Catholicradical: Where Catholic thought is combined with Catholic Action

Others working for Christ

2006-06-08T10:14:00.000-04:00

You show a bad spirit if it hurts you to see others work for Christ without regard for what you are doing. Remember this passage in St. Mark: "Master, we saw a man who was not one of our followers casting out devils in your name, and we forbade him." "Do not forbid him," Jesus replied, "because there is no one who shall work a miracle in my name, and forthwith be able to speak ill of me. For he who is not against you, is for you." St. Josemaria

Respect for superiors

2006-06-07T20:02:00.000-04:00

Be extremely respectful to your superior, whenever he consults ou and you have to oppose his opinions. And never contradict him in the presence of others who are subject to him, even though he may be wrong. St. Josemaria

Responsibility

2006-06-07T10:32:00.000-04:00

Christ died for you. You...what should you do for Christ? St. Josemaria

The divine court

2006-06-07T10:07:00.000-04:00

Consider what depths of mercy lie in the justice of God! For, according to human justice, he who pleads guilty is punished, but in the divine court, he is pardoned. St. Josemaria

Hemmed in on all sides...

2006-06-04T18:08:00.000-04:00

Public events have led you to prefer a voluntary confinement, which is worse perhaps, because of the circumstances, than the confinement of a prison. You've suffered an eclipse of your personality... On all sides you feel yourself hemmed in: selfishness, curiosity, misunderstanding, gossip. Well, so what? Have you forgotten your very free will and that power of yours as a "child"? The absence of leaves and flowers (of external action) does not exclude the growth and activity of the roots (interior life)... Work: things will change and you'll yield more fruit than before--and it will be more savory. St. Josemaria

Those Human Consolations

2006-06-03T17:07:00.000-04:00

After losing those human consolations you have been left with a feeling of loneliness, as if you were hanging by a thin thread over the emptiness of a black abyss. And your cries, your shouts for help, seem to go unheard by anybody. The truth is you deserve to be so forlorn. Be humble; don't seek yourself; don't seek your own satisfaction. Love the cross--to bear it is little--and our Lord will hear your prayer. And in time, calm will be restored to your senses. And your heart will heal, and you will have peace. St. Josemaria

On loan

2006-06-03T17:05:00.000-04:00

All our fortitude is on loan...If you don't leave him, he won't leave you...Each day, O my God, I am less sure of myself and more sure of you!. St. Josemaria

Abandon yourself to Him

2006-06-03T17:03:00.000-04:00

Depend on Jesus for everything. You have nothing, are worth nothing, are capable of nothing. He will act, if you abandon yourself to him... Trust always in your God. He does not lose battles. St. Josemaria.

Tender and raw

2006-06-02T20:37:00.000-04:00

Your flesh is tender and raw. That's how you are. Everything seems to make you suffer in your mind and in your senses. And everything is a temptation to you... Be humble--I insist. You will see how quickly all this passes. The pain will turn into joy, and the temptation into firm purpose. But meanwhile, strengthen your faith; fill yourself with hope; and make constant acts of love, even though you think they come only from your lips. St. Josemaria

The Parable of the vine and the branches

2006-06-02T20:33:00.000-04:00

Have you heard the parable of the vine and the branches from the lips of the Master? Console yourself: He demands much of you, for you are the branch that bears fruit. And he must prune you so that you'll yield more fruit. Of course that cutting--that pruning--hurts. But, afterwards, how luxuriant the growth, how fruitful your works! St. Josemaria

Think about it...

2006-06-02T20:30:00.000-04:00

So you've been hauled over the coals? Don't follow the advice of pride and lose your temper. Think: how charitable they are toward me! The things they've left unsaid!

Prayer and suffering as 'Action'.

2006-06-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

Those who pray and suffer, leaving action for others, will not shine here on earth; but what a radiant crown they will wear in the kingdom of life! Blessed be the "apostolate of suffering!" Saint Josemaria Escriva. [personal note: a bit of a paradox for me...not sure why. This has given me a long pause for reflection. Any insight is welcome!!!]

The Apostle

2006-06-01T09:58:00.000-04:00

The cross on your breast? Good! But the cross on your shoulders, the cross in your flesh, the cross in your mind. Thus will you live for Christ, with Christ and in Christ; only thus will you be an apostle. St. Josemaria Escriva

Humility

2006-05-31T12:08:00.000-04:00

When you hear the plaudits of triumph, let there also sound in your ears the laughter you provoked with your failures...The day you see yourself as you are, you will think it natural to be despised by others...If you really knew yourself, you would rejoice at being despised, and your heart would weep in the face of honors and praise [personal note: it sounds a lot like something Mother Teresa said when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize...]...You're not humble when you humble yourself, but when you are humbled by others and you bear it for Christ...Don't aspire to be like the gilded weather vane on top of a great building. However much it may glitter, however high it may be, it adds nothing to the firmness of the structure. Rather be like an old stone block hidden in the foundations, under the ground where no one can see you. Because of you, the house will not fall. --St. Josemaria

Mortification

2006-05-31T12:05:00.000-04:00

The appropriate word you left unsaid; the joke you didn't tell; the cheerful smile for those who bother you; that silence when you're unjustly accused; your kind conversation with people you find boring and tactless; the daily effort to overlook one irritating detail or another in those who live with you...this, with perseverance, is indeed solid interior mortification. --St. Josemaria

Don't say it....

2006-05-30T19:44:00.000-04:00

Don't say, "That's the way I am--it's my character." It's your LACK of character. Esto vir!!!!--be a man!!!! St. Josemaria Escriva

Fear

2006-05-30T19:42:00.000-04:00

You never want to get to the bottom of things. At times, because of politeness. Other times--most times--because you fear hurting yourself. Sometimes again, because you fear hurting others. But always because of fear! With that fear of digging for the truth you'll never be a man of good judgment. St. Josemaria Escriva

The poor wooden cross

2006-05-30T19:39:00.000-04:00

Whenever you see a poor, wooden cross, alone, uncared-for, worthless...and without a corpus, don't forget that that cross is YOUR cross--the everyday hidden cross, unattractive and unconsoling--the cross that is waiting for the corpus it lacks: and that corpus must be you. --St. Josemaria Escriva

Character

2006-05-30T19:34:00.000-04:00

Don't let you life be sterile. Be useful. Blaze a trail. Shine forth with the light of your faith and of your love. With your apostolic life wipe out the slimy and filthy mark left by the impure sowers of hatred. And light up all the ways of the earth with the fire of Christ that you carry in your heart. --St. Josemaria Escriva

What Really Matters...?

2005-10-31T14:30:00.000-05:00

What really matters to us? Are we focused on the value of our property at the expense of the value of human life God has placed in our midst?
Bishop Robert J. Baker, Diocese of Charleston

It Is Easy To Forget

2005-10-26T21:23:00.000-04:00

It is easy to forget that people need our help when they are out of sight. Recently I received a letter from a father of a man who is incarcerated in a prison located in my diocese. The man wrote:
My son, one of your lost sheep, needs your help. He has been in prison for more than a year. In that time he has heard Mass one time and had communion brought to him one other time. He is hungry for the word of God. He helps with the chapel program, attends Sunday and Wednesday services, and is taking two Bible study correspondence courses. None of these activities, however, are though the Catholic Church. Baptist, A.M.E., and other faiths provide a religious forum for inmates. The Roman Catholic Church in your diocese does not.
The concerned father wanted to know why there was no consistent Catholic ooutreach to the men in that institution who desired the support of their Church. I wrote the man back, apologizing, "It saddens me to know no priest has visited your son yet. Icertainly will look into that situation, as I have spent much of my priesthood in prison ministry. Too often these are the forgotten people in our Church, men and women in prisons."
Bishop Robert J. Baker, Diocese of Charleston. NB: the Diocese of Charleston has a lay Ministry, "His Way Ministry" headed by Jack McGovern, that serves those incarcerated in the Diocese of Charleston. Mr. McGovern can be reached at 843-763-5494.

There Is Never a Moment

2005-10-21T20:18:00.000-04:00

There is never a moment when God does not come forward in the guise of some suffering or [of] some duty, and all that takes place within us, around us and through us both includes and hides his activity.

Jean-Pierre de Caussade, SJ

Suffering Humanity

2005-10-21T20:14:00.000-04:00

Jesus identifies Himself with all suffering humanity. His important teaching is that the spiritual life consists largely of our ability to recognize Him and serve Him in those who hunger and thirst, the stranger and the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. Our eternal happiness hinges on our moral and spiritual capacity to recognize Him and servfe Him where he is in this world, in the time frame in which we are on this earth.

Bishop Robert J. Baker, Diocese of Charleston

So Many Injustices You Commit

2005-10-21T20:10:00.000-04:00

The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry;
The garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked;
The shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot;
The money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor;
The acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.

St. Basil the Great

Recognition

2005-10-21T20:07:00.000-04:00

IF WE DO NOT RECOGNIZE JESUS IN THE POOR,
HE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RECOGNIZE US AT THE DAY OF JUDGMENT

BLESSED TERESA OF CALCUTTA

The Blood of the Poor

2005-09-21T15:13:00.000-04:00

One way to keep poor of course is not to accept money which is the result of defrauding the poor. Here is a story of St. Ignatius of Sardinia, a Capuchin just canonized last October. Ignatius used to go out from his monastery with a sack to beg from the people of the town but he would never go to a merchant who had built up his fortune by defrauding the poor.

Franchino, the rich man, fumed every time he passed his door, at being so neglected, though this perhaps seems even more unbelievable than the climax of the story. His concern, however, was not the loss of the opportunity to give an alms, but the fear of public opinion. He complained at the friary, whereupon the Father Guardian ordered St. Ignatius to beg from the merchant the next time he went out.

"Very well," said Ignatius obediently. "If you wish it, Father, I will go, but I would not have the Capuchins dine on the blood of the poor."

The merchant received Ignatius with great flattery and gave him generous alms, asking him to come again in the future. But hardly had Ignatius left the house with his sack on his shoulder than drops of blood began oozing from the sack. They trickled down on Franchino's doorstep and down through the street to the monastery. Everywhere Ignatius went a trickle of blood followed him.

When he arrived at the friary he laid the sack at the Father Guardian's feet. "What is this?" gasped the Guardian. "This," St. Ignatius said, "is the blood of the poor."

Dorothy Day

Done Enough?

2005-09-15T19:42:00.000-04:00

There is a terrible saying a priest once quoted to us, "He who says he has done enough, has already perished."

If we went daily to our local church, and there, in the presence of Christ, brought our problems, our pain, our suffering at our failures, and our mistakes which contribute so much to the sufferings of others, then I think we ould be more nearly doing "enough." The growth of prayer groups all over the country does not mean a slackening of the struglle for peace and justice, but a strengthening of it.

Dorothy Day, 1972

Lucky For Me

2005-08-04T11:25:00.000-04:00

Lucky for me that the immoderate love of creatures is a poison-draught which has always been kept away from my lips, but I'm sure I'm right about this--I've seen so many souls go...like the poor moths; dazzled by the lure of...rushlight, they fly into it and burn their wings, only to come back later into the soft radiance of that true love which is divine... It was only God's mercy that preserved me from giving myself up to the love of creatures; without that, I might have fallen...low. I find such comfort in those penetrating words of our Lord to Simon the Pharisee: "He loves little, who has little forgiven him..." I owe Him... He remitted my sins before-hand, as it were, by not letting me fall into them... I wish I could explain exactly what I feel about it. St. Therese.

The Family

2005-08-03T07:45:00.000-04:00

The first unit of society is the family. The family should look after its own and, in addition, as the early Fathers said, "Every home should have a Christ room in it, so that hospitality may be practiced." "The coat that hangs in your closet belongs to the poor." "If your brother is hungry, it is your responsibility." Dorothy Day.

A Return to the Communal Aspects of Christianity

2005-08-03T07:37:00.000-04:00

To bring back the communal aspects of Christianity -- this is part of Peter's great mission. "A heresy comes about," he said, "because people have neglected one aspect of the truth or distorted it..." We have neglected the communal aspect of Christianity; we have even denied that property was proper to man. We have allowed property to accumulate in the hands of the few, and so a denial of private property has come about, ostensibly for the sake of the common good. St. Thomas says a certain amount of goods is necessary to lead a good life. Dorothy Day

THE LORD DECLARES...

2005-08-01T20:23:00.000-04:00

FOR I KNOW THE PLANS I HAVE FOR YOU, DECLARES THE LORD. PLANS TO PROSPER YOU, AND NOT HARM YOU. PLANS TO GIVE YOU HOPE, AND A FUTURE!!! JEREMIAH 29:11

It Is Hard

2005-07-29T19:50:00.000-04:00

It is hard to live in the upside-down world of the Gospels. Truly it is a world of paradoxes, giving up one's life in order to save it, dying to live. It is voluntary poverty, stripping oneself even of what the world calls dignity, honor, human respect. Dorothy Day.

Dreaming

2005-07-28T16:42:00.000-04:00

Alas, instead of entertaining foolish dreams of creatures, would I have flown straight to You, O my God, like my little Therese. For You also dream of creatures...but You do not dream as we do...You dream of the creature in order to deify it, and sometimes--O Mystery--You dream of it to make it Your spouse! And this is the dream of love that has been realized in me.

Marie Martin, sister of the "The Little Flower," St. Therese.

Stability

2005-07-27T16:39:00.000-04:00

One of the vows the Benedictines take is stability. And there is such wandering today, from job to job, from home to home. Most people want a settled place, but economic circumstances make it hard. Dorothy Day.

The Prostitution Papers

2005-07-21T10:09:00.000-04:00

The Prostitution of Marriage

Birth control is not self-control. What is not self-control is self-indulgence. What is self-indulgence is prostitution of functions. Prostitution in marriage is prostitution of marriage. Prostitution of marriage is prostitution plus hypocrisy.

The Prostitution of Education

To educate is to elevate. To elevate is to raise. To raise wheat on a piece of land is to enable that piece of land to produce wheat instead of weeds. To raise men from the animal state to the cultural state is to educate men. The teaching of facts without understanding is a prostitution of education.

The Prostitution of the Press

Modern newspapermen try to give people what they want. Newspapermen ought to give people what they need. To give people what they want but should not have is to pander. To give people what they need, or in other terms, to make them want what they ought to want, is to foster. To pander to the bad in men is to make men inhuman to men. To foster the good in men is to make men human to men.

The Prostitution of Politics

The Republicans say: "Let's turn the rascals out." The Democrats say: "Let's turn the rascals out." The Republicans call the Democrats rascals. The Democrats call the Republicans rascals. For the Republicans as well as for the Democrats politics is just profitable business. By making a business out of politics politicians have prostituted the noble calling of politics.

The Prostitution of Property

All the land belongs to God. God wants us to be our brother's keeper. Our superfluous goods must be used to relieve the needs of our brother. What we so for our brother for Christ's sake is what we carry with us when we die. This is what the poor are for, to give to the rich the occasion to do good for Christ's sake. To use property to acquire more property is not the proper use of property. It is a prostitution of property.

The Prostitution of the Theatre

What applies to the Press applies also to the Theatre. In the Middle Ages the Theatre was considered as an efficient way of preaching. They liked to produce Mystery Plays. They aimed to preach and not to pander. Pandering to the crowd has brought the degradation of the theatre. The Theatre started in the Church. The Theatre has ended in the gutter.

The Prostitution of Art

In the Middle Ages the artists were not called artists, they were called artisans. When the artists were artisans they had the community spirit. They had the community spirit because they believed in the doctrine of the Common Good. Now that the artists do no longer believe in the doctrine of the Common Good they sell their work to art speculators. As Eric Gill says, "they have become the lap-dogs of the bourgeoisie."

--Peter Maurin--

Hearts Burning Within Us

2005-07-21T09:31:00.000-04:00

God is love. Therefore, being seized by God is an enkindling in love -- when the spirit is ready for it. For all that is mortal is consumed in the fire of eternal love. And that means all movements that are released in the soul through creatures. If she (the soul) turns toward the creature, she withdraws herself from the divine love, although she cannot escape it. Then love becomes a fire that consumes the soul herself. The human spirit as spirit is destined for immortal being... There was nothing in Christ through his nature and his free decision that resisted love. He lived every moment of his existence in the boundless surrender to divine love. But in the Incarnation he had taken upon himself the entire burden of mankind's sin, embraced it with his merciful love, and hidden it in his soul... This is how the expiating fire burned in his inmost being, in his entire, lifelong suffering, in the most intense form in the Garden of Olives and on the cross, because here the sensible joy of the indestructible union ceased, subjecting him totally to the Passion, and allowing this Passion to become the experience of the total abandonment by God. In the 'Consummatum est,' the end of the expiatory fire is announced as is the final return into eternal, undisturbed union of love in the 'Pater, in manus tuas commendo spiritum meum.' In the Passion and death of Christ our sins were consumed by fire. If we accept that in faith, and if we accept the whole Christ in faith-filled surrender, which means, however, that we choose and walk the path of the imitation of Christ, then he will lead us through his Passion and cross to the glory of his Resurrection.

St. Edith Stein (Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, +1942, Student of Husserl,German philosopher and Jewish convert and Carmilite nun, put to death at Auschwitz).

The Works of Mercy

2005-07-20T17:09:00.000-04:00

The works of mercy are works of love. The works of war are works of the devil -- "You do not know of what spirit you are," Jesus said to his disciples when they would call down fire from heaven on the inhospitable Samaritans. This is to look at things in the large context of modern war. But as for the hostilities in our midst, the note of violence and conflict in all our dealings with others -- everyone seems to contribute to it. There is no room for righteous wrath today... Every movement of wrath in the heart over petty hostilities must be struggled with in order to hold up the strength of the participants.

--Dorothy Day, July, 1964--

Poverty Frees

2005-07-20T17:04:00.000-04:00

It is voluntary poverty which needs to be preached to the comfortable congregations, so that a man will not be afraid of losing his job if he speaks out on these issues. So that pastors or congregations will not be afraid of losing the support of rich benefactors. A readiness for poverty, a disposition to accept it, is enough to begin with. We will always get what we need. "Take no thought for what you shall eat or drink -- the Lord knows you have need of these things.

--Dorothy Day, July, 1964--

The Unpopular Front

2005-07-20T15:38:00.000-04:00

To attack poverty by preaching voluntary poverty seems like madness. But again, it is direct action. "The coat that hangs in your closet belongs to the poor." And to go further, "If anyone takes your coat, give him your cloak too." To be profligate in our love and generosity, spontaneous, to cut all the red tape of bureaucracy! "Open your mouth and I will fill it," says the Lord in the Psalms. The more you give away, the more the Lord will give you to give. It is a growth in faith. It is the attitude of the man whose life of common sense and faith is integrated. To live with generosity in times of crisis is only common sense. In the time of earthquake, flood, fire, people give recklessly; even governments do this. (Even the pagans do this...)

--Dorothy Day, September, 1964--

The Holy Father

2005-07-20T15:24:00.000-04:00

What about our Holy Father as one of the heroes of the day? Do we wear buttons to remind us of our spiritual leader? Do we hang on his words with breathless interest and greet his every utterance with joy? Do we examine what he says, weigh his words, follow his leadership? Do we meditate on what he has said, do we ponder it prayerfully, do we try to serve under his banner as valiant soldiers of Christ? If we did there would be far more pacifists today, far more conscientious objectors.

--Dorothy Day, April, 1942--

Penance

2005-07-20T14:02:00.000-04:00

I could not help thinking how little penance we have done these last years, how little mortification, how little dying to self, which is what mortification is. To mortify is to put to death, to do violence to oneself. "You have not yet resisted unto blood," St. Paul said. "Without the shedding of blood there is no salvation." Blood means 'life' in Biblical terms. Some years ago I saw a man die of a heart attack before my eyes, and his skin became like wax s the blood stopped moving in the veins and seemed to drain back to the heart.

If our cause is a mighty one, and surely peace on earth in these days is the great issue of the day, and if we are opposing the powers of darkness, of nothingness, of destruction, and working on the side of light and life, then surely we must use our greatest weapons -- the life forces that are in each one of us. To stand on the side of life we must give up our own lives. "He who would save his life must lose it."

--Dorothy Day--

Righteous Wrath

2005-07-20T10:11:00.000-04:00

I am reminded of St. Teresa who said, "The devil sends me so offensive a bad spirit of temper that at times I think I could eat people up." I'm glad that she felt that way, too. St. Thomas said there is no sin in having a righteous wrath provided there is no undue desire for revenge.

--Dorothy Day--

At a Personal Sacrifice

2005-07-19T11:37:00.000-04:00

In the first centuries of Christianity the hungry were fed at a personal sacrifice, the naked were clothed at a personal sacrifice, the homeless were sheltered at a personal sacrifice. And because the poor were fed, clothed and sheltered at a personal sacrifice, the pagans used to say about the Christians: "See how they love each other."

In our own day the poor are no longer fed, clothed or sheltered at a personal sacrifice, but at the expense of the taxpayers. And because the poor are no longer fed, clothed and sheltered the pagans say about the Christians: "See how they pass the buck."

--Peter Maurin--

Why Christ Shows His Wounds

2005-07-18T07:44:00.000-04:00

While I was asking god what I could do to please him more, in his mercy, he appeared to me many times, both while I was asleep and awake, crucified on the cross. He told me that I should look at his wounds... He should me how he had endured all these wounds for me... As he was showing me the sufferings he had endured for me..., he told me: "What then can you do that would seem to you to be enough?" ...He even showed me how his beard, eyebrows and hair had been plucked out and enumerated each and every one of the blows of the whip that he had received. And he said: "I have endured all these things for you."

After this, I was given an astonishing remembrance of all my sins and became aware that I was the one who had wounded him afresh with my sins and because of this, great should be my sorrow. And I did grieve more for my sins than ever before. He continued to show me the sufferings of his passion and repeated: "What indeed can you do for me that would satisfy you?" I wept much, shedding such hot tears that they burned my flesh.

--St. Angela of Foligno, +1309, was a wife and mother who later became a Franciscan tertiary and an esteemed mystical writer.

It is the Lord

2005-07-17T15:11:00.000-04:00

Do you want Christ t appear to you in prayer as he would to his friend? Let love him be within you without a moment's break. Do you want this love to be continually inflamed in your soul? Then remove from your soul love for the world...

Are you desirous of seeing the radiant beams of the beauty of the Holy Trinity in your soul? Keep the commandments of Christ, for he said, "When you keep my commandments, it is then that my love shall be found with you." And with the fulfillment of these in the soul, he said that he and Gather and his Spirit will come and make a habitation; and there he will dwell and be seen. He also said that his friends were not of the world, and that the world has hated them... I truly say that the moment the mind strips off the world it puts on Christ; the moment it departs from thinking about the affairs of the world it encounters God... It is a mystery for me here, and a cause for fear; but to the true, truth is revealed.

John the Elder (+ c. early eighth century, was a monastic writer of the East)

Sirach 2:1-6

2005-07-14T17:45:00.000-04:00

My son, when you come to serve the Lord,
prepare yourself for trials
Be sincere of heart and steadfast,
undisturbed in time of adversity.
Cling to him, forsake him not;
thus will your future be great.
Accept whatever befalls you,
in crushing misfortune be patient;
For in fire gold is tested,
and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation.
Trust God and He will help you;
make straight your ways and hope in Him.

The Infinite Love of God

2005-07-13T11:51:00.000-04:00

Fear nothing and never be afraid. And don't worry. If only your penitence fail not, God will forgive all. There is no sin and there can be no sin on all the earth, which the Lord will not forgive to the truly repentant! Man cannot commit a sin so great as to exhaust the infinite love of God. Can there be a sin which could exceed the love of God? Think only of repentance, continual repentance, but dismiss fear altogether. Believe that God loves you as you cannot conceive; that He loves you with your sin, in your sin. It has been said of old that over one repentant sinner there is more joy in heaven than over ten righteous men. Go, and fear not. Be not bitter against men. Be not angry if you are wronged. Forgive the dead man in your heart what wrong he did you. Be reconciled with him in truth. If you are penitent, you love. And if you love you are of God. All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love. If I, a sinner even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God have pity upon you. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it, and cleanse not only your own sins but the sins of others.

--Father Zossima, "The Brothers Karamazov", by Dostoyevsky

Persecution

2005-07-12T20:03:00.000-04:00

Love, love, love one another! Be glad, be jubilant! Summertime is coming!... God...showed his marvels in such a way that my soul seemed to be outside my body and was so overwhelmed with joy that I can't really describe it in words. He told and explained bit by bit the mystery of the persecution holy Church is now enduring, and of the renewal and exaltation to come. He said that what is happening now is being permitted to restore her to her original condition. First Truth cited a few words from the holy Gospel: "It is inevitable that scandal should come into the world, but woe to the one by whom the scandal comes!" It was as if he were saying, "I am permitting this time of persecution in order to uproot the thorns from my bride, for she is all hedged in with thorns. But people have no permission from me for their evil plottings. Do you know what I am doing? I am doing as I did when I was in the world, when I made the whip of cords and drove out those who were selling and buying in the temple, since I didn't want my Father's house to be made a robbers' den. In the same way, I tell you, I've made a whip now of certain people, and with that whip I am driving out the filthy, greedy, avaricious dealers bloated with pride, who are selling and buying the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit." So with the whip of human persecution he was driving them out -- I mean he was using suffering and persecution to free them from their shameful disordered way of living.

--St. Catherine of Siena--

On American-style Capitalism

2005-07-07T18:43:00.000-04:00

our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy rotten system

Dorothy Day

Personal Love

2005-07-07T18:30:00.000-04:00

It is not love in the abstract that counts. Men have loved a cause as they have loved a woman. Men have loved the brotherhood, the workers, the poor, the oppressed--but they have not loved man, they have not loved the least of these. They have not loved "personally." It is hard to love. It is the hardest thing in the world, naturally speaking. Have you ever read Tolstoi's Resurrection? He tells of political prisoners in a long prison train, enduring chains and persecution for their love of their brothers, ignoring those same brothers on the long trek to Siberia. It is never the brother right next to us, but brothers in the abstract that are easy to love. ...Dorothy Day...

Fault of the Poor

2005-07-07T12:08:00.000-04:00

Over and over again we meet good people who are under the delusion that there is little poverty in the United States, that we are all enjoying a high standard of living, and when presented with such pictures as [homeless people in their towns] they can scarcely believe them. "It must be their own fault. They are shiftless, they drink, [they are drug addicts], [they waste their money on the wrong things], they don't save their money. Everyone can get a job these days..." These are the comments they make.

**Dorothy Day**

Knowledge of the Poor

2005-07-07T11:58:00.000-04:00

How few there are who are reaching these men, these unemployed, these destitute, to bring them Catholic social teachings, some idea of the correlation of the material and spiritual, so that they can indeed begin to realize that they are creatures of body and soul. How great a need there is to build up many little centers where men gather together and discuss these things and get these ideas moving. Patience, contentment with the little way [of St. Therese], hard work, obscurity and poverty, the knowledge of the poor which results in the love of the poor, these are what is needed.

--Dorothoy Day--

"Cut It Off"

2005-07-06T11:08:00.000-04:00

When man encounters the love of God in Christ, not only does he experience what genuine love is, but he is also confronted with the undeniable fact that he, a selfish sinner, does not himself possess true love. He experiences two thing at once: the finitude of the creature's love and its sinful frigidity. To be sure, he does possess something of an "anticipation" of what love is; if he did not, he would not be able to make any sense of the sign of Jesus Christ... All the same, man cannot come to a recognition of this sign on the basis of his "anticipation" without a radical conversion-- a conversion not only of the heart, which must in the face of this love confess that it has failed to love until now, but also a conversion of thought, which must relearn what love after all really is...

The event of the Passion exposes the truth of humanity...

At a deeper level, man is aware of his heart's paralysis, fallenness, and frigidity, his incapacity to meet the demand of any law of love, no matter how generally postulated. He simply cannot summon up enough courage for it. And in any event he would not presume to believe in such a fulfillment of existence. He finds such a lack of strength in himself that he thinks he must complain to authorities higher than his own heart.

Father Hans Urs von Balthasar (+1988, an eminent Swiss Catholic theologian).

Forget Not

2005-07-05T21:46:00.000-04:00

FORGET NOT TO SHARE LOVE

FOR SOME HAVE ENTERTAINED ANGELS UNAWARES!

HEBREWS 13:2

The New Heart

2005-07-02T21:22:00.000-04:00

Jesus Christ transformed his death into verbal form--into a prayer--and, in so doing, changed the world. As a result, this death is able to be present for us, because it continues to live in the prayer, and the prayer runs right down though the centuries... Because Jesus turned death into a proclamation of thanksgiving and love, he is now able to be present down through all ages as the wellspring of life, and we can enter into him by praying with him. He gathers up, so to speak, the pitiful fragments of our suffering, our loving, our hoping, and our waiting into this prayer, into a great flood in which it shares in his life, so that thereby we truly share in the sacrifice. Christ does not stand facing us alone. It was alone that he died, as the grain of wheat, but he does not arise alone, but as a whole ear of corn, taking with him the communion of the saints. Since the Resurrection, Christ no longer stands alone but is--as the Church Fathers say-- always caput et corpus: head and body, open to us all. Thus he makes his word come true: "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" (Jn 12:32)...The magnitude of Christ's achievement consists precisely in his not remaining someone else, over and against us, who might thus relegate us once more to a merely passive role; he does not merely bear with us; rather, he bears us up; he identifies himself with us to such an extent that our sins belong to him and his being to us: he truly accepts us and takes us up, so that we ourselves become active with his support and alongside him, so that we ourselves cooperate and join in the sacrifice with him, participating in the mystery ourselves. Thus our own life and suffering, our own hoping and loving, can also become fruitful, in the new heart he has given us.

...Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger...

"Even the Unworthy Poor"

2005-07-01T20:05:00.000-04:00

God is on the side even of the unworthy poor, as we know from the story Jesus told of His Father and the prodigal son. Charles Peguy, in "God Speaks", has explained it perfectly. Readers may object that the prodigal son returned penitent to his father's house. But who knows, he night have gone out and squandered money on the next Saturday night; he might have refused to help with the farm work, and asked to be sent to finish his education instead, thereby further incurring his brother's righteous wrath, and the war between the worker and the intellectual, or the conservative and the radical, would be on. Jesus has another answer to that one: to forgive one's brother seventy times seven. There are always answers, although they are not always calculated to soothe.
*****Dorothy Day*****

"Neither You nor I"

2005-07-01T16:53:00.000-04:00

When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed. **Mother Teresa**

"A Case for Utopia"

2005-06-29T21:05:00.000-04:00

The world would be better off if people tried to become better, and people would become better if they stopped trying to become better off. For when everyone tries to become better off, nobody is better off. But when everyone tries to become better, everybody is better off. Everyone would be rich if nobody tried to become richer, and nobody would be poor if everybody tried to be the poorest. And everybody would be what he ought to be if everybody tried to be what he wants the other fellow to be. --Peter Maurin

Coming Into the Light

2005-06-28T21:54:00.000-04:00

God did not make the heavens in his image, nor the moon, the sun, the beauty of the stars, nor anything else which you can see in the created universe. You alone are made in the likeness of that nature which surpasses all understanding; you alone are a similitude of eternal beauty, a receptacle of happiness, an image of the true Light; and if you look up to him, you will become what he is, imitating him who shines within you whose glory is reflected in your purity. Nothing in all creation can equal your grandeur. All the heavens can fit into the palm of God's hand; the earth and the see are measured in the hollow of his hand (Is 40:12). And though he is so great that he can grasp all creation in his palm, you can wholly embrace; he dwells within you, nor is he cramped as he pervades your entire being, saying: "I will dwell in them, and walk among them" (2 Cor 6:16). If you realize this you will not allow your eye to rest on anything of this world. Indeed, you will no longer marvel even at the heavens. For how can you admire the heavens when you see that you are more permanent than they? For the heavens pass away, but you will abide for all eternity with him who is for ever. Do not admire, then, the vastness of the earth or the ocean that stretches out to infinity, for like a chariot and horses they have been given in your charg. You have these elements in your power to be obedient to your will. --st. gregory of nyssa--

I Believe

2005-06-28T18:27:00.000-04:00

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining I believe in love even when I cannot feel it I believe in God even when He is silent. anonymous jewish prisoner during the holocoust.

"You Do Not Belong to the World"

2005-06-28T15:30:00.000-04:00

To put aside suddenly every motive except this single one, the forming of Christ in our life, is not so easy for ordinary people who are to remain ordinary. The surrender we shall make will ask two hard thing of us staight away. The first of these hard things is that though being wed to the Spirit, we shall receive the gift of understanding. In the world in which we live today, the great understanding given by the Spirit of Wisdom must involve us in a lot of suffering. We shall be obliged to see the wound that sin has inflicted on the people of the world. We shall have X-ray minds; we shall see though the bandages people have laid over the wounds that sin has dealt them; we shall see the Christ in others, and that vision will impose an obligation on us for as long as we live, the obligation of love; when we fail in it, we shall not be able to escape in excuses and distractions as we have done in the past; the failure will afflict us bitterly and always. We shall have, by virtue of this same fift of understanding, far truer values; and we shall be haunted by a nostalgia for divine things, by a homesickness for God which is not eased in this world eben by the presence of God. And in proportion to our understanding we are likely to be misunderstood; the world does not accept Christ's values. The beatitudes are madness to the world. "Blessed are the poor, the mourners, the reviled, the persecuted, the calumniated; blessed are those who hunger and thirst after justice." People who will not compromise with Christ's values are uncomfortable neighbors for mediocrity; they are likely to be misunderstood; they are often hated. --caryll houselander (+1954, was a British mystic, poet, wood carver, and spiritual leader.)

Overcoming the Resistance of the Rich Young Man

2005-06-27T00:29:00.000-04:00

When I try to guess what the Lord's intentions may be, I end up with feelings against him, and then I am obliged to return to more humble thoughts. I don't think I am in the right frame of mind to face eternity. I am not rebelling, but I am not accepting things any longer. Most of all, I'm exhausted, and have become somewhat indifferent. I am neither impressed nor moved, and I believe that the conclusion, whatever it may be, will find me rather apathetic. While I still have a good deal of resilience, I'm attached to the world even at this point, and since I can't change my fate, I give it all up and fall asleep, waiting for someone to wake me either down here or up above!... Perhaps it is lack of humility that hardens my heart? I could easily become violent, and at the least contradiction I start up like a wildcat. Pride - the worst of all evils, which keeps us far from the Lord. I have much more reason to be humble, but it is just the opposite. The more I am slapped down, the more I stiffen and cling to the pride which is the source of my courage. "Brother Leo," Saint Francis said, "do you know what perfect joy is? Suppose we go back to the convent and brother porter greets us as if we were shameless rascals, showers us with insults and blows, turns us out into the snow, and leaves us without shelter or food. Well, if we have the strength of soul to think that this brother has treated us as we deserved, and if we praise the Lord for it, this will be perfect joy!" --Jacques Fesch (+ 1957, was a murderer who experienced a profound conversion before his execution in a French prison.)

The Duty of Hospitality

2005-06-26T18:52:00.000-04:00

People who are in need and are not afraid to beg give to people not in need the occasion to do good for goodness' sake. Modern society calls the beggar 'bum' and 'panhandler' and gives him the bum's rush. But the Greeks used to say that people in need are the ambassadors of the gods. As God's Ambassadors you should be given food, clothing and shelter by those who are able to give it. Mahometan teachers tell us that God commands hospitality, and hospitality is still practiced in Mahometan countries. But the duty of hospitality is neither taught nor practiced in Christian countries. That is why you who are in need are not invited to spend the night in the homes of the rich. There are guest rooms today in the homes of the rich but they are not for those who need them. And they are not for those who need them because those who need them are no longer considered as the Ambassadors of God. So people no longer consider hopitality to the poor as a personal duty. And it does not disturb them a bit to send them to the city, where they are given the hospitality of the [shelters] at the expense of the taxpayer. But the hospitality that the [shelter] gives to the down and out is no hospitality because what comes from the taxpayer's pocketbook does not come from his heart. The Catholic unemployed should not be sent to [a shelter]. The Catholic unemployed should be given hospitality in Catholic Houses of Hospitality. Catholic Houses of Hospitality are known in Europe under the name of hospices. There have been hospices in Europe since the time of Constantine. Hospices are free guest houses; hotels are paying guest houses. And paying guest houses or hotels are as plentiful as free guest houses or hospices are scarce. So hospitality, like everything else, has been commercialized. So hospitality, like everthing else, must now be idealized. We need Houses of Hospitality to give to the rich the opportunity to serve the poor. We need Houses of Hospitality to bring the Bishops to the people and the people to the Bishops. We need Houses of Hospitality to bring back to institutions the technique of institutions. We need Houses of Hospitality to show what idealism looks like when it is practiced. We need Houses of Hospitality to bring social justice through Catholic Action exercised in Catholic institutions. We read in the Catholic Encyclopedia that during the early ages of Christianity the hospice (or the House of Hospitality) was a shelter for the sick, the poor, the orphans, the old, the traveler, and the needy of every kind. Originally the hopices (or Houses of Hospitality) were under the supervision of the Bishops, who designated priests to administer the spiritual and temporal affairs of these charitable institutions. The foruteenth statute of the so-called Council of Carthage, held about 436, enjoins the Bishops to have hospices (or Houses of Hospitality) in connection with their churches. Today we need Houses of Hospitality as much as they needed them then, if not more so. We have Parish Houses for the priests, Parish Houses for educational purposes, Parish Houses for recreational purposes, but no Parish Houses of Hospitality. Bossuet says that the poor are the first children of the Church, so the poor should come first. People with homes should have a room of hospitality, so as to give shelter to the needy members of the parish. The remaining needy members of the parish should be given shelter in a Parish Home. Furniture, clothing, and food should be sent to the needy members of the parish at the Parish House of Hsopitality. We need Parish Homes as well as Parish Domes. In the Cathedral of Liverpool there is a Home as well as a Dome. Catholic Houses of Hospitality should be more than free guest houses for the Catholic unemployed. They could be vocational training schools, including the training for the priesthood, as Father Corbett proposes. They could be Catholic reading rooms, as Father McSorley proposes. They could be Catholic InstructionSchools, as Father Cornelius Hayes proposes. They could be Round-Table Discussion Groups, as Peter Maurin proposes. In a word, thdy could be Catholic Action Houses, where Catholic Thought is combined with Catholic Action. --Peter Maurin

The Long View

2005-06-26T18:30:00.000-04:00

It helps now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kindom of God always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our abilities. We cannot do everything, and realizing that gives us a sense of liberation. This enables us to do something and to do it very well. It may be incomplete but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We prophets of a future not our own. Amen. --Archbishop Oscar Romero

Are we expecting utopia?

2005-06-26T18:23:00.000-04:00

Are we expecting utopia here on this earth? God meant things to be much easier than we have made them. Eternal life begins now. "All the way to heaven is heaven, because He said 'I am the Way.' " The Cross is there, of course, but "in the Cross is joy of spirit." And love makes all things easy. If we are putting off the old man and putting on Christ, then we are walking in love, and love is all that we want. But it is hard to love, from the human standpoint and from the divine standpoint, when we are seemingly denied that which we long for the most. "All the way to heaven is heaven, because He said 'I am the Way.' " We remain eminently practical.

---Dorothy Day (paraphrase, mine).

The Catholic Church Today

2005-06-26T18:07:00.000-04:00

If the Catholic Church is not today the dominant social dynamic force, it is because Catholic scholars have failed to blow the dynamite of the Church. Catholic scholars have taken the dynamite of the Church, have wrapped it up in nice phraseology, placed it in an hermetic container and sat on the lid. It is about time to blow the lid off so that the Church may once again become the dominant social dynamic force. To blow the dynamite of a message is the only way to make the message dynamic. --Peter Maurin