This is getting viral. Which is good. First, Fr. James Martin tweets 23,000+ followers a link to the Advocate, a  vulgar magazine that celebrates the gay lifestyle. Then it is picked up by a popular blog, “The Deacon’s Bench“. Then it made the Huffington Post.

Professor Ed Peters is not some bumpkin canon lawyer.  Not only is he a seminary professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, he is a consultant to the Apostolic Signatory; one of the few laymen so appointed. He is also the father of six. The kindest thing he about Fr. Salmon’s letter is this:

Catholics who were mercifully spared the “Church of the 70’s” might find illuminating Salmon’s letter; it’s vintage what so many of us were force-fed for ten dark years: condescending, platitudinistic, partial quotes of Church  documents used to justify the exact opposite of what the Church wants her members to know about Christ and his Gospel.

See the rest of Dr. Peter’s analysis of Dr. Peter here.

Vatican Insider does the heavy lifting. It is a well done interactive piece.

On a personal note, I have been rather silent of late because of a sad reason.

My family and I re-located to CNY to care for my aging father in law Bob in 2006. At that time, we thought this would be a 6 to 9 month move-in. However, the Lord had a better plan in mind and now approaching seven years in CNY the passing of Bob is in reasonable sight.  My father in law, Bob is a retired grammar school teacher and has suffered the withering effects of Parkinson’s Disease for an astonishing 30+ years. He has quite literally died by the millimeter. The pace of the progression is astonishingly slow. Nonetheless, his suffering is beginning to conclude, in the predictable manner. Hospice is in place and it has been day to day for about a month. Needless to say, this has properly demanded 100% of my attention.

If in your charity, you could remember Bob in your Lenten prayers and sacrifices, it would be appreciated. At the moment, Bob is comfortable, conscious at a few precious times, and all is very serene and peaceful. For this, I am very grateful.  We have not yet had to resort to narcotic sedation for pain and anxiety control.

It is much, much easier to write about the Gospel of Life than it is to live it. But the graces of God remain limitless and are never in short supply so that it may be lived with vigor despite the inadequacies and weaknesses of our human nature.

“Nothing in my own background or education equipped me to deal with this grave problem. In two years [1962—1964] spent in graduate school earning a Master’s Degree in Social Work, no textbook and no lecture ever referred to the sexual abuse of children.”

Cab drivers and construction workers have a better developed sense of human morality. Even way back it the 1980’s you could have asked any blue collar Joe or Jane and received a crystal clear course of action for men who rape and sodomize children.

Just imagine walking up to a union steel worker and asking the question “I have an employee that is raping little boys at work. What do you think I should do with him? Should I transfer him to New Mexico or should I have him assist people trying to get married a second time? Maybe he can lead Bible Studies or something? What do you think? I am also trying to keep him away from the law, because you know raping boys is illegal. I know he did it and if the D.A. gets wind of it, he will be arrested.”  While the actual response my not be totally consistent with the Catechism, the general direction will be accurate, timely and cogent. It would not be:

“Sounds Good- Please Proceed. Thanks!”

This is all about Confession and the Forgiveness of Sin.

You know, Confession, Penance, Reconciliation – the Sacrament Christ established on Easter Sunday night? Yeah that one. It’s not just for 2nd graders, you know. It is my experience, both here and in Atlanta that most adults have visited this Sacrament maybe once every 10 years – or less. Confession is a major step in the solution to this scandal. Because we, the Church, the people of God, from the very top to the very bottom are yet to –

Examine – Confess – Absolve – Restore.

Until one fearlessly examines their actions and articulates their sins by kind and number, absolution is not possible. Now over a decade after the long Lent of 2002, this simple catechetical truth is once again proved in spades. We remain enmeshed in the sins of the father(s) because the Church is YET to examine herself fearlessly, articulate her sins by kind and number do penance and make restitution.

Open every file and auction off everything until the last kid is rehabilitated as best as possible. How long, Oh Lord, How Long!

Until we do this, “Document Dumps” and “File-gates” will continue FOR THE REST OF OUR AND OUR CHILDREN’S LIVES. The address will change but the content will not.

Examine – Confess – Absolve – Restore.

The famous “Dallas Charter” is a dismal failure because it offered a correction without identifying the root cause. The Bishops deliberately decided to not examine their own failures, their own biases and their own lack of  fatherly concern for sodomized little boys – corrupted and spiritually distorted for life. Accordingly, the correction (if yo can call it that) was not implemented, understood and integrated.

Exhibit A is the sad story of Bishop Finn and the near (if not actual) destruction of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Examine – Confess – Absolve – Restore.

If I told anyone that 10 years after “Dallas” that priestly pederasts and evidence of conspiracy to protect pederasts and evade justice would be found in the very handwriting of a sitting Cardinal, I would be painted a fool. Maybe now, with the installation of Bishops who are not party to the scandal(s) both known and unknown, can we muck out the Augean stable that the American Catholic Church has become.  When will the stench of priestly sodomy and conspiracy to protect pederasts be great enough for action? Can it actually stink worse than it does now? There will be no absolution, no healing, no redemption until we from vertex to base –

Examine – Confess – Absolve – Restore.

I hate writing about abortion. But here goes…

Yesterday marked the 40^th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision, Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion throughout the nine months of pregnancy.  Abortion in New York was legal well before “Roe” and the generational fruits of this malignant decision are manifesting.

In the State that hosts the “city that never sleeps”, produces sports dynasties, and possesses arguably the most educated and diverse population in the nation, 4 out of 10 pregnancies end with an abortion. For blacks, 6 out of 10 of lives conceived end in an abortion facility.

The data shocks the intellect and breaks the heart.

• In 2009, for every 1000 black babies born, 1500 were aborted.
• Since 1970 4.3 million New York pregnancies ended with abortion.
• Over the last 10 years, for every person who moves to or is born in New York, we aborted three.

The 2010 census data is in and we lost two congressional seats knocking our Congressional representation back to World War II levels. Gone are two voices that can advocate for us federal funding, projects and assistance.

Our meager 2% increase in population, is well below the level to support entitlements to the elderly and governmental retirees.  The generation that stood by while 4.3 million abortions occurred unwittingly aborted their own retirement pensions and their own elder care. The loss of children at this numerical level is unprecedented and no one saw this train wreck coming.  We like to think of abortion as personal, but in reality, it is cultural. Our failure to value the babies of the 1970 – 1990 eras will result in our inability to care for our seniors going forward. The wage earners and the care givers are simply not here.

This is what happens when you eradicate 4.3 million persons in one State.

The abortion culture has produced a dark intellect, a weak will and an enslaved sexual viewpoint based on a fear of fertility, the elevation of the pill and rubbers to rites of passage, and decades of unprecedented licentiousness – all of which leads directly to abortion. This cultural mind set is a dismal failure.

We New Yorkers pride ourselves on our sophistication, our cutting-edge progressiveness, our cultural diversity, our vaulted educational system and our championship teams. The Empire State takes so much pride in being the giants, that we even named a football team after ourselves – the Giants.

But if you believe that, you are reading yesterday’s news.

What good is our purportedly sophisticated and progressive culture, our diversity, our schools and our teams when for every person we increase in population, we abort three? How dare we claim diversity when we abort 40 to 60% of the Hispanic and Black pregnancies? If we, supposedly the most educated population in history, do not note with horror and shame this vile circumstance, acknowledge its meaning, and search to correct the error, then what did our education and culture avail us at all?

We are a proudly pro-choice state – one of the first – and we have made our choice.  We chose, however unintended, to abort ourselves first into a creeping irrelevancy – where we are now – and later into abandonment where in the autumn and winter of life we will experience the loss of public retirement funds and elder services. The great shock will occur not when the retirements are cut by half, but when the survivors of this carnage determine that we are no more than an inconvenient mass of tissue.

Then choice will come full circle.

Well, not really, but once again the cliché comes forward. Today, we are all Passion City Evangelicals. The outing and ousting of Pastor Louie from the Presidential Inauguration makes one thing clear – There is a new State Religion and it is called “None of the Above” – and this religion has an Army, a Judiciary and its own media.

I respect and admire the works of Pastor Louie Giglio of Atlanta.  It was a great coup for a him to pray at the inauguration and he has a rockin’ and active parish in Atlanta – one that we can learn much from an evangelistic standpoint.

Pastor Louie committed the only sin in the Church of “None of the Above” – he said that homosexual behavior is a sin that prevents you from entering heaven.  Being an Evangelical Christian pastor, knowledgeable of Scripture, this is an expected conclusion.  But once this sermon – from the 1990’s was made public, Pastor Louie was outed and ousted.

For the first time in history, no minister will give the inaugural invocation because the State Church – the Church of None of the Above does not have any ministers, reverends, pastors or Fathers. When it is impossible for one who upholds the universal religious view of non-marital and same –sexual behaviors to pray at a public event, we now have a de facto established state church – The “Church of None of the Above”.

The statement Giglio made that got him the boot was nearly a direct quotation from Scripture. Unrepentant homosexuals, Giglio said “will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

As they say in New Orleans – “true dat”.

Every Christian faith holds (1) all are sinners (2) all non-marital sexual acts are sinful (3) no sinner can enter the Kingdom without repentance.  Pastor Louie, once preached this in the context of homosexual acts; branding him a heretic  or untouchable of sorts in our state church.

The “Church of None of the Above” specifically excludes all conduct standards, including the natural law standards of sexual morality so this church excludes the sexual teachings of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Adherents of those sects are tolerated as long as they shut up about sexual issues.

We have seen this before, Church.

At the dawn of America, some states issued preaching licenses to Anglican and congregational churches in an effort to exclude Baptists. Most states oppressed Catholicism except two – Rhode Island and Maryland. The First Amendment corrected this but our new state church requires a “preaching license” of sorts – the embracing as a good any form of consensual sexual expression in any context and places in a ghetto the rest.

As citizens, we ought to insist that the President encourage a healthy pluralism in the public square. The problem is not that Pastor Louie wants to “impose his religion”.  Nor does Pastor Louie want to exclude homosexuals from the public square or deny them their civil rights. The problem is that Pastor Louie says that sexual sinners cannot go to heaven without repentance. Making Pastor Louie’s exclusion the result of a religious test – and this is contrary to the ideals this nation was founded on.

This is why, events like the Festival for Freedom, requested by the USCCB and so well executed here in our Diocese are necessary.

The Church of None of the Above has been established by the State as a doctrine-free and leaderless religion armed with popular support and, in the fullness of time, state power to tax and jail with impunity.

Listen Church, our old understanding of church/state cooperative relations is toast. Don’t think so? The Roman Catholic Governor of New York brought his concubine to his inaugural Mass and sat in the front row. That is how irrelevant Catholicism is in the public square. First you are irrelevant, then you are isolated (see Pastor Louie above), then mocked, then licensed/taxed or regulated to the curb. Finally there is outright persecution because no one is obligated to hire a Christian bigot, 501(c )3 status goes only to those who serve the “public good” and that leads to outright schism because we all know there are those who will prostitute the Truth for “mission”.

Remember this Church – There is nothing more offensive in America today than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Nothing. More. Offensive.

Support the Festival for Freedom. A Christian has a right to a place in the square.

This week’s TIME magazine cover story announces that, forty years after Roe, the pro-life side is winning the abortion debate. Orwell’s Ministry of Truth must be running TIME because I am calling Bull!

For certain, there have been regulatory achievements for the protection of pregnant women and their preborn child.  They correctly report that Generation Y and beyond more willingly identify themselves as “Pro-Life” – which as is a good. There is no doubt that the countless announcements of pregnancy via social media using a clear ultrasound image to introduce the newest member of the family  make it harder to maintain the fallacy that the newest addition to the family is a clump of cells.

Whenever the beleaguered and ever persistent (because they are absolutely correct) Pro-Life Christian sees something like this a bit of triumphalism enters the mind because after four decades of marching in the coldest weather, praying outdoors in every season, being jailed, disparaged, arrested, sued and misunderstood; even the secular magazine TIME reports “We (Pro-Life) are winning!!!” and we have a community fist pump and high fives for everyone. The battle is so long…

WE ARE NOT WINNING. Sorry to ruin your happy dance.

On the positive side –

•  The mere fact that the leaderless Pro-Life Movement even exists 40 years post-Roe is evidence of the involvement of the Holy Spirit (which means we will ultimately triumph). Indeed, there is no controversy 40 years after Brown integrated schools. Nor is woman’s suffrage even a passing thought following four decades after the 19^th amendment.

Not so with Roe and her ugly cousin Doe. They will never be accepted because they are contrary to nature and an affront to nature’s God. The most primitive peoples from the dawn of time respect life, hold sacred the mystery of reproduction and revere motherhood. It is far from Judeo-Christian theology imposing itself on society when we say that wrenching a child from the womb is barbaric. This is not so much an informed by faith decision as it is a sustained by faith activism.

• Forty years after Roe, Pro-Life is as vigorous as ever –  well funded, politically savvy with tactically inclined and out of the box thinking activist leaders plus well tenured religious leaders; none of whom showing any sign of weakness or decay. Some are multi-million dollar enterprises. The Spirit, if anything, is persistent.

• The vast majority of medical professionals, despite being largely pro-choice themselves, tend not to participate in abortion and distance themselves from the abortion industry. Abortionists generally are not to be part of the social medical cliques, lead medical societies or become chief of staff at hospitals. Indeed, the abortion industry is populated by physician misfits capable of little else.

• There have been solid regulatory strides in clinic licensing, zoning, health codes, etc that make the $500 price point of abortion unprofitable. Abortions over $500 seem to be an economic tipping point.

The Bad News –

The large numbers of self-identified pro-life young people demonstrates to me how securely ingrained the abortion rights culture is in The U.S.

 Hear me out.

First, in 1973 the right to abortion was total and complete. Abortion cannot expand except to include under abortion the already born. Accordingly, the “right” to abortion can only contract or stay the same. Expansion is not a possibility it started at 100%.

For Generation Y and beyond to self-identify as “pro-life” when there is nothing personally at stake implies little. From before their conception, unrestricted legal abortion has been securely anchored in American law and American families.

Follow me here – after the rise of the Moral Majority, Jerry Falwell and the awakening of Evangelical Christianity, following the two terms of Reagan and three terms of Bushes; with Catholics holding a majority in Congress and on the Supreme Court; with four of the five highest offices in the land held by Catholics and nearly 20 years after Evangelium Vitae; abortion marches on at a consistent rate of over one million per year. With this paralyzed body politic, it is easy for the younger generations to view abortion more as a philosophical theory of culture than a matter of public policy.

Abortion as a public policy is set and in minimal to no danger.

On the public policy front, there are tons of window dressing “pro-life” politicians who regularly cast meaningless votes. Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer and former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus, were reliably pro-life, until they were presented with legislation actually restricting abortion. Then there are Bart Stupak, Ben Nelson, Dale Kildee, Jim Oberstarand and most recently Bobby Jindal come to mind as fair weather pro-lifers; developing a more “nuanced” position when the screws get tight.

The Pro-Choice movement is the master of tightening screws; just ask the Komen Foundation – crushed by an entity 1/10^th its size.

Individually over a decade ago, Frederica Mathewes-Green quoting the pro-choice Kate Michelman  said that Americans oppose abortion in all cases except three – “rape, incest and my situation”and she is correct. When an unplanned pregnancy arrives a heartless pragmatism takes hold over a million times a year – most often at the grandparent’s insistence.

Blessed John Paul II almost 20 years ago in Evangelium Vitae observed the following that is unchanged today:

…it is no less true that we are confronted by an even larger reality, which can be described as a veritable structure of sin. This reality is characterized by the emergence of a culture which denies solidarity and in many cases takes the form of a veritable ‘culture of death.’ This culture is actively fostered by powerful cultural, economic and political currents which encourage an idea of society excessively concerned with efficiency. Looking at the situation from this point of view, it is possible to speak in a certain sense of a war of the powerful against the weak: a life which would require greater acceptance, love and care is considered useless, or held to be an intolerable burden, and is therefore rejected in one way or another.                                        Evangelium Vitae 12

Am pessimistic about the future of the pro-life movement?

No, because in the end goodness will triumph.

We are not at all near the end.

We can never forget that abortion is a cultural sin and the abortion rights culture is deeply ingrained in American culture. Accordingly, more restrictions, ultrasound machines and Supreme Court decisions will not change the culture although all are necessary bricks in our wall between goodness and murder. Until children are seen as a gift and not a cross, until pregnancy is once again understood as the expected end of the sexual encounter and not some shocking side effect, and until we accept that there can be no “right” to an abortion; the culture of death will march on impeded here or there for a while but still solidly entrenched and in play.

The Pro-Life Movement will ultimately triumph because the Pro-Choice Movement is so incredibly wrong. It has no legs other than the relativistic “because I want to” mode of reasoning. From a biologic, philosophical, medical and natural perspective, one can only conclude that abortion is the unjust taking of a life. There is little theology to it. Yet theology is the most important component because only Christ can pick up the pieces of a million shattered motherhoods times a million shattered fatherhoods times a million lives whose substance is known only to him. All that times 40! And Christ, through his Church will do this until he comes again.

Despite the cover of TIME, I remain unmoved and untriumphant. I view this like a news brief from Orwell’s Ministry of Truth – a head fake in the battle for life on the eve of our largest gathering.  The fight for life remains on countless fronts – and while we have enjoyed some hard fought successes we can never forget the underlying sentiments of most of society (the three societal exceptions to abortion) are hardened and hard-wired.

All the regulations in the world will not change the hardened human heart or create a civilization of justice, peace and love.

The good Bishop Paprocki of Springfield has weighed in on the proposed Illinois legalization of same-sex marriage. Known as the “Holy Goalie” in that he is an avid amateur hockey player; the good Bishop is one solid fellow and both a civil and canon lawyer. The letter to his flock is here. He is a vocal shepherd that understands that the crozier both gathers the lamb and beats the wolves.

A taste –

Our state’s elected lawmakers will soon consider a bill called “The Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.” A more fraudulent title for this dangerous measure could not be imagined. The proposed law is, in truth, a grave assault upon both religious liberty and marriage. All people of goodwill, and especially Christ’s faithful committed to my pastoral care in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, should resolutely oppose this bill and make their opinions known to their representatives.

I spent the last 30 years in Atlanta, returning to CNY to care for aging parents. Over the last 20 years the Atlanta Church has grown by leaps and bounds. Today, Msgr Tally will become the 2nd Auxiliary Bishop of Atlanta. Rocco has the details here. It is well worth the read.

I attribute this to the following:

• Sound liturgical discipline. Priests, Deacons and the laity all fulfilling their roles with vigor.
• An annual Eucharistic Congress that is the Friday and Saturday of Corpus Christi weekend that serves both a catechetical and evangelical need to adults, teens, children, Hispanics, Vietnamese and Deaf. During this event, every priest is available for Sacramental Confession and Confession is continuously heard. 30,000+ Catholic come for the sacraments and formation.
• The open-armed welcome to every recognized Catholic movement.
• An aggressive and effective Pro-Life office.
• Eucharistic Adoration widely available and aggressively promoted.
• Door to door Evangelization something we picked up from the Baptists; Baptist converts that is…
• Over 2000 enter via RCIA.
• Aggressive Hispanic outreach, sensitive to their particular needs and understanding that Guatemalans, Mexicans, Colombians and Cubans share only a common language they are not equivalent culturally.
• Sound priestly formation from top tier seminaries. Bilingual priests is the norm. Latin in the liturgy is common.
• A parish completely devoted to the extraordinary form.
• Pro-Life March led by the Bishop. Down Peachtree Street.
• Rosary March down Peachtree on the Immaculate Conception.
• Catholic Charities & St. VdP are million dollar plus enterprises.
• ZERO sexual abuse, ever. The one priest who stepped out of line was immediately arrested (in the 1990’s) jailed and later deported.
• Solid bishop(s) who are visible and involved. Homilies on contraception, abortion, divorce and other sentinel issues of our time are offered routinely.
• NFP training is required for all candidates for marriage – even if you are beyond the childbearing years, or have a Protestant spouse.

We can expect the same here, in 20 years. The template is already written and there are a dozen flights per day to Atlanta. Atlanta in the late 1980’s was 15% Catholic.  This will take some doing. Some vertex to base renewal and reform. Some liturgical and sacramental reform and it may even take inviting some outside religious order priests to assist.

The renewal will begin on our knees.

New Year’s Eve I was mostly alone flipping channels to watch the ball drop in Times Square. I started with Fox News and they were playing the stupid anthem of secular humanism “Imagine”. I suppose it was blaring through Times Square at the time. “Imagine there is no Heaven…and no religion too…” Lennon’s nihilistic ‘Imagine’ is indeed the anthem of our time, and that’s a problem.

So I scratched Fox.

I defaulted to the late (and great) Dick Clark’s ‘New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” thinking that maybe I could just hang with some contemporary music. Fox doubled down after “Imagine” with Pat Benatar  crooning the two decade old “Love is a Battlefield” – nothing says “Happy New Year” like a runway teen dancing in a seedy club. Not really New Year’s Eve musical fare.

I flipped to the  “Rockin’ Eve party was co-hosted by former Playboy Playmate Jenny McCarthy; who lacking any other marketable ability; repeatedly threatened to make out with random people.  Awesome. The forty something playmate closed the deal by simulating fornication with a Justin Bieber life size cut out. For those that do not follow pop culture, Bieber is less than half her age.

At this point I just wanted a shower and silently thanked God that my wife and children were off to see the Seneca Falls Ball drop locally AND my 75 year old evangelical Mother in Law was snoring quietly in her lounge chair; well past her normal bed time.

As a last resort, I went to CNN “the most trusted name in news”  to see the ball drop in Times Square with a touch of dignity.  Surely CNN would cover this perennial news event handily. Come on, it is just a ball drop at midnight.

CNN was hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin. Cooper is a pretty solid fellow in my estimation. He seems serious and largely fair. He is also same sex attracted but this aspect of his life is not really apparent to me in his role on CNN. I did not know anything about Griffin at all but she seemed loud and obnoxious.  What happened just before and after the ball dropped is really not fit to be repeated here. It was a new low, an all time low in journalism and I would immediately fire Griffin and suspend Cooper (who was victimized but still should have pushed her away and walked off).

No link to CNN will be provided – the actions were beyond the pale and unconscionable for persons of any dignity.

I turned back to Fox just in time to see Mayor Bloomberg with his face covered with the  “lip prints” of the Rockettes who helped him drop the ball. Never knew him to be such a babe magnet.

What a night.

We are entering a very dangerous cultural era because it is impossible for a democratic republic  to survive without God and His Church. The time is ripe for the New Evangelization; I doubt that many were offended by the coverage of New Year’s Eve. There is no offense because there are no standards. Forty year old strippers (who apparently are yet to change their stripes) are granted prime spots on national TV.  Two pubic acts of fornication stand without shame or correction.

God have mercy on us. Our standards are “whatever” and slipping fast. Maybe I should just go to bed earlier.

A favorite of mine, Francis Cardinal George, who famously said “I expect to die in my bed, my successor to die in prison and his successor to die in the square”; offers a very approachable catechesis on Same Sex Marriage as it’s legality is being debated in Illinois. Of course, the Cardinal is spot-on.

Some religious people have framed their acceptance of this proposed law as an exemplification of compassion, justice and inclusion.  As attitudes, these sentiments have been used to justify everything from eugenics to euthanasia.  If religion is to be more than sentiment, the moral content of these words has to be filled in from the truths of what human reason understands and God has revealed.  Same-sex unions are incompatible with the teaching that has kept the Church united to her Lord for two thousand years.

The latest tour de force on this topic – a topic particular to our era, is here. May God Bless and Protect the Cardinal, who proclaims Truth in season and out and is not effected by the desire of human respect; the  guillotine of saints.

In Summit, NJ there is a convent of Dominican Nuns who make, of all things, soap. See http://nunsopsummit.org/ . They are a delightful group of nuns, and if you are so inclined, go buy some handcrafted soap from them.

This Christmas, the oldest nun was invited to offer a reflection and here you see decades of wisdom and meditation distilled into a handful of words:

Dear Sisters,

How can our Lord be dwelling among us when we witness evil all around us?  Our Holy Father has proclaimed this a Year of Faith as we celebrate 50 years since Vatican II.

These have been years of confusion and misunderstanding within the Church and throughout the world.  We have endured periodic new translations of Scripture.  Much time has been spent discussing the meaning of words.

The Word was made flesh and came among us, but the world has failed to welcome Him.  He allows us to do our own will.  Until we can say – the Word became flesh and dwells within us, He will not be among us.

The world is sick and suffering.  Some are trying to bring peace through violence.  Others expect to restore order through the economy – all without God’s help.

The rulers of nations are powerless.  It is we who must restore peace by living the vows we profess and thereby winning the grace for all peoples to profess and strengthen their faith and welcome the Word to dwell among us.

Merry Christmas,

Sister Mary Daniel of God, OP

For those inclined to think monastics, living behind a wall are out of touch with society, this indeed is quite a refutation.

The Davidic line waited so long for fulfillment. Through his mother, he has our DNA.  Christ is near, not far and even if it takes thousands of years, God keeps his promises.

O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples;

before you kings will shut their mouths,

to you the nations will make their prayer:

Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

Soon Pilate will experience  a scourged man in chains who will shut his mouth when the one who is Veritas replies with silence to Quid est veritas?

He who is coming was the only person who was born to die – for us.  The outstretched arms of Moses parted the Red Sea and strengthened the Army of Joshua in the fight. May the outstretched arms of the cross give us courage to stand fast for the perils of our day – threats to life, family & marriage.

O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,

who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush

and gave him the law on Sinai:

Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

To love the law is to love author of law who is  the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and will walk among us anew soon.

Today at Vespers, the O antiphons begin. This signals the sunset of Advent and the final cries of creation for the arrival of her Maker.

O Wisdom,
O holy Word of God,
you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care.
Come and show your people the way to salvation….

We the Church militant, after the sadness of the past days, a sadness that needs no reference; we cry out for Wisdom to come and govern creation with care.

Imagine this. You show up for your birthday party –at the exactly the time you were supposed to, and find the trash can overflowing with bottles, the cake half eaten, people already mingling in the driveway and folks gathering their coats. A minute after you arrive, someone shows up with the 2nd pizza and wings run. People turn to you, say, “oh, yeah, it’s you, umm…happy birthday” and quickly get out the rest of the cake, mumble through Happy Birthday, rip into the cake, and start excusing themselves and leaving before you get the second forkful in your mouth.

How would you feel?

When the celebration starts before you show up, you have to wonder whether the party was about you or about them.

I can’t help thinking that’s what Jesus feels these days – Christmas starting on Halloween, Christmas trees bought before Thanksgiving and dragged to the curb the morning of December 26th can’t thrill Him – and in truth, disrespects him.

This is not a “War on Christmas” rant Church, is a reflection on our appellation of Catholic Christian culture in. First the party, then the hangovera – it’s the way we run our lives, our nation and our Christmas.

When we celebrate Washington or MLK’s birthday, Memorial Day or Independence Day, it doesn’t much matter if it’s the exact date. We simply remember it. It’s a commemoration, an act of remembering some event or the legacy of a monumental person. But we really don’t have to prepare for it. It happens and it’s over.

Waiting for a soldier to return home from war is not like that. Neither is waiting for a child to be born or anticipating marriage. Time is spent in preparation. Getting ready. Getting material things in order for certain, but more importantly, getting emotionally and internally prepared for this watershed event.

You see, soldiers at war, babies and spouses are not just events, they are persons. And these persons will arrive to stay, and change your life. Even if you don’t know how exactly it will change your life, you normally wonder about it, and prepare yourself for those changes. You certainly don’t look forward to getting it over with and back to life as usual – as we do in the Christmas.

Admittedly, being in (and a bit too much of) the world I am a poor example of this.

None the less, we all need to stop and recall that Advent is a time of preparation. It presupposes that there is a reality, a Person, who is coming, and coming to stay. It is true that Christ comes into our lives each day at Mass, and in a myriad of ways. Yet, Advent reminds us to be in a state of perpetual preparation for Christ’s second coming.

But there’s more.

Since it is a preparation for a Person and not the recollection of an idea, it takes time to prepare. We must not start celebrating before the Guest of Honor arrives. That disrespects Him, and also makes us lose out on special graces particular to this Season that we need.

Tune into the liturgy and not so much to the radio. Nothing but Christmas carols since Thanksgiving and business-as-usual on December 26th does not cut it. Let yourself wait, make yourself wait, and then savor the feast all the way to Epiphany and then some.

Taking things slowly helps. A little decorating at a time, not one Saturday where you go whole hog. The liturgy invites us to build a sense of expectation and today’s rose candle is key. Half-way. Almost here. Getting close…

The Venerable former Bishop of Rochester, Archbishop Fulton Sheen often spoke of two philosophies of life; the first I alluded to earlier – First the party and then the hangover. The second is: First the fast and then the feast. The “then” of both philosophies is eternal. We are indeed a “party people” and the most counter-cultural act one can do is keeping the tree up until Epiphany or more radical yet, the Feast of the Presentation – which is when the Pope takes down his tree. Christmas, like Easter is way too big for just one day.

The Church models for us that the fast before the feast is the way to live and that is good, practical, advice. So, Merry Christmas Church and don’t be so Christmased out that Jesus gets a “oh, yeah, you’re here” on the 25th. In order to choose the eternal feast and not the eternal hangover, some fasting is in order.

Advent is half over yet there is still time much to reflect on Who is coming, to whom, and why.