Per Christum

I’m just now getting a chance to give it a look.

Here’s a passage from the introduction that jumped out at me (underling for emphasis mine):

“Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well. So now we can say: Christianity was not only “good news”—the communication of a hitherto unknown content. In our language we would say: the Christian message was not only “informative” but “performative”. That means: the Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known—it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.“

More to come as more jumps out.

Dropped the thing into MS Word.

Including title and footnotes:

Words: 19,358

I asked Word to create a summary with only 10 sentences.

Faith is Hope.
To come to know God—the true God—means to receive hope.
Answer: “Faith”.
“Eternal life”.
Faith is the substance of hope.
Is Christian hope individualistic?
A world without God is a world without hope (cf. Eph 2:12).
Only God can create justice.
Mary, Star of Hope.
Did hope die?

According the The Blog Readability Test, the Encyclical comes in as:

H/T: Father Joe

SISTERS OF THE GOSPEL OF LIFE

“Inspired by the Gospel of Life we feel called as individuals with our own unique gifts to address creatively and imaginatively and in a way that is radical and dynamic, the needs of Church and society today.

These specific needs concern combating the culture of death by creating a civilisation of love. Our primary mission is to centre our lives on Jesus Christ through a call to personal holiness achieved by a life of prayer and action, the contemplative dimension of which focuses on personal and community prayer, the Sacrifice of the Mass and Adoration.

Through our contemplation, we lovingly embrace the joy of the Cross in the total surrender of our lives. Our community aims to be a witness to the world that Christ came that we might have life and have it to the full.

Each is called to reach a personal freedom through poverty, chastity and obedience and in living lives of simplicity and truth. The community should seek to use the gifts of each member of the community for the greater glory of God, the joy of the individual and the salvation of the world, always in constant fidelity to the Holy Father and the Magisterium of the Church.

The main apostolate is the promotion of the dignity of the human being, particularly as regards the role of the family, the sanctity of motherhood, a renewed understanding of the complementarity of the sexes and catechesis. Our prime model in this is Our Lady, Mother of the Church.”

Sisters Of The Gospel Of Life
gospeloflifesisters.wordpress.com

106 Dixon Av
Glasgow,
G42 8EL, UK

+44 141 422 2634

It’s the holiday season, and time to think about giving. Here is a great little site to help you spread your holiday cheer, Charity Navigator. It allows you to search local charities and how donations are distributed, including details like how much an executive makes. Check it out.

H/T Barbara at mommylife.net

I saw this and it made me chuckle with memories of watching gradeschool filmstrips. It was a treat to be the one who got to advance the filmstrip to the next frame… At least I thought it was. We were a long way from today when my nieces and nephews of the age I was then have blogs with readers in other countries.

It also sounds like the voice of the narrator is computer generated. It isn’t half as fun as the records and cassette tapes that used to accompany some of the film strips.

But the fact that these sorts of educational materials were out there, helping to educate young people on the value of large families and brothers and sisters is a telling and intersting thing. How very different is this from US culture today?

This Podcast is from the blog “In Umbris Sancti Petri” (In the Shadows of Saint Peter) and it covers all things Catholic. We are seminarians from the United States of America studying in Rome

I hope these fellows decide to keep this up and continue to improve… Lighting is something that will need to be worked out better (Guys we want to see those pearly seminarian smiles, get out of the dark!) but it is a very cool backdrop.

Also makes my little Ohio heart swell with pride…

Posted over at Musings of a Pertinacious Papist:

With an eye on Russia’s dismally low birth-rate, a youth movement run by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin sponsored a “procreation camp” this past summer. Held 200 miles from Moscow, the two-week camp was reportedly attended by 10,000 uniformed youngsters. Following instructions in physical fitness and exercises, couples repaired — or should we say “paired off” — to a special part of dormitory tents arranged in the shape of a heart, which was called the “Love Oasis,” where they were encouraged to start “procreating for the motherland.” The camp culminated in a mass wedding of twenty-five couples, who were ready to make the “ultimate expression of devotion to the motherland” (The Daily Mail, July 29, 2007; quoted by Michael S. Rose in “The News You May Have Missed, New Oxford Review [October 2007], p. 37).

Read more at “Hitl … I mean Putin’s Youth (Nashi): Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp,” by Edward Lucas (The Postnational Monitor, July 29, 2007).

Consider also: Mother Russia now sees more abortions than babies born

Russian Abortion Killing and Sterilizing Millions; Demographic Collapse Likely to be Worse than Previously Predicted

The day may come years from now when this turns up to haunt Father Rector Nick, or Bishop Nick… Until that day, I give you Seminarian Nick rollerblading about the halls of Saint Augustine’s Seminary. Canadian Catholics make way!

Am I alone in thinking it would look just a little cooler in his cassock? Come on Sem. Nick, the Sisters of Life rollerblade about New York in full habits with rosaries swinging in the wind!

Keep all of our seminarians in your prayers!

Here are 12 myths every Catholic should be able to expose.How many can you answer?

1. Christianity is no better than any other faith. All religions lead to God.
2. Why should I believe the Bible? The Old and New Testaments contradict each other countless times.
3. I don’t need to confess my sins to a priest. I can go straight to God.
4. People’s memories of their past lives prove that reincarnation is true…and that the Christian view of Heaven and Hell is not.
5. Properly interpreted, the Bible does not condemn homosexuality.
6. If the Church truly followed Jesus, they’d sell their lavish art, property, and architecture, and give the money to the poor.
7. Catholics should follow their conscience in all things…whether it’s abortion, birth control, or women’s ordination.
8. Dissent is actually a good thing, since we should all keep our minds open to new ideas.
9. There’s no such thing as absolute truth. What’s true for you may not be true for me.
10. I don’t need to go to Church. As long as I’m a good person, that’s all that really matters.
11. Natural Family Planning is just the Catholic version of birth control.
12. Someone can be pro-choice and Catholic at the same time.

[For ANSWERS from Crisis magazine's editor, Deal Hudson, click here.]

H/T: Dr. Philip Blosser’s Homepage

At the Thanksgiving gathering, my wife, my children, my parents and I gathered with some friends, Mr. and Mrs. G., and their children, at another friend’s house. These friends are Catholic, and aware that I’ve returned to Byzantine-Ruthenian Praxis. (I took a four year hiatus to see if I could go back to being Roman. I can’t.)

Mrs. G., the matron of the other family, asked, “So, looking forward to turkey and ham tomorrow?”

“I can’t,” I replied. “Fasting.”

“But it isn’t advent or lent!” she replied.

“Phillips fast. Byzantine Advent. Started last week.”

She goggles. She’s a recent convert, having been through RCIA, and baptized, chrismated, and communed last Easter. The Roman parish we both were attending last year dunked her quite well. She was even taught about the Eastern Catholics in her RCIA program, in a vague and “you’ll never meet one” kind of way. She’s a former Lutheran, and possessed of one gift I really wish I had: easy simple faith.

Her husband, who met me during my previous decade-plus stretch as a parishioner at St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Parish, is slightly better informed. He knows where three Byzantine parishes are… two in Florida, and St. Nick’s… but he’s never set foot in one. He’s a cradle Roman Catholic, has outlived his first wife, and is from Florida. His response was milder, “Wow, you start early.”

For me, the Byzantine path has made my faith far easier, tho’ not simple. I still find I need to delve, to seek exactly where and how God wants me to go. For now, it seems, He wants me to be unabashedly Catholic, and definitely Eastern, and to teach Roman Catholics about that other lung Pope John Paul II spoke of. I am able to sing the praises of God in a manner that makes sense to all my senses. And while I’ve not experienced Roman “Liturgical Abuse” and neither has Mrs. G., for me, I can still go through the Motions as a Roman, but find myself feeling a lack. I’m jealous of Mrs. G.’s simple ease with the Roman Church, and thankful for the most successful failure in the Metropolia of Pittsburgh.

For those of us in the United States, today is Thanksgiving, and the landscape looks a lot like the photo above, which I took around this time a few years ago. I hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving holiday. May we truly be thankful for what the Lord has given us. From the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, Father of all mercies,we thine unworthy servantsdo give thee most humble and hearty thanksfor all thy goodness and loving-kindnessto us and to all men.We bless thee for our creation, preservation,and all the blessings of this life;but above all for thine inestimable lovein the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.And, we beseech thee,give us that due sense of all thy mercies,that our hearts may be unfaignedly thankful;and that we show forth thy praise,not only with our lips, but in our lives,by giving up our selves to thy service,and by walking before theein holiness and righteousness all our days;through Jesus Christ our Lord,to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit,be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen

“O Mother of God, our Patroness, continue to protect our small family, our congregation with your Holy Omophorion and under Your holy protection we shall not perish, even if all hell is against us. Amen”

A few days late… Bl. Josaphata was the foundress of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate. Unlike the majority of Byzantine Catholics from Ukraine, hers was not the death of a martyr. She passed on On April 7, 1919 at the age of 49, from tuberculosis of the bone.