Old World Swine

God Invented Weekends

I love being a Catholic. The photo above was not set up at all... just a collection of stuff that happened to be there this morning: my favorite pipe, some smoking paraphernalia, prayer book, Rosary and G.K. Chesterton coffee mug. Later tonight, I suppose I should take another photo, only there will likely be a glass of wine instead of the coffee.

There are hedges that need trimming, and half a hundred small chores that cry for attention, but The Boss jovially insisted I take the whole day off and drop by His House later to see him.

Sunday is also a great day to read all the poems Pavel Chichikov has sent through the week. Like a good meal, it takes a little leisure to give them proper attention.

Today (Sunday, July 11) is also day four of the Belloc Novena.

(cross posted at The League of Bearded Catholics)

Some Great Quotes

GKC On Education;

"State education is simply Conscription applied to culture, or to the destruction of culture."

"No man is educated until he is emancipated from education."

and on Health Care Reform;

"...The world has suffered quite as much from its recent reforms as from its ancient abuses."

These quotes were all taken from one brief article by Chesterton, reprinted in the July/August issue of Gilbert, the magazine of the American Chesterton Society. I don't give enough praise to this publication, especially considering how much I enjoy reading every issue several times over. I could blog about every article they print, but it would take too much time away from more mundane and urgent business. I still hope to do a post on Chesterton and the Modern Art Movement, the beginnings of which he saw firsthand.

This next is a poem that was part of last night's readings from the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary;

What joy,
what happiness there is in heaven!

The shoot from the root of Jesse,
sown so long ago
in the time of the patriarchs,
has today sprung up and begun to grow.

It will bear a Flower
which is destined to heal the world,
a Flower whose scent revives the dead,
whose taste heals the sick,
and whose beauty delights the angels -
a white and red Flower
which angels long to see.

St, Thomas of Villanova (1487-1555)

To Renew The Image of Adam Grown Old

From the Wednesday evening prayer of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary;

"...Therefore he came down, in a manner he knows,
he stirred and came in a way that pleased him,
he entered and dwelt in her without her perceiving,
she received him, suffering nothing.
He was in her womb like a babe,
yet the whole world was full of him.
Of his love he came down to renew
the image of Adam grown old."

- Saint Ephrem (c. 306-373)

It reminds me a bit of this;

"Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."

- G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Christmas Trees Unsafe - Faith Inconvenient

I link THIS STORY (Reuters) - about the removal of Christmas trees due to the risk of fire - only because it reminded me of an incident that took place when I was a newly minted Catholic and Parish Council member.

During one council meeting I noted that some parishioners had asked me to ask if we couldn't have some votive candles in the church. The priest made some remarks about the fire hazard, and said he wasn't sure about insurance and liability, and stuff. He suggested electric candles. The meeting moved on, as I silently resolved not to press the issue lest we actually wind up with prayer candles that turned on and off and reminded me of a tacky chandelier at my aunt's house.

Father then read a letter from our Bishop, directing all parishes to begin working toward perpetual Eucharistic Adoration as soon as possible.

If there is a word the opposite of "enthusiasm", it was written all over our priest's face. Once again, he noted all the problems that would have to be overcome... security, scheduling... well, that was about it, but the upshot was that it was going to be a pain in the tush and the Bishop's letter was going to be ignored. That was it.

I must have made some sort of grunt of perplexitude, because I remember Father explaining to me again what a  gigantic logistical headache perpetual Adoration would be, and ending with the clincher that "This parish is just not that devotionally-minded".

Had I been older, and a more grizzled and seasoned Catholic, I might have asked the question that popped into my head, "...and you are okay with that? As the spiritual father of the parish, the complete lack of interest in classic Catholic devotions doesn't bother you just a teensy bit?". I guess I didn't ask because I knew the answer.

This also got me to thinking about another question that has bothered me from time to time, about why we don't hear from the ambo more encouragement for Catholics to make use of the sacrament of Confession. It seems like it is always scheduled at dawn-thirty on Saturday mornings, and I can count on one hand the number of times I have heard even the mildest endorsement of it in a homily. Forgive me if I have entertained the idea that some priests might not push Confession because they really don't want to make more work for themselves.

It must be a dreary job, in a sense, listening to the same old sins week in and week out, and some that must grieve any sensible person. There is no one else in the parish who can do it. My Dad was a cop for a number of years, and I think the constant exposure to the underbelly of the human family took its toll on him over the years, though he never talked about it. Cops are basically the guys who follow after the parade with a shovel.

I would like to have some input from priests or others who might be able to answer the question. Are some priests, perhaps, partly motivated to keep mum on the dearth of confessing Catholics by a desire not to further clutter their already busy schedules? Just asking.

Legalism and Catholic Devotions

In response to some combox remarks on legalism, reader Esau writes;

What legalism are you... referring to exactly?

If it is referring to the practices that the Church encourages, such as the Divine Office and such, these are not mandatory but rather devotional practices the Church encourages.

Not at all, Esau. By legalism, in this context, I mean the tendency for the individual to look at their devotional practices as personal accomplishments or marks of holiness, while looking on others with some level of dismissal or condescension.

The same thing can be observed in relation to any spiritual discipline or devotion. Daily Mass, tithing, praying in tongues.. you name it.  The focus turns away from God and on to the behavior. The Pharisees acted this way in regard to keeping all the finer points of the Jewish ceremonial law. I'm sure there were many in Israel at the time who kept the law in a way both holy and humble, they just didn't feel the need to go on about it. It's not the form of the behavior, but the attitude of the individual that makes any practice "legalistic" in this sense. It's a matter of pridefulness being attached to religious actions, and it has to be guarded against. This is - I think - what TAE was driving at - making comparisons with others.

I certainly don't regard the Holy Office as "legalistic", though it - like anything - can be approached in a legalistic way. Some Christians might perceive things like the Liturgy of the Hours as legalistic in another sense, simply because it is so highly structured. In other words, it has a more or less strict format that allows for no ad-libbing. As a Protestant, I heard similar remarks about the Lord's Prayer or the Rosary (though with the Rosary the  bugaboo was usually idolatry rather than legalism). This strikes me as uniquely derived from the American phenomenon of individualism, the ideal being each "worshiping God in his own way".

The thing is, many, many people find great spiritual benefit in praying in this very structured way. It works for them. Spontaneous prayer is great, too, but it also can be very repetitive... the same phrases and sentiments being tweaked a bit and rearranged this way or that. The big trick with praying, no matter how you go about it, is to mean what you say.

There is a third definition of legalism that springs to mind that has less to do with spiritual pride and more to do with what is required of the individual in order to be saved. It shakes out, to me, like this; Every branch of Christianity has some kind of formula in mind along the lines of "You must do 'x' to be saved". Those forms of Christianity that require less than your formula are peddling wishy-washy universalism, while those that require more represent iron-fisted legalism. The Catholic Church is often accused of both, sometimes by the same people. In this I find a strange comfort, as it aligns well with what Chesterton observed about the Christian faith always being the target of comically contradictory complaints;

"...if Christianity was, as these people said, a thing purely pessimistic and opposed to life, then I was quite prepared to blow up St. Paul's Cathedral. But the extraordinary thing is this. They did prove to me in Chapter I. (to my complete satisfaction) that Christianity was too pessimistic; and then, in Chapter II., they began to prove to me that it was a great deal too optimistic. One accusation against Christianity was that it prevented men, by morbid tears and terrors, from seeking joy and liberty in the bosom of Nature. But another accusation was that it comforted men with a fictitious providence, and put them in a pink-and-white nursery. One great agnostic asked why Nature was not beautiful enough, and why it was hard to be free. Another great agnostic objected that Christian optimism, "the garment of make-believe woven by pious hands," hid from us the fact that Nature was ugly, and that it was impossible to be free. One rationalist had hardly done calling Christianity a nightmare before another began to call it a fool's paradise."

Driven to Pray

I'm not a morning person. I'm really not. Waking up for me most days is something like coming out of anesthesia after surgery. This has sometimes made me feel like a slacker when I hear others talking about how they are up at 4:00 am every day for prayer, Bible reading and a brisk walk, while I am drooling into my pillow.

I have tried doing my personal prayer time first thing in the morning as soon as my feet hit the floor, but the main feature of the exercise turned out to be simply the fight to keep my eyelids from dropping. It was a constant, very physical struggle against sleep. So, eventually I quit worrying about praying like other people and started to look for ways I could pray when I was actually fully conscious.

One way that I have done this is to pray in the car. Normally, I spend a couple of hours a day driving, and instead of listening to a CD or the radio (the stone-age kind... just AM and FM, so choices are limited), I'll sometimes pray, usually the Rosary. Of course, traffic doesn't always cooperate, and I am often interrupted. I don't know if it's Christmas shopping traffic or what, but the freeway has been more of a white-knuckle experience, lately. It's also kind of spiritually deflating to hear yourself say "...Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in - WHAT ARE YOU DOING??!! MERGE!! I'M TRYING TO LET YOU IN!!!!" (this really happened). Talk about heading back to the old spiritual drawing board...

Lately I have been doing my private prayer mostly at night, when everyone else has gone to bed. I still make some brief prayers through the day, including a morning offering, but for more considered meditation, I'm finding the late evening works well for me. As a family man, it also has a very fitting Watchman on the Walls sort of feel to it. This schedule means that instead of catching a late night classic movie - by myself - (which I love), I have to turn off the Idiot Box. I'm thinking this can't help but make me more human while also increasing IQ points. A double whammy of sanity.

The point, of course, is that there is no BEST time to pray. What works for some may not work for you. The goal should always be to move closer and closer to praying continually, and through this to move closer and closer to Christ.

What works for you?