being ready always to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you. But with modesty and fear, having a good conscience:[1 Pt 3:15-16]
Nolite iudicare [Luke 6:37], Nolite iudicare secundum faciem, sed iustum iudicium iudicate [John 7:24]
Friday, October 16, 2009
Mission Report from Fr. Bart de la Torre O.P.
Oct. 15, Feast of St. Teresa of Avila
Dear Fellow Dominicans,
Oct. 17 & 18 I will be preaching the mission appeal for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith at Queen of Angels Church in Lompoc, CA. Both this Society and the Living Rosary were founded by Pauline Jaricot, who, according to Sr. Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P., in her wonderful St. Dominic's Family (available through the internet), was a Third Order Dominican.
This assignment gave me the opportunity to take Mon., Oct. 12, to Fri., Oct 23, off. However, I had so much unfinished business that I am still here, Thurs., Oct. 15, Feast of St. Teresa of Avila. I have been so busy because for the last 18 monsth we have been only two Dominican priests at this mission, but on Oct. 30 two more Dominican priests will be arriving to join us. My main purpose in delaying my departure was to send you this thank you letter, but there was much I had to get out of the way first. Finally, I can sent you this appreciation of your help in caring for our poof.
As an example, right now I am dealing with an 18 y/o mom with a problem pregnancy; a heroic mom stressed out with colitis because she is the only and very poorly paid wage earner for a disabled husband and five children; numerous students who are diligent at school but cannot keep on without financial aid; a beautiful 15 y/o girl whose front teeth are being protruded but whose parents cannot afford the 1,200 pesos ($75 US) to remove the wisdom teeth causing the problem; etc.!
On the spiritual front, this morning I brought the sacraments for the first time to a poor, elderly lady to whom the parish supplies some food every other week. As I was knocking at the gate, dressed in my habit, a very poor young mom with three young children passed by and looked at me, so I said, “Buenos días.” She returned the greeting and passed on. I noted that I had never seen her at church. I was struggling to undo the lock on the gate, and this gave the young mom time to return and say, “I have come back to kiss your hand.” I never refuse because that would deeply hurt these people of sincere admiration for the priesthood, and then I bless them as a sign of appreciation. I did so and took the woman’s name and address (she can afford no phone), and promised I would visit her after my return from California in about two weeks. She was very touched by this.
I entered the elderly lady’s front yard, sat, and heard her stories. Fourteen years ago she went on the operating room in the government free hospital for a scheduled knee transplant. At the same time a young woman was brought in with a knee shattered in an accident. The one available artificial knee went to the young woman, but the doctors never told the older woman that all they had done for her was remove the natural knee. It was some days before she realized this. She was never able to get the situation corrected, and since Mexico is not a litigious society, the poor just offer it up and weep. Her left leg has no knee to this day. I asked her if she was Catholic. She told me that her father, who had married at 14, was martyred during the persecution in Mexico when he was only 21. In the late 1920´s, the federal troops put him in a press and would ask him, “Who lives?” Each time he would cry out, “Long live Christ the King,” for he was a Catholic Cristero. The soldiers would tighten the machine, and again ask and receive the same answer. Eventually they tightened the man so much that his heart popped out of his mouth. The she told me, “And you ask me if I am a Catholic? I will never abandon the faith of my fathers!” We had spoken for long enough that I was ready to leave, so I said, “Think about going to confession and I will be back in about two weeks.” “Why?” she replied, “I am ready to confess right now!” Because she can hardly walk due to her missing knee, she had not been able to receive the sacraments for a long time and had been longing for them. I also anointed her and gave her Holy Communion, and promised to send her a Communion Minister once a week.
This was just this one morning. I had ned already, and more kept occurring as the day progressed. Each day is full of equally touching experiences, but, to paraphrase the last sentence of the Gospel according to John, were I to write all that the Lord has gotten me involved in, not even the whole rectory itself would hold the books that would ensue.
After my return on Oct. 23 I will answer those of you who have written to me. In the meantime, please be assured that my heart carries within it constant gratitude for your financial help. I pray for you daily, especially in my daily Masses, and our poor pray for you also. Please pray for us here, including for native Dominican vocations; this latter is a developing story in itself, which I hope to relate to you soon.
With much love and appreciation, Fr. Bart, O.P. Dominican Mission, Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.
Bl. Margaret of Castello, patroness of the unwanted and unborn
Ora Pro Nobis
Next meeting:
The next meeting will be held at Saint Mark Catholic Church, 7960 Northview, Boise, Idaho, on Saturday, October 19 at 8:00AM.
8:00am - Holy Mass
9:00am - Professions
Potluck to follow
Fr. James Moore, O.P. (St. Albert's Priory, Oakland, California)
In the Spirit of Vatican II...
We are a diverse community, united in the tradition of St. Dominic, joyfully obedient to the Word of God spoken in His Catholic Church. We accept willingly in faith the defined teachings of the Church's ordinary and universal magisterium. We acknowledge also our duty to adhere with religious assent to those teachings which are authoritatively, even if not infallibly, proposed by the Church [Lumen Gentium, 25]
Next Retreat
There may be a retreat at St Benedict Lodge in Oregon during 2019. Further notice as plans are made.
St Benedict Lodge is a retreat facility in the Cascades that is owned and operated by the Dominican Friars of the Western Province.
Hear our prayer and take it to our Father in heaven. We ask for your protection for the Order of Preachers and most especially the chapter of Blessed Margaret of Castello; that we be right minded with Holy Mother the Church and that we have the courage to live and preach your word. Amen.
It makes no sense that we grant the use of unrestricted lethal force to a citizen with no judicial oversight, and simultaneously claim that the state has no right to the use of restricted lethal force with full judicial oversight.
"Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It's wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams, 2nd US president, Oct 11, 1798
The child, who does not think about so serious a thing as health, dreams of meals that are made up of desserts. Men and women, who do not think about so serious a thing as living, dream of a life that consists only of sweetness, soft music and rest to the echo of applause and gently sympathetic understanding. But meals are never like that; neither is life. In the same vein, our modern men and women dream of God as a being of whom no one could ever be afraid, a gentle, stupid god who would allow men and women to ruin themselves and then admire them for the work they had done in destroying his masterpiece. You see they never really think about God, for God is not like that.
Walter Farrell, O.P.,
A Companion to the Summa, Volume III
CHAPTER I -- FREEDOM FOR THE MIND (Q. 1-9)
Why make the people of God suffer so much? Haven't we enough problems already? Only Sunday, one hour, they come to adore God. And you bring a dance! Are you so poor you have nothing else to bring us? Shame on you! That's how I feel about it.
If people want to dance, they know where to go.
A Modern Lexicon
Liturgeist - What you get when the poltergeist of Vatican II possesses a "Liturgist"
Regurgical Dancing - A spectacle that makes you want to spew.
Ad Oscillating - When a Priest in fan-shaped church turns like a lawn sprinkler to make eye contact with everyone.
Stolecism - The practice, always and everwhere to be reprehended, of wearing a stold over a chasuble, instead of the other way around.
Hyperstolecism- The practice of not only wearing the stole over the chasuble, but wearing the wrong-colored stole in an attempt to be cute (e.g., a green stole over a purple chasuble for St. Patrick's Day).
Crusurpation- When a lay extraordinary minister of Holy Communion attempts to bestow a priestly blessing upon a child or a non-Catholic during Communion.
Shambulation- The priestly practice of strutting around the sanctuary during the homily, instead of delivering the homily from the pulpit.
New Cosmetology- Usually abreviated "New Cosmology," an alternate reality where the universe of make-up and hair styling destroys habits and obedience.
Ad-liburgy- The priestly practice of making up rubrics on the fly.
Gagnificent- bad contemporary art used wherever sacred art should be (think of the Los Angeles Cathedral).
This list will grow if you send me your recommendations
Thomas explains
I answer that, Neither living nor lifeless faith remains in a heretic who disbelieves one article of faith.
The reason of this is that the species of every habit depends on the formal aspect of the object, without which the species of the habit cannot remain. Now the formal object of faith is the First Truth, as manifested in Holy Writ and the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth. Consequently whoever does not adhere, as to an infallible and Divine rule, to the teaching of the Church, which proceeds from the First Truth manifested in Holy Writ, has not the habit of faith, but holds that which is of faith otherwise than by faith. Even so, it is evident that a man whose mind holds a conclusion without knowing how it is proved, has not scientific knowledge, but merely an opinion about it. Now it is manifest that he who adheres to the teaching of the Church, as to an infallible rule, assents to whatever the Church teaches; otherwise, if, of the things taught by the Church, he holds what he chooses to hold, and rejects what he chooses to reject, he no longer adheres to the teaching of the Church as to an infallible rule, but to his own will. Hence it is evident that a heretic who obstinately disbelieves one article of faith, is not prepared to follow the teaching of the Church in all things; but if he is not obstinate, he is no longer in heresy but only in error. Therefore it is clear that such a heretic with regard to one article has no faith in the other articles, but only a kind of opinion in accordance with his own will. (Summa, IIa IIae Q5 a3)
Hillaire Belloc in his commentary on Modernism as a heresy states: "[t]here is no such thing as a religion called "Christianity" - there never has been such a religion".
"There is and always has been the Church, and various heresies proceeding from a rejection of some of the Church's doctrines by men who still desire to retain the rest of her teaching and morals. But there never has been and never can be or will be a general Christian religion professed by men who all accept some central important doctrines, while agreeing to differ about others. There has always been from the beginning and will always be the Church, and sundry heresies either doomed to decay, or, like Mohammedanism, to grow into a separate religion. Of a common Christianity there never has been and never can be a definition, for it has never existed."
Belloc goes on to state, "[t]here is no essential doctrine such that if we can agree upon it we can agree to differ about the rest: as for instance to accept immorality but deny the Trinity. A man will call himself a Christian though he denies the unity of the Christian Church; he will call himself a Christian though he denies the presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament; he will cheerfully call himself a Christian though he denies the Incarnation."
As Belloc states, the battle to retain our liberty is ultimately a battle which will be won or lost based upon our adherence to the truth which rests in the Church and not in some esoteric version of christianity. "No: the quarrel is between the Church and the anti-Church-the Church of God and the anti-God--the Church of Christ and the anti-Christ" Belloc.
"The truth is becoming every day so much more obvious that within a few years it will be universally admitted. I do not entitle the modern attack "anti-Christ" though in my heart I believe that to be the true term for it: No, I do not give it that name because it would seem for the moment exaggerated. But the name doesn't matter. Whether we call it "The Modern Attack" or "anti-Christ" it is all one; there is a clear issue now joined between the retention of Catholic morals, tradition, and authority on the one side, and the active effort to destroy them on the other. The modern attack will not tolerate us. It will attempt to destroy us. Nor can we tolerate it. We must attempt to destroy it as being the fully equipped and ardent enemy of the Truth by which men live. The duel is to the death."
No comments:
Post a Comment