First Comes Love

Listening to a couple of friends, who happen to teach theology, complain about their undergraduate students who don't know their catechism, made me reflect upon the number of times, I who teach "catechism" complain that my students don't know, and certainly don't love, God.  I feel like I'm wasting my time because I can practically see what I say going in one ear and out the other.  So I think my college theology teachers are putting the blame in the wrong place.  Yes, they are correct that their students don't know basic catechesis.  But they need to carry that assessment deeper, and ask "How come?"  

The students went to catechesis.  But like the proverbial horse led to the trough if he's not thirsty, he ain't drinking.  

Falling in love with God is necessary and the first requirement for catechesis.  

I'm sure of my answer.  All I have to do is compare my class of unruly kids who don't want to be there, to my six men in RCIA class.

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Thanksgiving

Unfortunately, I'm not my chipper self.  Since my surgery, November 17th, I've been in a funk.  I'm not bouncing back like I expected.  I feel like I'm wallowing in self-pity.  Hence, I had a hard time posting this week.  I couldn't think of anything to write about.  Nothing was happening to write about.  Who wants to join my pity party?

However, I am still linking up to my weekly link up at This And That And The Other Thing Blog, where my fellow bloggers go, every Sunday.  Life goes on and I don't want it to pass me by.  So I'll limp along.

Monday -- Brother Tonto cartoon.

Tuesday -- Praying for peace in Ferguson, MO.

Wednesday -- Goodness attracts.

Thursday -- ...and if you want to know, my family just charged in eating.

Friday -- Reminiscing about Alice's Restaurant

Saturday -- Brother Tonto, again.

Happy Advent!

Blessed Advent

Blast from the Past

Me, on the steps to Alice's Restaurant

I subscribe to MassMoments. This is a daily email which will give you a highlight of something interesting that happened in Massachusetts' history.

Today's blast from the past gave me a fond memory.  Today is the day Arlo Guthrie, the folk singer, was arrested for littering, in Stockbridge, MA.  He had spent Thanksgiving at friends'--Alice's Restaurant.  The day after Thanksgiving, Alice asked Arlo to take the trash to the town dump.  He did, or would have, if it had been opened.  It was locked up.  So to get rid of the trash, he threw it down the hill.  Consequently, the reason for Arlo's arrest--littering.

Arlo turned this sad tale into a long, funny song.  It goes on and on and on--20 minutes.  The funny part is because Arlo was arrested, he wasn't fit to serve in the army, so he was never drafted to go fight in the Vietnam War, which he protested against, anyway.

I blogged about this before, here.  I've been to Alice's Restaurant when I was on vacation in the Berkshires.  The place still exists and is an interfaith social services center, with an emphasis on raising funds for Huntington's Disease, which Arlo's dad, Woody Guthrie had.

Lyrics to Alice's Restaurant http://www.lyricsfreak.com/a/arlo+guthrie/alices+restaurant_20518619.html 

Happy Eucharistia!

Pilgrim Monument in P'town

I want to thank God on this secular feast of Thanksgiving for the food my loved ones will eat today.  Most of all I want to thank God for the gift of the Mass, where we participate in the eternal thanksgiving.

Do you think my family will know what I'm talking about, if I use the above as the blessing before our meal?

Do you think they'll charge in and start eating before I even say the grace?




God bless everyone, anyway.

Je ne sais Croix

Handsome faces aren't the only attractive attribute people can have.  There's also personality.  But there's also something else.  Je ne sais croix.

I am blessed to know a few women and maybe a man or two, who don't have attractive faces.  One man even is physically repulsive due, to his state of obesity.  They're also quiet, even shy.  Yet, I think they're beautiful.

How can this be?

They must emanate something.  They seem content--even more than content, happy.  They're happy with whom they are.  More than that, they're happy about the world around them.  I'm pretty sure that they think I'm beautiful, too!

How did they acquire this elusive, indefinable, state of being?

I think they're in love.  That's the only thing that explains it.  Yet, some of these people have been married for years!  One is even a priest.  So whom would be the object of their love?

Who created love?  Who created them--or everyone, for that matter?  Who wants us to know and love Him?

Do you think they're in love with God?  

Thomas Aquinas says  pulchra dicuntur quae visa placent.   My understanding of this phrase is, things that give us pleasure are beautiful.  The philosopher, Jacques Maritain translates it as beautiful things give us pleasure,  id quod visum placet.    But it is explained much more proficiently by David Clayton on his blog,  The Way of Beauty.  Prof. Clayton teaches at Thomas More College, in New Hampshire.

What I'm trying to get at, is I believe these beautiful people are so in love with God, that God has rubbed off on them.  That's what I'm seeing, God in them.  Aquinas also tells us that beauty is made up of due proportion, integrity, and clarity.  When I see a person's good life, (due proportion), I am drawn by its attractiveness, and then I see Love (God) in them, (integrity), and the person they love, (God), and to Him whom their lives are ordered, (clarity).

Are you crazy yet?

Here is my point:  living a good life by obeying God's commandments, the beatitudes, and the corporal works of mercy, in order to get as close to God as possible, really does bring one to union with the living God.  And this emanates like sunshine inside that person.  Fortunately, I am Catholic, and when I live the good life liturgically, I can feel His grace.  I must continually strive to feel more and more of His Love.  The closer I come, the more beautiful I am.  Better still, the more beautiful are you.

Archbishop Carlson Begs His People

Last August police officer killed a teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.  The people of the city of Ferguson reacted with an eruption of violence.  They had had enough!  The majority of the people in Ferguson are black and have been unfairly treated by authorities in law, schools, business, churches, etc., all their lives.  So when an eighteen-year-old, unarmed black man, Michael Brown, was killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, that was the last straw.

The violence is an eruption of pent-up anger at their feelings of powerlessness.  Last night, the jury decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson.  The people of Ferguson expected this.  To them, it's an unfair decision, but typical of a system predetermined to keep black people down.

The Archbishop of St. Louis, Robert Carlson pleaded with the people to direct their frustrated anger and disappointment in other ways, rather than violence.  Here is his plea.

"Whatever you do, do not lash out with violence at your brothers and sisters. Do not seek to destroy or divide. Instead, we must come together as a community through prayer, mutual understanding, and forgiveness if we are to obtain peace. Rather than fuel the fires of hatred and division, we should strive for peace in our own hearts and share it with those around us. Violence does not lead to peace; they are opposing forces and cannot co-exist."