North of the Shire

Because of circumstances, mostly of my own making, I ended up going to an evening Mass in a local parish Church I had never been into before. Over the recent years I have heard rumors and characterizations of this parish and had been told by some that “I wouldn’t like it.” This not as a particular point about me, so much as a generalization about how different that Church is compared to my regular parish. Continue Reading »

Last evening I heard a caller as I was flipping through my Sirius channels on the Catholic Channel on Father Dave Dwyer’s Busted Halo Show, who was discussing what a Catholic is, or who’s really Catholic.
The caller suggested that one person had said that if a person cannot adhere to this, this and this, right on down the line. Basically he was drawing a sort of legalistic picture. In contrast he was talking about a certain flexibility that people are not all on the same page at the same time.

Father Dave had a good answer. Continue Reading »

The covenants have five common characteristics;

-the mediator
-the promises
-the curses
-the memorial
-the form the people of God take on as a result of the covenant

Each one follows this pattern and in it we can see God’s plan for mankind develop as we track the form;

Adam & Eve – the marriage bond, husband and wife

Noah – the extended family bond

Abraham – the form is of a tribe

Moses – the form is the holy nation of priests

David – a national kingdom

Jesus – the worldwide kingdom, Jesus’ Church

This then is the real history of mankind, despite all of the history that we think that we create and is so important. And it is the summary and thread of the entire Bible.

Carl Olsen at Ignatius Insight has another great post analyzing an article from Amy Sullivan in Time Magazine on the priestly celibacy “debate.”

Is it just me or does it seem that the most vocal advocates for removing the celibacy requirement for Roman Catholic priests are usually women? I don’t want to be uncharitable but is that because a man that does not primarily want to have sex is an unknown and dangerous quantity for at least some women? Does that make them uneasy because they cannot then know that they have men all figured out? Does it in some way pique them as women that they basically have nothing to offer such a man because he sees the Church as a higher order than womankind as such?

Does that passage from St. Paul irritate them as well where he says that a married man is concerned with the things of the world, how he can please his wife, whereas a celibate man can concern himself only with the things of God, and how to please him?

I’m just asking.

Former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe commented, “’It is a sign of the Britain we are in. If you do not subscribe to the prevailing orthodoxy you might as well be living in the Soviet Union.”

Well ma’am, we are not far behind you in North America.  Which proves that in so-called free societies, the most intolerant of philosophies is the philosophy of tolerance.

Here’s the rest of the story.

This was produced leading up to the 2008 elections and rings as true these months later as it did at that time;

 It has been almost six years since I entered the Catholic Church through baptism and confirmation and first holy communion, all in one day.  As I pause to reflect on that period, and it seems so short, I can say I have learned a lot more, and today I am more sure than ever that I am home.

Father Mitch Pacwa’s sermon in my previous post reminded me of the place that I was before I became Catholic.  I knew that I could only worship God, and that my salvation could come only through Jesus Christ.  There was a period of time when I had examined a number of the various philosophies and pagan religions and had seriously considered them.  Now I can hardly imagine why.  But God held me back until I came to the point where I realized that the teaching of my youth, namely that Jesus Christ was the way, the truth and the life, was still true and I could no more toss that aside than I could fly to the moon.

Continue Reading »

Scripture from the Mass of June 18, 2009

First Reading;

2 Corinthians Chapter 11

1 If only you would put up with a little foolishness from me! Please put up with me.

2 For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

3 But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ.

4 For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough.

5 For I think that I am not in any way inferior to these “superapostles.”

6 Even if I am untrained in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.

7 Did I make a mistake when I humbled myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge?

8 I plundered other churches by accepting from them in order to minister to you.

9 And when I was with you and in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way.

10 By the truth of Christ in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.

11 And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!

Psalm 111;

1 Hallelujah. I will praise the LORD with all my heart in the assembled congregation of the upright.

2 Great are the works of the LORD, to be treasured for all their delights.

3 Majestic and glorious is your work, your wise design endures forever.

4 You won renown for your wondrous deeds; gracious and merciful is the LORD.

7 The works of your hands are right and true, reliable all your decrees,

8 Established forever and ever, to be observed with loyalty and care.

Matthew 6;

7 In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words.

8 Do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “This is how you are to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread;

12 and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;

13 and do not subject us to the final test, but deliver us from the evil one.

14 If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

15 But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.

Here is  transcript of Father Mitch Pacwa’s sermon from EWTN, (I’ve highlighted a particularly poignant passage from it.)  Continue Reading »

Here’s a passage from St. Luke’s gospel that I heard mentioned today. It is the part where Simeon, the whom Luke describes saying “the Holy Spirit was upon him”, sees the baby Jesus and recognizes the Messiah that he has waited for and was promised he would see before he died. Continue Reading »

At least for now. I am going to leave it alone for a bit and see if it grows on me.

(It took some serious editing of the header.)