Niech się wstawi za nami, prosimy Cię Panie św. Łukasz Ewangelista, który umartwieniami krzyża ciało swoje ciągle trapił dla chwały Imienia Twojego. Przez Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.
O Panie Jezu! oddaję Ci serce moje, umieść je w Twojem. —“ W Twojem Sercu chcę oddychać, Twojem Sercu chcę kochać, w Twojem Sercu chcę żyć, nieznany(a) światu, a znany(a) tylko tobie. W tem to Sercu czerpać pragnę ową gorliwą miłość, którą pałac powinno serce moje. W niem znajdę moc, światło, odwagę, i prawdziwą pociechę. Amen.
As regular readers may note, I’ve commented on the unfolding drama surrounding NYS Controller Alan Hevesi (search my blog for more) and his ‘taking adavantage of my position’ shortcuts. Fred Dicker of the NY post is reporting that the Controller (an elected official) has put a non-elected official in charge of his office while he battens down the hatches. Time to lawyer-up Mr. Hevesi. See: Hevesi Yields Power, Puts Pal In Charge an excerpt from which follows:
SCANDAL-scarred state Comptroller Alan Hevesi has turned control of his office over to his longtime political consultant, Hank Morris, in hopes of staving off a criminal indictment, The Post has learned.
High-level Democratic officials, including operatives close to Hevesi – who is under criminal investigation by at least two agencies for providing a state-funded chauffeur to his wife for 31/2 years – said Morris is now the de-facto chief of one of the state’s most powerful offices.
“Hank Morris has taken over for Hevesi,” said a key player in the statewide Democratic election campaigns.
“Longtime government aides have been pushed aside as Morris calls all the shots” on what the huge comptroller’s office – which serves as the state’s top auditor – is able to do, the source continued…
How nice – the democracy of one at work. As a citizen I somehow feel underserved…
An excellent primer on the players in the constantly fracturing Anglican-Episcopal Church in the United States by Dr. William J. Tighe at Pontifications. See: American Anglicanism in a Nutshell.
I get the sense that it will breakdown into a carnival of vagantes.
…and nobody ‘got it’? From today’s Albany Times Union, the Columbia County (NY) Quakers have posted a billboard for peace. Here’s an excerpt from Village’s sign of troubled times: Billboard touting peace causes reactions from surprise to confusion:
CHATHAM — The idea was to solicit designs for a “Billboard for Peace.”
The picture a group of Columbia County Quakers chose is about as far as can be from your typical peace symbol.
Since last month, drivers on the busiest road in the village of Chatham have passed a billboard that evokes the imagery of Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib.
The sign on County Route 66 shows a hooded man with no shirt and his hands tied. It cites the biblical injunction to “love your enemies.”
And it asks, in big red letters, “Is This Love?”
An Old Chatham Quaker Meeting committee chose the image over a half-dozen milder submissions, such as a yellow ribbon with the slogan: “Peace. The Ultimate Support.”
“These are not mild times,” said Jens Braun, 48, a committee member who teaches peace studies at Berkshire Community College. “These are times when we are doing some things which I think historically we will look back on and really regret.”
Amen to that.
Boże, który nas widzisz upadających pod brzemieniem słabości naszych, racz nas miłosiernie przykłady świętych Twoich przywieść do miłości Twojej. Amen.
The Pontificator comments on Rob Dreher in When a Catholic leaves the Catholic Church and says the following:
In light of Dreher’s departure from the Catholic Church, I only have only one question: Was he in fact a Catholic?
…and
I regret that he has left the Catholic Church, and I grieve the sins of the Church that led him to renounce the divine authority of the Vicar of Christ. I pray that I may never be so tested.
So it appears that Catholicism is solely defined by ones’ belief in “the divine authority of the Vicar of Christ” i.e., the Pope, and of course holding up John Henry Newman as an icon of all that is good and holy.
I guess that Fr. Stephen Freeman of Pontifications fame is in grave error, un-catholic, or at best misguided.
O Boże, dawco łaski i chwały, otwórz nam skarby swego miłosierdzia i spraw, abyśmy za przyczyną św. Jadwigi otrzymali poznanie złości grzechów obmowy i oszczerstwa, abyśmy prawdziwie za nie żałowali, wiernie spełniali swe obowiązki względem rodziny i służby, i bezpiecznie doszli do żywota niebieskiego. Przez Jezusa Chrystusa Pana naszego. Amen.
…and I chose to have her rather than the light,
because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.
What’s important to you?
The Christian life is a demanding life. We might call a lot of things demanding: our jobs, our families, our hobbies, raking the leaves. None of it compares to the demands of Christ.
Let’s review a few of them starting with one from today’s Gospel:
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
Tough choice, in the material world.
Consider these:
He walked along from there and saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-22)
Tough choice, throwing away your livelihood and your family, in your father’s face, so you can go preach the Gospel.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it. (Matthew 13:44-46)
Tough choice, giving up everything for God’s kingdom.
Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!” But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.” (Luke 12:15-21)
Tough to work hard, doing what you think God wants, praising Him for His blessings, only to find it was all for nothing because you missed the point.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)
Tough to die.
Giving up all that you have, even to your life, is a requirement. It is a choice you are being asked to make. I’m asking you here and now, will you choose God over all? I’m asking you because the Holy Spirit is here, right now, and He’s asking.
These parables and narrated stories all seem pious and idealistic, but only if your faith is weak and your attachment to the world is great.
If your faith is strong they are the things that define you each day. More than principals, they are life itself. They are your goal and sole desire, as the reading from Wisdom told us.
The Letter to the Hebrews recaps God’s ability to see our priorities pretty clearly:
No creature is concealed from him,
but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him
to whom we must render an account.
Scary thought, except for those who believe they will live forever.
Remember, you’re being asked. Whether you sit here in this church or not, you cannot run from the question or from God. He’s always asking, —What’s your choice.—
While considering your choice take a listen to a lesson from St. John Chrysostom:
There are many disciples of Christ who can justly claim that they are indifferent to material possessions. They happily live in simple huts, wear rough woolen clothes, eat frugally, and give away the bulk of their fortunes. These same people can claim that they are indifferent to worldly power. They happily work in the most humble capacities, performing menial tasks, with no desire for high rank. But there still may be one earthly attribute to which they cling: reputation. They may wish to be regarded by others as virtuous. They may want to be admired for their charity, their honor, their integrity, their self-denial. They may not actually draw people’s attention to these qualities, but they are pleased to know that others respect them. Thus when someone falsely accuses them of some wrongdoing, they react with furious indignation. They protect their reputation with the same ferocity as the rich protect their gold. Giving up material possessions and worldly power is easy compared to giving up reputation. To be falsely accused and yet to remain spiritually serene is the ultimate test of faith.
I’ve been thinking on the issue of Rod Dreher’s entry into the Orthodox Church, and people’s reaction to that decision. I think these quotes are apropos to all who consider the questioning of a person’s journey to God, and their selection of the way to Theosis, to be their duty:
An old man was asked, ‘How can I find God?’ He said, ‘In fasting, in watching, in labours, in devotion, and, above all, in discernment. I tell you, many have injured their bodies without discernment and have gone away from us having achieved nothing. Our mouths smell bad through fasting, we know the Scriptures by heart, we recite all the Psalms of David, but we have not that which God seeks: charity and humility.’
…and…
An old man said, “Every time a thought of superiority or vanity moves you, examine your conscience to see if you have kept all the commandments, if you love your enemies and are grieved at their sins, if you consider yourself as an unprofitable servant and the greatest sinner of all. Even then, do not pretend to great ideas as though you were perfectly right, for this thought destroys everything.”
Both from the Apophthegmata Patrum (the Sayings of the Fathers of the Desert)
In Orthodoxy and me (which looks like it has been taken down) at Mr. Dreher’s blog, Crunchy Con he stated:
A few weeks back, I mentioned to Julie on the way to St. Seraphim’s one morning, “I’m now part of a small church that nobody’s heard of, with zero cultural influence in America, and in a tiny parish that’s materially poor. I think that’s just where I need to be.”
Exactly – a family’s search for personal and communal holiness.
That search may follow one line in one person’s life or may traverse a winding mountain road in another’s. Regardless, who are we to criticize, and criticism of him and his family has been scathing and deeply uncharitable considering that it largely comes from allegedly devout Roman Catholics. All we can do is witness, and Mr. Dreher has that one down.