The Passion Week of Christ and the Passion Week for His Church

When my husband and I entered the Catholic Church, and our children followed, we entered amidst a flurry of controversy. 

First there was the priest abuse sex scandal. That was a difficult one to get past. We studied the problem, read the John Jay report, prayed about it and realized that the Body of Christ, the Church, was composed of the wheat and tares. [And I shall not even write what I believe should happen to those satanic tares when it comes to the abuse of innocent young men.]

Yet....

Jesus chose Judas. As horrifying as it is, we should prepare ourselves to have a few demons among the Apostles' successors--for the darkness is real, it is not fantasy. There really is a Devil who wants to destroy the church from without and within, and he patiently waits at the gates to get in.

Like the Apostles, one out of twelve traitors to the faith should not be surprising. That would make it

possible that the Catholic Church houses about 19 wolves for Cardinals, about 425 bishops that will sell out Christ, and more than 34,300 priests who will give their Master the kiss of betrayal. 

The reality is not near that bleak. The Catholic Church has very, very few demons in it. And they have finally awakened to the scandal and worked very hard to stop the crimes.

Our family was not expecting the church Christ began to be perfect. In fact, if we found a church with no tares, then it wouldn't fit Jesus' description of His kingdom. Since we entered though, there have been a barrage of new crisis and internal controversies. And usually it is between liberal and conservative Catholics. 

To kneel or not to kneel? 
To contracept or not to contracept? 
To veil or not to veil? 
Was Vatican II the fissure that let the smoke of Satan into the Temple of God or was that the Holy Spirit that came in? 
Novus Ordo or the Tridentine mass?
Should unfaithful Catholic politicians receive Holy Communion?
Should the remarried Catholics receive Holy Communion?

The media reports with excitement that the Church is about to embrace abortion, contraception, homosexuality, adultery! With the jovial Cardinal Dolan always tantalizing the media with expectation. Then Pope Francis adds his two-cents to the confusion. And then the upcoming Council on the Family that has the passengers on the Catholic Ark wondering if there is a captain at the helm of this rocking ship!

As frustrating as the lack of leadership has been, one thing has given me great peace. I once read that the Catholic Church, as the Body of Christ, will have a parallel experience as Christ did while on earth. Satan will put her through the wilderness and tempt her and she will go through her own Gethsemane sweating blood,  experiencing

betrayal of her closest friends. The Church will be scourged, stripped and crucified, but what did we expect when Jesus told us to take up our cross and follow Him? And finally we may feel the same abandonment that Christ felt and the Church may cry out, "why have you abandon us?" to our Father. And perhaps, many may be called to die for our faith. 

As we walk with Christ through the Passion Week, take a look at the long history of the church that God so loved. 

All Christ needed was twelve faithful bishops--and though they scattered, they returned and were martyred for Our Lord. God can use even one faithful bishop to turn the entire church around as He did with Athanasius during the Arian heresy. We know we got that covered: Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. And of course there are many, many more!

Yet, even if all the shepherds scatter, we will be prepared. For this is what they did to our Lord. Be not afraid.

We have two thousand years of His past faithfulness to His Beloved that we each can draw comfort from. And gaze into the eternity to come. 

As we contemplate the Good Friday and Holy Saturday, remember that each moment is redemptive suffering that every soul, each and every soul that can possibly be saved, will be found in heaven. 

Let us also feel the closeness of Easter Sunday. And let us never grow weary of praying that our beloved bishops have the courage to rise above even the Apostles themselves and walk with Christ's bride as she faces a hostile world. 

God bless you all. 

Catholic Synod of Bishops on the Family

The Catholic question du jour is: Should Catholics who have been married, divorced and remarried be allowed to receive the Eucharist? 

In a couple of days, the Vatican will host a small but worldwide assembly of bishops will be discussing this at at an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on topics related to the family and evangelization. There will be no dogmatic pronouncement, the USCCB reports that this synod is to "assist the Holy Father by providing counsel on important questions 

facing the Church in a manner that preserves the Church's teaching and strengthens her internal discipline." Don't expect any new "ex-cathedra" statements. However, there is still a lot of angst among some theologians that the bishops will influence the pastoral approach to Catholics. 

Here's my two pennies and that isn't worth much. First, what Christ wrote about the indissolubility of marriage: 

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery." Mark 10:10-12

That's pretty straight forward. Yet Matthew records an exception to that rule. 

Sola Apostasion

The whole doctrine of divorce stands or falls with one word of Jesus stated on the Sermon on the Mount. Here's the whole passage that deals with marriage:    

"It was said, 'Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce' but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Matt. 5: 31, 32

Since "unchastity" is the sole and only reason a person can be divorced, so we better know what that word meant to Jesus' listeners. The original word in Greek is porneia, which can be broadly defined from anything from general immorality to an illicit marriage, specifically marrying a close relative or a civil union or a concubinage. 

So the liberal bishops are saying that the church should read this passage as broadly as possible so that annulments are more easily obtained. The conservatives want to keep in defined more specifically and historically to mean illicit marriages. 

Personally, my heart wishes mercy for those remarried and a broader interpretation of porneia. My head, however, worries about the consequences of broadening the definition. 

However the Synod goes, I will support the church for it was given the power to bind and loose. So if bishops keeps this bound, I will pray for those people whose expectations will be wounded by the ruling. If the synod liberalizes it, I will weep for joy for those who can now participate and pray that the overall tone will not be one of, "now that we have this one, let's go for the definition of marriage and the usage of contraception."

One more Biblical passage that will back up the bishops' authority to make a ruling on this. Look at  Jesus' words in the gospel of Mark 10: 

[The Pharisees asked Jesus,] "Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?" Jesus

responded, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way." 

Moses had such powerful God-given authority that  he saw the hardness of Israel's heart and was able to loose the original intent of marriage and bring in divorce. Does the New Covenant Church not have as much power to bind and loose as Moses? 

Therefore, do not lose heart no matter what the church does or does not do. God will give you the grace to have a supernatural faithfulness to His Church even when we at times feel like despairing. Christianity is about carrying the Cross God has given us even when we are confused. Have faith that God will not abandon you nor His Church.

History is being re-written and re-written and rewritten…. Now According to the Series Cosmos Bruno is a Martyr for Science

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godandthemachine/2014/03/dishonestcosmos/

Go here.




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Nancy Pelosi's Slide into Hell

All Christians need to fast and pray for Ms. Pelosi. She either has demonic oppression or she is mentally ill. Her soul is in great jeopardy. 

She has multiplied her sins by associating the murder of children with Catholicism and even calling a woman's reproductive choices sacred. 

I shudder for her. She is the Catholic Jezebel and rather than hate her, instead we must pray for our enemies, for she had made herself an enemy of God. Our fervent prayers can do miracles!! We CAN win her back to the faith.

Fast and pray for her and our bishops that they will know how to courageously deal with politicians who align themselves with evil and call themselves Catholic. This has become a scandal that has wounded the heart of God and His children. 


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Contraception and Church Epistemology

Ephesians One:

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. 

In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit....

...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened... 

And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church,  which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. (vs.7-11, 13, 17, 22) 

Summation: Christ lavished upon His Body, the Church, His wisdom to unite all things. 

Within this first chapter of Ephesians, the great epistemological question is answered for all and for eternity. He has made known to us the mysteries of wisdom and salvation and knowledge and enlightenment and gave these things to His Body, the church.

Upon this rests the infrastructure, the first cause, the heart and core of how Catholics and Protestants differ in their thinking. Catholics have always read Ephesians one (and all of the New Testament) in the context of the church being visible, organized--one that is catholic and apostolic.(1)

 For Protestants this concept of a visible church organization, started by Christ that continues to today, is alien and utterly rejected. The body is an invisible group of believers.

I offer this post, not to convince or proselytize, but to clearly contrast the understanding of Catholic and Protestant world views. The way we imbibe the truths of Ephesians one will point out the differences in how Protestants and Catholics experience God. For the very way we experience God and Truth differ. For both of us it is richly multifaceted.

How We Experience God

Protestant(2) Perceptions: 

The Holy Spirit draws us to God through the beauties and complexities of nature, through other Christians in socialization and corporate worship, through divine instruction of scripture and through prayer. For Protestants the most intimate and immediate of spiritual connections with Christ for is through a direct relationship in prayer. The physical link for a Christian to Christ is a book, the Bible. It is the historical “paper trail,” the object, the evidence, the substance that attaches a reader to the author (God). 

Catholic Perceptions:

Catholics would not diminish the Protestant way of experiencing God but add to it a new dimension with the sacraments. Catholics most intimate spiritual connection with Christ is directly partaking in His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Eucharist (Communion Service) as well as in prayer. The Church itself is the physical link that attaches a Christian to Christ. The Word of God in Flesh instructed the Apostles who transmitted His teachings to their successors by speaking and writing. Both are infallible records of the Truth. Catholics “paper trail,” the object and evidence that attaches the believer to the source is the Catholic Church itself (The Bible being an important part of her paper trail).

Catholic rites, rituals and prayers unify us with ancient worship. Through the Liturgy, we feel the blood of the early church coursing through our veins.

How we experience Truth

Protestants: 

The Holy Spirit guides the Christian in interpreting scripture and in gleaning from the trusted sources of Christian scholarship. The fullness of truth is entrusted to the believer’s conscience convicting him of good and evil. 

Catholics: 

The Holy Spirit guides His Bride in interpreting scripture and teaching the fullness of truth. The conscience must be formed by God’s Word passed down by the Apostles through the Catholic Church.

For the Protestant, this means of transmittal of truth is invisible, for the Catholic, visible. Analogies might include that Truth is received for the Protestant more like Wifi, the Catholics firewire. For the less computer savvy, Protestants use cellphones while Catholics use land lines or perhaps Protestants use Star Trek transport beams while Catholics use train tracks.

Here’s a better, but more extensive metaphor:

Protestants see themselves as little tributaries being fed by the rain from heaven. Coming together they create a great river bringing Truth to the world. Catholics see the great Truth river as the Catholic Church fed by God’s rain. They are the trees planted by it, absorbing its waters and producing fruit. Truth is received by drinking.

Does that mean the Catholic church thinks unless you drink from her river you have no truth? Absolutely not. The rain of truth falls on the just and the unjust. It is freely given to all and you can find truth in pagan cultures, in atheists, world religions and everywhere. But the fullness of truth is not in a droplet or pond. God gave the river of truth to the Catholic Church. 

Protestants, of course, protested that claim, hence their name. Having been a Protestant the vast majority of my life, I can see how that claim comes across arrogant and totalitarian. I will not attempt an apologetic here, rather I think it necessary for both sides to understand each other and their way of getting to God and His truth.

To understand Catholics you need to see where they find the source of Truth. They see the fullness of Truth not directly implanted into our hearts and minds (via Holy Spirit inspired Bible study) as individuals, but given to the Apostles to hand down, infallible, pure and unadulterated within the structure of a visible organized church.

For unity sake, the Catholics would say that though Christians have the Holy Spirit bringing us truth, God never promised that each would have all, the entirety, of truth. Rather believers have a piece of the puzzle and only together as a Body of Christ will the whole be seen perfectly. That limitation is supposed to brings humility and harmony. 

So, let’s step out of philosophical worldviews and into a current tangible example of what I am describing.

Most Protestants interpret scripture in a way that does not oppose contraceptives, so their consciences are not violated by using them. They would also dismiss as dictatorial a church attempting to impose such a view. 

The Catholic Church can point to certain passages in scripture that reinforce what they teach, however, the Bible is not the source of their knowledge, but its proof. They received the information verbally by Christ, their Head and Groom. It was transmitted to the church by the Apostles and some of what they learned was put in inerrant, God-breathed written form--the New Testament.

Catholics claim that Christ instructed His Apostles that contraception is a grave moral sin and they are obligated to pass on that information. Catholics do not invent or formulate their dogmas, they believe they received it and then are required by God to pass it on. Catholic dogmas and doctrines are not their opinions and can never be changed by a pope, a magisterium, by democratic vote, etc. When people tell the church it needs to update its doctrines, they do not understand Catholic thought. The doctrines were never theirs, they were commissioned only to preserve them and teach them, they can’t change them.

When a new problems such as cloning and in vitro fertilization arise about which Christ didn’t specifically teach, the church doesn’t take an opinion poll, it doesn’t take the pulse of the cultural norms, they don’t even ask the pope and let him decide. When the Catholic Church today makes disciplinary statements they convene the magisterium who then do mountains of research in the church archives learning what all the church fathers passed down in order to follow the spirit of the written and oral Word of God.

The Catholic Church recognizes that no personal interpretation of scriptures is infallible, so the church studies the situation in the context of what the 2,000 years of inspiration and call upon the promise the Lord made to His church, that the gates of hell cannot prevail against her and that whatsoever she binds will be bound in heaven, and then the magisterium follows the Holy Spirit’s guidance in teaching about faith and morals. 

Protestants will of course disagree, but this is what Catholics truly believe and teach. 

The Catholic Church believes that Christ gave Truth to His Bride to unify and not divide. Wisdom and insight was lavished upon us “making known to us the mystery of His will.” That in the fullness of time He gave the church, “which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Eph. 1)

In today’s climate, it is important for the government and Protestants to understand how the Catholic Church thinks, that we might have a better understanding and respect for each other.

1. Which would include the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

2. It would be impossible to describe each Protestant denomination's beliefs, so this is a general statement.

My Strange, Uncomfortable Church

My daughter, now on the East Coast with a new job, called this morning as we drove into Seattle. She had just gotten back from her new local church and she was missing the beauty and spirit of St. James Cathedral where we attend.

“Mother, enjoy it for me. There is just nothing like it in America,” she lamented. “Because no other church can live up to it, attending St. James is both a blessing and a curse.”

I thought about what she said--a blessing and a curse. Yes, St. James is a place of contrast, even contradiction. St. James is not an easy, comfortable church, it is wonderful because it is strange and uncomfortable.

It is located in Seattle’s downtown where the cool shadows of sky scrapers fall across a throng of avant-garde urbanites talking to their bluetooth headsets. They mindlessly stare like Night of the Living Dead zombies, gone vegetarian.

In contrast, St. James Cathedral’s two tall cream towers emerge to boldly protest the monotonous urban clamor that tries to convince us life is a sad, meaningless existence. The cathedral calls Seattle to gaze upward in hope to a great and gloriously unfathomable God yet who is working through the hands of unexceptional, humble men and women.

After parking, I pondered how the church not only clashes with our godless modernity, it contains opposing forces that would implode any human organization. Every sight and sound and smell reinforces my impression.

Walking towards the cathedral’s entrance, the church’s soup kitchen is bordered with dark, weathered faces, their bodies draped in layer upon layer of soiled clothing. In Spring and summer, the cathedral’s homeless shelter is empty and the residents are lying in the green grass lazily drinking their coffee. Their deep, mournful eyes fix on you with a stare that makes walking to church very uncomfortable.

As you pass between the church’s annex buildings towards the entrance, the stone walkway becomes a porthole in time fusing our culture with ancient Christianity’s. You can hear the choir’s haunting chants wafting out of their practice room into the white-gray corridor. In the courtyard a medieval looking statue of Mary calmly holding the baby Jesus sits in front of a fountain where bronze and silver coins glitter.

The immense entrance does not draw you in to take a comfortable seat. Its sculpted, bronze doors powerfully summon you to an epic adventure, to come in and worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The gray Seattle skies vanish as the door to the foyer shuts behind you and soft candlelight guides your way inside to the sanctuary. What is that smell? In the dark corner, there they are again as always, every day of the week, with their reeking, tattered backpacks sitting staring at you. St. James does not let you close your eyes to the desperate needs of humanity. Some are mentally ill, others are drug addicts. They are in the bathrooms and sitting in the back pews. You feel like you have invaded their home.

In the sanctuary sitting on the ridged hardwood chairs the smells turn delightful. In front of me, near the altar, are huge bouquets of White Oriental Lilies. The fragrance makes me close my eyes and breath in the dreamy perfume. Then an elderly gentleman with a walker shuffles in next to me and regularly propels a gurgling cigarette-cough into the congregation. That odor will be masked with the exotic fragrance swung across the worshippers in an incense burner to bless them.

There is a muffled tap-dance upon the marble floors as people quietly fill up the seats. Some Asian women with lace scarves draped on their heads kneel in prayer. A tall caucasian family in shorts and t-shirts are reverently lighting the candles in the side chapel. Near us is a Mexican family, and some people speaking Russian are directly behind us. For a moment all is silent except a distant echo of a baby crying in the back.

I gaze up to the ceiling as the organ in the East Apse begins its fiery prelude calling us to worship. The morning sun hits the blue and yellow stained-glassed windows and blazes across the gold Corinthian capitals atop the pillars. The organ’s sound soars through the high arches and is joined by a captivating medieval chant by St. James renown choir.

The bible is read, the cantor intones some verses from Psalms and we sing a response. Then the cycle is repeated again, just as the early church did. I feel two millennia of Christians on earth and in heaven all singing in rapturous unity to the King and Creator.

Suddenly my transcendent vision is broken by a mentally ill woman in an old dirty shawl loudly wandering towards the altar, apparently unaware of the service going on, hugging random people. She is stealthily surrounded and escorted to a seat by a group of nuns. The lady smiles broadly, utterly pleased at the attention. I notice that behind her stands a great statue of Christ with His outstretched arms tenderly framing the scene.

The sermon by Father Ryan is short and poignant. You must pay very close attention to hear because of the Cathedral’s reverberations. His kind and gentle manner does not water down the gospel to fit our modern lifestyles. He preaches what St. James himself would have preached. It is our ancient heritage and our responsibility as the church to preserve the authenticity of the spoken and written Word of God.

Catholic worship is active--no sitting comfortably for long. You stand to respond, then kneel to pray, only to stand again to sing and exchange the sign of peace and then kneel once again. There are prayers and prayers and prayers.
Last week a prayed was invoked that seemed to some to be calling us to vote for President O’bama’s Health Care Reform Bill. A congregant near me huffed with disgust, obviously not at all happy the prayer had political overtones. Later, he murmured all the way out about the liberals taking over. All this made me very uncomfortable.

This week that congregant is in the same place. He hands me a little book about the rosary with an insert about being happy in the midst of an unhappy world.

The priests then holds high the Bread of Heaven and as the bells ring out, he breaks the wafer in two as a reminder of Christ breaking His body for us. And yet, as we all stand up to go to the altar to take communion I feel a weirdness pour over me as I look at the people in line.

Liberals, homosexuals, kids with tattoos and lip rings, old people on walkers, Mexicans, Chinese, Russians, Scottish men in a kilts, blacks and whites each with their weaknesses and in different stages of sanctification, this diverse Kingdom of God, all moving towards Christ and drinking from the same communion cup. This can be the moment where a Christian is tested to the breaking point. It is difficult, strange, uncomfortable. I am realizing that church is not a place of refuge from the people of the world, a place one can disappear into a like-minded, well-dressed, sterile spirituality.

Each week I love St. James more, with its burgeoning contrasts of sights, smells, sounds. Medieval meets metropolitan, liberal meets conservative, pauper meet prince and sinner meets saint. Dichotomies which would only break us into comfortable divisions without the gift of Christ’s uncomfortable, strange grace.

http://www.stjames-cathedral.org/Tour/
Be sure to watch the music video