Blog Posts

Knowledge—The Catholic Way

5/13/2014

Knowledge is power.

We’ve all heard the saying, but why are so many knowledgeable people not in power?

Why are so many powerful people not very knowledgeable (or operating from half truths)?

What purpose does knowledge serve at all if reality shows that the knowledgeable are not in power?

The answer can actually be found in asking, what is power? Or rather, what is true power? True power is what makes Christians the thorn in the side of all dictators, tyrants, and anyone who has tried to squelch or enslave the Catholic Church since its beginning.

True power is a paradox; it appears weak to the world – ineffective, inconsequential, worthless. In reality, though, true power conquers all. True power is self-emptying love. True power is death and resurrection in Jesus Christ.

Why should a good Catholic gain knowledge then, if it’s all about Jesus? St. Catherine of Siena explains this clearly: “One who knows more, loves more.” Ah, there we go; those who have knowledge are able to love more perfectly, so therefore they are truly powerful.

St. Catherine of Siena

But what do we know? It can’t just be anything. Catholic knowing is not a matter of satisfying idle curiosity about things. The horizon of knowledge is love. St. Thomas Aquinas would back me up on this when he says, “Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.” Any and all knowledge must lead toward love and be applied in love if it is going to be truly powerful. To love is to desire the good of another person for their own sake and to do something about it, no questions asked. Here is where we find out what we must know in order to desire the other person’s Good– The Truth – and the Truth is what sets us free.

Here we discover that we don’t so much seek to know a ‘what’ as much as it is a ‘who.’ It is God. God is Love; God is Truth. In knowing him we discover who we are meant to be – human beings fully alive.

St. Catherine says, “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” One of our mottos in SSP is “Catholicism on Fire.” Our patron, Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, lived this. He sought to know Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, in all that he did. He was even planning on using the knowledge he gained from his engineering degree to serve the miners of West Germany. Pier Giorgio had a well-formed and a well-informed faith. Through it he set his world on fire with the love of Christ. That fire is beauty, as St. Augustine says, “Love is the beauty of the soul,” and beauty will save the world. It is a participation in the salvation of the world. In love we die with Christ on the cross, and in love we rise with him to eternal life. This union of love is accomplished most perfectly in the Eucharist. If we answer the call to live that love, both in great and in small acts, we will set the world on fire.

“I urge you with all the strength of my soul to approach the Eucharistic Table as often as possible… And when you become totally consumed by this Eucharistic Fire, then you will be able to thank with greater awareness the Lord God who has called you to be part of his flock and you will enjoy that peace which those who are happy according to the world have never tasted. Because true happiness, young people, does not consist in the pleasures of the world and in earthly things, but in peace of conscience which we can have only if we are pure in heart and in mind.”

Verso l’alto!

Written by:

Marty Arlinghaus

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SSP Year End Summary - And What's Next

5/6/2014

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Finals are over, meaning the 2013-2014 school year has finally come to a close. The UC Society of Saint Paul has had a very busy and successful year, and we thought we’d take a moment to give a quick summary of the year past, as well as the year to come.

At the beginning of the school year, we were still meeting for Sunday Brunch in our house near campus. When we first started this group in 2012 and it was just 6 of us at our kitchen table, this was a much more realistic feat. As our group grew to dozens, our 8 foot wide kitchen/dining room added a new definition to “community” as we enjoyed seldom talked about experiences such as:

Lack of movement

Eating with another person’s elbow on your plate

A room temperature 15 degrees above normal

Needless to say, we needed a bigger space. Fr. Grogan, taking care of us as always, allowed us to use the rectory at Annunciation Parish for our Sunday Meetings.

And some days it was STILL difficult to fit everybody inside the rectory – a great problem to have.

Being committed to the New Evangelization, SSP has sought to incorporate our Catholic faith into all areas of life in many different ways.

As a large, secular campus, we have the opportunity to evangelize on a large scale. We purchased several hundred copies of books from the Dynamic Catholic book program this year for handing out on campus, such as Jesus Shock by Peter Kreeft, Rediscover Catholicism by Matthew Kelly, and Confessions of a Mega Church Pastor, by Allen Hunt. Despite the cold and windy weather that seemed to hit on the days chosen to set up our table on campus, SSP members persevered for the cause.

Monday Nights offered a brand new on-campus men’s group who have named themselves the Knights of LaMancha. They do things from Bible studies, to talks on Guardian Angels, and even the occasional night of just hanging out and playing some Super Smash Brothers. For the 2014-2015 year, the Knights will continue to meet, and a new women’s group will also meet weekly.

Twice a month on Wednesdays SSP attends Eucharistic Holy Hour at Annunciation Parish. Members of SSP aid as servers for the opening and closing of Adoration. Keeping the group centered on the Eucharist and calling people to it has been and will remain our primary purpose.

Several movie nights and game night also took place for plain and simple fun. After all, is there a better way to strengthen friendships than through Farkle? Yes.

SSP members have become highly involved in Parish Life, as well. We have cooked for parish events, assisted as altar servers, lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, and other events throughout the year. Some SSP members also participated in “Salt and Light” a parish program that dealt with issues in Social Justice.

Making Candlemas Crepes!

Apostolates are a brand new addition to SSP this year. Apostolates are organizations of the Catholic laity devoted to the mission of the Catholic Church. Each member of SSP is encouraged, along with the core group activities, to take up an Apostolate as a member of the universal Church. A sample of some apostolates carried out by group members this year include:

Bringing Holy Eucharist to the Elderly and Shut-in

Prison Music Ministry

Interfaith Hospitality Network Ministry For Homeless Families

Life Protection and Advocacy

Apostolates are unique in that each person can choose an apostolate unique to their own skill set and gifts. The Apostolates’ aim to help each member of SSP answer the question “How has God called me to help others?”

Some members of SSP at the March for Life in DC

The Frassati Catholic Speaker Series was also a huge success this year. Our talks included:

Fr. Todd Grogan: Living as a Part of the New Evangelization

Dr. Robert Endorf: Science and Faith: How Catholicism embraces both the Natural and the Supernatural

Dr. Jeff Zalar, UC Chair of Catholic Studies: Catholicism in the Postmodern Age

Fr. Paul DeLuca: Let’s Start with the End: How Catholicism Ministers to the Dying and Deceased

Sr. Sophia Lopez, O.P.: Dominican Spirituality - Study, Prayer, and Community Living

Dr. Robert Endorf talking to UC students about Science and Faith

More exciting talks will occur during the 2014-2015 year as well – stay tuned!

An exciting development for the 2014-2015 school year is the new SSP student housing. 6 men from SSP are moving into a new (bigger, nicer) house located within a 5 minute walk to Annunciation Parish. The same is true of 4 women of SSP, who are moving into another nearby house. The men’s house, Domus Damascus (House of Damascus), and the women’s house, Domus Dominae (House of our Lady), will be community houses, with each house taking turns hosting weekly dinners for group members. House members will also participate in community prayer together, such as the Liturgy of the Hours.

With all of this being said, I have only begun to scratch the surface of what’s going on with SSP. This upcoming school year will be a great one, and please check our website at UCSSP.com to keep up with us!

ucsocietyofsaintpaul@gmail.com

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The Basics of Hell

3/29/2014

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Unfortunately, many groups that come to "evangelize" on UC's campus usually have big signs with the word "Hell" on them. There's an unfortunate idea going around that Christians "spreading the Gospel" consists of Christians telling other people they're going to Hell. There's a lot of misunderstanding surrounding Hell, and a large misunderstanding of what it is, what it's for, and who goes there. I'll attempt to clear some of this up.

The problem arises when we start using Hell in a way that makes God look like this:

And not this:

You see, God, the literal embodiment, source, and summit of Love, mourns in ways we could never know over our sins.

This all goes back to what love is defined as:

To will the good of another, for their own good.

This means that Love is NOT a feeling (I direct you to my previous blog, “More than a Feeling”) but a choice made. Love cannot exist without free will. If we HAD to love God, or God only created those he knew would love him, that’s not free will, and therefore not love. And with the ability to choose “yes” there is also the ability to choose “no.”

So we have established that God gives us the freedom to love him, or to not. So let’s take a moment to step back and realize what Heaven is.

So, for the sake of example, what if you’re this guy:

And you’re all:

The result isn’t going to be this:

This is how Heaven is defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.”(CCC 1024)

So essentially, if you’re not very into the whole “God” and “Good-will” thing, God won’t force you to spend eternity basking in his presence. And this is where Hell comes in. Hell is a choice. A stupid choice that every single one of us can make and that God MUST leave as an option for us if Love is to exist.

And the “fire” of Hell everybody always talks about is actually a metaphor for what I’ve just written about. As an old Theology teacher put it, “The fire of Hell is God’s Love burning for you.” As in, if you’re in Hell, you’re there because the one thing you didn’t want to be around was God and God’s Love. And the only reason you’re in Hell, away from his Love, is because you chose to be and he let you. You are away from God because he loved you enough to let you be.

(Note: this is why the Catholic Church does not say they know who is in Hell. The Catholic Church DOES proclaim some as Saints (those who are definitely in Heaven) due to several miracles being associated with them – miracles that could only be possible if that person was in the presence of God.)

Onto the next part: Who Goes to Heaven and Hell?

And let me first start off by saying that if any of my other Christian friends (or friends of another religion that have a “hell”) haven’t already noticed, the two approaches of

· Convert, or you’re going to Hell
and
· You’re going to Hell anyway. Just fyi.

are not effective methods of evangelization, and really aren’t even evangelizing at all. (I’m looking at you, guys who stormed the UC Students for Life Group last week.)

I will turn to the Catechism on this (after all, I’m not smarter than 2,000 years of the Church’s best scholars and theologians.)

So first of all, we see this heading: “Outside the Church there is no salvation”.

OK NOW WAIT – Don’t close the book here (everybody seems to close the book here.)

The next paragraph states the following:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it. (CCC 846)

BUT WAIT, CATHOLIC CHURCH. What if I’m not a part of the Church! Am I screwed? Read on, friends. The next paragraph states the following:

This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation. (CCC 847)

Well that clears things up. And the next thought you may have may be “Ok cool, so I don’t have to worry about my non-Catholic friends who are still good people” But then the Catechism wags it’s finger at you with the next paragraph:

Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men. (CCC 848)

So there you have it. It is true for even those who have never heard the word of God that Natural Law still applies to them. Natural Law is God written on the heart of all mankind. It is the reason that murder is viewed as wrong in most every society. Conscience can be formed and malformed, but the whisper of “this is not right” that fills minds around the world when an immorality is displayed is God written on the heart of that person. He who follows that voice does God’s will.

Let us all remember that God is Love, and Christ is Love incarnate. God is the shepherd of his flock, and a merciful caretaker. Let us be mindful of this as we evangelize others – we must evangelize with a spirit of Joy, rejoicing that Love is Lord of Heaven and Earth, and not evangelize out of a spirit of fear and despair.

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On the Literal Reading of Genesis

3/10/2014

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Once upon a time,

STOP

I say that, what do you think? Fairy tale? Fable? Myth? This is common way of starting off a fantasy – often times a mystical adventure that didn’t actually happen, but still conveys real truths.

Take Lord of the Rings for example. Author J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote the series specifically to echo Catholicism, never once mentions the name Jesus throughout any of the three books. Tolkien does however split the three Persons of Jesus into the 3 main characters, Frodo (Priest), Gandalf (Prophet), and Aragorn (King). And there are obviously religious tie-ins. Frodo takes the burden of the world and makes the sacrifice, Gandalf dies, is resurrected in a glorified body (not to mention the whole “In 3 days, look east” part), and Aragorn battles evil and temptation to become King. My point in all of this being: Tolkien conveyed a real truth with a “fake” story (in the sense that the characters are fictional) in a way that really hit them home.

So, back to the book at hand – Genesis. Genesis is a word meaning source, root, and beginning.

Now the Bible is a book that is meant to be understood by every nation and people in every age. It also isn’t meant to be scientifically literate, as I mentioned in my past blog “Science is Cool (And the Creation Museum Isn't)”. It becomes preposterous to expect a book that’s been around for a millennium to use language that would be understood in 2014, when a great deal of the scientific words and terminologies we use today would have been complete gibberish to even Einstein himself. For as much as we know about science and how things work, there’s also infinitely more we do not know. The point is, a word has no meaning if you don’t know what it represents. This is why it didn’t help me in Freshman Chem Lab when my TA told me to put the cuvet into the spectrophotometer.

Jesus told parables for the same reason. These stories are and will be forever relevant, even more so when one has an understanding of the cultures they came from. Jesus’s parables can still be told today and people will still be like “Hmmm. Son #2 is now eating pig food and is broke. That is a step down from his home life. Oh hey, his dad was nice.” They understand the message. Was there really a prodigal son? Were there really 10 virgins who did a 50/50 split on preparing their oil lamps? Probably not in the literal sense, but the truths these stories convey are real.

Now let’s take a moment to look at what’s actually written down in Genesis – and I mean the original writings. The difference between the New Testament and many of the Old Testament writings is historical basis. I mean this in the sense that the New Testament was written by eye-witnesses to events unfolding. Genesis was written about events that would have happened thousands of years prior, which would have been handed down by oral tradition. So, to all those who say oral tradition has no room in the Christianity, and the Bible is all you should go off of, please realize that oral tradition is responsible for that book as well.

Bl. Pope John Paul II had this to say about the story of Adam and Eve:

Following the contemporary philosophy of religion and that of language, it can be said that the language in question is a mythical one. In this case, the term “myth” does not designate a fabulous content, but merely an archaic way of expressing a deeper content.

And Pope Pius XII had this to say:

“…the first eleven chapters of Genesis, although properly speaking not conforming to the historical method used by the best Greek and Latin writers or by competent authors of our time, do nevertheless pertain to history in a true sense, which however must be further studied and determined by exegetes; the same chapters, (the Letter points out), in simple and metaphorical language adapted to the mentality of a people but little cultured, both state the principal truths which are fundamental for our salvation, and also give a popular description of the origin of the human race and the chosen people. If, however, the ancient sacred writers have taken anything from popular narrations (and this may be conceded), it must never be forgotten that they did so with the help of divine inspiration, through which they were rendered immune from any error in selecting and evaluating those documents.”

Another key part of Genesis often unnoticed is its inconsistencies. If Genesis is literal, God wasn’t almighty and omnipotent until about halfway through the Bible. That doesn’t sound like the God of all ages to me. For instance, in Genesis 18: 20-21, God is shown as not knowing about something, and setting out to investigate it. It’s like Sherlock Holmes, except Sherlock is played by God and Benedict Cumberbatch won’t exist for thousands of years.

Finally, an argument often brought up in conjunction with this topic is “If humans weren't created as in the creation story, and maybe even evolved as you are suggesting, when did humans become ‘human’ and receive a soul?”

And the paraphrased answer of the Catholic Church is:

The Church reinforces the point that the HOW does not matter. It’s important to realize that just because Genesis might not be 100% factual, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a true story.

For further research on the topic, check out this video from Fr. Barron, who is smarter than me.

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Searching for the God of Flowers and Spring

3/5/2014

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“…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious…” (Matt 6:28-31)

I have a problem with anxiety. Basically, everything can be a cause of worry in life if you look at it the right way. Sunday morning, I was caught up in all of my homework and clarinet practicing (or lack thereof) and wondering how I was going to survive another week. Then at Mass, God sent all of us this beautiful message in the Gospel.

Isn’t it a kind of strange Gospel to read the Sunday before Lent? This is the season which causes every Catholic at some point to wonder, “WHAT ON EARTH AM I GOING TO GIVE UP FOR LENT?!?” As the date draws nearer and nearer to Ash Wednesday, my worry increases exponentially over the fact that I STILL haven’t come up with a Lenten resolution. What if I never think of something to do for Lent? What if I come up with penances that are too hard, and I crash and burn after the first week? What if I’m not being hard enough on myself? What if…

...this isn’t what Lent is about at all?

It’s easy to get caught up in the mindset of penance, suffering, and general unhappiness during Lent. Our discussion after Sunday’s Mass gave me a different perspective on these forty days, however. I think that this viewpoint can make Lent a spiritually refreshing time for us rather than one of apprehension. It can be summed up in three steps: ordering one’s life around God; becoming a trusting person; and living a joyful, loving life.

The first step evolved out of our thoughts on the passage that states, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matt 6:24) These harsh words boil down to this: God is the ultimate authority in our lives. Yes we have managers, teachers, and parents that we should honor, but this respect stems from an overarching desire to give glory to God, who placed these people above us. A memorable image presented by an SSP member was a rose window in a cathedral: God is the center, and all the people we serve in life are the pieces of glass radiating out from it. Our lives must be ordered with God at the core, nothing else.

How do we accomplish this? We cultivate trust in God in our everyday lives. The Gospel passage quoted at the beginning of this blog helps me a lot with this. The beauty of flowers (something it seems we’ll never see again after this winter) places a gentle reminder in my heart that God is Goodness, Beauty, and Truth itself. When I consider flowers, I want to center my life around God. They are a reminder that, just as spring will always follow winter, God remains unchanging and constant, always seeking to fill us with new life in Him

Finally, with trust comes joy, because trust lifts the weight of doubt off of our shoulders. Joy in Lent? Of course! Remember the other Gospel passage when Christ rebukes the Pharisees for making a show of their penances? The same applies to us. Fasting is a difficult thing and involves material discomfort, but it is also very liberating. Fasting diminishes worry, because it removes things in our lives that are not essential but still take up space, thought, and time. With this new free time, we can become closer to God and the people He created us to be. Also, we will have more of ourselves to give to others, thus passing on our trust in God so that other people can rely on us as well. It’s always a good feeling to know that you have people in your life to rely on.

So strive to be a light this Lent! Forget about looking frail and faint because you’re working so hard at fasting. Instead, be full of joy! We are in the care of the God of flowers and new life Who is seeking to grow closer to us each day. Remove some of the excess in your life, and fill that empty space with love and virtue this Lent.

Written by: Rosemary Bullock

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The Whisper: Following God's Call

3/1/2014

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If you had asked me five years ago what I'd be doing today, my guess would not even have come close! My guess would certainly not have been that I, a vegetarian of nearly ten years, would be cooking chicken liver for dozens of strangers, preparing to teach them about unique methods for using and preserving their excess produce. I DEFINITELY would not have guessed that these chicken livers would come from chickens that my hands would help feed, raise, butcher, de-feather, and gut. I could not have imagined that these chickens would come from a small sustainable farm in Dickerson, Maryland, where this born-and-raised Ohio gal would become the newest member of the Calleva family.

But, alas! Here I am today, standing in my kitchen, watching in admiration and a little bit of horror as Farmer Ben instructs me in the ways of gourmet chicken liver. I trade him one for one with my favorite lettuce soup recipe – made extra delicious with the fresh greens we harvested from our greenhouse only days ago. The adventure has been well worth the ride.

And so this is how it occurs to me: God has a funny way of leading us down the path he has laid out for us. For some the path may be straight and clear (I have never met these people, but I believe they exist... somewhere...). But for the rest of us, the path is like a meandering dirt trail that twists and turns and seems to almost disappear at times – a path that almost never ever ever ever seems to go the way we think it will go.

If God had told me five years ago, “I want you to be a farmer,” I would have said, “Are you serious, God? I mean... okay, but... really? I don't think you got that right... maybe you meant to talk to the girl praying next door... I'll call again tomorrow.”

Perhaps God knew this about me, because five years ago God did not tell me, “I want you to be a farmer.” Instead God called out to me in small decisions daily, urging me to walk with him, though I did not always understand. He led my heart slowly, gently, even playfully toward each next stop on my path. Some days his calls were grand: calls to mission trips or internships or relationships. Some days his calls were but a whisper: walk the long way to class, finish this book, wake up early tomorrow and be with me.

And I began to find that every time I ignored God's call, large or small, the trail seemed to disappear and I was left spinning, searching all around, wondering, “Where?? Where do you want me to go God?” But the days when I could find the strength within me to instead say, “Yes,” - oh, those were the best days. It was not as though the trail suddenly appeared, but rather that I closed my eyes and held out my hand and God said, “Here. Here is the way, my love.”

So here I sit, a daughter of Cleveland suburbia, newlywed and trying to make my way as a Maryland farmer and educator, wondering what surprises God has in store for my next five years.

But this I know: today I felt the whisper. An urge to tell you all that vocation is not a “YES!” yelled from the rooftops, but an embrace within the heart. Resist the luring temptation to strain your neck, squinting, searching for the trail. Try if you can to close your eyes and reach out your hand and wait for your Maker to whisper to you. Trust the desires he has placed in your heart and he will fill your cup.

Written by: Shayn Gangidine

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Everybody Bows

2/23/2014

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Humans naturally like to bow. It’s true. Everyone does it, whether physically, intellectually, spiritually, or what-have-you. We love to bow. To bow to something is to give yourself over to it. The person makes a self-gift to whatever object they are bowing to. We are hardwired to do it, and there’s no way out of it.

We all think we’re the exception, but none of us are. “Free thinkers” bow to Kant and the Enlightenment; drug addicts bow to drugs; our culture as a whole bows to sex/pornography; feminists bow to the ideology of gender equality; politicians, whether conservative or liberal, bow to ideologies in politics; post-modernity bows to freedom without boundaries, relativism, hedonism, and individualism. We all do it.

It makes sense that we universally bow to something. Giving ourselves over to something produces a rush in us, like it’s something we were meant to do. It’s going outside of our own little world and experiences a reality beyond ourselves.

There’s a problem though. Those things, people, deeds, ideas, ideologies, etc., that we bow to don’t give anything back. They tell us “bow lower, give yourself over to me even more, I promise I will make you happy,” but in reality, we end up bowing further and further until we are in the ground in our graves.

This is idolatry, and we all do it. We place something as our highest good that isn’t truly our highest good. Even though it may contain goodness in it, it is not the essence of Goodness, Truth, and Beauty. Sex is good, yes, but if we place it as our highest good we quickly descend into a disordered obsession with it. What results is the objectification of the human person, especially women, into sex objects for others’ satisfaction. It reduces our humanity. Freedom (and I’m on shaky ground here as an American, I know) is good, but it is not our highest good. When we place it as our highest good, we quickly descend into disorder where evil can become permissible simply because we cite freedom as our premise. Once again, people become dehumanized as a result of placing it as our highest good, especially the weakest and most vulnerable among us, like the unborn. Even service to the poor can be idolized. The Church gets criticized daily for being hypocritical for having so much expensive artwork and big beautiful cathedrals. We hear it said all the time, “the Vatican should sell all of its things in order to feed the poor.” But the Church does service to the poor as a good, it does not bow to it as the highest Good. More on that in a second.

Naturally you might say we should stop bowing and stand tall. “Bow to no one!” Except then we fall into the trap of bowing to the idea that we bow to no one.

There is, in the end, only one thing we can bow to rightly. Truth. And the Truth is a person. He is Jesus Christ, Son of the living God. He is the only one in existence who affirms our humanity when we bow to him, because he bowed down from heaven to become one of us first. We especially mark this when genuflect/bow to the Eucharist and during the creed at Mass when we say the words, “and by the Holy Spirit, was incarnate of the Virgin Mary.” He is the only one who will give back when we bow to him, because he is the only one who is alive and able to give back. The other things are deaf, dumb, mute, and dead. Lifeless. Christ is alive; he is the risen one from the dead. He calls us to the fullness of life, to the fullness of being human. When we bow to him, it is an incarnated reminder of salvation; it is death and resurrection. We die to ourselves the way Christ died on the Cross, that’s the bowing down part. Then he tells us to rise, to take part in the resurrection, the fullness of life in communion with God the Father in the Holy Spirit, so we stand back up straight and tall. That’s where we stand, that’s where we are free in the Truth, that’s where our lives are rightly ordered. That’s why the bowing Catholic is the most radically joyful, because the gift of him/herself to God is reciprocated, given back to them in far surpassing measure than the person gave.

Blessed Mother Teresa is one of the most profound examples of bowing to Christ and to nothing else, even her service to the poor. Her order of nuns is in some ways the antithesis to the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps says work, work, work, don't waste time on anything else. They stay for two years and then leave. Mother Teresa and her sisters would spend hours in adoration and attend daily Mass. When she received a large donation from a benefactor, she spent the money on a gold chalice for the celebration of Mass (The guy was initially upset, but converted to Catholicism and joined her order a year later). She ministered in one of the most dismal places on earth for the rest of her life and her nuns do the same. They bow to Christ, they die with him and they live in the fullness of the resurrection with him, and their service falls into order after that.

Verso l'alto!

Written by:
Marty Arlinghaus

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Catholic Nursing- Ideally Ironic

1/5/2014

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I am a nurse. I see a lot. Things you probably would blush over are every day conversations for me. (Example: Asking a patient, "Have you moved your bowels today?" with a straight face. And remaining utterly serious as I listen to the answer.) Yes, I deal with the sides of humanity that aren't appropriate conversation for the civilized dinner table. Perhaps the most surprising part of this vocation, however, is not the fascinating and disgusting medical facts I discover, but how many times a day I encounter irony. And I was never an English major!

Seemingly contradictory, and yet side by side and utterly inseparable. Such as the truth that the same persons who gave us profound beauty and insight (Michelangelo, Plato, Augustine, Jane Austin, Mother Teresa, etc.) also moved their bowels, passed gas, vomited, and expectorated. I am often struck by the irony that each human being has inherent dignity as my patient blurts out absolutely preposterous statements about their health.

“Excuse me, I passed gas.”

While being in the medical field certainly amplifies the irony that is the human existence, every good Catholic experiences this clash of truths. You see, as Catholics, we are inherently idealists. I don't care if you're a realist, a cynic, or even a pessimist by nature. Welcome to the Catholic Church, where we deal in the Good, True, Beautiful, and perfect. In comes the irony. Welcome to the real world, where we deal with blood, guts, sweat, tears, evil, lies, ugliness, and all that is imperfect. How does one reconcile the experience of our imperfect world with the perfect ideals of the Catholic Church? How can we know that the Church has the Truth in black and white when we experience a world full of gray? (Disclaimer: When I say this, I do not mean to imply that the Catholic Church is not part of the “real world”. The Son of God understood blood, sweat, and tears more than I ever will, and He established this Church as His bride. However, there sometimes seems to be a gap between the Catechism and what happens out there in our daily lives. Keep reading.)

To illustrate this, here’s another nursing example. another nursing example. Many of my patients are on birth control. I know that birth control is not only bad for my patient's body, but also disrespectful to the gift of their fertility and bad for their soul. Ideally, they would abstain from sex totally if unmarried, and if married, use NFP and abstain during fertile times when there is a serious reason to postpone pregnancy. This is the type of family planning that the Church supports, because it is respectful of their inherent dignity and the dignity of all human life. However, I cannot walk into my patient's room and hand them theology when they want a pill. Why? Because I'll lose them at "sex should be unitive and procreative". It takes a long time, a life time, to fully understand and embrace all the Truth of the Catholic Church. I will not convince a patient not to use birth control in one five-minute conversation, unless they'd already been grappling with the issue. You can't hand someone a steak dinner if all they can handle is clear liquids.

So how do we deal with this? How do we call people on to the heroic virtue that the Church calls us to while accepting the human condition? How do you deal with the irony!?

Well, first off, irony is supposed to make you laugh. So my first suggestion is that we laugh, and not take ourselves too seriously. (Come on, farts are funny.)

Alright, now take a deep breath. The next step to dealing with the irony is to know the ideal. Know what the Church teaches, and why they teach it, and then BELIEVE IT. Catholicism helps us to bridge the gap between what ought to be and what is, so we have to know what ought to be even if it doesn't seem to line up with reality. Dig deeper.Because I've learned that if I have a problem with Mama Church, usually I'm wrong, not her. And listen. It's okay to believe in ideals. What is life if there is no ideal to strive for and nothing good enough to fight and die for?

You might be thinking, "Ok, I might have the black and white truth, but I'm still stuck in a world of gray. What do I do?" Live the ideal. Set the example. Christ set the example for us. He was on earth, subject to all the best and worst of the human condition, and was without sin. He told us He loved us, He told us the Truth, and He didn't back down even when they arrested Him, tortured Him, and killed Him. (But don't worry, He rose from the dead, so it's all good.) If you want people to believe that heroic virtue is possible, you can't just tell them. You have to SHOW them. Live as Christ did, loving the seemingly unloveable, sacrificing everything because he saw past the muck of who we are to the reality of who He made us to be.

Okay, so now you're good, but what about everyone else? This is where the clash of truths really hits, when our lifestyle totally contradicts what the world says is "natural". This is the truly hard part of heroic virtue: meeting people where they are, while not compromising the truth. It's a delicate balance. Do your best. The key here is to have compassion and use your common sense (because being an idealist doesn’t mean you lack common sense). There are two extremes to avoid: 1. Playing God and telling people they’re going to hell; 2. Adopting the “I’m ok, you’re okay, everyone is ok” lie of relativism. Don’t pretend bad is good, even to avoid hurting someone’s feelings. But don’t use the ideals as a sword and cut all violators to pieces. Let the one without sin cast the first stone. The bottom line: Love. Love people enough to accept the baggage that comes with being human, but love them too much to let them stay in the muck. (So for me, that means not giving my patients birth control, but gauging their openness before I spring all of Theology of the Body on them, for example.)

To sum up, here's how we deal with the irony of clashing truths in our life in three simple steps:

1. Know the truth.

2. Live the truth.

3. Meet people where they are, and treat them with compassion.

As Andrew quipped most poignantly in his last post: "Remember that Catholicism is a package deal. By choosing it, you choose not just the easy parts, but the difficult teachings as well. We are calling the world to a higher standard of living and must therefore exemplify this discipline of following Church teachings in our own lives if we wish to effectively evangelize."

Bam. Now you're on your way to heroic virtue. Go live ironically.

Written by: Joan Piatt

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Yule Like the Joy of X-mas

12/22/2013

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It is that time of year again when the ranks of cranky Christians get in line to whine about “keeping Christ in Christmas,” while the rest of the internet points out that this feast has pagan roots and that there are thousands of other gods who were supposedly born on December 25. It’s old, on both sides of the equation.

For starters, there is more than one (enter name here)-mas. Martinmas, traditionally celebrated on my Patron Saint’s feast day, November 11th, celebrates the harvest at the end of autumn (sound a little like Thanksgiving?). Candlemas on February 2nd celebrates the presentation of the Lord in the temple. (The American version is called Groundhog day.) So bring the Martin back in Martinmas and the Candle back in Candlemas!

But for real, one of the great things about Catholicism is its ability to take on the good things of any culture. We ‘baptize it.’ Saint Paul nailed it when he said to the Philippians, “may God who has begun this good work in you now bring it to fulfillment.” Instead of storming into a culture and tearing it all down, Catholicism affirms the culture’s bits of truth, and then brings it to fulfillment.

Yes, the pagans did celebrate a solstice feast called Yule. It’s in the dark of winter when things are dreary and we need something to lighten our spirits, otherwise we’d go nuts.

Since the pagans have a feast that brings light into the darkness of winter and is one of their most important feasts of the year, let’s use it to celebrate one of the most important and astounding realities that ever happened in human history: God becoming man. Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the light of the world, enters the darkness by illuminating humanity within. The cosmic symbolism in the pagan culture, light and joy in the midst of darkness, finds its spiritual fulfillment in Christ’s birth. In this sense there always has been a Christ on this feast, in that we have all longed for a light to overcome darkness. Now it is here!

Where are we in 2013? Sure, for decades Christmas has increasingly been secularized, discriminated against, and abused for commercial gain. But as a whole, we still celebrate a feast on December 25t.h. Let’s baptize it!

Yes, it is one of the only times in the year the church will be filled with the CEO Catholics (Christmas and Easter Only) and they probably have not picked up on the new translation of the Roman missal. But they are there. They know that this day is important. We all still long for the light in the darkness. We all need to know the reality of God incarnate. We need to know that he is with us, that we are loved intimately by him, and that he will not leave us to die. So what do we do?

I say we make like Pope Francis and lead with joy. Joy! St. Paul is right again: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near.” The world needs something to celebrate, someone actually. Christ must become incarnate in us if people are to know the joy of being in right relationship with God.

Here are a few easy steps to follow as a “Christmastime evangelist.” You don’t have to be a theologian of Pope Benedictine proportions to do this. As St. Augustine points out, it is not our own power or the words we say that will change someone. So here we go:

Step 1: Say a prayer for their Good

Step 2: Befriend them

Step 3: Hang out with said friend and become better friends regardless of differences

Step 4: Say a prayer for their Good

Step 5: Hang out some more and become better friends regardless of differences

Step 6: Extend an invitation (Mass, holy hour, Rosary, Liturgy of the Hours,… take your pick)

Step 7: Say a prayer for their Good

Step 8: Repeat steps 3-7 and be patient

In the meantime, you can also pray for an increase in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in yourself. Hint: we need the conversion of heart as much or even more than they do.

It is very easy to be snobbish and crabby. It is very easy to compare ourselves to others; our culture feeds off of this. It’s also easy to act like it’s OK that 70% of Catholics in the U.S. are at Mass two times a year. We allowed that to happen for the sake of getting along and to avoid being inconvenient. On both sides of the equation we are dulling the joy of the reality of God incarnate. The answer isn’t found in between these two things like a balance of polite smiles and snarky comments. It’s found in joy. Unbounded, unassuming, unselfish, unsurpassable, unexpected, unpredictable, unafraid, undeniable joy!

Verso l’alto!

Merry Christmas

Written by:
Marty Arlinghaus

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Your Opinion Really Doesn't Matter

11/22/2013

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Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. Except when they’re not.

What is objective truth?

The definition of objective truth is as follows: the state or quality of being true even outside of a subject's individual biases, interpretations, feelings, and imaginings.

It means that things that are objective have only one correct definition. You can have opinions on subjective matters. For instance, your favorite ice cream flavor is a matter of subjectivity. Feel free to disagree with somebody when they say French Vanilla Cappuccino Malts from UDF are the best things on the menu. But objective truths, on the other hand, are true regardless of how you feel about them.

This relativism can be easily seen in the world today with many matters of objectivity. It’s a very common thought process that opinions are all valid and should be respected, and often not even argued.

Let’s go back to the early Christians. Years ago, most people got the whole objective truth thing. Early Christians were put to death on a regular basis for refusing to deny things they understood to be objective truths. For example, from a few years after the death of Christ, and for hundreds of years later, documents were written (and later found) which stated Christians were arrested during a private gathering, and when questioned, admitted to “cannibalistic acts.” The early Christians realized that “This is my body” and “Truly, I tell you, unless you gnaw on the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” were not figurative – that Jesus was serious. And many died for it. Some documented cases of Christians being put to death include the exchanges between the two parties as well. Usually something along the lines of “Simply state you do not believe in _______ and you will be free to go.” (this blank could be a number of things from belief in Christ in general to a specific belief regarding Christianity.) Time and time again the response was a no. They understood their beliefs to be true. Truth was non-negotiable.

Years and years down the road this started to degenerate. The papacy, as the years went on, became more and more a preserver of truth. This led to a “pope-syndrome” of sorts within the entire Christian community (which I remind you, aside from a few small heretical groups, was one Church until the 1500s) where eventually people began responding to things they didn’t understand by essentially saying “Well screw it, then I’ll be pope and do what I want!” A few times there were multiple people who claimed they were the new pope (which never did work out very well). This led to many a facepalm and headache for those in the Church who had to deal with it.

Eventually, however, the snowball started rolling with the schismatic movement that started with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation.

The papacy, which traced directly back to St. Peter, was left behind. 7 books that conflicted with new reformation values were removed from the Bible. The snowball picked up speed, and the notion of pursuing gained credence while Christ’s words of prayer for unity gained less and less.

Within a few decades after the Reformation thousands of schisms led to separate denominations being formed. Today, close to 35,000 separate protestant denominations exist.

“Church Hopping” has become an endemic. Disagreements, personal preferences, and countless other reasons often led to the abandonment of a denomination/church and the formation of a new one to fit the individual’s needs.

The Catholic Church stands as a beacon of unaltered truth in an increasingly relative world, where even objectivity has been replaced with subjective stances. No, the Church is not perfect, as any organization run by man will not be. But through the Papacy, which traces back in successors to St. Peter, the Magisterium (the teaching authority of the Church), which preserves 2000 years of Church teaching, and the Dogma (unchanging principles of the Church) which have remained unchanged since their origins, the Church embraces the objective truths it was founded upon wholeheartedly.

There are places for opinions within Catholicism (I refer to you to the hundreds of religious orders, the different forms of celebrating Mass, the tens of thousands of ways to pray, etc.), but opinions do not apply to truth. When it comes to objectivity, your opinion bears no weight. It doesn’t matter what you think. More often than ever Catholics are becoming “Shopping-Cart Catholics” who pick and choose which aspects of the Church they wish to follow. Often in comments on various blogs/articles I’ve read people will say something along the lines of “I’m Catholic, but I don’t believe in Church teaching A, B, C, or D” sometimes even the Eucharist will be the subject of disagreement.

If you define yourself as Catholic, remember it is just that: a definition. It is a title that bears weight and has consequences that go along with it. You don’t get to pick the dogmatic Church teachings you choose to accept and which you choose to reject. (And I take this time to remind everybody that when it comes to things in the Church that are purely traditional and not dogmatic, such as priests being able to marry, you are free to have opinions.) Remember that Catholicism is a package deal. By choosing it, you choose not just the easy parts, but the difficult teachings as well. We are calling the world to a higher standard of living and must therefore exemplify this discipline of following Church teachings in our own lives if we wish to effectively evangelize.

With 35,000 types of Christianity all claiming truth, it is important for us to go back to the very beginning and seek complete truth.

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SSP Blog

Knowledge—The Catholic Way

SSP Year End Summary - And What's Next

The Basics of Hell

On the Literal Reading of Genesis

Searching for the God of Flowers and Spring

The Whisper: Following God's Call

Everybody Bows

Catholic Nursing- Ideally Ironic

Yule Like the Joy of X-mas

Your Opinion Really Doesn't Matter

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