What the Catholic Church teaches about death with dignity

Simcha Fisher hits it out of the ball park — here's a bit but read it all. (Emphasis added is mine.)

Doerflinger acknowledges Malnight’s struggle: “Often there is no one right or wrong answer, but just an answer you think is best for your loved one in this particular situation, taking into account that patient’s own perspective and his or her ability to tolerate the burdens of treatment.”

The key, says Cathy Adamkiewicz, is “not to put our human parameters on the purpose of a human life.”

When she got her infant daughter’s prognosis from the neurologist, she told him, “You look at her as a dying system. I see a human being. Her life has value, not because of how much she can offer, but there is value in her life.”

Well Said: Putting a limit on God's love

The Lord's love knows no bounds, but man can put a limit on it.

"You are clean, but not all of you" (Jn 13: 10): What is it that makes man unclean?

It is the rejection of love, not wanting to be loved, not loving. It is pride that believes it has no need of any purification, that is closed to God's saving goodness. It is pride that does not want to admit or recognize that we are in need of purification. ...

"You are clean, but not all of you". Today, the Lord alerts us to the self-sufficiency that puts a limit on his unlimited love. He invites us to imitate his humility, to entrust ourselves to it, to let ourselves be "infected" by it.

He invites us - however lost we may feel - to return home, to let his purifying goodness uplift us and enable us to sit at table with him, with God himself.

Pope Benedict XVI, The Joy of Knowing Christ,

homily, April 13, 2006

Worth a Thousand Words: The Photographer, Christian Franzen

Joaquin Sorolla; The Photographer, Christian Franzen; 1903
via Arts Everyday Living

Well Said: Tackling evil with love and truth alone

This Sunday's Gospel contains some of the most typical and forceful words of Jesus' preaching: "Love your enemies" (Lk 6: 27). ...

Actually, Christ's proposal is realistic because it takes into account that in the world there is too much violence, too much injustice, and therefore that this situation cannot be overcome except by countering it with more love, with more goodness. This more comes from God: it is his mercy which was made flesh in Jesus and which alone can "tip the balance" of the world from evil to good, starting with that small and decisive "world" which is the human heart. ...

One then understands that for Christians, non-violence is not merely tactical behaviour but a person's way of being, the attitude of one who is so convinced of God's love and power that he is not afraid to tackle evil with the weapons of love and truth alone.

Pope Benedict XVI, The Joy of Knowing Christ

Angelus, Feb. 18, 2017

Genesis Notes: Faith and Obedience

GENESIS 16 & 17
Here's something we can all relate to ... not wanting to be patient but trying to control things ourselves. When Sarai gives Hagar to Abram so they can have children she is following the trends of the time. However, both Abram and Sarai are not trusting God when they take the standard, easy way out.

Adriaen van der Werff, Sarah presenting Hagar to Abraham

It was the custom of the time for a barren wife to give her slave girl to her husband, in the hope of having an heir. "It was not strictly polygamy but rather a means the lawful wife used in order to give her husband children. From what we know of Babylonian laws of the time, if the slave girl became pregnant and then began to look down on her mistress, she could be punished and revert to being treated as a slave. That is what Hagar fears will happen, so she runs away." (The Navarre Bible: Pentateuch; Princeton, NJ: Scepter Publishers, 1999; p. 97-98)

When God repeats his promise to give Abram children, he establishes a covenant with a painful and somewhat ironic sign ... circumcision. I always thought that circumcision was a very unusual sign of faith that God required. Turns out it wasn't as unusual as all that...

The practice of circumcision was fairly extensive in the world of Abraham's time. The Egyptians circumcised boys at the age of 13, which would have been Ishmael's age at this time. For the Jews, it became a sign of the covenant God made with Abraham. This is one of many instances of God's appropriating an already existing practice and dedicating it to His own purpose.

God also changes Abram's name to Abraham which is explained at that time. Sarai's name change signifies something important as well.

Sarai also gets a name change, to Sarah, which means something like "queen mother" or "princess" - in other words, a suggestion of royalty. From her descendants would come King David, in whom this part of the covenant ("kings of peoples shall come from her") was fulfilled. When David sat on Israel's royal throne (c. 1010-970 B.C.), God made a covenant with him that someone from his line would always sit on the throne of Israel (see 2 Sam. 7). Jesus, born of the house of David, would be that King, reigning forever over the New Israel, the Church.

All quotes from Genesis, Part II: God and His Family. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

The Responsibility of Christians During Troubled Times

Holy moly, guys! Listen to Bishop Barron's homily for this Sunday (website, iTunes).

Talk about a challenge to live the faith out in the world. I found it really inspiring.

Blogging Around: Context for Trump Watching

Like many, I have been bemused by watching our new president actively launch himself into fulfilling campaign promises. Bemused on many levels, I might add.

I'm not among the outraged because I really don't understand the implications of everything that is going on and keep waiting to see what happens in the long run.

With that in mind I appreciated discovering Scott Adam's blog. He's the creator of the Dilbert cartoon and views pretty much everything with a businessman's eye. He's got a fascinating take on President Trump's tactics. Here are a couple of posts that made a lot of sense to me.

The Persuasion Filter and Immigration

If Trump is a Master Persuader, as I have been telling you for over a year, he just solved his biggest problem with immigration and you didn’t notice. The biggest problem is that his supporters on the right want more immigration control than he can (or should) deliver while his many critics on the left want far less. Normally when you negotiate there is only one party on the other side. But in this case, Trump is negotiating two extremes in two different directions. It’s the toughest possible situation. Best case scenario is that 40% of the country want you dead when it’s all over. Not good.

So what does a President Trump do when he is in an impossible situation?

According to the Hitler Filter, he does more Hitler stuff, such as being more extreme than anyone expected with his recent immigration declarations. That filter accurately predicted that he would be “worse” once elected. Sure enough, his temporary immigration ban is more extreme than most people expected. If things never get worse from this point on, we would have to question the Hitler Filter. But if things get worse still, the Hitler Filter is looking good.

Compare to the Persuasion Filter. This filter says Trump always opens with an extreme first offer so he has room to negotiate to the middle. The temporary ban fits that model perfectly. On the immigration topic alone, both the Hitler Filter and the Persuasion Filter predict that we get to exactly the point we are at today. Let’s call that a tie in terms of predictive power. The hard part is predicting what happens next.

The Persuasion Filter says Trump is negotiating with his critics on the extreme right at the same time as he is negotiating with his critics on the left. He needed one “opening offer” that would set up both sides for the next level of persuasion. And he found it. You just saw it.

My husband had been speculating on a version of "the persuasion filter" for a while (without calling it that). It was interesting to see how Adams talks about it. Read it all here.

Is President Trump Doing Management Wrong?

It appears that Trump’s counter-persuasion for “chaos” involves framing his administration as “disruptive.” That’s a good persuasion move because it doesn’t deny the observations. A disruption looks a lot like chaos from the outside. Two movies on one screen. ...

Is being a bit messy a sign of a problem?

Not if you’re the entrepreneurial, disruptive, candidate of change who just got elected.

Let me explain another management concept that the pundits don’t understand because, generally speaking, they don’t have the right kind of education or experience to analyze a business process.

There are two basic styles of management. One is the cautious style of Fortune 500 companies. The other is the rapid-iteration and A/B testing style of entrepreneurs. Trump is bringing the latter style to the office. The markers for this style of management include:

1. Rapid and decisive hiring and firing.

2. Bias toward action.

3. Rapid A/B testing. Release the early beta version and judge reactions. Adjust accordingly.

4. Emphasis on the psychology of success. Entrepreneurial management includes lots of persuasion and bullshit because entrepreneurs have to fake it until they make it. In other words, they have to create demand via persuasion.

Again, this gave me a lot to think about. Read it all here.

Presidential Podcast

My favorite way to put things into context is to look at history. The Presidential podcast ran once a week up to the last election, covering our presidents in order. It's only half an hour long but gives unusual takes on our past leaders, for example looking at Lincoln's writing and Grant's letters to his wife. It is eminently even-handed and always has a connection to our own times.

It is a wonderful reminder that President Trump is not the first leader who's come in sowing chaos and confusion. We've had it many a time before. Sometimes knowing that is context enough to make it easier to sit back in calm bemusement.

Here's the website or you can get it from iTunes.

Well Said: Come and See

We too ask Jesus: "Teacher, where do you stay?", and he answers us: "Come and see". For the believer it is always a ceaseless search and a new discovery, because Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever, but we, the world and history, are never the same, and he comes to meet us to give us his communion and the fullness of life.

Pope Benedict XVI, The Joy of Knowing Christ, 

Angelus, January 15, 2006

What I've Been Reading — A Mystery and Some Inspiration

The Green Jacket by Jennette Lee

This 1917 book features a female detective who is so good that when the book opens she is being asked to merge with the other big detective agency in town. We soon learn that this lady has her own unique, independent thoughts about criminal justice. And, of course, a mystery soon comes along!

This is an unusual and winning story, the likes of which I haven't encountered before in a book of this sort. In some ways it is almost poetic. In Millie's approach to crime solving it is unique. The use of knitting is like a reversal of Madame DeFarge. Certainly in her insistence on the chance to rehabilitate criminals it is original to the period.

I listened to the audiobook read by one of my favorites from LibriVox, J. M. Smallheer. It is practically impossible to find the two sequels but I'm going to keep my eyes open for them.

I'm pretty sure I'll be featuring this on Forgotten Classic in the near future. It really captured me.

The Joy of Knowing Christ: Meditations on the Gospels by Pope Benedict XVI

This was a gift from a thoughtful reader of Happy Catholic and listener to A Good Story is Hard to Find.

The Joy of Knowing Christ is a selection of 55 excerpts from different homilies throughout the liturgical year. The selections all focus on reflections on gospel passages and, in many cases, opened up new meanings for me. I found them inspirational also and often went to the Vatican website to read the entire homily which was excerpted.

They are very accessible and short, usually no longer than two pages. That makes them perfect for daily reflection, which is how I used them. Highly recommended.

Well Said: Drawing a Giraffe

Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame. If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If in your bold creative way you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe. The moment you step into the world of facts, you step into a world of limits.... This is certainly the case with all artistic creation, which is in some ways the most decisive example of pure will. The artist loves his limitations: they constitute the thing he is doing.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Well Said: Truth and Facts

Fantasy is true, of course. It isn't factual, but it is true.

Ursula LeGuin

Worth a Thousand Words: Celia Thaxter's Garden

Celia Thaxter's Garden, 1890, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Childe Hassam

Well Said: What to tell people

If you want people to stay the same, tell them what they want to hear. If you want people to change, tell them what they need to know.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Worth a Thousand Words: Waxwing

Waxwing, taken by Remo Savisaar

Station to Station by Gary Jansen

Though traditionally considered a meditation on suffering, the Stations of the Cross is more than a simple, ancient act of piety. It is a portrait of grace under pressure, a collection of specific reactions from Jesus during times of crisis. In our current age of global terrorism, economic uncertainty, widespread and severe depression and anxiety, and environmental devastation, the Stations offer us an opportunity to strengthen our souls and grow the mystical muscles of our hearts. Using the basics of Ignatian prayer, in particular imaginative prayer, we can hop aboard a time machine that takes us back to the final moments in Christ's life. Here, we can not only meditate on sorrow, but also ask two essential questions: how did Jesus respond to suffering, and how do we?

If Catholics think about the Stations of the Cross, it is most likely associated with Lent and the familiar stations in every Catholic church.

Gary Jansen breaks out of that mold by meditating on the stations against the backdrop of our own everyday lives. Using imaginative prayer, the stations can become the stepping stones of a path to spiritual awakening. To do this Jansen first gives a brief history of the stations of the cross, discusses imaginative (Ignatian prayer) and tells how praying the stations changed his life.

The second half of the book takes us through each of the stations one by one. Jansen is using the scriptural stations introduced by Pope John Paul II in 1991. I discovered these when poking around the Vatican website one day and was immediately captured by them. So I was delighted to see that the  author was using them as the focal point for prayer.

Each station gives us the appropriate scripture, Jesus's response, a way to encounter Jesus, a bit of scripture as a prayer guide, and a guide to reviewing and imagining the station. These, of course, are flavored with Jansen's own experiences and realizations which help to see the ways that God uses the meditations to speak to your own life. I was struck, for example, by Jansen's own reflection on Judas's betrayal that we are not emptied when we are betrayed but rather bloated with paralyzing inner talk about it.

This would be a great Lenten book, of course — hey, it's the stations! More importantly it is a book to use daily so that the stations become not a "special occasion" prayer but one that enriches us always.

Well Said: One Must Face Facts

He stared at Poirot. Then he said: "I thought — you were on her side."

Hercule Poirot said: "Whatever side one is on, one must face facts! I think, Mr. Walman, that you have so far preferred in life to avoid facing an awkward truth whenever it is possible.

Agatha Christie, Sad Cypress

Genesis Notes: God's Covenant with Abram

GENESIS 15
As familiar as I am with the part of Genesis where Sarai and Abram are promised children and then instantly go astray by bringing in their own methods, I didn't remember this chapter at all which involves God speaking to Abram and conducting matters in a very ceremonial way. Certainly I never realized that this is the first prayer recorded in the Bible.

The Vision of the Lord Directing Abram to Count the Stars, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

In this very first prayer recorded in the Bible, several characteristics are worth remembering:

1. It is God drawing near to Abram that draws forth a prayer from him. As the Catechism says, "In prayer, the faithful God's initiative of love always comes first; our own first step is always a response. As God gradually reveals himself and reveals man to himself, prayer appears as a reciprocal call, a covenant drama." (2567)
2. Abram is honest with God. He pours out his anxieties and doubts. He is not afraid to say what he thinks.
3. Abram not only speaks to God, but he also listens to Him as well. There is a word of truth from God that he must hear, even though he has many of his own thoughts and words. God does not add anything new to His promise. Abram will simply have to think about it in a new way.
4. Abram spends some time in silence, looking at the stars and considering God's promise. The silent pondering of the stars may look like nothing is happening, yet it is the occasion of Abram's movement from doubt to faith.
5. Abram performs an act of faith. He consciously sets aside his doubts and puts his trust in God, which makes him pleasing to God.

In this introduction to prayer, we see that it is a response to God's love. It is honest and intimate. It is a conversation, with speaking and listening. It includes silence, and it leads to a conscious act of faith.

When Abram falls asleep my interpretation is that he is having a very deep vision. It also serves to remind us of several other things.

Abram's deep sleep is reminiscent of Adam's sleep, when God solved the only problem he had in Eden, which was being alone. It perhaps represents man's ultimate inability to solve his own problems or ensure his own fate. It underscores dramatically how divine initiative and human helplessness come together to accomplish God's loving purposes (think of the sleeping apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane, upon whom Christ intended to build His Church).

All quotes from Genesis, Part II: God and His Family. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Sauage and White Bean Gratin, Hot and Sour Soup, and Much More!

Hannah's been loading up Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen with a lot of new recipes. I love a good Sausage and White Bean Gratin and am interested to try her version. See what you find there to try!

Worth a Thousand Words: Study of a Cow

Rosa Bonheur, Study of a Cow, circa 1840

Novena to St. Joseph

From way back in 2007 and then in 2013. Thought I'd bring it up again for anyone who might be interested. 

Also the seven Sundays begin next Sunday so this is a good time to remember this novena. I'll have posts with reflections on those days as they arrive.

Christ in the House of his Parents by John Everett Millais
via Wikipedia

O glorious Saint Joseph, faithful follower of Jesus Christ, to you we raise our hearts and hands to ask your powerful intercession in obtaining from the compassionate heart of Jesus all the helps and graces necessary for our spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly the grace of a happy death, and the special grace for which we now ask.

(Mention your request)

O guardian of the Word Incarnate, we feel animated with confidence that your prayers for us will be graciously heard at the throne of God.

(The following is to be said seven times in honor of the seven joys and seven sorrows of Saint Joseph:)

O glorious Saint Joseph, through the love you bear for Jesus Christ, and for the glory of hs name, hear our prayers and grant our petitions.

This novena can be practiced at any time of year. It is particularly effective if done for the seven Sundays prior to the feast of Saint Joseph in honor of his seven sorrows and seven joys. Say this novena nine days in a row.

The Novena Book: The Power of Prayer

I was asked if I knew a good novena for job seeking. I don't know a specific one but as Saint Joseph is the patron saint of, among other things, family protection, fathers, and work, this seemed appropriate. Also, I dig St. Joseph.