Per Christum

My dad (and David’s) is currently preparing to undergo serious surgery to deal with a septic kidney resulting from a stone. Please pray for a successful surgery and a complete and speedy recovery.

Thanks in advance!

This is a fascinating article on the Catholic Green movement from 1930-1950. Not an light read, but it offeres much food for thought.

Well before the Second Vatican Council, there were efforts being made to develop an amazing array of ideas on social thought. In my opinion, a lot of the good and orthodox efforts got hijacked by some rather outlandish ideas. From time to time, it is interesting to take a look back and see what we can about those earlier efforts. What do you think? THE GREENING OF AMERICA, CATHOLIC STYLE, 1930–1950
CHRISTOPHER HAMLIN AND JOHN T. McGREEVY

ABSTRACT
This article examines the rise and fall of the “green revolution” philosophy developed by the National Catholic Rural Life Conference in the 1930s as a distinct strain of American environmentalism. After reviewing the evolution of the approach, its maturation around 1940, and its postwar marginalization, the article focuses on three aspects of the NCRLC. First is its ideology, as a “third way,” a distributist alternative to socialism and capitalism. Second is the attempt to foster sustainable agricultural technologies by creating communitarian institutions in which the parish priest was central and by bringing an agrarian curriculum into Catholic higher education. Third is the attempt to ground this orientation toward sustainability in a distinctly Catholic nature spirituality, based on cyclicity rather than space.

SHOULD STUDENTS OF AMERICAN environmental history study John Rawe along with John Muir? Rawe, a midwestern Jesuit priest, described his vision of a “green revolution” in 1936.1 It was a profoundly different vision from the input-intensive agriculture which that term would come to signify in the 1950s and 1960s.

It is a green revolution because it is far removed from any battleground
reddened by the selfish blood of class hatred, far removed from the red rags of Communistic tyranny and the wriggling swastikas of frenzied dictatorships. It is a green revolution because it takes place out in the green fields where the land, owned by the patient, productive, profitable, democratic, free, personal laborer is blessed and gladdened with the divine benedictions of life-giving moisture and smiling sunshine. It is a green revolution because it deals with deep planting and sturdy growth and not with wanton destruction and economic ruin; because it buries its roots in the soil, broken for cultivation and divided for ownership in such a way that human nature, individual and social, can grow to a bountiful maturity in sufficient prosperity, wider freedom, wholesale family life, and a closer union with the eternal God and fellow man in religion, in the arts, in culture, in work, in the whole of life.2 1

What Rawe and coauthor Monseigneur Luigi Ligutti called “America’s Third Struggle for Freedom” will seem strikingly familiar to the modern green regionalism espoused by the farmer-essayist Wendell Berry and others in the 1960s.3 This green revolution was agrarianism with a twist. As well as arguing that the most stable and democratic social order was that based in family farming, its adherents celebrated the uniquely humanizing interaction with nature that such settled living brought in its train and they sought the sustainable technologies that such a way of living would entail.4 But their concern was less with the structural foundations of a purified democracy than with creation of a stable and Catholic American class of peasant-proprietors. Its precedents and rationales came less from Jefferson and Roman republicanism than from German and Belgian agrarianism as well as from St. Benedict, Thomas Aquinas, and various papal encyclicals.5 It was promoted by a group of social-theorist priests of whom Rawe was the most profound and visionary. Theirs was an environmentalism (using the term advisedly) of the Midwest, for (and occasionally of) farmers, of work rather than leisure. Their outlook was unapologetically anthropocentric. They used the terms “environment,” “stewardship,” and “organic,” but not quite as we use them now. The crisis that concerned them was in the first place social and structural—a crisis of a “mechanized and commercialized agriculture” resting upon a “finance capitalism” that was blind to the moral value of family and subsistence farming.6 (Read all…)

From: http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/eh/11.3/hamlin.html

Is it too wild to think or a hope against hope that America might see a resurgence in Catholic Schools?

Pray for the repose of his soul.

H/T: http://romancatholicvocations.blogspot.com/

The author of that worthy blog that I make my best effort to be even a poor imitation of, writes this:

I’ve been meaning to write about how beauty promotes vocations (particularly beautiful liturgies). Until then a hat tip to New Liturgical Movement for finding and posting this video.

Eight young men in a schola (Farther Along Octet) singing Palestrina’s “Adoramus Te, Christe” - eight men - and listen to how beautiful it is! You can not tell me that if we heard and saw this in our churches more often that there would not be many more young men hearing God’s call to the priesthood. No, music won’t in and of itself create priests, but in today’s world this is so clearly prayerful and sacred that upon hearing it more young men might incline their ears to something other than the drumbeat of the world. Unfortunately what they get instead is weekly doses of the most banal music possible, or worse. (My not so humble opinion of course.)

here here.

To me this is timely. I could not get to my Byzantine parish today so I opted to walk a mile or so to the Dominican parish in my city. Reverent liturgy with folks lined up for confession, and a host of venerable Dominicans lined up to hear them. The music at the Mass was good - not of the “Glory & Praise” variety I grew up with in parochial school (blech!) BUT here was my problem - I simply could not sing along. The two or three female cantors leading the music were alto-sopranos.

Mostly the women of the parish were singing - and the men were divided between those with the good sense not to try, and those with the good faith to try. Bless the latter’s hearts… but I thought a few of them would pass out in their efforts.

Men, get involved with the music of your parish if this is a situation you face. MUCH has been written in the areas of the blogosphere that I meander about the “Feminization of the liturgy”. In this post I don’t want to get into all the polemics and arguments and concerns of all that. I want to simply say, men-folk, get involved. Find out how you can help. If you would like to be able to sing the “Alleluia” without having to wear under-pants 6 sizes too small, gently broach the matter with the appropriate folks at your parish, and get singing.

Catholic brothers! Grab your hymnals and show them how you do!

Two Australian Catholic bishops are making calls for a “new” Church. The first one, Geoffery Robinson, wants to change Church teaching on Papal authority and sexuality (in other words the Pope won’t let people “have any fun”). The other, Pat Powers, wants to have a discussion on ending celibacy and ordaining women. Bishop Powers claims the laity want these changes. I’m sure many do. It’s times like this that I’m grateful the Catholic Church is not a democracy and that there are higher authorities than chattering laity and also checks and balances against aging bishops. Mind you, I’m not against having an honest discussion on these issues. I’m convinced that sound Catholic theology based on Scripture and tradition would easily win the day. However, in all my years of theological training and practice, “having a discussion” usually means “keep listening until you see it my way.” The Church does not need that kind of discussion.

The following was written by Servant of God Fulton J Sheen some 57 years ago.

H/T to Father Joe’s Blogspot http://fatherjoe.wordpress.com/

Mary & Islam

By Bishop Fulton J. Sheen (1950)

Moslemism is the only great post-Christian religion of the world. Because it had its origin in the seventh century under Mohammed, it was possible to unite within it some elements of Christianity and of Judaism.

Moslemism takes the doctrine of the unity of God, His Majesty and HisCreative Power, and uses it as a basis for the repudiation of Christ, the Son of God. Misunderstanding the notion of the Trinity, Mohammed made Christ a prophet only.

The Catholic Church throughout Northern Africa was virtually destroyed by Moslem power and at the present time (circa 1950), the Moslems are beginning to rise again. If Moslemism is a heresy, as Hilaire Belloc believes it to be, it is the only heresy that has never declined, either in numbers, or in the devotion of its followers.

The missionary effort of the Church toward this group has been, at least on the surface, a failure, for the Moslems are so far almost unconvertible. The reason is that for a follower of Mohammed to become a Christian is much like a Christian becoming a Jew. The Moslems believe that they have the final and definitive revelation of God to the world and that Christ was only a prophet announcing Mohammed, the last of God’s real prophets.

Today (1950), the hatred of the Moslem countries against the West isbecoming hatred against Christianity itself. Although the statesmen have not yet taken it into account, there is still grave danger that the temporal power of Islam may return and, with it, the menace that it may shake off a West which has ceased to be Christian, and affirm itself as a great anti-Christian world Power.

It is our firm belief that the fears some entertain concerning the Moslems are not to be realized, but that Moslemism, instead, will eventually be converted to Christianity, and in a way that even some of our missionaries never suspect.

It is our belief that this will happen not through the direct teaching of Christianity, but through a summoning of the Moslems to a veneration of the Mother of God.

This is the line of argument:

The Koran, which is the bible of the Moslems, has many passages concerning the Blessed Virgin. First, the Koran believes in her Immaculate Conception and in her Virgin Birth. The third chapter of the Koran places the history of Mary’s family in a genealogy that goes back through Abraham, Noah, and Adam. When one compares the Koran’s description of the birth of Mary with the apocryphal Gospel of the birth of Mary, one is tempted to believe that Mohammed very much depended upon the latter.

Both books describe the old age and the definite sterility of Anne, the mother of Mary. When, however, Anne conceives, the mother of Mary is made to say in the Koran: “O Lord, I vow and I consecrate to you what is already within me. Accept it from me.” When Mary is born, her mother, Anne, says: “And I consecrate her with all of her posterity under thy protection, O Lord, against Satan!”

The Koran has also verses on the Annunciation, Visitation, and Nativity. Angels are pictured as accompanying the Blessed Mother and saying, “O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you, and elected you above all the women of the earth.”

In the nineteenth chapter of the Koran, there are forty-one verses on Jesus and Mary. There is such a strong defense of the virginity of Mary here that the Koran, in the fourth book, attributes the condemnation of the Jews to their monstrous calumny against the Virgin Mary.

Mary, then, is for the Moslems the true Sayyida, or Lady. The only possible serious rival to her in their creed would be Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed himself. However, after the death of Fatima, Mohammed wrote: “Thou shalt be the most blessed of all the women in Paradise, after Mary.” In a variant of the text, Fatima is made to say, “I surpass all the women, except Mary.”

This brings us to our second point, namely, why the Blessed Mother, in this twentieth century (1950), should have revealed herself in the insignificant little village of Fatima, so that to all future generations she would be known as “Our Lady of Fatima.”
Nothing ever happens out of Heaven except with a finesse of all details.

I believe that the Blessed Virgin chose to be known as “Our Lady of Fatima” as a pledge and a sign of hope to the Moslem people, and as an assurance that they, who show her so much respect, will one day accept her Divine Son, too.

Evidence to support these views is found in the historical fact that the Moslems occupied Portugal for centuries. At the time when they were finally driven out, the last Moslem chief had a beautiful daughter by the name of Fatima. A Catholic boy fell in love with her, and for him she not only stayed behind when the Moslems left, but even embraced the Catholic faith. The young husband was so much in love with her that he changed the name of the town where he lived to Fatima. Thus, the very place where Our Lady appeared in 1917 bears a historical connection to Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed.

The final evidence of the relationship of Fatima to the Moslems is theenthusiastic reception that the Moslems in Africa and India and elsewhere gave to the Pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima. Moslems attended the Catholic services in honor of Our Lady; they allowed religious processions and even prayers before their mosques; and in Mozambique the Moslems, who were unconverted, began to be Christian as soon as the statue of Our Lady of Fatima was erected.

Missionaries in the future will increasingly see that their apostolate among the Moslems will be successful in the measure that they preach Our Lady of Fatima. Because the Moslems have a devotion to Mary, our missionaries should be satisfied merely to expand and to develop that devotion with the full realization that Our Blessed Lady will carry the Moslems the rest of the way to her Divine Son.

As those who lose devotion to Mary lose belief in the Divinity of Christ, so those who intensify devotion to her gradually acquire that belief.

Brothers and sisters, are you praying the Rosary and wearing your scapular? Ask Our Lady of Fatima to reveal her Son. She will. She wants to. She always has. Ask her for the conversion of your heart and theirs. She will do it.

http://www.diocese-kcsj.org/Bishop-Finn/pastoral-07.htm

Porn.

Pornography.

Its time to talk about it.

(I have put a lot of images of the Mother of God in this post for a very good reason when we talk about these sins, we need her.)

There is no shortage of it, there is no lessoning of the market for it. 70% (as of 3 years ago) of men ages 18-24 view it online regularly.

Let’s talk about it.

All of this is taken from the above link. It was written in 2004. Do any of us think it could have gotten better or even remained static?

The scope and costs of Pornography

According to 2004 IFR research, U.S. porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC (6.2 billion). Porn revenue is larger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises. The pornography industry, according to conservative estimates, brings in $57 billion per year, of which the United States is responsible for $12 billion. (Internet Pornography and Loneliness: An Association? Vincent Cyrus Yoder, Thomas B. Virden III , and Kiran Amin. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, Volume 12.1, 2005.)

The Internet accounted for US $2.5 billion of the adult industry’s revenues. Dirty Downloads Ready to Go on iPods, Ron Harris, http://www.macnewsworld.com/, 2005

According to a March, 2004 figure, there were 800 million rentals each year of adult videos and DVDs (Overdosing on Porn, Rebecca Hagelin. http://www.worldandi.com/. )

Current estimates are that $20 billion is spent annually on adult videos (sales and rentals).

Half of all hotel guests order pornographic movies. These films comprise 80% of in-room entertainment revenue and 70% of total in-room revenue. (Sex-Film Industry Threatened With Condom Requirement, Nick Madigan. The New York Times, 24 August, 2004.)

Cable pay per view amounted to $2.5 billion.

Magazines accounted for $7.5 billion.

Scope of Internet Pornography

In 2004, there were 4.2 million pornographic websites; 372 million
pornographic pages.

Daily there were 68 million pornographic search engine requests (25% of requests). 2003.

Sex is the number 1 topic searched on the Internet. (Overdosing on
Porn, Rebecca Hagelin. http://www.worlandi.com/, March, 2004.)

Daily there are 2.5 billion pornographic emails (8% of total emails).(2004)

The most common ways people have accidentally reached pornographic
content on the Web are pop-up windows (55%), misrepresented links (52%), misspelled URLs (48%) and auto links within emails (23%) (Fifty Percent of Workers Spend Nine days a Year on Personal Surfing at Work. Cerberian Inc. and SonicWALL, 20 July 2004 .)

There are 100 thousand websites offering illegal child pornography
(U.S. CustomsService estimate).

Adult Internet Pornography Statistics

70% of 18 to 24 year old men visit pornographic sites in a
typical month. 66% of men in their 20s and 30s also report being regular users of pornography. (First-person: the culture of pornography, R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Baptist Press, 28 December 2005.)

20% of men and 13% of women surveyed admitted to accessing pornography at work. (Internet Pornography Statistics. Internet Filter Review, 2004.)

There are 40 million US adults who regularly visit internet pornography websites One out of three visitors to all adult web sites are women.

Women favor chat rooms two times more than men.

Effects of Pornography

40% of adults surveyed believe that pornography harms relationships
between men and women. (Consensus Among American Public on the
Effects of Pornography on Adults or Children or What Government Should Do About It, Harris Poll, 7 October 2005 . http://www.harrisinteractive.com/.)

30 percent of surveyed adults said their partner’s use of pornography made them feel more like a sexual object (Marriage Related Research, Mark A. Yarhouse, Psy.D. Christian Counseling Today, 2004 Vol. 12 No. 1. August, 2004.)

One out of every six women grapples with addiction to
pornography. (Internet Pornography and Loneliness: An Association? Vincent Cyrus Yoder, Thomas B. Virden III , and Kiran Amin. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, Volume 12.1, 2005. )

47% of Christians surveyed said pornography is a major problem in the home.

As little as six hours exposure to soft core porn (anything designed to arouse one sexually) is enough to destroy the viewer’s satisfaction with his or her spouse; decrease the value of faithfulness; decrease the ability to be with one person and cherish that person; and increase the thought that women enjoy rape. Survey 2004 Children and the Internet

Children use the Internet. 96 percent of kids have gone online; 74% having access at home and 61% use the Internet on a typical day. Kids stay connected, USA Today snapshots. 5 January, 2004 .

In a survey reported in 2000, 21 percent of teens say they have looked at something on the Internet that they wouldn’t want their parents to know. (A World of Their Own. Newsweek, 8 May 2000.)

Children Internet Pornography Statistics

90% of 8-16 year olds using the Internet have viewed pornography on
line (most while doing homework). 2004

Eleven years old is the average age of first Internet exposure to
pornography. (2004.)

Among underage viewers of pornography, children 12 years old to 17 years old are the largest consumers of Internet pornography. 2004.

A survey of 600 households conducted by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children found that 20% of parents do not know any of their children’s Internet passwords, instant messaging nicknames or email addresses.

Only 5% of parents recognized the acronym POS (parent over shoulder) and only 1% could identify WTGP (want to go private?), both of which are used frequently by teens when instant messaging Ads target online victimization of children. USA Today, 20 May 2004.

Incidents of child sexual exploitation have risen from 4,573 in 1998 to 112,083 in 2004, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Reports of child exploitation up. (USA Today Snapshots, 17 February, 2005 .)

Child Pornography generates $3 billion annually. (Internet Filter Review. 2004.

What this report does not cover? Who is making the money and who is being victimized.

Not just pop-culture icon & hero Hugh Hefner. No, the octogenarian running around in his (now age appropriate) pajamas like a 14 year old boy isn’t who is profitting the most.

Pornography is the third largest revenue for organized crime in the United States just behind drugs and gambling. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, reported in “Talking Points: Important Facts About Pornography, Take Action Manual, National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, p. 8.)

85% of revenue from pornographic magazines and videos goes into the pockets of organized crime, much of it untaxed. (”Outreach: Facts About Pornography,” American Family Association.)

(from: http://www.afec.org/issues/pornography/facts.htm)

Who is getting seduced into it? “Porn doesn’t have a demographic; it goes across all demographics,” says Paul Fishbein, the 42-year-old founder and editor of Adult Video News, the trade publication for the “adult” industry. “There were 11,000 adult titles last year versus 400 releases in Hollywood. There are so many outlets that even if you spend just $ 15,000 and two days-—and put in some plot and good-looking people and decent sex–you can get satellite and cable sales. There are so many companies, and they rarely go out of business. You have to be really stupid or greedy to fail.” That is right my friends, it is easy garunteed money to get into an industry as a producer or performer or distributor.

In Germany and some other European nations, the age of consent is 16 - “performers” in some of these films are well under 18. They are high school kids. It is legal to post those films there on the web. The world-wide-web. How hard do you think it is to access those sites in Peoria?

It is destroying homes, preventing vocations to religous and family life. It is becoming a growing addiction for millions that is perfectly legal, and piped into homes via the net.

I have counseled a drug addicted “porn star”. (Yea, there is a company here in Ohio doing killer business. We have pornstars right here in the heartland!) This kid is a mess. A slave to drugs, and a victim of a broken home, those that made a market for this travesty are complicit in this soul’s death in mortal sin (God forbid) should that day come.

There are now at least 5 distribution companies that operate likie “Netfilx” exclusively with porn. I cannot find figures on their combined revenues or circulations. Does anyone think that it is now less or will remain less than Netflix?

It is shit. Lets not tiptoe or be polite. Let’s be blunt.

It is feces and it will rope you to despair. God will not be mocked. His plan for creation and our sexuality will not be mocked.

Let’s think about something also. The “performers” in porn are being exploited - even willingly. For the market that has been created (by how many baptized???). There is no end of money to exploit these people.

Q. Why did God make you?
A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.

Did God make your sons and daughters to mock Him?

Let’s be clear - support of this “industry” through demand and consumption means that we escort each other to hell.

Pray for all those suckered into this lie and empty promise. Souls are at stake.

According to letters written to her spiritual confidant, Mother Teresa had doubts about her faith. Here is an excerpt from the article appearing in Time:

Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.
- Mother Teresa to the Rev. Michael Van Der Peet, September 1979

On Dec. 11, 1979, Mother Teresa, the “Saint of the Gutters,” went to Oslo. Dressed in her signature blue-bordered sari and shod in sandals despite below-zero temperatures, the former Agnes Bojaxhiu received that ultimate worldly accolade, the Nobel Peace Prize. In her acceptance lecture, Teresa, whose Missionaries of Charity had grown from a one-woman folly in Calcutta in 1948 into a global beacon of self-abnegating care, delivered the kind of message the world had come to expect from her. “It is not enough for us to say, ‘I love God, but I do not love my neighbor,’” she said, since in dying on the Cross, God had “[made] himself the hungry one - the naked one - the homeless one.” Jesus’ hunger, she said, is what “you and I must find” and alleviate. She condemned abortion and bemoaned youthful drug addiction in the West. Finally, she suggested that the upcoming Christmas holiday should remind the world “that radiating joy is real” because Christ is everywhere - “Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor we meet, Christ in the smile we give and in the smile that we receive.”

Yet less than three months earlier, in a letter to a spiritual confidant, the Rev. Michael van der Peet, that is only now being made public, she wrote with weary familiarity of a different Christ, an absent one. “Jesus has a very special love for you,” she assured Van der Peet. “[But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, - Listen and do not hear - the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak … I want you to pray for me - that I let Him have [a] free hand.”

The entire article is worth a read. While some fundamentalist atheists are suggesting Mother Teresa lived a lie, and was a hypocrite, I do not see a problem with a (soon-to-be-declared) saint who struggled with her faith, or who spoke favorably of Jesus and the Church publicly, while struggling privately. We all have moments of doubt about others, whether that “other” is God, a spouse, friend, or parent. However, this does not necessarily mean we have given up on these relationships, or that we somehow are unable to see the joy that is in, or perhaps even the joy that should be in, these relationships. I have some friends who openly tell me the “magic” has gone out of their marriage. Despite their struggles and doubts, they still remain faithful to their relationship. However, I know others who were faithful when things were going well, but who were unfaithful when the marriage got rough. Who had the most faith in these examples? The ones who were faithful only when things were going well? No. I would say the ones who remained faithful even during the doubt had the deepest and most enduring faith. So perhaps Mother Teresa had even more faith than we ever knew.

Many great saints, namely St. John of the Cross, struggled with “dark nights of the soul.” St. Anthony “battled demons” in the desert. Great saints have chosen difficult paths, and I suspect that with difficult paths come even greater periods of doubt. Perhaps here we see the true definition of faith: remaining faithful during the darkness. After all, as the marriage example above illustrates, it requires little faith to be faithful during the times of easy belief, but a lot of faith to be faithful during times of doubt and uncertainty.

I am reminded of the Psalmist, who talks openly to the God who has abandoned him. Psalm 44 ends not on a high note of joy and redemption, but of desperation, pleading for God to wake up:

We have heard with our ears, O God,
our fathers have told us,
what deeds thou didst perform in their days,
in the days of old:

thou with thy own hand didst drive out the nations,
but them thou didst plant;
thou didst afflict the peoples,
but them thou didst set free;
for not by their own sword did they win the land,
nor did their own arm give them victory;
but thy right hand, and thy arm,
and the light of thy countenance;
for thou didst delight in them.

Thou art my King and my God,
who ordainest victories for Jacob.

Through thee we push down our foes;
through thy name we tread down our assailants.

For not in my bow do I trust,
nor can my sword save me.
But thou hast saved us from our foes,
and hast put to confusion those who hate us.

In God we have boasted continually,
and we will give thanks to thy name for ever.

Yet thou hast cast us off and abased us,
and hast not gone out with our armies.
Thou hast made us turn back from the foe;
and our enemies have gotten spoil.
Thou hast made us like sheep for slaughter,
and hast scattered us among the nations.
Thou hast sold thy people for a trifle,
demanding no high price for them.
Thou hast made us the taunt of our neighbors,
the derision and scorn of those about us.
Thou hast made us a byword among the nations,
a laughingstock among the peoples.
All day long my disgrace is before me,
and shame has covered my face,
at the words of the taunters and revilers,
at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten thee,
or been false to thy covenant.
Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed from thy way,
that thou shouldst have broken us in the place of jackals,
and covered us with deep darkness.
If we had forgotten the name of our God,
or spread forth our hands to a strange god,
would not God discover this?
For he knows the secrets of the heart.
Nay, for thy sake we are slain all the day long,
and accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Rouse thyself! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Awake!
Do not cast us off for ever!
Why dost thou hide thy face?
Why dost thou forget our affliction and oppression?
For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our body cleaves to the ground.
Rise up, come to our help!
Deliver us for the sake of thy steadfast love! (RSV)

I think we all have our Psalm 44 moments, or even Psalm 44 days, months, and even decades. I believe there is a good reason God placed this psalm, written in the midst of great doubt, in the Scriptures. It shows that it is possible to be faithful while struggling. After all, if faith is a gift, it is not necessarily dependent on how we feel, or what may happen to come easy at any given moment. I just pray that when the times get dark, I am given the faith to carry on, even as I pray for God to rouse himself.

In case you were wondering, these were produced by the seminarians from the Diocese of Saginaw. (Michigan)

Saginaw was formerly run by Bishop “Just Call Me Ken” Untener. ( Untener did not ordain perm deacons, BTW, as a protest against the ban on women’s ordination…) When Bishop Carlson came on board, they had 2 seminarians. Upon assuming episcopacy in the diocese, Carlson also assumed the roll of vocations director.

Then now have 24.

They just ordained two priests, five transitional deacons.

Please do keep the 5 new deacons in your prayers:

Dcn. Nicholas Coffaro
Dcn. Christopher Coman
Dcn. Denis Heames
Dcn. Daniel Roa
Dcn. William Spencer

The Catholic Diocese of Saginaw was established in 1938 and includes an estimated 132,000 faithful living in Arenac, Bay, Clare, Gladwin, Gratiot, Huron, Isabella, Midland, Saginaw, Sanilac and Tuscola counties.