The Sheepcat

I Think I've Found My Patron Saint

When I was preparing to be received into the Church a little more than three years ago, I was told I could select a Confirmation saint if I liked, though I didn't have to. I considered Maximilian Kolbe, but I was still pretty unsure about this Militia of the Immaculata business.

Now I discover that I share a birthday with Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York, who died on October 6, 1983. I knew that he had founded the Courage Apostolate. I see also that he was involved in Birthright.

Cardinal O'Connor named Fr Benedict Groeschel, CFR, as Postulator of the Cause of Canonization for Cardinal Cooke, who was designated Servant of God in 1992.

Prayer for the Canonization of Cardinal Cooke: Almighty and eternal Father, we thank you for the exemplary life and gentle kindness of your son and bishop, Terence Cooke. If it be your gracious will, grant that the virtues of your servant may be recognized and provide a lasting example for your people. We pray through Our Lord Jesus Christ your son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Beautiful Tribute to JPII

From Salt and Light TV.

Pray for us.

Day 8. Wadowice

After a very, very long hiatus, I'm taking the anniversary of John Paul II's death as a cue to get on with posting pictures from the rest of the central European pilgrimage from (gulp!) nearly two years ago. So here is the building in which Karol Wojtyła was born.

And next to it, the church where he was baptized.

We had a chance to pray in front of relics of his.

Totus tuus ("Totally yours").

I previously showed some of Wadowice's preparations for the visit Pope Benedict was then about to make.

Words cannot express my gratitude to John Paul II for his teaching and his example.

Servant of God John Paul the Great, pray for us.

Novena to JPII

A Notre Dame student named Chris is posting a series of prayers for the intercession of Pope John Paul II. The novena ends on April 2, the anniversary of his death. So far we've addressed him as Loyal Son of Mary, Father of the New Evangelization, Friend of Youth, and Intercessor for the Sick.

Paul Scofield, RIP

Paul Scofield, best known for portraying St Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons, has died of leukemia at 84. By all accounts Scofield was himself a kindly and humble man.

Here's the famous scene in which More advises his daughter's suitor, Roper, to give the devil benefit of law. Worth remembering in this era of the war on terror.

Link and clip idea thanks to Intentional Disciples.

Update: See Steven Greydanus's fine appreciation here.

Pelvic Obsessions about Cardinal Newman

The ever-intrepid reporters at 365gay.com (usual disclaimers about provocative content on the site) said yesterday, on the birthday of John Henry Cardinal Newman, "His greatest accomplishment was the Apologia pro Vita Sua which contains numerous homoerotic references."

Sadly shaking my head, I wrote to the friend who sent me the link, "Trust 365 to put such a spin on the significance of JHN's life." His reply:

I don't know about "significance," but it is their mandate to point out who in history was playing for the team, or at least suspected of doing so.

But c'mon. "Playing for the team"? Newman is this close to getting beatified by his beloved Catholic Church and in 1991 was declared Venerable, one condition of which is that he lived a life "heroic in virtue." Does anyone seriously think that a man for whom there was credible evidence of  homosexual activity after he became a Catholic priest would be found heroically virtuous by JP2's or B16's inquisitors during these the Second Dark Ages?

Face it, mate, Newman wasn't even cheering for the team from the sidelines. Here are Newman's voluminous works. Show us the gay pompoms. Without pulling a John Boswell.

The whole business of looking for who's playing on the gay team is a pathetic exercise in self-justification. (I know the game well, having played it myself until I got thoroughly bored with it, which happened long before I gave up on gay ideology as a whole.)

So is manipulating the state and the body politic into recognizing "gay marriage"--one shameful artifact of which is the breaking news, announced yesterday by the intrepid reporters at 365gay.com (say, isn't there usually an embargo on these things?) and now confirmed, that Brent Hawkes of Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto would be invested into the Order of Canada today.

It won't wash. We are not justified by the state's stamp of approval on our sexual practices. We are not justified by eminent persons' having felt or acted upon sexual desires similar to our own. We are justified by the Holy Sacrifice of Christ's Precious Blood.

Lord have mercy.

Praying to the Saints

Dear D____,
Thanks for your note. I'm glad we spoke, but I have to say my pleasure was mixed with quite a degree of frustration, in that you didn't really engage with the arguments for asking the saints to intercede on our behalf. Your subjective experience of not feeling a need for anything "extra" apparently trumps two millennia of Church teaching and practice.

Look, if a Jewish or Muslim friend of yours said, "I've got a relationship with the one true G_d, so what are you bringing in this trinity business for!" what would you say? You'd explain that yes, God is one, but to understand the fullness of God's nature we have to appreciate that at the same time God is also a Trinity. The Triune nature of God is not an extra; the doctrine is critically important as an aid to us in this life and a help towards eternal salvation. Would you be satisfied with your friend's "I don't feel the need for a trinity"? I think not.

Now, of course, the analogy is limited, in that knowing the Holy Trinity is much more important in itself than knowing the saints. But the latter is a tremendous aid to the former, as countless Catholics through the ages have attested.

You do recognize and respect these Catholics' Christian faith, I know, and yet in this situation at least, you refuse to follow their example. Tell me, please, where is the historical record of all the Christians in the first millennium and a half of the Church's existence who objected to the liturgical practice of praying to saints.

"Then [during the Eucharistic prayer] we make mention also of those who have already fallen asleep: first, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, that through their prayers and supplications God would receive our petition . . . " (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 23:9 [A.D. 350]).

When, before the sixteenth century, can we find interpretations of the Apostles' Creed's "communion of saints" in a Protestant sense that would have us stop asking for the prayers of these people with whom we're in communion as soon as they go to be with the Lord?

We know from Revelation 6:10 that the martyrs cry out to the Lord after their physical death. So, the saints in heaven do pray. We know from James 5:16 that the prayers of the righteous are powerful in their effects. Is it remotely plausible that the prayers of righteous people in heaven should be less effective than the prayers of righteous people on earth? It is not; the saints in heaven have been purified completely. It wouldn't be heaven if the people populating it were still tainted with unrighteousness. Cesare Baronio (1538–1607) put it this way in his prayer addressing St Philip Neri:

And now that the darkness of this world hinders no more those benignant eyes of thine from looking clearly into all things, look down and visit, O most diligent keeper, this vineyard which thy right hand planted with so much labour, anxiety, and peril [emphasis added].

Any taint of selfishness has been removed; the saints in heaven look at the world with pure desire that God's will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.

You compare praying to saints to talking to your in-laws all the time instead of to your husband. But if the occasion ever arose, a good in-law would advise you, "Dearie, it's been lovely to chat with you, but I really think you and ___ need some time on your own together." All the more so would the saints let you know if they thought you were paying attention to them to the detriment of your relationship with God, because the saints are totally devoted to God.

How would your husband feel if, though you continually insisted that his relatives were very nice people whom you greatly admired, you were always busy with something else when he went to his family reunions? If whenever you tried to reach him at his mother's, every single time she answered the phone, you immediately said, "Hi, is ___ there, please?" without pausing to greet her?

I understand that of course there are times when it's your husband you want to talk to, urgently, and really no one else will do, but if you never talked to your in-laws, he might get the impression you thought they weren't good enough for you.

Of course, D___, I don't for a minute imagine you consider the saints in heaven beneath you. No, I'm convinced your reason for not talking to the saints is that you're genuinely trying to protect and enhance your relationship with God by avoiding what you consider would be a distraction for you. But please, look at the evidence. You've come to appreciate what a blessing it is to look at the Cross through a mother's eyes. How would you have found that insight on your own without the help of Christians (of whatever tradition) who are devoted to the Blessed Virgin? Judge by the fruits. St Paul prays for the Ephesians that they "may be filled with all the [fullness] of God" (3:19). Is the tradition of prayer to saints part of the fullness or not?

I encourage you, as I have encouraged others, commit to reading the Magnificat every day for a month. Doing so is perfectly sound--it's Scripture!--and I know it brought immeasurable blessings in my own case.

If you approach Ephesians with an open mind, I think you'll start to see how devotions to saints dovetail neatly with worship of the Holy Trinity.

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come; and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the [fullness] of him who fills all in all. (1:15-23, RSV, emphases added)

(Yes, Christ is above every name that is named. Christ is above St Paul and St Jude and St Peter and the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the other saints. Of course, he's above them! He's God and they're not. They'll be the first to tell you.)

I understand your reluctance. I really do. I've been there.

But be not afraid.

Pax,
Alan

Preaching Without Words?

On yesterday's memorial day, Br Matthew of Intentional Disciples looked at the famous command attributed to St Francis: "Preach the Gospel at all times and, if necessary, use words." The first trouble, he points out, is that it's apocryphal. But there's more.

This reminds me of a remark I heard when I was attending a theologically liberal Mennonite church where charitable works were much in vogue. Our guest speaker, visiting from the Midwest, had cooperated with some Baptists on a relief project for a town a tornado had hit. And one of the Baptists had said, our speaker recalled, "You know, you Mennonites are fine people, but you don't preach what you practice."

Fr Dwight: The Steel Magnolia of Lisieux

An older article in Touchstone by (now Father) Dwight Longenecker recalls his visit to Lisieux as an Anglican rather suspicious of St Thérèse's reputation for being saccharine, and the spiritual treasures that opened up to him as a result.

With her simpering expression, clutching a bouquet of roses and a crucifix, Thérèse seemed one of the worst expressions of nineteenth-century Catholic kitsch. What stories I heard about her life didn’t help. She was “God’s little girl”—a kind of Catholic Emily Dickinson who fed Roman Catholics’ unfortunate taste for greeting card Christianity.
...
It is true that Thérèse is called the “Little Flower,” but if she is a flower, then she is a steel magnolia. Under that sentimental language and kitschy image I discovered the story of an amazing individual, a Christian soul who was tough as well as tender. If she clutched roses, those roses definitely had thorns. I was not won over to her completely, but my reading and exploration were enough to make me want to learn more.
...
In time she stands as a bridge between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. As a child she speaks prophetically to the grown-up sin and cynicism of our age. As a Catholic, without even knowing it, she embraces all that is good in Protestantism. As a prophetic soul she points forward to a new Christian unity in which all Christians may proclaim together the simple gospel, that we are called to be little children—sons and daughters of the King who are destined to live in his courts forever.

Korean Martyrs

Today on the Feast of the 103 Korean Martyrs, read the powerful story of the founding of the Church in Korea. The role of lay people is notable.

Link via Sherry Weddell (Intentional Disciples). Holy martyrs of Korea, pray for us!