Ubi Petrus

Over at Pontifications, they’ve made a phenomenal collection of posts by Michael Liccione on Authority and Doctrine here. If you haven’t taken the time – and it will take some as it’s a rather long posting – to read this you really should. If you’ve taken to allowing yourself to vacillate on issues because you think the Church position will really come around to yours, you need to read this series to better understand the language the Church uses to make Her statements so that you may properly understand just their intended permanancy. Even if you think you know it all already, it’s a great refresher for the mind.

As one who loves to read and learn, I was caught immediately by a quote from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis (a gift from my grandmother), which I’ve just started reading. It’s a good reminder to those of us that love to learn that it is more important to live virtue than to learn it. Wisdom is God’s gift to us, not our gift to God.

To be learned and able to discuss the Trinity will get you nowhere if you do not have humility, and therefore displease the Holy Trinity. Lofty words neither save you nor make you a Saint; only a virtuous life makes you dear to God. It is better to experience contrition than to be able to define it. (Ch. 1.3)

If you do, maybe you should read the below Zenit article. According to the study it references, 71% found they had no friends with the desire to lead a life consecrated to service, and many of them felt they didn’t have sufficient support in their path. The time for supporting vocations “from afar” is over, folks. These folks need active and positive support, and it also needs to come from those they consider their peers.

Praying for “someone else’s son” to become a priest just isn’t going to cut it, if you catch my meaning. I know that’s a hard thing for those who are very concerned about having grand children, but God is less than impressed with people who knowingly convince people to stray from the path He has laid out for them. Just think of the sheer joy of receiving absolution at the hands of your own child, as he becomes a channel for Christ’s great mercy. Just…think about it.

Survey Says Budding Vocations Need Support
One in 10 Youths Feel Call; Forget it Within Months

ROME, JULY 20, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Lack of support seems to be one of the main reasons why young people do not answer the call to consecrated life.

On Tuesday, the Italian newspaper Avvenire published an article entitled “Young People and Vocations,” based on a survey, conducted by the Italian institute Eurisko, of one thousand young people between 16 to 29 years of age.

The study showed that 10 youths out of 100 feel at some point a call to the priesthood or religious life (male and female), but the majority abandon the idea after a few months.

Among the reasons for so many failed vocations is that 71% of young people said they had no friends who had the desire to consecrate themselves to the Lord.

Twenty-nine percent felt called after a personal experience, such as a visit to a monastery, a pilgrimage or a spiritual retreat.

Avvenire lamented that the data reflected the fact that abandonment of the call was followed above all by “the abandonment suffered by young people.”

Another reason for failed vocations is that young people feel they must give up too many things, for example, marriage, to which is added the fear of loneliness.

The Italian newspaper highlighted young people’s need for someone to support them, as a recent study of the survey revealed that 70% of the young people interviewed could not mention a man or a woman who represented a point of intellectual reference.

Thus, the newspaper concluded, “There is a crisis of vocations also because there is a crisis of credible guides.”
ZE06072001

Could it be? Could the Federal government actually produce something positive and common-sense for us on the abortion front? According to this AP story the Senate is prepared to pass legislation making it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion except in the case of a life-threatening condition.

Of course, the beloved Sen. Feinstein is opposed saying, “We should not criminalize the grandparents or clergy members to whom a teen in trouble might turn for help.” Naturally. And we shouldn’t criminalize them if they take the child to any other elective surgery which could kill them, right? Wait, that’s already a criminal act.

“This is clearly not an issue divided on pro-life or pro-choice lines,” said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., the bill’s original sponsor. “There is broad and consistent support to preserve the rights of parents.” One step closer, we can pray, to preserving the rights of the unborn (or, in another twist of phrase, the “pre-born”). One hopes the recent decision by the Supreme Court to not rule against the New Hampshire parental notification law had some positive bearing on this measure.

…or start typing your letter, depending on your persuasion. I’m told some people do still hand-write letters. According to this story over at Fox News, Amnesty International has raised the ire of several groups over a proposal to make it the organization’s policy that abortion is a fundamental human right. While the currently debated proposal apparently limits the terms to cases of rape and life-threatening pregnancy complications, anyone who has thought for even a minute on this topic realizes that is the top of a very steep, very slippery slope. I infer from the story they are also considering declaring access to artificial contraception to be a fundamental human right as well. One wonders if our dear Pope Paul VI had any idea how prophetic his words in Humanae Vitae would prove to be.

So, regardless your position on Amnesty International, now is the time to convince them that abortion is not a fundamental human right. Now, while the question is still on the table, rather than fighting that Sisyphian rock up the mountain of presumption. Remember, you don’t have to support Amnesty International (and there are offered many valid reasons not to) to support their doing the right thing. Find your local chapter, coordinate with your local Pro-Life organization, and convince them that murder is never a fundamental human right. And while you’re at it, pray for those who would force the situation to be otherwise. Orate, fratres!

From this AP story, we find the following nugget:

But a day after criticizing Israel for “disproportionate” strikes against civilians, U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland accused Hezbollah of “cowardly blending” among Lebanese civilians.

“Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending … among women and children,” Egeland said. “I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don’t think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men.”

Maybe it’s just me being hopeful, but is it possible the UN got a backbone for even a split second here? I know their track record of being even-handed in this situation is less than perfect, but maybe the fact most of the Arab states have backed away from Hezbollah is allowing a little sanity to set in. Unfortunately, I’m not sure it’s possible for even pressure from the UN itself to dissuade Hezbollah from its intended path at this point in history. Tomorrow is, indeed, another day.

You know, sometimes God has other plans for you. I was all set to quote a particular passage from Pope Benedict’s book, Principles of Catholic Theology, when I continued reading and came across one that struck me in a completely different way. Perhaps some day I’ll come back to the original quote. This quote struck somewhat close to home, as I often feel I haven’t enjoyed the glory of my faith in the right way.

That the word evangelium means “glad tidings” is one of those bits of information that remains in nearly everyone’s memory from religious instruction or from a sermon. All to ofte, however we compre this attractive designation – with melancholy, if not with bitterness – with our own daily experience of Christianity and the impressino made on us by Christians, with the joylessness, the cramped scrupulosity, the narrowness of spirit that seems to us to be the most telling refutation of what Christianity claims to be. This feeling that Christianity is opposed to joy, this impression of punctiliousness and unhappiness is surely a more likely explanation of why people leave the Church than are any of the theoretical problems the faith may pose today.

Ouch. That’s a hard way of saying, “try to live each day with a smile, for nothing can be that bad if we indeed have Christ on our side”.

With a hat tip to Fr. Jim at Dappled Things, there’s a great piece on the Latin Liturgy Association, its goals and some at times poignant personal stories here. I agree with Fr. Jim on the selection of relevant quotes too:

“We don’t oppose Mass in the vernacular. But we don’t believe that it should be to the exclusion of our whole religious heritage. Ideally we would like Latin Mass to be available at all parishes each Sunday,” he said. “The Latin Mass is our heritage, and too many Catholics have been deprived of that.”

Over at Pontifications there’s a good discussion going on the question of whether lay ministers (lectors, EMHCs) should wear some type of vestment. Yours truly has submitted that it can be a good idea, provided the vestments do not become a stumbling block to either the ministers or the congregation. One of these days I’ll learn to be more careful in the words I choose.

Hmpf. I finally got the joy of being comment spammed, so I’ve turned on word verification for comments. Being a software engineer I should have known better than to not do so right away. I guess that’s what I get for being a little too trusting…