The Church is suffering: she is trampled on, and her enemies are within. Let us not abandon her.

 

The mystery of Judas, the mystery of betrayal, is a subtle poison. The devil seeks to make us doubt the Church. He wants us to regard her as a human organization in crisis. However, she is so much more than that: she is the continuation of Christ. The devil drives us to division and schism. He wants us to believe that the Church has betrayed us. But the Church does not betray. The Church, full of sinners, is herself without sin! There will always be enough light in her for those who seek God. Do not be tempted by hatred, division, manipulation. It is not a matter of believing a party, of rising up against each other: “The Master warned us against these dangers to the point of reassuring the people, even with regard to the bad shepherds: one must not abandon the Church, that seat of truth, because of them . . . . Therefore let us not become lost in the evil of division because of those who are wicked”, Saint Augustine (Letter 105).

The Church is suffering: she is trampled on, and her enemies are within. Let us not abandon her. All pastors are sinful men, but they bear within themselves the mystery of Christ.

What is to be done, then? It is not a matter of organizing and implementing strategies. How could anyone think that we could improve things by ourselves? That would be to enter again into the illusion of Judas.

Given the surge of sins in the ranks of the Church, we are tempted to try to take things into our own hands. We are tempted to try to purify the Church by our own strength. That would be a mistake. What should we do? Form a party? A movement? That is the most serious temptation: the showy disguise of division. Under the pretext of doing good, people become divided, they criticize each other, they tear each other apart. And the devil snickers. He has succeeded in tempting good people under the appearance of good. We do not reform the Church by division and hatred. We reform the Church when we start changing ourselves! Let us not hesitate, each one, in his place, to denounce sin, starting with our own.

I tremble at the thought that Christ’s seamless garment is in danger of being torn again. Jesus suffered agony when he saw in advance the divisions of Christians. Let us not crucify him again! His heart begs us: he thirsts for unity! The devil is afraid of being  called by his name. He likes to drape himself in the fog of ambiguity. Let us be clear about one thing: “To call things by the wrong name is to add to the world’s misfortune”,  Albert Camus said.

Robert Cardinal Sarah, The Day is Now Far Spent (pp. 14-5)  

Christ: the sign of contradiction

Among the truths that Jesus gave His Apostles before sending them out into the world to preach His gospel are the following: “Do not think I have come to bring peace upon the earth; I have come to bring a sword, not peace… He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me, is not worthy of Me. He who seeks his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake, will find it.” When He was presented in the temple as a baby, Simeon prophesied: “This child is set for the rise and fall of many and as a sign of contradiction.” Yet Jesus’ message is one of love and good will. He proclaims the Father’s love and the coming of His kingdom. He invites people to the peace found in life in obedience to His Father’s will.

The more faithful a Christian becomes the deeper the chasm between him and those who refuse to accept Christ. When it comes to a choice between family harmony and Jesus, members must value Jesus the divine source of their being and goal of their eternal happiness, infinitely higher than the most intimately loved parents, relatives, and friends. This often calls for cutting the bonds at the core of the deepest relationships. This is extremely hard to accomplish. Temptations of a psychological nature drive persons to preserve their dearest ties. But Jesus warns everyone: If you cling tenaciously to your natural life, abandoning Me for it, you shall lose your own eternal life. If you let your natural life go for My sake, you will find yourself enjoying divine, inexhaustible life.

Rev. Vincent Miceli, Rendezvous with God (pp. 159-60)

Living in Truth

 

What did it mean to live by lies? It meant, [Aleksander] Solzhenitsyn writes, accepting without protest all the falsehoods and propaganda that the state compelled its citizens to affirm—or at least not to oppose—to get along peaceably under totalitarianism. Everybody says that they have no choice but to conform, says Solzhenitsyn, and to accept powerlessness. But that is the lies that gives all other lies their malign force. The ordinary man may not be able to overturn the kingdom of lies, but he can at least say that he is not going to be its loyal subject.

“We are not called upon to step out onto the square and shout out the truth, to say out loud what we think—this is scary, we are not ready,” he writes. “But let us at least refuse to say what we do not think.”

For example, says Solzhenitsyn, a man who refuses to live by lies:

• Will not say, write, affirm, or distribute anything that distorts the truth

• Will not go to a demonstration or participate in a collective action unless he truly believes in the cause

• Will not take part in a meeting in which the discussion is forced and no one can speak the truth

• Will not vote for a candidate or proposal he considers to be “dubious or unworthy”

• Will walk out of an event “as soon as he hears the speaker utter a lie, ideological drivel, or shameless propaganda”

• Will not support journalism that “distorts or hides the underlying facts”

“This is by no means an exhaustive list of the possible and necessary ways of evading lies,” Solzhenitsyn writes. “But he who begins to cleanse himself will, with a cleansed eye, easily discern yet other opportunities.

Rod Dreher, Live Not By Lies: A Manual For Christian Dissidents (pp. 17-18)

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Rod Dreher on Live Not by Lies - Full Episode https://youtu.be/caQsreT755w

“Live Not By Lies” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (from Livestream #49) https://youtu.be/Mw0A8jXRSGQ  

Live Not By Lies, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/SolhenitsynLies.php

The children of God are freed from the law

Image: Charles Hodge (1797-1878)

The gospel proposes the only method by which God will justify men — a method which is entirely gratuitous; the condition of which is faith; which is founded on the redemption of Christ; which reconciles the justice and mercy of God; humbles man; lays the foundation for an universal religion, and establishes the law (chap. 3:21-31).

The truth of this doctrine is evinced from the example of Abraham, the testimony of David, the nature of the covenant made with Abraham and his seed, and from the nature of the law. He proposes the conduct of Abraham as an example and encouragement to Christians (chap. 4:1-25).

Justification by faith in Christ secures peace with God, present joy, and the assurance of eternal life (chap. 5:1-11). The method, therefore, by which God proposes to save sinners, is analogous to that by which they were first brought under condemnation. As on account of the offense of one, sentence has passed on all men to condemnation; so on account of the righteousness of one, all are justified (chap. 5:12-21).

The doctrine of the gratuitous justification of sinners cannot lead to the indulgence of sin, because such is the nature of union with Christ, and such the object for which he died, that all who receive the benefits of his death, experience the sanctifying influence of his life, chap. 6:1-11. Besides, the objection in question is founded on a misapprehension of the effect and design of the law, and of the nature of sanctification. Deliverance from the bondage of the law and from a legal spirit is essential to holiness. When the Christian is delivered from this bondage, he becomes the servant of God, and is brought under an influence which effectually secures his obedience (chap. 6:12-23).

As, therefore, a woman, in order to be married to a second husband, must first be freed from her former one, so the Christian, in order to be united to Christ, and to bring forth fruit unto God, must first be freed from the law (chap. 7:1-6).

This necessity of deliverance from the law, does not arise from the fact that the law is evil, but from the nature of the case. The law is but the authoritative declaration of duty; which cannot alter the state of the sinner’s heart. Its real operation is to produce the conviction of sin (vers. 7-13), and, in the renewed mind, to excite approbation and complacency in the excellence which it exhibits, but it cannot effectually secure the destruction of sin. This can only be done by the grace of God in Jesus Christ (chap. 7:7-25).

Those who are in Christ, therefore, are perfectly safe. They are freed from the law; they have the indwelling of the life-giving Spirit: they are the children of God; they are chosen, called, and justified according to the divine purpose; and they are the objects of the unchanging love of God (chap. 8:1-39).

Charles Hodge, A Commentary on Romans (pp. 10-11)

Memento mori (‘remember you will die’)

"Memento mori (‘remember you will die’) is the ancient Christian practice of contemplating death and especially our own. Rather than to give into the hopelessness of decay, we know that flesh and bone will rise in the Resurrection. But to get to the joy of Easter Sunday, we must also endure the pain of Good Friday.

"This week, Michael is joined by Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble to answer the question, 'How does reflecting on death bring us closer to understanding Christ’s death and Resurrection?' As a former atheist who has studied and practiced memento mori in her own spiritual life, Sr. Theresa offers some fascinating insights on how the contemplation of death can lead to a more fruitful Lent and a more joyful Easter..."

Read more and listen to the podcast here: The Lenten Practice of Memento Mori | feat. Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble https://catholicexchange.com/the-lenten-practice-of-memento-mori-feat-sr-theresa-aletheia-noble

For God has chosen the foolish things of the world...

No morons so play the fool as those who are obsessed with the ardor of Christian piety to the point they distribute their goods, overlook injuries, suffer themselves to be deceived, make no distinction between friends and enemies, eschew pleasure, glut themselves with hunger, vigils, tears, toils, and reproaches, who disdain life, who crave only death, who seem utterly to contemn all common sense, as if the soul lived elsewhere and not in the body. What is this if not insanity? No wonder that the apostles appeared to be drunk with new wine and Paul seemed to Festus to be mad. Christ himself became a fool when he was found in fashion as a man that he might bring healing by the foolishness of the cross. “For God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty.”

Desiderius Erasmus, Moriae Encomium

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Moriae Encomium (Latin) In Praise of Folly, also translated as The Praise of Folly, is an essay written in Latin in 1509 by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in June 1511

The Faith of Sarah Harmening

Sarah Harmening

The Faith of Sarah Harmening

ATLANTA -- Loved ones are reuniting after a fatal bus crash in south Fulton County and one family said goodbye.

Family members confirmed that Sarah Harmening was the passenger who lost her life in a tragic church bus accident on Camp Creek Pkwy...

Continue reading: Passenger killed in church bus crash identified http://www.11alive.com/news/passenger-killed-in-fatal-church-bus-crash-identified/447252321

Funeral set for Sarah Harmening, Alabama teen missionary killed in Atlanta bus crash http://s.al.com/UU9a5FB 

The World Perceived: A Theological and Phenomenological Approach to Thinking, Perceiving, and Living In-The-World

This link is to the Facebook page for my theology/philosophy book: "The World Perceived: A Theological and Phenomenological Approach to Thinking, Perceiving, and Living In-The-World" - https://www.facebook.com/TheWorldPerceived 

100% of my royalties from the sales of this book go to support the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, D C in order to assist their good works of charity: http://dccatholicworker.wordpress.com/. 

Links to purchase the trade paperback, Kindle, Google e-book, and free ebook editions are available in the “About” section of the book’s Facebook page and are linked below. 

The DC Catholic Workers are aways very grateful for every dollar I am able to donate to them, and so am I. The many peoples they help in DC are very thankful too.

The book is the culmination of over ten years of research and four years of writing, and it’s publication was announced in the "Newsletter For Phenomenology."

See: Newsletter For Phenomenology (September 2009) - http://www.phenomenology.ro/newsletter/newsletter_296.html

The DC Catholic workers receive the most (= $8.00 per copy) when purchased from my online e-store: CreateSpace (publisher): https://www.createspace.com/3359491 and they receive $5.00 per copy when purchased from all other online retailers, such as Amazon, B&N, and Indiebound (see links below).

The World Perceived: A Theological And Phenomenological Approach To Thinking, Perceiving, And Living In-The-World

Authored by A. J. MacDonald, Jr.

List Price: $16.00

5.5" x 8.5" (13.97 x 21.59 cm) 

Black & White on White paper

276 pages

(c) 2009

ISBN-13: 978-1440462146

ISBN-10: 1440462143

OCLC Number: 698623831

BISAC: Religion / Philosophy

Description 

How are we to make sense of the Bible in the context of the modern world? 

In this book, you will discover a new way of perceiving the world; a way in which the biblical view of the world can be seen as just as true-for-us as the modern scientific view of the world. 

The World Perceived explores how we think about the world, how we perceive the world, and how we choose to live our lives in-the-world. Using phenomenology as a philosophical framework for the construction of a biblical theology of appearances, the author illustrates how the biblical description of reality is of far greater relevance to us than are the descriptions of reality given to us by modern science and popular science writers. 

By exploring the epistemological bases of both science and theology as a forms of knowledge along with the assumptions implicit within both worldviews, The World Perceived invites the reader upon an intellectual journey into the world of phenomenal reality. The author makes a strong case for the validity of the biblical description of the world and reality by demonstrating how the modern scientific description of the world and reality are in no way superior to the biblical description. 

Using three examples of conflicting scientific and biblical descriptions of the world (i.e., the geocentric versus the heliocentric conception of the universe, creation versus evolution, and absolute time versus relative time) The World Perceived demonstrates the Bible's relevancy to the modern world, which is often hostile to both religion and the Bible, like no other book on the market today.

Author's royalties go to support the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, D C in order to assist their good works of charity.

Available for purchase here:

Google Books: http://tinyurl.com/9t7ujnw 

Amazon (trade paperback): http://www.amazon.com/World-Perceived-Theological-Phenomenological-World/dp/1440462143 

Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/World-Perceived-Phenomenological--World-ebook/dp/B002MKN5LM/ 

CreateSpace (publisher): https://www.createspace.com/3359491

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-world-perceived-a-j-macdonald/1018397920 

Indiebound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781440462146 

Better World Books: http://tinyurl.com/cwy2k9b 

The World Perceived is available for free download and to read online here:

Internet Archive: http://archive.org/details/TheWorldPerceivedATheologicalAndPhenomenologicalApproachToThinking 

Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/18013481/Phenomenology-Theology-and-The-World-Perceived 

Author contact information:

Cell - 717-414-3821

Email - ajmacdonaldjr@gmail.com 

LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/pub/a-j-macdonald-jr/41/460/998/ 

The World Perceived Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheWorldPerceived

A. J. MacDonald, Jr. - Amazon Author Page - https://www.amazon.com/author/ajmacdonaldjr 

VIDEO - The author explains his book of Christian philosophy: “The World Perceived” - http://en.gloria.tv/?media=320837  

VIDEO - The World Perceived: A Theological and Phenomenological... - http://youtu.be/Um2lM4Tvj2o