Guerilla Good News

Deacon Greg Kandra offers this poignant video of a 'flash mob' proclaiming the Good News ... in Beirut. Go here and follow his instructions (once the video starts, go through the arrow, then click the 'CC' for subtitles). Too cool, and, uh, yes, alleluia!

St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe

“Courage, my sons. Don’t you see that we are leaving on a mission? They pay our fare in the bargain. What a piece of good luck! The thing to do now is to pray well in order to win as many souls as possible. Let us, then, tell the Blessed Virgin that we are content, and that she can do with us anything she wishes.”

- St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, when first arrested

Ordination of Reverend Jason Stone June 5, 2010

The Most Reverend J Peter Sartain, Bishop of Joliet blesses soon to be Father Jason Stone

Ann and I were honored to have been invited to the ordination of 5 young men into the priesthood yesterday. 

There was a great outpouring of love, prayers and respect from families, friends and parishioners at The Cathedral of Saint Raymond Nonnatus in Joliet, IL for these young men.  We are friends with fellow SFO member Mary Stone who is Father Jason's mother.  Father Jason Stone has been assigned to the parish at the Cathedral serving with Father Brad Baker.  Please hold these newly ordained priest in your prayers.

Bella Star Inspires Brit Youth

And speaking of actors:

LONDON, AUG. 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- This week, the actor Eduardo Verastegui will join some 1,500 British youth in a prayer festival.

A press release from the bishops' conference of England and Wales announced that the leading man of the movie "Bella" will be speaking at the upcoming Youth 2000 festival, a 5-day retreat that begins Thursday.

This annual program aims to provide a "gateway" back into the Church for young people, age 16-30, who no longer practice their Catholic faith.

The press release noted that this festival unfolds in the style of World Youth Day, with talks, testimonies, dynamic prayer and worship...More>>

In 6 Months It'll Feel Normal

Okay. It's coming, it's more in keeping with ancient texts, it's our opportunity to show we're not fuddy-duddy sticks in the mud. Via New Advent here is what you need to know about the upcoming changes in the Mass.

Teaching Chivalry in the Daily Grind

Lydia McGrew at What's Wrong with the World asks, Will we be allowed to do anything for boys and men? The Franciscans of the Immaculate with their Summer Encampments and the year-round 24/7/365 work of Youth Apostles are seeking to answer her question in the strong, manly work and spirit of Saint John Bosco. (The priest pictured at the Youth Apostles Institute website is Fr John "Jack" Peterson, Director of YA and my personal catechist prior to my conversion.)

Chivalry isn't the clashing of broad swords and memorizing a code of chivalry alone; it is "doing the right thing," lovingly and cheerfully, in the daily grind. As, of course the Four Mass'keteers know.

Prophet of the Future

For the record, Father Dwight Longenecker on similarities between the cultural meltdown of the fifth century, and today:

A friend who returned from a visit to France last week was enlivened by his experience of the new ecclesial communities there. He met members of the Community of the Beatitudes -- a mixed community of men and women, married and celibate, who live a life with apostolic work and evangelization, Carmelite spirituality, and beautiful liturgy.

He met members of Communion and Liberation, visited with monks from the Community of St. John, and heard about the work of the Emmanuel Community -- another Catholic community that lives a radical discipleship, working to renew the Catholic Church in France.

When I lived in England I got to meet the members of these new communities, plus many more, through my network in the Catholic Church and by traveling in Europe. In many ways, what is going on in the Catholic Church in Europe is reminiscent of events in Italy in the fifth century.

At that time, the great Roman Empire was crumbling under its own moral, financial, and cultural decay. The barbarians were invading unchecked, the infrastructure had broken down, the armies could not be paid, and the mighty glory of Rome was in tatters.

In the midst of this social decay, the young St. Benedict was sent from his patrician home to study in Rome. Within a year he was disgusted by the laziness, immorality, and despair of his fellow students. He dropped out of college and went to live as a hermit in Subiaco. Eventually he founded small communities of men and women living a simple life of prayer, work, and study. From those base communities the great monastic institutions grew, and from these centers of prayer, work, and learning there flowered the great civilization of medieval Christendom.

In our own time of societal decay, it is important to try to get into Benedict's mindset, first remembering several vital facts: First of all, Benedict was a layman. He saw a need and took the initiative to start his communities. While he did nothing contrary to the teachings of the Church, and did not rebel against the rightful authority, he also did not sit around waiting for a priest or bishop to give him a job. With the grace of his baptism he simply got on and did what he was called to do. Details in his famous rule suggest that Benedict was somewhat cautious in his relationship with priests and regarded them as necessary, but not necessarily trustworthy.

It is also important to understand the monastic relationship to culture. A monk sees the decaying culture and believes the only possible response is withdrawal. He despises any Christianity that compromises with the decadent society, and he does not think "dialogue" is either desirable or possible. He does not believe that prophetic imprecations and predictions of God's judgment on the immoral culture are useful. Like St. Anthony of the Desert and the first monks in Egypt, the traditional monk believes that withdrawal from the world is the only way to save the world.

The third thing to remember about Benedict is that he probably never anticipated the great resurrection of learning, culture, and spirituality that would flow from his decision to live simply in the Italian hills following a life of prayer, work, and study. In other words, he was faithful where he was with what he could do. Whether it came to something or not wasn't his to decide. The fact that his movement eventually produced phenomenal accomplishments in virtually every area of human achievement, was the foundation for a new civilization, and changed the world forever was not something he either anticipated or predicted ...

Read all …

Hope amid the ruins

The countryside of Tolkien and the south country of Belloc are gone. The workmen of Belbury are ubiquitous, slovenly, leering, and filthy-mouthed. The inns are torn down. The shrieking, bizarre foes of Christendom - and of Catholic truth - accost her relentlessly and gleefully, the darlings of mainstream media cameras.

Where is the place for men - and sons - to stand among the ruins?

At the Altar
And there, kneel,
Pledging fealty and fidelity
To the Once and Future
King of kings and Lord of lords.
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The portrait of the young American male in 2007 - James Howard Kunstler

And you wonder, Aramis, why is it so important to pass on the faith? Really now, wouldn't it be best to just let our kids enjoy their youth time, growing up free to make their choices as they go?

YEAH RIGHT!

This guy has a bit of a clue you should pick up on when reading the article - mimesis. Your kid is going to imitate someone(s) or something(s) so who do you want that to be?

tip to Mark over at Suicide of the West

Conflicted and Divided Catholics need a strong voice or does the majority soon it all go away?

Everyplace I read I do not see where the majority of Catholics agree with this position, however I think that Fr. Corapi delivers a very strong and powerful message.



It is always so easy to point fingers at "I Won" or others for who we disagree yet the body of Christ continues to be fragmented. It seems to me that this scandal at ND points to our huge problem, that of not passing on the faith. Clearly we in the US are divided, conflicted and prefer choice and therefore struggle to understand what it means to be Catholic, even on such a critical issue as life - no wonder that we are doing such a minimum or modest job of passing on the faith.

Light shines above this present darkness

Recent events have left nearly all Christians flabbergasted by the swiftness of "progressive" moves against life and its sole remaining on-the-books supporter, the Catholic Church. It is a move to remove and silence the voice of faith and morals, as Cardinal Pell recently noted, or, in the case of Connecticut lawmakers, an attempt (pulled for the moment) to cede ecclesial control afforded bishops and priests to the (almighty) powers of state government.

More omnipotently, the president has now co-opted the federal income taxes paid by the faithful to do the work of Moloch, one or two steps removed from the Freedom of Choice Act he arrogated to sign into law before Planned Parenthood. His agenda is clear - to "do away with culture wars," because they are "so 90's" (read: silence foes of the "progressive" agenda once and for all). To what end?

The proponents are sincere. I do not doubt their sincerity. Nor do I doubt their thinking, their logic, their determination, or their belief that they are doing it all for a good reason, even for the good of all people.

What I beg to differ on with President Obama and all who are supporting and working so hard to enact against faith and morals that are NOT "so 90's" - they are so 32 A.D. - is this: their presuppositions.

What we as people of faith in general and Catholics in particular presuppose is diametrically opposed to their presuppositions. And the difficulty is that neither of us can prove our a priori first principles through which we view the same world, same evidence, same data: they are faith statements, and ever shall be.

What we as followers of Jesus Christ say, however, is that the vast heft and glorious weight of wisdom and Tradition vouchsafed in the Magisterium of Mother Church far, far outshines and outweighs the puny, proud secular and humanist knowledge, news and information recently garnered by the advocates of "progress", utopian change, and modern-day Gnostic pipe dreams.

We're in for a huge battle. Our enemies think, naively and proudly, their recent ascension to stately power make them nearly invincible.

We know differently. And that is why we practice the virtues, pray constantly, teach our children, and trust in the perichoretic power of the Most Holy Trinity in and through the sacramental presence of the Catholic Church which Our Lord promised would prevail against all attacks till He comes again.

Their father ...

... behind this apparently so unapproachable farmer's son, who sent his children to daily Mass, lay concealed a frequently lonely yet basically always soft heart. He was a nourishing father in a double sense. For the primary spiritual care from which the children's vocations developed was his own; we may say today, it was a historic contribution.

"My brother was a server in the church," recounts Georg, "and I played the organ." They experienced all that as "quite normal, healthy, robust religious piety." Because of their father's seriousness and strictness, of course, the intimate relationship with God and Mother Church was not something considered secondary; rather, it was the central thing, the lifeblood of the family. Parents' notions of bringing up children frequently produce the opposite effect when they are applied with too great a rigor. It is obviously the secret of a loving heart when the father's attitude does not frighten off the children or nearly drive God right out of them but, rather, is attractive and constructive. "Religion was in a very manly and absolute way the fundamental theme of his life", is how his son describes him. And he adds, "We always sensed the goodness behind his strictness."

...

Their father made books available to his youngest child, too, first a child's prayerbook, then a children's missal, then a German-Latin "Schott" for children (song book), finally the Sunday "Schott", and eventually a complete daily missal. Joseph now saw worship as a "celebration." There were especially the "angel offices" on the cold, snowy winter days, which he loved. Or the Gethsemane devotions and the celebration of the Resurrection, with all the embellishments, the pictures, the music, the special drama, which made it possible to open the door to a world that usually remains hidden from man, hurried and distracted as he is.

Peter Seewald captivates the reader on many different levels in his book Benedict XVI - An Intimate Portrait.

His portrayal of Joseph Ratzinger, Sr., Pope Benedict XVI's father I found most interesting and since we often talk about fatherhood I thought I would share a little of Seewald's research.

Lady Aramis gave the book to me for Christmas however I was unable to start in on it till after she read it for she became so taken by Pope Benedict XVI's story that she couldn't put it down - she has grown 100% in her admiration of him since reading the book. Those of the Roman Catholic faith will like it but those not may actually get more out of it. His is a great story.