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| A little choir humor |
Health Status Update
I haven't been blogging as much as I've been on Facebook only because it is easier to use the latter on my cell phone or tablet while laying back. Laying back mitigates the pain in my abdomen. I'm laying back in the recliner now with a small lap desk and my lightweight Macbook Pro, but it's simpler to just share things in Facebook - something I notice other bloggers doing more of, as well. This is true even when I am well.
I'm glad to see the weather is cooperating for an appointment I have in a few days with a specialist at the University of Michigan's Livonia office. Hopefully, they will find the source of my gut problems and get it fixed so I can get off medical leave and back to work, and my outside activities. Until then, it's reading, social media, surfing the web, watching TV, and praying. Most of my cooking is soups which have become a daily staple. I just throw it in a pot and forget about it.I've had many messages from people who are keeping me in their prayers. This is much appreciated. Times of sickness can be times of spiritual growth. Those prayers lift me so that I can use the graces that come to me.
Thus far, I am blessed that nothing like cancer has been found. I truly believe there is some kind of hernia or kink/fold in my intestines that is causing the problem because of how pain is mitigated. If I lay back or lay down, pressure and pain are relieved quickly, but not entirely. If I put my fist into my left side while laying back, I can actually feeling part of my digestive tract emptying. This response to manipulation is very telling. All procedures and radiology has been done while laying. I'm hoping they can try alternatives when I see the doc next week.
What I'm Reading
I usually am reading several books at once. Each day I read from Scripture and from a Carmelite work, among others. I've been in a slow read of The Ascent of Mt. Carmel in The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross
. In book two of the Ascent, he deals extensively with private revelations, visions, and locutions. I've been sharing clips using my Galaxy Note tablet and my iPhone, mainly in Facebook, but some in Twitter. Maybe I'll put something together to summarize the interesting things the Doctor of Mystical Theology has to say on the subject. Here's one clip I shared. He is not talking here about those who receive legitimate visions from God, which he dissects in great detail over many chapters, but of those who desire or seek visions, or test God by looking for signs.
Candlemas and St. Blase at Assumption Grotto
Fr. Perrone's column, which goes in depth on Candlemass, can be found in this week's bulletin for February 2, 2014. Grotto's pastor also talked about Candlemas in last week's bulletin. It will be online for a few weeks at the Seek and Find page for Assumption Grotto.
Father Z's post from 2013 on Candlemas goes into more detail about the feast itself and discusses the use of blessed candles.
Monday is the feast day of St. Blase - a day when throats are blessed. If you go to either the 7:30 AM or 7:00 PM, you will have an opportunity to have this done at Assumption Grotto. Fr. Perrone is not offering it on Sunday this year because it is the feast of the Presentation, or Candlemas - the day on which the candles used for blessing of throats are… blessed.
At Assumption Grotto, the older formula is used when blessing throats (see the comparison of old and new here). This is something I really love about the pre-Vatican II prayers. There is a depth that, for me, is very catechetical. I think that is why others are drawn to some of the older prayers. I say this while at the same time pointing out that one who has their throat blessed using the new formula does not have any less of a blessed throat than one who gets it blessed using the older formula. We have to be careful of that kind of error.
Before I forget, you can find some local Traditional Latin Masses around town listed here.
And, I'm sure there are still openings on the Call to Holiness Fundraiser with Father Z at the Detroit Institute of Arts on February 15th.
A few links and notes to pass along
There are a few things I have shared in social media, and I'll bring some of those links here.- The Holy Father said in his Santa Marta homilythat Christian mediocrity leads to a loss of the sense of sin.
- The Holy See Press Office now has a Twitter account. It's still putting things out only in Italian, but I have put those into Google Translate over the years. Follow them: @HolySeePress
- The Vatican spokesman censured Rolling Stone Magazine, which featured Pope Francis on the front cover while perverting truth in it's article on him.
- The Cardinal Newman Society is talking about the visit a delegation of Notre Dame University had with the Holy Father.
- Michael Coren is talking about the War on Christians in the Middle East.
- Grotto-goer, Kevin Tierney, who writes at the Catholic Lane portal, looks at the expression, "Church of Nice" through the lens of Pope Pius X. I'm in full agreement with Kevin. Australian Catholic blogger, Brendan Malone, also had objections to this kind of language in a post at, The Leading Edge, the other day. Since my com-box is closed, you can discuss the issue at the respective blogposts, both of which have active conversations going.
As for public criticism of Mr. Voris by fellow Catholics (not dissenting Catholics, either), I would turn that around and say it goes both ways. It is rather hypocritical to suggest that it is alright for him to rip on organizations like EWTN in a way that leads to contempt (and, I've witnessed that contempt) and somehow be absolved from specific, objective, critical analysis of what he says and how he says it.
It's an untruth to suggest that no one else is teaching the truths of the faith. I learned the truth about things like contraception and other hard teachings, through EWTN, and from radio shows at Ave Maria Radio, as well as through Catholic Answers - all the target of public scorn in Vortex episodes. It is one thing to critique a particular program, in a dispassionate way and to discuss something specific; it's quite another to practically carpet-bomb those people and organizations in a broad and general way.
It's not that those organizations avoid teaching the fullness of truth, which is often implied in the Vortex. It's not that those organizations avoid teaching people the history of how things got so bad. That's mostly where I learned about scandalous things like the Land O'Lakes agreement. The difference is that EWTN, et al, don't berate, deride, and revile "the bishops" in a way that causes contempt and hatred for them; or worse, in a way that causes general distrust of the hierarchy among the less discerning. That bothers some people - the absence of presenting the information with anger and spittle.
I myself have been accused by devotees of the Vortex of cooperating with "the bishops" in evil! I am part of the problem, they say, not because I have ever said we should avoid talking about the fullness of faith, but because I have dared to suggest that how we talk about the fullness of faith matters. It escapes people that the same things can be taught without being contemptuous of others.
It's not a matter of "style" either. Dynamic people can teach the fullness of the truth without inciting hatred or contempt for others who are in error. But that takes loving those who are in error. Love doesn't mock those in error or make them the butt of jokes for others to laugh at. That's a very false form of fraternal correction.
I recommend to everyone this video containing the homily of a traditionalist priest, presumably FSSP or ICK, in which he is addressing a traditionalist congregation about worthy conduct. While those of us with a traditional bent may not fall as often to certain kinds of dissent and sexual immorality, the Angel of Darkness knows just how to draw pious people into God-displeasing behavior.
Dare to watch this 17 minutes and learn.
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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!
- Diane M. Korzeniewski
it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!
- Diane M. Korzeniewski
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