At the 9:30 TLM today, Fr. John started his homily off by talking about the classic spiritual works that we don't seem to have time to read anymore. Father reflected for a moment about where the time might be going. As he pointed out, the day still has 24 hours and we still need a certain number of hours to sleep. Yet, we still have less time these days. Why?
Fr. John pointed to our obsession with electronics. We are engrossed with email, blackberries, iPods, Television, Computers, Internet, texting.....and, the list goes on. He enouraged us to pull back during Advent and I'm going to encourage you to do the same by not posting as frequently. Rather than post daily, I may do so a few times weekly.
I also found a post I want to pass along at the blog of Fr. Dwight Longenecker - a book review and a simple, yet indepth explanation of Modernism. I'll give you just a snippet and you can follow the link to his blog to read the rest. He is speaking of the book, "Fr. Elijah" by Michael D. O'Brien - part of a series that I see in our own Grotto giftshop.
"....What the book does best is reveal the major heresy of our time. Modernism is the blend of many other 'isms', among them scientism, rationalism, sentimentalism, idealism and utilitarianism.
Scientism believes science has all the answers, rationalism thinks the answers are all logical, sentimentalism is the dependance on emotional urgings for decision making, idealism trusts in a great ideal and utilitarianism trusts in what is efficient or what gets the job done. Relativism is the grand-daddy of them all, and says that there is no such thing as absolute truth.
In other words, modernism is the conviction that the supernatural is nothing more than silly wishful thinking of medieval-minded, superstitious old women (of every age and both genders) and that real religion is about changing the world instead of the salvation of souls.
This basic error is at the heart of a very fundamental dichotomy in our culture and our church. It doesn't take too much analysis to see how modernism soon leads to tyranny. The modernist idealist (who doesn't believe in the next world) has only one lifetime to try to make this world a better place, and to do so, he will use any means necessary. Thus all the great tyrannies have marched through the last century, shedding more blood than the world has ever seen. Each one believed in making the world a better place, and believed in killing all who held back their utopian dream.
What is most disturbing is to see how this heresy has invaded the Catholic Church. So we have bishops and priests and people who invest all their time and energy in trying to make this world a better place rather than saving souls for the next...."
Go read Fr. Longenecker's post: Fr. Elijah and End Times
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The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!
