Punditry

The Weekly Francis – Volume 333 – 07 October 2020

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

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 20 November 2017 to 17 October 2020.

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

Angelus

Apostolic Letter

Encyclical

General Audiences

Messages

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “The destruction of the human environment is extremely serious, not only because God has entrusted the world to us, but because human life is itself a gift which must be defended. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 24 September 2020
  • “Everyone’s talents and involvement are needed to redress the damage caused by human abuse of God’s creation. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 25 September 2020
  • “The #pandemic has shown us that we cannot live without one another. The United Nations was established to bring nations together, to be a bridge between peoples. Let us make good use of it to build together the future we all desire. #UN75
    @UN” @Pontifex 25 September 2020
  • “I renew my appeal that in light of the present circumstances, that all nations be enabled to meet the greatest needs of the moment, reducing or forgiving the debt of the poorest nations. #UN75
    @UN” @Pontifex 25 September 2020
  • “We need to dismantle the perverse logic that links personal and national security to the possession of weaponry. This logic serves only to increase the profits of the arms industry, while fostering a climate of distrust and fear between persons and peoples. #UN75
    @UN” @Pontifex 25 September 2020
  • “I urge civil authorities to be especially attentive to children who are denied their fundamental rights and dignity, particularly their right to life and to schooling. #UN75
    @UN Message” @Pontifex 25 September 2020
  • “Let us ask the Lord for the gift of peace, for a world without arms of mass destruction! Let us dedicate ourselves to free humanity from nuclear arms, this serious threat to the human race.” @Pontifex 26 September 2020
  • “We see the face of Jesus in the faces of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, strangers and prisoners; Christ calls us to help. #WDMR2020 #DisplacedlikeJesus
    @M_RSection Message” @Pontifex 27 September 2020
  • “Let’s pray for the millions of internally displaced people. Just like Jesus and his parents who fled to Egypt, they live with fear, uncertainty and unease. #WDMR2020 #DisplacedlikeJesus
    @M_RSection” @Pontifex 27 September 2020
  • “Today we celebrate the Memorial of #StVincentDePaul, Patron of charitable organizations. May St Vincent’s example lead all of us to joyful and disinterested service to the most in need, and open us to hospitality and the gift of life.” @Pontifex 27 September 2020
  • “The #GospelOfTheDay questions the way of living a Christian life, which is not made up of dreams or beautiful aspirations, but of concrete commitments, to open ourselves ever more to God’s will and to love for our brothers and sisters.” @Pontifex 27 September 2020
  • “Almighty God, present in the entire universe and in the smallest of Your creatures, fill us with the strength of Your love so that we might take care of life and beauty. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 28 September 2020
  • “Saint Michael, help us in the battle for salvation we are fighting. Saint Gabriel, bring us the good news that Jesus has saved us, and grant us hope. Saint Raphael, take our hands and help us along on the path of complete healing. #ArchangelSaints” @Pontifex 29 September 2020
  • “Devotion to sacred Scripture, a “living and tender love” for the written word of God: this is the legacy that Saint Jerome bequeathed to the Church by his life and labours. Apostolic Letter” @Pontifex 30 September 2020
  • “Let us not go back to the ”normality“ sick with with injustice, inequality and environmental degradation.The normality to which we are called is that of the Kingdom of God, where there is bread for all and the social organisation is based on contributing, sharing and distributing” @Pontifex 30 September 2020
  • “#SaintThereseOfLisieux invites us to practise the little way of love, not to let the possibility of offering a smile to slip by, or any small gesture that sows peace and friendship. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 1 October 2020
  • “Let us continue to grow in the awareness that we all live in a common home as members of a single family! #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 2 October 2020
  • “The urgent challenge to protect our common home includes the task of uniting the entire human family in searching for sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 2 October 2020
  • “The effort to build a more just society implies the capacity of fraternity, a spirit of human communion. #SeasonOfCreation #FratelliTutti” @Pontifex 3 October 2020
  • “I offer this social Encyclical as a modest contribution to continued reflection, in the hope that in the face of present-day attempts to eliminate or ignore others, we may prove capable of responding with a new vision of fraternity and social friendship. #FratelliTutti. ” @Pontifex 3 October 2020
  • “#SaintFrancisofAssisi, faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 4 October 2020
  • “The parable of the murderous vinedressers (Mt 21:33–43) is an admonition for all times, including our own. The vineyard is the Lord’s, not ours. And God awaits the fruit of His vineyard from those He has sent to work in it. #GospelOfTheDay” @Pontifex 4 October 2020
  • “Encyclical #FratelliTutti Encylical ” @Pontifex 4 October 2020
  • “#SaintFrancisofAssisi, this saint of fraternal love, simplicity and joy, who inspired me to write the Encyclical Laudato Si’, prompts me once more to devote this new Encyclical to fraternity and social friendship. #FratelliTutti” @Pontifex 4 October 2020
  • “To care for the world in which we live means to care for ourselves. Yet we need to think of ourselves more and more as a single family dwelling in a common home. #SeasonOfCreation #FratelliTutti” @Pontifex 4 October 2020
  • “By his actions, the Good Samaritan showed that the existence of each and every individual is deeply tied to that of others: life is not simply time that passes; life is a time for interactions. #FratelliTutti” @Pontifex 5 October 2020
  • “We cannot be indifferent to suffering; we cannot allow anyone to go through life as an outcast. Instead,we should feel indignant,challenged to emerge from our comfortable isolation and to be changed by our contact with human suffering.That is the meaning of dignity #FratelliTutti” @Pontifex 5 October 2020
  • “It is my desire that, in this our time, by acknowledging the dignity of each human person, we can contribute to the rebirth of a universal aspiration to fraternity. #FratelliTutti” @Pontifex 6 October 2020
  • “Let us dream, as a single human family, as fellow travelers sharing the same flesh, as children of the same earth which is our common home, each of us bringing the richness of his or her beliefs and convictions, each of us with his or her own voice, brothers and sisters all.” @Pontifex 6 October 2020
  • “As believers, we are convinced that, without an openness to the Father of all, there will be no solid and stable reasons for an appeal to fraternity. #FratelliTutti” @Pontifex 7 October 2020
  • “The journey of fraternity has a Mother. In the power of the risen Lord, she wants to give birth to a new world, where all of us are brothers and sisters, where there is room for all our societies discard, where justice and peace are resplendent. #OurLadyOfTheRosary #FratelliTuttiI” @Pontifex 7 October 2020
  • “The proof of #prayer is real love for our neighbour. #GeneralAudience” @Pontifex 17 October 2020

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The Lighthouse – Book Review
Punditry

The Lighthouse – Book Review

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

The Lighthouse is Michael D. O’Brien’s latest novel.

First off at 181 pages this is certainly the shortest of his novels by an order of magnitude.

I was quickly pulled into this novel and pretty much did not come up for air until I finished it. The story is both simple along with delving into the complexity of human nature. His novels often involved deeply wounded people trying to make their way in the world. In this case, the backstory is, a young man who does not know who his father is and his mother is out of the picture in her own woundedness.

He comes to be an apprentice at a lighthouse and ends up making this his life. Alone on an island with the normal longings for love and family. This is partly sublimated in his wood sculpturing and outdoor activities. Yet this longing is revealed in his sculpturing. Mainly keeping to himself with rare excursions off the island for supplies.

The story picks up with encounters with a series of visitors to the island.

There are parts of the story where you know exactly where it is going, especially if you have read his other novels. There are places where you are surprised. Like all of his novels, there are aspects that are deeply meditative. There is a lot under the surface. I always fall in love with his characters.

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Losing a Medal
Punditry

Losing a Medal

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

So I had ordered some various saint medals to place on my Rosary. I put them on my Rosary this morning.

In the afternoon I noticed that the St. John of the Cross medal had become detached.

St. John of the Cross you are killing me with the irony.

The dumb thing is that when I ordered these various medals I only ordered one of each. These types of medals are very cheap and not made of any precious metals. So it was rather silly not to plan ahead and order multiple of each type.

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The Pope is the Rock
Punditry

The Pope is the Rock

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

WARSAW, Poland — A new statue that depicts the late pope, St. John Paul II, throwing a rock into red water has provoked debate in his native Poland and revived memories of a 1999 Italian sculpture that showed him crushed under a rock, to which the new work was intended as a counter-statement.

The statue by Polish artist Jerzy Kalina, titled “Poisoned Well,” was inaugurated Thursday in front of Warsaw’s National Museum to mark 100 years since the much-loved pope’s birth on May 18, 1920.

Kalina, 76, said the installation in the museum’s fountain relates to John Paul II’s efforts in the 1980s to help free Poland from communism, which is symbolized by the red color the water has from a red fabric placed on the fountain’s bottom.

The artist, the creator of many works dealing with the Catholic faith and church, said he also wanted to send a “warning against multiplying forms of red revolution” and encourage the return to the “clear well.” He was apparently referring to the gradual disappearance of faith and religion in Poland.

But some critics associated the art work with blood and violence. The sculpture also drew ridicule on social media, with some commenters comparing the life-sized likeness of the canonized pope toting a rock to a cartoon figure.

The museum said the installation was Kalin’s response to “La Nona Ora,” Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture that showed the pope as “feeble old man” pinned to the ground by a huge meteorite.

… Source

Of course, anybody seeing this would make those obvious connections. Well not really. It does elicit other ideas for me.

Can a Pope create a rock so big he can’t lift it? Apparently no.

There is also some kind of Abbot & Costello routine in this:

Abbot: Did you see this picture of the two rocks?

Costello: No I only saw the man holding one rock.

Abbott: Yes, that’s the rock doing it.

Costello: You mean the rock is holding the rock?

Abbot: Naturally.

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Life In a Jewish Family – Volume 1 of the works of Edith Stein
Punditry

Life In a Jewish Family – Volume 1 of the works of Edith Stein

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I had been meaning to go deeper into the life of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Edith Stein. I knew the basic biographical details of her life and of her martyrdom. Some of the details of her family life and how her sister Rosa followed here into the Church and Carmel. I just had never really gone deep into her writings. So I decided to read through her Collected Works as published by the Institute of Carmelite Studies.

I know that this will not be the easiest task or just light reading. I will probably have to learn along the way much more about phenomenology, of which I only have the barest intellectual sketch.

First up is her autobiography as published in Life in a Jewish Family.

The first thing to know about this autobiography is that it mostly covers the time from her childhood to becoming an assistant to professor Husserl. There is some foreshadowing in regards to her later years before her martyrdom, but nothing substantiative.

Still, I found this to give a valuable insight into her formative years. I really enjoyed reading about her mother, her family, acquaintances, and friends. Usually background information I have read concentrated about how difficult it was for her mother when she became Catholic. While that aspect is certainly true, her mother was really quite a wonderful person making the best of the early death of her husband and taking care of her family. Her mother gave her a lot of free reign in making choices in regards to directing her life, despite the fact that they were not choices her mother would have always thought best.

I also enjoyed seeing how she grew in virtue. She is very honest about her shortfalls and that while she was never cruel to others, she could be not understanding and dismissive. She details her attraction to the intellectual life and philosophy, but there is a lot along the way that sets this path. You get a palpable sense of the hard work this entailed and how little she was certain in following this goal.

Her relatively short time as a Nurse in WWI was also a very interesting chapter of her life. I get the feeling that some of this was very transformative for her, especially considering her writing a thesis on empathy.

Since this autobiography was never finished, it ends abruptly, so a chronology is placed at the end to fill out some of the details up to her and her sister being taken to Auschwitz. This barely goes into the details of her conversion, years of teaching at a Dominican nuns’ school, and entering Carmel.

I am very glad to have read this as it helps me to enter more into the life of this great saint.

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Punditry

The Weekly Francis – Volume 332 – 23 September 2020

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

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 10 September 2020 to 23 September 2020.

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

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “Everyone is important in God’s eyes, everyone can transform a part of the world polluted by human voracity into the good reality willed by the Creator. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 18 September 2020
  • “We are called to be instruments of God our Father, so that our planet might be what He dreamed of when he created it and correspond with his plan for peace, beauty and fullness. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 19 September 2020
  • “Those who reason using human logic, that is, the logic of the merits acquired through one’s own greatness, from being first, find themselves last. Instead, those who humbly entrust themselves to the Father’s mercy, from being last, find themselves first (see Mt 20:1–16)” @Pontifex 20 September 2020
  • “We need to pursue a genuine fraternity based on our common origin from God. The desire for #peace lies deep within the human heart, and we should not resign ourselves to seeking anything less than this.” @Pontifex 21 September 2020
  • “The journey of reconciliation calls for patience and trust. #Peace will not be obtained unless it is hoped for.” @Pontifex 21 September 2020
  • “Life is grounded in three fundamental and closely connected relationships: the Relationship with God, with our neighbour and with the earth. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 22 September 2020
  • “#Solidarity needs subsidiarity. There is no true solidarity without social participation, without the contribution of families, associations, cooperatives, small businesses, and other expressions of society. #GeneralAudience” @Pontifex 23 September 2020

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Punditry

The Weekly Francis – Volume 331 – 17 September 2020

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

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 3 September 2020 to 17 September 2020.

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

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “The Sorrowful Virgin whose pierced heart mourned the death of Jesus now grieves for the sufferings of the crucified poor and for the creatures of this world laid waste by human power. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 15 September 2020
  • “Climate restoration is of utmost importance for the Earth’s future. Thus, I invite all nations to adopt more ambitious national targets to reduce emissions. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 16 September 2020
  • “As many spiritual masters have taught us, heaven, earth, sea, and every creature have an iconic capacity or mystical capacity to bring us back to the Creator and to communion with creation. #SeasonOfCreation #GeneralAudience” @Pontifex 16 September 2020
  • “Contemplation, which leads us to an attitude of care, is not a question of looking at nature from the outside, as if we were not immersed in it. But we are inside nature, we are part of nature. #SeasonOfCreation #GeneralAudience” @Pontifex 16 September 2020
  • “To contemplate and to care: these are two attitudes that show the way to correct and rebalance our relationship as human beings with creation. #SeasonOfCreation #GeneralAudience
    General Audience” @Pontifex 16 September 2020
  • “Today, the nature that surrounds us is no longer admired, but “devoured”. We must return to contemplation; so as not to be distracted by a thousand useless things, we must find silence; for the heart not to become sick, we must be still. #SeasonOfCreation” @Pontifex 17 September 2020

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One Less God Than You – Book Review
Punditry

One Less God Than You – Book Review

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller


One Less God Than You: How to Answer the Slogans, Clichès, and Fallacies That Atheists Use to Challenge Your Faith is a fairly recent book by John DeRosa.

I first came to know about John DeRosa on Twitter and became interested enough in what he had to say on the subject of Classical Theism to subscribe to his podcast. I really enjoy his podcast, which covers topics from philosophy, theology, to scripture. He has many great guests on, and I will need to listen to the whole of his archive of shows.

So I picked up this book, figuring it would be something I would enjoy. It really delivers on its subtitle. I liked pretty much everything regarding the approach this book takes. For one, it starts right by concentrating on prayer as a priority first before engaging in dialogue with atheists. The next is that it is presented in a listen-reason-propose framework. A form of Socratic dialogue is used, which avoids confrontational approaches. Some Catholic books about talking with atheists often come off as aggressive. Or present a view of atheists purposely denying God even though they “Know he exists.”

Each chapter of the book deals with a common atheist slogan you are likely to hear. He suggests some pathways in discussing the topic. As his framework suggests, the key is listening to the person to find out what they think on a topic and how they frame an objection. The temptation is to jump right in with an answer as soon as you see the general direction it seems to be aiming. Providing examples and principles to “reveal important truths about the topic under discussion.” This can be followed up by asking questions to clarify and proposing arguments and pieces of evidence. Plus it is always important to define things as you go. Ask how they define something and be clear on your own definitions. Otherwise, it is way to easy to talk past each other.

The chapters provide some possible responses, questions to ask what you might propose. Some topics include what he calls middlegame responses to advance the conversation. What he provides is not meant to be a script, but just some starting points that you can use and build upon with your own approaches and responses. Also offered are references for future study to go deeper into a specific topic.

I really enjoyed the tone of this book and how he thought through the various topics. This is a very accessible book for a general audience. Besides, how he explains this framework is valuable for any discussions.

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The Better Part – Book Review
Punditry

The Better Part – Book Review

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

The Better Part: A Christ-Centered Resource for Personal Prayer by Fr John Bartune

I have been going through this book over the last year. It uses the four Gospels to provide a series of spiritual reflections. It goes through all the Gospels taking a paragraph or so and then given a series of topical reflections on the specific topic. The topics each time are:

– Christ the Lord
– Christ the Teacher
– Christ the Friend
– Christ in My Life

There are references to the Catechism along with quotes from the Church Fathers and others along with some small group discussion questions. Gospel texts are taken from the 1966 version of The Jerusalem Bible.

These commentaries are broadly spiritual reflections using the various senses of Scripture. They are pretty much jargon-free and not scripture scholar deep-dives. Some of the mediations use Ignatian techniques of imaging the various scenes and presenting these points of view.

Overall I can recommend this as a good daily read to go through and think about the Gospels.

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