Silence
Tweet ThisAnother good reason for my 30-day "Offline at 8 PM" fast. (And another good outcome of it.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
In every age, men and women who have consecrated their lives to God in prayer – like monks and nuns – have established their communities in particularly beautiful places: in the countryside, on hilltops, in valleys, on the shores of lakes or the sea, or even on little islands. These places unite two elements which are very important for contemplative life: the beauty of creation, which recalls that of the Creator, and silence, which is guaranteed by living far from cities and the great means of communication. Silence is the environmental condition that most favors contemplation, listening to God and meditation. The very fact of experiencing silence and allowing ourselves to be “filled,” so to speak, with silence, disposes us to prayer. The great prophet, Elijah, on Mount Horeb – that is, Sinai – experienced strong winds, then an earthquake, and finally flashes of fire, but he did not recognize the voice of God in them; instead, he recognized it in a light breeze (cfr. 1 Rev 19:11-13). God speaks in silence, but we need to know how to listen. This is why monasteries are oases in which God speaks to humanity; and there we find the courtyard, a symbolic place because it is a closed space, but open toward heaven...
The world is filled with these oases of the spirit: some very ancient, others are more recent, while still others have been restored by new communities. Looking at things from a spiritual perspective, these places of the spirit are a load-bearing structure of the world! It is no accident that many people, especially in times of rest, visit these places and stop there for some days.
Even the soul, thanks be to God, has its needs!
-Pope Benedict XVI
General Audience
Castel Gandolfo
10 August 2011
In unrelated, but related, news, it was nice yesterday to show Thomas & Matthew the lodge at Pere Marquette State Park, where, I explained to them, I used to go every Sunday afternoon to read, reflect, and plan my week.
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Lepanto (G.K. Chesterton)
Tweet ThisIn honor of the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary... one of the most beautiful poems in English Literature...
(Remembering the Battle of Lepanto)...
White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;
There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross.
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;
From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,
And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.
Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred,
Where, risen from a doubtful seat and half attainted stall,
The last knight of Europe takes weapons from the wall,
The last and lingering troubadour to whom the bird has sung,
That once went singing southward when all the world was young.
In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.
Strong gongs groaning as the guns boom far,
Don John of Austria is going to the war,
Stiff flags straining in the night-blasts cold
In the gloom black-purple, in the glint old-gold,
Torchlight crimson on the copper kettle-drums,
Then the tuckets, then the trumpets, then the cannon, and he comes.
Don John laughing in the brave beard curled,
Spurning of his stirrups like the thrones of all the world,
Holding his head up for a flag of all the free.
Love-light of Spain--hurrah!
Death-light of Africa!
Don John of Austria
Is riding to the sea.
Mahound is in his paradise above the evening star,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
He moves a mighty turban on the timeless houri's knees,
His turban that is woven of the sunsets and the seas.
He shakes the peacock gardens as he rises from his ease,
And he strides among the tree-tops and is taller than the trees;
And his voice through all the garden is a thunder sent to bring
Black Azrael and Ariel and Ammon on the wing.
Giants and the Genii,
Multiplex of wing and eye,
Whose strong obedience broke the sky
When Solomon was king.
They rush in red and purple from the red clouds of the morn,
From the temples where the yellow gods shut up their eyes in scorn;
They rise in green robes roaring from the green hells of the sea
Where fallen skies and evil hues and eyeless creatures be,
On them the sea-valves cluster and the grey sea-forests curl,
Splashed with a splendid sickness, the sickness of the pearl;
They swell in sapphire smoke out of the blue cracks of the ground,--
They gather and they wonder and give worship to Mahound.
And he saith, "Break up the mountains where the hermit-folk can hide,
And sift the red and silver sands lest bone of saint abide,
And chase the Giaours flying night and day, not giving rest,
For that which was our trouble comes again out of the west.
We have set the seal of Solomon on all things under sun,
Of knowledge and of sorrow and endurance of things done.
But a noise is in the mountains, in the mountains, and I know
The voice that shook our palaces--four hundred years ago:
It is he that saith not 'Kismet'; it is he that knows not Fate;
It is Richard, it is Raymond, it is Godfrey at the gate!
It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the earth."
For he heard drums groaning and he heard guns jar,
(Don John of Austria is going to the war.)
Sudden and still--hurrah!
Bolt from Iberia!
Don John of Austria
Is gone by Alcalar.
St. Michael's on his Mountain in the sea-roads of the north
(Don John of Austria is girt and going forth.)
Where the grey seas glitter and the sharp tides shift
And the sea-folk labour and the red sails lift.
He shakes his lance of iron and he claps his wings of stone;
The noise is gone through Normandy; the noise is gone alone;
The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes,
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,
And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom,
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,--
But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea.
Don John calling through the blast and the eclipse
Crying with the trumpet, with the trumpet of his lips,
Trumpet that sayeth ha!
Domino gloria!
Don John of Austria
Is shouting to the ships.
King Philip's in his closet with the Fleece about his neck
(Don John of Austria is armed upon the deck.)
The walls are hung with velvet that is black and soft as sin,
And little dwarfs creep out of it and little dwarfs creep in.
He holds a crystal phial that has colours like the moon,
He touches, and it tingles, and he trembles very soon,
And his face is as a fungus of a leprous white and grey
Like plants in the high houses that are shuttered from the day,
And death is in the phial and the end of noble work,
But Don John of Austria has fired upon the Turk.
Don John's hunting, and his hounds have bayed--
Booms away past Italy the rumour of his raid.
Gun upon gun, ha! ha!
Gun upon gun, hurrah!
Don John of Austria
Has loosed the cannonade.
The Pope was in his chapel before day or battle broke,
(Don John of Austria is hidden in the smoke.)
The hidden room in man's house where God sits all the year,
The secret window whence the world looks small and very dear.
He sees as in a mirror on the monstrous twilight sea
The crescent of his cruel ships whose name is mystery;
They fling great shadows foe-wards, making Cross and Castle dark,
They veil the plumèd lions on the galleys of St. Mark;
And above the ships are palaces of brown, black-bearded chiefs,
And below the ships are prisons, where with multitudinous griefs,
Christian captives sick and sunless, all a labouring race repines
Like a race in sunken cities, like a nation in the mines.
They are lost like slaves that sweat, and in the skies of morning hung
The stair-ways of the tallest gods when tyranny was young.
They are countless, voiceless, hopeless as those fallen or fleeing on
Before the high Kings' horses in the granite of Babylon.
And many a one grows witless in his quiet room in hell
Where a yellow face looks inward through the lattice of his cell,
And he finds his God forgotten, and he seeks no more a sign--
(But Don John of Austria has burst the battle-line!)
Don John pounding from the slaughter-painted poop,
Purpling all the ocean like a bloody pirate's sloop,
Scarlet running over on the silvers and the golds,
Breaking of the hatches up and bursting of the holds,
Thronging of the thousands up that labour under sea
White for bliss and blind for sun and stunned for liberty.
Vivat Hispania!
Domino Gloria!
Don John of Austria
Has set his people free!
Cervantes on his galley sets the sword back in the sheath
(Don John of Austria rides homeward with a wreath.)
And he sees across a weary land a straggling road in Spain,
Up which a lean and foolish knight for ever rides in vain,
And he smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and settles back the blade....
(But Don John of Austria rides home from the Crusade.)
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Feast Day!
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War broke out in heaven;
Michael and his angels battled against the dragon.
The dragon and its angels fought back,
but they did not prevail
and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
The huge dragon, the ancient serpent,
who is called the Devil and Satan,
who deceived the whole world,
was thrown down to earth,
and its angels were thrown down with it.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
"Now have salvation and power come,
and the Kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Anointed.
For the accuser of our brothers is cast out,
who accuses them before our God day and night.
They conquered him by the Blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
love for life did not deter them from death.
Therefore, rejoice, you heavens,
and you who dwell in them."
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle;
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray:
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen
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The family, economic life and work
Tweet ThisFrom the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (affiliate link):
b. The family, economic life and work
248. The relationship existing between the family and economic life is particularly significant. On one hand, in fact, the economy (“oiko-nomia”, household management) was born from domestic work. The home has been for a long time — and in many regions still is — a place of production and the centre of life. The dynamism of economic life, on the other hand, develops with the initiative of people and is carried out in the manner of concentric circles, in ever broader networks of production and exchange of goods and services that involves families in continuously increasing measure. The family, therefore, must rightfully be seen as an essential agent of economic life, guided not by the market mentality but by the logic of sharing and solidarity among generations.
249. Family and work are united by a very special relationship. “The family constitutes one of the most important terms of reference for shaping the social and ethical order of human work”.[561] This relationship has its roots in the relation existing between the person and his right to possess the fruit of his labour and concerns not only the individual as a singular person but also as a member of a family, understood as a “domestic society”[562].
Work is essential insofar as it represents the condition that makes it possible to establish a family, for the means by which the family is maintained are obtained through work. Work also conditions the process of personal development, since a family afflicted by unemployment runs the risk of not fully achieving its end[563].
The contribution that the family can make to the reality of work is valuable and, in many instances, irreplaceable. It is a contribution that can be expressed both in economic terms and through the great resources of solidarity that the family possesses and that are often an important support for those within the family who are without work or who are seeking employment. Above all and more fundamentally, it is a contribution that is made by educating to the meaning of work and by offering direction and support for the professional choices made.
250. In order to protect this relationship between family and work, an element that must be appreciated and safeguarded is that of a family wage, a wage sufficient to maintain a family and allow it to live decently[564]. Such a wage must also allow for savings that will permit the acquisition of property as a guarantee of freedom. The right to property is closely connected with the existence of families, which protect themselves from need thanks also to savings and to the building up of family property[565]. There can be several different ways to make a family wage a concrete reality. Various forms of important social provisions help to bring it about, for example, family subsidies and other contributions for dependent family members, and also remuneration for the domestic work done in the home by one of the parents[566].
251. In the relationship between the family and work, particular attention must be given to the issue of the work of women in the family, more generally to the recognition of the so-called work of “housekeeping”, which also involves the responsibility of men as husbands and fathers. The work of housekeeping, starting with that of the mother, precisely because it is a service directed and devoted to the quality of life, constitutes a type of activity that is eminently personal and personalizing, and that must be socially recognized and valued[567], also by means of economic compensation in keeping with that of other types of work[568]. At the same time, care must be taken to eliminate all the obstacles that prevent a husband and wife from making free decisions concerning their procreative responsibilities and, in particular, those that do not allow women to carry out their maternal role fully[569].
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New Catechists
Tweet ThisWell, it is official: Suzanne and I have committed to a one-year "trial" stint as the teachers/coordinators of the 7th/8th grade class of our Tri-Cities Catholic Ministries (TCCM) Public School of Religion (PSR) program.
We'll be guiding some 30-40 of our public school youth (7th & 8th grade) through the upcoming school year with a focus on preparing them for receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation next spring.
Please keep us in your prayers as we start to prepare and embark on this journey together. We're excited and looking forward to it, but are anxious about the amount of work and preparation we'll be investing to do this well for our youth.
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Father’s Day… & Father’s Rug is Missing
Tweet ThisFor some boys, some of their fond memories of their dad revolve around their dad's chair, or his room in the house. I think for my boys, it'll either be my office in the house or my arm chair in the living room, where I'll often read - or read to them - at night.
Our pastor for the last 8 years - our parish's Father - was a husband & father years ago in his first vocation. When his wife passed away, he pursued the priesthood as a second vocation.
For the last 8 years at our parish, he had used the rug from under his family's old dining room table to protect the floor behind the altar in our church. Whenever he offered the Eucharist at our church, he did so standing on the same rug on which he had fathered his blood family at dinners as a dad.
A few weeks ago, he left our parish. It's been a rough few weeks in the parish, but we're coming around well and are ready for our new pastor.
Today at Mass, though, I was struck by something I hadn't noticed before: The absence of Father's Rug behind the altar. No more rug - just the natural granite floor of the sanctuary. I don't know if it had still been there last weekend or the weekend before, or if it had been gone all these weeks since he left. But it was today - Father's Day - that I noticed the conspicuous absence of Father's Rug in our church.
I missed the rug, much like I'll miss my dad's chair some day. And like my boys will miss my chair some day.
Right now, our parish is a church without a pastor. And the absence of Father's Rug drove that home for me today.
Tonight I'll pray that I remain faithful to my responsibilities as a father in my own home, and that my boys don't perceive the rug, or the chair, or my office, missing - or empty - until long after I've passed on.
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Signs, not things, are all we see
Tweet ThisThe Feast of Corpus Christi (The Most Holy Body of Christ.)
One of the largest Eucharistic Processions I've ever seen: Kansas City, November 2009, National Catholic Youth Conference:
[Photo: Joe Cory, Catholic Key]
ANTIPHON: O SACRUM CONVIVIUM (St. Thomas Aquinas)
| LATIN
O sacrum convivium! |
ENGLISH
O sacred banquet! |
arr. by Thomas Tallis:
THE SEQUENCE: LAUDA SION SALVATOREM (St. Thomas Aquinas, circa 1264)
| LATIN
Lauda, Sion, Salvatorem, Quantum potes, tantum aude; Laudis thema specialis, Quem in sacrae mensa coenae, Sit laus plena, sit sonora; Dies enim solemnis agitur, In hac mensa novi Regis, Vetustatem novitas, Quod in coena Christus gessit, Docti sacris institutis, Dogma datur Christianis, Quod non capis, quod non vides, Sub diversis speciebus, Caro cibus, sanguis potus; A sumente non concisus, Sumit unus, sumunt mille: Sumunt boni, sumunt mali, Mors et malis, vita bonis: Fracto demum sacramento, Nulla rei fit scissura: Ecce panis Angelorum, In figuris praesignatur, Bone pastor, panis vere, Tu, qui cuncta scis et vales, |
ENGLISH
Sion, lift thy voice and sing: All thou canst, do thou endeavor, See today before us laid The same which at the sacred board Let the praise by loud and high: On this festival divine On this table of the King, Here, for empty shadows fled, His own act, at supper seated, Wherefore now, with adoration, Hear what holy Church maintaineth, Doth it pass thy comprehending? Here beneath these signs are hidden Flesh from bread, and Blood from wine, They, who of Him here partake, Whether one or thousands eat, Both the wicked and the good Here 'tis life: and there 'tis death: Nor a single doubt retain, Since the simple sign alone Lo! upon the altar lies, Children's meat to dogs denied, Jesu! Shepherd of the sheep! Thou, who feedest us below! |
Information on processions in St. Louis.
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It’s Time for Another Ordination!
Tweet ThisTonight, I'm excited to be in Bourbonnais and Kankakee, IL. I've made the journey here to be present for the Ordination of a good friend, Brother Jason Nesbit, CSV, to the Transitional Diaconate tomorrow morning. The Ordination will take place at Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the parish church where he served last summer and will be serving his diaconate internship this summer.
Jason and I grew up together at Holy Family School and Granite City High School and were in Boy Scout Troop 103 together and worked on summer camp staff together at Camp Sunnen. Jason is the second of my former Holy Family classmates & friends to be ordained to ministry. Along with our other former Holy Family & GCHS classmate and scouting brother, Father Robert Lampitt, who was ordained just over 2 years ago, Jason's making us all quite proud.
It's especially notable that Jason is a Viatorian, since the Viatorians managed and shepherded our parish as we were growing up.
I was honored to be at Jason's profession of first vows back in Arlington Heights, IL back in 2003, and I'm honored to be here with him tomorrow (along with my mom & dad) for his reception of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
I'm looking forward to the beautiful event and day tomorrow, and will post an update and photos here as soon as possible. By the time I post the update, we'll be referring to my friend as "Reverend Mr. Jason Nesbit." To God be the Glory!
From this week's Catholic Times:
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Wow. Walgreens? It’s the end of the world!
Tweet ThisI mean, it was a simple Facebook post. For "Fans" of theirs on Facebook, Walgreens had a simple message:
And then someone had to go ruin it by commenting:
The world will continue to get worse & worse as the day draws near, May 21, 2011. Then Gods elect, whom ever that may be, will be raptured as The Great Earthquake will commence the 5 months of hell on earth. Contrary to popular belief & a lie told by churches, there is no eternal suffering in a place called Hell. God is merciful. Instead, there... See more ... See morewill be 5 months of torment on earth for those left & still alive after the Earthquake. This is all Biblical & coincides with the Biblical timeline. The account of Noah & the Flood is a huge parrallel for the Return of Christ (read 2 Peter 3 & Genesis 7&8). God closed the door to the arc on the 17th day of the 2nd month in the Hebrew calendar, sealing the fate of those safe in the arc (a picture of Christ. He is the door, the way) & those left outside of the arc or left behind. 17th day of 2nd month Hebrew calendar is May 21 on our calendar (Gregorian). 2011 is exactly 7000yrs later! In 2Peter 3...I think verse 10, God is relating the end of the world with the Flood (He is making comparisons for a reason) & says "a day is a thousand years with the Lord..." then back in Genesis 7:4 & 10, God gives Noah a time for destruction & says "For yet SEVEN DAYS (or 7,000 years) & I will..." destroy every living substance from off the face of the earth. God is telling us, with this historical account that we have 7,000 years from that time (4990 BC) to get into "the arc". Think about it. God said in Gen 7:4 He will destroy EVERY LIVING SUBSTANCE from off the face of this earth, yet, back then, He did not, becuz Noah & his family lived...therefore God IS IN FACT TALKING TO US TODAY! JUST AS HE HAS ALWAYS PROVEN TO GIVE HIS SERVANTS A fore WARNING & A TIME...EX: NOAH, ABRAHAM, JACOB, LOT, JONAH & THE NINEVITES, GOD IS ALSO WARNING HIS ELECT TODAY! TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION & GOD CAME FOR SINNERS! WE ALL HAVE GREAT HOPE AS HE IS SAVING THE MOST PEOPLE EVER IN OUR TIME, THE LAST DAYS! PLEASE EVERYONE TAKE HEED. THIS IS YOUR WARNING. FOLLOW THE WICKED CITY OF NINEVAHS EXAMPLE & REPENT UPON HEARING THE WARNING FROM GOD! GO TO FAMILYRADIO.COM (OR 94.7FM). EBIBLEFELLOWSHIIP.COM. THE-LATTER-RAIN.COM. WECANKNOW.COM. TIMEHASANEND.ORG. MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON US ALL & OPEN YOUR EYES TO THE MESSAGE HE HAS HIDDEN IN HIS HOLY WORD BY THE USE OF PARABLES BECAUSE "WITHOUT A PARABLE HE SPOKE NOT" (MARK 4:34). MAY 21, 2011=THE RAPTURE. 5 MONTHS LATER OR 150 DAYS LATER (GEN 7:24). OCTOBER 21, 2011 THE TOTAL annihilation of sin & the universe. October 21 is also exactly the 17th day of the 7th month in Hebrew calendar which was the feast of INGATHERING...THE ONLY FEAST DAY THAT HASN'T BEEN FULFILLED YET.
Whoa. Seriously? Talk about peeing in the cookie jar. What does any of that have to do with what Walgreens staff recommends to make sure we're ready for the summer?
First, you spelled parallel incorrectly.
Second, I believe Jesus Christ who said:
"Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." (Matthew 24:42-44)
...and...
"Therefore, stay awake, 5 for you know neither the day nor the hour." (Matthew 25:13)
...and...
"But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." (Matthew 24:36)
...and...
"He answered them, 'It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.'" (Acts 1:7)
I suppose this is an example of what happens when people interpret Genesis on their own, literally.
That is why we're each supposed to "be ready" for the hour we won't know, according to the measure the Spirit has provided each for himself.
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; prudent are all who live by it. Your praise endures forever." (Psalm 111:10)
...of course now I'm curious... where in the Bible does that "5 months of torment" thing come from?... 
UPDATE: As of about 8:50 AM (Central), Walgreens removed this comment from their feed story. I wonder why.
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This is the online home of Michael Halbrook, Suzanne Halbrook, and their growing family. We're a family of five living out our Catholic faith and vocation in the St. Louis, Missouri area.
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