Canadian diocese offering ‘take home’ containers for Ash Wednesday
After seeing this story I am thinking of getting into the sacramental delivery business. A business where people could have sacramentals such as ashes delivered directly to their homes.
I will call it DoorAsh.
This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 4 February 2021 to 10 February 2021.
The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I also post at Jimmy Akin’s blog.
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This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 6 January 2021 to 3 February 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
Homilies
Messages
Speeches
Papal Tweets
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This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 3 December 2020 to 27 January 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
Papal Tweets
Papal Instagram
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
Letters
Messages
Unknown
Speeches
Papal Tweets
Papal Instagram
“It may seem a singular observation to say that we are not generous enough to write great satire. This, however, is approximately a very accurate way of describing the case. To write great satire, to attack a man so that he feels the attack and half acknowledges its justice, it is necessary to have a certain intellectual magnanimity which realizes the merits of the opponent as well as his defects. This is, indeed, only another way of putting the simple truth that in order to attack an army we must know not only its weak points, but also its strong points. England in the present season and spirit fails in satire for the same simple reason that it fails in war: it despises the enemy.”
(Pope and the Art of Satire – Twelve Types 1903)
This is quintessential Chesterton who indeed lived this intellectual magnanimity. What we now most often have is just pure snark delivered in a point-scoring manner.
Reading Chesterton for me is like a daily examen of conscience.
From the same essay:
“Have we really learnt to think more broadly? Or have we only learnt to spread our thoughts thinner?”
I have a game I compete against myself with.
At bedtime I try to recall the Gospel read at Mass each day. The reason I started to do with that I became rather annoyed how quickly I would forget what the readings were at Mass that day. That obviously the amount of attention I was paying to them was something I was only willing to save to short term memory.
At first when trying this I could rarely bring to mind what was the Gospel read that day was.
So now when I wake up I am pre-reading the daily readings and then try to give some time to mental prayer hopefully fueled by this. It does seem to help anchor prayer for me in that while distractions will always be part of the prayer life, this scriptural anchor can provide a fixed point to keep from drifting as much as I otherwise would.
Now playing this game each night the majority of the time I can rememberer at least the Gospel – not word-for-word, the general outline.
What is cool is that sometimes the day’s reading will come to me throughout the day.
Next maybe I will work on remembering the homily five minutes after hearing it. Possibly an impossible goal.
Today’s Gospel involves the Leper who prostrates himself before Jesus and proclaims that Jesus can heal him if he so wills. The spiritual themes of leprosy have been explored throughout history as a parallel to sin and being unclean morally.
Today in the homily I heard an interesting take from a priest who is a convert and a retired Navy doctor.
He explored how in Hansen’s disease that the bacteria deadens the nerve endings to such a degree that the sense of touch or pain is lost in the members affected. He then went on to talk about how sin in our life can deaden our conscience such that we become seemingly immune to those sins in our life.
I thought this an interesting parallel which also got me thinking along the same lines. That even though we can deaden our conscience, God is still giving us the grace to break through this. We might go on for years being morally blind in an area and then start feeling pricks of conscience. While we easily might try once again to ignore such insights given to us, we also might start to cooperate with this grace received and to see our need for salvation and in particular a savior.
At least, this is how I see it and my own testimony in being given the grace to respond to God’s love in my own life. While my response is quite imperfect, it is much better than the paths I was on. It is quite gratifying to know that in my continuing prayer for God’s will for me to be made clean that Jesus will reply “I will, be clean”.
This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 1 December 2020 to 6 January 2021.
The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I also post at Jimmy Akin’s blog.
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Homilies
Messages
Papal Tweets
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With today’s Gospel relating to John the Baptist, I started reflecting on how I view him. I often see most of the prophets as being rather severe. Very annoyed with everyone around them. Divinely commissioned to give a good tongue-lashing.
This view of mine I know is deficient. I also started to think about St. Teresa of Avila’s pillars of the spiritual life — detachment, humility, and love.
Scripture certainly testifies that John the Baptist evidenced the first two. Teresa’s pillars are interdependent and to grow in one is to grow in the others, the inverse is also true. So this got me thinking about John’s inner life. His love for God and neighbor. It is easy to see him as a model of detachment and humility. To love is to will the good for others and thus his warnings to others were motivated by this. Besides the warnings, he preached “good news to the People.” His love for Jesus was such that he only wanted to give of himself, to decrease, and to have Christ increased.
So I really need to deepen my understanding of John the Baptist and the prophets that went before him. To see John’s burning love of God and neighbor.