The Causes of Unconditional Love

In getting ready to write a new essay tangentially related to contraception, I recalled a dialogue I had with someone regarding an essay I had posted on social media. I thought about just posting my own words since I pretty much dominated the conversation. I regret doing this sometimes, typing so much, but there's always so much on my mind that I want to be able to express it all. I am trying to become more concise in my writing, but as I care for this person, I felt it my Christian duty to get this person introduced to some ideas that they may not have been aware of.  I apologize if anyone tires of the length of my blog posts. Please know that I don't do it because I'm full of myself or like to hear myself "talk". In putting my thoughts here, and in dialoguing with other people, I hope to find answers. I just go about it in a way many millennials would rather not.

In any case, here's the selection of the essay, entitled "The Death of Unconditional Love", I posted on social media: 

"The widespread availability of contraception ushered in an age of sexual intercourse without consequence. Unconditional love was taken out of the equation and replaced with immediate, self-serving gratification. Love became inconsequential to sexual relations. With the possibility of procreation and the need for commitment gone, sex went from being a wonderful gift from God and an active participation in his work of creation to a sterile act, devoid of meaning and transcendence. 

"Likewise, easy, no-fault divorce has played an enormous role in the death of unconditional love. Marriage went from being a permanent, lifelong relationship to a temporary one. Our very high divorce rate signals the fact that as adults, few are capable of unconditional love. By rejecting our wives or husbands, whether we intend to or not, we tear apart our families. What is left is a broken reflection of what once was.

"In essence, without using words and often without even intending to do so, we tell our children 'My personal needs are far more important than your need for a loving home, nurtured by both Mom and Dad.'"

Below is our conversation. Some things have been edited out, but the bulk of it is still here:

The Triumph of Divine Love- Peter Paul Rubens

An Open Letter to a Catholic University Chaplain

It's no secret that many of North America's (and Europe's) Catholic colleges and university have had a streak of unorthodox practices and dissent for several decades. A great example of a college that once upheld Catholic teachings, and now possesses a most questionable attitude to the doctrines of Christ's Holy Church, would be the University of Notre Dame. Many other places of higher education could be named, but we don't need to go down that rabbit hole. We'll instead go down another, where I noticed a certain Catholic university had been displaying images near the school's chapel that were dangerous to the faith of those not well grounded in their faith, and were crafted by a man who had clear intentions to subvert the Truth revealed to the Catholic Church. Below is the letter I made up for the chaplain of this university:

North Quad at Notre Dame

What Came First? The Egg or Moral Relativism?

I came across an interesting meme the other day. It wasn't one of your typical memes with a little bit of text emblazoned on a funny picture. The picture can be found below, with a long (for a meme) essay attached to it, seen here. The meme is titled "You were on your way home but you died". It involves a man who dies in a car accident, meets a being who purports to be God, with the God character telling the man he will be reincarnated, and will keep being reincarnated until he has lived the life of every living thing on Earth, because then he will be sufficiently mature.

The conclusion is that the universe is simply an egg for this person to mature in. However this person is simultaneously Hitler and Abraham Lincoln. Therefore, our actions do not have any real consequences. In addition, the God character comments that "All religions are right in their own way." Not to mention, the typical nonsense of God being a woman comes into play again, because it's everyone's favorite thing to disregard the fact that God has revealed Himself to humanity as "Father". But anyways, read the whole thing at the link above. We'll be focusing on one main error here: the moral relativism that the author's notion of "all religions being right in their own way" leads us to.

Should the Koran Be Read During Christian Worship?

I saw this reported on a few websites in the past couple days that an Episcopalian cathedral in Glasgow had invited a Muslim woman to read from the Koran during their liturgy for the Feast of the Epiphany (or Theophany in the East). Thank God this would never be allowed in a Catholic Church, but nonetheless, this act is scandalous to Christians of any creed. At least it should be. What makes it even more problematic was that the reading that was used was from the 19th Surah. While this selection speaks of the Annunciation and Jesus' conception, it is wholly inappropriate as the 35th verse completely denies that Jesus was divine. It flat out affirms that that Jesus was not God. And this selection was read during a Christian liturgy, where Jesus, God the Son, is worshiped.

The Theophany in Heaven with the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint John the Baptist

Is Praying Towards the East During Mass "Rubbish"?

On the ever hilarious Catholic Memes page, a new meme was posted regarding the ad orientem kerfuffle that's been going on since the Second Vatican Council... but more recently since Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Sarah, addressed a liturgical conference earlier this summer in London. Now before I go on, I get the joke that is trying to be made in this meme, pictured below with everyone's favorite green Muppet, Kermit. But not everyone does when first reading this meme. Apparently, there have been a few bishops in the US and UK who have told their priests that they should not (note, not barred) expect to perform the Ordinary Form of the Mass ad orientem, or with both priest and congregation facing the altar in prayer.

I personally do not like this meme as the meaning can be misconstrued, especially for someone who has no foreknowledge of what has been going on the past few months. At first glance, it looks like the meme is advocating that priests and laity should disobey their bishops. Do I think it's funny? Yes, but the way it was executed is pretty bad. I think there was a better way to make the joke, and to make the meme not appear as if it were giving approval to someone disobeying their bishop.

That being said, there was of course, a fiery discussion ongoing in the comments section, and one caught my eye. hence, the title of this blog post. One Latin Catholic woman (in red) said the following, with another Latin Catholic man (in green) responding to her. Many of the things she says are nonsensical, especially her assertion that since "God is in our midst", there's no reason to face the altar in a common orientation. If that were the case, then it shouldn't be a problem if, when we're about to receive Communion and the priest holds up the Eucharist saying "the Body of Christ", we turn around facing the people behind us and say "Amen"! But of course that would be a problem! Not to mention God is among us in a way that is different in the Eucharist, he is substantially there before us. Christains do not believe in a pantheistic god, that God is literally everything. God is Being itself. He is locally, and substantially present in the Eucharist, reserved in all the tabernacles throughout the world. The conversation is below. My words will be in blue:

Is Anointing of the Sick Primarily for Spiritual or Physical Healing?

Recently, there was a quick little Q&A posted over on Catholic Answers regarding the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick in regards to a baby being denied the Sacrament. Apologist Michelle Arnold gave the following answer on why the child was refused the Sacrament:

Anointing of the sick primarily is for spiritual healing. Physical healing might occur, but it is not the main purpose of the sacrament. Certainly the sacrament should not be expected to automatically cure the sick person. Such an expectation tends toward superstition (cf. CCC 2111). Baptized children below the age of reason cannot commit personal sin and so do not need anointing of the sick if they are in danger of death. Rather, when in danger of death, such children can be given confirmation, for spiritual strengthening and more fully to initiate them into the Christian religion.

This quick answer led me to read up on this specific sacrament from the Catechism and other sources, and what I already knew about the Sacrament was bolstered even more. A discussion ensued on CA's Facebook page, in a couple of different spots, and ended in a very fruitful conversation where I and the people I talked with both learned a lot about the Sacraments at the same time. Both of the people I talked with claimed that Ms. Arnold's answer "didn't seem right" and that it was not "compassionate" as Christ was. I thought this was ridiculous on its face, and below are the two conversations that ensued. My main interlocutors' words ("Tom" and "Harry") will be in shades of red, mine in blue, and other people joining in represented by other varying colors:

Seven Sacraments: Extreme Unction II- Nicolas Poussin

Should We Ever Disregard the Law and "Follow Our Hearts"?

Perhaps this post won't make total sense, as it's more a stream of consciousness type deal I'll be writing here. I apologize in advance if it isn't totally coherent, and really, this is going to be my sounding board so I don't lose the thoughts floating around in my head. It's just that something really bugged me about the homily given by a visiting priest at Mass today, and it left me scratching my head, trying to figure out what point the priest was trying to get across. Now I don't think there's anything wrong with this man, he is a priest following his vocation and brings us the Eucharist, but there are some questionable things that he says, and it's a bit disconcerting. The part that really got me was when he said that mantra we all seem to hear from the secular world and Hollywood: "Follow your heart". Seeing as we're humans who suffer from concupiscence, it might not be good to always follow our heart, especially if by "heart" we mean our "conscience" and "good intentions", as the connotation seems to mean so often today.

Sacred Heart of Jesus with Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Aloysius Gonzaga- José de Páez 

News Flash: Archbishop Chaput Has Not Changed Church Teaching... And Neither Has the Pope

"Archbishop Chaput's Arrogant Contradiction of Pope Francis"
"Archbishop Chaput's actions 'are not Christian'"
"Divorced Catholics Must Avoid Sex"

These are actual headlines in response to Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia's letter “Pastoral Guidelines for Implementing Amoris Laetitia” released last week.  You'd think three things from headlines in the secular main-stream media (MSM) looking at the examples above:

1. Pope Francis changed Church doctrine to be more lax
2. Archbishop Chaput has thought he can change this doctrine again to make it more "rigid"
3. This is actually news.

Here's a hint for number 3... it's not news. It's not because the first and second points are false. Pope Francis didn't change anything with Amoris Laetitia, no matter how bad people in the secular or liberal Christian world want it to, and Archbishop is saying nothing new; he's just reiterating Catholic teaching. And judging by the response, the world, especially those Catholics who have embraced modernity and the lifestyles of the secular culture, need to hear it.

Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia

There is a Difference Between Deaconesses and "Female Deacons"

Ever since Pope Francis said a while back that he'd look into the issue of women as deaconesses in the early Church, people of a certain stripe seem to think that the Pope is going to OK women deacons. That obviously won't happen because it can't, and it never did happen. The idea of a female deacon is as much a misnomer as "female priest" is. It can't happen, plain and simple. But deaconesses are another story. More on that in a second. The reason this got my attention today was because this article was posted earlier on Cardnial Gerhard Muller's recent reaction to the issue. The short article said, in part, "The head of the Vatican’s doctrine office is suggesting little new will come from a study commissioned by Pope Francis into the role of women deacons, according to Associated Press. Cardinal Gerhard Muller says the Vatican is putting together a list of experts for the study. But he says the focus will be historic in nature, studying the role of women deacons in the early church, and that regardless a comprehensive study was completed in 2002."

Archbishop Muller

On Renewing Our Church

Many parishes have probably seen something like this on a smaller scale, but the Archdiocese of Chicago has a new program going on right now called "Renew My Church." At the link, one can take a survey on their specific parish and answer other questions on what the Archdiocese can do to become better as a whole. It seems the ball started to get rolling this Easter, the time of year everyone knows the C&E's come out of the woodwork, and made the surveys available after all Masses.

While a lot of these questions are legitimate, some seem to be a little strange, almost trying to elicit a specific answer. I may not reside in the Archdiocese of Chicago, but here are some of the thoughts I had regarding their questions on how the Church can maintain "vitality":

Holy Name Cathedral

Taking Care With the Most Holy Name

We all have bad habits. Some of them we want to break, others we really don't care about. Since I'm a pretty imperfect (not-so-angelic, you could say) person, I have a lot of bad habits. There's plenty of things I need to work on to make myself a better person and a better Catholic Christian. One thing that I've had some success with is taking God's name in vain. Of course, this is against the second commandment, which tells us plainly "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." This is something I used to do pretty frequently, but I'm getting better at cutting it out of my vocabulary. However, I've heard some people say that it's not as big a deal to use the Lord's name in vain as one might think. According to one religious, I've seen it said that, "Simply because we may blurt out one of these phrases without the full awareness of their significance, does not render them disrespectful." And I can understand that outlook... to a degree, though.

If for instance, someone tells me that their aunt got in a car accident, or someone is suffering from a horrible disease, then I could see "Oh my God" being permissible to say; perhaps it could be offered up as a prayer as in, "Oh my God, have mercy on that person."

However, I think I disagree with the particular viewpoint above for the most part. It would appear other men who have been ordained to the priesthood have given a contrary answer to the question of if it is a sin to say something like "oh my God!" when not used as a prayer. It's not all as cut and dry as we might make it out to be.

Putting on a New Hat: Catechist

Intercession of St. Charles Borromeo supported by the Virgin Mary (detail)- Rottmayr Fresco

Earlier this week, I officially began teaching catechism classes to my parish's sixth graders. I have to say, I felt a little frazzled as this was the first time I've ever had a class to myself, but the first day, albeit short, went well. At my former parish, I was able to sit in on a few classes as an aide, but my work schedule at the time didn't allow me to continue. Now though, it seems that everything has fallen into place, and if it's God's will that I be a catechist to our young people, so be it.

I've felt this pull to do so for a couple years now, as I've gone farther and farther on this journey of faith in Christ. I've felt more on fire than ever and I wish to proclaim the Good News to all who will listen; perhaps now I'm finally living up to the expectations I was given when I received the Sacrament of Confirmation. I think every practicing Catholic can see how disastrous religious education has been in recent decades. There are so many people who do not know their faith, and I've seen it first hand as almost no one from my class of around 25 students at my Catholic grade school are currently practicing Catholics, including some of my very good friends. It saddens me deeply, and I don't want the same thing to happen to our young people today.

These young people are in so much need of our prayers and support. And because that need is so great, I keep finding myself wondering if I'm really qualified... if I can do this. I can only hope and pray to God that I am, and that I can plant some seeds in these young people's hearts. I did notice one great thing on our first day. I reminded the children to genuflect before our Lord present in the tabernacle upon entering church. Some didn't know what a genuflection was, or why we do it. Hopefully, I made that apparent in my explanation, and it seemed to hold as the children surprised me by genuflecting one by one, instead of at the same time, as they exited the pews. And it wasn't the fake "I-don't-have-time-for-this" bow... it was reverent and meaningful. An acknowledgement that our Lord, whom they just received, was also still present in the tabernacle behind the altar. I can only hope that the Holy Spirit grants me the grace to teach these children our faith well.

St. Robert Bellarmine

So please, pray for me and the young people I am teaching this year, that we may both grow in holiness and grow to love Christ ever more deeply. I just recently found out that two of my favorite saints, St. Charles Borromeo and St. Robert Bellarmine (whose feast day was just celebrated on Sept. 17th), are the patron saints of catechists. In addition to my patron saints, I know to whom I will be asking for intercessory prayers this year.

St. Charles Borromeo and St. Robert Bellarmine, pray for us!