Simple Explanation of the World's View and a Catholic View

Fr. Demets has a post with excerpts from the Pope's address to a group of disadvantaged youth :

Friday, July 18, 2008

This is Catholicism

In a few words, a Catholic view of the world.

False “gods”, whatever name, shape or form we give them, are nearly always associated with the worship of three things: material possessions, possessive love, or power. Let me explain what I mean.

Material possessions, in themselves, are good. We would not survive for long without money, clothing and shelter. We must eat in order to stay alive. Yet if we are greedy, if we refuse to share what we have with the hungry and the poor, then we make our possessions into a false god. How many voices in our materialist society tell us that happiness is to be found by acquiring as many possessions and luxuries as we can! But this is to make possessions into a false god. Instead of bringing life, they bring death.

Authentic love is obviously something good. Without it, life would hardly be worth living. It fulfills our deepest need, and when we love, we become most fully ourselves, most fully human. But how easily it can be made into a false god! People often think they are being loving when actually they are being possessive or manipulative. People sometimes treat others as objects to satisfy their own needs rather than as persons to be loved and cherished. How easy it is to be deceived by the many voices in our society that advocate a permissive approach to sexuality, without regard for modesty, self-respect or the moral values that bring quality to human relationships! This is worship of a false god. Instead of bringing life, it brings death.

The power God has given us to shape the world around us is obviously something good. Used properly and responsibly, it enables us to transform people’s lives. Every community needs good leaders. Yet how tempting it can be to grasp at power for its own sake, to seek to dominate others or to exploit the natural environment for selfish purposes! This is to make power into a false god. Instead of bringing life, it brings death.

The cult of material possessions, the cult of possessive love and the cult of power often lead people to attempt to “play God”: to try to seize total control, with no regard for the wisdom or the commandments that God has made known to us. This is the path that leads towards death. By contrast, worship of the one true God means recognizing in him the source of all goodness, entrusting ourselves to him, opening ourselves to the healing power of his grace and obeying his commandments: that is the way to choose life.

Benedict XVI
Address - Meeting with disadvantaged people - Sydney
July 18, 2008

posted by New Catholic

Back again!

Well, last Tuesday, our computer crashed. We had company in on Thursday and left for vacation on Sunday. Needless to say the computer did not get priority for a few days. We went to the mountains and truly enjoyed every minute away from the hustle here at home. I came back into town a couple of days early from the rest in order to attend a Spell to Write and Read 2-day seminar taught by Wanda Sanseri herself! I have studied the program for almost a year, but am really enjoying the real life instruction.
Boy, it sure is quiet around here with no little feet, questions, or people to care for. I actually got out of class and went and did some shopping for my daughter's upcoming birthday. I hope to have time over the weekend to update the blog, but now it is late, my brain is tired, and I need to do some homework for tomorrow's class, so I guess I will leave you with the following:

From silly devotions and sour-faced saints, good Lord, deliver us! --
Sta. Teresa d'Avila

Revamped Catholic Homeschooling Magazine

I use to subscribe to the Heart and Mind magazine several years ago, but dropped my subscription for whatever reasons. The magazine is back under a new title, mater et magistra, and "revamped". The July issue's theme is hope and includes a unit study on Astronomy, along with various homeschool articles. The subscription is $20/year (4 issues). There are several free articles and unit studies available on the site's menu. Check it out!

"Not many - all the parishes, because this is a gift of God"

A very good article by Mr. Thomas Woods concerning the 1-year anniversary of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. Below is an excerpt and here (from InsideCatholic.com) is the whole article.

In recent weeks, Cardinal Hoyos has made clear just how ambitious Benedict's expectations are. The cardinal made headlines when, in response to a journalist's inquiry as to whether the pope wanted to see the Extraordinary Form in "many ordinary parishes," he replied, "All the parishes. Not many -- all the parishes, because this is a gift of God." "This kind of worship is so noble, so beautiful," he said.

According to Cardinal Hoyos, the Ecclesia Dei Commission is instructing seminaries to teach seminarians not only the Extraordinary Form itself but also the theology and language of the old Missal. He suggests that parishes hold classes to prepare their people for the traditional liturgy, so they might "appreciate the power of the silence, the power of the sacred way in front of God, the deep theology, to discover how and why the priest represents the person of Christ and to pray with the priest."

I never expected to live to see this.

The traditional liturgy is of great pedagogical value to a world that knows nothing of reverence or of respect for tradition, and that takes for granted that all institutions of whatever provenance or antiquity are to be adapted and updated to suit modern man. That modern man might not in fact be the apogee of human civilization, and could perhaps stand to conform his own behavior to something outside himself instead of thoughtlessly vandalizing everything around him, is a message the modern West just might need to hear. Long live Pope Benedict.