A Deo et Rege

I’ve never been much for bad habits. I say that not to be prideful, just to accentuate how boring my life is. However, there is one weakness that always gets me: coffee. I started drinking coffee in high school, beginning with the sweet stuff, like the drinks drenched in syrups. Once I got to university, I realized that those were way too expensive and I tried regular coffee (with cream and sugar, however) and I was hooked.

I loved coffee and the whole coffeehouse setting. I’d usually go once or twice a day, mainly to read or study. It helped me get out of the dorms and among people. Also, the setting relaxed me while I studied and yet the coffee kept me alert and focused. What contradiction! My junior year in undergraduate I gave up coffee for Lent. Ugh! I broke the fast on Easter Sunday by brewing Jamaican Blue Mountain, the smoothest coffee known to man or woman.

Now I drink coffee when I do just about everything: read, blog (see photo), and yes, even pray. It’s probably because the two things I most need in the morning are God and coffee. I’ve had coffee in Spain, England, Australia, Canada, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. I must say the Spanish do it the best, although the Aussies are second (except they rely way too much on instant and have milk not half and half).

Ok, this is a bit rambling, but I want to get to the point of this entry: coffee actually has some health benefits. I’ve already written too much to go into detail, so just click on the link.

Photo by Jonathan Bennett. The mug is from the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

I have added a new blog to my blogroll. Usually I don’t announce this, but I simply add the blog quietly. This one is too fascinating not to highlight. First, it’s got a cool name: Luminous Miseries. Second, the author has a fascinating journey, which he describes as such:

"From a "bald faced heathen" to pentematic Protestant to non-pentematic
Protestant to Catholic? From minister to not so ordinary layity? Could
be, look, weirder things have happened…"

Third, he has great insights and a clear writing style. And finally, his blog is designed really, really well. He’s also an artist. It makes sense. Anyway, check it out!

Pope Benedict XVI on the Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament (From The Spirit of the Liturgy)

For this Presence [of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament] has the effect, of course, of keeping the Eucharist forever in church (the building). The church never becomes a lifeless space, but is filled with the presence of the Lord, which comes out of the [Eucharistic] celebration, leads us into it, and always makes us participants in the cosmic Eucharist. What men of faith have not experienced this? A church without the Eucharistic presence is somehow dead even when it invites people to pray. But a church in which the eternal light is burning before the tabernacle is always alive, is always something more than a building made of stones. In this place the Lord is always waiting for me, calling me, wanting to make me "Eucharistic." In this way he prepares me for the Eucharist, sets me in motion toward his return.

Image from Resources for Catholic Educators

Reading the The Spirit of the Liturgy by Pope Benedict XVI has really been an enlightening experience. I don’t think I’ll ever look at the mass the same again. I am only up to page 60, but it is, for this lover of theology and liturgy, a real page turner.

I’m particularly impressed by his comments on the role of time in the liturgy. He mentions the three stages of liturgy. The first is "the eternal is embodied in the once for all." In other words, the events of the past, like the cross, are not merely historical events, but self giving acts that transcend time. The second stage is "the entry of the eternal into our present moment in the liturgical action." In the liturgy we are "caught up and made contemporary with the Paschal mystery of Christ." The third stage "is the desire of the eternal to take hold of the worshiper’s life and ultimately of all historical reality." Benedict elaborates on this idea by noting that "we are incorporated into the great historical process by which the world moves toward the fulfillment of God being ‘all in all’" To put it differently, "past, present and future interpenetrate and touch upon eternity." This book is great!

…universality is an essential feature of Christian worship. It is the worship of an open heaven. It is never just an event in the life of a community that finds itself in a particular place. No, to celebrate the Eucharist means to enter into the openness of a glorification of God that embraces both heaven and earth, an openness effected by the Cross and Resurrection. Christian liturgy is never just an event organized by a particular local Church. Mankind’s movement towards Christ meets Christ’s movement towards men. He wants to unite mankind and bring about the one Church, the one divine assembly, of all men. Everything, then, comes together: the horizontal and the vertical, the uniqueness of God and the unity of mankind, the communion of all who worship in spirit and in truth.

From The Spirit of the Liturgy by Pope Benedict XVI

I should really stay away from Catholic bookstores because I have a tendency to buy too much! I did, however, pick up what I know are two gems. They are The Spirit of the Liturgy and Pilgrim Fellowship Of Faith: The Church As Communion, both written by Pope Benedict XVI back when he was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. It’s not book related, but I’m also interested in getting The Andy Griffith Show – The Complete Second Season.

Nathan at Quo Vadis has a great post on the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the memorial of which the Catholic Church celebrates today.

I have a recurring nightmare where I’m back at university and it’s the middle or end of the semester/quarter and I realize I have a class that I had totally forgotten about! So, I’m totally behind and am freaking out because I haven’t been to one lecture. I have this dream about once every couple months. The setting changes, but the content stays the same. Anyone else have dreams like this?

There is nothing sweeter and milder, and, at the same time,
stronger and more efficacious than;the gentle action of the burning charity of this
lovable Heart to convert the most hardened souls  and to penetrate the most unfeeling
hearts.

                                                            St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Blessed Solemnity of the Sacred Heart to all!

Image from St. Charles Borromeo Church

The Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission recently released a joint document called Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ. I think such a document represents a positive step forward in Anglican and Catholic relations. Although the document is not binding on either side, it does represent a viable framework for future negotiations. Here is the part detailing shared agreement:

As a result of our study, the Commission offers the following
agreements, which we believe significantly advance our consensus regarding Mary. We affirm
together

• the teaching that God has taken the Blessed Virgin Mary in the fullness of her person into his glory as consonant with Scripture, and only to be understood in the light of Scripture (paragraph 58);
• that in view of her vocation to be the mother of the Holy One, Christ’s redeeming work reached ‘back’ in Mary to the depths of her being and to her earliest beginnings (paragraph 59);
• that the teaching about Mary in the two definitions of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, understood within the biblical pattern of the economy of hope and grace, can be said to be consonant with the teaching of the Scriptures and the ancient common traditions (paragraph 60);
• that this agreement, when accepted by our two Communions, would place the questions about authority which arise from the two definitions of 1854 and 1950 in a new ecumenical context (paragraphs 61-63);
• that Mary has a continuing ministry which serves the ministry of Christ, our unique mediator, that Mary and the saints pray for the whole Church and that the practice of asking Mary and the saints to pray for us is not communion-dividing (paragraphs 64-75).

79. We agree that doctrines and devotions which are contrary to
Scripture cannot be said to be revealed by God nor to be the teaching of the Church. We
agree that doctrine and devotion which focuses on Mary, including claims to ‘private
revelations’, must be moderated by carefully expressed norms which ensure the unique and
central place of Jesus Christ in the life of the Church, and that Christ alone, together
with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is to be worshipped in the Church.

80. Our statement has sought not to clear away all possible problems,
but to deepen our common understanding to the point where remaining diversities of
devotional practice may be received as the varied work of the Spirit amongst all the
people of God. We believe that the agreement we have here outlined is itself the product
of a re-reception by Anglicans and Roman Catholics of doctrine about Mary and that it
points to the possibility of further reconciliation, in which issues concerning doctrine
and devotion to Mary need no longer be seen as communion-dividing, or an obstacle in a new
stage of our growth into visible koinonia. This agreed statement is now offered
to our respective authorities. It may also in itself prove a valuable study of the
teaching of the Scriptures and the ancient common traditions about the Blessed Virgin
Mary, the Mother of God incarnate. Our hope is that, as we share in the one Spirit by
which Mary was prepared and sanctified for her unique vocation, we may together
participate with her and all the saints in the unending praise of God.

There are some incredible statements here, especially from an Anglican perspective. Some Anglicans would probably argue that it represents a betrayal of Anglicanism’s Reformation roots. Other Anglicans would probably say "about time." Any comments?

The whole document can be found here
Hat Tip: Kendall Harmon
Photo by Jonathan Bennett (from the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception)

Today is the memorial of St. Justin Martyr, my patron. He was the first Church Father I read back in 1999 and his message and witness have inspired me ever since. St. Justin was born about AD 100 in Nablus, Palestine and died a martyr’s death in AD 165 by beheading. He is best known for his three major works, First and Second Apology and Dialogue With Trypho (the Jew). Justin was involved with many philosophical theories but became convinced of the Truth of the Christian Faith and put his energies into its defense, especially before Roman and Jewish critics. He is the patron of apologists, lecturers, orators, philosophers, and speakers. For more information visit Patron Saints Index.

From the Martyrdom of St. Justin:

(4)The prefect says to Justin, Hearken, you who are
called learned, and think that you know true doctrines; if you are
scourged and beheaded, do you believe you will ascend into heaven?
Justin said, I hope that, if I endure these things, I shall have
His gifts. For I know that, to all who have thus lived,
there abides the divine favour until the completion of the whole
world. Rusticus the prefect said, Do you suppose, then,
that you will ascend into heaven to receive some recompense?
Justin said, I do not suppose it, but I know and am fully
persuaded of it. Rusticus the prefect said, Let us, then,
now come to the matter in hand, and which presses. Having come together,
offer sacrifice with one accord to the gods. Justin said,
No right-thinking person falls away from piety to impiety.
Rusticus the prefect said, Unless ye obey, ye shall be mercilessly
punished. Justin said, Through prayer we can be saved on
account of our Lord Jesus Christ, even when we have been punished, because
this shall become to us salvation and confidence at the more fearful and
universal judgment-seat of our Lord and Saviour. Thus also said
the other martyrs: Do what you will, for we are Christians, and do
not sacrifice to idols.

(5) Rusticus the prefect pronounced sentence, saying,
Let those who have refused to sacrifice to the gods and to yield
to the command of the emperor be scourged, and led
away to suffer the punishment of decapitation, according to the
laws. The holy martyrs having glorified God, and having gone forth
to the accustomed place, were beheaded, and perfected their testimony in
the confession of the Saviour. And some of the faithful having secretly
removed their bodies, laid them in a suitable place, the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ having wrought along with them, to whom be glory for
ever and ever. Amen.

Read it all