Faith and Feeling

Faith is not some state of feeling we get ourselves into. It is much simpler than that. It is simply believing in God and therefore believing everything he has revealed -- no matter how we feel. "God said it, so I believe it, and that settles it."

Feelings are influenced by external things, like fashions and fads, wind and weather, diet and digestion. But when God gives us the gift of faith, he gives it from within, from within our own free will.

The devil can influence our feelings, but he has no control over our faith.

We are not responsible for our (unfree) feelings, but we are responsible for our (free) faith.

Yet, though faith is not a feeling, it often produces feelings: of trust, peace, gratitude, and confidence, for instance. And faith can also be aided by feelings: for instance, when we feel trustful or grateful to someone, God or man, it is much easier for us to believe him than we feel mistrustful or ungrateful.

But even when we do not feel trustful or peaceful, we can still believe. Faith is not dependent on feelings. It is dependent on facts: divinely revealed facts.

There is a Chinese parable about faith and feeling. Fact, Faith, and Feeling are three men walking along the top of a well. As long as Faith keeps his eyes on Fact, ahead of him, all three keep walking. But when Faith takes his eyes off Fact and turns around to worry about how Feeling is doing, both Faith and Feeling fall off the wall. (But Fact never does.)

Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Are There Animals in Heaven?

I have a few friends whose pets have died recently or who have just found out about a bad pet illness. This is from last July for anyone who wants to see what Peter Kreeft says about the subject.

Interpreting Scripture

... the Church is the servant of Scripture, as a teacher is faithful to her textbook. Her Book comes alive when the Holy Spirit teaches through her, as a sword comes alive in the hands of a great swordsman (see Heb 4:12).

Some of the most important principles of interpreting Scripture are:

1. All Scripture is a word-picture of Christ. The Word of God in words (Scripture) is about the Word of God in flesh (Christ).


2. Therefore the Old Testament is to be interpreted in light of the New (and vice versa), for Christ came not "to abolish the law and the prophets ... but to fulfill them" (Mt 5:17).


3. Saints are the best interpreters of Scripture, because their hearts are closer to the heart of God, Scripture's primary Author. Christ said, "If any man's will is to do his [the Father's] will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God" (Jn 7:17).


4. The Gospels are the very heart of Scripture. The saints found no better material for meditation than these (see CCC 125-27).


5. Each passage should be interpreted in its context -- both the immediate context of the passage and the overall context of the whole Bible in its unity, all the parts cohering together.


6. Scripture should be interpreted from within the living tradition of the Church. This is not narrow and limiting, but expansive and deep. It is also reasonable; for suppose a living author had written a book many years ago and had been teaching that book every day: Who could interpret that book better than he?

Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Where Do I Go When I Need to Feel Closer to Jesus?

About two weeks ago when I just felt like I needed to get closer to Jesus. I instinctively started praying the rosary. That answer might surprise people who don't know about the rosary. I know it surprised me when I first started learning about it.

The first time I ever prayed the rosary was about five years ago when Hannah had woken us in the night with extreme stomach pains and Tom wound up taking her to the emergency room to see if it was appendicitis. I didn't know the first thing about the rosary except that it was supposed to be a great way to pray ... and, truth to tell, I was in quite a panic and wanted someone who would relate to me ... another mother ... Mary. Of course, I did it all wrong. I managed to dig up the actual prayers, I counted off the prayers as I said them aloud and ... I prayed to Mary for Hannah to be well. It was like a textbook case of what critics of the rosary would point to. Hannah was fine and I know that God understood my total confusion. But with that panic filled night arose my determination to find out what the story was with Mary and that rosary.

I went to Amazon (where else?) and got the easiest book I could find to fill me in, Christ's Mother and Ours by Oscar Lukefahr. I already knew the rosary beads are simply a set of counting beads to help you keep track of your prayers. As you say each prayer you go on to the next bead. However, what I learned was that the vocal prayers are intended to be aids in meditating on various events in Jesus' and his mother's life. When you pray, you mentally concentrate on either the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, or Glorious mysteries. You put yourself "in the scene" for each of the mysteries. I have heard it said that praying the rosary is praying the Gospels. As Pope John Paul II said in his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae we are contemplating Christ with Mary.

Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring his every word: "She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart" (Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51). The memories of Jesus, impressed upon her heart, were always with her, leading her to reflect on the various moments of her life at her Son's side. In a way those memories were to be the "rosary" which she recited uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life.

When I found out all that then the rosary started to mean something to me. It didn't change my life. I am not devoted to it. I go through fits and spurts and usually wind up saying it while driving to work (long ago having memorized the prayers and mysteries). However, if I really stay focused and meditate on the mysteries it is a rare occasion when I do not come away enlightened ... sometimes by something in an event, sometimes by God reaching through the prayers to touch me. And, if nothing else, I have been spending about 20 minutes contemplating events from the Gospels ... and that can't hurt!

I'm in the mood to talk about the rosary so there'll be more later about the prayers themselves and what those mysteries actually are.

Why We Need Faith

We need faith because our world is full of death.

And so are we. Each one of us will die. So will each nation. Many individuals and nations will also kill. Our world has always been a world at war with itself, because it has been at war with God. Thomas Merton wrote: "We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves. And we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God."

Human nature does not change. Today we live in what the Vicar of Christ has called "the culture of death," a culture that kills children before birth and kills childhood after birth, kills innocence and faithfulness and families. What is the answer to this culture of death?

Faith. The Catholic faith is the answer.

Faith in the God who has not left us in the dark but has revealed himself as our Creator; who, out of his love, designed us for a life of love, in this world and in the next.

Faith in the gospel, the good news of the man who said he was God come down from heaven to die on the Cross to save us from sin and to rise from the grave to save us from death.

Faith in the Church he left us as his visible body on earth, empowered by his Spirit, authorized to teach in his name, with his authority: to invite us to believe the truth of his gospel, to live the life of his love, and to celebrate the sacraments of his presence.

This church is our only sure and certain light in this beautiful but broken world.

Faith is the answer to fear. Deep down we are all afraid: of suffering, or of dying, or of God's judgment, or of the unknown, or of weakness, or of our lives slipping out of our control, or of not being understood and loved. We sin because we fear. We bully because we are cowards.

Faith casts out fear as light casts out darkness. God has shone his light into our world, and it is stronger than darkness (Jn 1:5).

That light is Jesus Christ.

Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Let's Talk Doctrine ... Catholic Doctrine, That Is

Y'all may remember that Wayne, the Questions and Answers guy had some "easy" questions for me.

1. Has the Catholic church ever been wrong on doctrine?
2. If it were wrong on a doctrine how do you correct it?

I'm going to begin with looking at where Catholic doctrine comes from. In so doing, I believe the answers to the above questions will become obvious. Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says.

God has said everything in his Word

65 "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son." Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father's one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. St. John of the Cross, among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2:

In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.

There will be no further Revelation

66 "The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries

67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.

Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfilment, as is the case in certain nonChristian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations".

Catechism of the Catholic Church

So what that all boils down to is that, because God revealed his plan of salvation to us through the prophets of the Old Testament and then came as Christ to reveal the plan's culmination, we cannot change the deposit of faith. We have to stick with what we were given. We do not have the authority to change it.

This doesn't mean that the faith doesn't change, however. As explanations and interpretations of the original deposit of faith happen over time the faith grows from within, somewhat like a plant. However, every new interpretation must be tested against the original deposit of faith (see this for Cardinal Newman's seven tests of doctrinal development which help illustrate this point).

The interpretation and transmission of the faith is done by the Magisterium.

The Magisterium of the Church

85 "The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ." This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

86 "Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith."

87 Mindful of Christ's words to his apostles: "He who hears you, hears me", The faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Based on the fact that I trust Jesus set us on the right road and that the Holy Spirit is working through the Magisterium to maintain the deposit of the faith, my answer to the question of Catholic doctrine ever being wrong is ... no, it has not been wrong.

This is not to say that people, being the fallible creatures that we are, could not misapply doctrine either through error or for their own purposes. When we look at the 2,000 year history of the Church we can see, sadly, too many examples of such behavior. However, the doctrine itself is divinely revealed and we also can look at that same history and see where the Holy Spirit has put the Church back on the proper course.

The law of God entrusted to the Church is taught to the faithful as the way of life and truth. The faithful therefore have the right to be instructed in the divine saving precepts that purify judgment and, with grace, heal wounded human reason. They have the duty of observing the constitutions and decrees conveyed by the legitimate authority of the Church. Even if they concern disciplinary matters, these determinations call for docility in charity.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2037

That leads neatly to the question of what one would do if a doctrine were wrong, which I will look at from the point of view of a doctrine being misused. Church history gives us examples of saints who had various problems with the powers-that-be of the time. I have read time and again of many different types of saints who were trying to found orders, get the pope to move from France to Rome, or other tasks that seemed impossible to effect. In all the cases I can think of, they were first of all obedient to any orders given them, but persisted in prayer, petition, and working toward their goals within the confines of obedience ... and God used them for dramatic reforms in some cases. Just as the saints give us examples of how to grow closer to God, they also are the examples I would use in seeking reform.

However, before going through all that it would behoove me to thoroughly study the doctrine in question. This is something that I went through on several issues after I converted and so I have very strong feelings about it.

"So I should blindly follow, eh?" Well ... no. We ought to find out why we disagree. If we're really about truth and seeing the whole picture, we'd be concerned about what part we were missing. What does the Church know that we don't? Once you look into all the reasoning behind the Church's stance and understand, it's pretty obvious that it's the truth. I've also found that the more often you do this, the more your conscience conforms to Catholicism and you begin to see that what you believe is the same as the Church's belief. Which is good. So what I'm getting at is that it's logical to believe whatever the Church teaches on faith and morals because if follows from the conclusion in the paragraph above, but we have to force our wills and intellects to do it.

De Fidei Obedientia

If I had not gone through the process that De Fedei Obedientia describes (and done it more than once) only to find that my logic had nothing on that of 2,000 years of Church Fathers, then I would not be Catholic. There would be no point to it because without believing in the Catholic doctrine and the Holy Spirit's guidance of the Church then you are left with nothing.

The only honest reason to be a Christian is because you believe in Christ's claim to be God incarnate. The only honest reason to be a Catholic is because you believe the Church's claim to be the divinely authorized Body of this Christ.

Peter Kreeft, Catholic Christianity

Sources: Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catholic Christianity, Why Do Catholics Do That?

May is Mary's Month

(After I told Steven Riddle I didn't like poetry, what did I find in my quote journal but this which cries out for being posted on May Day.)

The May Magnificat

May is Mary's month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:

Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season --

Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,

Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour

Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?

Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother;
Her reply puts this other

Question: What is Spring? --
Growth in everything --

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather
Grass and green world all together;

Star-eyed strawberry breasted
Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;

And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising

With that world of good
Nature's motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind

How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord

Well but there was more than this:
Spring's universal bliss

Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple

And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surféd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes

And magic cuckoo call
Caps, clears, and clinches all --

This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth

To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Haiku and Monkey

In his pursuit of poetry, Steven Riddle has moved on to haiku, which is one form of poetry that I always have admired.

I share this admiration with Monkey who celebrated April as National Poetry Month although I neglected to share any of this with y'all. Always the artist with prose, as anyone could tell from reading this delicate tale of composing a Pannetone Bread Pudding, Monkey also is an spontaneous composer of haiku as when during a pause in making Limeade, this came forth:

refreshing limeade
dancing over cool ice cubes
nectar of the gods.

Is it any wonder that Monkey's friends respond in kind?

joy envelopes me
reading erudite monkey
my soul is lifted

Truly inspirational.

Hitler, Iraq, and Rose ... Oh My!

I was fixing dinner. Rose was reading about World War II, telling me of various revelations ... Hitler said that he was on tenterhooks during the first 48 hours after invading the Rhineland because if France had moved to stop him, Germany would have had to retreat ... Goebels said that if the authorities had moved against the Brown Shirts in the early days the Nazis never could have regrouped and regained their power ... and so on. She was struck by the fact that because people failed to step up and do the right thing, all the destruction and evil of WWII had happened. We then wondered how many similar tragedies had been averted that we never would know about ... simply because people had stepped forward to do the right thing when it didn't seem as if it would matter.

Later, she suddenly looked up from her book and said that she was struck by the connection between Hitler and Saddam Hussein. "What the????," I elegantly replied. Rose had just read that after the final treaties of the war, democratic leaders everywhere vowed they would never appease another ruthless dictator. She said, "That is just the way Saddam Hussein was doing things ... like Hitler ... the Rhineland, Austria ... a little here, a little there to see what everyone would put up with. We were appeasing him until we sent troops in."

It's not an exactly similar situation and no doubt greater minds than ours have already seen this connection ... but in our kitchen, that light bulb went on and we wondered if this was one of those situations where a huge tragedy was averted by doing the right thing when it didn't seem as if it would matter.

What the Heck is Anime?

Find out in in the new issue of Spero News ... along with a whole lotta other interesting stories. Why did I mention the anime story? It's mine. ha!

You Should Be Watching "House"

If there were a cynicism and insult meter, this program would easily be the most sarcastic, cynical program on television. House himself is constant barrage of bitter, sarcastic wit. His co-workers have little choice but to answer -- and work -- in the same terms. House won't even turn it off for strangers or patients. Add to this the fact that for most of the hour, the doctors are openly guessing what the disease-of-the-week might be in something not unlike a parlor game of "20 Questions." Yes, they conduct tests and use the most technologically sophisticated diagnostic techniques and they are all very bright, but in almost every show you will hear some version of "We have no idea what this is," and "Let's try this and see if it kills them." ...

Dr. House isn't a one-dimensional ogre, however. He has relationships, a history and an inner life. Already, we know he has an ex-wife, an ex-lover (now his supervisor at the hospital) and the romantic interest of one of his young female associates. Why would anyone ever love such a character? It's a marvelous question. Why is grace, grace? House deserves no friends or lovers, because he gives them all nothing except his bitterness, sarcasm or silence. The fact that House needs to be loved, and is a walking advertisement for what humanity without love can become seems to be part of the answer. House would have fit in well on the 70's show "M.A.S.H." or in Joseph Heller's "Catch -22." Cynical and sarcastic, but in the end, you realize these characters had to cope with themselves and their fears, with the war, its hypocrisies and its losses. Their twisted adaptations weren't their ultimate human face, but it was the one that came to dominate in the day to day.

The Internet Monk does a much more thorough job of analyzing "House" than I ever would ... but he articulates a lot of things that I have thought about after each episode.

One of the most interesting episodes dealt with House kicking his pain-killer habit ... not to get off of the drugs but to get a couple of weeks free from clinic duty. At the end of the episode, now clean, he goes right back to taking his drugs, arguing that his is a "livable" addiction. He's still paying bills, working, etc. It doesn't matter what arguments his friend advances toward staying off the pills, he likes life with them more. Yet for all his faults we see beneath the facade (very rarely and not deeply) to see the tortured soul who needs at least one person to be his friend.

Probably the most fascinating aspect of this show is that it will bring up a very touchy issue and then refuse to pander to either side in its thinking ... rather like House's character. When a woman was going to have an abortion so that she could then donate a kidney to her ailing husband, pros and cons from both sides of the moral fence were brought into play, without slamming either side. This happens consistently and is one of the things that I enjoy most about the show ... you aren't always cringing wondering when the "MESSAGE" is going to be stamped on you with a big, heavy foot.

This show has provoked more conversation within our family than any other about real life examples of the fallen state of man and how to live in the real world with all our flaws.

Plus, it's a killer medical show. So give it a try.

A Little Useless Information

FAMOUS CAT OWNERS

Samuel Johnson - Hodge
Edward Lear - Foss
The Kennedys - Tom Kitten
Charles de Gaulle - Gris Gris
Cardinal Richelieu - Perruque
The Simpsons - Snowball II
John Lennon - elvis
Churchill - Margate, Jock
Alice (in Wonderland) - Dinah
Mark Twain - Beelzebub
T.S. Eliot - George Pushdragon
Nicholas I - Vashka

Schott's Original Miscellany by Ben Schott

Inexplicably not included, Happy Catholic - Truffles. (Next week, of course, will be famous dog owners.)

Hannah and the SAT

Remember when I said Hannah was going to take the SAT after no additional studying and without freaking out or even worrying? We now have results.

She got 1980 overall (2400 is the highest on the new SAT) and 8 out of 12 possible on the essay. According to her guidance counselor both scores are considerably above the US averages so far ... woohoo!

Howl's Moving Castle

The trailer for the latest anime by the "Walt Disney of Japan," Hayao Miyazaki can be found at Ain't It Cool. Just scroll to the bottom of the column under the movie poster to find the links. It looks like a cross between Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service to me.

Chicken Sauté with Vinegar

Yes it sounds odd but it pleased everybody in the house, including our famously picky eater! Head over to Glad Gastronome to give it a try.

POPE BENEDICT XVI

Cardinal Ratzinger elected ... could I be any happier? NO! PRAISE GOD!!!

UPDATE: My friend, Maroy, made a couple of great points...

Don't you just love the international spectrum of the crowd and that Benedict XVI made a point to address his brothers and sisters in more than the usual 2 languages?? I was moved that he entrusted himself to OUR prayers immediately. I never appreciated that I personally could be of that much assistance to the Pope!

I guess they're dancing in heaven! Maybe The Chicken Dance, in honor of Benedict's German heritage??;-)

I might have to look into the history of the Chicken Dance ...

ALSO, Alicia makes a good point about The Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club ... it has been overrun and their server has crashed.

Habemus Papam!

The bells are ringing ... now we just have to wait and see who it is ... this is like Christmas morning!!! The suspense is killing me!!!!

That means the vote had a 2/3 majority in 5 or less votes ... what a strong message for whoever this is ...

Dueling Haikus

Monkey is famous for delicate, spur of the moment haiku so "dueling frida kahlo haikus" seem natural. Just a taste to get you started, although for the full flavor you must go to the site and see the photos [the julie mentioned is not me].

frida kahlo and haikus go together like manchego and quince paste, so, this was bound to happen. my friend julie submitted the first haiku with the appropriate picture -



I don't believe you
I will not look behind me
There is no monkey


i could not help but be inspired and pen the following haiku -

how silly you are
frida is not behind me
no, i will not look.

Waiting on the Holy Spirit

There is a puzzled attitude among many in St. Blog's Parish about all the media attention to the papal election. Each person behind a blog has ideas about who they think would be right for the next pope, but there is also a kind of serenity and faith: that the Holy Spirit is in charge and that a great Pope could be elected, or a mediocre one, or even bad Pope. Believing Catholics take as a matter of dogma and doctrine that "The gates of Hell will not prevail" against the Church, and that the Holy Spirit will somehow prevent the Pope and the Church from falling into error.

Of course many among the faithful are offering prayer, sacrifice, fasting, and/or mortification for the intention that the electors will listen more to the Holy Spirit than to the temper of the times.

Alicia Huntly, Spero News

That's exactly it ... and that is how my friends all feel. At a prayer meeting on Saturday practically every person had a different way of saying it but the common prayer was for the Holy Spirit to have His way with the cardinals on who would be the perfect good shepherd to next lead our Church.

Faith in the World

The Christian should not leave his faith aside in any circumstance. Non-sectarianism. Neutrality. Old myths that always try to seem new. Have you ever stopped to think how absurd it is to leave one's Catholicism aside on entering a university, a professional association, a cultural society, or parliament, like a man leaving his hat at the door? (St. Escriva, The Way). This attitude is equivalent to saying -- in politics, in business, in leisure or in entertainment, when I am with my friends, when it comes to choosing a school for my children -- that here in this situation God has nothing whatever to do with it; in these affairs my Christian faith must not exert any influence, for none of this comes from God or is ordained to God.

Nevertheless, the faith casts light on the whole of existence. Everything is ordained to God. But this ordination must respect the particular nature of each thing. It is not a matter of turning the world into one big sacristy, or homes into convents, or the economy into a benevolent institution. Without naive simplifications, the faith should inform a Christian's thought and action, because he should never in any circumstance, in any moment of the day cease to be a Christian and to behave and think as such.

In Conversation with God: Lent and Eastertide