John Henry Newman - All Saints Day

So many were the wonderful works which our Saviour did on earth, that not even the world itself could have contained the books recording them. Nor have His marvels been less since He ascended on high;—those works of higher grace and more abiding fruit, wrought in the souls of men, from the first hour till now,—the captives of His power, the ransomed heirs of His kingdom, whom He has called by His Spirit working in due season, and led on from strength to strength till they appear before His face in Zion. Surely not even the world itself could contain the records of His love, the history of those many Saints, that "cloud of Witnesses," whom we today celebrate, His purchased possession in every age! We crowd these all up into one day; we mingle together in the brief remembrance of an hour all the choicest deeds, the holiest lives, the noblest labours, the most precious sufferings, which the sun ever saw. Even the least of those Saints were the contemplation of many days,—even the names of them, if read in our Service, would outrun many settings and risings of the light,—even one passage in the life of one of them were more than sufficient for a long discourse. "Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel?" [Numb. xxiii. 10.] Martyrs and Confessors, Rulers and Doctors of the Church, devoted Ministers and Religious brethren, kings of the earth and all people, princes and judges of the earth, young men and maidens, old men and children, the first fruits of all ranks, ages, and callings, gathered each in his own time into the paradise of God.

Parochial and Plain Sermons, II

Happy All Saints!

There's Something About Jesus, I

Christ Among the Doctors

Giotto, 1304-6, Cappella Scrovegni, Padua

Beginning our series of excerpts from Pope Benedict's book Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus' wisdom does not proceed from learning, but from His constant dialogue with the Father:

Jesus' teaching is not the product of human learning, of whatever kind. It originates from immediate contact with the Father, from "face-to-face" dialogue - from the vision of the one who rests close to the Father's heart. It is the Son's word. Without this inner grounding, his teaching would be pure presumption. That is just what the learned men of Jesus' time judged it to be, and they did so precisely because they could not accept its inner grounding: seeing and knowing face-to-face.

Again and again the Gospels note that Jesus withdrew "to the mountain" to spend nights in prayer "alone" with his Father. These short passages are fundamental for our understanding of Jesus: they lift the veil of mystery just a little; they give us a glimpse of Jesus' filial existence, into the source from which his action and teaching and suffering sprang ... (p. 7)

Final causation

Why does the movement of natural bodies, like the planets,
give us reason to know that God exists?

Today, my sixth formers were all convinced by St Thomas' fifth 'way'. Just to remind you:

Quinta via sumitur ex gubernatione rerum. Videmus enim quod aliqua quae cognitione carent, scilicet corpora naturalia, operantur propter finem, quod apparet ex hoc quod semper aut frequentius eodem modo operantur, ut consequantur id quod est optimum; unde patet quod non a casu, sed ex intentione perveniunt ad finem. Ea autem quae non habent cognitionem, non tendunt in finem nisi directa ab aliquo cognoscente et intelligente, sicut sagitta a sagittante. Ergo est aliquid intelligens, a quo omnes res naturales ordinantur ad finem, et hoc dicimus Deum.

The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. We see that things which lack intelligence, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result. Hence it is plain that not fortuitously, but designedly, do they achieve their end. Now whatever lacks intelligence cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is shot to its mark by the archer. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.

The Vocation to Blog

Cardinal Ruini, vicar of the Diocese of Rome and leading ally of Pope Benedict, has turned his thoughts to bloggers.

"A priest from Novara told me that the theme of 'Jesus' is very much discussed by youth in blogs. The focus, though, comes from destructive books that are widespread today, and not from Benedict XVI’s book ‘Jesus of Nazareth.'"

"I don’t understand the Internet, but especially young religious ought to enter blogs and correct the opinions of the youth, showing them the true Jesus.”

Countering the hermeneutic of rupture

Being an RS teacher means that I am constantly coming up against the 'hermeneutic of rupture' (if you don't know the lingo, you need to read this).

Recently, during a talk about the Council, a colleague explained how Vatican II changed the Church's understanding of marriage. Before the Council, the Church said that the purpose of marriage was to have children. After the Council, the Church finally acknowledged the place of love in marriage, and said that love was the purpose of marriage. Wow, what progress!

To make a long story short, a little research reveals that this is based on a misinterpretation of what the pre-Conciliar Church meant by primary and secondary goals. The Church used to say that procreation was the primary goal and the perfecting of the spouses was the secondary goal. Now secondary is taken to mean of secondary importance, less important.

But it doesn't mean that. Secundum est quod sequitur. The secondary is what follows. So procreation and the perfecting of the spouses are joint goals, with the latter flowing out of the former. It's about order, not importance. (Think of the processions that exist in the Trinity, for example; the processions are crucial doctrinally, - the Spirit must be seen to proceed from the Word, not vice versa- but the Persons are co-equal.)

If you invert this, and emphasise love over procreation, you end up with a contraceptive mentality.

The Church had a beautiful understanding of the sacrament of matrimony before the Council, perhaps best shown by Pope Pius IX's inspiring encyclical Casti Connubii (1930).

I'm in the debt of Romano Amerio again.

That's more like it

Thanks to Jeffrey Tucker at the NLM for this link to a library of images. Useful for teaching handouts.

Normally our resources contain

If it's about the Mass - a picture of a female extraordinary minister

If it's about Marriage - a picture of Elton John and his partner

If it's about the Church - a picture of a Protestant church

You get the picture.

John Henry Newman - 30th Sunday of the Year (C)

Beginning a series of excerpts from the homilies of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman, a great Christian teacher. In this homily, from volume VIII of the Parochial and Plain Sermons, Newman explains the proper disposition for worship.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14)

Samuel was a little child who had never fallen away from God, but by His grace had ever served Him. Let us take a very different instance, the instance of a penitent sinner as set before us in the parable of the Publican and Pharisee. I need hardly say which of the two was the most pleasing to God—the Publican; whereas the Pharisee was not accepted by Him. Now what did the Pharisee do? He did not even go so far as to behave in an unseemly, extravagant way: he was grave and solemn, and yet what he did was enough to displease God, because he took too much upon himself, and made too much of himself. Though grave and solemn, he was not reverent; he spoke in a haughty, proud way, and made a long sentence, thanking God that he was not as other men are, and despising the Publican. Such was the behaviour of the Pharisee; but the Publican behaved very differently. Observe how he came to worship God; "he stood afar off; he lift not up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." [Luke xviii. 13.] You see his words were few, and almost broken, and his whole conduct humble and reverent; he felt that God was in heaven, he upon earth, God All-holy and Almighty, and he a poor sinner.

Now all of us are sinners, all of us have need to come to God as the Publican did; every one, if he does but search his heart, and watch his conduct, and try to do his duty, will find himself to be full of sins which provoke God's wrath. I do not mean to say that all men are equally sinners; some are wilful sinners, and of them there is no hope, till they repent; others sin, but they try to avoid sinning, pray to God to make them better, and come to Church to be made better; but all men are quite sinners enough to make it their duty to behave as the Publican. Every one ought to come into Church as the Publican did, to say in his heart, "Lord, I am not worthy to enter this sacred place; my only plea for coming is the merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour."

Acknowledgements

The selections I propose to be giving each Sunday are based upon Fr James Tolhursts's book, The Newman Compendium for Sundays and Feastdays (Gracewing)

For the text I am in the debt of those who have produced newmanreader.org.