Reading Scripture and entering into a conversation with God

One must not read Sacred Scripture as one reads any kind of historical book, such as, for example, Homer, Ovid or Horace; it is necessary truly to read it as the Word of God, that is, entering into a conversation with God. …

One must start by praying and talking to the Lord: "Open the door to me". And what St. Augustine often says in his homilies: "I knocked at the door of the Word to find out at last what the Lord wants to say to me", seems to me to be a very important point. One should not read Scripture in an academic way, but with prayer, saying to the Lord: "Help me to understand your Word, what it is that you want to tell me in this passage".

Pope Benedict XVI, Meeting with the Youth of Rome, 2006

This is something I have to keep relearning. It's a conversation and to listen to the Lord and to look for him through his Word.

Pope Benedict's Most Accessible Books

People have been asking what they should read of Pope Benedict's works now that he is gone so I'm rerunning this review from 2019. If you want to see the heart of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, look no further than the ones below.

Recently my Catholic women's book club read Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives by Pope Benedict XVI. Reaction divided fairly evenly into three groups: some found it too easy, some found it too hard, and the rest of us thought it was just right. I was one of the "just right" group but had been surprised, upon rereading, to discover that the book occasionally got more complex than I remembered.

That made me remember that Pope Benedict had a series of books which were intended to be very accessible by everyone and which I really loved. That's because they were collections of a series of teaching homilies that the Pope would give every Wednesday in the general audience. When I mentioned them to my group, a lot of people weren't aware of them ... so I'm doing an overview here for all of us.

First, of course, was The Apostles which began with three discussions of community. With that in mind, the life of each of the apostles was examined and then used as a springboard for each of us to examine our own lives in Christ and our relationship to God. These are good whether you want to know the background and life of each person or are looking for something deeper.

Eventually he proceeded to discuss the Church Fathers, Saint Paul, various saints, and prayer. One of the things that may surprise the reader of this series of homilies given by Pope Benedict XVI is just how much pertinent information can be packed into a short piece. And it isn't just about the history. These are homilies in which Benedict often speaks very directly and simply about what it means to be a regular Christian in search of God.

One of my favorites is the book on prayer. Beginning with ancient civilizations concurrent with Old Testament events, we look at how people have prayed throughout time. It is then brought closer and closer to our own time and to prayer as expressed by and through Jesus Christ. This is not only a superb series of easy-to-digest lessons, it is inspirational and mind opening.

For those of us who like pictures in our books, there are three illustrated versions: The Apostles and the two volumes on The Fathers.

You don't have to read these collections in any particular order. Any of these are good for devotional reading. Just find a topic and begin. Each homily works as a free-standing piece, as they would naturally have needed to when they were first delivered. You are never going to find an easier way to read Pope Benedict's writing.

Give your servant Benedict eternal peace, O Lord - updated with The Spiritual Testament of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Just a couple of days ago we were asked to pray for Pope Emeritus Benedict as he was gravely ill. Today he is dead. I am grateful that he had a gentle death. I really loved him and have treasured his writing over the years. Surely he will be a Doctor of the Church. I know we must wait for proof but surely he is also a saint. In my mind, he is.

I also think it is amazing that we have known three great Catholics as leaders and examples in our time — John Paul II, Mother Theresa, and Benedict XVI. Two are great saints and the third, as I have said, I feel is a saint. It says much for our times that we needed these saints among us. It also fills me with gratitude that I have been alive to see their witness. God is good.

Give your servant Benedict eternal peace, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul, as well as the souls of all the faithful dead,
rest in peace, thanks to God’s grace.
Amen.

+ + + + + + + + + + +

The Vatican released a spiritual testament which Benedict wrote long ago against this day. I thought it was beautiful both in his love and thanks to his family, friends and country and also in showing his concern for his flock until the very end.

26 August 2006
My Spiritual Testament 

When, at this late hour of my life, I look back on the decades I have wandered through, I see first of all how much reason I have to give thanks. Above all, I thank God Himself, the giver of all good gifts, who has given me life and guided me through all kinds of confusion; who has always picked me up when I began to slip, who has always given me anew the light of his countenance. In retrospect, I see and understand that even the dark and arduous stretches of this path were for my salvation and that He guided me well in those very stretches.

I thank my parents, who gave me life in difficult times and prepared a wonderful home for me with their love, which shines through all my days as a bright light until today. My father's clear-sighted faith taught us brothers and sisters to believe and stood firm as a guide in the midst of all my scientific knowledge; my mother's heartfelt piety and great kindness remain a legacy for which I cannot thank her enough. My sister has served me selflessly and full of kind concern for decades; my brother has always paved the way for me with the clear-sightedness of his judgements, with his powerful determination, and with the cheerfulness of his heart; without this ever-new going ahead and going along, I would not have been able to find the right path.

I thank God from the bottom of my heart for the many friends, men and women, whom He has always placed at my side; for the co-workers at all stages of my path; for the teachers and students He has given me. I gratefully entrust them all to His goodness. And I would like to thank the Lord for my beautiful home in the Bavarian foothills of the Alps, in which I was able to see the splendour of the Creator Himself shining through time and again. I thank the people of my homeland for allowing me to experience the beauty of faith time and again. I pray that our country will remain a country of faith and I ask you, dear compatriots, not to let your faith be distracted. Finally, I thank God for all the beauty I was able to experience during the various stages of my journey, but especially in Rome and in Italy, which has become my second home.

I ask for forgiveness from the bottom of my heart from all those whom I have wronged in some way.

What I said earlier of my compatriots, I now say to all who were entrusted to my service in the Church: Stand firm in the faith! Do not be confused! Often it seems as if science - on the one hand, the natural sciences; on the other, historical research (especially the exegesis of the Holy Scriptures) - has irrefutable insights to offer that are contrary to the Catholic faith. I have witnessed from times long past the changes in natural science and have seen how apparent certainties against the faith vanished, proving themselves not to be science but philosophical interpretations only apparently belonging to science - just as, moreover, it is in dialogue with the natural sciences that faith has learned to understand the limits of the scope of its affirmations and thus its own specificity.For 60 years now, I have accompanied the path of theology, especially biblical studies, and have seen seemingly unshakeable theses collapse with the changing generations, which turned out to be mere hypotheses: the liberal generation (Harnack, Jülicher, etc.), the existentialist generation (Bultmann, etc.), the Marxist generation. I have seen, and see, how, out of the tangle of hypotheses, the reasonableness of faith has emerged and is emerging anew. Jesus Christ is truly the Way, the Truth, and the Life - and the Church, in all her shortcomings, is truly His Body.

Finally, I humbly ask: pray for me, so that the Lord may admit me to the eternal dwellings, despite all my sins and shortcomings. For all those entrusted to me, my heartfelt prayer goes out day after day.

Benedictus PP XVI

Praying for Pope Benedict

“I ask to all of you a special prayer for the pope emeritus Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the Church,” Pope Francis said.

“Remember him — he is very ill — asking the Lord to console him and to sustain him in this testimony of love for the Church until the end.”

Pope Francis asked for prayers at the end of his General Audience yesterday for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as he is very ill.

“We have probably reached the last phase of his earthly life, and we must prepare and pray for him and for the Church. But only God knows when this will happen: this evening, tomorrow night, in a few days or perhaps in ten,” the source said. “I don’t think we can speak of months now, but we are in the Lord’s hands now more than ever.”

Catholic Herald

Reading the article all sounds rather familiar to anyone who has had an elderly loved one go through "the 'mystery' of the evening of life" as the source called it. I love that phrase — "The mystery of the evening of life." 

I also really liked the way Pope Francis described  Benedict "who, in silence, is sustaining the Church." I know that he has spent a lot of time in prayer and that is such a lovely way to put it — and so true to the way that John Paul II described the vocation of the elderly and sick to pray for those of us active in the world.

I recently finished the first Jesus of Nazareth book and again was thankful that Pope Benedict had given us such a gift in his writings and teachings. I  little thought that a couple of days later I would be praying for him in his last days, as are those around the world.

Via Monsignor Eric Barr

Nothing more beautiful ...

Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. ... There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI, April 24, 2005

Truer words were never spoken.

It is not man who goes to God, but God who comes to man.

Almost all religions center around the problem of expiation; they arise out of man's knowledge of his guilt before God and signify the attempt to remove this feeling of guilt through conciliatory actions offered up to God. The expiatory activity by which men hope to conciliate the divinity and to put him in a gracious mood stands at the heart of the history of religion.

In the New Testament the situation is almost completely reversed, It is not man who goes to God with a compensatory gift, but God who comes to man, in order to give to him. He restores disturbed right on the initiative of his own power to love, by making unjust man just again, the dead living again, through his own creative mercy. His righteousness is grace; it is active righteousness, which sets crooked man right, that is, bends him straight, makes him correct. Here we stand before the twist that Christianity put into the history of religion. the New Testament does not say that men conciliate God, as we really ought to expect, since, after all, it is they who have failed, not God. It says, on the contrary, that "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself." This is truly something new, something unheard of—the starting point of Christian existence and the center of New Testament theology of the cross. God does not wait until the guilty come to be reconciled, he goes to meet them and reconciles them. Here we can see the true direction of the Incarnation, of the cross.

Accordingly, in the New Testament the cross appears primarily as a movement from above to below. It stands there, not as the work of expiation that mankind offers to the wrathful God, but as the expression of the foolish love of God's that gives itself away to the point of humiliation in order thus to save man; it is his approach to us, not the other way about. With this twist in the idea of expiation, and thus in the whole axis of religion, worship, too, man's whole existence, acquires in Christianity a new direction.

Cardinal Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity

I remember saying that Introduction to Christianity was a terrible name for this book by the cardinal who became Pope Benedict. It was no introduction at all as I think of it which would be gentle and easy to understand. However, it was good. Very good. As this sample shows. I need to reread it.

Freedom and small daily acts of self-denial

Unselfishness, which makes men free, is attained only through the patience of small daily acts of self-denial. By this daily passion, which alone reveals to a man in how many ways he is enslaved by his own ego, by this daily passion and by it alone, a man’s eyes are slowly opened. He sees only to the extent that he has lived and suffered. If today we are scarcely able any longer to become aware of God, that is because we find it so easy to evade ourselves, to flee from the depths of our being by means of the narcotic of some pleasure or other. Thus our own interior depths remain closed to us.

Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), 1969 radio address

I try to practice daily self denial (emphasis on try). Thinking of it as a "daily passion" is something new, which elevates it beyond my usual routine.

Well Said: What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world?

The great question that will be with us throughout this entire book: What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought?

The answer is very simple: God.... He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope and love. It is only because of our hardness of heart that we think this is too little. Yes indeed, God's power works quietly in this world, but it is the true and the lasting power. Again and again, God's cause seems to be in its death throes. Yet over and over again it proves to be the thing that truly endures and saves.

-- Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth

Just Because I Like It - the Pope in Lebanon

From the Pope's visit to Lebanon. Something about this brings tears to my eyes ... it is that kind of jubilant feeling. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be inside the car?

This is from Margaret at ten thousand places who also excerpted three quotes from Pope Benedict's addresses so far. My favorite:

Why so much horror? Why so many dead? ... Those who wish to build peace must cease to see in the other an evil to be eliminated."

Pope Benedict XVI

Margaret links to a place with a lot more coverage. Drop by and browse.

Neighbor, how long has it been since you read Deus Caritas Est? Well, pardner, that's too long.*

God Is Love--Deus Caritas Est: Encyclical Letter by Pope Benedict XVI

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my third time through Pope Benedict's brilliant first encyclical God Is Love. Our Catholic women's book club read it for our May discussion.

Just reading the opening paragraphs made me remember what a wonderful piece of thinking and writing this is. And how brilliant Pope Benedict is at expressing not only the intellectual but also the heart of the matter. He also shows his practical side and that he is not isolated in an ivory tower but understands very well what it means to be human, craving the love of God and of our fellow men.

This is a piece I could recommend to everyone: atheists wanting to know the point of Christianity, non-Christians wanting to know the heart of the Gospel, Christians wanting to know more about Catholics and ... more than anyone ... to Catholics who need to be refreshed in their faith and reminded that love is the heart of God and the heart of our faith. What a powerful work by someone who thought so deeply and yet is able to communicate so well. Amazing.

I am so inspired that I plan to reread the two follow-up encyclicals that complete the trilogy of love, hope and charity.



* Thank you Wolf Brand Chili who, as most Texans remember, has long had their famous slogan, "Neighbor, how long has it been since you had a big, thick, steaming bowl of Wolf Brand Chili? Well, that's too long!"

A Little Bit of Flannery ... and Fascism

Yesterday I wound up reading a long conversation about the new liturgy in a forum where one would not normally find such a thing. Among other things, there was an extremely angry person who continually called the pope a fascist and, as far as I could gather, seemed to feel that in stating her opinion in the most angry and forceful way possible, she was following in the steps of those who helped the Church stay on course. No amount of conversation, whether gentle or spirited (and there were both sorts) was enough to shake her set beliefs.

I was left to my own thoughts on whose steps she felt she was following and, therefore, my thoughts turned to the great saints who have been instrumental in changing the Church in the past. St. Francis of Assisi and St. Teresa of Avila are those who always come to my mind, although I never can think of examples where they were not obedient and respectful as well as continually trying to effect change. Not being educated extensively in their writings, I could be wrong, of course.

Most mystifying of all to me was the repeated appellation of Pope Benedict as a "fascist." I don't really understand what that means and I surely don't understand why it would be applied to him. It was, therefore, with delight that this morning I read in The Habit of Being, Flannery's own response to being called a fascist because she was Catholic.

To "A."6 september 55

I looked in my Webster's and see it is 1948, so you are five years ahead of me in your vocabulary and I'll have to concede you the word. But I can't concede that I'm a fascist. The thought is probably more repugnant to me than to you, as I see it as an offense against the body of Christ. I am wondering why you convict me of believing in the use of force? It must be because you connect the Church with a belief in the use of force; but the Church is a mystical body which cannot, does not, believe in the use of force (in the sense of forcing conscience, denying the rights of conscience, etc.). I know all her hair-raising history, of course, but principle must be separated from policy Policy and politics generally go contrary to principle. I in principle do not believe in the use of force, but I might well find myself using it, in which case I would have to convict myself of sin. I believe and the Church teaches that God is as present in the idiot boy as in the genius. ...

Whether or not this has any application to that pitifully angry person's labeling of the pope is anybody's guess. But I liked what Flannery said anyway.

The Thoughtfulness of Pope Benedict XVI

Back in the day when the Pope was Cardinal Ratzinger, Pete Seewald did a series of interviews which give us great insight into the way our Papa thinks. And I like it. Here's a great example directly swiped from Webster at Why I Am Catholic. Tge non-italicized words are Webster's commentary. Go there to read all of his post.

In the interviews that became God and the World (Ignatius Press, 2002), German journalist Peter Seewald asked then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger:

In the course of two thousand years of Christian history, the Church has divided time and again. In the meantime, there are around three hundred distinguishable Protestant, Orthodox, or other churches. There are way over a thousand Baptist groups in the United States. Over against these there is still the Roman Catholic Church with the pope at her head, which claims to be the only true Church. She remains at any rate, and despite every crisis, indeed the most universal, historically significant, and successful Church in the world, with more members today than at any time in her history.

This question asked by a skeptical young journalist, no Catholic at the time he asked it, might seem to be what Frank would call a “fat pitch.” Did Ratzinger, in his answer, knock Protestantism out of the park in a grand slam of triumphalism? No, the cardinal laid down a thoughtful bunt single—then stole second, third, and home:

I think that in the spirit of Vatican II we ought not to see that as a triumph for our prowess as Catholics and ought not to make much of the institutional and numerical strength we continue to enjoy. If we were to reckon that as our achievement and as our right, then we would step outside the role of a people belonging to God and set ourselves up as an association in our own right. And that can very quickly go wrong. A Church may have great institutional power in a country, but as soon as faith is no longer there to back it up, the institution will break down.


Perhaps you know the mediaeval story of a Jew who traveled to the papal court and who became a Catholic. On his return, someone who knew the papal court well asked him: “Do you realize what sort of things are going on there?” “Yes,” he said, “of course, quite scandalous things, I saw it all.” “And you still became a Catholic,” remarked the other man. “That’s completely perverse!” Then the Jew said, “It is because of all that that I have become a Catholic. For if the Church continues to exist in spite of it all, then truly there must be someone upholding her.” And there is another story, to the effect that Napoleon once declared that he would destroy the Church. Whereupon one of the cardinals replied, “Not even we have managed that!”


I believe that we see something important in these paradoxical tales. There have in fact always been plenty of human monstrosities in the Catholic Church. That she still holds together, even if she groans and creaks, that she is still in existence, that she produces great martyrs and great believers, people who put their whole lives at her service, as missionaries, as nurses, as teachers, that really does show that there is someone there upholding her.


We cannot, then, reckon the Church’s success as our own reward, but we may still say, with Vatican II—even if the Lord has given a great deal of life to other churches and communities—that the Church herself, as an active agent, has survived and is present in this agent. And that can only be explained by the fact that He grants what men cannot achieve.

May 24 is a Day of Prayer for The Church in China

I have always had a particular interest in China and more recently a conviction that I should be praying for Christians there so I was delighted to see Pope Benedict's declaration that today is a day dedicated to prayer for the Church in China.

Dear Pastors and all the faithful, the date 24 May could in the future become an occasion for the Catholics of the whole world to be united in prayer with the Church which is in China. This day is dedicated to the liturgical memorial of Our Lady, Help of Christians, who is venerated with great devotion at the Marian Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai.

I would like that date to be kept by you as a day of prayer for the Church in China. I encourage you to celebrate it by renewing your communion of faith in Jesus our Lord and of faithfulness to the Pope, and by praying that the unity among you may become ever deeper and more visible. I remind you, moreover, of the commandment that Jesus gave us, to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us, as well as the invitation of the Apostle Saint Paul: "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:1-4).

On that same day, the Catholics of the whole world – in particular those who are of Chinese origin – will demonstrate their fraternal solidarity and solicitude for you, asking the Lord of history for the gift of perseverance in witness, in the certainty that your sufferings past and present for the Holy Name of Jesus and your intrepid loyalty to his Vicar on earth will be rewarded, even if at times everything can seem a failure.

Pope Benedict XVI, Letter to the Church in China

Here is the prayer that Pope Benedict composed for this day.

Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Incarnate Word and our Mother,
venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title “Help of Christians”,
the entire Church in China looks to you with devout affection.
We come before you today to implore your protection.
Look upon the People of God and, with a mother’s care, guide them
along the paths of truth and love, so that they may always be
a leaven of harmonious coexistence among all citizens.

When you obediently said “yes” in the house of Nazareth,
you allowed God’s eternal Son to take flesh in your virginal womb
and thus to begin in history the work of our redemption.
You willingly and generously cooperated in that work,
allowing the sword of pain to pierce your soul,
until the supreme hour of the Cross, when you kept watch on Calvary,
standing beside your Son, who died that we might live.

From that moment, you became, in a new way,
the Mother of all those who receive your Son Jesus in faith
and choose to follow in his footsteps by taking up his Cross.
Mother of hope, in the darkness of Holy Saturday you journeyed
with unfailing trust towards the dawn of Easter.
Grant that your children may discern at all times,
even those that are darkest, the signs of God’s loving presence.

Our Lady of Sheshan, sustain all those in China,
who, amid their daily trials, continue to believe, to hope, to love.
May they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world,
and of the world to Jesus.
In the statue overlooking the Shrine you lift your Son on high,
offering him to the world with open arms in a gesture of love.
Help Catholics always to be credible witnesses to this love,
ever clinging to the rock of Peter on which the Church is built.
Mother of China and all Asia, pray for us, now and for ever. Amen!

For those interested in Our Lady, Help of Christians, and May 24, here is some good info.

Amy Welborn also has oodles of good links about this entire subject.

Call for Pope to step down? What are these people, crazy?

Heaven help me. A couple of my brothers-in-law, not to mention my father, are going to have a field day with this one. I do not look forward to the next family get-together.

Ok, I tried to rise above by largely ignoring this whole broohaha over the Pope, the SSPX and Bishop Williamson's ignorant views. However, I have been stirred to action by The Deeps of Time who points out that Catholics should be stepping up to Pope Benedict's defense.

Good point.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I am going to take his excellent defense and reproduce it here. I urge you to go to his blog for several pertinent links within the article ... and also because that blog is just generally excellent anyway.

It's Not a Sin to Be Stupid

I don’t like to take this blog off-topic often, but when one sees the Pope being unjustly attacked in the press, as he is now, I think all Catholics ought to step up to his defense. The issue, of course, is the recent lifting of the excommunication of the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X, and the outcry over Bishop Williamson’s doubts about the historicity of the Holocaust.

(To begin with a disclaimer, I find Bishop Williamson’s historical position to be ignorant, and the position of the Society of Pius X to be hypocritical, prideful, and disobedient. This post’s defense of the Pope’s decision to lift the excommunication should not be construed as a defense of the Bishop’s opinions.)

What the media and the Pope’s critics can’t seem to understand is that the two issues are entirely unrelated. Bishop Williamson’s comments are surely stupid, but it’s not a sin to be stupid. Catholics are not excommunicated for holding questionable historical views on issues unrelated to doctrine — and therefore excommunications are not maintained simply because such questionable views continue to be held.

Here’s an analogy: imagine that you were accused of a crime, and as a punishment had your driver’s license revoked. When you have completed your sentence, you go back to the DMV to get your license back, and are told that’s not possible. When you ask if that’s part of the sentence, you’re told no, you were just overheard voicing some batty historical theories, so you can’t get your license back. Bad P.R., you see. Obviously, your rights as a citizen have been violated. The issue of your historical opinion is unrelated to your standing with respect to your civic rights.

Likewise with Bishop Williamson — his views on the Holocaust, however offensive, have no bearing whatsoever on his canonical standing as a Catholic. The Pope has determined that the conditions for lifting the excommunication have been met. (Look for Ed Peters’ analysis of the issue when he gets it posted.) The media criticism betrays a complete lack of understanding as to what an excommunication is. It is a canonical penalty for very specific sins, not a censure of stupid opinions. This campaign against the Pope is nothing more than an attempt to smear and undermine his image in the public mind, which Catholics should stoutly resist.

Teach Your Children Well ... Reviewing "The Fathers" by Pope Benedict XVI

Finally, [St.] Basil was of course also concerned with that chosen portion of the People of God, the youth, society's future. He addressed a Discourse to them on how to benefit from the pagan culture of that time.

He recognized with great balance and openness that examples of virtue can be found in classical Greek and Latin literature. Such examples of upright living can be helpful to young Christians in search of the truth and the correct way of living.

Therefore, one must take from the texts by classical authors what is suitable and conforms with the truth: thus, with a critical and open approach--it is a question of true and proper "discernment"--young people grow in freedom.

With the famous image of bees that gather from flowers only what they need to make honey, Basil recommends: "Just as bees can take nectar from flowers, unlike other animals which limit themselves to enjoying their scent and color, so also from these writings...once can draw some benefit for the spirit. We must use these books, following in all things the examples of bees. They do not visit every flower without distinction, nor seek to remove all the nectar from the flowers on which they alight, but only draw from them what they need to make honey, and leave the rest. And if we are wise, we will take from those writings what is appropriate for us, and conform to the truth, ignoring the rest."

... Dear brothers and sisters, I think one can say that this Father from long ago also speaks to us and tells us important things.

In the first place, attentive, critical, and creative participation in today's culture.

Then, social responsibility: this is an age in which, in a globalized world, even people who are physically distant are really our neighbors; therefore, friendship with Christ, the God with the human face. ...

One of the things that may surprise the reader of this series of homilies given by Pope Benedict XVI is just how much pertinent information can be packed into a short piece. As one flows into the next we are treated to a history of the growing understanding of the revelation of Jesus Christ. We also watch the struggles taken on for the truth, not simply against pagans, but with those who have developed heretical doctrines.

Each homily, nicely edited to read as an essay, encapsulates the Father's life history, influences, and career. Pope Benedict then focuses on a key area of influence which that particular Father has had on the faith. Most importantly, he shows just how significant this influence can be to modern society and to each of us personally if we reflect upon it. I was reminded of just how little human nature has changed over time as I repeatedly felt the applicability of these teachings to our lives today.

As wall, we are reminded that none of us is perfect and these Church Fathers are noting if not human. Pope Benedict is not shy about pointing out a person's failings, though he always does so with charity and in order to emphasize a topic for our personal reflection.

An interesting item to note is that every single Father strongly emphasizes prayer. Each has his own particular focus or style, but the constant refrain from person to person serves as a strong reminder to us that this is a vital area where we must persevere in order to come into a good and loving relationship with God.

Notwithstanding all the theological richness of his [Origen's] thought, his is never a purely academic approach; it is always founded on the experience of prayer, of contact with God. Indeed, to his mind, knowledge of the Scriptures requires prayer and intimacy with Christ even more than study.

He was convinced that the best way to become acquainted with God is through love, and that there is no authentic scientia Christi without falling in love with him.

In his Letter to Gregory, Origen recommends: "Study first of all the lectio of the divine Scriptures. Study them, I say. for we need to study the divine writings deeply... and while you study these divine works with a believing and God-pleasing intention, knock at that which is closed in them and it shall be opened to you by the porter of whom Jesus says, 'To him the gatekeeper opens.'

"While you attend to this lectio divina, seek aright and with unwavering faith in God the hidden sense which is present in most passages of the divine Scriptures. And do not be content with knocking and seeking, for what is absolutely necessary for understanding divine things is oratio, and in urging us to this the Savior says not only 'knock and it will be opened to you,' and 'seek and you will find,' but also 'ask and it will be given you.'"

The "primordial role" played by Origen in the history of lectio divina instantly flashes before one's eyes. Bishop Ambrose of Milan, who learned from Origen's works to interpret the Scriptures, later introduced them into the West to hand them on to Augustine and to the monastic tradition that followed.

It is a pleasure to see that Pope Benedict doesn't just include the better known Fathers, although he does go into extra depth for some of them such as St. Basil, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Augustine. He takes care to highlight the richness of the Eastern Church by including such lesser known Fathers as Aphraates "The Sage" and St. Ephrem, the Syrian.

It says much for Pope Benedict's abilities that he was able to synthesize such a vast amount of information about the Fathers the history of the Church, and the application of their teachings to modern life in general and our own lives in particular. What a gift this collection is for those who read it thoughtfully. Each of the essays is fairly short so that they could easily be made part of a daily devotional reading if desired. As well, this book is a nice companion volume to The Apostles, a previous collection of Pope Benedict's homilies.

Highly recommended.

This review was written as part of The Catholic Company product reviewer program. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on The Fathers by Pope Benedict XVI.

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What Does "the Incarnation" Really Mean?

Our church bulletin insert from last Sunday.

Considering the Truth of the Incarnation

“No worldly mind would ever have suspected that He Who could make the sun warm the earth would one day have need of an ox and an ass to warm Him with their breath; that He Who, in the language of Scriptures, could stop the turning about of Arcturus would have His birthplace dictated by an imperial census; that He, Who clothed the fields with grass, would Himself be naked; that He, from Whose hands came planets and worlds, would one day have tiny arms that were not long enough to touch the huge heads of the cattle; that the feet which trod the everlasting hills would one day be too weak to walk; that the Eternal Word would be dumb; that Omnipotence would be wrapped in swaddling clothes; that Salvation would lie in a manger; that the bird which built the nest would be hatched therein—no one would have ever suspected that God coming to this earth would ever be so helpless. And that is precisely why so many miss Him. Divinity is always where one least expects to find it. ...

No man can love anything unless he can get his arms around it, and the cosmos is too big and too bulky. But once God became a Babe and was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, men could say, “This is Emmanuel, this is God with us.” By His reaching down to frail human nature and lifting it up to the incomparable prerogative of union with Himself, human nature became dignified. So real was this union that all of His acts and words, all of His agonies and tears, all of His thoughts and reasonings, resolves and emotions, while being properly human, were at the same time the acts and words, agonies and tears, thought and reasonings, resolves and emotions of the Eternal Son of God.”

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ

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In our meditations upon the Incarnation we encounter many familiar images. This is natural and to be expected. It is automatic to think sentimentally and comfortably about the little babe, the adoring parents, singing angels, startled shepherds, and Magi with gifts, while traditional carols echo in our ears.

However, as Fulton Sheen reminds us, the reality of the Incarnation is not comfortable at all. It is God breaking into human time and nature and history to effect a miracle so outrageous that no one would have thought it up in their wildest dreams. The Second Person of the Trinity willingly takes on our limited human nature, purely for love of us. Shocking? Yes. Amazing? Yes. But comfortable? No.

This also is a good reminder that it is very easy to read into Scripture what we would like to see. Pulling the truth out of Scripture, also called exegesis, is considerably more difficult. That truth may prove quite a bit more surprising than we expect. God does have a habit of showing us truth in surprising ways.

To think of the Christ child at Christmas is natural. Undeniably those are the images of the season. However, the meaning of this baby for us and for all mankind is far from a sentimental picture. Jesus comes to us as a baby so we will learn something of his real nature and of the beginning of the path that he will tread and that we must follow.

Pope Benedict XVI helps us to consider further the layers of meaning in the Incarnation. In a Christmas homily* he said:

“God’s sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. … God’s sign is simplicity. … God’s sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby – defenceless and in need of our help. … He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will – we learn to live with him and to practise with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. ...”

In our meditations upon the Incarnation we encounter many familiar images. This is natural and to be expected. However, let us not settle for comfort. Let us dig deeper and discover the true nature of the Lord, he who is Love incarnate, who came to show that love for you and for me.

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* Read online Pope Benedict XVI’s entire homily from Midnight Mass, Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord.

Love That Spe Salvi ... Christ, the True Teacher

Reading the encyclical ... and I am only about a third through it ... some things are just hitting me right in the face. So simple and yet so unrealized until I read what Pope Benedict says. For instance, try this on for size ...

... Philosophy at that time was not generally seen as a difficult academic discipline, as it is today. Rather, the philosopher was someone who knew how to teach the essential art: the art of being authentically human—the art of living and dying. To be sure, it had long since been realized that many of the people who went around pretending to be philosophers, teachers of life, were just charlatans who made money through their words, while having nothing to say about real life. All the more, then, the true philosopher who really did know how to point out the path of life was highly sought after. Towards the end of the third century, on the sarcophagus of a child in Rome, we find for the first time, in the context of the resurrection of Lazarus, the figure of Christ as the true philosopher, holding the Gospel in one hand and the philosopher's travelling staff in the other. With his staff, he conquers death; the Gospel brings the truth that itinerant philosophers had searched for in vain. In this image, which then became a common feature of sarcophagus art for a long time, we see clearly what both educated and simple people found in Christ: he tells us who man truly is and what a man must do in order to be truly human. He shows us the way, and this way is the truth. He himself is both the way and the truth, and therefore he is also the life which all of us are seeking. He also shows us the way beyond death; only someone able to do this is a true teacher of life. ...

Saved in Hope: Pope's New Encyclical Released

Pope Benedict XVI released Spe Salvi (Saved in Hope) today. The very word "encyclical" seems intimidating but I often have found encyclicals to be surprisingly easy to read and understand.

So now the Pope has written about love and hope. Can an encyclical on faith be far behind?

John Allen reports "Benedict wanted this encyclical to appear in the Christmas season, since Christmas is the great feast of the Incarnation, traditionally understood as the principal symbol of Christian hope. On Saturday, the church enters the period of Advent, pointing towards Christmas."

Get the Vatican's English translation of Spe Salvi.

John Allen has two articles about it already which I will be reading after I have read the document itself.

• Spe Salvi a 'Greatest Hits' collection of core Ratzinger ideas
• Benedict XVI offers the second in a possible triptych of encyclicals: 'Saved by Hope'

The Eucharist and the Church

In my continuing efforts to keep up (which I am failing dismally) in sharing our bulletin inserts about Sacramentum Caritatis, here is #12.

The Eucharist, causal principle (A) of the Church

14. Through the sacrament of the Eucharist Jesus draws the faithful into his “hour;” (B) he shows us the bond that he willed to establish between himself and us, between his own person and the Church. Indeed, in the sacrifice of the Cross, Christ gave birth to the Church as his Bride and his body. The Fathers of the Church often meditated on the relationship between Eve’s coming forth from the side of Adam as he slept (cf. Gen 2:21-23) and the coming forth of the new Eve, the Church, from the open side of Christ sleeping in death (C): from Christ’s pierced side, John recounts, there came forth blood and water (cf. Jn 19:34), the symbol of the sacraments (30). A contemplative gaze “upon him whom they have pierced” (Jn 19:37) leads us to reflect on the causal connection between Christ’s sacrifice, the Eucharist and the Church. The Church “draws her life from the Eucharist” (31). Since the Eucharist makes present Christ’s redeeming sacrifice, we must start by acknowledging that “there is a causal influence of the Eucharist at the Church’s very origins” (32). The Eucharist is Christ who gives himself to us and continually builds us up as his body. Hence, in the striking interplay between the Eucharist which builds up the Church, and the Church herself which “makes” the Eucharist (33), the primary causality (D) is expressed in the first formula: the Church is able to celebrate and adore the mystery of Christ present in the Eucharist precisely because Christ first gave himself to her in the sacrifice of the Cross. The Church’s ability to “make” the Eucharist is completely rooted in Christ’s self-gift to her. Here we can see more clearly the meaning of Saint John’s words: “he first loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). We too, at every celebration of the Eucharist, confess the primacy of Christ’s gift. The causal influence of the Eucharist at the Church’s origins definitively discloses both the chronological and ontologicalE priority of the fact that it was Christ who loved us “first.” For all eternity he remains the one who loves us first.

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The concept that Christ gave birth to the Church in his sacrifice on the Cross is one that the Church Fathers knew well but it is not contemplated much these days. Likewise, the idea of the Church as “the new Eve” is one that is not found frequently, if at all. Quite often these are new and surprising to modern Catholics.

Pope Benedict expands upon these ideas to consider the centrality of the Eucharist in the Church’s existence, especially as rooted in Christ’s self-giving sacrifice for our sakes. The interplay between the Eucharist, the Church, and Christ can be confusing but actually is simply enough presented here. Read over the paragraph slowly and contemplate the life-giving cycle that was established by Christ, all because he loved us first.

Footnotes

(30) Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 3; for an example, see: Saint John Chrysostom, Catechesis 3, 13-19: SC 50, 174-177.
(31) John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia (17 April 2003), 1: AAS 95 (2003), 433.
(32) Ibid., 21: AAS 95 (2003), 447.
(33) Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979), 20: AAS 71 (1979), 309-316; Apostolic Letter Dominicae Cenae (24 February 1980), 4: AAS 72 (1980), 119-121.

Explanatory Notes

A - Causal principle: the reason and means by which a thing or reality comes into existance.
B - His “hour”: Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension; His victory over sin and death.
C - Jesus “sleeping” in death: We read texts sometimes very simply — a series of words with meanings: assemble the words, assemble the meanings. The ancients, as well as students of literature and theologians read not only words but the images and symbols of the text. Such reading produces deeper understanding. In the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve, we see a symbol/type foreshadowing Jesus, the reality/archetype. The Old Testament story gives us insight into the new.
D - Primary causality: principle cause.
E - Ontological: ontology is the study of what a thing is and how and why it exists.

This one of a weekly series of excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis. You are encouraged to read the entire document. The Vatican link to that document as well as to Pope Benedict’s first encyclical can be found on the website, www.stthomasaquinas.org.

The Holy Spirit and the Eucharist-2

Bulletin insert #11 from our parish's series of excerpts about Sacramentum Caritatis.

The Holy Spirit and the eucharistic celebration

13. Against this backdrop we can understand the decisive role played by the Holy Spirit in the eucharistic celebration, particularly with regard to transubstantiation. An awareness of this is clearly evident in the Fathers of the Church. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catecheses, states that we “call upon God in his mercy to send his Holy Spirit upon the offerings before us, to transform the bread into the body of Christ and the wine into the blood of Christ. Whatever the Holy Spirit touches is sanctified and completely transformed” (25). Saint John Chrysostom too notes that the priest invokes the Holy Spirit when he celebrates the sacrifice: (26) like Elijah, the minister calls down the Holy Spirit so that “as grace comes down upon the victim, the souls of all are thereby inflamed” (27). The spiritual life of the faithful can benefit greatly from a better appreciation of the richness of the anaphora*: along with the words spoken by Christ at the Last Supper, it contains the epiclesis**, the petition to the Father to send down the gift of the Spirit so that the bread and the wine will become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and that “the community as a whole will become ever more the body of Christ” (28). The Spirit invoked by the celebrant upon the gifts of bread and wine placed on the altar is the same Spirit who gathers the faithful “into one body” and makes of them a spiritual offering pleasing to the Father (29).

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With our understanding of the way the Holy Spirit has been moving in and through the world since Creation, it naturally follows that He would also be the chosen instrument for the creative act of the transformation of bread and wine into the Eucharist, the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.

While Pope Benedict here traces the Holy Spirit’s involvement in this transformation, the Holy Spirit’s action does not stop here, although one would think that transubstantiation of bread and wine into the living Christ would be more than enough. Even more interesting and involving for us is the fact that, as St. John Chrysostom says, “as grace comes down upon the victim, the souls of all are thereby inflamed.” The Holy Spirit’s power comes upon us, transforms us in ways that are not visible to the eye but are substantial changes to our souls, and sends us forth into the world again to do the Father’s will. A careful reading of the Eucharistic prayers will find a kind of double epiclesis, the transformation not only of the bread and wine, but the transformation of ourselves into the Church, the body of Christ.

We can prepare ourselves for these changes, in part, by being open to doing the Father’s will and by recognizing the power of the Holy Spirit to make us into His gift to the world.

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(25) Cat. XXIII, 7: PG 33, 1114ff.
(26) Cf. De Sacerdotio, VI, 4: PG 48, 681.
(27) Ibid., III, 4: PG 48, 642.
(28) Propositio 22.
(29) Cf. Propositio 42: “This eucharistic encounter takes place in the Holy Spirit, who transforms and sanctifies us. He re- awakens in the disciple the firm desire to proclaim boldly to others all that he has heard and experienced, to bring them to the same encounter with Christ. Thus the disciple, sent forth by the Church, becomes open to a mission without frontiers.”
* Anaphora: (Greek, ànaphorá), offering, sacrifice, a word used commonly for the Eucharistic prayer.
** Epiclesis: The name of a prayer that occurs after the words of Institution, in which the celebrant prays that God may send down His Holy Spirit to change this bread and wine into the Body and Blood of His Son.
This is one of a weekly series of excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis. You are encouraged to read the entire document. The Vatican link to that document as well as to Pope Benedict’s first encyclical can be found on the website, www.stthomasaquinas.org.