O God, come to my assistance
O Lord, make haste to help me.
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It’s Afternoon News Round Up
NCR — the hated publication of the other side — posted a good book reivew Liturgy as theater melds myth into history
She weaves Mircea Eliade’s work on myth and Paul Ricoeur’s theory of narrative to explain how in various places and times participation in festivals and cults is connected to the birthing of great myths of origin and creation. Theater catapults mythical identities into history.
That is a tidbit of a quote to entice you to click the link and actually risk going to the page and reading the full review. It will surprise you. I promise.
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St Luke Productions has a daily broadcast called Benedictus Moments and today’s is Eucharistic Communion. These are daily broadcasts by St. Luke Productions “specifically produced for radio and the web in an effort to strengthen the understanding and insight of the Word of God and the rich legacy of sacred tradition. It is an exciting and unique program, and we ask for your fervent prayers for its success in the evangelization of our world today.”
Drop in, give it a listen, and bookmark the site to hear it each day.
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As promised I place both sides of our seriously divided Church on my site, and here is The Alliance Defense Fund with the opening statement
The Alliance Defense Fund is a servant organization that provides the resources that will keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel through the legal defense of religious freedom, the sanctity of life, marriage and the family.
Just as I insist that those don’t care for NCR read the posts I put up, I insist that those who do read NCR, take a look at this page. We must learn to engage one another with Christian Charity and stop taking potshots at each other.
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Something now from The Future Church “An Open Letter From the People of God to the Bishops of the United States.”
The slow deliberate pace of the Catholic Church, once deemed a virtue, is a luxury we can no longer afford. Delay caused by inaction threatens our Catholic life and mission. Without a viable priesthood and strong healthy parish communities, the terrible decline in vitality that has devastated the Catholic faith in Europe may well occur in the US.
Silence, blind obedience, and unquestioning trust on the part of faithful Catholics can no longer be viable options if the Church with the Eucharist as the center of its life is to survive. Now is the time to act as well as to pray.
Therefore, we call on you, our bishops and brothers in Christ, to embrace your roles as shepherds, and nourish the people you were ordained to serve. We ask you to encourage discussion of the genuine reform so necessary to the future of the Church.
The letter is worth reading its entirety. Please read it for the same reason I want everyone to read both NCR and ADF, so we can all be informed and stop this pointless engagement in haranguing.
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Now a post from an Episcopal Blogger who I respect a great deal and want to present his thinking here. The blog is Spirituality Without Borders, and today’s post is Asking the Questions
Discernment’s a tricky thing, yet necessary on a daily basis. It allows you to sense where you are and if that is in line with what you and others sense is your vocation. Those others include a spiritual director or soul friend, perhaps a mentor in Religious formation.
Give his blog a read and then subscribe if you like it. At least give it a chance.
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Catholic Education Resource Center is a place that I disagree with more than agree, but that does not stop me reading what they have to say and hopefully it will not stop you either. Today the article is “Laws Are Morality.”
It is an electoral fact that religiously observant voters found a home in the Conservative party. They are an important part of what produced this election result. Whether their judgment was a wise one remains to be tested. But it places upon your party at this time a special responsibility to defend the positive role of faith in public life, and to promote the full participation of Canadians of faith in our common life together.
It is a good article. I enjoyed it although I do disagree with his basic premise, but so what? Read it and let me know what you think.
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On the Nature of the Crucifix The first paragraph is an attention grabber. It’s really very good and comes from Catholic Education Resource Center.
The death of Christ on the cross is the bedrock, actual and metaphorical, of the Christian faith. Not only is the crucifix often the main image above the altar, the form of the cross has historically served as the ground plan for churches and cathedrals. The union of opposites – above and below, vertical and horizontal, God and man – the crucifix is as much about the tension and conflict between those opposites, as it is about the spiritual portal created through their intersection.
If you are sensitive to religious symbolism at all, this article will inform you and appeal to you, and, leave you the better for having read it.
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A Shocking Story
Victims of Slavery or Prostitutes? Paying Attention to Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking is the epitome of a globalized market and among the most profitable. It is also a clear example of social sin, individuals commit sin and participate in global human trafficking; however this is a structural network of exploitation, abuse, and evil. As Christians, it is not enough to condemn slavery or trafficking. (Here I am assuming that there is uniform agreement among Christians that slavery is immoral and a violation of human dignity.) As long as we remain comfortable in our delusion that “slavery doesn’t exist anymore” or “it only exists over there,” we participate in perpetuating the social conditions that allow the global human trafficking market to thrive. Victims of human trafficking are invisible. They are hidden by their captors, on the margins of the society around them, invisible – what Gustavo Gutierrez calls non-persons, human persons who the prevailing social order does not recognize as such.
This is a horror, that humans are still sold like a beast of burden. Some of you may know that in my opinion the two great sins of the United States for which we should all lay face down in our Churches and repent are Slavery of African-Americans, and the near annihilation of Native-Americans.
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My dear readers, I implore God on behalf of humanity day and night that we may all come together in a simple understanding that God as revealed in Jesus Christ is the one thing all Christians have in common. Our problems with each other are petty in comparison to such a powerful central belief that God as revealed in Jesus Christ is our true home and our true commonality.
May the Lord bring us altogether to ever lasting life.
