Lenten Letter from an old friend

I found this letter while digging around some old boxes at home. And it was exactly what I needed. This comes from now Sr. Maria Cecelia of the Body of Christ, now a Passionist novice. I have left this unedited. This year I am privileged to have another few friends joining the Church, and I only wish I could write something as heart-felt and honest as this.

JMJ
20 February 2007
Dear Alan,
First of all, this stationary is not my fault, and I accept no responsibility for its old-fashioned, arts-n-crafts kitch. You'll just have to imagine the watermarked, gold-embossed letterhead I would be using if I didn't have so many, less worthy materials. But the main thing isn't the paper at all, is it? What we really care about are these strange-looking scribbles I'm making on top of it. And so...

It was so good to see you on Sunday! You, my dear friend, never fail to brighten my day with your presence, and such was made all the brighter on top of such a glorious Mass. Thank you for being the man you are--loving, sincere, funny, joyful, philosophizing, faithful, caring..a genuinely wonderful human being. There, I've said it--now never forget who you are or what you're worth! "But Kirstine!" you say, "That's not I really am!" True enough-you are both less and much more than that, aren't you? A son of Adam and a son of God, member of Christ Himself.

All which is good and beautiful in you (and there is much), God glorifies and encorporates into Himself for His own glory, making you a participant in His own life. All which is broken and disordered, He asks you to give Him, too, that He might bear it to Calvary and there transform it into grace. This is what it means to be a member of Christ--or at least one of the mainings--to have every moment and action of our life be united to every moment and action of His life. This is who you are, and whom I have watched (for a few fleeting months) grow into fuller and fuller maturity. You are beautiful--embrace the Cross, rejoice in it, savor it, for it is the turning point of everything! That is, for me, what Lent is about -- the transformation of death to life which takes place on the Cross.

But I ramble. All I really wanted to do, Alan, was to encourage you in this season of purification and preparation. This is an exciting time--such an exciting time--and you should take it as a gift. Through prayer and penance, make ready your heart to receive the Lord in the Sacraments. "He must increase, and [you] must decrease," but keep in mind that dying to self must be in the context of faith, hope and love. The crucifixion is folly without the resurrection. Penance means nothing outside the context of the love of God. When we walk this path to Calvary, dark and painful and lonely though it may be, we do it still in hope and out of love, because we know that such a death leads to (nay, promises!) SUCH a LIFE! And we are never alone, because Christ has trod and is treading with us these same steps.

I'm not being coherent as I'd hoped to be, but I trust you'll see through my exclamations and read what you need to hear. I really can't tell you how ecited I am to be able to see you received into full communion with the Church. As silly as it sounds, this is one of the best gifts I have ever received, and I'm not hte one receiving it! :-) 

May the Lord richly bless your Lent, my friend, and may He continue to shower His graces upon you as you prepare to give Him your heart and receive His own heart in return. He loves you! If you need an ear or a shoulder or a prayer or anything else, please don't hesitate to give me a call. Stop by before/after class (RCIA) if you have the time! We'll be here, and we'd love to have you.

Much love and many prayers, my dear soon-to-be Catholic!
<3 Kirstine

Response to a C

I'll have to ask Kevin for the original source...

I was talking to a friend the other day about her course on the gospel of John. She noted that her very conservative professor holds the minority view about the authorship of the fourth gospel, namely, that it was penned by the apostle John himself. Now, I have nothing invested here. It doesn’t matter a whit to me whether John himself was the main author or one of his followers. I am not remotely conversant in the debate. But what bothered me was this: that this particular professor’s espousal of the minority view was a virtual guarantee.
Why did I find this so troubling?

Because it seems to me that, as a non-specialist, I simply cannot trust anyone on the question. There is no reason I should be able to guess a scripture scholar’s position on the authorship of John’s gospel based on his position on artificial contraception and women’s ordination, but I can. What this tells me is that people’s positions aren’t determined so much by a careful analysis of the evidence at hand but rather, and overwhelmingly, by their pre-existing commitments.

My response as such:

Kevin,

First Mad props to Kevin for the Amall and the Night Visitors reference.

You have asked a lot of questions:

Do I see it?
Yes.
Catholics do not present a unified position on fundamental faith questions.

Is this a problem?
No.
This is only a problem if someone has the expectation that Catholics present a unified front. The great sin of journalism/media is ambiguity. If Catholics do not present a clear and focused message then they will loose credibility and identity with the media-consuming culture. This is what makes the LDS church and Torquemada so appealing: absolute control of the message.

I think this answer addresses why one might feel embarrassment and distress.

Is it inevitable?
Yes.
The world is full of sinners.

How to escape or transcend?
Holiness.
Peter Kreeft has a good talk on ecumenism unity that speaks to this.

Anyone who does transcend it?
Blessed Anne Katherine Emerick.
She was not a formally trained scripture scholar. Instead, she received the grace of a deep insight into the most troubling portions of the gospels.

Additional thoughts
Although I should let him speak for himself, Fr. Raph once challenged me to see how all scripture comes from tradition. Even if we did not have one shred of the Holy Bible, we could still be fully Catholic and live in the truth, because it comes from our Tradition. We believe that our tradition is inspired by God the Holy Spirit and can trust confidently in that. Yes there is still ambiguity, viz-a-viz our discussion with Teres on lying, but that ambiguity means that theologians will have jobs for a while longer.

Incredible Letter from

I keep rereading this article from the Diocese of Tulsa.
Absolutely in love.

Planned Parenthood Support

Here is one of those blog threads that I've traced backwards. Via Fr. Z via Fr. Mauer via the TFP group original article commenting on the original page on a Catholic school's website here.

There is nothing particularly new or interesting about this. Yes, it's a scandal that many in the administration of a "Catholic" school do not act or understand Catholic values. It's tremendously discouraging to see this, but it's not exactly "breaking news."

The real problem is that it presents a disunified sense of Catholic identity. This is especially difficult in Seattle, where most students are 2nd generations atheists. As a Catholic, I share in the identity of those who have a legitimate claim to be Catholic. And it is a kind of penance to share, corporately, in this word that both heretics and orthodox ascribe to themselves. It's an opportunity simply for prayer, and  to continue embracing our Catholic morals and values--all the while we must keep ourselves in conversation with places like SU, otherwise we risk becoming isolated traditionalists.

Should Catholic universities aid Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups? The answer is obviously NO. However, Seattle University – a Catholic institution – offers students the option of interning for Planned Parenthood of Western Washington on its web site.

This shocking scandal must be opposed.

Unfortunately it gets worse. The Women Studies department at Seattle University encourages students to “get involved” with pro-abortion groups.

The Women Studies web page states: “On the Seattle University Campus, in the Northwest, and across the Nation there are countless women’s organizations for you to get involved with. Here are some links to help you get started.”


Immediately after this “get involved” offer, students find pro-abortion groups such as the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority and Legal Momentum.

See http://www.seattleu.edu/artsci/women/Default.aspx?id=1574

Please help TFP Student Action counter the culture of death at Seattle University by alerting your pro-life friends about this issue. Spread the word by email, facebook, blogs and other social media.

To voice your concern politely yet firmly, please contact:

Fr. Stephen V. Sundborg, SJ
Seattle University, President
901 12th Ave.
Seattle, WA 98122-1090
Phone: 206-296-1891
E-mail: SUNDBORG@seattleu.edu

St. Patrick's Day Personal Fast

The Question:
If one takes on a personal fasting discipline during the season of lent, is that person encouraged to lift their own discipline on a feast day or maintain their fast? Any canon law to back this up?

First Response:
Now regarding the question below, I don’t recall any canonical prescriptions that specifically address one’s obligation to maintain a fast on a feast day. My response would naturally proceed from the function of a fast relative to the feast day.

We recall that Sundays within Lent are technically feast days, so we can use this as a clear point of reference. Penance, as prescribed by the Church, is a binding responsibility as if proceeds, really, from divine law. We observe the prescribed penitential days in order to fulfill this mandate. If we ask the question of whether we are bound to maintain this fast on a day which it is not prescribed it would seem to reason that we are acting contrary to the mandate of the Church to observe the paschal mystery—the day in which we celebrate Christ’s Resurrection and a day when we cease doing labor and other tasks, which would include our penitential obligations.

If we really engaged the question further, it would stand to reason that maintaining the fast is contrary to the mandate of observing the preeminent Holy Day of Obligation. Now, on minor feasts, we can used the same reasoning, depending on what the feast is.

My Response:
I like your logic about the obligation towards fasting on Feast days that occur during the year. Indeed, the components of lent emanate from divine law and should be interpreted in accordance with what will bring the greatest grace to the faithful . For myself, I intend to have a Guinness and eat some corned beef sliders this evening, preserving a Lenten restraint.

However, while I can recommend doing so for myself, I cannot recommend everyone doing so. The church calendar for the united states gives us some very clear mandates as to the feasts, solemnities and commemorations of the calendar of saints. Today in the United States, St. Patrick, Bishop and Missionary receives only a commemoration. However, in Ireland, today is celebrated as a solemnity. As to the question of dispensing with the requirement to abstain from meat when St. Patrick’s day falls on Friday, about 1/3 of the US bishops do so. We must be clear: the bishops offer a dispensation, they do not elevate the day to a solemnity.

In an effort to be as Catholic as possible, I would actually recommend that one feast on St. Joseph’s day because it is a solemnity, but observe whatever fast they undertook for the Lenten season on St. Patrick’s day. I would encourage them to offer prayers to St. Patrick on that day, but only to the same degree that they might celebrate St. Cyril of Jerusalem (March 18th).

However, because St. Patrick still exists on the US calendar, it is clear that he is important, and I can agree with your logic that we should not maintain our fasts. I would suggest a small nuance: celebration of St. Patrick’s day should be celebrated if he is genuinely important to the individual faithful, as he clearly is for the majority of the Irish nation. If one genuinely venerates St. Patrick in their life, I could think of no more fitting way to celebrate his day than by feasting a bit. However, I would strongly urge the faithful to attend mass on this day, because it places the celebration in its true context—a celebration of his example and prayers to God on our behalf.