Accepting God as Father
The following is from today's readings in "A Conversation with God" from Scepter publishing.
Just as the man who excludes God from his life becomes a diseased tree that will yield bad fruit, so a society that wants to exclude God from its customs and laws causes countess evils and inflicts the most serious harm on its citizens. A state from which religion is banished can never be well regulated. 1 In it the phenomenon of lacism appears with the desire of supplanting the honor due to God. A system of morality based on transcendent principles is replaced by a merely human ideals and norms of conduct. These inevitably end up as less than human. God and Church become purely internal matters of conscience , and the Church and the Pore are subjected to aggressive attacks either directly or indirectly through persons or institutions unfaithful to the Magisterium.
Not infrequently as a result of laicism the individual citizen, the life of the family, and the of the commonwealth as a whole are all removed from the beneficent and wholesome symbols and symptoms of those errors which corrupted the heathens of old, declared themselves more plainly and more lamentably. And all this in parts of the world where the light of Christian civilization has shone for centuries. 2 The signs of this secularization can be seen in many countries. Even those of long-standing Christian tradition this process of secularization is making inroads: the decline is apparently invariable, the symptoms all too plain -- divorce, abortion, an alarming increase in the used of drugs even by children and young people, violence, contempt for public morality ... If God is not accepted as a loving Father, man and society inevitably become dehumanized.
1 Leo XIII Immortale Dei, 1 November 1885
2 Pius XII, Summi Pontificatus, 20 October 1939
Often we come to think of the modern culture as just something that deteriorated starting in the tumultuously sixties. Obviously the quotes from these the encyclicals show that the modern rot that has set into our culture has long roots extended back a century or two.
On as side note I find In Conversations with God to be and excellent resource for inspiring the contemplative life. After reading Morning Prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours I read from this book before praying. In Conversation with God is not to be confused with the crap under a similar title by Neale Donald Walsch. In Conversation with God is a multi-volume set which covers the whole liturgical year. Another great book for meditation is Divine Intimacy by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D. and is undoubtedly a classic Carmelite work on meditation.
Known as 
It is interesting that you posted this because I was thinking of doing the same thing. I love "In Conversation With God" and reccomend it to anyone.
Almost everything in the Scepter catalog makes for great spiritual reading material.
Doubly interesting because I was contemplating posting this also ... obviously its a perfect way to show that we aren't the first to have to live through such times. I also like to think about the fact that this was written in Spanish first. It helps me to see that our problems are more universal than we think. I agree that In Conversation with God is a fabulous inspirational resource ... I plan a book review on the set soon.
Frank Sheed considered Secularism the opposite extreme response to the Protestant errors of old. Whereas Protestantism emphasizes the individual and the soul, to the detriment of the body and society (rejection of works and of sacraments, and personal interpretation of the Bible), Secularism emphasizes the society and the body, downplaying the individual and the soul (the "isms" of the 20th century, as well as sexual deviance).
One could say the seeds of Secularism were planted 500 years ago when a certain protest was nailed to a church door in Wittenberg.
I've been lead by my reading to believe that today's loss of morality could also be related to the Darwinism that is so rampant in our cultural minsdset, especially in our public schools.
It made a simple kind of sense: God is sacred. God created life in His image. Life is sacred.
Remove God from the equation and life is no longer sacred, or entitled to any special protections compared to other creatures on earth.
I recently read Cdl. Ratzinger's Creation homilies and was awed to see that he offers some support for this as well. I am always amazed at how the Holy Spirit seems to lead me--now if I could only figure out what I am supposed to be doing, apostolate-wise.
Thank you for mentioning ICWG. I really like these books, but have fallen out of my daily reading habit. I'll start today and try to get back into the habit.
In Christ's peace and joy,
I recommended the same two series for meditation on my blog about a year and a half ago...
I think they make a nice balance... ICWG was written by an Opus Dei priest, and has a lot of "here's how to apply this teaching to your every day life," while DI was written by a Carmelite, and has a much more purely other-worldly focus.