our hearts, and there found a place of repose – God's word, you see, reposes in us, when we repose, and acquiesce, in the word of God – then it admonished all of us, who minister to you the Lord's word and sacrament, to feed his sheep. Blessed Peter, the first of the apostles, both lover and repudiator of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the gospel shows, followed the Lord as he was about to suffer; but at that time he wasn't able to follow him to the extent of suffering himself. He followed with his feet, he wasn't yet capable of following with his virtue.

He promised that he would die for him, and he wasn't even able to die with him; he had staked more, you see, than his credit could stand. He had promised more than he could fulfill, because it was in fact unfitting that he should do what he had promised. I will lay down my life, he said, for you (Jn 13:37). But that is what the Lord was going to do for the servant, not the servant for the Lord. So as he had staked more than he was worth, he was then loving in a back-to-front sort of way; that's why he was afraid and denied Christ. Later on, though, the Lord, after he has risen, teaches Peter how to love. While he was loving in the wrong way, he collapsed under the weight of Christ's passion; but when he's loving in the right way, Christ promises him a passion of his own.

2. We remember Peter's weakness in being shocked at the idea that the Lord was going to die. That's what I'm reminding you of. Look, I'm reminding you; those of you who remember can tell themselves the story with me; those who have forgotten can call it to mind as I remind them of it. The Lord Jesus Christ himself foretold his imminent passion to the disciples. Then Peter, full of love for him, but still of a worldly sort, afraid of the slayer of death dying, said, Far be this from you, Lord, far be it; do yourself a favor (Mt 16:22). He wouldn't have said, Do yourself a favor, unless he acknowledged him to be God. So Peter, if he's acknowledged by you to be God, why are you afraid of God dying? You're a man, he's God. and for man's sake God became man, taking upon him what he was not, without losing what he was. So the Lord was going to die in that respect in which he was going to rise again, as a man. So Peter was horrified at the prospect of a human death, and didn't want it to touch the Lord; unwittingly he wanted to close the purse from which our price would flow.

That's when he heard from the Lord, Get back behind, Satan, for you do not share God's ideas, but men's (Mt 16:23). A moment before he had said to him – when he had said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God – Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because it was not flesh and blood that revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven (Mt 16:16-17). A moment before, blessed; next minute, Satan. But how and why blessed? Not for anything of his own: It was not flesh and blood that revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And how and why Satan? For you do not share God's ideas, but men's.

Such then was Peter; loving the Lord and wishing to die for the Lord, he followed; and it all turned out as the doctor had foretold, not as the sick patient had self-confidently presumed. Questioned by a maid, he denies once, twice, a third time. He's glanced at by the Lord, he weeps bitterly, with the tears of devoted love he wipes clean the dirt of denial.

3. The Lord rises again, he appears to the disciples; now Peter sees him alive, whose death he had so feared; he sees, not the Lord slain, but death slain in the Lord. So now, encouraged by the example of the Lord's own flesh that death is not to be dreaded all that much, he is taught how to love. Now he really must love, now having seen the Lord alive after death, now he really can love, now he can love without anxiety; without anxiety, because he is going to follow.

So the Lord says, Peter, do you love me?

And he answer, I do love you, Lord.

And the Lord says, "I don't want you, because you love me, to do for me; that, after all, is what I have already done for you. But what? Do you love me? What are you going to give me in return because you love me? Do you love me?

I do love you (Jn 21:15-17). And the same again, and the same a third time, so that love might declare itself three times, because fear had denied three times.

Notice, take to heart, learn; the only question asked is Do you love me?; the only answer given, I do. When he gives that answer, he's told, Feed my sheep. And with his sheep entrusted to Peter, and Peter together with his sheep taken into his own care, he now goes on to foretell his death, and says, When you were younger you used to gird yourself and go where you wished; but when you are older, another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish to go. But he said this, adds the evangelist, to signify by what sort of death he was going to glorify God (Jn 21:18-19). You can see that what is involved in feeding the Lord's sheep is not refusing to die for the Lord's sheep.

4. Feed my sheep (Jn 21:17). Is he entrusting his sheep to a man equal, or less equal, to the responsibility? First of all, what sort of sheep is he entrusting? Very valuable ones, bought not with gold, not with silver, but with blood. If a human master were entrusting his sheep to a slave, he would undoubtedly consider whether the savings of the slave are equal to the value of his sheep, and would say, "If he loses, or scatters, or eats any of them, he must have the wherewithal to pay for them." So he would entrust his sheep to a slave equal to the responsibility, and would require the slave's means in money for the sheep he had bought with money.

In this case, however, the Lord Jesus Christ is entrusting the slave with sheep he bought with his blood, and so he requires of the slave the capacity to suffer to the point of shedding his blood. It's as though he were saying. "Feed my sheep; I am entrusting my sheep to you."

What sheep?

"Ones I bought with my blood. I died for them. Do you love me? Be ready to die for them." And as a matter of fact, while that human slave of a human master would pay money for sheep destroyed, Peter paid the price of his blood for sheep preserved.

5. Here we go then, brothers and sisters, I would like to say something suitable for this particular time. It was not only Peter who heard what was entrusted to Peter, what was enjoined on Peter. The other apostles also heard, took it to heart, observed it; above all the one who shared Peter's sufferings, and this day with him, the apostle Paul. They heard all this, and transmitted it to us to be heard and listened to. We feed you, we are fed together with you; may the Lord grant us the strength so to love you that we are capable also of dying for you, either in fact or in fellow feeling.

Just because, you see, a martyr's death did not come the apostle John's way, it does not mean that he could be wanting in a spirit prepared for martyrdom. He didn't suffer, but he was able to suffer; God was aware of his readiness. It's like the three boys cast into the furnace in order to be burnt up, not in order to live; shall we deny they were martyrs, just because the flames couldn't burn them? Question the fire, they didn't suffer; question their willingness, they received the crown of martyrdom. God is powerful enough, it is said, to deliver us from your hands; but even if not – there you have their steady hearts, their firm faith, their unshaken courage, their assurance of victory – but even if not, be it known to you, O king, that we are not worshipping the statue which you have set up (Dn 3:17-18). God had other plans; they were not burnt, but extinguished the fires of idolatry in the spirit of the king.

6. So you can see, dearly beloved, what has been set before the servants of God during this age, on account of the future glory that will be revealed in us; a glory which no temporal tribulations of any kind or quantity can even begin to outweigh. For the sufferings of this present time, says the apostle, are not to be compared with the future glory that will be revealed in us (Rom 8:18). If that's the case, none of us should now be thinking in a worldly way, "This isn't the time." The world is being turned upside down, the old man is being shaken, the flesh hard pressed; let the spirit flow clear.

"Peter's body lies in Rome," people are saying. "Paul's body lies in Rome, Lawrence's body lies in Rome, the bodies of other holy martyrs lie in Rome; and Rome is griefstricken, and Rome is being devastated, afflicted, burnt; death stalking the streets in so many ways, by hunger, by pestilence, by the sword. Where are the memorials of the apostles?"

What's this you're saying?

"Here's what I'm saying; Rome is suffering such enormous evils; where are the memorials of the apostles?"

They are there, they are there, but they are not in you. If only they were in you, whoever you are that are saying these things, whoever you are, foolish enough to think these things, whoever you are, called in the spirit and savoring the flesh, whoever you may be of that sort! If only the memorials of the apostles were in you, if only you really gave a thought to the apostles! Then you would see whether they were promised an earthly felicity or an eternal.

7. Listen to the apostle, if his memory, his memorial, is still alive in you: For the temporary lightness of our tribulation works in us to an unbelievable degree, and beyond an unbelievable degree, an eternal weight of glory, if we do not fix our gaze on the things that are seen, but on the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal (2 Cor 4:17-18). In Peter himself the flesh was temporary, and aren't you willing for the stones of Rome to be temporary? The apostle Peter is reigning with the Lord, the body of Peter is lying in some place or another. His memorial is meant to stir you to love of eternal things, not so that you may stick to the earth, but so that with the apostle you may think about heaven.

Tell me, if you're one of the faithful, call to mind the memorials of the apostles, the memorial even of the Lord your God, who is certainly now seated in heaven. Listen to where the apostle is directing you: If you have risen with Christ, savor the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory (Col 3:1-4). What you've heard here is, in one word, "Lift up your hearts." So are you griefstricken, and crying, because timbers and stones have fallen down, and because people have died who were going to die anyway? Granted that someone who's dead is going to live for ever; are you grieving over the collapse of timbers and stones, and the fact that those who were going to die anyway have died? If you have lifted up your heart, where have you got your heart? Is there anything dead there, anything that has collapsed? If you have lifted up your heart, where your treasure is, there is your heart (Mt 6:21). Your flesh is down below, and if your flesh feels dread, don't let is shake your heart.

"But all the same," you say, "I didn't want it to happen."

What didn't you want to happen?

"I didn't want Rome to suffer such dreadful things."

We can pardon you for not wanting it. Don't you be angry with God because he did want it; you're only human, he's God. You're saying, "I don't want it," where he's saying, "I do." He doesn't condemn you for your "I don't want it," and are you going to reproach his "I do"?

"But why does God want this?"

Why does God want this? For the time being accommodate yourself to the will of the Lord your God; when you have become his friend, you will know the plans of the Lord your god. What slave when his master tells him to do something would ever be so proud as to say, "Why?" The Lord keeps his counsel and his plans to himself. They become clearer if he does his duty, if he does well, if from being a servant he becomes a friend, as the Lord himself said: I will no longer call you servants, but friends (Jn 15:15). Perhaps he will also learn the Lord's plans; meanwhile, before he knows the plans, let him willingly carry out the decisions.

8. The lesson I'm still teaching you, as a matter of fact, is patience, not yet wisdom. Be patient, it's the Lord's will. You ask why it's his will? Put off your eagerness for knowledge, prepare for the strenuous effort of obedience. He wants you to bear with what he wants; bear with what he wants, and he will give you what you want. And yet, my dear brothers and sisters, I make so bold as to say that you are going to listen to this gladly, if you already have the basic elements of obedience, if there is to be found in you the meek and mild patience of bearing with the Lord's will, not only when it is mild. When it's mild, of course, we don't bear with it, we love it; it's when it's hard and harsh that we tolerate it, when it's mild and easy we rejoice.

Observe your Lord, observe your head, observe the model of your life; pay attention to your redeemer, your shepherd. Father, if it may be so, let this cup pass from me. How perfectly he shows his human will, and straightaway turns his resistance into obedience! However, not what I wish, but what you wish, Father (Mt 26:39). And here, look, he also said this to Peter: When you are old, another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish (Jn 21:18). He indicated in him too the human will, as it shrinks from death. Does it mean, because he didn't wish to die, that he didn't wish to receive the crown?

So with you too, what is it you didn't want? To lose your savings, perhaps, which you were going to leave behind here? Take care you don't remain behind with what you should have left behind. You didn't want, perhaps, your son to die before you, you didn't want your wife to die before you. Well after all, even if Rome hadn't been captured, wasn't one of you going to be the first to die? You didn't want your wife to die before you; your wife didn't want her husband to die before her; was God going to accommodate both of you? Let the right order remain with him; he knows how to set in order what he has created. It's for you to accommodate yourself to his will.

9. I can already see what you are saying in your heart: "Look, it's during Christian times that Rome is being afflicted, or rather has been afflicted and burnt. Why in Christian times?"

Who are you, saying this?

"A Christian."

So you answer yourself, if you're a Christian: "It's because it was God's will."

"But what can I say to the pagan? He's insulting me."

What's he saying to you? How is he insulting you?

"Look, when we used to offer sacrifices to our gods, Rome continued to stand. Now, because the sacrifice of your God won the day and been so frequently offered, and the sacrifices of our gods have been stopped and forbidden, look what Rome has to suffer." [As an aside, this is a theme that occupies the greater part of the first half of City of God]

For the time being, give him a very short answer, to get rid of him. You, however, should have quite other thoughts. You weren't called, after all, to embrace the earth, but to obtain heaven; you were not called to an earthly, but to a heavenly felicity; not to temporal success, and fleeting and fickle prosperity, but to eternal life with the angels. Still, for this lover of worldly felicity and grumbler against the living God, who prefers to serve demons and sticks and stones, there's a quick answer you can give. As their own histories tell us, this is the third time that the city of Rome has been burnt. As their own history relates, their own literature relates, this burning of the city of Rome that has just happened is the third occasion. The city that was recently afire amid the sacrifices of Christians had already been twice on fire amid the sacrifices of the pagans. It was once burnt like that by the Gauls, so that only the Capitol Hill was left. A second time Rome was set on fire by Nero, I don't know whether to say out of savagery or frivolity. Nero, the emperor of Rome, gave the order; the slave of idols, the slayer of the apostles, gave the order, and Rome was set on fire. Why, do you suppose, for what reason? A proud, conceited and frivolous man enjoyed the Roman blaze. "I want to see," he said, "how Troy was burnt." So it was burned in this way once, a second time, and now a third time. Why do you like growling against God for a city that has been in the habit of being on fire?

10. "But," they say, "so many Christians suffered such dreadful evils in the sack of the city."

Has it escaped your notice that it is the prerogative of Christians to suffer temporal evils, and hope for everlasting goods? You pagan, whoever you are, have something to wring your hands over, because you have lost your temporal goods, and haven't yet discovered eternal goods. The Christian, though, has something to think about: Reckon it every joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials (Jas 1:2). When this sort of thing was chanted to you in the temple: "The gods who protected Rome have not saved it now, because they no longer exist," you would say, "They did save it, when they existed."

We, though, can show that our God is truthful; he foretold all these things, you've all read them, you've heard them; but I'm not sure whether you've remembered them, you that are upset by such words. Haven't you heard the prophets, haven't you heard the apostles, haven't you heard the Lord Jesus Christ himself foretelling evils to come? When old age comes to the world, when the end draws near – you heard it, brothers and sisters, we all heard it together – There will be wars, there will be tumults, there will be tribulation, there will be famines (Mk 13:7-8; Lk 21:9-11). Why are we so contradictory to ourselves that when these things are read we believe them, when they are fulfilled we grumble?

11. "But more devastation," they say, "much more, is overtaking the human race now."

Well, I don't know about more, considering all the past history; but for the time being, without prejudice to the truth on that point, suppose it is more; I think it is more. The Lord himself solves the problem. There's more devastation in the world now, much more devastation, he says. Why more devastation now, when the gospel is being preached everywhere? You observe how widespread is the preaching of the gospel; you don't observe in what a godless way it is being ignored. Right now, brothers and sisters, let's leave the pagans out of it for a moment or two, let's turn our eyes on ourselves. The gospel is being preached, the whole world is full of it. Before the gospel was preached, God's will was hidden; by the preaching of the gospel, God's will has become openly known. We have been told in the preaching of the gospel what we ought to love, what we ought to think lightly of, what to do, what to avoid, what to hope for. We've heard it all, God's will is no longer hidden anywhere in the world.

Take the world as a servant, and pay attention to the gospel. Listen to the Lord's voice; this world is the servant: The servant who does not know the will of his lord, and does not behave properly, will be beaten with a few lashes. The servant, the world; it's the servant, because the world was made through him, and the world did not know him (Jn 1:10). The servant who does not know the will of his lord; there you have the world before; the servant who does not know the will of his lord, and does not behave properly, will be beaten with a few lashes. But the servant who knows the lord's will; here you have what the world is like now; now tell yourselves what follows, or rather let us all tell ourselves: The servant who knows his lord's will and does not behave properly, will be beaten with many lashes (Lk 12:48.47). And if only it may be beaten with many lashes, and not be once and for all condemned!

Why do you jib at being beaten with many lashes, you servant who know the wishes of your Lord, and do things deserving of lashes? You're told (here you have one wish of your Lord's), Store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can spoil, and where thieves cannot dig through and steal (Mt 6:20). You're on earth, he's in heaven, telling you, "Give to me, put your treasure where I can guard it, send it ahead of you; why save it?" What Christ is guarding for you, can the Goth take away from you? You, on the other hand, wiser and more farsighted, naturally, than your Lord, wish to store up treasure nowhere but here on earth. But you are well aware of your Lord's wishes; he wanted you to store it up above. So you, busy storing it up here on earth, must be prepared to be beaten with many lashes. Look, you know the Lord's will, that he wants you to save it up in heaven; you, his servant on earth, are doing what thoroughly deserves lashes, and when you're beaten you blaspheme, you grumble, and you say that what your Lord is doing to you ought not to have been done. What you, a bad servant, are doing, that ought to have been done, I suppose?

12. At least hold on to this position: don't speak ill of your God; praise him, rather, for correcting you; praise him for putting you right, so that he may give you consolation. For whom the Lord loves he corrects, and he whips every son whom he receives (Heb 12:6). You, self-indulgent son of the Master, would like both to be received and not to be whipped; so that you may be thoroughly spoiled and he may be proved a liar. So the memorial of the apostles, by which heaven is being made ready for you, really should have saved for you on earth the crazy follies of the theaters? That's why Peter died and was laid to rest in Rome, is it, in order that not a stone of the theater might fall? God is knocking the playthings of boys from the hands of ill-disciplined adults.

Brothers and sisters, let us decrease both our sins and our grumbles; let us be sworn enemies both to our iniquities and our grumbling; let us be angry with ourselves, not with God. Be angry, most certainly be angry, but for what purpose? And do not sin (Ps 4:4). That's why by angry, in order not to sin. Everyone, after all, who repents, is being angry with himself; being sorry for what he has done, he works off his anger on himself. So do you want God to spare you? Do not you spare yourself; because if you spare yourself, he won't spare you; because if he too does so, you are lost. Just as it's written, He whips every son whom he receives, so also there's this other text to be afraid of: The sinner has irritated the Lord.

"How do you know" – it's as if he were asked – "How do you know that the sinner has irritated the Lord? I've seen the sinner prospering, every day I've seen him doing evil, and suffering no evil, and blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. I've been horrified and dismayed. The sinner has irritated the Lord; this sinner, who has done such evil things, and who suffers no evil has irritated the Lord, has he, provoked the Lord?"

For the greatness of his wrath, he will not search out (Ps 10:3-4). That's what comes next: The sinner has irritated the Lord; for the greatness of his wrath, he will not search out.

The reason he won't search out is that he is very angry; the one who withholds correction is preparing damnation. He will not search out; because if he did search out, he would do some whipping; if he did some whipping, he would put you right. Now, though, he's very angry, very angry with the wicked who prosper. Don't be jealous of them, don't wish to be like them. It's better to be whipped than damned.

13. So the Lord entrusted his sheep to us bishops, because he entrusted them to Peter; if, that is, we are worthy with any part of us, even with the tips of our toes, to tread the dust of Peter's footsteps, the Lord entrusted his sheep to us. You are his sheep, we are sheep along with you, because we are Christians. I have already said, we are fed and we feed.

Love God, so that God may love you; and you can only show you love God to the extent that you manifestly love God's profits. What have you got that you can offer God, you clever so-and-so? What can you offer God? What Peter also could offer him, all that: Feed my sheep. What can you do for God? Help him become greater, become better, become richer, become more honorable? Whatever you will be, he will be just as he always was. So just look next to you; in case perhaps what you should do for your neighbor is help him reach God. When you have done it for one of these least of mine, you have done it for me (Mt 25:40). So if you are bidden to break your bread to the hungry (Is 58:7), have you a duty to shut the Church in the face of someone who is knocking?

14. Why have I said this? I was saddened by what I heard, though I wasn't present myself, that when someone from the Donatists came to the Church, confessing the sin of rebaptism, and was being exhorted by the bishop to repentance, he was objected to by some of the brethren, and driven away. I confess to your graces, this really hurt my deepest feelings; I tell you frankly, this kind of diligence has pleased me not at all. I know they did it out of zeal, I don't doubt they did it out of zeal for God. But they should also turn their attention to that passage of the apostle Paul, where he laments even those who have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge (Rom 10:2).

Look here; he wasn't admitted today; he dies tomorrow; at whose hands will his death be demanded? You're going to say, "But he's pretending."

I answer, "But he's asking. Christian, I would now like you to teach me too; how do you know he's pretending?"

"Because he's afraid for his property."

We know of many who have been afraid for their property, and have become Catholics for that reason. When they have been absolved from their liability, some of them have returned to the Donatists, some though have stayed. As long as they didn't enter the Church, they were afraid for their property; and when they did enter, they learned the truth, and remained. So then, how do you know that this man who is afraid for his property will be among those who turned out to be insincere, especially when such a strong light of truth is shining as now, such an effective conviction of falsehood?

Why do you want to judge people's hearts, Mr. Man? Is that why we bishops have sweated away, that why we've toiled away, that why the truth should have been shown to be unconquered, that it should be made the enemy of those who seek it? We worked hard for the truth to be demonstrated, falsehood to be convicted. God helped us, it was done. Perhaps this man, for whose sake it was done, became a changed person by thinking about it carefully. Why do you want to pass judgment on his motives? I see him seeking admittance, and you accuse him of just pretending? Allow the truth, Christian, of what you can see, and leave judgment on what you can't see to God. Let me put the matter to your graces very briefly: we heard from the Lord himself that his sheep are to be fed; and we know what he says about the sheep through Ezekiel: that sheep must not push sheep around, sheep must not drive sheep away, the strong must not be a burden to the sick. Think of what the apostle says: Correct the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak (1 Thes 5:14). Correct the unruly; let his be done. Encourage the fainthearted; let this be done. Help the weak; let this be done. Let nobody return evil for evil to anyone (1 Thes 5:15); let that be done. He said so many things; do we pay none of them any attention, except Correct the unruly? Notice: Correct the unruly. Start counting: Encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, let nobody return evil for evil to anyone. You, though, only pay attention to Correct the unruly; take care you aren't unruly yourself, and what's worse, both want to be unruly, and don't want to be corrected.

I beg you through Christ, I implore you not to ruin all our work. Or are you thinking that the thing we have here to be pleased about is that we have defeated falsehood? It's always the truth that is victorious; as for us, what are we? Falsehood was defeated, it was defeated a long time ago. But thank God, it has now been openly defeated, and shown up to everybody. A lot of hard work has gone into the cultivation; why should it be prevented from yielding its crop?

15. For the rest, brothers and sisters, these things must not happen. Nobody should love the Church in such a way as to grudge the Church its profits. It was the day before yesterday, or the day before that, that this thing I'm talking about happened; and the story went round loudly to everybody, that Donatists are not being admitted, when they come to the Church. Do you imagine that no harm was done when this story reached everybody's ears? I'm asking your help; let this voice of mine echo in your ears today in such a way that the thing that has sounded well may drown out the noise of that thing that sounded so badly. Get to work on it.

This is what we said, this is what we bishops proclaim: let them come, let them be admitted in the customary way, those who have never hitherto been Catholics. As for those who were once Catholics, and have been found to be shaky, found to be inconstant and weak, found to be faithless – am I to spare them? Yes, certainly the faithless – well, perhaps those who have been faithless, will turn out to be faithful. Let them too come, and be admitted to penance. Nor should they kid themselves, that when they went back to the Donatist party they did penance there. That penance was being sorry for a good thing; let there be true penance and genuine repentance for a bad thing. When they did penance in the Donatist party, they were being sorry for something good they had done. Now let them do it and be sorry for the bad thing they have done.

You're afraid that since they were found to be faithless, they may trample on that which is holy? But look, even here your fears are taken care of; they are admitted to penance they will be in penance as long as they wish, with nobody forcing them, nobody terrifying them to be reconciled. Because a penitent Catholic is no longer subject to the threats of the laws; he begins to desire to be fully reconciled, with nobody now terrifying him; then at least, trust his sincerity. Let's grant, he was forced to be a Catholic; he will become a penitent. Who, apart from his own will, is forcing him to seek the place of reconciliation? So right now let us allow weakness to enter, so that later on we may test genuineness of will.

An Honest Assessment of Vatican II

The Bishop of Basel, Switzerland has published an interesting letter regarding the various false interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, as well as those who lament traditionalists as somehow not being faithful to Vatican II. Anyone who actually reads the documents of Vatican II will recognize that with the exception of the real far right kooks who deny the Council altogether, traditionalists actually interpret Vatican II correctly, and much of what we see in the modern Church, liturgically and otherwise, often prefaced by the precursor of so much modern heresy, "The Spirit of Vatican II," actually has nothing to do with the Council and usually is a direct contradiction to it. Here is the English translation, which I found at Fr. Z's blog (his includes commentary that I will leave to those more learned than I), in full:

 

What moves me?

More honesty please! 

In the last few weeks a lot of journalists, and also some clergy, have been expressing their opinions of Pope Benedict.  In these opinions were also contained many half-truths, untruths, and slanders. The worst accusation asserts that the Pope wishes to go back to before the Second Vatican Council. This accusation is the worst because it implies that the very person who possesses the teaching authority of the universal Church would work to undermine the authority of the council. This verdict, however, would be completely mistaken. As a young theologian, in fact, Benedict XVI contributed very much to the council.   Anyone who seeks to understand the Pope now—not just from the media—but also by reading what he writes, would come to the conclusion that he has oriented his entire magisterium on the council.  How should we then understand the accusation being made?

Many people have signed a petition for the unqualified acceptance of the council. Right from the start, the expression "unqualified acceptance" irritates me because I don't know anyone—myself included—to whom it would apply. A few arbitrarily chosen examples will suffice:  

      – The council did not abolish Latin in the liturgy. On the contrary, it emphasized that in the Roman Rite, apart from exceptional cases, the use of the Latin language must be maintained. Who among the vocal defenders of the council wishes "unqualified acceptance" of that?  

      – The council declared that the Church regards Gregorian Chant as the "music proper to the Roman Rite", and that it must therefore "be given primary place." In how many parishes is this implemented "without qualification?"  

      – The council expressly requested that governmental authorities voluntarily give up those rights to participation in the selection of bishops, that had arisen over the course of time. Which defender of the council advocates "without qualification" for that?  

      – The council described the fundamental nature of the liturgy as the celebration the pascal mystery and the eucharistic sacrifice as "the completion of the work of our salvation." How can that be reconciled with my experience, made in many different parishes, that the sacrificial understanding of the Mass has been completely eliminated from the liturgical language and the Mass is now understood only as a meal or "the breaking of bread?" In what way can one justify this profound change by reference to the council?  

      – No office of the Church was given more significance by the council that that of bishop.  How can we then understand the widespread diminishment in Switzerland of this office of the Church, which is justified by reference to the council? When, for example, Hans Kung denies completely the teaching authority of the bishops, allowing them only the office of pastoral leadership?  

It would not be difficult to lengthen this litany. Even so, it should be obvious why I demand more honesty in the current debate about the council. Instead of accusing others, and even the Pope, of wishing to go back to before the council, everyone would be well advised to look over their own books and reassess their own personal position on the council.  Because not everything that was said and done after the council, was therefore done in accordance with the council—and that applies also to the diocese of Basel. In any case, the last few weeks have illustrated to me that a primary problem in the current situation has been a very poor, and in part very one-sided understanding and acceptance of the council,  even by Catholics that defend the council "without qualification." In this regard we all—once more including myself—have a lot of ground to make up. Therefore I again repeat my urgent request: More honesty please!

+ Kurt Koch
Bishop of Basel

Communion with God When Life is Ordinary

One of my struggles in the spiritual life is maintaining my devotion to prayer when life is ordinary. During times of great distress and times of great blessing turning to God becomes natural for me, asking for strength and courage, or praising Him in thanksgiving. During those in between times, however, it becomes easy for me to lose my fervor. I have never been a man of great self-discipline, which I believe is why I am so frequently attracted towards those ways of life where discipline and structure are built in. I've mentioned before how I attempted to enlist in the Army after 9/11, and this was as much due to my vagabond life and its lack of discipline as it was any sense of patriotic duty. It is the same reason I am attracted to the Divine Office as a way of prayer, with its structured hours of the day, and similarly a reason why I am attracted to religious life, because my obligations will call me to morning and evening prayer with the community, and the schedule that I will follow will also make it easier for me to build in other times for personal and private prayer.

This prayer during the mundane in life, during those ordinary times, is so important. In fact, this goes to the heart of the Liturgy, both the Liturgy of the Hours and the Mass. Man is created to be ordered towards God - this is the Catholic understanding of predestination, that providence directs the soul towards God, and that rightly ordered the soul will always move with God's grace towards perfect union with Him. But in our fallen nature we become disordered – we become oriented away from God, and thus create our own disordered and tumultuous destiny. The liturgy then is designed to restore that order in us, to orient us back towards our natural destiny. This is why the summit and perfect orientation of the liturgy is the Holy Eucharist, for it is the Eucharist that is the force drawing all of creation towards its proper eschatological end.

While I think the Divine Office achieves this most perfectly in our everyday lives, it is important that we take time throughout our day to devote to prayer – even if only a few moments. What I've found in my own life is that when I pray in a structured way regularly, be it the Office, the Rosary, Lectio Divina (and preferably all of those are included in my daily prayer), I also find my soul naturally engaging in prayer throughout the day. Those moments when I am idle I find myself communicating with God, calling upon the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and all the saints. I find myself offering people up in prayer, sometimes something as simple as an encounter with some stranger when I get a vibe that perhaps they are lonely or struggling, I may offer a simple Hail Mary, something to that effect. My point is simply that when I structure my prayer life, I find my soul naturally inclined towards prayer, and I more easily fulfill St. Paul's exhortation to be constant in prayer. This is for me the perfect indication that liturgy is properly achieving its function within me, because a soul naturally inclined towards prayer is a soul truly oriented towards God.

In this I take the Blessed Virgin as a special model, who at all times is shown as contemplating the mysteries of God, as pondering these mysteries in her heart, in seeking the divine will, in being perfectly oriented towards God with a song of praise naturally springing from within. May Mary, the Mother of the Church and the model of all Christians, pray for all of us that we too may be oriented perfectly towards our natural destiny.

Pope Benedict XVI’s Homily at Opening of the Year for Priests

I have been waiting for the English translation to become available for the Holy Father's Vespers Homily on the Feast of the Sacred Heart marking the beginning of the Year for Priests. It has finally been published by the Vatican and so I present it here in its entirety:

CELEBRATION OF VESPERS 
ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST SACRED HEART OF JESUS

OPENING OF THE YEAR FOR PRIESTS 
ON THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH 
OF SAINT JOHN MARY VIANNEY

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Vatican Basilica
Friday, 19 June 2009

 
 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In a little while, we shall be singing in the Antiphon to the Magnificat: "The Lord has welcomed us in his Heart Suscepit nos Dominus in sinum et cor suum". God's heart, considered to be the organ of his will, is mentioned 26 times in the Old Testament. Man is judged according to God's Heart. Because of the pain his heart feels at the sins of man, God decides on the flood, but is subsequently moved by human weakness and forgives. Then there is an Old Testament passage in which the subject of God's Heart is expressed with absolute clarity: it is in chapter 11 of the Book of the Prophet Hosea in which the first verses describe the dimension of the love with which the Lord turned to Israel at the dawn of its history: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son" (Hos 11: 1). Israel, in fact, responds to God's tireless favour with indifference and even outright ingratitude. "The more I called them", the Lord is forced to admit, "the more they went from me" (v. 2). Nonetheless he never abandons Israel to the hands of the enemy because "my heart", the Creator of the universe observes, "recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender" (v. 8).

The Heart of God throbs with compassion! On today's Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus the Church offers us this mystery for contemplation, the mystery of the Heart of a God who feels compassion and pours forth all his love upon humanity. It is a mysterious love, which in the texts of the New Testament is revealed to us as God's immeasurable love for the human being. He does not give in to ingratitude or to rejection by the People he has chosen; on the contrary, with infinite mercy he sends his Only-Begotten Son into the world to take upon himself the burden of love immolated so that by defeating the powers of evil and death he could restore the dignity of being God's children to human beings, enslaved by sin. All this comes about at a high price: the Only-Begotten Son of the Father is sacrificed on the Cross, "having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (cf. Jn 13: 1). A symbol of this love which goes beyond death is his side, pierced by a spear. In this regard, the Apostle John, an eye-witness, says: "one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water" (cf. Jn 19: 34).

Dear brothers and sisters, thank you because, in response to my invitation, you have come in large numbers to this celebration with which we begin the Year for Priests. I greet the Cardinals and Bishops, in particular the Cardinal Prefect and the Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy with their collaborators, and the Bishop of Ars. I greet the priests and seminarians of the various seminaries and colleges of Rome; the men and women religious and all the faithful. I address a special greeting to H.B. Ignace Youssef Younan, Patriarch of Antioch for Syrians, who has come to Rome to meet me and to acknowledge publicly the "ecclesiastica communio" which I have granted him.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us pause together to contemplate the pierced Heart of the Crucified One. We have heard again, just now, in the brief Reading from the Letter of St Paul to the Ephesians, that "God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ... and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2: 4-6). To be in Jesus Christ, is to be already seated in heaven. The essential nucleus of Christianity is expressed in the Heart of Jesus; in Christ the whole of the revolutionary newness of the Gospel was revealed and given to us: the Love that saves us and already makes us live in God's eternity. The Evangelist John writes: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (3: 16). His divine Heart therefore calls to our hearts, inviting us to come out of ourselves, to abandon our human certainties to trust in him and, following his example, to make of ourselves a gift of love without reserve.

If it is true that Jesus' invitation to "abide in my love" (cf. Jn 15: 9) is addressed to every baptized person, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Day for priestly sanctification, this invitation resounds more powerfully for we priests, particularly this evening at the solemn inauguration of the Year for Priests, which I wanted to be celebrated on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of the Holy Curé d'Ars. One of his beautiful and moving sayings, cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, immediately springs to my mind: "The Priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus" (n. 1589). How is it possible not to remember with emotion that the gift of our priestly ministry flowed directly from this Heart? How can we forget that we priests were consecrated to serve humbly and authoritatively the common priesthood of the faithful? Ours is an indispensable mission, for the Church and for the world, which demands full fidelity to Christ and in unceasing union with him this to remain in his love means that we must constantly strive for holiness, this union, as did St John Mary Vianney.

In the Letter I addressed to you for this special Jubilee Year, dear brother priests, I wanted to highlight certain qualifying aspects of our ministry, with references to the example and teaching of the Holy Curé d'Ars, model and protector of all of us, priests, and especially parish priests. May my Letter be a help and encouragement to you in making this Year a favourable opportunity to grow in intimacy with Jesus, who counts on us, his ministers, to spread and to consolidate his Kingdom, to radiate his love, his truth. Therefore, "in the footsteps of the Curé of Ars", my Letter concluded, "let yourselves be enthralled by him. In this way you too will be, for the world in our time, heralds of hope, reconciliation and peace!".

To let oneself be totally won over by Christ! This was the purpose of the whole life of St Paul to whom we have devoted our attention during the Pauline Year which is now drawing to a close; this was the goal of the entire ministry of the Holy Curé d'Ars, whom we shall invoke in particular during the Year for Priests; may it also be the principal objective for each one of us. In order to be ministers at the service of the Gospel, study and a careful and continuing pastoral and theological formation is of course useful and necessary, but that "knowledge of love" which can only be learned in a "heart to heart" with Christ is even more necessary. Indeed, it is he who calls us to break the Bread of his love, to forgive sins and to guide the flock in his name. For this very reason we must never distance ourselves from the source of Love which is his Heart that was pierced on the Cross.

Only in this way will we be able to cooperate effectively in the mysterious "plan of the Father" that consists in "making Christ the Heart of the world"! This plan is brought about in history, as Jesus gradually becomes the Heart of human hearts, starting with those who are called to be closest to him: priests, precisely. We are reminded of this ongoing commitment by the "priestly promises" that we made on the day of our Ordination and which we renew every year, on Holy Thursday, during the Chrism Mass. Even our shortcomings, our limitations and our weaknesses must lead us back to the Heart of Jesus. Indeed, if it is true that sinners, in contemplating him, must learn from him the necessary "sorrow for sins" that leads them back to the Father, it is even more so for holy ministers. How can we forget, in this regard, that nothing makes the Church, the Body of Christ, suffer more than the sins of her pastors, especially the sins of those who are transformed into "a thief and a robber" of the sheep (Jn 10: 1 ff.), or who deviates from the Church through their own private doctrines, or who ensnare the Church in sin and death? Dear priests, the call to conversion and recourse to Divine Mercy also applies to us, and we must likewise humbly address a heartfelt and ceaseless invocation to the Heart of Jesus to keep us from the terrible risk of harming those whom we are bound to save.

I have just had the opportunity to venerate in the Choir Chapel the relic of the Holy Curé D'Ars: his heart. It was a heart that blazed with divine love, that was moved at the thought of the priest's dignity and spoke to the faithful in touching and sublime tones, affirming that "After God, the priest is everything! ... Only in heaven will he fully realize what he is" (cf. Letter, Year for Priests, p. 3). Dear Brothers, let us cultivate this same emotion in order to carry out our ministry with generosity and dedication, or to preserve in our souls a true "fear of God": the fear of being able to deprive of so much good, through our negligence or fault, those souls entrusted to us, or God forbid of harming them. The Church needs holy priests; ministers who can help the faithful to experience the merciful love of the Lord and who are his convinced witnesses. In the Eucharistic Adoration that will follow the celebration of Vespers, let us ask the Lord to set the heart of every priest on fire with that "pastoral charity" which can enable him to assimilate his personal "I" into that Jesus the High Priest, so that he may be able to imitate Jesus in the most complete self-giving. May the Virgin Mary, whose Immaculate Heart we shall contemplate with living faith tomorrow, obtain this grace for us. The Holy Curé d'Ars had a filial devotion to her, so profound that in 1836, in anticipation of the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, he consecrated his parish to Mary, "conceived without sin". He kept up the practice of frequently renewing this offering of his parish to the Blessed Virgin, teaching the faithful that "to be heard it was enough to address her", for the simple reason that she "desires above all else to see us happy". May the Blessed Virgin, our Mother, accompany us during the Year for Priests which we are beginning to day, so that we are able to be sound and enlightened guides for the faithful whom the Lord entrusts to our pastoral care. Amen!

 
 

© Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

A Political and Theological Parallel

It's funny, politically I am fairly conservative, yet I simply cannot stomach many Republicans. Theologically I am highly Traditional and orthodox, yet I really cannot stomach many who refer to themselves as such. I think perhaps it has to do with the relationship to relativism. Orthodoxy, much like modern political conservatism, reject in large part the notion of moral relativism. We believe that there is such a thing as objective Truth, since God is the author of all Truth. The problem is that to recognize such a reality requires the utmost humility in the individual person because a lack of humility in someone claiming, "Truth! Truth! Truth!" is about the most off-putting and irritating encounter one can have with another human being, and such a lack of humility and meekness is almost certainly going to close the ears of the person to whom one is attempting to proclaim what is true.

It's certainly a sort of arrogance with which I continue to struggle myself. Truth is not arrogant, but people proclaiming it often are. May God grant me the grace of humility so that I may better and more effectively proclaim that which is true.

Augustine Day by Day

Live from God for God

Know that the Body of Christ can live from nothing else but the Spirit of Christ. Hence, when the Apostle Paul explains this bread to us, he says: "Because the bread is one, we though many are one Body."

O Sacrament of love! Sign of our unity! Bond of our fraternity! All who long for life have here its very source. Let them come here and believe, unite with you and live. Let them cling to the Body and live for God.

-- Sermon on John 26, 11

Prayer:  Thanks be to him who is desired before he is seen, whose presence is felt and who is hoped for in the future.

-- Sermon 24, 1

The Communal Nature of Vocations

All week long I have been volunteering at our annual church carnival. It's been an absolute blast, as it is every year. It was at the carnival that I received a call from the Provincial informing me of my acceptance into the Order. What has struck me all week in relation to this is the profoundly communal nature of a vocation. Most of my parish knew that I was awaiting a decision, and I cannot begin to recall the number of people who approached me at my booth (I'm working the frog bog!) asking if I had heard any news, telling me they've been praying for me, and so forth. When I got the phone call, everyone knew that it was the call, as I ran out of my booth area to find a semi-quiet area to talk. As I walked back in tears a small crowd began to gather to hear the news, and they literally cheered when they found out. People came up hugging me, even thanking me for answering this call, telling me their prayers have been answered. As the night and now the days have passed, every day I have new people coming up to me telling me they've heard the news and how happy and excited they are, that the Church needs good priests.

That's just it: the Church needs good priests! But a vocation to the priesthood is not simply the work of one man and his personal relationship with God. It is a communal event. It requires the constant prayers of an entire Church, it requires parents who are willing to talk to their children about being open to a religious vocation, it requires sound catechesis from our Catholic educators, it requires encouragement and support of those men who are discerning.

If you are Catholic and you wish to see an increase in good priests serving the Church and providing you with the Sacraments, don't just passively hope for it – be proactive! If you are married with a family, as a family pray the Rosary and offer it for an increase in vocations, or after you say grace before meals offer a Hail Mary for vocations. If you have sons, encourage them to be open to the idea of a priestly vocation. Don't push it on them, but encourage them to be open. Teach your children the value of prayer, especially that they learn to pray for God's will in their own lives. All Catholics, take any opportunity you get to go to Adoration and pray for vocations. If you know someone whom you think could have a vocation, talk to him about it, encourage him, pray for him and with him.

All of this goes not only for vocations to the priesthood, but the religious life, the diaconate, and marriage. These are the foundations of the Church – men willing to serve as priests and deacons, men and women willing to serve in religious life, and men and women willing to enter into the sacrament of marriage and be open to the gift of life, and all taking their responsibilities to the Church seriously. The Church has great needs right now for all of these vocations, and they can only be achieved when as a Church we work together towards them.

Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett

I have two very different reactions to these deaths. Michael Jackson's death is really, really weird for me. He will always be an icon in my mind. I still have Thriller on vinyl and still listen to it from time to time. My friends and I would have these epic barbecues every year, called Grillith Fairs, and we played Michael Jackson music exclusively. We are now debating whether or not to have on this year.

I've never decided what I think regarding his guilt or innocence. It's not something I will ever set out to decide because it's just something I can never know. What I do know is that for all of his remarkable talent he was a truly tortured soul. From an outsider's perspective my guess is that he may have never known a day of inner peace in his life. I hope I'm wrong. But because of all that, as saddened as I am by his death, I am also somewhat relieved for him. I believe his hell was lived here on earth. Tonight I will offer the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for him, and hope to do so from time to time throughout the future.

As for Farrah Fawcett, as an actress she never had a huge impact on me, though I've certainly enjoyed several of her movies and enjoy watching old episodes of Charlie's Angels. But I'm also happy to hear the reports of her faith towards the end. She received the anointing of the sick and apparently had priests with her throughout her ordeal. I know firsthand that cancer can have a powerful impact on someone's faith, and I don't doubt for a minute that cancer may have turned out to be an incredible grace for her. As I saw last year with the death of my beloved friend and mentor Fr. Tom Martin, the value of a peaceful acceptance of death's inevitability cannot be measured.

Two amazingly talented people, two very different lives and two very different deaths. As Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations, "You can leave life this instant. Let that determine what you do and say and think."

As I'm writing this Michael's death was just discussed on SportsCenter. They said that his famous Super Bowl performance was the only time in SB history that the viewership numbers increased for the halftime show over the game coverage. They also said that there were 66,000 Twitter updates about him tonight and that it caused Twitter to temporarily shut down. The man so tortured somehow managed to electrify so many lives. May God grant him pardon and peace and absolve him of all his sins.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Fr. David Kelley – Prayers of Mercy and Forgiveness

A suspended priest awaiting possible defrocking has died. Fr. David Kelley has been accused of sexually abusing more than three dozen boys. He was suspended from ministry and was likely to be defrocked by the Vatican. He died at the age of 60 of lung cancer.

If the allegations against him are true than he is nothing short of a monster – disturbed in his own way, no doubt. I do not know anything about whether or not these allegations are true, but it does seem likely. If they are, the Gospel was very clear about what sort of fate awaits someone like that. But we are also a people who believe in the great mercy and forgiveness of God. While many of us are so rightfully angry and hurt by the abuse scandal in the Church, as Christians we are called to forgive, and while perhaps some might not be ready to personally forgive this man, I do hope we can find it in our hearts to pray for mercy on his soul. Further, let us continue our prayer and our advocacy so that the Church learns her lessons and does not allow this sort of scandal to ever occur again, that she will take seriously the necessity of protecting her vulnerable children, and that she will recognize always that her only responsibility in this world is the salvation of souls.

May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Augustine Day by Day

God the Father and Our Mother the Church

Unflaggingly, let us love the Lord our God and let us love his Church. Let us love Him as the Lord and the Church as his handmaid.

No one can offend the one and still be pleasing to the other. What does it avail you if you do not directly offend the Father but do offend the mother?

-- Commentary on Psalm 88, 14

Prayer. Let my mouth speak the praise of the Lord by whom all things were made and who was made amidst all things. He is the witness of the Father and the creator of the mother.

-- Sermon 188, 3

Encountering the Still Small Voice

It is truly a great grace that has been offered to me here. There is still a surreal air to my beginning of religious life, even though I haven't actually began living in religious life, not until I move into community in another month or two. But there are moments of grace already. It is important for me to recognize them and to grow with them, for that is why they are offered to me, that I may grow in holiness and in love.

I've experienced this encounter with grace before, when I first returned to the Church in 2005. At that time I began to grow very quickly, and I developed a real interiority, a depth of spirit, and in my prayer life I even began to experience the first fruits of contemplation. It was a beautiful time for me, and peace reigned over my soul. I turned that peace away, however, and there is no doubt that spiritually in many ways I have regressed rather than progressed. This is what St. John of the Cross warned, that many who are given the first glimpse of contemplation turn away from the path and back to the desires of the flesh. So it was with me.

Dating Kristen was in no way whatsoever a mistake. There is no doubt that through her I was blessed. But while dating her was not a mistake, with her I made many mistakes. For as much as I had grown closer to union with Christ, so that the flesh submitted to the spirit, with Kristen my carnal nature once again took charge. Not only sexually, but it was then that I began drinking again, also. I began praying less, and the tumult of the spirit returned. The subsequent three years were back and forth, always with the recognition of what was wrong, where I was heading off the path, but not doing what was necessary to once again bring the flesh under subjection to the spirit.

It must be understood that the flesh is not evil in any way. We are not Manichees. We recognize the flesh is good – but when not subjected to the spirit it can and will lead us to sin. It was because my spirit once again became subjected to the flesh that my discernment became so challenging. To listen for God's call requires a special kind of attentiveness of spirit, one which is impossible when the spirit is not master of the flesh. To encounter God we must be willing to climb Mount Horeb, preparing ourselves in prayer and fasting as Elijah did, so that when we get there we are not distracted by the earthquake or the storm but through all that noise we are able to listen for the still small voice.

This way of prayer, of bringing the flesh under subjection to the spirit, is not just the way for religious and for priests, it is the way for all Christians. For one, it is the path to holiness, and holiness is the vocation of every human being. Aside from that, God desires for each of us to know Him intimately, to experience His love for us, and to cooperate with Him in the divine plan for the salvation of all. But we must learn to listen to His voice, in the silence that Mother Theresa says is the language of God.

I have been very blessed indeed. Through the prayers and guidance of Mary, our Virgin Mother of Good Counsel, of St. Augustine, St. Rita, and all the saints, I hope to continue in this grace and once again grow on the path where He leads me. Pray for me, that I may be a humble, generous religious. Pray for me, that I may love Him more.

Villanova and the Vatican

Not able to make the trip to Rome, but want a closer look inside the Vatican? My school, Villanova University, has now made that possible. The Philadelphia Inquirer details the historic collaboration between the Vatican and an outside group, where Villanova was given the sort of access that few ever are. The Vatican has since published their work on the Vatican web site, and even included a special written than you to the university for their fine work.

Virtual Reality Tour of the Vatican presented by the Holy See and Villanova University

Disgusting

What a scum bag. To leave your wife and kids to carry on your extramarital affair on Father's Day! His poor family. They are most deserving of our prayers and support right now.

At least he did one thing right that most of these whoring politicians do not, which is he left his wife at home for the press conference. I hope he had the decency to tell her before the press conference…

ETA: I switched links to the Politico article, which gives a bit more detail than the first report I read. At least his family knew before he left.

On the Birth of John the Baptist

Today the Church celebrates the Birth of John the Baptist. The fact that we celebrate John's nativity speaks volumes of how important his role is in the Gospel of salvation, as typically it is the date of a saint's death that we celebrate, since that constitutes the date of their birth into heaven. This and Christmas remain the only nativity solemnities celebrated by the Church. It makes me happy that my first day after being accepted into religious life would be this great feast because John the Baptist continues to serve as such a powerful model offered for our imitation. Other than perhaps Mary's fiat, what greater prayer for humility could I offer than the simple, "He must increase, and I must decrease"? May that always be the providential course of my own soul!

In today's Office of the Readings we have a snippet of a Sermon preached by St. Augustine on this great solemnity, which I offer for you now:

The Church observes the birth of John as in some way sacred; and you will not find any other of the great men of old whose birth we celebrate officially. We celebrate John's, as we celebrate Christ's. This point cannot be passed over in silence, and if I may not perhaps be able to explain it in the way that such an important matter deserves, it is still worth thinking about it a little more deeply and fruitfully than usual. 

John is born of an old woman who is barren; Christ is born of a young woman who is a virgin. That John will be born is not believed, and his father is struck dumb; that Christ will be born is believed, and he is conceived by faith.

I have proposed some matters for inquiry, and listed in advance some things that need to be discussed. I have introduced these points even if we are not up to examining all the twists and turns of such a great mystery, either for lack of capacity or for lack of time. You will be taught much better by the one who speaks in you even when I am not here; the one about whom you think loving thoughts, the one whom you have taken into your hearts and whose temple you have become.

John, it seems, has been inserted as a kind of boundary between the two Testaments, the Old and the New. That he is somehow or other a boundary is something that the Lord himself indicates when he says, The Law and the prophets were until John. So he represents the old and heralds the new. Because he represents the old, he is born of an elderly couple; because he represents the new, he is revealed as a prophet in his mother's womb. You will remember that, before he was born, at Mary's arrival he leapt in his mother's womb. Already he had been marked out there, designated before he was born; it was already shown whose forerunner he would be, even before he saw him. These are divine matters, and exceed the measure of human frailty. Finally, he is born, he receives a name, and his father's tongue is loosed.

Zachary is struck dumb and loses his voice, until John, the Lord's forerunner, is born and releases his voice for him. What does Zachary's silence mean, but that prophecy was obscure and, before the proclamation of Christ, somehow concealed and shut up? It is released and opened up by his arrival, it becomes clear when the one who was being prophesied is about to come. The releasing of Zachary's voice at the birth of John has the same significance as the tearing of the veil of the Temple at the crucifixion of Christ. If John were meant to proclaim himself, he would not be opening Zachary's mouth. The tongue is released because a voice is being born – for when John was already heralding the Lord, he was asked, Who are you and he replied I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. 

John is the voice, but the Lord in the beginning was the Word. John is a voice for a time, but Christ is the eternal Word from the beginning.

--from St. Augustine, Sermon 293

Part 3 of 3 of the Heroic Story of Matt Miller

Rebounding, to race again

By Michael Vitez

Inquirer Staff Writer

Last of three parts.

Matt Miller was determined to resume his life where he'd left off - even completing his fall semester as a junior at the University of Virginia.

Matt left the hospital Nov. 26, sooner than anyone had expected, and a few days later scheduled a physics midterm for Dec. 8.

The 20-year-old from St. Davids, training for a triathlon, had broken every bone in his face and suffered brain injury on Nov. 2, when he lost control of his bike and smashed, face-first, into a car going 40 miles an hour.

Three days before the physics test, Matt had a follow-up appointment with J. Forrest Calland, the trauma surgeon in charge of his care at the University of Virginia Medical Center.

"By definition, there's no way Matt can have 100 percent of his mental capacity back," Calland told Matt and his father. "My gut's telling me this is not a good idea."

Continue reading here...

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!

Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty firmament!

Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his exceeding greatness!

Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!

Praise him with timbrel and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!

Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

Let everything that breathes praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!

Psalm 150, Revised Standard Version

 

Friends, I thank you all for your continued prayers as I have been waiting in anxious anticipation for some word from the Augustinians. Tonight, just after 7:00 p.m. I received a call from the Provincial, congratulating me and welcoming me as a brother in the Order of Saint Augustine. My heart, as you can imagine, was overjoyed and I could only but weep. Which was quite a sight, in the middle of a church carnival! But I didn't care, and most of the people there were hounding me for an answer, so it was great to be able to so joyously provide one. I immediately called my mother, and then sent my father a text message (at his request, as he is on business in St. Louis). And then I composed myself and floated for the rest of the evening.

I will write more later. Now I am just tired and filled with joy and thanksgiving. Praying the Rosary tonight is going to feel especially good. Thank you all for your prayers, and be assured of always remaining in mine.

Still Waiting

By waiting and by calm you shall be saved,

in quiet and in trust your strength lies.

                -- Isaiah 30:15

 

Still no word from the Augustinians. If he hasn't called me now, I don't expect I'll hear now till tomorrow. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated, but I do know that it's out of my hands. Isaiah was just what I needed. I'll update again tomorrow.

Into the Silent Land

I've mentioned previously about the graduate course I took last semester on St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. My professor, Fr. Martin Laird, O.S.A., is a brilliant man and a great contemplative. He also serves as an extraordinary confessor for the Carmelites during his summer months in England. He is truly an expert in Carmelite spirituality. A little over a year ago he published a book on contemplative prayer that has received spectacular acclaim, including from Archbishop Rowan Williams and Archbishop Desmund Tutu (I find it ironic somewhat that someone as orthodox Catholic as Fr. Laird would have the first two reviews of his book written by Anglican archbishops, but both happen to be great devotees of Carmelite spirituality so it makes great sense). I just want to recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about contemplative prayer and deepening their intimate relationship with God. The book is Into the Silent Land: A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation. I also encourage you to check out the reviews at the Amazon site, as they should give you further indication of how powerful is this book.

Fr. Laird wrote one of my recommendations to the Augustinian Order. It is a privilege to call Fr. Laird my mentor, my teacher, and even my friend. I hope you all can learn even a fraction from this book as I have in my tutelage under him. I assure you that you will be greatly enriched by it.

Lessons in Patience

They met at 3 p.m. My nervousness was causing some serious nausea. Around 3:45 I began the Litany to St. Rita, since, if you don't know me, after the Blessed Virgin I count on her intercession above anyone, even St. Augustine. She's just special to me, and as she too was an Augustinian it seemed appropriate. By 4:30, no word. 5:30 came around, still no word, and I had to get ready to work the church carnival to be there at 6. I pulled in front of the church at 5:55, still no word. By 6:45 I text my vocations director, saying, "You just want me to throw up, don't you?" He responded by saying that pretty much he just needed to contact the provincial before he could call me. Protocol dictates that the provincial is informed of the decision before the applicant. A few minutes later, another text, informing me that it would probably be tomorrow. So now, here I am, knowing that a decision on my fate has been rendered, but they just cannot tell me yet. Alas, patience it is. Hopefully tomorrow I will know. Tonight I will be working straight through the night, which hopefully will keep me sufficiently distracted. I work the carnival again tomorrow (and every night this week) so once again, if I don't hear by 5:30 or so, I won't be able to update until around 11 or so. Thank you again all for your prayers.

It’s 3:22 p.m.

And I'm about to throw up…

Pixar Fulfills a Dying Wish

Jimmy Akin has this heart warming but sad story of Pixar, maker's of the move Up, fulfilling the last wish of a little girl dying of cancer. It's worth the read, but have tissues ready.

Vocation anxiety

I was thinking today, if by chance I do get rejected by the Augustinians, I feel so bad for Fr. Kevin, our vocations director. He and I are pretty close, and he's only a year older than me, and he has invested so much into me. Recently he was meeting with one of my best friends who is also discerning the Order, and he told him how proud he is of me. If after all this he has to call me to tell me I've been rejected, I just think that would be so hard for him – harder on him, in fact, than it will be on me. Anyway, hopefully that doesn't happen, but if it does, poor Fr. Kevin. I would imagine that would be one of, if not the most difficult things a vocations director could ever have to do.

Part 2 of 3 of the Amazing Story of Matt Miller

Yesterday I posted from the Philadelphia Inquirer Part 1 of 3 of the amazing story of Matt Miller, a triathlon athlete involved in a horrific accident, given next to no chance to live, and whose harrowing, heroic, and perhaps miraculous journey is truly remarkable. Here now is part two, with the series concluding tomorrow:

 

Driven to heal, and beat a deadline

By Michael Vitez

Inquirer Staff Writer

Second of three parts.

Four days after losing control of his bicycle and slamming - face-first - into an oncoming car, Matt Miller lay in the ICU at the University of Virginia Medical Center.

Nerves controlling the left side of his face didn't work, and he couldn't close his left eye.

His mouth zigzagged like a plunging stock-market table. Every one of his 32 teeth was lost, broken, or compromised.

His jaw was wired shut, and he couldn't talk.

"He looks like a person who's had a massive stroke," recalled Stephen Park, the surgeon who reconstructed Matt's face with titanium rods and screws. "You're drooling. You're not smiling. Any number of things make you look visibly deformed. It's a tough pill to swallow."

Matt still had no concept of any of this.

Nor would he remember what he typed on an "ICU talk device" that doctors gave him that day, Thursday, Nov. 6:

"Can I go to physics lab?"

Was Matt delirious or serious, or both?

That afternoon, his brother, Michael, heading back to Stanford Law School, told Matt, "I'll see you at Thanksgiving, no matter where you are."

Matt remembers thinking, "What are you talking about? Of course, I'll be home for Thanksgiving."

This was his first memory since the accident.

By Sunday, a week after he had crashed on an 85-mile triathlon training ride, Matt understood where he was, what had happened. He scribbled on a legal pad:

"I'm going home for Thanksgiving."

That would be in 18 days.

Not one doctor believed this possible.

Continue reading here...

Augustine Day by Day – The Upright of Heart

June 22

The Upright of Heart

Do you know who the upright of heart are? They are those who wish what God wishes. Therefore, do not try to twist God's will to your own but correct your will to that of God.

The will of God is a rule of conduct. By it you have the means of being converted and of correcting your evil ways.

-- Commentary on Psalm 93, 18

Prayer: Put to flight my foolishness, Lord, that I may know you. Show me the road I must travel that I may see you. Thus aided, I hope I shall do all you have commanded me.

-- Soliloquies 1, 1

Tradition Day by Day

June 22

We have been bought at a great price

Let us invest with the Lord what he has given us, for we have nothing that does not come from him: we are dependent upon him for our very existence. And we ourselves particularly, who have a special and a greater debt, since God not only created us but purchased us as well—what can we regard as our own when we do not possess even ourselves?

But let us rejoice that we have been bought at a great price, the price of the Lord's own blood, and that because of this we are no longer worthless slaves. For there is a freedom that is baser than slavery, namely, freedom from justice. Whoever has that kind of freedom is a slave of sin and a prisoner of death. So let us give back to the Lord the gifts he has given us; let us give to him who receives in the person of every poor man or woman. Let us give gladly, I say, and great joy will be ours when we receive his promised reward.

Paulinus of Nol

Saint Augustine’s Sermon on the Boat and the Storm

Yesterday's Gospel Reading for the Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time is one of my favorite Gospels for two reasons. One, because of the lovely interpretation given to it by St. Therese de Lisieux, and the other because of a sermon from St. Augustine on this very Gospel. For those who don't care to read his theological writings very extensively but would still like exposure to the great Church Father, his sermons are a great way to introduce yourself to him. Following is the text of Augustine's Sermon LXXV, on Matthew 14:24-33. Enjoy!

 

1. THE lesson of the Gospel which we have just heard is a lesson of humility to us all, that we may see and know where we are, and whither we must tend and hasten. For that ship which carries the disciples, which was tossed in the waves by a contrary wind, is not without its meaning. Nor without a meaning did the Lord after He had left the multitudes, go up into a mountain to pray alone; and then coming to His disciples found them in danger, walking on the sea, and getting up into the ship strengthened them, and appeased the waves. But what marvel if He can appease all things who created all? Nevertheless after He was come up into the ship, they who were being borne in her, came saying, "Of a truth Thou art the Son of God." But before this plain discovery of Himself they were troubled, saying, "It is a phantom. But He coming up into the ship took away the fluctuation of mind from their hearts, when they were now more endangered in their souls by doubting, than before in their bodies by the waves.

2. Yet in all this that the Lord did, He instructs us as to the nature of our life here. In this world there is not a man who is not a stranger; though all do not desire to return to their own country. Now by this very journey we are exposed to waves and tempests; but we must needs be at least in the ship. For if there be perils in the ship, without the ship there is certain destruction. For whatever strength of arm he may have who swims in the open sea, yet in time he is carried away and sunk, mastered by the greatness of its waves. Need then there is that we be in the ship, that is, that we be carried in the wood, that we may be able to cross this sea. Now this Wood in which our weakness is carried is the Cross of the Lord, by which we are signed, and delivered from the dangerous tempests s of this world. We are exposed to the violence of the waves; but He who helpeth us is God.

3. For in that when the Lord had left the multitudes, "He went up alone into a mountain to pray;" that mountain signifies the height of heaven. For having left the multitudes, the Lord after His Resurrection ascended Alone into heaven, and "there," as the Apostle says, "He maketh intercession for us." There is some meaning then in His "leaving the multitudes, and going up into a mountain to pray Alone." For He Alone is as yet the First-begotten from the dead, after the resurrection of His Body, unto the right hand of the Father, the High Priest and Advocate of our prayers. The Head of the Church is above, that the rest of the members may follow at the end. If then "He maketh intercession for us," above the height of all creatures, as it were on the mountain top, "He prayeth Alone."

4. Meanwhile the ship which carries the disciples, that is, the Church, is tossed and shaken by the tempests of temptation; and the contrary wind, that is, the devil her adversary, rests not, and strives to hinder her from arriving at rest. But greater is "He who maketh intercession for us." For in this our tossing to and fro in which we toil, He giveth us confidence in coming to us, and strengthening us; only let us not in our trouble throw ourselves out of the ship, and cast ourselves into the sea. For though the ship be in trouble, still it is the ship. She alone carrieth the disciples, and receiveth Christ. There is danger, it is true, in the sea; but without her there is instant perishing. Keep thyself therefore in the ship, and pray to God. For when all counsels fail, when even the rudder is unserviceable, and the very spreading of the sails is rather dangerous than useful, when all human help and strength is gone, there remains only for the sailors the earnest cry of entreaty, and pouring out of prayer to God. He then who grants to sailors to reach the haven, shall He so forsake His own Church, as not to bring it on to rest ?

5. Yet, Brethren, this exceeding trouble is not in this ship, save only in the absence of the Lord. What! can he who is in the Church, have his Lord absent from him? When has he his Lord absent from him? When he is overcome by any lust. For as we find it said in a certain place in a figure, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil:" and this is understood not of this visible sun which holds as it were the zenith of glory among the rest of the visible creation, and which can be seen equally by us and by the beasts; but of that Light which none but the pure hearts of the faithful see; as it is written, "That was the true Light, which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world." For this light of the visible sun "lighteneth" even the minutest and smallest animals. Righteousness then and wisdom is that true light, which the mind ceases to see, when it is overcome by the disordering of anger as by a cloud; and then, as it were, the sun goes down upon a man's wrath. So also in this ship, when Christ is absent, every one is shaken by his own storms, and iniquities, and evil desires. For, for example, the law tells thee, "Thou shall not bear false witness." If thou observe the truth of witness, thou hast light in the soul; but if overcome by the desire of filthy lucre, thou hast determined in thy mind to speak false witness, thou wilt at once begin through Christ's absence to be troubled by the tempest, thou wilt be tossed to and fro by the waves of thy covetousness, thou wilt be endangered by the violent storm of thy lusts, and as it were through Christ's absence be well nigh sunk.

6. What cause of fear is there, lest the ship be diverted from her course, and take a backward direction; which happens when, abandoning the hope of heavenly rewards, desire turneth the helm, and a man is turned to those things which are seen and pass away! For whosoever is disturbed by the temptations of lusts, and nevertheless still looks into those things which are within, is not so utterly in a desperate state, if he beg pardon for his faults, and exert himself to overcome and surmount the fury of the raging sea. But he who is so turned aside from what he was, as to say in his heart, "God does not see me; for He does not think of me, nor care whether I sin;" he hath turned the helm, borne away by the storm, and driven back to the point he came from. For there are many thoughts in the hearts of men; and when Christ is absent, the ship is tossed by the waves of this world, and by tempests manifold.

7. Now the fourth watch of the night, is the end of the night; for each watch consists of three hours. It signifies then, that now in the end of the world the Lord is come to help, and is seen to walk upon the waters. For though this ship be tossed about by the storms of temptations, yet she sees her Glorified God walking above all the swellings of the sea; that is, above all the principalities of this world. For before it was said by an expression suited to the time of His Passion, when according to the flesh He showed forth an example of humility, that the waves of the sea vainly raged s against Him, to which He yielded voluntarily for our sakes. that that prophecy, "I am come into the depths of the sea, and the floods overflow Me," might be fulfilled. For He did not repel the false witnesses, nor the savage shout of those that said, "Let Him be crucified." He did not by His power repress the savage hearts and words of those furious men, but in patience endured them all. They did unto Him whatsoever they listed; because He "became obedient to death, even the death of the Cross." But after that He was risen from the dead, that He might pray alone for His disciples placed in the Church as in a ship, and borne on in the faith of His Cross, as in wood, and in peril through this world's temptations as through the waves of the sea; His Name began to be honoured even in this world in which He was despised, accused, and slain; that He who in the dispensation of His suffering in the flesh, "had come into the depths of the sea, and the floods had overwhelmed Him," might now through the glory of His Name tread upon the necks of the proud as on the foaming waters. Just as we now see the Lord walking as it were upon the sea, under whose feet we behold the whole madness of this world subjected.

8. But to the perils of tempests are added also the errors of heretics; and there are not wanting those who so try the minds of them that are in the ship, as to say that Christ was not born of a Virgin, nor had a real body, but seemed to the eyes what He was not. And these opinions of heretics have sprung up now, when the Name of Christ is already glorified throughout all nations; when Christ, that is, is as it were now walking on the sea. The disciples in their trial said, "It is a phantom." But He giveth us strength against these pestilent opinions by His own voice, "Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid." For men in vain fear have conceived these opinions concerning Christ, looking at his Honour and Majesty; and they think that He could not be so born, who hath deserved to be so Glorified, fearing Him as it were "walking on the sea." For by this action the excellency of His honour is figured; and so they think that He was a phantom. But when he saith, "It is I;" what else doth He say but that there is nothing in Him which does not really exist? Accordingly if He showeth His flesh, it is flesh; if bones, they are bones; if scars, they are scars. For "there was not in Him yea and nay, but in Him was yea," as the Apostle says. Hence that expression, "Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid." That is, do not so stand in awe of My Majesty, as to wish to take away the reality of My Being from Me. Though I walk upon the sea, though I have under My feet the elation and the pride of this world, as the raging waves, yet have I appeared as very Man, yet does My Gospel proclaim the very truth concerning Me, that I was born of a Virgin, that I am the Word made flesh; that I said truly, "Handle Me, and see, for a spirit hath not bones as ye see Me have," that they were true impresses of My wounds which the hands of the doubting Apostle handled. And therefore "It is I; be not afraid."

9. But this, that the disciples thought He was a phantom, does not represent these only, does not designate them only who deny that the Lord had human flesh, and who sometimes by their blind perverseness disturb even those who are in the ship; but those also who think that the Lord has in anything spoken falsely, and who do not believe that the things which He has threatened the ungodly will come to pass. As though He were partly true, and partly false, appearing like a phantom in His words, as though He were something which is "yea and nay." But they who understand His voice aright, who saith, "It is I; be not afraid;" believe at once all the words of the Lord, so that as they hope for the rewards He promises, so do they fear the punishments He threatens. For as that is true which He will say to those who are set on the right hand, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;" so is that true, which they on the left hand will hear, "Depart ye into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his Angels." For this very opinion, by which men think that Christ's threatenings against the unrighteous and the abandoned are not true, has arisen from this, that they see many nations and multitudes innumerable subject to His Name; so that hence Christ appears to them to be a phantom, because He walked upon the sea; that is, He seems to speak falsely in His threats of punishment, because, as it were, He cannot destroy such numberless people who are subject to His Name and honour. But let them hear Him, saying, "It is I;" let them not therefore "be afraid," who believing Christ to be true in all things, not only seek after what He hath promised, but avoid also what He hath threatened; because though He walk upon the sea, that is, though all the nations of men in this world are subject unto Him; yet is He no phantom, and therefore He doth not speak falsely, when He saith, "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."

10. What then does Peter's daring to come to Him on the waters also signify? For Peter generally stands for a figure of the Church. What else then do we think is meant by, "Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water;" but, Lord, if Thou art true, and in nothing speakest falsely, let Thy Church also be glorified in this world, because prophecy hath proclaimed this concerning Thee. Let her walk then on the waters, and so let her come to Thee, to whom it is said, "The rich among the people shall entreat Thy favour." But since to the Lord the praise of men is no temptation, but men are ofttimes in the Church disordered by human praises and honours, and well nigh sunk by them; therefore did Peter tremble in the sea, terrified at the great violence of the storm. For who does not fear those words, "They who call thee blessed cause thee to err, and disturb the ways of thy feet?" And because the soul hath much wrestling against the eager desire of human praise, good is it in such peril to betake one's self to prayer and earnest entreaty: lest haply he who is charmed with praise, be overwhelmed and sunk by blame. Let Peter cry out as he totters in the water, and say, "Lord, save me." For the Lord will reach forth His hand, and though He chide, saying, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" wherefore didst thou not look straight forward upon Him to whom thou wast making thy way, and glory only in the Lord? Nevertheless He will snatch him from the waves, and will not suffer Him to perish, who confesses his own infirmity, and begs His help. But when they had received the Lord into the ship, and their faith was strengthened and all doubt removed, and the tempests of the sea assuaged, so that they were come to a firm and secure landing, they all worship Him, saying, "Of a truth Thou art the Son of God." For this is that everlasting joy, where Truth made manifest, and the Word of God, and the Wisdom by which all things were made, and the exceeding height of His Mercy, are both known and loved.