New seminar at U.D.

Great news!

Instead of teaching Western Theological Tradition at U.D. this summer, I will be teaching a seminar on Religion & Science.  It will be cross-listed as an undergrad and grad evening class.

Sharpen those pencils, kiddies!

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Can climate science restore its rep after the Global Warming Hoax?  I hope so.

Satanic sects working in the Vatican?  Of course, there are.  Satan isn't stupid; he goes where the work is. 

Catholic campus ministries are the key to reforming the Church in the U.S.  Long a stronghold of dissidents, liturgical flakes, and misfit ministers, campus ministry is slowly becoming The Place for building a solid foundation for orthodox Church reform.

On the dangers of instant communication via Facebook and Twitter:  a false rumor that John Roberts is resigning from the Supreme Court.  Wireless internet connections and laptops in class pose a pedagogical dilemma for profs.  The easy availability of texts on-line vs. the temptation to conduct private conservations.  I hate to tell students not to use their laptops in class, but they can't seem to resist being distracted by them.

Interesting bit of rhetorical "Duh-ism" from the leftist Dutch media.  A right-wing political party that polls second place is labeled "a fringe party."  That tells you who's really on the fringe.

Wow. . .someone give this guy a drink before he explodes!

12 Biggest Rip-offs in America.  All-you-can-eat buffets are included in the list.  Obviously, they've never gone to a buffet with me and my friends!

Stumped for the right thing to say in an award moment?  Confronted with the need for a trite saying that doesn't commit you to taking action?  Use the Cliche Finder!

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Sabers UP!

Think of the deepest place in the Ole Confederacy and you think of the Magnolia State!  Mississippi is also known for being the poorest, least educated, fattest, and most religious state in the Union. 

Despite these less than congratulatory superlatives, Mississippi has also managed in her poverty, obesity, and ignorance to produce Wm. Faulkner, B.B. King, Elvis Presley, Oprah Winfrey, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, Jimmy Buffet, Richard Ford, Muddy Waters, Richard Wright and a whole bushel basket of other extraordinary people. 

One of these extraordinary people died recently--novelist, short story writer, and teacher, Barry Hannah. 

OXFORD, Miss. – An inspiration and mentor to a generation of young American writers, acclaimed Mississippi author Barry Hannah, 67, died Monday at his home. He was the writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi and director of its Master of Fine Arts in creative writing program.

Barry Hannah accepts his award as a Distinguished Faculty Fellow from the College of Liberal Arts in 2002. UM photo by Robert Jordan.

Hannah won numerous awards and international recognition. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in fiction for his short story collection "High Lonesome" (1996). His first published novel, "Geronimo Rex" (1972), won the William Faulkner Prize for writing and earned him a nomination for the National Book Award. 

In 1987, I took a graduate creative writing class with Barry.  It was--to say the least--an eye-opening experience. 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing (Smiley Edition)

Muslim preacher finds Christ in the Orthodox Church!  (H/T: Mark Shea)

Pride and Prejudice:  Emoticon Edition.

Pope Benedict XVI will consecrate Barcelona's Sagrada Familia Cathedral.  I visited this architectural marvel in the summer of 2006.  Unfortunately, the stairs leading to the higher reaches of the church were designed and built for really skinny hobbits.  Needless to say, I stayed downstairs.

Better than Prozac, better than therapy, better than ice cream:  Laughing Baby!

For all you chemist-geeks out there:  the Human Ingredient Tee-Shirt.

Drumming up business with rocks and paint.  Unethical but funny.

For men only:  Female to Male translation.

Be really, really sure that you've heard. . .really sure.

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More on Mary, Co-redemptrix

NB.  The mention of the conference on the proposed Fifth Marian Dogma generated some emails.  I thought I'd repost this piece from a year ago:

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In his amazingly clear explication in the role of the Blessed Virgin's compassion and sorrow in salvation history, The Foot of the Cross Or, The Sorrows of Mary, English theologian, Fr. Frederick W. Faber, argues for the use of the title, "Co-Redemptress" when referring to Mary's contribution to Christ's unique sacrifice for our sins. He argues that the title must be understood in the context of the following five theological facts:

1) Our Blessed Lord is the sole Redeemer of the world in the true and proper sense of the word and in this sense no creature whatsoever shares the honour with Him neither can it be said of Him without impiety that He is co redeemer with Mary

2) In a secondary dependent sense and by participation all the elect co-operate with our Lord in the redemption of the world

3) In the same sense but in a degree to which no others approach our Blessed Lady co-operated with Him in the redemption of the world

4) Besides this and independent of her dolours she co-operated in it in a sense and after a manner in which no other creatures did or could

5) Furthermore by her dolours she co-operated in the redemption of the world in a separate and peculiar way separate and peculiar not only as regards the co-operation of the elect but also as regards her own other co-operation independently of the dolours.

Could not be clearer or more precise.

BTW, this book was written in the late 1840's and published in 1858. And Fr. Faber was an Anglican priest before converting to the Church under Cardinal Newman's tutelage. He was also a founding member of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in London, the famous "Bromption Oratory."

Also, check out this post for further information and links:  Mary, Co-redemptrix?

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Scam, scam, go away!

Walking to and from French class this afternoon, I was accosted by no fewer than four scam artists.

Beggars are a common sight in Rome, but they tend to stay close to churches and busy shopping areas.  

The scam artists are much bolder and much, much more creative.  My guess is that the big American in his full Dominican habit is just too tempting a target to ignore.  I tried "No parlato Italiano," but they just switch to broken English and continue the scam. 

Today's most creative:  the decently dressed old lady parked in front of an ATM who flashes an obviously fake bank card and tries to convince you that the ATM is broken.  She just needs four euro!  Her scam falls apart when a young man walks up to the machine and gets his cash.  Oops.

Ugh.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

That "grassroots" liberal-latte Coffee Party is anything but grassroots. . .how did the NYT miss such the connection?  Or rather, why didn't they report the connection?  

Atheists will trade you a Bible for p0rn!  No wonder their nihilistic ideology is so incredibility popular worldwide.

Archbishop Wuerl of D.C. says that the archdiocese "will be in compliance" with new laws requiring organizations that receive city funds to provide benefits to their employees in SSM.  This decision deserves very close scrutiny.

Update:  the D.C. archdiocese will comply with the new SSM laws by not offering spousal benefits to  new employees.  Ahhhhh, the good fruits of imposed equality.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts denies a petition to stay the enactment of the D.C. SSM law.  His reasoning is based on his philosophy of judicial restraint not on the merits of the law.

Ole Miss to replace Colonel Reb mascot with Admiral Ackbar?  I was a freshman at Ole Miss in 1982 when a black cheerleader refused to use the Confederate flag at football games.  The campus was in racial turmoil the whole academic year.

Fr. Z. puts the smackdown on the silly (and illicit) practice of replacing Holy Water with sand during Lent.  If your pastor is allowing this, print off the notice from the Vatican and send it to him.  Consider it a penance.

Conference in Rome on the fifth Marian dogma:  Mary, co-Redemptrix.  If this idea were declared dogma by BXVI as it is stated in the supporting material, I see no theological problems with it.  The dogma would state what the Church has always taught:  Mary, in her assent to being the Mother of God and her suffering at the cross, cooperated in our redemption.  To the degree that each of us follows Christ to the cross, we too are "co-redeemers" in our salvation.  The title "co-Redemptrix" in no way indicates that Mary is a redeemer equal to Christ. 

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Avoiding status drama

2nd Week of Lent: Readings

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

One of the favorite hobbies of the western media is a game called “Gotcha!” When a politician or church leader or some other public figure gives an interview or press conference, the media folks herd around and poke at this person in the hope that he or she will make a mistake by saying something stupid, or something insulting or petty. Perhaps the only version of the Gotcha game that the media love more is the one where a public figure is caught behaving in a way that contradicts his stated principles. A “family values” politician caught in an adulterous affair. A bishop caught stealing from the collection basket. This sort of hypocrisy sells newspapers and draws viewers. An audience loves to read about or watch a leader die on the dirtied sword of his ideals. Of course, public figures could avoid this media trap by consistently living up to their ideals, or by having no ideals at all. You can't be accused of hypocrisy if you hold nothing dear! Jesus warns his disciples about the dangers of exalting themselves as the Pharisees do. He says, “. . .do and observe all things whatsoever [the Pharisees] tell you, but do not follow their example. . .The greatest among you must be your servant.” 

In order to make clear what a servant in the Church looks like, Jesus describes the self-exalted religious leaders of his day. They weigh their people down with heavy burdens, yet refuse to help them carry the load. They perform good works in order to be seen not out of genuine charity. They don exaggerated religious garb; take places of honor at dinner parties, in the synagogues; and they crave adoration on the street. They allow themselves to be hailed as “Master,” placing themselves on the same level as our Father in heaven. All of these add up over time to be a shadow play, a kabuki mime—props, set pieces, scripts, choreography, all used by those who want to act the part of a righteous religious leader without actually having to be anything like a righteous religious leader. This is the road to damnation, spiritual destruction. Thus, Jesus warns the disciples to avoid playing at being humble and instead teaches them to find exaltation in being a servant.

Any seminarian, religious sister or brother, deacon, priest, or bishop will tell you that one of the most difficult temptations we face as public persons in the Church is the temptation of self-exaltation. We are charged with upholding the teachings of the Church on some of the most hotly debated issues of our day; we are vowed to do good works and we do them openly; we wear distinctive clothing and our people greet us on the streets by calling us “Sister,” “Father,” “Reverend,” even “Your Eminence.” It gets worse for those of us who teach in universities. We have “Doctor” and “Professor” added to our titles. You haven't been exalted properly until you hear yourself introduced at a party as “the Reverend Father Doctor”! Just imagine the temptations our poor Pope must endure when his titles are rattled off. Rightly or wrongly, our status is recognized and celebrated. And therein lies the danger for us and for those we serve—our status, the place we occupy, the public role we have taken on in the Church. Status is fleeting, temporary, easily lost and too easily mourned. Status is nothing.

Jesus clearly shows us the way out of this potential spiritual wreck. The Church needs leaders not actors, servants not masters. She needs living examples of holiness not self-exalted Barbie Dolls in religious drag. She needs saints, and, fortunately for us, most saints start out as sinners. The transition from sinner to saint, from religious actor to servant-leader is summed up nicely by Isaiah: “Hear the word of the Lord. . .Listen to the instruction of our God. . .! Wash yourselves clean!” And once cleansed by humility, we can start a life of true service. Quietly or loudly, openly or in secret, we can be slaves to a Church, a world in desperate need of being loved by those of us who lay claim to the love of Christ.

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Dyslexia to the rescue!

For once in my life, my dyslexia may help me learn a foreign language!

Of all the Romance languages, Italian has the most rational pronunciation rules:  each vowel is pronounced exactly the same way every time it occurs; all the syllables of a word are pronounced.

French, on the other hand, is dirty with weird inflections, elided syllables, dropped endings, silent letters, and accents on vowels frequently alter the meaning of a word.

Yesterday in class, I had little trouble pronouncing the French.  I am still stymied by Italian.

Go figure.

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Quick update. . .

Just got off the phone with Mama Becky.  She reports that her parents went to a nursing home this weekend.  Her father, Clyde, is 97 and suffering from a bad eye infection.  Her step-mother, Mildred, is 89.  

They have lived in the same house in the Mississippi Delta for 70 years! 

Please keep them, my mom, and her sisters in your prayers.

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My day. . .

Between 1.00 pm and 5.00 pm today, I. . .

. . .saw an Italian couple get hit by a taxi in front of the Wax Museum.

. . .took classes at the French Embassy.

. . .met a young Roman woman in my French class who had lived in Houston as an exchange student.

. . .visited the Church of St Louis of France and saw four beautiful Caravaggio paintings, including three world-renowned canvases of The Calling of St Matthew, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew.

What did you do today?  ;-)

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Didn't we listen to eight years of the bleating Left telling us that Bush was "shredding the Constitution" with the Patriot Act?   I guess your definition of "shredding" depends on who sits in the Oval Office.

Hilarious:  demographics of American newspapers.  (NB.  the embedded Youtube vid is mildly R-rated.)

Challenging the "Ron Paul's seat" mentality of a TX Republican primary.  Apparently, Dems aren't the only ones infected with the politicus imperialis virus.

UK's Labour Party harboring Islamic radicals?  Why not?  European leftists seem pretty cozy with all sorts of delusional utopian ideologies.

More rhetorical slight-of-hand:  using "men" to mean Bad Males vs. using "people" to mean Good Males.  The definition of Good and Bad is, of course, political.  (NB.  I recently ordered, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student.  Look for many more entries on the use and abuse of rhetoric!)

A meditation on suicide.  We need you!

While failing to understand (much less love) western civilization, Harvard's liberal arts faculty sneers at the critical study of religion.  One prof distinguishes between the phenomenon of religion and the use of reason as if reason cannot be used to study a phenomenon.  

Dismantling the latest Elitist Meme:  liberals and atheists are more intelligent than conservatives and theists.  As you might suspect, the proof (or lack thereof) in it the definitions.  Note especially the definition of "liberalism" that the researchers use.  Poll after poll indicate that self-described conservatives are far more charitable with their money than liberals.

Sunday's homily is on its way!

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Quick Updates

Mama Becky recently got out of the hospital. . .again, pneumonia.  She reports feeling better than ever.  Continued prayers much appreciated.

French classes start for yours truly Monday afternoon.  

I've been offered a summer class at U.D.  Second term:  "Western Theological Tradition."

Still waiting on a gallery copy of the second prayer book.  It's due out May 2010.

First Niece is doing very well with her Sylvan tutoring.  Much like her uncle did at her age, she's battling the demonic hordes of the fiend, Math.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Scary:  "Presidential emergency powers" is a phrase we are used to hearing used by Third World junta thugs not from the U.S. Congress. 

56% say that the government is the biggest threat to American civil rights.  See above.

Zombies and the First Amendment!  Stumbling towards the Apocalypse.

A dangerous rhetorical shift:  "freedom of religion" vs. "freedom of worship."  Yes, it matters.  A great deal. 

A victory for free speech and free exercise in a public school.  Yes, it can still happen.

Judge calls priestly celibacy "cruel."  Of course, we all know that the real cruelty here is the idiocy of this judge. 

I'm sure that this clock is a metaphor for some important philosophical concept. . .just not sure which one.  Maybe the "fallacy of non-indexical allusion"?  Uh?

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Lenten Reflection 5: difficult questions

"I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust."

Loving your enemies in the abstract is easy.  How do you love them concretely?

What is the purpose of praying for those who persecute you?  

How exactly does loving your enemies and praying for your persecutors make you a child of God?

Why does the fact that the sun shines on the just and unjust make praying for the unjust necessary?

"For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

What reward is there for us in returning love for love if sinners do the same?

In what way is Jesus calling us to be "unusual"?

How can we be perfect as the Father is perfect?  He is God; we are His creatures. 

Concretely, by what means is Jesus teaching us to be perfect as the Father is perfect?

What distracts us from this path?

In what way do you imitate the pagans/tax collectors rather than the Father?

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Anti-Catholic bigot and movie-maker, Roland Emmerich, is being sued by the archdiocese of Rio de Janiero for using their iconic Jesus statue in his movie, 2012.   This is the coward who admitted that he didn't portray the destruction of any Muslim sites in his disaster movie b/c he feared violent retaliation.  Maybe if he loses this suit he'll think twice about his gutlessness.

Experiment in totalitarianism is FL school.  Not mentioned in the report is whether or not students on either side of the "wall" were allowed to practice their faith openly.

Report on religion blogs. . .alas, HancAquam didn't make the list.  Sigh.

The necessity of Vatican Two. . .well-balanced and insightful article. 

Reform of the reform?  NB.  The liturgical document from VC2, Sacrosanctum Concilium calls for a renewal not a reform of the liturgy.  The difference btw the two words and their use in context is significant.

For geeks everywhere:  why I don't have a girlfriend.

More Japanese weirdness.  These guys have very creative minds.

Ticket to Hell?  Well, a ticket to the Art World Doghouse at the very least.  While touring the museums of Greece last year, U.D. students were constantly reminded by the docents not to pose with the statues.  Apparently, such a thing is considered disrespectful.  Now I know why.

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What to do (and not do) about vocations

A four year old post on vocations to the priesthood. . .

I wanted to suggest the following about vocations:

1). There is no vocations crisis. God is calling more than enough men to the priesthood to cover the needs of the Church. The real crisis is twofold: a). crisis of commitment and b). crisis of encouragement. The crisis of commitment is the result of the reluctance of the men who are called to say YES to their call. Most men called to priesthood are opting for careers that will only partially perfect their gifts. They can be happy, of course, but they are not picking up the greater challenge of sacrificial service in the Church. The crisis of encouragement is more complex. Basically, mothers and fathers are not supporting sons who express an interest in say YES to God’s call. This has to do with a decline in the prestige of the priesthood and the easier availability of a formal education for lower and middle-class men. We also have to look to the bishops, their vocation directors, and their discernment and vetting processes. Do the people the bishop trusts to recruit and vet his vocations really believe that an ordained priesthood is necessary for the flourishing of the Church? Is there a culture of priestly community in the diocese? Are the priests happy and encouraging of vocations? Bottomline: no sensible young man with a vocation is remotely interested in signing on to a religious order or a diocese if it is clear that those in charge think his vocation to ordained ministry is an ideological problem, a theological inconvenience, or a political obstacle to the Great Lay Revolution. And no young man is remotely interested in joining an order or a diocese controlled by bitter, angry ideologues who loudly and proudly celebrate the coming demise of the priesthood. Who wants to jump on a failing project as it sinks under the weight of its stewards’ neglect?

2). If we have all the vocations we need, but those vocations aren’t saying YES, what do we need to do? First, give God constant thanks for the vocations He has called. Gratitude sets the stage for humility and the current crisis in commitment and encouragement needs all the humility it can get. Second, pray that God will encourage (literally, “strengthen the hearts of”) those whom He has called. Pray that they will say YES. Third, personally, one-on-one invite a young man to think about priesthood. If there’s any inkling in his mind that he has been called, your affirmation will reinforce that inkling into a stirring and the stirring into a desire and so on. Fourth, make sure that you understand who your priest is. I mean, study up on the nature of the priesthood. Get the Catechism and spend some time studying what the Church teaches about priesthood. Ignore functional models of priesthood (i.e., the priesthood is a job or a role) and ignore attempts to turn the Catholic priest into a Protestant minister (i.e., a minister of the Word in the pulpit but not a priest at the altar of sacrifice!). Also avoid all attempts to understand that priesthood is rooted in baptism only. We all minister to one another out of our baptisms. But the ordained priest ministers out of his baptism AND out of his ordination. To say that he ministers as a priest out of his baptism only is an attempt by some to diminish the sacramental character of Holy Orders and reduce the priesthood to something like a Parochial Facilitator of Charisms. One more thing to avoid: please don’t lump a vocation to the priesthood in with vocations to the married life, the single life, ad. nau. Of course, these vocations are perfectly true and good and beautiful. But we aren’t suffering as a Church from a lack of husbands and single women. Lumping priestly vocations in with all other Christian vocations tends to level the priestly vocation and hides the urgency of the crisises of commitment and encouragement. This is NOT about the priestly vocation being “better” than any other vocation. It is about the Church being loud and clear that we need priests and that we value the vocation for itself and not as a tacked-on afterthought during the prayers of the people.

Those called to priesthood will not be encouraged to say YES to their call until it is crystal clear to them that we need them. Communion Services and other forms of “celebrations in the absence of a priest” only serve to reinforce the idea that a priest for Mass is a luxury. Given all the other negatives about the priesthood these days, do we really need to carry on with our Sunday worship as if the priest were a rare creature slowly moving into extinction? I imagine a young man in the pews at St. Bubba’s, attending a month or two’s worth of Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest and thinking, “Hey, I don’t need to say YES to God’s call to priesthood. We’re getting along just fine here at St. Bubba’s w/o one.” In fact, why don’t we just elect one bishop somewhere in Kansas to consecrate several warehouses of hosts every week and then use FedEx to ship those hosts to all the parishes in the country for communion services. That way we can get rid of the priesthood and the episcopate altogether. Much cheaper and easier than educating men to be parish priests. Well, I guess we would have to keep one priest and one seminarian in the pipeline at all times as replacements.

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Lenten Reflection 4: asking and seeking

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find. . ."

No doubt Jesus intended this teaching to be comforting.  He is reassuring us that all we need, all we seek will be provided if we but ask.  However, the assumption of this teaching is that we know what we need, that we want what we seek after.  Is this true?  Do we know what we need?  Do we really want what we seek?  If we limit ourselves to asking for the daily basics (food, etc.), then there's not much to worry about here.  But what if we already have the basics and believe that we need more, or that we need something else?  How can we be sure that what we are asking for is really a need not just a want?  How can we be sure that what we seek is really worthy of having? 

The key to knowing what to ask for, what to seek after is this:  will what I ask for/seek after help me to serve God by serving His people?  Any gift we receive from the Father is given to us so that our service might be fruitful.  For example, in the Dominican Order, we study, pray, live in community, and follow the evangelical counsels for one reason only:  to be better preachers.  Study is never an end in itself, but simply a means to achieve the goal of preaching the gospel.  So, when you ask, when you seek, discern the purpose of what you ask for/seek after.  If that purpose is the glory of God and service to His Church, then ask, seek. . .you will receive and find.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

One of the most important ecumenical projects for this century will be the defense of religious freedom in the U.S. against the constant assaults of anti-religious bureaucrats.  

Oregon repeals ridiculous law forbidding public school teachers from wearing distinctive religious garb. 

Campus speech codes and the decay of language:  prosecuting the innocent to push an agenda.

If a doctor can bring himself to perform an abortion, should we surprised when we find out that he is a ghoul?   Evil twists wisdom to folly.

Zombies may be undead. . .but there's no good reason why they should be under-dressed.

As a staff member of a psych hospital, I frequently had to deal with patients who believed that they were Jesus.   I once asked a shrink if psych patients in Asia ever claimed to be the Buddha.  He was not amused.  This link is for him. 

Why are Israeli "art students" working so hard to sell their wares to DEA agents?  Weird.

There are many things that I will never caught dead doing.  This is in the top five.

U.S. hires the Borg to design and build a new $1 billion embassy in the U.K.  Apparently, when it comes to indulging the temptation to spend taxpayers money during a recession, B.O. says, "Resistance is futile."

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Why do we pray?

1st Week of Lent (T): Readings

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

What if we decided this morning—just this once—to openly defy our Lord and pray as if we were pagans? We could probably manage to sound like pagans at prayer. We might even look like pagans at prayer. But we probably couldn't pull of thinking and believing like pagans while we prayed. It's one thing to imitate a pagan and quite another to become one. Before we could successfully paganize our prayer we would have to understand the theology, the mythos, the psychology, everything that goes into the make up of someone who lives and dies, prays and sacrifices in opposition to the precepts of the Lord. But it's not enough to simply reject Christ's teaching and the guidance of the Church. Being a pagan is more complex and much more subtle than living as a non-Christian or as an anti-Christian. In teaching his disciples how to pray, Jesus gives us a glimpse into one of the differences between the pagan's relationship to his deities and our relationship to the one God. If we were to decide this morning to pray as the pagans do, we would have to believe that our prayers might not be heard; that our prayers might be in vain; that our needs might not be met; that our health, our wealth, our lives rest on the reckless will of Fate, or Nature, or Fortune. Jesus teaches his disciples, “Do not be like [the babbling pagans at prayer]. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

If the pagans of Jesus' day babbled at prayer, attempting to gain the favor of their fickle gods, then what is it that we do in prayer that distinguishes us from them? Why isn't Christian prayer just pagan babbling using a different vocabulary? The difference that matters is this: we do not pray in order to appease God, or to bargain with Him, or to cajole Him into changing His mind. We do not perform magical rites in order to gain control of God, or to summon Him before us to explain the mysteries of the universe, or to help us find buried treasure. He is not a wood sprite, or a water nymph, or a mountain spirit. Nor, for that matter, is He an impersonal Unmoved Mover, or an abstracted First Cause. Our God is our Father, a father who knows all that we need before we ask. What bargain could we strike with someone who knows us better than we know ourselves? What kind of father would subject his children to capricious fortune, to stultifying fate?

If we do not bargain or appease or cajole with our prayers, and if our Father already knows our needs, then why do we bother praying at all? By definition, it seems, Christian prayer is nothing more than vain babbling! Perhaps we are more pagan than we want to admit. And this would be true except that Christian prayer is first and foremost an exercise in transforming the ones who pray. Prayer changes us not God. By asking for what we need, even though God already knows what we need, we establish and nurture the deepest roots of our relationship with our Father: humility. By asking for what we need and receiving His gifts with thanksgiving, we feed, strengthen, and grow our obedience to His will and thrive by participating more intensely in His divine nature. 

And this is why the Word was made flesh: so that we might come to the Father perfect as He himself is perfect. Isaiah reports the Lord saying, “[My word] shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” He sent His word among us with a purpose. Not to frighten us with threats of punishment, or beat us into submission, or bribe us with promises of fabulous wealth. He sent His word among us to love us and to return us to Him in love. We do not have to consult drugged-out oracles, or read the entrails of sacrificed animals to know our Father's will for us. We pray, “Your will be done. . .” and give Him thanks and praise. His word will achieve its end. And that end is our salvation.

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