Building the City of God

As a person who was schooled in the methodology and ideology of the (un)Enlightenment, the following sentences might have caused me to pull out my hair.

“It is not the elemental spirits of the universe, the laws of matter, which ultimately govern the world and mankind, but a personal God goversn the stars, that is, the universe; it is not the laws of matter and of evolution that have the final say, but reason, will, love–a Person. And if we know this Person and he knows us, then truly the inexorable power of material elements no longer has the last word; we are not slaves of the universe and of its laws, we are free.”

Such comments were the antithesis of what I learned and believed, i.e., that faith and reason were two mutually-exclusive phenomena. My faith and reason could never be brought together, I thought. Nor would my “superior” intellect allow me to believe that my reasoning capacities were granted by the One in whom I might (or might not) have faith.

Alas, the grace of that personal God allowed me to see the error of my ways! Now, rather than separate two phenomena that inform and assist each other, faith and reason always work together. They are, as the late Pope John Paul II wrote in his encyclical letter Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason), the “two wings” on which my spirit “rises to the contmplation of truth….” Indeed, my intellect has truly been enlightened, and the following quote reveals the truth that was absent from prior training.

“Life is not a simple product of the laws and the randomness of matter, but within everything and at the same time above everything, there is a personal will, there is a Spirit who in Jesus has revealed himself as Love.”

I pray that many others who seek Truth, and who seek to reconcile faith and reason, will take time to read such masterful works as Fides et Ratio or Spe Salvi (from which the block quotes in this post are taken). I pray that God will bring true Enlightenment.

God Bless!

As I drove to work this morning, the subject matter on several morning radio shows was enough to make a person despair (and vomit!). I realized how very blessed I am to have hope; to know that something better and purer awaits on the other side of this life.

I began to arrive at this realization as I prayed through a portion of Pope Benedict XVI’s most recent encyclical on that very topic. And, I pray that God will continue to bless me and allow me to deepen my understanding of this most precious gift. After all, Advent surely is a most hopeful season.

Please pray for our culture in general, and particularly those people who have resorted to twisted philosophies and actions because they have lost hope.

God Bless.

Fr. Tom Euteneuer, the President of Human Life International, has put forth a challenge to faithful Christians in his latest Spirit & Life column. I am taking up his challenge, and I pray that all of you will, too!

In the early part of the twentieth century, the Catholic Church was blessed with a man who wrote with a clear intellect and sharp pen. That man’s name was Romano Guardini. His words and ministry marked a renewal in Christian consciousness as well as in believers’ understanding of Church’s Liturgy.

This author was eminently blessed earlier today with an opportunity to read and pray over a few of Guardini’s remarks about the nature of the universal Church. Those same remarks have been reproduced below for other readers’ edification.

“The very fact of the Church has become a living power. We are beginning to understand that the Church is everything. We begin to feel what the Saints felt, when they spoke so passionately in her defense. Did not their words sometimes seem to us but empty phrases? But now it is different. The philosopher will come to see in the Church the final and conclusive answer to his earnest search for the roots of all reality. The artist will come to find in her powerful beauty the fulfilment of his restless seeking for complete perfection of form. The moralist will find that she possesses complete perfection of life, when all human striving is sanctified in Christ, when all right and wrong become plain, and the Kingdom of God ultimately prevails. The politician (in the proper sense of him who seeks the public good) will come to realize that she has the answer to the problem of social order and of every man’s fulfilment of his vocation in society.”

Let us always look to holy mother Church for guidance through all of life’s most trying journeys; for answers to all of life’s most vexing questions!

God Bless.

St. John Damscene (or St. John of Damascus, whose feast day is today) was one of the most brilliant catechists in our Church’s history. He is most famous for his role in the Iconoclasm controversy that racked the eastern portion of the Church in the eighth and ninth centuries. His catechetical abilities were put to use while he defended the Church against a deeply heretical belief: that God frowns on the use of statues and sacred art in worship. St. John reminded the faithful all creation is from God and, thus, is inherently good. He affirmed the centuries-old belief and practice of using those objects and images to lead a person deeper into the mysteries of the one, true God.

However, his teachings were not limited to this aspect of Church doctrine alone. In fact, he wrote one of his most poignant passages on his own journey toward ministry, on submitting to the will of the Lord. That passage, written in The Statement of Faith, was meant to remind readers that God will provide nourishment for every believer’s spiritual journey; to let them know that God intended them to grow into specific ministerial roles.

“You nursed me with the spiritual milk of your divine utterances. You kept me alive with the solid food of the body of Jesus Christ, your only-begotten Son and our God, and you let me drink from the chalice of his life-giving blood, poured out to save the whole world for us.

“You loved us, O Lord, and gave up your only-begotten Son for our redemption. And he undertook the task willingly and did not shrink from it. … Now you have called me, Lord…to minister to your people. I do not know why you have done so, for you alone know that. … When I open my mouth, tell me what I should say. By the fiery tongue of your Spirit make my own tongue ready. Stay with me always and keep me in your sight.”

This author has experienced exactly what is written above! God calls people into His Church and nourishes their spiritual growth, especially through the sacraments. That nourishment is meant to strengthen them for whichever ministry to which they are called; and it continues to nourish them while they serve in that ministry.

God is so good, because He never abandons His faithful servants. He always sends His Spirit to guide them “along the straight path,” in the words of St. John Damascene. With our eyes focused on Him, and while receiving the grace contained in the sacraments, we will never go astray!

God Bless.