Furthermore…

Over and over I hear the people on the Catholic and Christian radio talk shows “unable to understand” how the folks promulgating the secular relativist point of view can be so uncomprehending of, and unresponsive to, arguments from Natural Law, the dignity and inviolability of all human life, or the desirability of monogamy.

Puh-lease, I want to scream, don’t you know politics when you bump into it? Forget the cogent arguments, forget right and wrong, forget the struggle for a thoughtful, well-tempered life. What’s going on is the exercise of CHOICE, not the narrow, abortion-yes kind of choice, but a wider, ”what is most politically productive?” kind of choice. Who are our friends and supporters, and what do they prefer in this connection? What choices best conform with the other, non-negotiable, positions already in place.

What’s goes is more like marketing than mentation, it’s making all the right moves, running a tight campaign, hewing to a party line, maintaining a relativistic consistency. There’s not much room for choice; prearranged choices are already in place.   

Saturday, July 14th.  

Entrance Song - Revelation 19:7

“Let us rejoice and shout for joy, because the Lord of all things has favored this holy and glorious virgin with His love.

Blessed Lily of the Mohawks, pray for us.

Circumstances find me listening, from time to time, to stuff called music, often described as ‘Christian,’ perhaps as ‘praise & worship.’ There’s very little of this that appeals to me, although I must admit that sometimes a particular voice, tune, or production quality penetrates my aural shield.

One thing I notice is a kind of childishness generously inserted - babyish singsong and whiny wailing, itsy-bitsy voices, and simplistic performances such as might come from five year olds. How come?

Speculation: the kids doing this  have watched their youth get corrupted and stolen from them by the culture of today, and are seizing on musical expression as a way of bringing some of the stolen playfulness and innocence back into their lives, both by listening and performing.

To my ears it may be rhythmic racket; to God it surely is , indeed, Praise & Worship.  That’s what counts.

The closest I came to being a father was the time our Catholic group at college was sitting around drinking coffee and one of the girls said, I can’t remember in what connection,  “I’d like to have a baby.”

I chickened out, but it seemed the perfect time to volunteer, with “I can help you with that…”

Unlike me, she was probably envisioning a scenerio with a rather elaborate set of intermediate steps.

Devil, leading tour group through Hell:

“This section is where we put the live-in boyfriends!”

Where does all the mediocrity originate? The Church is plagued with the ‘cafeteria Catholic’ phenomenon, the ‘live together’ phenomenon, the ‘Eucharist si, Reconciliation no’ phenomenon, all the other ‘lack of character’ phenomena. Each reader may insert a  selected personal petulent peeve.

Isn’t it obvious to everyone else? A few self-annointed ‘enlightened’ mediocrity mavens get together and assess the  desirability and acceptability of what it is that the Church teaches, and come up with a modified version of how the matter should be handled by down to earth, realistic, sensible people. We really must have The Pill.  Those Best Selling Books are not to be missed. It’s so clear and obvious. We have talked it over. ‘Everyone’ agrees. We mustn’t be over the top!

 It’s repeated here, there and everywhere.  They (the Church) proposes, We disposes.  

Woman ‘priest’ to guy making his ‘confession’ to her:

“How DARE you tell me that!!”

I once learned a handy acronym that helps to call to mind the several forms of prayer - ACTS - standing for Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving and Supplication. We learn many things, but this has proved to be a particularly outstanding mnemonic, repaying me over and over again for the small effort needed to make it my own.

Rumination last evening led me to come up with a new mnemonic which pleases me with its cuteness because it stands on its own - AWE -  as a worthy suggestion of how to relate to Almighty God, but also breaks down into three offerings that we owe, and can give to,  Holy God - Adoration, Worship, and … EVERYTHING!

A lingering quibble: what, if anything, distinguishes ‘adoration’ from ‘worship’.  Where are the angels when you need them…