Upon this Pun
Humor

Upon this Pun

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

So I am listening to the latest episode of a podcast with Matt Swaim and Ken Hensley, which has been doing a series on the papacy.

They were giving the background of Caesarea Philippi, some of which I had heard before. It was previously dedicated to Pan. I looked up and found that it was settled during the Hellenistic period during Alexander the Great’s conquests. It was named Paneas.

This is of course also the famous setting of Matthew 18 “Upon this rock”
So of course my mind starts to try to contrive a Peter Pan joke, but that would be childish. Plus since Christianity vanquished the Greek gods, I could deliver it dead pan.

Relatedly, Eddie Trask released his interview of Matt Swain today on Catholic Recon

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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 367 – 30 June 2021

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller
pope-francis2-300x187

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 24 June 2021 to 30 June 2021.

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I also post at Jimmy Akin’s blog.

Angelus

General Audiences

Homilies

Letters

Messages

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Nativity of #SaintJohnTheBaptist. Let us imitate his humble witness to the Lamb of God.” @Pontifex 24 June 2021
  • “Charity is the beating heart of the Christian: just as one cannot live without a heartbeat, so one cannot be a Christian without charity.” @Pontifex 24 June 2021
  • “Love, following in the footsteps of Christ, in concern and compassion for all, is the highest expression of our faith and hope.” @Pontifex 26 June 2021
  • “Sister, brother, let Jesus look upon and heal your heart. And if you have already felt His tender gaze upon you, imitate Him; do as He does. Help us to bring comfort to those with wounded hearts whom we meet on our journey. #GospelOfTheDay (Mk 5:21–43)” @Pontifex 27 June 2021
  • “Today, in proximity to the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, I ask you to pray for the Pope. Pray in a special way: the Pope needs your prayers!” @Pontifex 27 June 2021
  • “On the occasion of today’s Day of prayer for peace in the Middle East, I invite everyone to implore God’s mercy and peace in that region, where the Christian faith was born and is alive, despite the suffering.” @Pontifex 27 June 2021
  • “If we are docile to love, to the Holy Spirit who is the creative love of God and who brings harmony to diversity, he will open the way to a renewed fraternity.” @Pontifex 28 June 2021
  • “Let us ask the Lord, through the intercession of Saints Peter and Paul, to help us be open to His grace, so that we can see, judge and act from the truth and freedom that come from the encounter with Christ.” @Pontifex 29 June 2021
  • “At the heart of the story of Peter and Paul is not their own gifts and abilities, but the encounter with Christ that changed their lives. They experienced a love that healed and set them free, and because of that, they became apostles and ministers of freedom for others.” @Pontifex 29 June 2021
  • “Peter and Paul did not believe in words, but in deeds. Peter did not speak about mission, he was a fisher of men; Paul did not write learned books, but letters of what he experienced as he traveled and bore witness.” @Pontifex 29 June 2021
  • “70 years ago Pope Benedict was ordained a priest. To you, Benedict, dear father and brother, goes our affection, our gratitude and our closeness. Thank you for your credible witness. Thank you for your gaze, constantly directed towards the horizon of God.” @Pontifex 29 June 2021
  • “Tomorrow a special day of prayer and reflection on Lebanon will take place. I invite you all to join spiritually with us, praying that Lebanon may recover from the serious crisis it is going through and show the world once again its face of peace and hope.” @Pontifex 30 June 2021
  • “Let us pray that, in social, economic, and political situations of conflict, we may be courageous and passionate architects of dialogue and friendship. [Video]” @Pontifex 30 June 2021

Papal Instagram

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Generating Pious Thoughts
LiturgyPrayer

Generating Pious Thoughts

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I took the day off today.

This morning we had the TLM celebrating today’s Feast. Fr. Briggs Hurley has been so great about now having these celebrations outside of only Sundays. We are doing the same for the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and Feast of St. James the Greater.

Our visiting seminarian has been one of the servers at the TLM.

I then went to Eucharistic Adoration and studied St. John of the Cross’ “The Living Flame” with the commentary he wrote. He only wrote the commentary when he was in a deeply recollected state. So I figured reading it in front of the Blessed Sacrament might help me at least be in only a mildly distracted condition compared to the usual. It was helpful, even if I consider my absorption of reading the commentary on the first stanza to be minimal. Still, I don’t mind being in the cellar of the Interior Castle, just that I don’t want to impede where Jesus would lead me.

Too often, my prayer life is me “generating pious thoughts” instead of a conversation with Jesus and providing room interiorly to listen to him. I don’t want to give any illusions regarding my prayer life.

I appeal to Chesterton’s “if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly,” which is not on an excuse on the “badly”, but the doing of it. So if God can bring me from fervent atheism, he can bring me along in prayer as much as he desires for me.

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In an Unworthy Manner
Liturgy

In an Unworthy Manner

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Recent discussions brought up the topic regarding the omission of 1 Corinthians 11, 27–29 when the lectionary was revised into a 3-year cycle.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

I like this article because it presents the facts that we do know from documentary evidence and that this passage was initially included and then omitted towards the end of the process. He offers two main hypotheses regarding why this happened based on this. There is a charitable interpretation of what transpired.

My hot take follows Hanlon’s razor: “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

Personally, I desire this being placed back in the lectionary since we all need this reminder. Still, I also don’t believe that this omission caused the current situation. Most of what we hear during the cycle of readings goes in one ear and out the other. Sometimes we listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling us.

“If you look at a thing 999 times, you are perfectly safe; if you look at it for the 1000th time, you are in danger of seeing it for the first time.” – G.K. Chesterton (The Napoleon of Notting Hill)

This passage can be preached on even if not in the lectionary. Homilies can reference this, and I heard my Bishop do so once. Plus, if your only access to hearing scripture is via the readings at Mass, this is already a severe problem.

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Sacramental Revival
Sacraments

Sacramental Revival

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

On Al Kresta’s show, I heard him interview Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, the chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis. The topic was the three-year strategic plan for “Eucharistic Revival.”

Al asked him about the role of the Sacrament of Confession in the plan. The Bishop thought it was integral.

It is integral because the sacraments can not be siloed off from each other.

The background story I heard from the seminarian last night involved the availability of Eucharistic Adoration. This is a common thread for vocations to the priesthood. As Catholics, we are dependent on priests for the Eucharist, and priestly vocations are fed on the Eucharist and by Eucharistic Adoration.

More broadly, we need a “Sacramental Revival” since fewer Catholics are getting married, having their children baptized, and of course, going to confession — or even to Mass.

The decline in all the sacraments has a common thread. There are individual factors regarding the drop of each of them.

So I like what the Bishop was saying, even if I don’t give much credence to strategic plans. The reality is that in season and out of season, the Church needs to be constantly promoting her teachings, especially “the source and summit of the Christian life.” We all need constant conversion, along with going deeper into learning and living our faith.

What this plan will do at least is put this on the agenda at the parish level where fruit can be born.

At my level, this is something I can concentrate on during Adoration. Unfortunately, the availability of Eucharistic Adoration has been curtailed since the COVID-19 outbreak. Two parishes that had Perpetual Adoration now have much shorter hours. My parish also has more limited availability. I hope to see us transitioning back and then increasing availability.

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Humor

Don’t I Know It

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

One of the priests at morning Mass tends to ask questions during the homily. Often not just general knowledge questions.

This morning he asked a question and then said, “Don’t answer Jeff.” I found this funny, and I was surprised he even knew my name. I had never introduced myself, just thanked him for his homilies at various times.

On my way out, “He apologized for picking on me.” I told him it was okay because “I am an arrogant know-it-all.”

He laughed at that and tried to deny this; I told him he obviously didn’t know me.

At the recent Eucharistic Congress, Steve Ray asked questions during his presentation. I answered them all. The first one I answered, he replied that nobody had ever answered that one correctly. When I met him after his presentation, he said, “Hey, it’s the Answer Man.” I reveled in that because I am an arrogant know-it-all.

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Letter to John the Baptist
HumorParody

Letter to John the Baptist

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

From: Conference of the School of Prophets
To: John the Baptist

Dear John,

Having heard your preaching on the topic of marriage worthiness and other issues, we request that further dialog with Herod Antipas be postponed until we can all meet together in person. The serious nature of these issues – especially the imperative to forge substantive unity – makes it impossible to address them productively in the fractured and isolated current setting. The high standard of consensus among ourselves, the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and others is far from being achieved in the present moment. We are concerned that your weaponizing marriage does not follow sound theological and pastoral advice or create a new path for moving forward.

We take this opportunity to re-envision the best collegial structure for achieving that. We are concerned that you have lost your head and are acting rashly. We consider this a breach of rules and customs with this lack of collegial consultation before addressing governing bodies and tetrarchs. We look forward to dialoguing on “Marriage Coherence” and assure you of our prayerful and fraternal best wishes.

Signed, Blaise bar Cupich

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Sola Bookstore
Other

Sola Bookstore

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I saw a Facebook ad for the “NTEB Bible Believers Bookstore” which the captions”St. Augustine’s ONLY Christian Bookstore!

I thought that can’t be correct. There is a Catholic book store at The Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche right next to the giant cross there.

Possibly the all-caps “ONLY” implies that this is one true and thus only Christian bookstore not run by heretics.

This really annoyed me the use of deceptive advertising for a Christian bookstore.

From their site: “Open 6 days a week, our King James only bookstore is a walk-in gospel outpost here in America’s oldest city of Saint Augustine, where the gospel of the grace of God is made available to the community in a powerful and hands-on way.”

So now I want to go there and troll them.

“Can I buy a RSV” – no

“How about an ESV” – no

“An ASV” – no.

Well, how about a KJV that doesn’t have missing books?

Noticeable on the images on the site is 1611 referring to to the original publishing date of the KJV, which included what is now called the Apocrypha.

So on their ad I asked them the question regarding whether they knew about The Shrine bookstore. Plus if they considered Catholics to be Christians.

The reply was:

Thank you for that info about the Shrine. The owner was a practicing catholic his whole life until about 30 years ago, when he got saved and became a Christian and believes the two are not in the same category. The shrine also does not come up when you search for Christian books stores in the area. Please feel free to stop by and see our store for yourself!

My most charitable interpretation is that they must be very poor researchers. A bare minimum Google search for “St. Augustine, Fl Christian bookstore” turns up The Shrine near the top of the list, and ironically their store does not show up with these search terms. Plus I noticed at least one other commenter before me mentioned The Shrine.

The owner was a practicing catholic his whole life until about 30 years ago, when he got saved and became a Christian and believes the two are not in the same category.

This appears to be a bit of an understatement as it seems that the apparent owner is Geoffrey Grider who is rather anti-Catholic to say the least.

Writing before about Pope Francis:

“Open up your Bible, find a blank spot next to John 5:43, take a pen and write “FULFILLED” in margin.”

They also have NTEC branded Chick Tracts. My parish has been blanketed at least twice this year with these tracts placed on cars.

“Of course, what they don’t know is that what they are encountering are not space aliens at all, they are the fallen angels connected with the Genesis 6 giants. Welcome back, we who believe the bible have been expecting your return.” NTEB, May 1, 2021.

Seems ligit.

So I was pretty annoyed about this Facebook advertisement, but now I see it as an opportunity to add Geoffrey Grider to my daily prayer list.

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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 366 – 23 June 2021

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller
pope-francis2-300x187

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 18 June 2021 to 23 June 2021.

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I also post on Jimmy Akin’s blog.

Angelus

General Audiences

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “The current pandemic has reminded us that there are no differences or boundaries between those suffering. The time has come to eliminate inequality and to cure injustice that is undermining the health of the entire human family.” @Pontifex 18 June 2021
  • “Underlying all our strengths and weaknesses, stronger than all our past hurts and failures, or our fears and concerns about the future, there is this great truth: we are beloved sons and daughters.” @Pontifex 18 June 2021
  • “God knows that the only way to save us, to heal us from within, is by loving us. He knows that we become better only by accepting his unfailing love, an unchanging love that changes us.” @Pontifex 19 June 2021
  • “How often we leave the Lord in a corner, at the bottom of the boat of life, to wake Him only in a moment of need! Let us ask for the grace of a faith that never tires of seeking the Lord, of knocking at the door of his heart. #GospelOfTheDay (Mk 4:35–41)” @Pontifex 20 June 2021
  • “With the Bishops of Myanmar I plead that humanitarian corridors be allowed and that churches, pagodas, monasteries, mosques, temples, schools and hospitals be respected as neutral places of refuge. May the Heart of Christ touch the hearts of all bringing peace to Myanmar!” @Pontifex 20 June 2021
  • “Let us open our hearts to refugees, making our own their sorrows and joys; may we learn from their courageous resilience! In this way, together we can help create a more humane community, one big family. #WorldRefugeeDay” @Pontifex 20 June 2021
  • “Christ is alive and desires that each of you live. He is the true beauty and youth of this world. Everything he touches becomes young, becomes new, full of life and meaning.” @Pontifex 21 June 2021
  • “Even at the darkest moments, as in these months of pandemic, the Lord continues to send angels to console our loneliness and to remind us: “I am with you always”. #IamWithYouAlways
    @laityfamilylife Message” @Pontifex 22 June 2021
  • “Dear grandmother, dear grandfather, the Lord’s closeness will grant to all, even the frailest among us, the strength needed to embark on a new journey along the path of dreams, memory and prayer. #DayforGrandparentsandtheElderly
    @laityfamilylife” @Pontifex 22 June 2021
  • “The path indicated by Saint Paul in his Letter to the Galatians is the path of meek and obedient trust, in the certainty that the Holy Spirit works in the Church in every age. #GeneralAudience” @Pontifex 23 June 2021

Papal Instagram

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Meatball to the Narrow Way
Scripture

Meatball to the Narrow Way

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

From today’s Gospel reading:

Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

I was thinking about this passage and the type of narrowness that usually comes to mind. That to enter in something we see as essential to ourselves has to be jettisoned. The thought of this shedding brings us no feeling of joy. There is an aspect of this idea that is indeed true, but it is also too constricted.

Indeed, to enter the narrow gate, you have to be broad like the saints. They entered this gate because their love is comprehensive. Vast enough to love God, neighbor, and themselves. Wise enough to know that there is no Law of the Conservation of Love. God can work with what is small like in St. Therese’s Little Way. In Therese’s smallness she embraced the world becoming a missionary from a hidden place. Entering the narrow gate is not tunnel vision, it leads to the Beatific vision.

I know I can think of the narrow gate and almost despair at the idea. I can see my ego getting in the way and blocking my attempt to transcend the gate.

Truck stuck in tunnel
Truck stuck in tunnel

I see myself so narrowly and keep forgetting that God, who has brought me thus far, can get me farther if he so desires. If I grab Jesus’ hand, he can lead me through. I wish I lived my life like these pious thoughts that come to me at times.

I also had this tangental thought of getting behind a saint and following him through the gate. A kind of spiritual drafting, like cycling where there is less resistance when following the lead cyclist riding in close. In many ways, this is what the saints can do for us. The reality that we should be doing the same to reduce the burdens of those behind us. It is terrifying in the implication of this responsibility to help others also enter through. Yet, it should horrify us to evade this and restrict our love.

The last image that came to me was the “meatball” onboard an Aircraft Carrier.

Aircraft Carrier Landing System
Aircraft Carrier Landing System

Having witnessed hundreds of landing on board a carrier, it always amazed me the precision required to drop out of the sky at a specific angle and height and then catch the wire to slow down. Once I was flown out to land on a carrier, I was even more surprised by how small the ship looked from above.

I thought about the freedom of the plane to zoom around the skies, looping in delight, yawing not yawning. Yet to make a successful landing, the pilot must focus on the meatball to get the glidepath in the terminal phase of the landing.

The freedom of the plane in turn reminded me of this part of Chesterton’s Orthodoxy:

“Catholic doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground.”

I am now thinking of the narrow gate as the meatball for my terminal phase. Plus more than that, that I want to have coattails to help others follow.Meatball to the Narrow Way

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