Bust Your Windows - Are we going too fast?

The wildly popular American pop phenomenon, Glee, introduced a song Bust Your Windows. The chorus of the song goes, ‘I bust the windows out your car’ and this reminded me of a short story I read in a church bulletin once.

I shall relate the story as I remember it.

One parishioner of a church, a rather pious and devout Catholic (when it suited him) had just bought a proud new BMW. It was black, fast and powerful - just how he liked it. He was so proud of his new ‘toy’ that he drove it to church the Sunday it arrived from the dealer.

After mass, he was the first out of the church and with a rev of his engine, he was off and away.

Suddenly, as he was driving along a quiet road, feeling absolutely contented with the fine purring of his engine, his side window shattered as a brick smashed through the glass and onto the empty passenger seat.

Furious, he stopped his car and marched out to confront the imbecile who had committed the treacherous act. A small, pale boy with a skinny frame stood before him, trembling in the cold wind. His anger started to dissipate a little as he asked the boy, “Boy, did you throw the brick at my car?”

The boy replied, “I’m so sorry sir, It was all I could think of to stop you.” He then pointed to an empty wheelchair and a bigger boy lying on the pavement beside the wheelchair. The boy explained that he was pushing his brother to the church and his brother had fallen off the wheelchair. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t lift his brother back onto it. The elder boy was in pain and had given up. The boy was desperate and so he had thrown the nearest object, a brick, at the BMW.

“I was waving to you from afar, sir, but you didn’t seem to see me. I didn’t know what else to do so I threw the brick. I’m so sorry, sir!”

The parishioner helped the elder brother up and into his car and gave the two of them a lift to the church.

Sometimes in life, we’re going so fast and are so pleased or caught up with what we’re doing, that we fail to look around us and think and consider others. We might or might not get a brick thrown at us to stop us in our tracks.

Do we know what’s happening to those around us? Are we concerned? Are we listening to what God is saying to us?

Sometimes I tend to ignore these silent promptings as I’m caught up in ‘work’ or ‘serving Christ’. Even in legion work, we need to ask ourselves: Are we doing work for the sake of fulfilling our allocated work or are we truly legionaries of Mother Mary’s army!

As for Glee and busting windows, the lines “You broke my heart so I broke your car…Why am I the one who’s still crying” explains it all.

I ask simply to be used.

By Cardinal Newman, from his Meditations on Christian Doctrine, Part III

God was all-complete, all-blessed in Himself; but it was His will to create a world for His glory. He is Almighty, and might have done all things Himself, but it has been His will to bring about His purposes by the beings He has created. We are all created to His glory—we are created to do His will. I am created to do something or to be something for which no one else is created; I have a place in God's counsels, in God's world, which no one else has; whether I be rich or poor, despised or esteemed by man, God knows me and calls me by my name.

God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his—if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.

Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—still He knows what He is about.

O Adonai, O Ruler of Israel, Thou that guidest Joseph like a flock, O Emmanuel, O Sapientia, I give myself to Thee. I trust Thee wholly. Thou art wiser than I—more loving to me than I myself. Deign to fulfil Thy high purposes in me whatever they be—work in and through me. I am born to serve Thee, to be Thine, to be Thy instrument. Let me be Thy blind instrument. I ask not to see—I ask not to know—I ask simply to be used.

Intuition

AmP has this thought-provoking story:

It’s not often that something I’m reading stops me in my tracks. This did, however:

When I was in middle school hanging out by the local shopping plaza, I saw these two kids (a year younger than I) riding their bikes around. Don’t ask me why, but I had this sudden urge to talk to one of them. Just that one. But I had nothing to say. He was younger, I never seen him before, and he was with his friend I was with mine. So I just kept walking, and looking back every now and then as if making sure he’s still there; Okay.

A few minutes later this kid got hit by a car crossing the highway by the shopping plaza. People started running to his side, cars stopped, and at that point I was the furthest one away. My friend and I went over and saw a helmet on one side, a smashed bike on a completely different side.

Why did I have this ridiculous urge to talk to a complete stranger? Why didn’t I just say hi, anything, that would stop him for just one second before he got onto that highway?

… How many times did we have a gut feeling, or an intuition, and didn’t go with it? What if we could be saving someone’s life every day if we just said what we felt, did what we knew was right, followed the journey we were meant to follow? That day changed me.

I’ve often thought these intuitions are given to us by our guardian angels – seriously. And if the intuition doesn’t have any harm in it (i.e., simply talking to someone or calling someone on the phone), why not do it? An angel will never tempt you do something that a well-formed conscience knows is wrong. But we may tempt ourselves out of doing something that we don’t think is easy.

Mary's Notebook - November Issue

Legion of Mary, Tidewater, produces a monthly Newsletter called Mary's Notebook. Do subscribe.

Here are some excerpts from this month's issue

It is private dedication, and deep trust in Mary that inspires the Legionary to spend countless hours writing the minutes, practicing saying them, and seeking to do his best. It is my opinion that the secretary who takes the time to do his best, will find that God does the rest and uses these minutes as an amazing tool for evangelization and for recruiting and growth of the Legion of Mary. It is also my opinion that it is exactly when it is the hardest to prepare the minutes well that it counts the most that they are well prepared.

- Christopher Miller, "Order of the Praesidium Meeting"

-----

So even in Heaven Mary is living the Rosary in all its richness and profundity. She looks with joy and thanksgiving on every mystery of Jesus down to the last detail. Everything about Jesus is unforgettable to Mary. She sees with the greatest clarity that the Almighty has done great things for her. She sees that everything that is true, and good and beautiful in her is the unique fruit of the redemptive love of her Son. In her mind and heart resides the totality of the Gospel. In the Rosary Mary wants to share with us her experience of Jesus and with Him to enter into the heart life of the Trinity. No wonder Our Lady invites us again and again to pray the Rosary as a gentle but sure way of opening our lives to the Gospel and the Persons of the Trinity. No wonder the Rosary is at the heart of the spirituality of the Legionary because the spirit of the Legion is the spirit of Mary and she is the Lady of the Rosary.

- Fr Bede McGregor O.P., "The Role of the Rosary in the Life of the Legionary"

Short Catholic Reflection by the late Archbishop Romero

Via AmericanPapist:

A wonderful reflection, which, I think, is very apt for what we Legionaries are called to do and what we are called to surrender:

"It helps now and then to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a small fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about: We plant the seeds that will one day grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it well. It may be incomplete but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own."

- Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador (1917-1980)

From darkness, into His marvelous light

From Fr Z:

All during Lent we were being stripped down and put to a slow death. I speak liturgically, of course. But as Catholics our spiritual lives ought to reflect our liturgical lives and Holy Church’s liturgical seasons.

We were liturgically eviscerated through Lent and Passiontide, Holy Week.

Now, Holy Church has experienced liturgical death.

In the Extraordinary Form, so important for our self-understanding as Catholics, the Alleluia was lost with the pre-Lenten Sundays.

Instrumental music and flowers went on Ash Wednesday.

On 1st Passion Sunday we were deprived of statues and images when they are draped in purple. In the older form of Mass the “Iudica” psalm in the prayers at the foot of the altar and the Gloria Patri at the end of certain prayers was no longer said.

The pruning cuts more deeply as we entered the Triduum.

After the sudden Gloria during the Mass on Holy Thursday bells were replaced with wooden noise makers.

The Blessed Sacrament was removed from the main altar.

The altar was stripped, left bare and exposed.

Holy Water, water being so essential to life, is removed.

On Good Friday, there is no Mass. First no water … now no food.

On Saturday, aside from somber Tenebrae – for we do not cease to pray when we are being emptied out – there is not even a liturgical action, no liturgical sound. At Tenebrae all lights but for a single candle are snuffed out.

It dies before night falls.

By the time we come to Saturday evening and the setting of the sun – increasing darkness until the buried sun no longer gives any illumination to the sky, we will be deprived of light itself.

It is liturgical night in the fullest sense.

As night truly falls in the physical realm, Holy Church is motionless, soundless, bereft of sound, motion, warmth, light itself.

We are in our liturgical tomb.

Holy Church is liturgically dead.

...

The Vigil is to be celebrated after night has fallen.

...

In the darkness a single spark will be struck from flint.

It’s bright glint will be startling in the darkness and silence.

...

The spark will spread into flames, casting greater and greater illumination as they flicker and wave, as they breathe air and consume the food of its fuel. The flames will spread through the whole Church. The glorious Christ Candle will take its place within the sacred space of the church building’ holy of holies, the sanctuary.

Holy Church springs to life again at the Vigil of Easter.

The dead rise.

Conscience and authority

From JimmyAkin.org

Conscience and authority: some basic thoughts

(SDG)

SDG here with some thoughts on conscience and authority sparked by the combox from my last post.

Every man is bound absolutely to follow his own conscience. Hopefully, if and when a man finds that his judgments of conscience are contradicted by competent authority, he will take that fact into account in informing and revising his judgments of conscience.

But this doesn't mean blindly following competent authority. Sometimes, competent authority is wrong, and good men can honestly conclude that competent authority is wrong — sometimes when it is, sometimes when it isn't.

So there is still the possibility of contradiction. What happens then is … tricky.

If a man's conscience tells him that something is morally licit, and competent authority tells him otherwise, he will often be well advised to refrain from the activity in question in deference to competent authority.

If, on the other hand, a man's conscience tells him that something is morally obligatory — or morally illicit — and competent authority tells him the opposite, he must not act against his conscience in deference to authority.

If he is in sufficient doubt as to the rightness of his own judgment, and is swayed by the weight of authority, then he may arrive at a new judgment of conscience, putting his faith in authority to guide him. Assuming he is honest in this process, the responsibility for his actions now lies to a significant degree with that authority. If authority has led him astray, there are millstones for such things. If it has led him aright, there are rewards.

Conversely, if he remains confident enough of his own judgments as to reject the guidance of authority, then he himself incurs a new burden of responsibility for his actions. In that case, he had better hope and pray that he is right. Just as following authority can mitigate one's responsibility, flouting authority can aggravate it. That doesn't mean you can never, or should never, do it. It does mean you take your head in your hands.

If one is instructed by one's bishop not to present oneself for communion, there is an obligation to honor that instruction, even if one is privately convinced that the bishop's instruction is unjustified. If the bishop is right, he has saved a sheep from (hopefully unwitting) sacrilege. If he's wrong, a soul has suffered unecessarily, but with merit before God for sumbitting humbly to authority and meekly accepting unjust punishment.

However, even in such a case I don't think the obligation is necessarily absolute. Take the case of a couple — a pair of converts, let's say — whose marriage is not recognized by the Church because of a previous union for which the tribunal could not find evidence of nullity. And let's say the couple has appealed to Rome, attempted every recourse, all to no avail.

And now let's say that the couple knows, with great moral certitude, that even though they weren't able to prove it to the tribunal, the previous marriage was not valid, and so their current marriage is valid. In such a case, it seems to me, they are not morally obliged either to refrain from conjugal union or to refrain from receiving communion.

If they can do so without scandal — if, say, they attend a parish where the circumstances of their marriage are not known and no one has reason to suspect that their marriage isn't recognized by the Church — then I think it is possible for them to continue to live together as man and wife and to receive communion with a clear conscience.

Now, if the tribunal was right and the couple are wrong, their moral culpability is all the greater. When you rely on the internal forum, you accept a greater weight of judgment, just as you do when you presume to instruct or lead another.

Conversely, if a tribunal judges wrongly, and gives a couple a clean bill of marital health when in fact there is no marriage because of an existing impediment, if the couple acts in good faith in following the tribunal, the moral responsibility is the tribunal's, not the couple's. (It's also worth noting that there is an obligation to try to work things out through the external forum, not just settle for the internal forum from the get-go. One might possibly choose, with fear and trembling, to disregard the wrongful verdict of a marriage tribunal, but this doesn't mean that you don't have to bother petitioning for a decree of nullity in the first place.)

Conscience and authority, part 2

(SDG)

SDG here with some follow-up thoughts on conscience, sparked by comments in the last combox. A reader writes:

The proper formation of one's conscience is at the heart of all the hypotheticals. Personally, I don't know if I could count on my own conscience without lining it up with the Church's teachings.

Yes indeed, proper formation of conscience is crucially important. However, the authority of a poorly formed conscience is just as absolute as that of a well-formed conscience. However well or poorly one's conscience may be formed, one is always absolutely bound to follow one's conscience, that is, one's last best judgment of what one ought to do. If a man has a dreadfully formed conscience, he may be led to do dreadful things. But to go against one's one's last best judgment of what one ought to do, to do what one believes is wrong, is the essence, the very form, of sin.

Note what this doesn't mean: It doesn't mean privileging your own sense of a particular issue over the voice of authority, whether the word of God, the Magisterium, or lesser authorities like parents, government leaders or social consensus. It does mean that when you have listened to all relevant authorities and arguments, taking everything into account, whatever you believe in the end you ought to do is what you must do.

If a person holds a moral opinion contrary to Magisterial teaching, it would certainly be well for him if his conscience, however flawed, were at least well-formed enough for him to conclude, "Even though my own sense of the issue is very far from what the Church says, and I really can't see the reasoning behind it, at the same time I do believe that the Holy Spirit guides the Church, and that tells me that I ought to listen to the Church even though I don't understand." In that case, his conscience — his last best judgment of what he ought to do — tells him to listen to the Church, and that is what he ought to do.

However, suppose his conscience is so poorly formed that he thinks, "I'd really like to be able to trust the Church here, but I just can't. I think the Church is wrong, and I can't do what the Church wants me to without violating my conscience." That is certainly a disastrous conclusion — but, having reached that conclusion, as long as he remains in that faulty opinion, for him to follow the Church anyway (say, out of timidity, social pressure or for some other reason) would be to go against his conscience, and thus to formal sin. Given his faulty reasoning, he must obey the voice of his conscience, even though this means disobeying the Church and committing material sin.

Of course it would be better for him to correct his faulty reasoning at least enough to conclude that it probably makes more sense to trust the Church than his own sense of the issue. Better still, he should correct his conscience enough to understand and assent to the Church's teaching on the basis of its own intelligibility. Obviously, a better informed conscience will lead you more reliably and safely than a poorly formed one. Doing what you believe is right is no shield against the bad consequences of sinful and destructive actions. But doing what you believe is wrong, pitting the will itself against the good, puts one as far from beatitude as it is possible to be.

Thus, when the reader writes, "I don't know if I could count on my own conscience without lining it up with the Church's teachings," it sounds as if the reader's conscience tells her that the Church's teachings must inform her last best judgment of what she ought to do — and if she were to find herself at odds with the Church, she would conclude that she hadn't yet reached a last best judgment. That's as it should be.

In other words, if one's thinking is, "My own sense of the issue is to do X, but the Church tells me to do Y, and in the end I trust the Church more than my own sense of the issue, so I think I should do Y," then one is not trusting the Church instead of one's conscience. Rather, one's conscience tells one to do Y, not X, in keeping with the Church's teaching.

Lots of people don't understand this point.

Conscience and authority, part 3

(SDG)

In the combox for part 2, a reader writes:

But where might the concept of natural law come in — that is, the idea that certain moral laws are written on all people's hearts, such that they cannot authentically claim that they didn't recognize the wrongness of a certain action?

It would seem to me that such persons would have to actively "bury" the natural law in order to not recognize the wrongness of such actions — and it is that choice to "bury" the law that is sinful and extends sin to the actions that follow.

Natural law is assumed throughout my comments on conscience and authority. If there were no natural law, we would have no basis for arriving at judgments of right and wrong — we could only have blind intuitions, authoritative declarations or some combination of the two. Morality would seem totally random to us; we could have no insight into why something was right or wrong.

The possibility of "burying" or suppressing innate knowledge of right and wrong is of course always an ever-present factor to be contended with. To the extent that one is culpable for the false conclusions one arrives at, one has deliberately avoided reaching, or has at least sabotaged, one's "last best" judgment about the right thing to do.

To that extent, one is culpable for misforming one's conscience and therefore to that extent for the false judgments one arrives at — what is called "vincible" ignorance — and the sinful acts one commits in that state.

However, the disfiguring effects of original sin upon the faculties — what Catholic theology calls concupiscence — are also an important factor impeding us from coming to a knowledge of the truth, even the truth written on our hearts. Because of this, it can be difficult or even impossible for us to ascertain the extent to which our own acts of suppression, as opposed to the innate brokenness of our fallen condition, are responsible for our flawed knowledge of moral truth.

So, while it's true that the moral law is written on our hearts so that we have knowledge of the truth, it's also true that our intellects have been darkened by original sin, and this darkened condition is part of the concupiscent weakness that, even after original sin is washed away by baptism and we are reborn in Christ, makes it hard for us to attain, understand and retain spiritual truth in the fulness of its beauty and integrity.

This is why we need proper formation, as well as the illumination of regeneration, to help compensate for, correct and transcend the limitations of our broken ability to interpret correctly the truths written on our hearts. Ignorance of this sort, for which one is not culpable, is called "invicible" ignorance.

Thus, for example, we can't necessarily say with confidence that a Protestant raised in a culture where acceptance of contraception is unanimous, or a Muslim raised with acceptance of polygamy, etc., is personally culpable for suppressing his conscience on these points — i.e., that his ignorance is vincible rather than invincible. Unanimous cultural consensus carries significant moral authority, and in the absence of adequate formation the truths written on our hearts may not come across with sufficient clarity to the darkened intellect to empower the individual to challenge his culture.

Or again they may, by God's grace, for a particular person. But it's for God alone to judge that in a particular case a person is necessarily culpable for burying the witness of his conscience. Even when it comes to more disturbing practices or institutions (female genital mutilation or male castration, for instance, or even human sacrifice), ascertaining the moral culpability of individuals is not for use to judge.

I'm not denying that individuals in such cultures, or some individuals, may know somewhere deep down that these things are wrong, and may be culpable for suppressing such knowledge of the truth as they may find written on their hearts. I'm saying that concupiscence complicates things, and only God can can ascertain the vincibility or invicibility of particular errors, the culpability or inculpability of a particular person's failure to discern truths written on our hearts.

Keep the Fast, Keep the Feast

Another very very insightful meditation on fasting.

Excerpts:

"St. Basil got closer when he said that “the first commandment Adam received” was a prohibition on eating, which Basil called “the divine law of fasting and temperance.” Basil was right, but only half right. To see why, we need to look back at Adam’s original fast in the garden.

Before God told Adam he could not eat from the tree of knowledge, he had already offered all the trees of the garden for food. “Behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you,” (Genesis 1:29) and “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely” (Genesis 2:16). In offering food, Yahweh was offering more than food. He was offering the whole creation. He formed Adam, placed him in a world full of delights and treasures, and told him, “It’s all yours. Enjoy it.” God created Adam a hungry being, and then set before him a world that, so long as he remained in communion with his Creator, could satisfy his hungers.

This helps us see where Adam’s fast fits in. Yahweh did give Adam a law of fasting, but only after inviting him to a feast. In the Bible, feasting is prior to, more fundamental than, fasting. “Eat, drink, and rejoice” is the first word God speaks to Adam, and it is the last word Jesus speaks to His bride. Fasting is essential to the story, but fasts are always ordered to feasts.

Even Adam’s fast from the tree of knowledge was not permanent. Eventually, Yahweh would have given him the fruit of that tree too. “Knowledge of good and evil” is royal insight and judicial wisdom (cf. 1 Kings 3:9). After long experience, mature people come to have the “knowledge of good and evil” they need to share in Yahweh’s rule over creation (cf. Hebrews 5:14). Naked and newborn in the garden, Adam was not ready for that fruit. He had to drink milk before he could digest meat. One day, though, the good fruit of the tree of knowledge would have been added to his menu.

Feasting is the beginning and the goal, but Adam could enjoy the full feast—truly enjoy it—only by first keeping the fast. Eventually, he would feast even on the forbidden fruit, but he could do that well only if he waited for permission, only if he waited until he was ready. That pattern applied not only to the tree of knowledge, but to everything else too. Adam’s fast from the tree showed how he was supposed to handle everything God offered him. If Adam was going to feast on the fruit of the other trees, he would have to “dress and keep the garden.” If he was going to mine that gold, the good gold, down in Havilah (Genesis 2:11–12), he would have to trudge down there, or sail down the Pishon River, and start digging. To enjoy the full abundance of what his Father offered, he was going to have to wait, and work, a long time. To enjoy the banquet, he had to fast until he, and it, were prepared."

...

Jesus is the Last Adam because He keeps the fast. He enters a world that is no longer a garden, but a howling waste, and in that wilderness Satan tempts Him to break the fast, to be an Adam: “You’re hungry; eat this now. You deserve the accolades of the crowds; you can have it now if you jump off the temple. You want all authority in heaven and on earth, but your Father won’t give that to you unless you suffer an excruciating, shameful death; you can have it all now, no cross or self-denial required. It’s yours, and you only need to do a bit of bowing. Life, glory, power, everything you want, everything you deserve—you can have it all now.”

Jesus refused, and refused, and then refused again, and in so doing broke the power of Adamic sin. Jesus kept the fast; he waited, labored, suffered, died, and then opened his hand to receive all the life, glory, honor, authority, and dominion that his Father had to give Him. He kept the fast and as a result was admitted to the fullness of the kingdom’s feast—because by that time both it and he were ready. And by resisting the devil, Jesus sets the pattern of true fasting and reveals a Lenten way of life.

...

We might think we’re celebrating the goodness of creation when we grab for this and that without waiting through the fast. We might think we’re anti-gnostic because we taste the icing of the wedding cake before it’s cut. Our reasoning: “This fruit is just too good for us to wait until it’s ripe.” But that’s not honoring the goodness of creation. Impatience is always incipiently gnostic, because it assumes that nothing can be bettered by time. It is not gnostic to prefer roasted meat to raw. Fasting is not a renunciation of creation; rather, it celebrates and honors the goodness of that most basic and pervasive of all creatures: time.

This, finally, shows us what it means to live out a Lenten lifestyle in imitation of Jesus. It shows, how fasting provides a clue to all Christian living, to all human life and history. Whenever Solomon warns us about the dangers of rapidly acquired wealth, he is warning us not to be Adams. He’s reminding us to keep the fast. Little by little, piece by piece, waiting and not grasping, saving ahead of borrowing: That is Lenten economics.

And Lenten sexuality is like unto it. Lent teaches us to renounce the two-dimensional, bodiless sex that we can seize so easily on the web, in magazines, on the screen. Lent teaches us to wait. But Lent also shows that we don’t wait out of prudish hatred of sex, but out of admiration for its mysterious potency. Sex is so pleasurable, so obsessively delightful, that we have to have our senses trained before we can handle it well. Abstinence is the fast that prepares us for the feast of marriage. Lenten sexuality honors creation by insisting we take time to get ready.

Lenten politics is also the politics of patience and restraint. History is littered with the rubble and severed limbs left behind by Adamic tyrants, who seized power they were incapable of using well. Even competent rulers can forget that ripeness is all. Christians who enter the public square are not to clamor and cling and scramble for a place at the table or a higher rung on the ladder. Christians enter the public square looking to serve, waiting and ready for the fruit when it’s offered.

Everywhere we turn, the world tells us not to keep the fast. Everywhere we turn, the world tempts us to be Adam. Our culture is devoted to stoking up our appetites and convincing us that we need to have it all, and to have it all yesterday. We are fooling ourselves if we think we don’t participate in that culture. Few things provide a better counter to that temptation than a diligent, thoughtful observance of Lent and the cultivation of Lenten way of life. Yes, the Church is a festive community, but unless we are also a fasting community, then we are simply a mirror of the world around us.

Fasting looks like an enemy to life, but the opposite is true. We live abundantly only if we know how to fast—which is to say, only if we are disciplined to wait until the feast is ready. Lent trains us to be a people of patience and restraint, a people who rejoices in a God who has time and gives us time and makes us wait for the treasures He gives. Lent trains us to follow the Master who kept the fast. We must learn the lessons of Lent and the fast if we are going to be the people of the new Adam and not just another variation on the old.

Peter J. Leithart is Senior Fellow of Theology and Literature at New St. Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, and pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow.

Learning from the orchestra...

Don't worry, I won't be writing about those musical stuff since I have other more interesting stuff for you to write about here :P

I was watching the conservatory's orchestra tonight under the baton of Leon Fleisher, one of the most legendary conductors/pianists. Indeed it was an extraordinary performance as far as I follow the conservatory's orchestra series and yet, indeed (I dont know why) it is very insightful also.

It is really amazing to see how different conductor can make the orchestra sound different. What is unique tonight is that a 'young' orchestra - consists of students- under the baton of a great conductor, can make a really great improvement in a week of (yes, intense) rehearsal. With hard work, trust and obedience to the conductor's instruction, putting one's deep effort to the music, they really make a good music today...

It was popping in my mind that, isn't our life is just like that? We are the 'young' orchestra (how old you are, guys, in the eyes of our Eternal Father, we are always babies...) trying to make a good music. Just as when the musicians lose focus at the conductor they will be lost in the music too, most of the time we are not making a good music in our life because we lack of focus to our Divine Conductor, to our Lord.

As happened tonight, there are beautiful moments in the concert, there are also scary - not so smooth moments. But what make it different between a great musicians and not is that, a great musician will keep putting his/her heart and mind wholly to make beautiful music all the time, regardless what happen. So does it with a great conductor will not give up in leading the orchestra or lose trust to the orchestra regardless any incidents may happen during the performance. So do we with our faith and love for God, shouldn't just merely based on feelings or incidents. Yes, I know, experiences may affect our faith journey, but again, love for God, prayer life, is not only about feeling. We are to put our whole heart and mind, always, everywhere - at all time, to make a good music together with the Conductor in our life. I'm sure this Conductor will keep conduct (lead) our life always, regardless whatever 'wrong pitch' we may sound in our life. He will keep moving His baton conducting our life, we only need to always always trust to Him (just as the musicians should trust in the gesture the conductor signalling) and being docile in the process..(I truly can understand how much effort the orchestra has to make during the rehearsal in order to 'get' what this conductor wants....)

It's really amazing to find how a young orchestra can sound different! We too, in our young age, we can sound different, if we follow His baton. A great person is not a matter of how many times (s)he succeeds, but how many times (s)he is able to stand up and begin again after his/her failures, humbly admit the past failure, asking for His forgiveness, and move on with eyes keep focusing on God. Yes, your life can be a great symphony if you allow our Lord to be the Conductor :)

(And yes, after this I also learn that...none of us can say that whatever you are doing or whatever your passion is, can't be useful for others. We will never know that at one point of time, God wants YOU to be His instruments to open someone's eyes who is listening to you making music, who is reading your writings, who sees you working, or just passing by in your life...)

"They have no more wine"

It is no big secret, I believe, that we Catholics at one point or another, find it difficult to pray the rosary. There's a long way from the first Hail Mary to the last and so there are lots of opportunities to be distracted. It's a struggle, and perhaps sometimes, we need to find creative solutions.

Of late, I've taken to imagining the mysteries, as suggested by a priest. Got an overactive imagination? Turn it to worthwhile things. So I did. And last meeting, upon meditating on the Luminous mysteries, there was one mystery that stood out so vividly: The Miracle at Cana.

A wedding. People happily celebrating a union. Music, laughter, tall stories fill the air. Our Lord is right in the midst of it, although perhaps no one but His mother fully understood it at that time. Plenty of food to go around, plenty of rich and tasty wine to fill the guests.

Until suddenly, the wine ran out. The waiters were in a pickle. What to do? Surely there wasn't any emergency delivery service at that time. What to do?

The Bible tells us only that "when there was no more wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, 'They have no more wine.' " How could she have known? I wonder.

Perhaps, amidst all the celebration, there was one woman taking everything in silently. The stories, the music, the laughter. But unlike the others, she looks around and perceives more than they could. Perhaps she noticed a distressed look from one of the waiters, a small hint of anxiety. Here she shows how sensitive she is to the needs of those around her. Or perhaps, the waiters had heard about Jesus of Nazareth. Maybe they weren't sure what all the fuss was about Jesus, but just maybe, He could help them. But they didn't know how to approach Him.

'His mother is here,' perhaps someone said. 'We could ask for her help. He would listen to her.' And so they look for her in the crowd. It doesn't take long for them to find Mary, who is ever so close to everyone who needs her intercession. They hastily tell her the problem, growing more desperate as time passed by with the wine vats empty. But she doesn't need too many words; looking at their distress, she understands. Sure enough, she approaches her Son. Just like in the Annunciation, she probably didn't know how He will do it, but she was certain that He will do it.

"They have no more wine." Such simple words that all of us can relate to. We have no more wine. Every week, work keeps on piling up. There's hardly time to breathe. No time to pray. No time to do active work. Someone needs help, someone needs a friendly conversation, but there's just no time to stop. No time to sit and talk. No energy to force out a smile and encourage someone else.

I have no more wine, my Lord. I'm running on empty.

Then you stop for awhile, because the next step is just too heavy to take. You close your eyes, but it's too hard to pray on your own. Fortunately, you have the prayers of the Church. And you start praying the Our Father, the Haily Mary. Just a few, you think to yourself. I just need to relax. So one bead leads to another...and another... And once again you hear her saying, "Your child has no more wine."

And even though Jesus responds that His time has not yet come, He does it anyway. He gets up from the table and goes to the back room. At His mother's request, He responds to a plea for help.

But there's a catch. Mary says, "Do whatever He tells you." A call to obedience. You have asked for help. Now, be humble enough to do what He wants you to do. Believe in Him, and He will provide.

The waiters do not understand. But they already see Jesus walking towards them, and they have no more time to figure out what she just told them. So they take her for her word, for who could better know a son than his own mother?

When Jesus told them to fill the waterpots with water, they must have wondered if they'd heard Him correctly. They needed wine, not water. Did He even know what He was doing? They couldn't understand. But they see Mary, perhaps standing quietly to the side, and they remember her words. "Do whatever He tells you."

And so they do. They give him their active cooperation. They bring the wine to the headwaiter and it turns out to be even better than the first one. And for the rest of the celebration, they have more than enough.

How magnanimous our God is! Just when we think we are running on empty, when we think we've hit rock bottom, we find out that He has been safely holding us in His hands all along. Just when we thought our vat has run dry, He fills it to the brim. He gives us what we need to carry on. To this very day, He continues to offer us His wine, His blood. And when He gives, He gives magnanimously.

When we find ourselves running on empty, let's not forget that Mary is ever ready to help intercede for us. But let us also not forget what she said next. "Do whatever He tells you."

Pope Benedict on "Offering up"

I would like to add here another brief comment with some relevance for everyday living. There used to be a form of devotion—perhaps less practised today but quite widespread not long ago—that included the idea of “offering up” the minor daily hardships that continually strike at us like irritating “jabs”, thereby giving them a meaning. Of course, there were some exaggerations and perhaps unhealthy applications of this devotion, but we need to ask ourselves whether there may not after all have been something essential and helpful contained within it. What does it mean to offer something up? Those who did so were convinced that they could insert these little annoyances into Christ's great “com-passion” so that they somehow became part of the treasury of compassion so greatly needed by the human race. In this way, even the small inconveniences of daily life could acquire meaning and contribute to the economy of good and of human love. Maybe we should consider whether it might be judicious to revive this practice ourselves.

- Spe Salvi

"Because it (Dominican Order) is the best!"

We had a fun Patrician meeting last Wednesday. I was a bit worried before the meeting, especially because I really couldn't write down my opening speech. An hour before the meeting, all I had was an outline. Well, it went quite well and the first round of discussion was fun and interesting.

We had Friar David Garcia, O.P. as our Spiritual Director and he was really, really, really good. He explained things very well.

Favorite Verse: John 8:32 "Then you will know the truth,

and the truth will set you free."

Photo Source: Dominic

Is the Church a killjoy? Father David summed it up this way. First, the Church does seem to be a killjoy. Second, the Church is a killjoy. Third, the Church is not a killjoy. Haha. That's Dominican for you. =p Okay, let me explain that again. Father David said that there are three things that influence a person's actions: Reason, Emotion, and Will. Reason usually only points to the direction, but it is the emotion that pushes. As a result of original sin, those three things are constantly pulling against each other, all pointing into different directions. When they do, we feel divided. We find it hard to make decisions. But when those three things decide to cooperate and point to one single direction, that's when a person finds peace in his actions.

Now, the Church, being the guardian and the bulwark of truth, has for centuries, tried to steer us to the right direction. It tells us that there are objective truths. But times have changed. Now, Truth is equated to popular opinion. What is good for a person is now also based on the person's opinion, and not fixed to any objective truths. Thus, our reason pulls us one way, and our emotions (which are usually much stronger) the other way. Because of this division, when the Church tells you that you're going in the wrong direction, naturally, she will definitely seem like a killjoy.

If the Church is a killjoy, it can only be through our consciences. For our consciences, if properly-formed, often speak inconvenient truths. They are not ego-boosters, as some may think. Nor is our conscience our scapegoat. A truly well-formed conscience will keep on nagging it you, telling you to choose what is good no matter how difficult it may be. So I guess, in that sense, when the Church's teachings resound in your consience, and governs your actions, it can be a killjoy. But it's a killjoy that I'd most welcome.

The truth though, is that the Church is really not a killjoy. She only seems to be like one because what she teaches goes against the grain. It goes against what the world is telling us. "The Church is a killjoy only for a disintegrated person," Father David said. That is, a person with his reason, emotion, and will tugging at different directions. But when our desires coincide with objective truths, when we truly become whole, the Church ceases to be a killjoy. The Church leads us to happiness.

I managed to chat a bit with Father David during the break. I asked him how long he's been in Singapore and he said he's been here for six years. Before that, he was in China trying to pick up Chinese. When I asked him how long he's been a Dominican, he said, "24 years"and then astutely asked me how old I was. I told him I was younger than that.haha.

Then I asked him, "Why (did you choose) Dominican, Father?" Without missing a beat, he replied with all honesty, "Because it is the best!" We all burst out laughing but he said, "No, really. If you're buying shoes, why shouldn't you pick the best?"

Do visit their website! Fr. David's blogs are very insightful and they've got helpful resources on Catholic issues, especially on bioethics.

What I love about the Catholic Church - 4

By Father Dwight Longenecker: 

There's something in human nature that wants to join and belong. We want to be a part of clubs, institutions, nations, federations, confraternities, fellowships, friendly societies, unions, movements and armies and organizations. We need to belong to a group, a family, an order of like minded brothers and sisters. We want to work together with shared beliefs to change the world. We want to fit into a hierarchy, a chain of command and an ordered society.

There's also something in human nature that needs to be subversive. We want to undermine all the clubs and coteries, all the gangs and groups, all the secret societies and establishment associations. We distrust such groups and long to undermine them all. We want to be part of a guerilla movement, a renegade army of radicals. We want to belong to 'we few, we faithful few'--an idealist group of individuals who never compromise and are willing to die for their beliefs.

As a Catholic you can do both at once...

Read the full post here >>

The Moment of The Rose

by Erin Manning

Excerpt:

But in another way, what we struggle with is what the poet T.S. Eliot defined, when he wrote:

"The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree
Are of equal duration."

Because we are physical creatures who can only perceive reality by referring to such concepts as "space" and "time," we think that the life of an unborn baby who dies in utero is unbearably, unbelievably short; we may similarly think that a person who lives past the century-mark has lingered on this earth far too long, especially if all those years have not added wisdom nor increased grace, as may sometimes happen. For the one to have only weeks while the other's life spans decades seems like a strange riddle, a puzzling paradox beyond our comprehension. Many find themselves doubting the existence of a merciful and benevolent God when they look at the question this way: why should the young and innocent perish, or the aged and (sometimes) wicked flourish?

But if we frame the question that way, we forget that reality that Eliot so beautifully expresses. We don't have years--none of us. We don't have decades or minutes or hours or even seconds in their brevity. We have only moments; we have only now.

Read the full post here >>

Autumn

"Have you seen the dead leaves fall in the sad autumn twilight? So fall souls each day into eternity. One day, the falling leaf will be you."
~ St Josemaria Escriva, The Way, 736

Culture of Life

Deacon Keith in the earlier post by Dom said the following:
"Our position concerning the humanity of children in the womb is revealed in the Natural Law and confirmed by medical science. It is true. It will be recognized and prevail as certainly as the truth concerning the intrinsic evil of slavery came to be recognized and prevailed in this Nation.."

The essence of winning a battle is Love, Courage and Perseverance. And this is the same esssence to win a supposedly losing battle. The triumphant victory of Obama did not and will not silence the voices for life. Rather, let it escalate the culture of life! As what Deacon Keith mentioned, our work begins now!

Because His Love and Courage will emerge victorious, let us then assist Him with our perseverance and hope!

My thoughts at the end of a long campaign

I knew John McCain's run for the White House was a long shot. But I'm awfully disappointed nonetheless.

As a political scientist, as a university student, as a Catholic, and I believe, just as a rational human being, I detest the deceit that Barack Obama represents.

I believe that the leader of any civilized nation, and especially one who claims to be the leader of the free world, must be committed to defending every human being, whether they are able to articulate their views or not; whether they have the ability to make their fellow human beings aware of the injustices done against them or not.

In the 1860s, despite the very real danger of tearing a great country apart and destroying it, President Lincoln, a Republican, decided to stand up for what was good and right - and stood for the emancipation of the African American slaves of the US.
A century after that, in the 1960s, racism was rampant; African Americans were treated as second class citizens. But courageous Democrats, led by Presidents JFK and LBJ, despite opposition from bigoted lawmakers and leaders, despite the danger of losing the support of their traditional bases, stood up for what was right - and championed racial equality. America today is reaping the benefits of these.

Today, a horror worse than slavery and racism is taking place in the US. 1.6 million unborn babies are killed in their mothers womb every year.
The victims of this holocaust cannot cry out in protest. The media, human rights groups do not see the crime being committed. And so we are silent.

But a grievous injustice is being committed nonetheless. An unborn baby is a human being. Logically it's impossible to deny this.
The leaders of the US have sworn to preserve the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
The Democrats call themselves pro-choice (what a sick euphemism that is)
But to them, the only people who's life matters are those who can vote. The only choice that they consider are those that can boost them to office.

Barack Obama goes further. He's an extremist even among Democrats. He's rabidly pro-abortion, denying medical attention even for infants who, are born alive despite an attempted abortion. The child is to be left to die.
He has vowed that one of his first acts as President would be to sign the (again, euphemistically-named) Freedom of Choice Act which would force states to make abortion available. That is so un-American. The convention is that federal government intervenes as little as possible, and issues are left to the state to decide.
He actually wants no discussion on the issue - he says the culture war is "so 90s". He seems to want to stamp out dissent and debate. And this is the man who is going to lead what is considered the greatest democracy in the world.

Culturally and ideologically, the Democrats' positions on many issues seem so appealing. I would love to support them. I'm against the death penalty. Many of their ideas on poverty are so in line with the Church's teaching on social justice (and in fact, Democrat Senator Chris Dodd mentioned that many of the Democratic principles could be traced to Pope Leo XIII's social encyclicals, especially Rerum Novarum). No wonder they appeal to Catholics: social justice and the common good are very much part of our world-view. This was the party that allowed a Catholic to run for the Presidency. This is the party that has done the historic thing of successfully putting forward an African-American into the White House, less that 50 years after the evil days of segregation.
And yet, they support the murder of defenceless children: infanticide. This wipes out all the potential good that they might espouse. Because it is such a horror, such an injustice.

It's a huge disappointment that Obama has won. It's a blow to the pro-life movement. But we'll keep on championing for the little ones.

Perhaps some greater good will come from this. A LOT is expected from Obama. Perhaps he will fail to deliver his promises so spectacularly that this huge dissatisfaction with the Republicans (for which we can credit George Bush, the neo-cons and the Iraq War) will be a short one. I hope people will realise that empty rhetoric and charisma are no substitutes for love, compassion and decency.

At least these elections have made the bishops of the United States bolder in exercising their teaching authority. Great leaders like Archbishop Chaput have let their voice be heard. More Catholics than before know that abortion is evil and, I hope, this has strengthened the pro-life movement.

I certainly became a more adamant defender of life because I got to read arguments and explanations that proved how illogical and inhumane the pro-abortion camp was.

These elections have given me the chance to explain to a few people why I supported John McCain, a candidate who is considered unpopular my almost everyone I know.

It also forced me not to be afraid of people's opinions. At first I kept my support for McCain rather silent, to avoid confrontation, and because I didn't think I could substantiate my stance. But that didn't seem sensible. I wrote about my support for McCain on my Facebook status, hoping people would question me. And they did. And some were Catholic. I had the wonderful experience of discussing the issue with them. One conversation heightened my respect for a friend immensely because of his willingness to reason and to refine his stances. He claims to not like politics - but his views on politics are so much sharper than many who think they know a lot. Another Catholic went from thinking that abortion is a human right and that it was necessary to prevent over-population and climate change (a stance i was shocked to hear) to an acceptance that Obama's pro-abortion stance was a blotch on his credentials. I thank God for these experiences. It certainly wasn't any eloquence on my part, I was just sharing what I had read from the dear bishops of the US Church.

With Obama in power, we continue to have the opportunity now to say why abortion is such an atrocity, even from a non-religious point of view. And we must!

Remember, the Almighty God has those little ones in His arms. Obama might be able to sanction the destruction of their little bodies, but their souls are with God. And that's eventually a great comfort.

The Church in America might be in for a hard time. Am sure the Democrats are very annoyed with the bishops. But persecution always strengthens the Holy Catholic Church.

Faithful American Catholics and their bishops might be face to face with the gates of hell. But know that the gates of hell shall never prevail against Christ's Church.

Don't worry! Be happy!

From The Hermeneutic of Continuity

Some years ago, I remember a "hit" song that my youth group liked called "Don't worry! Be happy!" The fun and lilting caribbean voice made it a popular and amusing invitation to "chill out".

The atheist bus adverts promise people a worry-free existence if they will only accept that there is "probably" no God. This is not very reassuring in itself - to be free of worry, you would really need to be certain that there is no God - but let that pass.

Who can have a worry-free existence? This was essentially the problem that exercised the Stoics and other ancient philosophers in search of the "Beata vita", the blessed, or calm and contented life. Seneca and others got close when saying that freedom from fear and desire was the key. An ascetical life would free you from the desire that nags and worries. Acceptance of whatever happens will free you from fear.

Without the teaching of Christ, however, this search for the beata vita will be doomed to frustration. At this time of the year, we reflect on the Four Last Things: death, judgement, hell and heaven; exactly those eternal truths that Richard Dawkins and his friends think condemn us all to worry and unhappiness. In fact, they liberate us to enjoy life and life more abundant. By seeing our present lives in the perspective of eternity, we do not solve all our present worries but we are freed from seeing them as final. We are open to a glorious future in which:

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. (Rev 21.4)

In "The God Delusion", Dawkins taunted Christians with the challenge that they should not fear death. Two examples come to mind from England in the reign of Henry VIII. St Thomas More marvelled at how the Carthusian martyrs went to their gruesome deaths at Tyburn singing the psalms as though they were on their way to a wedding.

I also love the story of St John Fisher's final hours in the Tower. On 22 June 1535, when the Lieutenant of the Tower of London came to tell him that he was to be executed that morning, there was this exchange:

‘Well,’ quoth the Bishop, ‘if this be your errand hither, it is no news unto me; I have looked daily for it. I pray you, what is it a’clock?’

‘It is,’ quoth the Lieutenant, ‘about five.’

‘What time,’ quoth the bishop, ‘must be mine hour to go out hence?’

‘About ten of the clock,’ said the Lieutenant.

‘Well, then,’ quoth the bishop, ‘I pray you, let me sleep an hour or twain. For I may say to you, I slept not much this night, not for fear of death, I tell you, but by reason of my great sickness and weakness.’

In other words, "Although I am going to have my head chopped off in a couple of hours, I'm a bit tired and I'd just like to get a little more sleep."

Don't worry! Be happy!

And here's the song he refers to :)

Why do we worship God?

This article (From JimmyAkin.org) is very much in line with something Nick told us some weeks ago. Why do we go for Mass? To receive Jesus? To receive His blessings? That shouldn't be the primary reason. We should move away from the me-centred attitude that is so prevalent around us. We go to Mass to worship God because that's what He deserves - because He's God. "It's is right to give Him thanks and praise" because of who He is and who we are, not because what we can get from Him and what He does for us. Our worship of God is a matter of justice (which has been defined as according a person what they actually deserve or are entitled to)

(Courtesy NASA.gov)

Last week in the combox discussion related to SDG's post, I wrote the following in response to an unbeliever who held that the praise and worship of God - especially in heaven for all eternity - strikes even most Christians as a bore and a drudgery, but they do it anyway because it's what God commands;

I have always been an artist. I have always understood that the world is a work of art, that it means something, and if it means something, then there must be someone to mean it.

(I know I'm paraphrasing Chesterton here and there)

The worship of God - due praise to the artist - is not only something I don't find AT ALL to be a dreary duty, but is something that can hardly be helped. It wants to leap out on its own, like a laugh or the "Oooohs and Aaahhhs" you hear at a fireworks show. They won't be able to shut me up in heaven.

I believe I did get the point across that the praise and worship of God is a very natural response, and this statement is alright as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough and could leave the false impression that we worship God mainly for what he does, rather than who he is.

God does deserve endless praise just for his work, his artfulness in creating the universe, but that is only the beginning of the story. The universe is as achingly beautiful and subtle and powerful and fascinating as it is because it reflects in many ways the character - the attributes - of the artist who made it. If the world is an artwork and does have meaning as I maintained above, then it all points back to the one who made it and what he is like. Not that a person would be able to really understand everything about God from nature alone (the pagans demonstrate that), but as St. Paul said in Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.".

As we pray in the Gloria, "We praise you for your glory.". God's glory is this revelation of himself, this radiant presence that comes to us through all of his creation. His glory consists in the very fact that the Triune God, infinitely perfect and complete, does not keep himself to himself. He continually shares his divine life with all creation, holding every atom in existence by his will from moment to moment. God shares with us the attributes of existence and free will in a completely unnecessary and ongoing act of love.

We praise God for who he is, and we only know who he is because he has revealed it to us in this radiant penumbra of glory called Creation. We often think of Creation as a noun, like it's only a thing. Creation is also a verb, the ongoing act of God.

Why pray the Rosary?

From EWTN

Why pray the Rosary today? Certainly, to grow in holiness and in one's prayer life. The following are a few others reasons why the rosary should be prayed often, even daily:

• "Among all the devotions approved by the Church none has been so favored by so many miracles as the devotion of the Most Holy Rosary" (Pope Pius IX).

• "Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world" (Our Lady of Fátima).

• "There is no surer means of calling down God's blessings upon the family . . . than the daily recitation of the Rosary" (Pope Pius XII).

• "We do not hesitate to affirm again publicly that we put great confidence in the Holy Rosary for the healing of evils of our times" (Pope Pius XII).

• "No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary: either they will give up sin or they will give up the Rosary" (Bishop Hugh Doyle).

• "The Rosary is a magnificent and universal prayer for the needs of the Church, the nations and the entire world" (Pope John XXIII).

• "The Rosary is the compendium of the entire Gospel" (Pope Paul VI quoting Pope Pius XII).

• "Meditation on the mysteries of the Rosary . . . can be an excellent preparation for the celebration of those same mysteries in the liturgical actions [i.e. the Mass] and can also become a continuing echo thereof" (Pope Paul VI).

• "My impression is that the Rosary is of the greatest value not only according to the words of Our Lady at Fátima, but according to the effects of the Rosary one sees throughout history. My impression is that Our Lady wanted to give ordinary people, who might not know how to pray, this simple method of getting closer to God" (Sister Lucia, one of the seers of Fátima).

• "How beautiful is the family that recites the Rosary every evening" (Pope John Paul II).

• Pope John Paul II has called the Rosary his "favorite prayer," after the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.

• St. Louis de Montfort warns us against both the ignorant and scholars who regard the Rosary as something of little importance..."the Rosary is a priceless treasure inspired by God."