"Has your conscience shown?"

Collective Soul, doing an acoustic version their song "The World I Know" in Morocco, is this week's traditio. In last night's post I mentioned the importance of viewing things sub specie aeternatis, especially painful things, (i.e., "under the aspect of eternity"), which Don Gius calls "living in the awareness of your destiny." This is nothing other than our inherent longing for transcendence, which longing constitutes our humanity. Why mention all of that? Because I find this song captures that longing beautifully.

Are we listening?/Hymns of offering./Have we eyes to see?/Love is gathering./All the words that I've been reading/Have now started the act of bleeding/Into one

"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive ..."

According to Metropolitan Anthony Bloom in his timeless book Living Prayer, there was a Russian Orthodox bishop who insisted that the reason it is a privilege for a Christian to die a martyr is "because none but a martyr can, at the last judgment, take his stand in front of God's judgment seat and say, 'According to thy word and thy example, I have forgiven. Thou hast no claim against them anymore.' Which means that the one who suffers martyrdom in Christ, whose love is not defeated by suffering, acquires unconditional power of forgiving over the one who has inflicted the suffering." Metropolitan Anthony goes on to note that this principal is applicable in everyday life, even when it comes to minor injustices. He warns that "this is a two-edged sword; if you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven."

Not that in anyway I come close to the example of the holy martyrs, but something I have always found useful in dealing with some actual grievance I have against someone, be it petty or fulsome, is to think, "If my grievance is all that stood between that person and heaven, would I condemn them?" I consider it nothing except a great grace that I have, at least up to now, always answered, "No," even when it was a struggle. It helps to see things sub specie aeternatis.

Holy martyr, Shahbaz Bhatti, pray for us

He also tells the story of priest who was imprisoned by the Communists shortly after the Russian Revolution, when he was still young. This priest emerged from his imprisonment "a broken man." When he was asked what was left of him after his experiences, he replied, "Nothing is left of me, they have burnt out every single thing, only love survives." This led Anthony to write, "A man who can say that has the right attitude and anyone who shares his tragedy must also share in his unshakeable love."

The final words of St. Stephen, proto-martyr, as he felt the impact of the stones thrown by those whose cloaks were held by one Saul of Tarsus, come to mind: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (Acts 7:60 ESV). Don't let your love be defeated by suffering, or even death, both of which Christ conquered because He loves you.

HHS mandate: Why the kerfuffle?

I have been very reluctant to to post anything about the current stand-off between the U.S. Catholic bishops and the Obama Administration caused by the implementation of the Department of Health and Human Services mandate, not least of which because Church teaching on the matter at stake is a subject I write about fairly regularly. I also hate to be one of the few voices to break the news to my sisters and brothers that the current dust-up is about contraception. By insisting that it is about contraception, I do not deny the fact that it is also a matter of religious liberty about which all citizens of United States should be concerned, whether they are Catholic or not, religious or not. But outside the secular realm, in the ecclesial realm, concerns about religious liberty are only of secondary importance. I have to admit that it strikes me as very odd that a rule mandating Catholic institutions, through their health insurers, offer free contraceptives to their employees is what would spark a row between the U.S. bishops and the Obama Administration.

The reason I find it odd is because the coverage that the Department of Health and Human Services is seeking to require is already provided by many of the affected Catholic institutions. Of course, there are also many Catholic institutions that, in keeping with Church teaching do not offer such coverage. This brings up the uncomfortable question about why, when we are remonstrating so vigorously against the mandate, are so many Catholic institutions given a free pass by the bishops? Is it one thing to be required to violate one's religious beliefs and another to do so voluntarily? Of course, the answer to this rhetorical question is clearly "Yes." But in terms of the Church's teaching as it applies to institutions who claim the name "Catholic" this is problematic to say the least and goes some distance towards robbing the Church of creditability on the subject in the political debate.

In light of this unfolding saga it seems clear that whether the Catholic Church in the United States wants to or not, we will be forced to discuss the matter that is the cause of such a mammoth political battle. The only way to avoid that outcome is for the bishops to accept the Obama Administration's "accommodation" (as opposed to compromise) on the matter and call it a day. The president is standing pat, as is his Catholic secretary of the Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. Their reason for doing so is because they know that when it comes to contraception most Catholics either ignore or actively dissent from the Church's teaching, this includes many clergy and not a few bishops. After all, the argument that access to contraception is a form of "preventative care," rooted in the fairly insane notion that pregnancy is a disease, that is, something to mostly be mostly avoided, has proven very persuasive. Senator Barbara Boxer of California is already making the obvious case in favor of the HHS rule, arguing that an individual's right to contraceptive coverage trumps religious liberty. She went on to warn, using the most specious slippery-slope reasoning imaginable, that repealing the rule would have even more dire consequences.

Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete in his recent article, HHS Mandate/The true rights of women and men, is right when he opines that "the conflict will be framed from now on: contraception vs women's rights." We are already at the point at which any insistence that this is "only," or even primarily, a question of religious liberty, is passed. We must have the courage to tell the truth, even when it seems clear that the truth will not be convincing to most people, including many Catholics. One Catholic commentator boldly stated that by rejecting the administration's "accommodation," the U.S. bishops were snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. But the bishops were right to insist that the proffered solution was no victory, as tempting as it must have been to put the matter the rest. Our bishops deserve credit for the courage they have shown in rejecting the "accommodation."

In his annual Christmas speech to the Roman Curia for 2008, Pope Benedict XVI said, "An integral part of the Church's proclamation must be a witness to the Creator Spirit present in nature as a whole, and, in a special way, in the human person, created in God’s image.

"From this perspective, we should go back to the Encyclical Humanae Vitae: the intention of Pope Paul VI was to defend love against sex as a consumer good, the future against the exclusive claims of the present, and human nature against its manipulation."

A friend of mine, Catherine, during a discussion prompted by posting the link to Albacete's article on Facebook today, wrote: "I'm going to suggest that a true feminist will balk at women forever being told to impair their fertility, especially as 99% of the time, it is in order to accommodate men. Sorry, no. It's not liberating if we're still making this a "woman's issue" as if men don't matter and don't have anything to do with reproduction." This strikes me as a verification of what Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae predicted: "Another effect [of the use of artificial contraceptives] that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection" (par. 17).

Sts. Cyril & Methodius, more than an inside joke

There are so many things to write about, but so few that are really of interest to me at present. I have to be honest, not having access to a computer last week and so not posting for several days helped me to accomplish something I was trying to do as the new year began, which was not to put pressure on myself to post something everyday, to prudently keep certain observations to myself, and to post only when I had the inclination. So, I am grateful for that, especially since Lent is just around the corner.

It somehow seems fitting that Valentine's Day this year falls a week from Shrove Tuesday (i.e., the day before Ash Wednesday, in some cultures called "Fat Tuesday"). Next year Valentine's Day will be the day after Ash Wednesday. Were it not for the leap year this year we would witness something truly cataclysmic; the extraordinarily secular(ized) Valentine's Day falling on Ash Wednesday! I would be lying if I wrote that I am glad or relieved I don't get witness this spectacular collision of the sacred and profane.

So, on this Valentine's Day, here's to the great brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius, natives of the ancient city of Thessoloniki, where the Apostle Paul himself established the Christian Church, apostles to the Slavs, my wife's people. Since the reform of the Roman liturgical calendar after the Second Vatican Council, today has been the liturgical memorial of these two, falling on what the Roman Church believes to be the day of the death of St. Cyril. Today's memorial is an obligatory memorial, meaning that in the Church's liturgy it cannot be disregarded in favor of the Sixth Tuesday of Ordinary Time.

In 1985, Bl. Pope John Paul II, himself a Slave, promulgated what is perhaps his least known encyclical letter, Slavorum apostoli, concerning these two great saint. In his Apostolic Letter of 31 December 1980, Egregiae virtutis (there is no official English translation), along St. Benedict, who was proclaimed the Patron Saint of Europe in 1964 by Pope Paul VI, he made Saints Cyril and Methodius Co-Patron of Europe. Below is a brief, but important, section from the encyclical, that helps see that the saints we memorialize today are more than an inside joke among Catholics who seek to order their lives around the sacred calendar of the liturgical year. Additionally, what he Bl. Pope John Paul wrote about the relationship between faith and culture transcended the subject of his encyclical:

Sts. Cyril and Methodius

VI. THE GOSPEL AND CULTURE

21. The Brothers from Salonika were not only heirs of the faith but also heirs of the culture of Ancient Greece, continued by Byzantium. Everyone knows how important this heritage is for the whole of European culture and, directly or indirectly, for the culture of the entire world. The work of evangelization which they carried out as pioneers in territory inhabited by Slav peoples-contains both a model of what today is called " inculturation the incarnation of the Gospel in native cultures and also the introduction of these cultures into the life of the Church.

By incarnating the Gospel in the native culture of the peoples which they were evangelizing, Saints Cyril and Methodius were especially meritorious for the formation and development of that same culture, or rather of many cultures. Indeed all the cultures of the Slav nations owe their "beginning" or development to the work of the Brothers from Salonika. For by their original and ingenious creation of an alphabet for the Slavonic language the Brothers made a fundamental contribution to the culture and literature of all the Slav nations.

Furthermore, the translation of the sacred books, carried out by Cyril and Methodius together with their pupils, conferred a capacity and cultural dignity upon the Old Slavonic liturgical language, which became for many hundreds of years not only the ecclesiastical but also the official and literary language, and even the common language of the more educated classes of the greater part of the Slav nations, and in particular of all the Slavs of the Eastern Rite. It was also used in the Church of the Holy Cross in Cracow, where the Slav Benedictines had established themselves. Here were published the first liturgical books printed in this language. Up to the present day this is the language used in the Byzantine liturgy of the Slavonic Eastern Churches of the Rite of Constantinople, both Catholic and Orthodox, in Eastern and South Eastern Europe, as well as in various countries of Western Europe. It is also used in the Roman liturgy of the Catholics of Croatia.

22. In the historical development of the Slavs of Eastern Rite, this language played a role equal to that of the Latin language in the West. It also lasted longer than Latin in part until the nineteenth century-and exercised a much more direct influence on the formation of the local literary languages, thanks to its close kinship with them. These merits vis-a-vis the culture of all the Slav peoples and nations make the work of evangelization carried out by Saints Cyril and Methodius in a certain sense constantly present in the history and in the life of these peoples and nations.

Why pray?

The vast majority of Christians acknowledge that prayer is vitally important, even as many acknowledge they don't pray as often as they should or as often as they would like. As regards the frequency of prayer, it is like any other activity in life, you just need to set aside time to pray. Setting aside times to pray each day brings up the other challenge, namely how to pray. There are no shortage of ways to pray. There is always spontaneous prayer from-the-heart. Lectio divina is certainly a well-proven way to pray, a manner of prayer that is mostly listening. The Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which bids us to focus on the mysteries of our Lord's life and help us to imitate Him in our own lives is another time-tested way of praying. More recently, there is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and other devotions that can help you focus and shape your spirituality. For example, each day at the end of Morning Prayer I recite the Litany of St. Joseph for three fixed intentions and other immediate and more specific intentions that flow from them.

With Lent less than two weeks away, it is important for us understand the importance of prayer in order to begin to pray more. Our prayer often wanes because we wonder, "If God knows everything, including what I need before I ask Him, then why bother?" Well, in the first instance prayer is not merely about asking God for things, stated more academically, all prayer is not petitionary prayer. Nonetheless, Eugene Peterson, in his book Like Dew Your Youth: Growing Up With Your Teenager, reminded us, "God will do nothing apart from the prayers of the people His Son redeemed. The power is His; the privilege is ours." I take this to mean something like, God can work through any means He chooses and the means He chooses are the prayers of His people.

Peterson continued in our vein from last week, which was opened up by the provocative missive by Fr. Rutler, "We who are in Christ have no reason to fear or surrender to hell's program. We have been redeemed to be prayerful agents of God's blessing, authority, and power on earth; to pray for the earthly manifestation of His heavenly righteousness and will." Peterson concludes this thought by stating what should be obvious to us, but often is not: "That will happen when we seek God's kingdom first."

Do not be mistaken, hell has a program. The fact that you do not pray as frequently as you know you ought to is proof enough of that, as is the challenge of praying once you do start. In a recent post entitled Know the Enemy, Pastor Tim Challies, with the aid of the sixth chapter of Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, helped us to know who our enemy is and to understand his program so that we can do battle. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12 ESV).

So, why pray? To usher in God's kingdom- "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

This week I will take a brief look at those other two spiritual disciplines that, along with prayer, constitute the foundations of any authentic Christian spirituality: fasting and alms-giving.

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

On this date in 1858 the Blessed Virgin Mary began appearing to young Bernadette Soubirous outside the town of Lourdes in southwest France. Bernadette was 14 years-old at the time. There were seventeen more apparitions that year. The Virgin said to the young woman, "que soy era immaculada concepciou," "I am the immaculate conception." In 1862 Pope Pius IX permitted the veneration of Our Lady of Lourdes. Prior to all this, on 8 December 1854, with massive support from bishops throughout the world, with his bull Ineffabilis Deus, Pius IX, and even prior to the First Vatican Council's formal definition of the dogma of papal infallibility, defined the dogma of the Virgin Mary's immaculate conception ex cathedra:

We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful.

St. Bernadette Soubirous

Like the humble Virgin of Nazareth, God chose Bernadette Soubrious, a simple peasant girl from a troubled family, who had difficulty learning her catechism, to see, hear, and simply proclaim what she witnessed. On 8 December 1933 she was raised to the altar by Pope Pius XI. This proves yet again what the apostle wrote to the Corinthian church long ago, "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God"(1 Cor. 1:27-29 ESV). Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us. St. Bernadette, pray for us.

Because Lourdes has become a place of so much healing 11 February is also the day the Church sets aside as World Day of the Sick. In that regard, with the recent flap about the the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requirement dictating that Church-run institutions must provide contraceptive coverage for free (even though many, perhaps even most, already do), contraception is not "preventative care" because being pregnant is not an illness. Oh, and it is about contraception, at least on the level that matters or makes any difference. Otherwise, it seems to me that it only amounts to ripples across the surface of the water.

I would be remiss not to mention that, fittingly, today is also the birthday of my lovely wife. Today is also the twenty-ninth anniversary of the charism of Communion & Liberation being officially recognized by the Church.

"And every demon wants his pound of flesh"

I took a break from blogging this week because I did not have access to a computer at home. I have to say, it was something I needed. I am back in time for our Friday traditio, if a bit late, which this week is Flo(rence)+ The Machine= good tunes and "Shake It Out."

Our love is pastured, such a mournful sound/Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground/So I like to keep my issues strong/But it's always darkest before the dawn