The Advent Conspiracy

The story of Christ's birth is a story of promise, hope, and revolutionary love. How did it turn into a season of stress, traffic jams, and shopping lists?

Its a sad state of affairs when we turn a day of Thanksgiving into a pre-game (and in some cases the start) of a shopping spree which entails camping out in front of big name stores for sales on junk we don't really need and soon after won't really want.  Last year it also included a security guard from a Walmart literally being trampled to death by people looking for a good deal.   This year there were several shootings, a stabbing, and numerous brawls.  It seems that Occupy Walmart has outdone Wall Street this Black Friday.

I sadly believe that it will never be enough.   When we base our happiness on the accumulation of stuff, we will never be satisfied because there will always be something else we simply cannot live without.  Aquinas stated, “if the question be asked how must one’s possessions be used, the church replies without hesitation that man should not consider his material possessions as his own but as common to all.”  St. John Chrysostom said, “if you have two shirts in your closet, one belongs to you and the other to the man with no shirt.” 

The point is simply this, your life is not about you.

A Good Catholic - Bro. Michael Mary OP

New Translation of the Missal

...so what's all the fuss about?

Happy New (Liturgical) Year

The Story of St. Catherine Laboure and The Miraculous Medal

St. Catherine Laboure, virgin, was born on May 2, 1806. At an early age she entered the community of the Daughters of Charity, in Paris, France. Three times in 1830 the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Catherine Laboure, who then was a twenty-four year old novice.

On July 18, the first apparition occurred in the community's motherhouse. St. Catherine beheld a lady seated on the right side of the sanctuary. When St. Catherine approached her, the heavenly visitor told her how to act in time of trial and pointed to the altar as the source of all consolation. Promising to entrust St. Catherine with a mission which would cause her great suffering, the lady also predicted the anticlerical revolt which occurred at Paris in 1870.

On November 27, the lady showed St. Catherine the medal of the Immaculate Conception, now universally known as the "Miraculous Medal." She commissioned St. Catherine to have one made, and to spread devotion to this medal. At that time, only her spiritual director, Father Aladel, knew of the apparitions. Forty-five years later, St. Catherine spoke fully of the apparitions to one of her superiors. She died on December 31, 1876, and was canonized on July 27, 1947. Her feast day is November 25.

Courtesy of Catholic.org

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=266

Chapel of the Miraculous Medal on Rue de Bac, Paris, France.

Incorrupt Body of St. Catherine Laboure.  Not too bad for 206 years old.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Abortion and Health Care

I recently found this great video by Fr. Robert Barron, check it out:

Does the prevalence of a practice make it morally acceptable or is the human conscience accountable to more then mere popularity?

Freedom without responsibility is a slavery in itself.

God Does Not Need You

I recently heard someone say that one of the most important truths so essential to Christianity itself is simply this, God does not need you.  God does not need you and yet you are here.  God in His absolute capacity to accomplish anything simply by the act of His willing it and who is not contingent or dependent upon anything has created us.  At every moment we are being loved into existence by God Himself.  God does not need us, but yet He has made us.

But what is love?  Is it a feeling or fleeting emotion?  Do we really love a candy bar or a new piece of clothing or TV show?  St. Thomas Aquinas says that "love is to will the good of the other as other."  Not to wish somebody else to succeed at something in the hopes that we can grab onto the coat tails of that success for our own sakes.  Not to wish somebody well in the hopes of somehow manipulating the situation for our betterment.  Love is the complete, freely given gift of self for the sake of the other.

God loves us not because we have somehow merited it but simply because He has deigned for us to exist.  He loves us into existence simply so that we might have life and have it to the fullest.  St. Augustine says that "we are good insofar as we exist."  It is simply good to be, not relying on what we can or have done.

Belmont Abbey Sues Over Obamacare Mandate

On November 14th, 2011, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty filed a lawsuit against the federal government on the part of Catholic college, Belmont Abbey over  the "Affordable Care Act" (commonly known as Obamacare).  The act requires the college to violate its religious held moral obligations or else face a heavy fine.  The Affordable Care Act requires thousands of religious organizations to provide contraceptives, the Morning After Pill (Plan B), Ella, and sterilization.  As it stands for the moment, if the Benedictines of Belmont follow their consciences and principals over the agenda of the state they run the risk of paying not only a hefty fine, but also would have the health insurance plans for its employees and students terminated.

It is a scary day in America when the government believes itself to have sufficient power to dictate its own moral code to its citizens, nevertheless a school run by monks.  Although various religious denominations have various moral teachings, especially on  something so controversial as sexual ethics, the beauty of America has always been that its citizens are guaranteed the right by their government to follow their own consciences even when those consciences are not in harmony with everyone else or the popular view.

Another frightening trend growing everyday is what Pope Benedict XVI, has labeled the Dictatorship of Relativism.  Morality has been degraded into a dull mindset that says nothing more then to do whatever you want and tolerate whatever is done around you.  Society and the media tell its audience that if you even dare to have any moral convictions that do not agree with what someone else wants or does you are immediately labeled as a bigot.  Chesterton once said that, "tolerance  is a man with no convictions."  I would add that a man with no convictions is no man at all.  A man with no convictions has absolutely no integrity for what he says and does become completely arbitrary.  

The time is coming where we will all have to make a choice.  Are our principals something we will easily trade to satisfy the state and our conveniences or will we hold onto our convictions for what outlasts man-made powers?