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Monday, March 31, 2003


Posted by Christopher at 12:29 AM

In his writings while in prison, Bonhoeffer once remarked that even the Christian must live today quasi Deus non daretur -- as if there were no God. He must not involve God in the perplexities of his everyday life, but must assume responsibility for himself for the course of that life. Personally I would prefer to state this thought in exactly the opposite way: in practice, even one for whom the existence of God, the world of faith, has grown dim, should live today quasi Deus esset -- as if God really exists. He should live subject to the reality of truth, which is not our creation, but our mistress. He should live under the standard of justice, which is not just a product of our own minds, but the norm by which we ourselves are measured. He should live subject to the love that awaits us and that loves even us. He should live under the challenge of eternity. In fact, one who consciously lets himself be formed by this concept will see that it is the only way by which the human race can be saved. God -- and he alone -- is our salvation. . . . And one who -- even if perhaps at first only hesitantly -- entrusts himself to this difficult yet inescapable as if, who lives as if there were a God, will become ever more aware that this as if is the only reality. He will percieve its justification, its inner strength. And he will know profoundly and indelibly why Christianity is still necessary today as the genuinely good news by which we are redeemed.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
From Co-Workers of the Truth
(Ignatius Press, 1992)

Sunday, March 30, 2003


Posted by Christopher at 11:19 PM

Recently I bought Co-Workers of the Truth, an anthology of daily meditations by Cardinal Ratzinger, much of it derived from German texts and unpublished homilies from the 1970's-80's.

Powerful reading to begin the morning with. Here is an excerpt that has stuck with me for a while now:

I am always moved by those reports fron concentration camps and Russian prisons, where men were without the Eucharist for weeks and months at a time and did not look to themselves to provide it, but celebrated a Eucharist of desire. In such a Eucharist of desire, they were made ready in a new way for the Lord's gift and received it anew whenever a priest was able to find somewhere a piece of bread and a little wine. It is in this frame of mind and with appropriate humility and patience that we should approach the question of intercommunion. Where unity does not exist, it is not for us to act as though it does exist. The Eucharist is never a means at our disposal; it is the gift of the Lord, the central mystery of the Church herself, which we cannot use as we will. Intercommunion is not a gesture of personal friendship, but of insisting on the unity of the one Church and of waiting humbly until God himself confers it. Instead of experimenting and robbing the mystery of its greatness and demeaning it to the status of a means in our hands, we, too, should learn to celebrate the Eucharist of desire, and, united in prayer and hope, to find unity with the Lord in a new way.

-- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [Eucharistie - Mitt der Kirche, pp. 30ff.]



Posted by Christopher at 8:23 PM

"When all is said and done, there are only two philosophies in life. One is first the feast, then the hangover; the other, first the fast and then the feast. Deferred joys purchased by sacrifices are always sweetest and most enduring."

-- Fulton J. Sheen

Saturday, March 29, 2003


Posted by Christopher at 12:32 PM

  • Wall Street Journal editor William McGurn addresses characterizations of the Holy Father as a pacifist in a recent editorial, and questions whether the Vatican's current opposition to the war in Iraq reflects "not simply a disagreement over Iraq but a strain in John Paul's thinking that sits uncomfortably with 1,500 years of Catholic teaching on the legitimate use to force".

    Archbishop Renato Martino, head of the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice, has stated that the classic just-war teaching of the Church may be headed the way of the death penalty, namely, that nations have recourse to alternatives to war that "make it all but impossible to justify in practice." Such revisions to just-war doctrine, says McGurn, provokes further questions: "Namely, how President Bush can be held in breach of moral criteria that (a) are in the process of being radically revised and (b) really can't be met anyhow."

    Archbishop Martino characterized the American response to Iraq as replying with "bombs to a people that has been asking for bread for the last 12 years." The Vatican role, by contrast, would be to play the "the Good Samaritan who kneels to tend the wounds of an injured, weak nation."

    Which begs a question: If the biblical Good Samaritan had arrived on the scene a little earlier and stumbled on the robbers instead of their victim, what would have been his obligation?

  • Weekly news analysis from Zenit.org focuses on the issue of civilian casualties, noting what has been readily apparent from the beginning: the sharp and increasing contrast between the efforts of the United States to minimize civilian casualties and the deplorable actions of Iraqi troops (using women & children as human shields, locating military sites next to (or in) schools & hospitals, etc.).

    Also demonstrating Iraqi's notable lack of concern for civilian welfare are reports of Iraqi militia firing on fleeing civilians or those which imply a potential use of chemical weapons by Iraqi troops (which is sure to have an inevitable damage on civilian bystanders).

  • "How do you admit you were wrong? What do you do when you realize those you were defending in fact did not want your defense and wanted something completely different from you and from the world?" -- Thanks to Bill Cork for linking to the detailed testimony of Assyrian Christian minister Ken Joseph, Jr. -- the "human shield" who changed his mind whom I referred to in an earlier post.

  • Finally, in what demonstrates the necessity of reading multiple sources of information on this conflict, a recent CNN story on alleged resurgence of Iraqi nationalism seems to be challenged by the following report from Essam Al-Ghalib, war correspondent for arabnews.com:
    When we finally made it to Safwan, Iraq, what we saw was utter chaos. Iraqi men, women and children were playing it up for the TV cameras, chanting: “With our blood, with our souls, we will die for you Saddam.”

    I took a young Iraqi man, 19, away from the cameras and asked him why they were all chanting that particular slogan, especially when humanitarian aid trucks marked with the insignia of the Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society, were distributing some much-needed food.

    His answer shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did.

    He said: “There are people from Baath here reporting everything that goes on. There are cameras here recording our faces. If the Americans were to withdraw and everything were to return to the way it was before, we want to make sure that we survive the massacre that would follow as Baath go house to house killing anyone who voiced opposition to Saddam. In public, we always pledge our allegiance to Saddam, but in our hearts we feel something else.”

    Different versions of that very quote, but with a common theme, I would come to hear several times over the next three days I spent in Iraq. The people of Iraq are terrified of Saddam Hussein.

    -- "Terrified of Saddam Hussein"
    Sunday, March 30, 2003.

    Thursday, March 27, 2003


    Posted by Christopher at 11:43 AM

    Catching up on some reading of Crisis Magazine's archives, I came across an article "Lost In Translation: How the New Mass Translation Will Affect You" by John Burger on the proposed changes in the document Liturgiam Authenticam (The Authentic Liturgy), a relatively new set of norms and principles for translating the liturgy into the vernacular, issued by the Holy See on March 28, 2001. According to the article:

    The instruction aims to fix less-than-inspiring Mass translations by requiring that they be more faithful to the Latin text promulgated by Rome. . . . Depending on how the bishops' conferences of the United States implement Liturgiam Authenticam, Catholics may be hearing some radical changes at Mass-changes that could wake up a Church."

    Given that we're approaching the two year anniversary of the publication of this document, does anybody have a clue as to when, how soon, or even if such norms will be implemented by parishes in the United States?

    Saturday, March 22, 2003


    Posted by Christopher at 11:07 PM

    I am hesitant to blog about the war or to turn this blog into a regular commentary on current events in Iraq (a task sufficiently accomplished by blogsofwar). However, there was a rather large anti-war demonstration in Manhattan today, and being in midtown at the time I had the opportunity to observe the march for a fair part of the afternoon, and in response I find myself compelled to explain why I am unwilling to join many of my friends in protesting this war on Iraq.

    Regarding the "no blood for oil" signs (which I saw in abundance), I will concede that the U.S. probably harbors economic interests in Iraq, and this is to be expected. This may very well be a motivation of countries who oppose the United States and Britain as well. However, economic interests do not preclude a genuine concern for the well-being of the Iraqi people and a desire to liberate them from repression under Saddam Hussein -- a job I believe we ought to have accomplished more than a decade ago.

    One furious activist tried to sell me a pamphlet announcing the arrival of World War III, informing me that our troops were "currently massacring innocents in Iraq". Granted, innocents have been inadverdently killed (as usually happens in a war), but by all appearances our military is taking numerous precautions to minimize civilian casualties.

    Moreover, images of Iraqi civilians greeting troops and literally dancing in liberated towns suggest that many Iraqis may respond to the action of the United States with as much appreciation as Afghani citizens welcomed the overthrow of the Taliban last year.This, at least, was the conclusion of one former "human shield" returning from Iraq:

    A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the border today with 14 hours of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth Joseph, a young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to reality." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."

    United Press International 3/21/03

    But getting to the core of this post -- I saw numerous signs denouncing Bush as a war criminal (why the overwhelming animosity towards Bush? I don't recall this level of protest when Clinton sent troops to Somalia and Bosnia). I was suprised and appalled to see signs proclaiming "Bush = Hitler" and "Bush = The real Butcher of Baghdad". I find this equasion utterly incoherent, and I wonder how it is possible for protestors to arrive at such a conclusion, especially after reading and hearing about the atrocities committed by Saddam and his sons.

    I have no illusions about the number of things that are wrong in this country, and share some of the protestor's concerns regarding policies of the present administration (especially the infringement and violation of civil liberties occuring since 9/11) -- but, contrary to what I saw today, there is absolutely no comparison to the perpetual horrors that the Iraqi people have endured under Hussein. To the protestors who portrayed America and Iraq as being "morally equivalent", I'd like to point out that:

    In response to such accounts of human rights abuses, I find myself asking is it enough to simply disarm Iraq and remove a potential threat against the United States with weapons of mass destruction? Or, perhaps, are we not obligated to do something more? Back in 1998, UN Human Rights rapporteur Max Van der Stoel said that human rights violations in Iraq "are one of the worst since World War Two -- comparable in gravity to crimes of the Khmer Rouge (in Cambodia) or Idi Amin (in Uganda)."

    In the face of the evils that occur under Saddam, refraining from implementing a "regime change", and leaving the people of Iraq to suffer, seems to me to be nothing less than an offense against justice. And yet, in what I simply fail to understand, refraining from such action appears to be the precise wish of some (perhaps the majority?) of the protestors I saw today -- and to that I respectfully voice my dissent.

    Additional Resources

    P.S. Since the posting of this blog yet another "human shield" has returned from Iraq having changed his perspective.

    Friday, March 21, 2003


    Posted by Christopher at 12:05 AM

    I probably won't be devoting much time to blogging on the current war in Iraq -- there are enough Catholic bloggers addressing this topic, in words far more eloquent than I. Suffice to say I believe we are doing the right thing and that our actions are justified.

    Please pray for our troops, and their families, and for the people of Iraq and all those involved. Please pray for our president and military commanders and all those calling the shots in this conflict, that God will grant them wisdom in their decisions, a genuine desire to wage a 'just war' -- and bring us to a swift and sure victory with minimal casualties on all sides.

    Thursday, March 20, 2003


    Posted by Christopher at 12:40 AM

    ARGH! -- I accidentally deleted my blog

    I've managed to re-create it; and fortunately I had the past three months archived -- substantial portions of which have been reposted. Please accept my apologies for any confusion this may have caused on the part of my readers.

    As this blog was recently recognized by Gerard Serafin and several other notable Catholic bloggers, there's no time like the present to make an introduction. This blog will consist chiefly of notes and musings of a rather eclectic nature -- not necessarily my own and mostly culled from wiser folks than I.

    Regarding the title, it was inspired in part by a passage by Cardinal Ratzinger on the role of the Christian:

    . . . it is time that the Christian reacquire the consciousness of belonging to a minority and of often being in opposition to what is obvios, plausible, and natural for that mentality which the New Testament calls "the spirit of the world." It is time to find again the courage of nonconformism, the capacity to oppose many of the trends of the surrounding culture . . .

    The Ratzinger Report, p. 37.

    My hope is that you will find something here that is of benefit intellectually, and perhaps even spiritually. God bless.



    Posted by Christopher at 12:37 AM

    "Why doesn't the Pope do something"?

    That's a question that's posed to the RFC on numerous occasions. I think that some traditionalists would very much like to see a mass-excommunication of American Catholics and perhaps would even celebrate a return to the days of burning heretics at the stake. In my search for an answer to this question, I came across an essay by Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong, who provides a reason for the more cautious and diplomatic response on the part of the Vatican:


    The role of the pope is much different, ecclesiologically and strategically, from the role of a local bishop. Pope John Paul II is most definitely effecting positive long-term change by forcefully teaching truth, promulgating the Catechism and various reforms, of schools, of architecture, of moral teaching, etc. The damage of liberalism has been so profound that one must look at cures in terms of decades and generations, not "right now" (as in a certain perfectionist and utopian mindset). A major reason (if not the sole one) for this strategy, I firmly believe, is to avoid schism, because schism is generally longer-lasting (and arguably, even more damaging) than even heresy.

    I think John Paul II's and the Church's primary concern is for souls. There is no easy choice. If one acts with principle but excludes a corresponding prudence or foresight as to result (as Luther and Calvin did), then one barges ahead and slashes away at all the heretics and de facto schismatics. The pope wants the same result that people who ask this question do: how to have an orthodox Church and how to retain as many souls in the Church (and for ultimate salvation) as possible. He thinks it will take a long time. His critics (or those who are simply bewildered) often think the solution is instant and simple: slash and burn!

    From "Why Doesn't Pope John Paul II DO Something
    About the Modernist Dissenters in the Catholic Church?"

    by Dave Armstrong.



    Posted by Christopher at 12:33 AM

    Practical Guidance from Cardinal Newman

    From my personal Lenten reading:

    When, then, a man complains of his hardness of heart or weakness of purpose, let him see to it whether this complaint is more than a mere pretence to quiet his conscience, which is frightened at his putting off repentance; or, again, more than a mere idle word, said half in jest and half in compunction. But, should he be earnest in his complaint, then let him consider he has no need to complain. Every thing is plain and easy to the earnest; it is the double-minded who find difficulties. If you hate your own corruption in sincerity and truth, if you are really pierced to the heart that you do not do what you know you should do, if you would love God if you could, then the Gospel speaks to you words of peace and hope. . . .

    . . . Christ says, "Watch and pray;" herein lies our cure. To watch and to pray are surely in our power, and by these means we are certain of getting strength. You feel your weakness; you fear to be overcome by temptation: then keep out of the way of it. This is watching. Avoid society which is likely to mislead you; flee from the very shadow of evil; you cannot be too careful; better be a little too strict than a little too easy,˜it is the safer side. Abstain from reading books which are dangerous to you. Turn from bad thoughts when they arise, set about some business, begin conversing with some friend, or say to yourself the Lord's Prayer reverently. When you are urged by temptation, whether it be by the threats of the world, false shame, self-interest, provoking conduct on the part of another, or the world's sinful pleasures, urged to be cowardly, or covetous, or unforgiving, or sensual, shut your eyes and think of Christ's precious blood-shedding. Do not dare to say you cannot help sinning; a little attention to these points will go far (through God's grace) to keep you in the right way. And again, pray as well as watch. You must know that you can do nothing of yourself; your past experience has taught you this; therefore look to God for the will and the power; ask Him earnestly in His Son's name; seek His holy ordinances.


    Knowledge of God's Will Without Obedience
    Parochial & Plain Sermons



    Posted by Christopher at 12:31 AM

    Mel Gibson & Spiritus Christi

    Corpus Christi in Rochester, NY was once a Catholic parish with formal ties to the Church, howbeit home to some radical & scandalous innovations: inclusion of women in Eucharistic celebration at the alter; welcoming and endorsement of monogomous of gay and lesbian couples; dispensation of the Eucharist to Protestants, etc. Concerned Catholics raised a protest but the bishop neglected to do anything -- and so, responding to appeals to Cardinal Ratzinger, the Vatican finally attempted to remedy the situation by removing the pastor from office and firing/replacing most of the parish leadership team.

    The rebellious portion of this parish, now excommunicated, broke away to create their own spiritual community fashioned according to their own particular brand of Catholicism. They now call themselves 'Spiritus Christi', affiliated with the 'United Catholic Church'/'Old Catholic Church' (You can read more about the history of Spiritus Christi here).

    When I read about traditionalist Catholics like Mel Gibson funding the private creation of a church for his traditional congregation, to house their own personal conception of Catholicism over and against that of the present Catholic Church, I find that a reasonable cause for concern -- and I couldn't help but think of Spiritus Christi.

    To me, Mel Gibson's parish seems like a mirror-image of 'Spiritus Christi' in Rochester, NY -- at the other end of the ideological spectrum perhaps, but born of the same motivation: "I don't like what's going on in my diocese, my parish, my Church, so, by golly, I'm going to fashion my own."

    In either case, both the "progressive" Catholics of Spiritus Christi and the traditionalist Catholics of Mel Gibson's parish are quite convinced that they embody the true representation of what the Catholic Church *ought* to be over and against the present Church.

    Yes, one can voice legitimate complaints about Vatican II and the new mass, but I do not think creating a new church and separating yourself from the jurisdiction of your bishop as a proper solution. Exclusivism cannot be the answer.

    When is dissent appropriate? When is criticism of the Pope and the Councils of the Church appropriate? If it is appropriate, where do you draw the line?

    There is a great lecture by Msgr. Arthur Calkins that I read recently on tcrnews.com [Traditional Catholic News], given at a Latin Mass Magazine conference which seems to be of particular relevance to this discussion, and which I'd like to close by quoting from -- on the chief temptation of the traditionalist movement (exclusivism):

    One of the problems thus far, at least in this writer's humble opinion, is that too often traditionalists have stated their case in 'black and white', 'life or death' terms, and have not seen themselves as part of a greater movement in favour of 'a return to mystery, to adoration, to the sacred',and to the common patrimony of the Roman Catholic Church.

    Now, what do I mean by that? I wouldn't want you to have to read some of the things I am obliged to read. For instance, someone petitions his bishop for the traditional Latin Mass and in support of his argument says 'we want the 'true' Mass, not the 'new' Mass'. This is very unfortunate language that really undermines the faith because we must recognise that the sacrifice of Jesus is the sacrifice of Jesus in every rite that the Church has officially authorised. We may have our preferences, which is all well and good, but let us not assault and attack. What has happened in extremist hard-line literature is that the new Mass, almost always described with all the abuses imaginable, is demonised, so that the only way to preserve the faith is with the old Mass. This is not a healthy Catholic attitude and unfortunately it is present in all too many traditionalist circles.

    Now I have indicated that the traditional Mass movement needs to be seen in a wider context because there are ever more groups growing up that want a return to the sacred, as [Ratzinger] points out, to the transcendent, and to our liturgical patrimony. And I believe there is more than one way to do it. At the same time I am convinced that the more the traditional Latin Mass is celebrated, the more this can be a contribution to the whole Church, to a kind of reinfusion of our patrimony back into our veins. Undoubtedly, the celebration of the traditional Mass can have a very good effect on the way the new Mass is celebrated. As Dom Gerard Calvet, the Abbot of Le Barroux, points out, the priests who come to the abbey to learn how to celebrate the traditional Mass tell him that it improves the way in which they celebrate the new Mass.

    This is part of what I mean by seeing things in a wider context. In fact, too many traditionalists have become exclusivists; for some it is even a matter of the 1962 Missal or nothing, and unfortunately, this has become, by and large, a propaganda tactic of the schismatic Society of St. Pius X. Their priests will often tell the faithful that, if they are unable to attend the traditional Mass every Sunday, they shouldn't go to any other Mass in the meantime because 'the new Mass is an abomination before God'. Thus, in the name of preserving the Catholic faith, they undermine it.

    Happily, and tactfully, Cardinal Ratzinger urges those who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition to see the broader picture without fearing that the classic Roman liturgy will be taken away from them. In fact, I am convinced that, if they would embrace with open minds and open hearts the perspectives that the Cardinal presented in that conference, they would gain a more ready hearing from their bishops and make greater strides in gaining what they seek, and thus enriching the Church.



    Posted by Christopher at 12:26 AM


    • For inquiring minds, James Akin (of Catholic Answers) has written an excellent FAQ on Lent.
    • Fr. Jeffrey Keyes is leading an online Lenten retreat with the writings of St. Gaspar del Bufalo.
    • Catholic Information Network has some incredible online resources for Lent -- including meditations by Ronald Knox, Cardinal John Henry Newman, St. Louis de Montfort (among others).



    Posted by Christopher at 12:09 AM


    Recently I bought Co-Workers of the Truth, an anthology of daily meditations by Cardinal Ratzinger, much of it derived from German texts and unpublished homilies from the 1970's-80's.

    Powerful reading to begin the morning with. Here is an excerpt that has stuck with me for a while now:


      I am always moved by those reports fron concentration camps and Russian prisons, where men were without the Eucharist for weeks and months at a time and did not look to themselves to provide it, but celebrated a Eucharist of desire. In such a Eucharist of desire, they were made ready in a new way for the Lord's gift and received it anew whenever a priest was able to find somewhere a piece of bread and a little wine. It is in this frame of mind and with appropriate humility and patience that we should approach the question of intercommunion. Where unity does not exist, it is not for us to act as though it does exist. The Eucharist is never a means at our disposal; it is the gift of the Lord, the central mystery of the Church herself, which we cannot use as we will. Intercommunion is not a gesture of personal friendship, but of insisting on the unity of the one Church and of waiting humbly until God himself confers it. Instead of experimenting and robbing the mystery of its greatness and demeaning it to the status of a means in our hands, we, too, should learn to celebrate the Eucharist of desire, and, united in prayer and hope, to find unity with the Lord in a new way.

      -- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [Eucharistie - Mitt der Kirche, pp. 30ff.]



    Posted by Christopher at 12:06 AM


    An article written "towards a clearer understanding of the Just War tradition," by a Catholic professor, philosopher and distinguished member of the RFC. Good reading for Christians of all denominations, regardless of their stance on the present situation in Iraq . . .

    Wednesday, March 19, 2003


    Posted by Christopher at 11:58 PM

      "There is at the back of all our lives an abyss of light, more blinding and unfathomable than any abyss of darkness; and it is the abyss of actuality, of existence, of the fact that things truly are, and that we ourselves are incredibly and sometimes most incredulously real. It is the fundamental fact of being, as against not being; it is the unthinkable, yet we cannot unthink it, though we may be sometimes unthinking about it; unthinking, and especially unthanking. For he who has realised this reality knows that it does outweigh, literally to infinity, all lesser regrets and arguments for negation, and that under all our grumblings there is a subconscious substance of gratitude . . . there is something much more mystical and absolute than any other modern thing that is called optimism; for it is only rarely that we realize, like a vision of the heavens filled with a chorus of giants, the primeval duty of Praise."

      G.K. Chesterton, as quoted in
      Wisdom & Innocence: A Life of G. K. Chesterton
      by Joseph Pearce.



      Posted by Christopher at 11:57 PM

        "Unless one supposes that all human powers are irremediably subverted by the Fall, that there has been a complete corruption of human nature, there will always be some instinct in that nature, however weak, which is oriented to reality and therefore oriented to these basic qualities of reality: truth, goodness, unity, and beauty. Also there is, of course, always the possibility that the grace of God is at work in uncovenanted ways in human hearts and situations, so that those instincts can be assisted by grace to respond to the divine presence in the Creation. This is what it ultimately comes down to."

        Dialogue with a Dominican. An interview with Aidan Nichols, O.P.
        Touchstone, Nov. 2000.

        Thursday, March 06, 2003


        Posted by Christopher at 12:25 AM

          Nowadays we forget that human life is a battle . . . Not for nothing did the Church Fathers take over the pagan Greek doctrine of the cardinal virtues, because in prudence and justice, in fortitude, temperance and self-discipline, they saw remedies against concupiscience, which continues to affect the baptized.

          Today, when the ravaging of human life is so great . . . it is essential to promote the simple virtues that slowly but surely can restore a human life. We are once more in a situation like that of Paul, who in a pagan culture had to remind the new Christians of the elementary human virtues. They are the humus of humanity, the ground-soil of the humanum, upon which the live of the divine virtues, the truly Christian life, can be grown. "Whatever is true, whatever his honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Phil 4:8 CCC 1803).

          This struggle is unending as long as there is a world. It is the praeparatio Ecclesia, the gathering up of men in the cause of the good, in the cause of community. For only goodness unites; sin splits and separates. As Origen says, "where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and disputes. Where there is virtue, however, there also is harmony and unity, from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers." It is Christ who is our hidden guide and teacher in this struggle, the magister interior, the inner teacher of our hearts, the light that enlightens every man (cf. Jn 1:9). This is how he gathers up his people, prepares the way for His Church.

          Cardinal Christoph Schönborn.
          Loving the Church

        Wednesday, March 05, 2003


        Posted by Christopher at 12:27 AM

          Hell is a state of mind . . . and every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind -- is, in the end, Hell. But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakeable remains. Milton was right. The choice of every soul can be expressed in the words "better to reign in Hell than serve in heaven." There is always something they insist on keeping, even at the price of misery.

          There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God "thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "thy will be done." All those that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no hell. No soul that seriosly and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek, find. To those who knock it is opened.

          C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce.


        There are many books by C.S. Lewis that I can recommend, but a particularly good one for the Lenten season is The Great Divorce, a fantasy narrative in which sinners are offered a bus ride from Hell to Heaven and offered a chance at the latter -- if, but for a moment, they can relenquish their ego and set their love upon something higher than themselves.

        It's a penetrating psychological study of the many ways in which our preoccupation with our thoughts and desires leads us to forego a relationship with the divine, one of the most hard-hitting books I've ever read. I would count it as one of my personal favorites, second only to The Screwtape Letters.

        Monday, March 03, 2003

        Lenten Reading 
        Posted by Christopher at 11:28 PM

        According to the Times, Cardinal Ratzinger has some interesting Lenten reading:

        "I will be reading Night by Elie Wiesel, about the experience of Auschwitz; the new book La Promesse, by Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, and on the relationship between Israel and the Christian world; finally, a book by the Cistercian historian, Gerhard Winkler, Bernhard von Clairvaux, a magnificent presentation and interpretation of the thought and spirituality of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux."

        As for myself, in case anybody's interested:

        • Selections from Parochial & Plain Sermons by John Henry Newman for the Lenten season.
        • Heart of the World, by Hans Urs von Balthasar -- which I have read several times through, and find myself returning to again during this time of year (one of my personal favorites).

        I would be curious to know what others are reading -- if they plan to engage in spiritual reading during the Lenten season? (Feel free to comment).

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