Really?

AMDG

St. Augustine of Hippo~A Bit Late in the Day

We entreat you brothers, as earnestly as we are able, to have charity, not only for one another, but also for those who are outside the church. Of these some are still pagans, who have not yet made an act of faith in Christ. Others are separated, insofar as they are joined with us in professing faith in Christ, our head, but are yet divided from the unity of his body. My friends, we must grieve over these as over our brothers. Whether they like it or not, they are our brothers; and they will only cease to be so when they no longer say our Father. 

This is from a discourse on the psalms by St. Augustine. It is the second reading from the Office of Readings for the fourteenth Tuesday in Ordinary Time, and yet it could so easily have been written today. 

I think wrote a few days ago about how depressing it is to look at Facebook these days, or, of course, to listen to the radio. I don't watch television. There is so much anger, and so much fear, and so much disdain for those we disagree with. So much of it comes from people who love God and love the Church, and yet what I never have seen anyone saying is what Augustine says in the passage above. "My friends, we must grieve over these as over our brothers."

Further on in this passage Augustine says, 

And so, dear brothers, we entreat you on their behalf, in the name of the very source of love, by whose milk we are nourished, and whose bread is our strength, in the name of Christ our Lord and his gentle love. For it is time now for us to show them great love and abundant compassion by praying to God for them. May he one day give them a clear mind to repent and to realize that they have nothing whatever to say against the truth; they have nothing now but the sickness of their hatred, and the stronger they think they are, the weaker they become. We entreat you then to pray for them, for they are weak, given to the wisdom of the flesh, to fleshly and carnal things, but yet they are our brothers.

So, who are these people that I'm saying we need to grieve over, that we need to be praying for. Well, they are whoever pops into your mind when you read this. They might not be the same people that pop into my mind, but that's okay. I think there's plenty of grieving and praying to be done for all of us. 

AMDG

By the way, as far as I can tell this is a picture of Augustine, at least many people have used it as a picture of Augustine, although I can't find out who painted it or what it's called. I used it anyway because I really like it. It looks to me to be a detail of a larger picture. If anyone recognizes the picture, I would love to know more about it.

The Conversion of St. Augustine, Fra Angelico

Thanks to my sister, Lisa, and my daughter, Lisa.

A Few Things While We are Waiting for Me to Write Something

There is hope!

Of course, it's 88F at the moment, but that's ten degrees cooler than it has been for most of the month. I really shouldn't complain.

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Why I like the new translation of the Mass.

Well, I can't do it and I bet you can't either. Almost every time I go to Mass, I say "...for our good and the good of all His church--holy church." And then I make the face. Our church is pie shaped and from where I sit I can see about half the congregation and I can tell all the way across the nave when somebody gives the old response because they make the face. Sometimes it's accompanied by a little shrug. 

I can look right at the text of the Creed and follow along with my finger and still not be able to read what is written there. My favorite change is, "Lord I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed," but I'm pretty sure that I've only said it correctly three times.

Now the reason why I like this is because when I say, "...church--holy church," my neighbor does not hit me over the head with a missalette; she turns to me and smiles. This is because she knows that pretty soon she will say, "It is right to give Him thanks and praise." And when the priest makes a mistake, as mine did Saturday, although I don't remember what it was because that was 30 hours ago, nobody accuses him of heresy. So, that's why I like. We are just all in there messing up together, and we all know it.

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More of these big white birds, which, now that I can see them better, I know to be Great White Herons. This is fairly surprising because we used to see quite a few Great Blue Herons (which should really be called Great Gray Herons) and maybe two whites a year. I'm not sure that I've seen any blues this year at all. I suppose the Great Whites are this year's bumper crop, which is very nice. Bill took these with his much better camera. We still haven't been able to get a picture of a really big group of them, though. Sometimes we come around the corner and see about 100 herons in the area that's pictured below.

Then there's this guy. I'm not sure what he is.

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And then there's one more thing about the election. I'm a little worried that if Romney wins, in 2020 Paul Ryan might run for President with Rand Paul as his running mate. Now, aside from the horribleness of these two names in close proximity, there is this:

I mean, it's not like they are twins separated at birth or anything, but they just look too much alike. Lose the widow's peak and dye RP's hair black and we are getting perilously close. And if they get those matching ties like Obama and Biden . . . So, I'm just warning y'all.

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Now, I thought I might really write something later today, but believe it or not, this took two hours, so I would guess not. Orientation was Friday, so the worst is over, but my head is still stuffed full of who needs an academic reference and who needs three transcripts and 15, 000 details that still need to be taken care of. I have another really busy day coming up tomorrow and hopefully after that I'll get back to a more or less normal schedule.

AMDG

The Real Problem with This Election

I know there's a lot of really ugly campaigning going on and I can hardly bear to look at Facebook for fear of what acrimony I will find there, but really all that stuff pales before the lack of alphabetical diversity on the Republican front. I don't know how much longer I can bear a party that includes Paul Ryan, Ron Paul, and Rand Paul and talks a lot about Ayn Rand. I never thought I would be so thankful for the name Mitch, which I don't particularly care for but which doesn't contain even a single a, r, or n, or anything that approaches the name Paul. Romney, on the other hand, offends on a few fronts, but at least has a different sort of sound, although it comes perilously close to Ron.

AMDG

So Sad

I would really rather be writing something.


AMDG

The Most Constructive Thing?

Caryll Houselander wrote this in a letter in January, 1944 in a discussion about what she saw as the necessity of reordering her life after the war to be as worthwhile as possible.

What I mean is that it is my absolute belief that Christianity alone can do any good in the world now; and when I say "do any good," I do not mean--produce economic reform, or better drains, or a fuller medical service, or brighter trade unions. I'm not meaning to belittle such reforms, etc., but whereas they have come to mean everything to a lot of thinking people, I believe that they would be the inevitable result of Christianity, but aiming at them without a very definite Christianity first is futile. What I do mean by Christianity is: 

(a) First of all what Christ taught. We can't solve half the problems asking for solutions, but He knows all the answers; and in any case a Christian state or world, built on one or two things He taught, plus a vague desire for a "better world," is nonsense.

Secondly (or "b"!): by Christianity I mean a faith which will give some coherent answer to the difficulties about suffering, the suffering of innocence in particular: that will give people comfort in suffering (in the true sense of the word "comfort," i.e. "to make strong"): that will guarantee and somehow keep fast the ideal of love, and will keep human love and [love of] the world as its first value, and which will increase life, spiritual and physical, at all times, in all circumstances.

This entire passage sounds very familiar and timely, and it seems to me that so much of what we see and hear about today from both political parties, and, indeed, from many prayerful and serious Christians is the exact opposite of what she is saying. It is her second (or "b"!) point that really strikes me. How seldom, instead of the hubris that assumes we can end suffering, do we hear someone say that we should do something that will comfort (make strong) people in their suffering. Can you imagine the response to a politician, or even a religious leader, who recommended that? I think that this was very much the ministry of Mother Teresa, and I think that this was part of the reason why some people hated her so much. 

It would take too long to enlarge on what a blessing to mankind other things in our Faith are, such as sorrow for sin, for instance. But what I want to explain is that I think myself that the most constructive thing one can do in this world is to make the Christian Faith known to English people. I have been absolutely astonished during this war to find how very few of the people who talk about a better world based on Christianity have even a rough idea of what Christ taught--other than a very vague idea that it is "love"; and I have met more than one who thinks the "love" means the same thing as a slap and tickle on Hampstead Heath!

The most constructive thing, she says is to make the Christian Faith known. And really, for most of us it is the most obvious thing we can do. We can live in such a way that our faith is visible, and we can learn what the Church teaches (and this is a never-ending process) so that when the opportunity arises we can explain what we believe. And the opportunity will arise. Sometimes, it's just a matter of not doing what everybody else is doing--of making yourself the center of attention when you really would rather just sink into the floor. Sometimes it comes in an adversarial way and you have to really focus on that hidden Christ in the person you are talking to to be able remain non-adversarial yourself. And sometimes, it's surprisingly easy, the words just seem to come of their own volition.

One thing that I do along these lines is teach PRE in my parish. I have to tell you that many years, I just really do not want to do it, and even during the years when I want to do it, there are many Sundays when I don't want to. It takes time and energy that I would like to use for other things. It requires me to be there week after week when I would sometimes like to go away for a weekend. It's expensive. The only way I can teach is by using way more stuff than I would expect the parish to pay for. But now, after several years of teaching the First Communion class, I sit in Mass and watch the children go up to receive, and I've taught lots of them, and I know that they have at least heard what the Church teaches about the Eucharist and many other things even though I don't know for sure if they remember.

So, I didn't have any intention when I started writing this post to end with a pitch for religious education teachers, but it seems to be where I've ended up. I know that you don't want to do it. You probably think that you can't it, I know that I thought that. But if you know your faith and you have the least ability to teach, I hope you will consider it, because it's almost a given that your parish is begging for teachers. It's also almost a given that many of the people who are teaching have never been taught themselves, and they could use some help. If we want to have mature Christians who know their faith and better liturgy and enough priests, and for that matter, economic reforms and better drains and fuller medical service, somebody has got to get in their and teach those children.

AMDG