Lectio Divina With An Orange

Take an orange.

Lectio: 

Look at the orange.  Examine its shape, feel, and smell.

Studium:

Peel the orange.  Examine it.  Feel it.  Smell it.  Break it apart into sections.  Examine them.  Feel them.  Smell them.

Meditatio:

Taste each section.  Savor the taste of each one.  Let your mouth feel the texture and juice.  Eat each section slowly.

Oratio:

Praise God for creating this fruit.  Tell Him about how it tastes and what you think about it.  Thank Him for the orange.

Contemplatio:

Ah....just rest in the pleasure of the orange and God's love for creating the orange for you.  "Thank you Jesus for oranges."     Amen.

Cardinal Pell jailed in Australia ahead of March 13 sentencing

Cardinal Pell jailed in Australia ahead of March 13 sentencing: MELBOURNE, Australia (CNS) -- Australian Cardinal George Pell has been taken into custody for the first time since historic child sex abuse charges against him were set for hearing in May 2018.

The time between the verdict and appeal is too long, so Cardinal Pell is in prison, now.  I am praying Psalm 140 for him.

Deliver Cardinal Pell, Lord, from the wicked:
preserve him from the violent,
From those who plan evil in their hearts,
who stir up conflicts every day,
Who sharpen their tongue like a serpent,
venom of asps upon their lips.

Keep Cardinal Pell, from the clutches of the wicked;
preserve him from the violent,
who plot to trip him up.
The arrogant have set a trap for him;
they have spread out ropes for a net,
laid snares for me by the wayside.

We say to the Lord: You are the Cardinal's God;
listen Lord, to the words of our pleas.
Lord, our Master, our strong deliverer,
You cover our heads on the day of armed conflict.
Lord, do not grant the desires of the wicked one;
do not let his plot succeed.

Those who surround Cardinal Pell raise their heads;
may the mischief they threaten overwhelm them.
Drop burning coals upon them;
cast them into the watery pit never more to rise.
Slanderers will not survive on earth;
evil will hunt down the man of violence to
over him.
For we know the Lord will take up the cause of the
needy, justice for the poor.

Then the righteous will give thanks to your name;
the upright will dwell in Your presence.

Amen.

Cardinal Pell convicted on five counts; verdict will be appealed

 It's clear to me that the jury was rigged against him.  Weren't there any Catholics on the jury to understand the vestments the Mass celebrant was wearing, or that the priests go outside to greet the people, or that the sacristry is crowded with people, or that Communion wine is locked away, or that a prince of the church would have a valet or someone help him disrobe.  Talk about miscarriage of justice! Cardinal Pell convicted on five counts; verdict will be appealed: MELBOURNE, Australia (CNS) -- An Australian court found Cardinal George Pell guilty on five charges related to the sexual abuse of two 13-year-old boys; sentencing is expected in early March.



"Although the complainant got all sorts of facts wrong, the jury must have believed that Pell did something dreadful to him," Father Brennan wrote. "The jurors must have judged the complainant to be honest and reliable even though many of the details he gave were improbable if not impossible."

Money Can Buy Education

Passing for White by James M. O'Toole is a biography of the Healy family.  Why them?  The family is unique for their time.  This is the nineteenth century and a white man married his slave and produced 10 children. Eight children survived.
   The patriarch of the family is interesting.  Michael Healy immigrated to America from Ireland and eventually landed in Georgia.  He did very well.  He also owned slaves and married one of them, Eliza.  He wasn't religious at all and didn't bring up his children in any.  But he was forward thinking.  He must have been concerned about his children's future, there being half black and white.  In those days, that meant that his children were all slaves.
    At a young age, around seven, he sent his oldest son north to school.  He chose a Quaker School.  After a few years, however, a fortuitous event occurred. On a business trip, Michael Healy encountered a Catholic priest, John Fitzpatrick and the futures of his children started.  Fitzpatrick told Healy about Holy Cross College.  It was just starting and was looking for students.  There was a preparatory high school attached to it.  Also, parochial elementary schools fed into the prep school.  All the boys eventually attended and followed the same path, except Michael who ran away to the sea, and Eugene who never lived up to his potential.
     The oldest James and Sherwood became bishops.  Patrick joined the Jesuits and became president of Georgetown University.  Michael became a sea captain but drinking too much did him in.  The baby of the family didn't fare well.  Not much is known about him.
     The three girls all became nuns. One left and got married.  The other two rose to positions in their order.
     I found it hard to like the Healy children.  In denying their "blackness" they denied their mother and their heritage.  Of course, I realize that my twenty-first-century eyes can't see what they saw, nevermind felt and thought.  I'm trying very hard not to be judgemental.
    And I feel very, very sorry for their mother.  Her children left home around age seven, never to be seen again. 
   In a way, they succeeded because of the Church, but it was their father's money that financed their education.  They could have converted to Catholicism and become monks.  Then you would never have heard of them, again. As it was, they received the best educations in the world.  They were among the best-educated priests in the USA. Yes, they were smart and earned their accolades, but Daddy paid.  No money=no education.

The Viral Scandal of Clerical Unchastity

The Viral Scandal of Clerical Unchastity: Early in the book of Job, the blameless and upright man is besieged with a series of catastrophes.  Father Roger Landry's article in the Pilot looks at the current clerical sexual abuse problem from a few angles.  He offers a few solutions and debunks them.  The only one that will work is frequent, constant contact with God, i.e., frequent confession, retreats, on-going formation, close monitoring of all priests.



You mean that hasn't been on-going practice?

Can't Sleep?

Here's an article in the National Catholic Register about not being able to sleep.  It recommends praying the Gradual Psalms.  Those are Psalms 120-134.  I might try it some time but usually,
when I wake in the night I don't want to put on a light to read.  I'll watch TV. 

What I thought was funny was the monk who walked with a lantern (must be a flashlight, nowadays) to see if any monks had fallen asleep.  If he caught a monk sleeping, then the sleeper had to walk with the lantern.  

If you don't know the Christian Faith you don't get Western Civilization

What do you think of Prof. Esolen's claim that students and teachers don't know poetry and classic literature because they don't know the Christian faith?  Read his article in The Catholic Thing. 


I readily can see his point.  Where I don't agree is with his music opinion.  But I'm not a music person; I don't have the ear for it.  I'm an alto and can't sing most songs because I can't find the pitch.  I like the happy clappy music at charismatic Masses.  I'm bored with the music at the traditional Latin Mass.  But he may be right; what do I know?

Today's education is so math and science orientated that all the subjects can't be taught well.  Language arts courses fall behind.  Maybe schools should be 12 months and longer days.  But who's going to pay for it. 

Complicated isn't it?