More Flies With Honey Than Vinegar

Opinion piece from the NCR on the subject of conversion:

"It is ironic but true: Attempts by Catholics to correct Protestant misunderstandings often do much more to strengthen Catholics’ faith than they do to change Protestants’ minds. The attempts by Catholics to understand what Protestants get right are what attracted Beckwith to the faith.

There are several reasons this is the case.

The most obvious is the cliché that honey attracts more flies than vinegar. Yet the deeper truth is that we can’t reach anybody we don’t love. Love and freedom are fundamental to our human dignity. We would never think of joining up with someone who has done nothing but criticize and belittle us. But if someone has respected us and appreciated what we’ve gotten right, then we’re more likely to listen when they offer to show us how to get even more right.

That’s because, ultimately, Catholics don’t convert people – the truth does.

To bring people to the truth, what’s necessary isn’t to expose the error of their ways – but to dispose them to seeing the splendor of the truth."

He Could No Longer Explain Why He Wasn’t Catholic

Here's Tim Drake's interview with Dr. Beckwith. I could relate to a lot of what he said regarding his upbringing in the Church during the 60's and 70's. Still, there are many other "cradle Catholics" who held to the faith and didn't jump ship because of kumbayaism. Those of us who left in the 70's, I suspect, didn't believe or know Jesus was there, really present at the altar. (I don't know what I was thinking when the priest held up the Sacred Host and said, "This is Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!) If I truly believed as a 14 year old in 1973 that Jesus was present in the Mass, no amount of bible study, warm fellowship, Chick Tracts or exciting contemporary praise and worship services could have dragged me away. I simply was not believing, not interested or both. No matter how watered down the homilies were, or the singing vapid, Christ was still made present in the Mass in the breaking of the bread. I just didn't see Him because I wasn't looking for Him.
(Just thought I'd point out, I think that Hm chord in the music above is supposed to be Bm. Now that I think of it, maybe that's why I left the Church after all....too many Hm chords I played in the folk Mass)

Thomas Howard on Genuflection

Thomas Howard wrote On Being Catholic in 1997. I just started reading it last night and took this from his section on genuflection. He is able to articulate the way Catholics embody the physical in their faith and worship better than I could, and believe me, I have been trying throughout this blog!

"The eternal . . . attires itself in the routine, the inauspicious, the anonymous. It does this because it reserves itself (it is so holy) for the pure eye of faith . . . The eye of faith alone can pierce the surface and see Reality. That is why Catholics genuflect when they come to church. They know that this is a holy place, and to be found on one's knee is a very good posture in such precincts. It says, ceremonially, not verbally, "I am a creature, and thou art my Creator. I am thy child and thou art my Father. I am a subject and thou art my Sovereign. And alas, I am a sinner, and thou art holy" . . . A Catholic has difficulty in grasping what it is that non-Catholics espouse that precludes this act. Surely we are not mere minds? Surely all of us bring physical gesture to bear on all situations (a wave, a nod, a kiss). Why is the physical excluded here? Surely to exclude it here and here alone is to imply a gnostic (disembodied), not a Christian (incarnational) state of affairs?"

Baptist Sunday School Teacher Discovers the Church

"I started bitterly regretting the many statements I had made, disparaging Catholics as not knowing what they believed, and as idolaters or worse."

Read here for the first part of this gentleman's journey and here for second part. I am still intrigued by these stories and find that each person has a somewhat different perspective. I particularly appreciate the fact that this blogger is a medical student with a PhD. The medical establishment is in great need of those with a thorough understanding and appreciation for the Gospel of Life.

"This process, which may be called discovering the Catholic Church, is perhaps the most pleasant and straightforward part of the business easier than joining the Catholic Church and much easier than trying to live the Catholic life. It is like discovering a new continent full of strange flowers and fantastic animals, which is at once wild and hospitable. To give anything like a full account of that process would simply be to discuss about half a hundred Catholic ideas and institutions in turn. I might remark that much of it consists of the act of translation; of discovering the real meaning of words, which the Church uses rightly and the world uses wrongly." GK Chesterton

The New Evangelism via The Internet

Check out this article from Amy Wellborn's blog regarding the fruit that Catholic internet sites are starting to bare.

Nick Hardesty from Phat Catholic is collecting Solid Catholic U tube videos on his site as well.

The Rosary Army folks are now producing short, humorous apologetics videos.

The other benefit beyond evangelism is the virtual community of converts/revert that encourage one another to press on in the faith. Prodigal Daughter and I found the Coming Home Forum to be a great source of comfort, information and camaraderie in the journey and have allowed us to help others along too!

I can't imagine what it was like when Frank Sheed of the Catholic Evidence Guild was standing on a soap box every Sunday in Hyde Park, London expounding the faith to whoever would hear.
Still, the best witness is preached by the lives we live "off-line."

"Preach the Gospel, and if you must, use words ." St Francis of Assisi

Catholic Basement Tapes 4 / The Sacrament of Confession

TJ and PD discuss the Sacrament of Confession and how it has become a blessing in their spiritual lives and marriage. It starts with a brief reading from Scripture, the Catechism as well as the Didache and St. Augustine's writings and ends with their personal testimony regarding the benefits of this sacrament. There is also an explanation regarding the meaning and purpose of penance.
It is non-scripted, but goes a bit long at 17 minutes. God bless and thanks for listening. Feel free to comment!

Hear the Podcast Here.

"Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen."

Pentecost: Birthday of the Church

"You will receive Power when the Holy Spirit falls upon you,
And you will be my witnesses to the ends of all the Earth." Act 1:8

Today the Church celebrates the solemnity of Pentecost. We remember how the Holy Spirit filled the disciples gathered in the upper room and gave them the power to spread the gospel and grow the Church. Almost 2000 years later the third person of the Trinity continues to bring hearts to Christ through this pillar and foundation he built. During the words of consecration of the Eucharist today at Mass, I again marveled that the same prayers described by St. Justin Martyr in the 2nd century continue to be prayed.

An Astonishing Requirement: Forgiveness

From the Catholicity Website:

Forgiving and Being Forgiven (2838)

This petition is not listed with the first three because of an astonishing requirement. Our sins won't be forgiven unless we forgive others. Our petition seeks a future good (our forgiveness). However, the word "as" shows that our own forgiving must happen now.

"And Forgive Us Our Trespasses..." (2839)

When we begged that God's name be holy, we also asked that we be made holy. Although clothed in baptismal grace, we do not cease to sin. In this new petition, we are as the prodigal son and the tax collectors. We begin with this confession because in Christ "we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins" (Col 1:14). In the sacraments, we have the efficacious sign that we received this forgiveness.

Forgiving Hearts (2840-2841)

Christ's mercy cannot penetrate our hearts if we have not forgiven those who sinned against us. Love is indivisible. We cannot love God (whom we cannot see) and not love others (whom we do see). By refusing to forgive others, our hearts become hardened to God's mercy. However, confessing our sins opens us to God's grace.

Jesus says explicitly "If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions" (Mt 6:14-15).

Jesus' Use of "As" (2842)

Jesus frequently used the word "as." He told us to "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48), to love "as I have loved you" (Jn 13:34), and to be merciful "as your Father is merciful" (Lk 6:36). To act as Jesus, the believer must vitally participate in the life and love of God. We must have the mind of Christ "forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave us" (Eph 4:32).

Jesus' Parable (2843)

The Lord ended his parable of the merciless servant by saying, "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart" (Mt 18:35). Sins are bound and loosed only "in the depths of our heart," where the Holy Spirit can turn injury into compassion and hurt into intercession.

To Enemies (2844)

This forgiveness must extend to enemies. Only hearts attuned to God's compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness proclaims to the world that love is stronger than sin. Only by love can men be reconciled with God and with one another.

To Everything (2845)

Divine forgiveness has no limits in forgiving "sins" (Lk 11:4) or "debts" (Mt 6:12). We are all debtors owing to no one, "except to love one another" (Rom 13:8). "God does not accept the sacrifice of a sower of division, but commands that he depart from the altar so he may first be reconciled with his brother" (St. Cyprian).

Atheist Gives to the Catholic Church

Robert Wilson, an 80 year old philanthropist and self described atheist gave 22.5 million dollars to the archdiocese of NYC for the education of inner-city children.

"Let's face it, without the Roman Catholic Church, there would be no Western civilization," Wilson said. "Shunning religious organizations would be abhorrent."

God bless this gentleman.

Katliks Always Addin' Stuff

In the aftermath of the Beckwith Incident (Frances Beckwith's conversion to Catholicism) I found a podcast on Dr. Albert Mohler's blog. He is the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and often sides with the Pope's writings on abortion and artificial contraception.
Dr. Bruce Ware, vice president of the Evangelical Theological Society was his guest to discuss Evangelical Identity in light of Beckwith's reversion. At one point in the discussion, Dr. Ware made the comment that Catholics added books to the bible. "The Roman Catholic Church adds to the Bible, not only books to the Bible, apocryphal books, but statements by the pope ex-cathedra and magisterial statements that are equally binding.." This ruffled my feathers a bit so I wrote to him and he kindly wrote back explaining to me the canon controversy:

"The apocryphal books (Jewish books written between 200 B.C and A.D. 200) were never considered canonical, even though some of them were sometimes place in the bindings along with the 66 books of the Bible.
In the Reformation time period, because of the controversy over the catholic doctrine of pergatory, the Roman Catholic Council of Trent (A.D. 1546) added the apocryphal books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, I and II Maccabees to their own Bible. In other words, the RC church had previously also held to the 66 books of the Bible as those inspired by God and canonical, and in this action at Trent, the RC church added these apocryphal books to their own Bibles."

I am not questioning Dr. Ware's integrity because he obviously believes what he wrote and said but I need to ask again: Did Catholics really add books to the bible at the Council of Trent in 1546? Is this issue something that can't be definitively settled? A discussion by Jimmy Akin found here goes into great depth to discuss the various Church councils (as early as the fourth century) which accepted the "apocryphal" books as canon . No Catholic apologist would deny that some early Church fathers disputed some of the books including St. Jerome, but at the end of the day, the "apocryphal" books had been firmly accepted by the Catholic Church a full 1100 years before Trent, and were not added in 1546 to justify the doctrine of purgatory.

Akin writes: Protestant patristics scholar J. N. D. Kelly remarks that in spite of Jerome's doubt, "For the great majority, however, the deutero-canonical writings ranked as Scripture in the fullest sense. Augustine, for example, whose influence in the West was decisive, made no distinction between them and the rest of the Old Testament . . . The same inclusive attitude to the Apocrypha was authoritatively displayed at the synods of Hippo and Carthage in 393 and 397 respectively, and also in the famous letter which Pope Innocent I dispatched to Exuperius, bishop of Toulouse, in 405" (Early Christian Doctrines, 55-56).

Isn't it more intellectually honest to state: "Catholics didn't add to the Bible, but accept a canon that Luther rejected?" (Whether or not you agree with the canon.)

Why is this distinction so important? If you listen to the original podcast Dr. Ware makes his statement in the same sentence that he says that Catholics added extra-biblical doctrines based on binding ex-cathedra papal/magisterial statements. Yes, we do believe in doctrines (assumption of Mary) that are not chapter/verse found in Scripture, but to tie that in the same sentence as "Catholics added books to the Bible" smacks of anti-Catholic rhetoric, IMHO.
The average non-Catholic (like I was) will nod their heads in agreement and wrongly conclude: "Yep, just like Dr. Ware says, Katliks always addin' stuff...."

Night of The Living Catechism

Great stuff from Greg and Jennifer of the Rosary Army!

USCCB Rebukes the Gang of 18

Recently a group of 18 Catholic democratic legislators from the US House of Representatives took it upon themselves to correct the Pope regarding his recent statements about the excommunication of the Mexico City Catholic politicians who voted for abortion. They implied that the Pope's stand against pro-abortion politicians "offend the very nature of the American experiment."

"The fact is that religious sanction in the political arena directly conflicts with our fundamental beliefs about the role and responsibility of democratic representatives in a pluralistic America," the 18 write; "it also clashes with freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution."

The USCCB responded on May 18th:

To suggest that the Church should not clearly voice its teaching and apply it in a pluralistic society is to attack freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The Catholic Church always will and must speak out against the destruction of innocent unborn children. The right to do so is guaranteed by the Constitution that all legislators are elected to uphold. Speaking and acting against abortion is not a matter of partisan politics. It is a matter of life and death.

The bishops urge all Catholics, especially those who hold positions of public responsibility, to educate themselves about the teaching of the Church, and to seek pastoral advice so that they can make informed decisions with consistency and integrity. Read the full statement here.

At a time when when the USCCB is frequently maligned by Catholics in the blogosphere, I am thankful for the stand they took here in going head to head with the Catholic politicians who felt that they could defy 2000 year old Christian morality in the falsely purported name of constitutional freedom. Thank God for these bishops, let's keep them in prayer as well as the Gang of 18 too. Pray that they will stop "experimenting" with us Americans and take the side of life.

Life Is A Good and a Sign of His Presence

At our pro-life group at Church we are studying John Paul II's Evangelium Vitae/The Gospel of Life. Why should we respect and promote life? Because life is itself a good that God created.
Here's a snippet from Chapter 3.

"Life is always a good. This is an instinctive perception and a fact of experience, and man is called to grasp the profound reason why this is so.

Why is life a good? This question is found everywhere in the Bible, and from the very first pages it receives a powerful and amazing answer. The life which God gives man is quite different from the life of all other living creatures, inasmuch as man, although formed from the dust of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7, 3:19; Job 34:15; Ps 103:14; 104:29), is a manifestation of God in the world, a sign of his presence, a trace of his glory (cf. Gen 1:26-27; Ps 8:6). This is what Saint Irenaeus of Lyons wanted to emphasize in his celebrated definition: "Man, living man, is the glory of God".²³ Man has been given a sublime dignity, based on the intimate bond which unites him to his Creator: in man there shines forth a reflection of God himself."

This should be required reading for every Christian. The entire encyclical can be found here. Thank God for popes like JP2 and B16. Between the two of them they have left us enough writings to last a lifetime of study. Some predict that the waves created by JP2's Theology of the Body alone are yet to be felt and will make their presence known for the next hundred years of Church history.

Pizza Box Preaching to Keep Kids Katholic

This past Sunday, Prodigal Daughter and I were invited to speak at a parish near Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania . Catholics call these "witness talks" contrasted with "giving our testimony" in evangelical parlance. (Becoming Catholic is learning a whole new language, but that's for another post.) We were asked to speak to the confirmation class about our conversion/reversion story. We joined the kids in the all-purpose room after the Mass and a dinner. In our diocese, revert stories are not all that common (yet) and it encourages "cradle Catholics" to understand why we left and why we returned. I always am humbled speaking to these folks because they remained faithful to the Catholic faith despite some perilous times in the past 25 years, while I bailed. I believe I was showing what the Church calls my vincible ignorance, I just didn't know what and who I was leaving.

Our witness talk is not "ecumenical" and our goal is to encourage the listeners to stay Catholic. We try to make sure the host knows this before we come to speak. I have since learned to do this because last year I was asked to give a "pep talk" to an entire Catholic High School and ended up offending most, if not all, the faculty and students!! I was told to encourage the students in their faith and I made the wrong assumption that all the listeners were Catholic. I had 7 minutes to tell my reversion story. Needless to say, it didn't go well and later I was accused of "hating" protestants and they wondered if I wasn't going to join another church after this latest stopover. Whew! Maybe it was my joke about Luther getting his idea about "faith alone" while in the "tower." (Hey, I thought it was funny, no one laughed) Well, it turns out, many of the faculty are not Catholic as well as a fair amount of the students at this Catholic HS. So my lesson was: learn who the audience is, what they want to hear and never do a 45 minute talk in 7 minutes!

So back to the Confirmation Class talk. Prodigal Daughter and I gave our talk and we emphasized the tremendous treasure they have in the Catholic Church. We explained how the sacraments are opportunities for God to reach down and "hug them" and give His grace to them and change their lives. We emphasized the need for a personal relationship with Jesus in all of this and talked about how the Pope last year encouraged us all to personally know Christ. Most of all, we emphasized the way they can have Jesus in the Eucharist. I always choke up when I tell them how I had been trying to get close to Jesus for the past thirty years and tried many different churches but He was there all the time in the Catholic Church. I said to them, "I tried the rest, now I found the best!" Just like the Pizza Box says. I told the kids that they don't have to try all the other religions out there because Prod and I did and we found that the Church is the Best!! "Trust us, we saved you the trouble." Perhaps, if I had heard a "Pizza Box Preach" as a young Catholic, it wouldn't have been so easy to just walk away if I knew what I was leaving.

Lord Jesus, I ask that you fill these kids with your Holy Spirit at their confirmation in such a way that they will never desire anything but You in the Holy Eucharist and in their hearts. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit we ask this, Amen.

Book Meme

I was tagged by Beka from The Road Less Traveled for a book meme. Well, being the genius I am, I had to look up what a meme is. From Wikipedia, source of all truth...
"The term "meme" (IPA: /miːm/, rhyming with "theme"), coined and popularized in 1976^[1] by the biologist Richard Dawkins, refers to a "unit of cultural information" which can propagate from one mind to another in a manner analogous to genes (i.e., the units of genetic information)."

Well here goes my meme:

Three non-fiction books everyone should read:

The Bible (started reading it in 1973, haven't stopped yet, Catholics are encouraged to read it daily) To be Ignorant of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ-St. Jerome

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (been reading it now for three years, wow it talks about every issue!)

Mere Christianity by CS Lewis (Read it in college, need to re-read it)

Three books of fiction everyone should read:

Chronicles of Narnia ( I read these to my children, I always cry when Aslan reaches the Stone Table)

I must confess from 1980 to 2002, was a "black hole" of literature for me. I was so immersed in studying and practicing medicine, I did virtually no pleasure reading or theological study except for the "best selling Christian bookstore" type books . Sometimes, I believe my gearing down from my practice of medicine gave me the time to finally reflect about my life and what I really believe, which lead me back to the Church.

Three authors everyone should read:

CS Lewis (If he lived just a bit longer would he have converted? The thought just nags at Catholics!)

John Paul 2 (How could one man be so smart?)

Thomas Howard (Elizabeth Elliot's Brother. A convert, poet and thinker)

Three books no one should read:

Left Behind by Tim LaHaye (no comment needed)

Intended for Pleasure by Ed Wheat (Wish I hadn't read it before my first marriage, gives the wrong impression to young Christian couples, especially by separating the unitive and procreative aspect of marriage)

Faith That Prevails by Smith Wigglesworth (heretical stuff my late wife and I read after she was diagnosed with lung cancer)

I tag Pilgrimsarbour(In college he read when he didn't have too!), Godfearin' Fiddler and my new bloggger friend MaryMajor.

A Guild Guitar, A Folk Mass and A Full Circle

The guitar above is my 1970 cherry-stained mahogany Guild D-25 acoustic guitar purchased used in a music store in Morristown NJ in 1972 by a 14 year old Dylan wanna-be. I used this guitar playing in folk Masses in high school and college as well as our Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at Moravian College. Though I left the Church in my heart in 1973, my parents still required my attendance so playing guitar in the folk Mass was one way that made it less painful.
If I had to go to Mass, at least I could be doing something I liked. I didn't receive the Eucharist by the grace of God, something inside me told me I shouldn't.

This was my main performing guitar and I wrote and recorded many songs on it (including Footsteps) until I finally saved up enough money to buy a new Martin D41 in 1993. This was a belated wedding present from my late wife that I never purchased until 6 months before she died. We were married for almost 12 years but I never felt I could justify the purchase though she had given me a check for it on our wedding day! I still kept the Cherry Guild using it from time to time for alternate tunings but mostly played my Martin(s).(You can't buy just one!)

Prodigal Daughter and I do some speaking for Catholics at youth groups, confirmation classes etc, and recently were asked to provide music for a Mass and speak to the confirmation candidates about our journey from and back to the Catholic faith. I almost said no because I hadn't played in Mass since 1978! I knew only contemporary worship songs from my years as a worship musician in the charismatic churches and had much apprehension about playing for Mass again. I chose three songs, changed the words a bit to reflect Eucharistic theology (Sorry Michael W. Smith) and practiced them for several days with Prodigal Daughter.

The woman who invited us to speak was a girl I went to college with who always remained a faithful Catholic. I had a research lab next to hers in the biology department and some late nights were spent discussing, the Kreb cycle , unrequited love and occasionally spirituality. I remember thinking what a sweet and wholesome girl this was, feeling badly that she was Catholic and didn't know the Lord! (Sorry KM) I hadn't spoken to her since 1979 but she heard through a Christian bookstore that I had returned to the Church and looked me up.

As we prepared to leave the house to go up to her Church yesterday, on the spur of the moment, I decided to bring my old Guild Guitar that I last played in a Catholic Church in 1978. As we sang during the Mass for the Introit, Communion and Recessional, my heart was in my throat as I looked down at the Tabernacle. Jesus was redeeming the years that I had rebelled against this Church that I have now come to love. Thank you God for you kindness and mercy to allow me to offer praise to you with the old guitar of my youth. I have come full circle.

"If He Only Had a Brain...."

Dr. Robert Koons just announced his upcoming conversion 5/26/2007 to Catholicism. He is a professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas. He wrote a paper in July 2006 called a Lutheran's Case for Catholicism here.

"I began to realize that many Lutheran and Protestant polemicists have been guilty of two fallacies: a straw-man version of contemporary Roman Catholic teaching, and a cherry-picking of quotations from the Fathers..."

But alas, the bashing has begun. Here's a few select quotes from a Lutheran blogger:

"So it really is intellectual suicide on the order of what geocentrist fundamentalists ask of people.

". . . In other words, to be a Catholic is to have so put your mind to death that no matter how ludicrous or self-contradictory the Vatican’s declarations are, you simply trust with absolute faith that the pope is being inerrantly inspired by God."

Is he implying that if he (Dr. Koons) only had a brain....Maybe he wouldn't have converted?

Toto, we are definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Welcome Home Dr. Koons. You will be in our prayers.

First the Thames, Then The Tiber

Tony Blair will convert to Catholicism after his resignation as Prime Minister. He has been going to Mass with his wife who is Catholic for years and reports of his pending conversion are not a surprise. Apparently there are some anti-Catholic laws from 1829 still in place that would have made it impossible for an elected leader to be Catholic.
St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher were both martyred by King Henry the Eighth for their stand on the indissolubility of marriage and loyalty to their faith. They would be excellent intercessors for Tony Blair as he crosses the Tiber. I suspect that his conversion may be the result of their prayers already.

Father,
You confirm the true faith
with the crown of martyrdom.
May the prayers of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More
give Mr. Tony Blair the courage to proclaim his faith
by the witness of his life.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Won't Get Fooled Again

Are you tired of hiring Protestant university faculty that later “Pope-Out” on you? Do you live in dread fear that the brilliant young mind you just gave tenure for your Medieval Studies Program is a "latent Papist?" Do the recent “high profile” defections from academic evangelicalism to Catholicism keep you up all night as you mentally review all of your recent faculty hirings? Are you starting to spend your free time in the HR department going over the files of those recent faculty hires trained at Catholic universities and high schools? Are you beginning to wonder if the initials Ph.D really mean Papist Homing Device?

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Happy Ascension Thursday!

We just got back from evening Mass where we celebrated the ascension of our Lord into Heaven 40 days after his resurrection on Easter Sunday. I thought about the apostles and the feelings they may have had as they saw their Lord and friend for the last time ascending into heaven. They may have felt they would never again have that sweet communion with Jesus that they shared on earth.

"And when he had said these things, while they looked on, he was raised up and a cloud received him out of their sight.

These momentary feelings of awe, wonder and loss were tempered by the fact that He told them that He would never leave them or forsake them. Two thousand years later I take great comfort in the fact that indeed He never has left us but has remained with us in the Eucharist. As the evening sun streamed through the stained glass windows above the altar I was so thankful that though He is ascended, He still gives himself to us through the sacrifice of the altar as the early Church believed and practiced and took great comfort in.

Justin Martyr said in 155 AD: For we do not receive these as common bread and common drink; but just as Jesus Christ our Savior, having been made flesh by the word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have learned that the food over which thanks has been given by the prayer of the word which comes from him, [see 1 Cor 11: 23-26; Lk 22; 19] and by which are blood and flesh are nourished through a change, is the Flesh and Blood of the same incarnate Jesus.

Our Pope is an International Best Selling Author!

I don't suspect this will come close to the popularity of the "Purpose Driven Life" but you never know.

"A new book by Pope Benedict XVI, arriving in U.S. stores today, is already an international best seller.

Jesus of Nazareth has sold more than 1 million copies since it was released in Italian, German and Polish versions last month. The book will be published in 20 languages.

Jesus of Nazareth is the first book Benedict has written since becoming pope. He had published widely as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before his election two years ago."

In the book's preface, the pope notes that its contents are not official church teaching but merely an "expression of my personal search 'for the face of the Lord.' Everyone is free, then, to contradict me."

Gotta' love that humility.

Salvation "Outside" The Church

In the aftermath of the Beckwith Incident, I have noted a recurrent discussion in the BSphere regarding salvation "outside" the Church and the anthemas of Trent, etc.
Mark Shea has a nice piece here.

"Catholics do not say, and never have said, that they are the sole possessors of revelation. Indeed, the Church does not “possess” revelation at all. Revelation possesses her; and that revelation, who is Christ, has, she teaches, committed Himself fully to her. “God,” said the great Protestant writer George MacDonald, “is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.” On the one hand, God is delighted when the most miserable sinner takes the smallest serious step toward the love of God and neighbor. On the other hand, He will not be completely happy until every last person He came to save is completely perfected in the image of Christ and overflowing with perfect love for God and neighbor. This same pattern is supremely evident in the Catholic Church’s understanding of her relationship with her members, whether in full or very imperfect communion. For the Church is happy to recognize even the smallest commonalities she may share, not only with other Christians, but even with non-Christian religious traditions and the great philosophical traditions of paganism. The Church can even find things to affirm in virtuous atheists. But at the same time, the Church is acutely aware that there is a real difference between imperfect and perfect unity and so she, too—easy to please, but hard to satisfy—labors toward that day when all the members of the Body of Christ will be perfected in faith, hope, and love.

Till that day, we know where the Church is; we do not know where she is not."

Jerry Falwell Dead at 73.

This morning, the Rev. Jerry Falwell passed into eternity at 73 years of age. He was most known for his Moral Majority which galvanized evangelical voters to elect Ronald Reagan in the 1980's.


"Requiem aeternam dona ei , Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei . Requiescat in pace. Amen." "Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him . May he rest in peace. Amen."

More On Icons

MMF posted this comment on my blog regarding the recent point on Billy Graham on icons. She makes an excellent point regarding history and the development of iconography:

I'm very fond of the Grahams and actually participate in some of their causes, such as Operation Christmas Child, which is wonderful!

I get your puckish point with the picture, but our Protestant friends can't get the point without one additional important historic fact. Before the reformation most people in the world could not read. They simply had no education, could not read or write, and certainly did not have religious instruction and crusades (I mean the public gatherings type.) They were too busy breaking their backs in the field trying to get some turnips to grow so their children wouldn't starve. The reformation conveniently came along with the printing press and more widespread ability to read "among the masses." Back when the church was one, it was a VITAL part of the transmission of faith to have paintings, stained glass, statues, illustrated Psalters (for the wealthy) and architecture that "told the story" because that was the only means by which so many of the poor and unread were educated in the faith! I know people like to put on the Catholic church that it's all the pomp and idolatry, but they could not be more wrong. Their own Christian ancestors learned their faith by being able to go into a Church whose very art was for instruction to the poor. The statue of Mary was the way to instruct about the Incarnation of Jesus. Parables and saints in their stories are in the window's glass, and painted on plaster to explain who they were and what they did. The stations of the cross are the obvious example. All of the imagery in the Church came about because that was the means to truly be "Catholic" and instruct those who could not read or write, or attend education. I grind my teeth when "experts" don't understand how human beings lived for the first 1500 years after Christ and then try to smack down the Church that provided the art that gave them the very faith that they can now criticize. Grrrr!
LOL. :-)

Thanks MMF

Idol Worship Transcends Denominational Boundaries

Nashville Christians congregated with fellow worshipers at the unveiling of the graven-image of Rev. Billy Graham in June 2006. Our non-Catholic brethren have begun to see the importance of honoring others with 3-D material representations of a living thing (graven image).
I know these brothers and sisters are not worshiping the image, but if an alien landed in Nashville on that day, do you think they could get the wrong impression? (Especially if they were Bible-Only Aliens from a distant Sola System)

Hey, I love Billy Graham by the way, and admire his walk with Christ and his ministry with an almost perfect track record. I saw him live at the Urbana 1979 Intervarsity Mission Conference. He was a friend to JPII.