I started out planning to blog about something else (which I will), but I came across this historical information that will help you in your faith & reasoning development. In the past few postings I've mentioned how the Bible states that even foolish thoughts, and then of course obviously mean and unrighteous thoughts, are sins, even if no one takes action on them. I explained that and gave the scripture references in previous posts some time ago.
Well, I know that one of the things you need to think about is: how has accurate and complete understanding of the Bible diminished so much over the two thousand years of Christianity that my explaining the Bible has this information has become a news flash? Something that very, very, VERY few pastors and other moral leaders know about or if they do, even mention? Why does no one warn their flock that even foolish thoughts are considered by God to be sins?
Before you, or anyone, can answer that question, you need to "fact find." Young people (yes, hi there, I think of you fondly as always), the scientific method and the use of problem solving logic means that like a detective, you trace how far in history from the time of the Bible writings to the present that awareness of this particular admonishment in the Bible exists in both the religious and secular consciousness.
Thus I want to give you an example of how, while leafing through my prayerbook, I came across written evidence that just over three hundred years after Jesus Christ lived that people still knew full well and embraced the Bible teaching that foolish and sinful thoughts are actual sins. So while I'm not planning to spend time studying this for you, I thought, hey! What a perfect example to show you how to reconstruct how modern thought has gone so wrong. So the first step is to trace since the time of Jesus, using impeccable written factual sources (not imaginings of false prophets and 'psychics') what people actually thought and did regarding the topic that you are studying, in this case how the Bible states that foolish and sinful thoughts are sins, even if no actions follow.
Here is some background of the person I am going to quote. Ambrose was born around the year 320 AD (and thus was born nearly three hundred years after Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected) into a upper class family in the Roman Empire. Ambrose's family had been Christian for several generations. Ambrose had in his family tree, in fact, a Christian martyr, St. Soteris. Ambrose and his family received classic legal education, so they were well educated and prepared for high civil office, so Ambrose became a lawyer and a governor. When a local bishop died, Ambrose was sent to help sort out arguments among the people about who should be appointed bishop in the place of the deceased. As he addressed the crowd on this subject a child in the crowd called out that Ambrose himself should become bishop! The crowd agreed and the two arguing sides with their respective candidates fell into agreement about Ambrose (who was shocked and did not want to be the bishop). He was well on his way up the lawyer and government "career ladder," and was still studying and deepening his own individual faith. But because the people wanted him so badly and basically drafted him, he was baptized, received the holy orders of priesthood, and was consecrated Bishop of Milan (Italy) all within a month of time! He was very obviously a pious and sanctifying man from the start (the people's instinct was correct!) He gave to the Church and the poor his considerable personal wealth, he sorted through the problem of the genuinely poor from those who were shams, he studied scripture and doctrine for twenty three years, was a prolific author and being a priest, as all bishops are, Ambrose celebrated Mass (the Holy Eucharist) every day. He even raised the three grandchildren of a friend.
With that as background, seeing this was a holy man who didn't even in fact seek out fame or a livelihood due to his sanctity, here is what he wrote, with his opinion of his own sinfulness! This is a long prayer he wrote that he recited before celebrating the Holy Eucharist (the "Lord's Supper") in daily Mass and I include here the opening of the prayer and the places where you see evidence of the realization of those times that all people are considered prone to sin, including of mere thoughts that are foolish or unworthy:
O Gracious Lord Jesus Christ, I, a sinner, presuming not on my own merits, but trusting to Thy mercy and goodness, fear and tremble in drawing near to the Table on which is spread Thy Banquet of all delights. For I have defiled both my heart and body with many sins, and have not kept a strict guard over my mind and my tongue....
...To Thee, O Lord, I show my wounds, to Thee I lay bare my shame. I know that my sins are many and great, on account of which I am filled with fear. But I trust in Thy mercy, for it is unbounded...
...Hearken unto me, for my hope is in Thee; have mercy on me, who am full of misery and sin, Thou who wilt never cease to let flow the fountain of mercy. Hail, Thou saving Victim, offered for me and for all mankind on the tree of the cross...
Remember, O Lord, Thy creature, whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy Blood. I am grieved because I have sinned, I desire to make amends for what I have done. Take away from me therefore, O most merciful Father, all my iniquities and offences, that, being purified both in soul and body, I may worthily partake in the Holy of Holies...
...I purpose to partake, may be to me the full remission of my sins, the perfect cleansing of my offences, the means of driving away all evil thoughts and of renewing all holy desires, and the advancement of works pleasing to Thee...
Do you see how often this obviously holy man (remember, the crowd proclaimed him when he had no clue of wanting to leave a high career for the sanctified priesthood) emphasizes and repeatedly confesses and asks for help for his sins of thoughts????
If you ever wonder what holy people confess to God, that is what it is. Truly holy and sanctified people continue to "renew all holy desires" by acknowledging that all humans have foolish, evil and sinful thoughts. This is the genuine humility before God that ALL believers should have, which is the acknowledgment that even the holiest of people have, due to being broken vessel human beings, regardless of their level of faith, have to mindfully struggle against having even silly and mean or vain thoughts, say nothing of how profound a sin that thinking, even idly and fleetingly, thoughts about sinful matters are.
So, young people, and others, this is how you can see that no, we don't "lack evidence" of "what the church was like" and "what people believed" "back then" in "Biblical times." This lawyer/governor who became priest/bishop only a few hundred years after Christ left plenty of written evidence of his thoughts and what the people believed, and what they retained of their understanding of the Bible, both Old and New Testament. The notion that even idle, foolish and sinful thoughts are actual sins (as the Bible states) was a hot forefront belief several hundred years after Christ.
Thus, young people, and others, you now have a piece of your investigation, if you were doing so, that for certain in the four century that the knowledge that bad and foolish thoughts are sin was well known and frequently meditated about and prayed regarding, including DAILY by this Bishop of Milan, Ambrose.
Those of you new to studying the saints, let me explain that they were not tucked away in a corner. Ambrose, while he was living, was studied by many who would become great saints themselves. Further, while there was no email, ha, or post office, there was indeed snail mail and these people were all in correspondence. So if you continue your investigations you will see that a writing by a priest or bishop was never a "personal" so called "interpretation of scripture." This was the prevailing belief, kept intact from Old Testament times and the times of Jesus, that foolish and bad thoughts are indeed sins.
I hope that you have found this helpful both in further understanding what I have been reminding people about what the scriptures actually say, but also as you can see that you don't have to imagine and make stuff up, but you can look at written agenda-free evidence to deduce what people knew and believed, and how the word of God is preserved, and when parts of it started to fall out of public consciousness. Here we have filled in the blanks of several hundred years, knowing that the early Christians were keenly aware of what the Israelites knew and what those who followed Jesus knew, which is that God states that foolish, bad, mean and/or sinful thoughts are indeed actual sins, whether actual action follows or not.
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayer. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Thursday, November 26, 2009
God does not "work" through ESP
Hi everyone. I hope that all who celebrated Thanksgiving Day today had a good and peaceful one. Am spending the day doing little chores and projects, and re-reading Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's (Pope Benedict XVI) wonderful book, "The Spirit of the Liturgy."
I have been taking a little break from continuing the topic I started regarding why God seems, and most probably is indeed, responding to fewer prayers for miraculous and other graced cures of physical or mental illness and/or for longer lifetimes. I know what needs to be explained, of course, but weary of having to cover these topics since it of course all comes back to the same thing, which is truthful faith in the truthful one God while living in a sane and truthful world that was created as such by God.
While thinking about various things just now, though, I deduced (since no one really asks me to my face) another question/misunderstanding that I'm sure many people have, and this, while a very important topic, I can indeed make short work of and raise and answer here and now.
I've written before that extra-sensory perception (ESP) is a bona fide physical and mental capability that both people and animals have to various degrees. Here is my point, which is twofold:
1. ESP has absolutely nothing to do with spirituality. It is simply an ability, like good eyesight or good hearing, manual dexterity, or ability to learn languages quickly. Everyone has the capacity but there is a wide range of talent and natural ability from person to person, and that variety has absolutely NOTHING to do with spirituality.
2. Therefore, God does NOT use ESP to communicate with human beings AT ALL. In fact, the opposite is true because the stronger a person's talent in ESP the less he or she is in contact with God. This is because a person with ESP is in contact with other ESP sources, not God.
To explain that point, suppose that God is a beam of light, but you have a really good TV set that can pick up lots of channels. Those channels are TV signals that your device is receiving, not a beam of light sent out by God. The better your TV set the better the picture, the more channels you receive, etc, but a better TV set that is designed to pick up more cable, airwaves or satellite TV channels does not make it a device that picks up God's unique beam of light. This is kind of a "duh" moment if you think about it.
The problem is that the "New Age" generation has totally confused ESP with spirituality and that has lead to, well, there is no nice way to put it, much mental insane crap being assigned to communication "from God" AND the supposed "spirituality" and (puke) "giftedness" of the ESP using or receiving person. Again, it's like saying a great TV set makes you the Pope.
The more a person develops or relies on their real (or worse, imagined or faked) ESP ability, the less he or she receives even the most elementary genuine communication or communion with God. That is because all one is doing is working on one's TV antenna or cable or dish and pointing it more and more to other human generated channels, rather than even realizing that God is using a light (to use our analogy) and not a TV channel. All the ESP person is doing is reading other people's bologna stronger and stronger, and thus not even thinking about communicating with the real God. So when a person says that God is "telling" him or her something by "putting it in their heart" or having a vision or whatever, if they are using ESP they are getting that intuition (to use a polite word) from one of three places:
1. Other people's thoughts and impulses, transmitted by ESP.
2. One's own unconsciousness and desires. It is a VERY COMMON situation where a person who is not really in touch with their unconscious in a genuine unvarnished way is susceptible to the unconscious using the ESP ability of the person to communicate with the consciousness of that same person. That is how many false prophets develop and ultimate mislead many people because even though the ideas may seem like "godly" ones ("build a ministry here," or "follow one's heart there," or "I have the real answer and knowledge of God's will") the ESP is simply channeling, to use our TV analogy, information from one's own self fulfillment unconscious desires and projections. It's like your unconscious is a TV channel that you don't even know exists, but wants your attention, so it grabs onto the "ESP" channel that you have and taps in there. So you think (erroneously) that your ESP TV channel is pointing to God (first error) and then the second error is that your own unconscious seeps into that channel and you for sure think you are getting a "personal message" from God (second error).
3. Demonic forces. Satan rarely messes with individual people but demons most certainly do. I don't mean demons such as evil spirits and so forth per se, but I mean the miasma of sin and temptations constantly ooze from hell and many humans just can't seem to resist. The desire for power and control is an example of a principality, a power, that oozes from the gates of hell (placed there, of course, by the sinners who occupy hell) and ESP most certainly can pick that up. The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, as the saying goes, but it is mostly paved by pride and the desire for "specialness," to be a "player" in "divine matters." This is why developing one's "powers" in this arena is a grave sin and usually fatal error.
How does anyone know that God does not use ESP to communicate or "work" through with humans? When I explain this to you it will be another "duh" moment. Because God is everywhere and accessible to everyone, baby or adult, educated or not, rich or poor, black or white, talented or just ordinary, spiritually inclined or everyday Joe. The simplest prayer by the simplest person is just as received by God as the most complex prayer, and likewise no special means is necessary. In fact, Jesus even criticized the self satisfaction of the Pharisee who prayed in the same temple as the humble publican who repeated only one phrase over and over. Prayer and sacrifice have been established by God since he first made himself known to Adam and Eve as the way to communicate with him and receive responses in turn. Neither prayer nor sacrifice have anything to do with any talent, whether it be the ability to have 20/20 vision in one's eyes, one's hearing, or one's ESP. Everyone who prays is heard by God (though that does not mean that unacceptable prayer is going to get the desired answer from God). Again, it has nothing to do with talent.
Further, we see throughout faith history that God makes himself known to those who receive legitimate revelation from him in ways that are totally separate from any talent or arcane ability. The Bible is filled with God giving communication to people separate from any "talent" they have. This is one reason that God will appear as an angel for some people while not for others, as we see in scriptures. God gives the information in the way best suited for the person; not because the person is "best suited" to receive information from God. Another "duh" moment. God is so great that he adjusts his light to the person he chooses to communicate with, not the arrogant and prideful opposite assumption that so many have, that God communes and communicates with those who have the "talent" or the (puke) "giftedness" or "spirituality."
When it is God's will to respond to a prayer or to communicate with a person, he stoops down and adjusts to do so accordingly. God does not "shop around" for the person with the "best ability" to so called "hear him." God selects the person and that's that; God makes himself known through the ways he always has.
For the vast majority of people that means to be in commune, not communicate, with God through prayer. Notice I use both words as they have separate meanings. To be in commune with God means that you are in thoughtful companionship with each other. To communicate means to give information and with God, often it is one sided where the human prays to God to express himself (such as a prayer of intention) and he receives in return the communing with God, God's understanding, love and fellowship, but not usually an answer. That is the proper balance and that is reality.
The object of daily prayer and one's daily devotionals and general awareness of God is to maintain an air of commune with God, to seek his support in general by giving God one's awareness, fearful respect, love and worshipfulness in one's general demeanor in prayer. Then one, against that backdrop of being a person who is close to God, can pray and hope for communication with the proper context and in proper relationship with God. One spends much of one's time in prayer respectfully "hanging out" with God; that is commune with God and that is the purpose of prayer.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
I have been taking a little break from continuing the topic I started regarding why God seems, and most probably is indeed, responding to fewer prayers for miraculous and other graced cures of physical or mental illness and/or for longer lifetimes. I know what needs to be explained, of course, but weary of having to cover these topics since it of course all comes back to the same thing, which is truthful faith in the truthful one God while living in a sane and truthful world that was created as such by God.
While thinking about various things just now, though, I deduced (since no one really asks me to my face) another question/misunderstanding that I'm sure many people have, and this, while a very important topic, I can indeed make short work of and raise and answer here and now.
I've written before that extra-sensory perception (ESP) is a bona fide physical and mental capability that both people and animals have to various degrees. Here is my point, which is twofold:
1. ESP has absolutely nothing to do with spirituality. It is simply an ability, like good eyesight or good hearing, manual dexterity, or ability to learn languages quickly. Everyone has the capacity but there is a wide range of talent and natural ability from person to person, and that variety has absolutely NOTHING to do with spirituality.
2. Therefore, God does NOT use ESP to communicate with human beings AT ALL. In fact, the opposite is true because the stronger a person's talent in ESP the less he or she is in contact with God. This is because a person with ESP is in contact with other ESP sources, not God.
To explain that point, suppose that God is a beam of light, but you have a really good TV set that can pick up lots of channels. Those channels are TV signals that your device is receiving, not a beam of light sent out by God. The better your TV set the better the picture, the more channels you receive, etc, but a better TV set that is designed to pick up more cable, airwaves or satellite TV channels does not make it a device that picks up God's unique beam of light. This is kind of a "duh" moment if you think about it.
The problem is that the "New Age" generation has totally confused ESP with spirituality and that has lead to, well, there is no nice way to put it, much mental insane crap being assigned to communication "from God" AND the supposed "spirituality" and (puke) "giftedness" of the ESP using or receiving person. Again, it's like saying a great TV set makes you the Pope.
The more a person develops or relies on their real (or worse, imagined or faked) ESP ability, the less he or she receives even the most elementary genuine communication or communion with God. That is because all one is doing is working on one's TV antenna or cable or dish and pointing it more and more to other human generated channels, rather than even realizing that God is using a light (to use our analogy) and not a TV channel. All the ESP person is doing is reading other people's bologna stronger and stronger, and thus not even thinking about communicating with the real God. So when a person says that God is "telling" him or her something by "putting it in their heart" or having a vision or whatever, if they are using ESP they are getting that intuition (to use a polite word) from one of three places:
1. Other people's thoughts and impulses, transmitted by ESP.
2. One's own unconsciousness and desires. It is a VERY COMMON situation where a person who is not really in touch with their unconscious in a genuine unvarnished way is susceptible to the unconscious using the ESP ability of the person to communicate with the consciousness of that same person. That is how many false prophets develop and ultimate mislead many people because even though the ideas may seem like "godly" ones ("build a ministry here," or "follow one's heart there," or "I have the real answer and knowledge of God's will") the ESP is simply channeling, to use our TV analogy, information from one's own self fulfillment unconscious desires and projections. It's like your unconscious is a TV channel that you don't even know exists, but wants your attention, so it grabs onto the "ESP" channel that you have and taps in there. So you think (erroneously) that your ESP TV channel is pointing to God (first error) and then the second error is that your own unconscious seeps into that channel and you for sure think you are getting a "personal message" from God (second error).
3. Demonic forces. Satan rarely messes with individual people but demons most certainly do. I don't mean demons such as evil spirits and so forth per se, but I mean the miasma of sin and temptations constantly ooze from hell and many humans just can't seem to resist. The desire for power and control is an example of a principality, a power, that oozes from the gates of hell (placed there, of course, by the sinners who occupy hell) and ESP most certainly can pick that up. The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, as the saying goes, but it is mostly paved by pride and the desire for "specialness," to be a "player" in "divine matters." This is why developing one's "powers" in this arena is a grave sin and usually fatal error.
How does anyone know that God does not use ESP to communicate or "work" through with humans? When I explain this to you it will be another "duh" moment. Because God is everywhere and accessible to everyone, baby or adult, educated or not, rich or poor, black or white, talented or just ordinary, spiritually inclined or everyday Joe. The simplest prayer by the simplest person is just as received by God as the most complex prayer, and likewise no special means is necessary. In fact, Jesus even criticized the self satisfaction of the Pharisee who prayed in the same temple as the humble publican who repeated only one phrase over and over. Prayer and sacrifice have been established by God since he first made himself known to Adam and Eve as the way to communicate with him and receive responses in turn. Neither prayer nor sacrifice have anything to do with any talent, whether it be the ability to have 20/20 vision in one's eyes, one's hearing, or one's ESP. Everyone who prays is heard by God (though that does not mean that unacceptable prayer is going to get the desired answer from God). Again, it has nothing to do with talent.
Further, we see throughout faith history that God makes himself known to those who receive legitimate revelation from him in ways that are totally separate from any talent or arcane ability. The Bible is filled with God giving communication to people separate from any "talent" they have. This is one reason that God will appear as an angel for some people while not for others, as we see in scriptures. God gives the information in the way best suited for the person; not because the person is "best suited" to receive information from God. Another "duh" moment. God is so great that he adjusts his light to the person he chooses to communicate with, not the arrogant and prideful opposite assumption that so many have, that God communes and communicates with those who have the "talent" or the (puke) "giftedness" or "spirituality."
When it is God's will to respond to a prayer or to communicate with a person, he stoops down and adjusts to do so accordingly. God does not "shop around" for the person with the "best ability" to so called "hear him." God selects the person and that's that; God makes himself known through the ways he always has.
For the vast majority of people that means to be in commune, not communicate, with God through prayer. Notice I use both words as they have separate meanings. To be in commune with God means that you are in thoughtful companionship with each other. To communicate means to give information and with God, often it is one sided where the human prays to God to express himself (such as a prayer of intention) and he receives in return the communing with God, God's understanding, love and fellowship, but not usually an answer. That is the proper balance and that is reality.
The object of daily prayer and one's daily devotionals and general awareness of God is to maintain an air of commune with God, to seek his support in general by giving God one's awareness, fearful respect, love and worshipfulness in one's general demeanor in prayer. Then one, against that backdrop of being a person who is close to God, can pray and hope for communication with the proper context and in proper relationship with God. One spends much of one's time in prayer respectfully "hanging out" with God; that is commune with God and that is the purpose of prayer.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Understanding prayer via faith and reasoning
In the news one reads that people ask for prayers in time of hardship, for themselves and for others, such as loved ones. Some if not many of those requests are sincere and justified. Some are sincere but not justified, and others are insincere. The great worry is who exactly are they recommending praying to? Here is where I want to use an analogy to help you to better discern what is really going on and to understand genuine, effective prayer.
Genuine, effective, justified prayer is directed to God alone. Now, some of you may ask, wait a minute, what about traditional cultural prayers that are directed to presumed divine entities other than God? Remember, as I have always stated, I am not critiquing traditional faiths that are not monotheistic. However, many, if not most, modern people, particularly those who have access to the media, are hypocrites who try to artificially cement together some sort of New Age "belief" where they believe in God when it is convenient, but they subordinate God's reality and primacy to pieces of crazy quilt chunks of "other faiths," resulting in pure idolatry that they punctuate with supposed belief in God. In essence while they state God on occasion with their mouths, they venerate the works and beliefs of their own hands and thus are idolaters. This is particularly true of those who claim (in Star Wars kind of voices) that the "force" is with them. That is a thinly disguised idolatry where they feel they can manipulate power that is "available" to them. So I thought of this analogy to help you, especially young people, who have been raised on a diet of believing in theoretical cartoon super heroes but not the real God.
When one prays to God, one can put in front of God your wishes for resolution of a matter, but you realize that God may or may not respond to your hopes as you may wish. So in this sincere and justified prayer, you know that God is in control, and that he will do what he will, and that even disappointing results will yield at some point that you cannot see good fruit and grace. Grace is given to those who pray in this way, with a sincere heart, to God, not as a "reward" for obeying, but because that IS the way it "works."
When one prays to some sort of "forces" in the "universe," and worse, actually perform deeds and works to try to invoke the powers of those forces, one is, of course, treading on the ground of witchcraft, sorcery, idolatry, fraud, self deception and danger. Here is the analogy to help you. Most defenders of such beliefs use the expression that they are "tapping into" this or that "force" or "gift." The English language idiom "tapping into" means to insert a device by which one can siphon off a flowing product. Thus people who harvest tree sap for making syrup "tap into" the tree. People who steal TV cable service "tap into" the legitimate cable with their own connection leading to their own TV. People who listen in on phone conversations "tap into" the telecommunications signal. New Age believers and other idolaters most closely envision themselves "tapping into" electricity, just like plugging an appliance into the electrical wall outlet.
So here are the two problems with that imagery. One is the obvious that they are all "tapping into" not divine "universal" forces but simply strongly concentrated manmade or otherwise created "forces," and by no means are they tapping into anything divine or of God, not even his smallest fingernail's worth. When one plugs an electric fan into the wall, one is using a manmade plug to insert into a manmade socket in a manmade wall to access manmade wiring that carries man generated electricity (that you receive manmade bills for and pay with manmade money) all generated by a manmade power plant. So their understanding of how the universe is bogus from the get go because they are mixing apples and oranges in their own verbiage and understanding. The "forces" of the "universe" are not "just like" "tapping into" "something." When one prays to "forces" and attempts to invoke them through works, deeds and thoughts, you are, by definition, working only with manmade devices. You are not surrendering to God your problems, your hopes, and your faith, and "allowing" God to respond as he will. You are simply juggling, fruitlessly, manmade concepts, devices and efforts.
So that is the faith part of the faith and reasoning balance. Faith is understanding and believing that there is God alone, God who is in control and who will respond, even if you cannot see, cannot fully believe yet, and cannot comprehend his reasoning. As the man said to Jesus, "Lord I believe, help my unbelief." Faith is being at that starting point of genuine belief, even though one needs assistance, from God himself, and from others in the genuine faith community (which is why the pathway of the genuine saints is often studied by those seeking to develop and strengthen their own faith). "Tapping into forces" is not faith. It is idolatry, which is to attempt to give godly powers to devices and imaginings of one's own making. There is an entire industry and self delusion about "tapping into" "one's own" "inner" whatevers, including presuming one has one's own "godliness." I think not, and I have yet to meet a single person alive today who has had a genuine godly thought in him or her. Godliness comes only from God himself, I mean, duh. "Tapping into" forces or one's self leads away from God, not toward him.
Therefore, let's give the person who is "tapping into universal forces" some credit in this next part of the analogy. Let us suppose he or she (I use expressions like 'manmade' for brevity and also for ease of reading by those who do not have English as their first language) responds to my criticism of the plugging an appliance into the manmade electrical power generator and he or she says, "Fair enough, what you say is accurate. But what do you say if I change my thinking so that I'm not tapping into a manmade electrical outlet, but tell you that my imagery is tapping into the power of natural electrical forces in the universe, such as lightning, or the electric field of the planets, etc." You see, there is the problem. Even a sincere minded person such as this imaginary dialog partner continues to try to "tap into" something that is mindless. Do you really want to try to wield supposed power from a lightning bolt? Or imagine that you are gathering in your hands the electrical force field that is in theory emitted from Pluto or whatever? First of all, this person is assuming that like maple syrup that such fields truly exist and they exist in a divisible and usable way. How does a person using reasoning and logic respond to this preposition? Reply, "OK, all powerful one, hand me some gravity. Just break off a piece for me to carry around and use."
Quickly the logical person perceives that no power in the universe can be "tapped" or "utilized" without a manmade device. The only way someone can "hand you some gravity" is to build devices that allow you to experience forces of gravity, or punch you in the face and abuse you until your battered body hits the floor due to gravity. Neither is very godly. You see, using logic and reasoning you are able to not get swept away in a bogus analogy but say, "Well, hang on, how exactly would that work?" And you remember that the "forces" in the universe are emitted due to natural activities, and any "tapping" of them is not divine, but good old machinery if done in reality, and good old idolatry if done in one's mind.
Again, giving the person credit for being sincere, although totally lacking in genuine faith and understanding, imagine that he or she says, "Well, alright then. You've got me there. But that does not explain ESP." (What self puffed up people call being "psychic" nowadays). Erm, um, sorry, but oh yes it does. What do you "tap" into your supposed ESP or "psychic" power with? A human brain. And we all know the human brain is far from all powerful or divine. I mean, you can't even explain migraines but you think that because some ESP power is a reality that this is somehow evidence that you wield divine ability or "tap into" "universal forces?" I think not. Again, just like tapping the maple tree to get the sap to make the syrup, the human body and all of its parts are a created thing, not divine. Those of you who have been reading my God the All Knowing series understand how a human brain (no matter how presumably "smart" the person is) cannot be compared to God's All Knowing. See, a person cannot "tap into God consciousness" because the human brain is limited by not only its obvious size and other flaws but its structure as, like the tree, a created object. God exists outside of time, outside of matter, and outside of energy (aka "forces") and thus cannot be understood nor can he be "accessed" by any created object, such as a brain in a body, since those are totally in the world of matter, energy and time.
Just to go a little further with this, again, anticipating what the person might respond to this, consider angels, genuine angels. They were created by God and abide in his realm, where there is no matter, energy or time. That is why they are able to receive and share in God's beatific vision. But just suppose for argument's sake, in order to help you to understand this crucial point, for some reason, to show this to you, God took an angel from heaven and put him into a human body on earth. That angel would no longer be able to receive or share in God's inner being since the angel is now within "incompatible with God hardware," to use a computer term. Any created object, particularly the human body, is incompatible with "tapping into" God. Totally. Those of you who are geeks and wonks can probably best appreciate this understanding. God is outside of time, matter and energy, and humans would be an input/output device that is entirely bound by time, matter and energy. Angels are entirely outside of human and universe constraint in that they are created, but they are created by God outside of time, energy and matter.
So no, not even genuine powers of ESP demonstrates any "tapping into" of supposed "universal forces," since it is simply an evolved trait of animals too, akin to what we call animal instinct. It's a survival trait and what is a survival trait? An ability that helps a biological being (created not divine) to survive (its matter and energy continues to exist for a period of time). Voila!
The scales certainly should be falling from some eyes now. It is so abundantly clear that prayer is directed toward God and God alone, and can not and should not be confused with even impressive attempts, all of which are manmade or man controlled, to "tap into" natural energy in the universe (energy being created by God but not of God or angels at all) or to vaunt their own biological survival traits, such as ESP, which again are survival traits because they assist in achieving a measure of time (time) of life (matter and energy), again which is totally not of God. Created by God, yes, "of God," no. Prayer is the only I/O "device" that bridges the totally incompatible hardware of humans (time, matter, energy) and God (eternity, always being, no matter or energy, those being only some of his creations but not what he "dwells" within.) And prayer only "works" because you are not attempting to manage God's reply, his "output."
I hope you have found this to be helpful.
Genuine, effective, justified prayer is directed to God alone. Now, some of you may ask, wait a minute, what about traditional cultural prayers that are directed to presumed divine entities other than God? Remember, as I have always stated, I am not critiquing traditional faiths that are not monotheistic. However, many, if not most, modern people, particularly those who have access to the media, are hypocrites who try to artificially cement together some sort of New Age "belief" where they believe in God when it is convenient, but they subordinate God's reality and primacy to pieces of crazy quilt chunks of "other faiths," resulting in pure idolatry that they punctuate with supposed belief in God. In essence while they state God on occasion with their mouths, they venerate the works and beliefs of their own hands and thus are idolaters. This is particularly true of those who claim (in Star Wars kind of voices) that the "force" is with them. That is a thinly disguised idolatry where they feel they can manipulate power that is "available" to them. So I thought of this analogy to help you, especially young people, who have been raised on a diet of believing in theoretical cartoon super heroes but not the real God.
When one prays to God, one can put in front of God your wishes for resolution of a matter, but you realize that God may or may not respond to your hopes as you may wish. So in this sincere and justified prayer, you know that God is in control, and that he will do what he will, and that even disappointing results will yield at some point that you cannot see good fruit and grace. Grace is given to those who pray in this way, with a sincere heart, to God, not as a "reward" for obeying, but because that IS the way it "works."
When one prays to some sort of "forces" in the "universe," and worse, actually perform deeds and works to try to invoke the powers of those forces, one is, of course, treading on the ground of witchcraft, sorcery, idolatry, fraud, self deception and danger. Here is the analogy to help you. Most defenders of such beliefs use the expression that they are "tapping into" this or that "force" or "gift." The English language idiom "tapping into" means to insert a device by which one can siphon off a flowing product. Thus people who harvest tree sap for making syrup "tap into" the tree. People who steal TV cable service "tap into" the legitimate cable with their own connection leading to their own TV. People who listen in on phone conversations "tap into" the telecommunications signal. New Age believers and other idolaters most closely envision themselves "tapping into" electricity, just like plugging an appliance into the electrical wall outlet.
So here are the two problems with that imagery. One is the obvious that they are all "tapping into" not divine "universal" forces but simply strongly concentrated manmade or otherwise created "forces," and by no means are they tapping into anything divine or of God, not even his smallest fingernail's worth. When one plugs an electric fan into the wall, one is using a manmade plug to insert into a manmade socket in a manmade wall to access manmade wiring that carries man generated electricity (that you receive manmade bills for and pay with manmade money) all generated by a manmade power plant. So their understanding of how the universe is bogus from the get go because they are mixing apples and oranges in their own verbiage and understanding. The "forces" of the "universe" are not "just like" "tapping into" "something." When one prays to "forces" and attempts to invoke them through works, deeds and thoughts, you are, by definition, working only with manmade devices. You are not surrendering to God your problems, your hopes, and your faith, and "allowing" God to respond as he will. You are simply juggling, fruitlessly, manmade concepts, devices and efforts.
So that is the faith part of the faith and reasoning balance. Faith is understanding and believing that there is God alone, God who is in control and who will respond, even if you cannot see, cannot fully believe yet, and cannot comprehend his reasoning. As the man said to Jesus, "Lord I believe, help my unbelief." Faith is being at that starting point of genuine belief, even though one needs assistance, from God himself, and from others in the genuine faith community (which is why the pathway of the genuine saints is often studied by those seeking to develop and strengthen their own faith). "Tapping into forces" is not faith. It is idolatry, which is to attempt to give godly powers to devices and imaginings of one's own making. There is an entire industry and self delusion about "tapping into" "one's own" "inner" whatevers, including presuming one has one's own "godliness." I think not, and I have yet to meet a single person alive today who has had a genuine godly thought in him or her. Godliness comes only from God himself, I mean, duh. "Tapping into" forces or one's self leads away from God, not toward him.
Therefore, let's give the person who is "tapping into universal forces" some credit in this next part of the analogy. Let us suppose he or she (I use expressions like 'manmade' for brevity and also for ease of reading by those who do not have English as their first language) responds to my criticism of the plugging an appliance into the manmade electrical power generator and he or she says, "Fair enough, what you say is accurate. But what do you say if I change my thinking so that I'm not tapping into a manmade electrical outlet, but tell you that my imagery is tapping into the power of natural electrical forces in the universe, such as lightning, or the electric field of the planets, etc." You see, there is the problem. Even a sincere minded person such as this imaginary dialog partner continues to try to "tap into" something that is mindless. Do you really want to try to wield supposed power from a lightning bolt? Or imagine that you are gathering in your hands the electrical force field that is in theory emitted from Pluto or whatever? First of all, this person is assuming that like maple syrup that such fields truly exist and they exist in a divisible and usable way. How does a person using reasoning and logic respond to this preposition? Reply, "OK, all powerful one, hand me some gravity. Just break off a piece for me to carry around and use."
Quickly the logical person perceives that no power in the universe can be "tapped" or "utilized" without a manmade device. The only way someone can "hand you some gravity" is to build devices that allow you to experience forces of gravity, or punch you in the face and abuse you until your battered body hits the floor due to gravity. Neither is very godly. You see, using logic and reasoning you are able to not get swept away in a bogus analogy but say, "Well, hang on, how exactly would that work?" And you remember that the "forces" in the universe are emitted due to natural activities, and any "tapping" of them is not divine, but good old machinery if done in reality, and good old idolatry if done in one's mind.
Again, giving the person credit for being sincere, although totally lacking in genuine faith and understanding, imagine that he or she says, "Well, alright then. You've got me there. But that does not explain ESP." (What self puffed up people call being "psychic" nowadays). Erm, um, sorry, but oh yes it does. What do you "tap" into your supposed ESP or "psychic" power with? A human brain. And we all know the human brain is far from all powerful or divine. I mean, you can't even explain migraines but you think that because some ESP power is a reality that this is somehow evidence that you wield divine ability or "tap into" "universal forces?" I think not. Again, just like tapping the maple tree to get the sap to make the syrup, the human body and all of its parts are a created thing, not divine. Those of you who have been reading my God the All Knowing series understand how a human brain (no matter how presumably "smart" the person is) cannot be compared to God's All Knowing. See, a person cannot "tap into God consciousness" because the human brain is limited by not only its obvious size and other flaws but its structure as, like the tree, a created object. God exists outside of time, outside of matter, and outside of energy (aka "forces") and thus cannot be understood nor can he be "accessed" by any created object, such as a brain in a body, since those are totally in the world of matter, energy and time.
Just to go a little further with this, again, anticipating what the person might respond to this, consider angels, genuine angels. They were created by God and abide in his realm, where there is no matter, energy or time. That is why they are able to receive and share in God's beatific vision. But just suppose for argument's sake, in order to help you to understand this crucial point, for some reason, to show this to you, God took an angel from heaven and put him into a human body on earth. That angel would no longer be able to receive or share in God's inner being since the angel is now within "incompatible with God hardware," to use a computer term. Any created object, particularly the human body, is incompatible with "tapping into" God. Totally. Those of you who are geeks and wonks can probably best appreciate this understanding. God is outside of time, matter and energy, and humans would be an input/output device that is entirely bound by time, matter and energy. Angels are entirely outside of human and universe constraint in that they are created, but they are created by God outside of time, energy and matter.
So no, not even genuine powers of ESP demonstrates any "tapping into" of supposed "universal forces," since it is simply an evolved trait of animals too, akin to what we call animal instinct. It's a survival trait and what is a survival trait? An ability that helps a biological being (created not divine) to survive (its matter and energy continues to exist for a period of time). Voila!
The scales certainly should be falling from some eyes now. It is so abundantly clear that prayer is directed toward God and God alone, and can not and should not be confused with even impressive attempts, all of which are manmade or man controlled, to "tap into" natural energy in the universe (energy being created by God but not of God or angels at all) or to vaunt their own biological survival traits, such as ESP, which again are survival traits because they assist in achieving a measure of time (time) of life (matter and energy), again which is totally not of God. Created by God, yes, "of God," no. Prayer is the only I/O "device" that bridges the totally incompatible hardware of humans (time, matter, energy) and God (eternity, always being, no matter or energy, those being only some of his creations but not what he "dwells" within.) And prayer only "works" because you are not attempting to manage God's reply, his "output."
I hope you have found this to be helpful.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Learn Latin with me ;-)
Here is a phrase in Latin that is very important, that is easy to learn, and I think everyone who is a believer can agree with:
Credo in unum Deum
I believe in one God
The "e" in Credo and in "Deum" is pronounced like a long English "a," like it would be "Craado in unum Daaum." It is sung during the Mass by the priest and is also the title of various sacred music compositions, such as by Bach, so you can hear audio clips for the correct pronunciation!
It is the beginning of The Credo, the profession of faith.
Those of you who speak English and other Romance languages descended from Latin will see that there are similarities, of course, between certain of your language's words, and the Latin that they descended from. Here is the introductory paragraph of Wikipedia's Latin entry:
Latin (lingua Latīna, pronounced [laˈtiːna]) is an Italic language historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe. Romance languages such as Italian, French, Catalan, Romanian, Spanish, and Portuguese are descended from Latin, while many others, especially European languages, including English, have inherited and acquired much of their vocabulary from Latin. It was the international language of science and scholarship in central and western Europe until the 17th century, then it was gradually replaced by vernacular languages, especially French, which became the new lingua franca of Europe. There are two main varieties of Latin: Classical Latin, the literary dialect used in poetry and prose, and Vulgar Latin, the form of the language spoken by ordinary people. Vulgar Latin was preserved as a spoken language in much of Europe after the decline of the Roman Empire, and by the 9th century diverged into the various Romance languages.
See. when I was growing up, Latin was still the language used in celebration of Mass in the Roman Catholic Church. Far from being "exclusionary" or "haughty," it was the closest to a global language that was ever achieved. Yes, English is becoming the language of both business and ordinary speech around the world. But when Latin was celebrated in Mass globally, people of wildly different native languages could attend a Catholic Mass in any church and, using their Missal (prayer book) follow along just as they did in their home land. Any Catholic could say to another Catholic "Oremus," and be understood as saying "Let us pray." People who refer to Catholic Latin speech as "gibberish" just do not understand the missed opportunity when the Church, going along with the "modern and hip" thinking of making the "Mass" "relevant" to "local people," took away the chance for one billion Catholics to have a common language.
By the way, as an aside on my teaching about "watching for hypocrisy," notice that secularists had that stupid dream of a "global language" called Esperanto (notice the spin trying to make it sound like anyone cares http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto.) Wow, that was a real success, wasn't it?
If the Catholic Church had not caved in, we'd have one billion people (with dual language Missals) being able to pray together and speak to each other of their faith.
So just as a fun and educational thing, I thought I'd provide a few sentences in this and future blogs that are "easy to agree with" basics of faith.
Credo in unum Deum.
Oremus.
Credo in unum Deum
I believe in one God
The "e" in Credo and in "Deum" is pronounced like a long English "a," like it would be "Craado in unum Daaum." It is sung during the Mass by the priest and is also the title of various sacred music compositions, such as by Bach, so you can hear audio clips for the correct pronunciation!
It is the beginning of The Credo, the profession of faith.
Those of you who speak English and other Romance languages descended from Latin will see that there are similarities, of course, between certain of your language's words, and the Latin that they descended from. Here is the introductory paragraph of Wikipedia's Latin entry:
Latin (lingua Latīna, pronounced [laˈtiːna]) is an Italic language historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe. Romance languages such as Italian, French, Catalan, Romanian, Spanish, and Portuguese are descended from Latin, while many others, especially European languages, including English, have inherited and acquired much of their vocabulary from Latin. It was the international language of science and scholarship in central and western Europe until the 17th century, then it was gradually replaced by vernacular languages, especially French, which became the new lingua franca of Europe. There are two main varieties of Latin: Classical Latin, the literary dialect used in poetry and prose, and Vulgar Latin, the form of the language spoken by ordinary people. Vulgar Latin was preserved as a spoken language in much of Europe after the decline of the Roman Empire, and by the 9th century diverged into the various Romance languages.
See. when I was growing up, Latin was still the language used in celebration of Mass in the Roman Catholic Church. Far from being "exclusionary" or "haughty," it was the closest to a global language that was ever achieved. Yes, English is becoming the language of both business and ordinary speech around the world. But when Latin was celebrated in Mass globally, people of wildly different native languages could attend a Catholic Mass in any church and, using their Missal (prayer book) follow along just as they did in their home land. Any Catholic could say to another Catholic "Oremus," and be understood as saying "Let us pray." People who refer to Catholic Latin speech as "gibberish" just do not understand the missed opportunity when the Church, going along with the "modern and hip" thinking of making the "Mass" "relevant" to "local people," took away the chance for one billion Catholics to have a common language.
By the way, as an aside on my teaching about "watching for hypocrisy," notice that secularists had that stupid dream of a "global language" called Esperanto (notice the spin trying to make it sound like anyone cares http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto.) Wow, that was a real success, wasn't it?
If the Catholic Church had not caved in, we'd have one billion people (with dual language Missals) being able to pray together and speak to each other of their faith.
So just as a fun and educational thing, I thought I'd provide a few sentences in this and future blogs that are "easy to agree with" basics of faith.
Credo in unum Deum.
Oremus.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
About the importance of prayer
I wanted to just post a simple prayer, but while flipping through my books I found that I wanted to first share with you three paragraphs written by the late Pope John Paul II. This is from his book "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" where he responded to questions including the one "How Does the Pope Pray?" Here are three paragraphs from his longer answer.
The Pope's prayer, however, has an added dimension. In his concern for all the churches every day the Pontiff must open his prayer, his thought, his heart to the entire world. Thus a kind of geography of the Pope's prayer is sketched out. It is a geography of communities, churches, societies, and also of the problems that trouble the world today. In this sense the Pope is called to a universal prayer in which the sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum (concern for all the churches; 2 Cor 11:28) permits him to set forth before God all the joys and hopes as well as the griefs and anxieties that the Church shares with humanity today.
Prayer in our time, prayer in the twentieth century, should also be discussed. The year 2000 marks a kind of challenge. We must look at the immensity of good that has sprung from the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word [my note to my blog readers, for non-Christians the Incarnation of the Word means the birth of Jesus as the will and the word of God made into human flesh form] and, at the same time, not lose sight of the mystery of sin, which is continually expanding. Saint Paul writes that "where sin increased" ("ubi abundavit peccatum") "grace overflowed all the more" ("superabundavit gratia"; cf. Rom 5:20).
This profound truth presents a perennial challenge for prayer. It shows how necessary prayer is for the world and for the Church, because in the end it constitutes the easiest way of making God and His redeeming love present in the world. God entrusted to men their own salvation; He entrusted to them the Church, and, in the Church, the redeeming work of Christ. God entrusted this to all, both to individuals and to humanity as a whole. He entrusted all to one and one to all. The prayer of the Church, and especially the prayer of the Pope, must constantly reflect this awareness.
Here is another paragraph on this topic, so relevant to these times.
The Church prays for the dead and this prayer says much about the reality of the Church itself. It says that the Church continues to live in the hope of eternal life. Prayer for the dead is almost a battle with the reality of death and destruction that weighs down upon the earthly existence of man. This is and remains a particular revelation of the Resurrection. In this prayer Christ Himself bears witness to the life and immortality, to which God calls every human being.
One reason that I included this fourth paragraph is that I wanted you to understand that praying for the dead is not depressing and pointless, but the ultimate expression of faith and hope by the individuals and body of the Church in the immortal life to which God calls all. Implicit in this, though John Paul II does not address this here, is that even if someone who you know has deceased in a state where you might be quite certain that they had not accepted God, had not shunned lives of sin, and had might likely, therefore, "not been saved," it is an expression of your faith and hope that, if you so wish, pray nonetheless for your deceased loved one. The point is that no prayer is "wasted." Sometimes true faith is demonstrated only when you trust God in what seems to be impossible situations.
Mark 10:26-27
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God."
The Pope's prayer, however, has an added dimension. In his concern for all the churches every day the Pontiff must open his prayer, his thought, his heart to the entire world. Thus a kind of geography of the Pope's prayer is sketched out. It is a geography of communities, churches, societies, and also of the problems that trouble the world today. In this sense the Pope is called to a universal prayer in which the sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum (concern for all the churches; 2 Cor 11:28) permits him to set forth before God all the joys and hopes as well as the griefs and anxieties that the Church shares with humanity today.
Prayer in our time, prayer in the twentieth century, should also be discussed. The year 2000 marks a kind of challenge. We must look at the immensity of good that has sprung from the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word [my note to my blog readers, for non-Christians the Incarnation of the Word means the birth of Jesus as the will and the word of God made into human flesh form] and, at the same time, not lose sight of the mystery of sin, which is continually expanding. Saint Paul writes that "where sin increased" ("ubi abundavit peccatum") "grace overflowed all the more" ("superabundavit gratia"; cf. Rom 5:20).
This profound truth presents a perennial challenge for prayer. It shows how necessary prayer is for the world and for the Church, because in the end it constitutes the easiest way of making God and His redeeming love present in the world. God entrusted to men their own salvation; He entrusted to them the Church, and, in the Church, the redeeming work of Christ. God entrusted this to all, both to individuals and to humanity as a whole. He entrusted all to one and one to all. The prayer of the Church, and especially the prayer of the Pope, must constantly reflect this awareness.
Here is another paragraph on this topic, so relevant to these times.
The Church prays for the dead and this prayer says much about the reality of the Church itself. It says that the Church continues to live in the hope of eternal life. Prayer for the dead is almost a battle with the reality of death and destruction that weighs down upon the earthly existence of man. This is and remains a particular revelation of the Resurrection. In this prayer Christ Himself bears witness to the life and immortality, to which God calls every human being.
One reason that I included this fourth paragraph is that I wanted you to understand that praying for the dead is not depressing and pointless, but the ultimate expression of faith and hope by the individuals and body of the Church in the immortal life to which God calls all. Implicit in this, though John Paul II does not address this here, is that even if someone who you know has deceased in a state where you might be quite certain that they had not accepted God, had not shunned lives of sin, and had might likely, therefore, "not been saved," it is an expression of your faith and hope that, if you so wish, pray nonetheless for your deceased loved one. The point is that no prayer is "wasted." Sometimes true faith is demonstrated only when you trust God in what seems to be impossible situations.
Mark 10:26-27
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God."
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Cleansing the palete, writing and thoughts
The palate is a part of the mouth. The term "cleansing the palate" is often used when referring to wine or food tasters, who eat something bland to remove the taste of the previously sampled item before assessing the taste of the next item. In other words, one removes the after taste so that it does not infiltrate the next bite or sip. Meals of several courses are often planned with that in mind, if not in actually providing an intermediary palate cleanser, then at least planning the order of courses so that a previous dish or beverage does not overpower the next one or ruin the flavor through unplanned combination.
The societal lack of "cleansing the palate" is one of the greatest obstacles to achieving, or even commencing, sanctity today. For example, one of my least favorite activities is to have my mind set on writing a blog posting that glorifies God, but I am interrupted with the need to blog about the dirtier works and sins of humans. However, because my heart, mind and spirit are always turned toward God, even as my fingers have to type less pleasant (but vital soul saving) blog entries, I do not have to "cleanse the palate" of my spirit and my mind, since my heart is always turned to God. White bread is often used as a gourmet palate cleanser, and so it does not seem a coincidence that one can think of God, through Jesus Christ, the living bread and staff of life, and remain cleansed in one's heart, mind and soul even when one must discuss distasteful things, such as sin and depravity in modern society, and the consequences of hell fire for all eternity.
However, since the vast majority of humans are not sanctified to God, but I do believe that many wish to be (however, they confuse it with the egocentric objective of being "very spiritual"), you need to realize that society and its dirt are a barrier to sanctification, as it requires extraordinary effort these days to "cleanse one's palate."
Let me introduce an old time admonishment, that is slang and said casually. In the old days when someone said something dirty (as in pornographic), profane (toward God), or cussed, often the listener would reply to that person, "You kiss your mother with that mouth?!"
This was in more innocent and good hearted days when often that admonishment was actually enough to make the hardened bad talker stop and be somewhat abashed. That's like back in the days when moms weren't competing to be as dirty as the celebrities, and when their children upheld their mother's level of decency. So yes, a simple expression like that caused many a cusser or dirty talker to stop in his tracks and blush. He would genuinely be ashamed to think of what had come out of his mouth, and that yes, that is the mouth that would kiss his mom on the cheek. That admonishment was a verbal palate cleanser.
Today it is just about impossible to cleanse the palate, spiritually. I don't mean to cleanse the palate to do some high and mighty worshipping or great spiritual work. I mean to go back to the normal state that one should be in nearly one hundred percent of the time! One should be living a life of having a cleansed palate, but one that is interrupted on occasion by the realities of life.
I'm not speaking of cussing here. I am speaking of living constantly within the increasing dirtiness of the world.
Here is an example of those who have to struggle because of the dirt of the world. It used to be that if you were a law enforcement official, it would be a very rare event when one had to investigate child pornography, child solicitation or child rape. The average cop might encounter one horrific example in his or her entire career! And that event would, of course, be a very low point and one that he or she not only had to prevent from depressing them, but also did not bring the sadness of it home to their family.
Now look at what the world, through human beings own choices, has brought to this example. Entire police departments have to assign full time officers to trolling through the filth of the Internet, identifying and capturing pedophiles and other child abusers. These officers have to look at more in FIVE MINUTES than most cops had to look at in their entire career. It is impossible for law enforcement people to ever cleanse their palates or have a cleansed palate, because they are standing within the tidal wave of filth.
I worry about professionals, and amateurs, who do this type of work with sincere hearts because I know that despite what they may say, it changes them forever and is a soul robbing experience. People often bandy about praying to the Archangel Michael, but this is an example where I recommend that those who must, because of their vocation, wade in such palate destroying filth, that they look at Michael as a role model, as the archangel who faces the worst of what Satan is, and yet remains totally pure and sanctified to God. Think of his role modeling as a palate cleanser. Also, do not be an egomaniac who thinks you are not affected and can do this for years at a time. Wading in filth, even for a "noble purpose" is a barrier to sanctity and your process of sanctification. Why? Because it takes up space in your mind and your heart, even as you combat it, that ought to be set only on the pure sights of God. You are having to "kiss God's cheek" with that mouth.
Isaiah 6:5-7
Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
He touched my mouth with it. "See," he said, "now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged."
Isaiah, the greatest of the prophets who prophesied the Messiah, Jesus Christ, knew that even as pure as he was, he could not be living as a human among humans with filthy lips without being at risk once he faces God, so upon the sight of God he is terrified of this knowledge. God respects this wisdom exhibited by Isaiah and thus the seraphim cleanses Isaiah's lips with burning coals from God's own altar. This is why you can look to God and his angels, such as Michael, with confidence and trust if you, through no fault of your own, are put within the filth of the times.
But what about the vast majority of people who wallow in and produce the filth? What about the many mothers today who purchase "booty enhancing" jeans and who have "tramp stamps" tattooed over their rear ends? Why should their children worry about with what lips they kiss such mothers?
It is impossible to have the television on, or the radio, to keep one company, as I used to like to do, without now being subjected to a "Viva Viagra" commercial about how long a man can have an erection, or some thinly veiled reference to oral sex. How many of you turn off the TV or the radio the instant that such filth comes on? Not so many I reckon. How many of you hold stock in those companies, or work behind the scenes on that type of marketing, all day every day? How can one be sanctified, have a cleansed palate for God in your average day, when you are in the tidal wave, either willingly or unwillingly, of filth?
Young people, this is one of the things I am trying to help you to understand, a time that was gone before you were born, but has become worse each year, as you've been growing up and have become young adults. Do not worry that I am being a fun destroying prude, LOL. If you think that, reread the example I have used, which is of the average police officer who maybe once in his entire career encountered terrible child pornographic filth or solicitation. Do not believe the liars of today who say it "always was there but just hidden." I mean, duh, how dumb do they think you are? Cell phones, computers, message boards and the Internet did not exist. Thus there was no way to cultivate the occasional pervert's taste into violent addictive action as there is today. Today there is a field full of weeds, rather than a field of wheat that would have the occasional, easily identified and controlled weed. You have been given, deliberately, or at the very least because they have been asleep at the wheel, a society of a destroyed cleansed palate, by your parents and their parents.
The sickening spread and virtual explosion of violence against even the tiniest infants (and even pet animals) and the total perversion of the beauty of intimacy, including sex, is happening because people are not living the way they used to be, which was with mental and spiritual cleansed palates... ones that they knew had to be restored to that normalcy of the cleansed palate, in between encounters with that which is unclean.
But to be unclean and uncleansed is the "new normal." That is the shocking and still, for me, who have seen this with my own eyes, the most difficult thing to comprehend how society has imploded and rotted from within, while calling that being "liberated." I don't think the police who spend their entire shifts hunting the worst baby raping perverts that have ever existed among humans feel particularly "liberated." I don't feel liberated when I sit down to blog and someone on the radio makes an oral sex allusion. Do you feel liberated, really? Young people, you certainly should not feel liberated. You have been chained in a meat market, out of reach of the place of the cleansed palate. Thus you cannot enjoy as you should the goodness of intimacy, of passion, or handle appropriately confrontations with filth, when they occur. Genuine liberation is to be able to operate from a clean base of stability, and thus you have a wide range of appropriate responses.
So if you are interested in being sanctified, as every human being should, which means to put God and his will first and foremost in your life, so that you can reap all the goodness of life as it exists now and have hope for the eternal bliss, you must be aware of the tide that you take for granted as "normal" that brings unclean and unease into your spirits and hearts, hindering sanctification. Shut it down, the unclean, wherever and whenever it is in your reach. Don't "put up with it" (like letting the TV drone on with filth) because as I said, as the holy man Isaiah knew, it besmirches even the unwilling.
What can you do on a practical level? First of all, this is one reason why frequent daily prayer is so helpful. People have started thinking too much of prayer as "asking God for something." Realize, instead, and remember that prayer is the ultimate palate cleanser. Prayer neutralizes filth because it removes you from it as you realign and reset your focus on what is true and good. So prayer is not just a tool for asking God for help. Prayer is the ultimate palate cleanser.
Then, as I have alluded to above, make your own space as clean as possible. For example, I stop visiting news web sites that when I click on them I immediately have some gigantic picture of fat boobs stuffed in my virtual face. Don't give them your clicks and don't let them plant those images with you. So clean up your space even though it's a daily battle, but think of weeding out the field (not taking weed, LOL). If you pull out each one as it pops up, eventually they diminish.
Also, be a trend setter and set your own example. Like I said I am no dreary prude. But there is a heck of a difference between a sharp dressed young man or woman and one who feels that I and the world need to see their tramp stamp or booty crack. There is a quiet young man who sometimes comes in for pizza where I regularly lunch and I totally love his clothes. He is so hip and yet modest. If you cultivate your own cleansed palate of taste in your own dignity and hipness, then your posse and others will follow you. You will be helping everyone with their own hip sanctification! Seriously, you do not want to be the one, like so many girls today, who wants to show off her stuff to every guy, hoping that guy goes home and hates his wife or girlfriend for not being as "hot" as her. Trust me, she'll be "hot" alright, in a way she eternally regrets. Again, this is not because God doesn't like showing off the human body. It's because God knows the hearts of all and their every thought, and he knows when people dress slutty so that they can harm the custody of the eyes and hearts, and thus sanctity and happiness, of others. Marketing people and greedy merchants better wise up to that too. How many erotic commercials fuel child molester fantasies? A lot of them and I know because as I said, I know what crime and society was like "before" and "after."
I hope, as always, that you are having a good day and that you have found this to be helpful.
The societal lack of "cleansing the palate" is one of the greatest obstacles to achieving, or even commencing, sanctity today. For example, one of my least favorite activities is to have my mind set on writing a blog posting that glorifies God, but I am interrupted with the need to blog about the dirtier works and sins of humans. However, because my heart, mind and spirit are always turned toward God, even as my fingers have to type less pleasant (but vital soul saving) blog entries, I do not have to "cleanse the palate" of my spirit and my mind, since my heart is always turned to God. White bread is often used as a gourmet palate cleanser, and so it does not seem a coincidence that one can think of God, through Jesus Christ, the living bread and staff of life, and remain cleansed in one's heart, mind and soul even when one must discuss distasteful things, such as sin and depravity in modern society, and the consequences of hell fire for all eternity.
However, since the vast majority of humans are not sanctified to God, but I do believe that many wish to be (however, they confuse it with the egocentric objective of being "very spiritual"), you need to realize that society and its dirt are a barrier to sanctification, as it requires extraordinary effort these days to "cleanse one's palate."
Let me introduce an old time admonishment, that is slang and said casually. In the old days when someone said something dirty (as in pornographic), profane (toward God), or cussed, often the listener would reply to that person, "You kiss your mother with that mouth?!"
This was in more innocent and good hearted days when often that admonishment was actually enough to make the hardened bad talker stop and be somewhat abashed. That's like back in the days when moms weren't competing to be as dirty as the celebrities, and when their children upheld their mother's level of decency. So yes, a simple expression like that caused many a cusser or dirty talker to stop in his tracks and blush. He would genuinely be ashamed to think of what had come out of his mouth, and that yes, that is the mouth that would kiss his mom on the cheek. That admonishment was a verbal palate cleanser.
Today it is just about impossible to cleanse the palate, spiritually. I don't mean to cleanse the palate to do some high and mighty worshipping or great spiritual work. I mean to go back to the normal state that one should be in nearly one hundred percent of the time! One should be living a life of having a cleansed palate, but one that is interrupted on occasion by the realities of life.
I'm not speaking of cussing here. I am speaking of living constantly within the increasing dirtiness of the world.
Here is an example of those who have to struggle because of the dirt of the world. It used to be that if you were a law enforcement official, it would be a very rare event when one had to investigate child pornography, child solicitation or child rape. The average cop might encounter one horrific example in his or her entire career! And that event would, of course, be a very low point and one that he or she not only had to prevent from depressing them, but also did not bring the sadness of it home to their family.
Now look at what the world, through human beings own choices, has brought to this example. Entire police departments have to assign full time officers to trolling through the filth of the Internet, identifying and capturing pedophiles and other child abusers. These officers have to look at more in FIVE MINUTES than most cops had to look at in their entire career. It is impossible for law enforcement people to ever cleanse their palates or have a cleansed palate, because they are standing within the tidal wave of filth.
I worry about professionals, and amateurs, who do this type of work with sincere hearts because I know that despite what they may say, it changes them forever and is a soul robbing experience. People often bandy about praying to the Archangel Michael, but this is an example where I recommend that those who must, because of their vocation, wade in such palate destroying filth, that they look at Michael as a role model, as the archangel who faces the worst of what Satan is, and yet remains totally pure and sanctified to God. Think of his role modeling as a palate cleanser. Also, do not be an egomaniac who thinks you are not affected and can do this for years at a time. Wading in filth, even for a "noble purpose" is a barrier to sanctity and your process of sanctification. Why? Because it takes up space in your mind and your heart, even as you combat it, that ought to be set only on the pure sights of God. You are having to "kiss God's cheek" with that mouth.
Isaiah 6:5-7
Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
He touched my mouth with it. "See," he said, "now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged."
Isaiah, the greatest of the prophets who prophesied the Messiah, Jesus Christ, knew that even as pure as he was, he could not be living as a human among humans with filthy lips without being at risk once he faces God, so upon the sight of God he is terrified of this knowledge. God respects this wisdom exhibited by Isaiah and thus the seraphim cleanses Isaiah's lips with burning coals from God's own altar. This is why you can look to God and his angels, such as Michael, with confidence and trust if you, through no fault of your own, are put within the filth of the times.
But what about the vast majority of people who wallow in and produce the filth? What about the many mothers today who purchase "booty enhancing" jeans and who have "tramp stamps" tattooed over their rear ends? Why should their children worry about with what lips they kiss such mothers?
It is impossible to have the television on, or the radio, to keep one company, as I used to like to do, without now being subjected to a "Viva Viagra" commercial about how long a man can have an erection, or some thinly veiled reference to oral sex. How many of you turn off the TV or the radio the instant that such filth comes on? Not so many I reckon. How many of you hold stock in those companies, or work behind the scenes on that type of marketing, all day every day? How can one be sanctified, have a cleansed palate for God in your average day, when you are in the tidal wave, either willingly or unwillingly, of filth?
Young people, this is one of the things I am trying to help you to understand, a time that was gone before you were born, but has become worse each year, as you've been growing up and have become young adults. Do not worry that I am being a fun destroying prude, LOL. If you think that, reread the example I have used, which is of the average police officer who maybe once in his entire career encountered terrible child pornographic filth or solicitation. Do not believe the liars of today who say it "always was there but just hidden." I mean, duh, how dumb do they think you are? Cell phones, computers, message boards and the Internet did not exist. Thus there was no way to cultivate the occasional pervert's taste into violent addictive action as there is today. Today there is a field full of weeds, rather than a field of wheat that would have the occasional, easily identified and controlled weed. You have been given, deliberately, or at the very least because they have been asleep at the wheel, a society of a destroyed cleansed palate, by your parents and their parents.
The sickening spread and virtual explosion of violence against even the tiniest infants (and even pet animals) and the total perversion of the beauty of intimacy, including sex, is happening because people are not living the way they used to be, which was with mental and spiritual cleansed palates... ones that they knew had to be restored to that normalcy of the cleansed palate, in between encounters with that which is unclean.
But to be unclean and uncleansed is the "new normal." That is the shocking and still, for me, who have seen this with my own eyes, the most difficult thing to comprehend how society has imploded and rotted from within, while calling that being "liberated." I don't think the police who spend their entire shifts hunting the worst baby raping perverts that have ever existed among humans feel particularly "liberated." I don't feel liberated when I sit down to blog and someone on the radio makes an oral sex allusion. Do you feel liberated, really? Young people, you certainly should not feel liberated. You have been chained in a meat market, out of reach of the place of the cleansed palate. Thus you cannot enjoy as you should the goodness of intimacy, of passion, or handle appropriately confrontations with filth, when they occur. Genuine liberation is to be able to operate from a clean base of stability, and thus you have a wide range of appropriate responses.
So if you are interested in being sanctified, as every human being should, which means to put God and his will first and foremost in your life, so that you can reap all the goodness of life as it exists now and have hope for the eternal bliss, you must be aware of the tide that you take for granted as "normal" that brings unclean and unease into your spirits and hearts, hindering sanctification. Shut it down, the unclean, wherever and whenever it is in your reach. Don't "put up with it" (like letting the TV drone on with filth) because as I said, as the holy man Isaiah knew, it besmirches even the unwilling.
What can you do on a practical level? First of all, this is one reason why frequent daily prayer is so helpful. People have started thinking too much of prayer as "asking God for something." Realize, instead, and remember that prayer is the ultimate palate cleanser. Prayer neutralizes filth because it removes you from it as you realign and reset your focus on what is true and good. So prayer is not just a tool for asking God for help. Prayer is the ultimate palate cleanser.
Then, as I have alluded to above, make your own space as clean as possible. For example, I stop visiting news web sites that when I click on them I immediately have some gigantic picture of fat boobs stuffed in my virtual face. Don't give them your clicks and don't let them plant those images with you. So clean up your space even though it's a daily battle, but think of weeding out the field (not taking weed, LOL). If you pull out each one as it pops up, eventually they diminish.
Also, be a trend setter and set your own example. Like I said I am no dreary prude. But there is a heck of a difference between a sharp dressed young man or woman and one who feels that I and the world need to see their tramp stamp or booty crack. There is a quiet young man who sometimes comes in for pizza where I regularly lunch and I totally love his clothes. He is so hip and yet modest. If you cultivate your own cleansed palate of taste in your own dignity and hipness, then your posse and others will follow you. You will be helping everyone with their own hip sanctification! Seriously, you do not want to be the one, like so many girls today, who wants to show off her stuff to every guy, hoping that guy goes home and hates his wife or girlfriend for not being as "hot" as her. Trust me, she'll be "hot" alright, in a way she eternally regrets. Again, this is not because God doesn't like showing off the human body. It's because God knows the hearts of all and their every thought, and he knows when people dress slutty so that they can harm the custody of the eyes and hearts, and thus sanctity and happiness, of others. Marketing people and greedy merchants better wise up to that too. How many erotic commercials fuel child molester fantasies? A lot of them and I know because as I said, I know what crime and society was like "before" and "after."
I hope, as always, that you are having a good day and that you have found this to be helpful.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
1 of best prayers ever and deep trouble help pt. 2
I came across one of my favorite prayers a few days ago when I bought the book "Day by Day with the Catechism" at a Catholic Church run rummage sale. It's a very well known and valued prayer among Catholics who look for thoughtful prayers, and I was happy to see it included in this booklet. As I reread it, I thought of my recent blog posting about getting out of deep trouble, where I provide commentary and advice through the wisdom contained in Psalm 1 of the Book of Psalms. I realized that I could do something similar with this prayer, so here it is.
This prayer is entitled "A Prayer for All Things Necessary to Salvation" and it was written by Pope Clement XI (1649-1721). As you read through this prayer, written by a Roman Catholic Pope, and thus heir to St. Peter, who Catholics consider the first pope, recognize that this scholarly and spiritual man has developed a virtual checklist of the correct things to ask God for. This is why I had the idea that if any of you are in deep trouble, you can take this prayer and thoughtfully use it to attune yourself more to the desires expressing within the prayer, and less to the worldly things and temptations that may be the cause of or contributing to your suffering as you attempt to handle the deep trouble that you may be in. Just a note, remember that I explained that to be "sanctified" means that one is focused on serving God first and foremost.
PRAYER FOR ALL THINGS NECESSARY TO SALVATION
I believe, Lord, but may I believe more firmly.
I hope, but may I hope more securely.
I love, but may I love more ardently.
I grieve, but may I grieve more deeply.
I adore you as my first beginning.
I aspire after you as my last end.
I praise you as my perpetual benefactor.
I invoke you as my merciful protector.
Direct me by your wisdom.
Keep me in your grace.
Console me with your mercy.
Protect me with your power.
I offer you, O Lord,
my thoughts, that they may be about you;
my words, that they may be spoken for your glory;
my actions, that they may accord with your will;
my sufferings, that they may be accepted for your sake.
I desire whatever you desire.
I desire it because you desire it.
I desire it insofar as you desire it.
I desire it for as long as you desire it.
I pray, O Lord, that you will enlighten my mind,
inflame my will,
cleanse my heart,
and sanctify my soul.
May I repent of past sins,
repel future temptations,
correct wicked tendencies,
and cultivate virtuous ideals.
Good Lord, grant that I may love you,
renounce myself,
and do good to my neighbor,
and be detached toward the world.
May I strive to obey my superiors,
support my inferiors,
aid my friends,
and spare my enemies.
Help me to overcome sensuality by self-denial,
avarice by liberality,
anger by meekness,
and tepidity by devotion.
Make me prudent in counsel,
steadfast in danger,
patient in adversity,
and humble in prosperity.
Grant, Lord, that I may be attentive at prayer,
temperate at meals,
diligent at work,
and constant in resolutions.
Let my conscience be upright,
my outward appearance be modest,
my conversation edifying,
and my whole life be ordered.
Help me to labor to overcome nature,
to cooperate with your grace,
to keep your commandments,
and to further my salvation.
Teach me the futility of earthly things,
the greatness of Divine things,
the shortness of temporal things,
and the length of eternal things.
Grant that I may be prepared for death,
fear judgment,
avoid hell,
and obtain paradise-
through Christ our Lord.
Clement XI (1649-1721), Pope and Scholar
Now that you have read this prayer, marvel along with me at each and every line, how each one could be the topic of a prayer request. Yet, how many people ask God through prayer to "desire whatever you desire," to "hope more securely," to "cultivate virtuous ideals," to "spare my enemies," to "overcome avarice by liberality," to "overcome tepidity by devotion," to be "constant in resolutions," or to "cooperate with your grace?" People, even true believers, tend to pray to God when they "want something," and that is fine, if only what you want are the qualities and devotion to God that are listed here! When one prays to God for any or all of these qualities, one sets one's self on a different path, one where one recognizes more clearly the blessings that one has received (and answered prayers), and understanding of why and where a specific aspect of life that is not going as hoped is still not a total loss.
So a great exercise for everyone who wants to become closer to God would be to regularly pray this prayer and, as a way to promote one's spiritual development, why not select one or two specific lines of request in this prayer as the focus of your "prayer request to God." I think this is the type of prayer one should read and reflect upon at the beginning of each day.
I hope that you have found this helpful!
This prayer is entitled "A Prayer for All Things Necessary to Salvation" and it was written by Pope Clement XI (1649-1721). As you read through this prayer, written by a Roman Catholic Pope, and thus heir to St. Peter, who Catholics consider the first pope, recognize that this scholarly and spiritual man has developed a virtual checklist of the correct things to ask God for. This is why I had the idea that if any of you are in deep trouble, you can take this prayer and thoughtfully use it to attune yourself more to the desires expressing within the prayer, and less to the worldly things and temptations that may be the cause of or contributing to your suffering as you attempt to handle the deep trouble that you may be in. Just a note, remember that I explained that to be "sanctified" means that one is focused on serving God first and foremost.
PRAYER FOR ALL THINGS NECESSARY TO SALVATION
I believe, Lord, but may I believe more firmly.
I hope, but may I hope more securely.
I love, but may I love more ardently.
I grieve, but may I grieve more deeply.
I adore you as my first beginning.
I aspire after you as my last end.
I praise you as my perpetual benefactor.
I invoke you as my merciful protector.
Direct me by your wisdom.
Keep me in your grace.
Console me with your mercy.
Protect me with your power.
I offer you, O Lord,
my thoughts, that they may be about you;
my words, that they may be spoken for your glory;
my actions, that they may accord with your will;
my sufferings, that they may be accepted for your sake.
I desire whatever you desire.
I desire it because you desire it.
I desire it insofar as you desire it.
I desire it for as long as you desire it.
I pray, O Lord, that you will enlighten my mind,
inflame my will,
cleanse my heart,
and sanctify my soul.
May I repent of past sins,
repel future temptations,
correct wicked tendencies,
and cultivate virtuous ideals.
Good Lord, grant that I may love you,
renounce myself,
and do good to my neighbor,
and be detached toward the world.
May I strive to obey my superiors,
support my inferiors,
aid my friends,
and spare my enemies.
Help me to overcome sensuality by self-denial,
avarice by liberality,
anger by meekness,
and tepidity by devotion.
Make me prudent in counsel,
steadfast in danger,
patient in adversity,
and humble in prosperity.
Grant, Lord, that I may be attentive at prayer,
temperate at meals,
diligent at work,
and constant in resolutions.
Let my conscience be upright,
my outward appearance be modest,
my conversation edifying,
and my whole life be ordered.
Help me to labor to overcome nature,
to cooperate with your grace,
to keep your commandments,
and to further my salvation.
Teach me the futility of earthly things,
the greatness of Divine things,
the shortness of temporal things,
and the length of eternal things.
Grant that I may be prepared for death,
fear judgment,
avoid hell,
and obtain paradise-
through Christ our Lord.
Clement XI (1649-1721), Pope and Scholar
Now that you have read this prayer, marvel along with me at each and every line, how each one could be the topic of a prayer request. Yet, how many people ask God through prayer to "desire whatever you desire," to "hope more securely," to "cultivate virtuous ideals," to "spare my enemies," to "overcome avarice by liberality," to "overcome tepidity by devotion," to be "constant in resolutions," or to "cooperate with your grace?" People, even true believers, tend to pray to God when they "want something," and that is fine, if only what you want are the qualities and devotion to God that are listed here! When one prays to God for any or all of these qualities, one sets one's self on a different path, one where one recognizes more clearly the blessings that one has received (and answered prayers), and understanding of why and where a specific aspect of life that is not going as hoped is still not a total loss.
So a great exercise for everyone who wants to become closer to God would be to regularly pray this prayer and, as a way to promote one's spiritual development, why not select one or two specific lines of request in this prayer as the focus of your "prayer request to God." I think this is the type of prayer one should read and reflect upon at the beginning of each day.
I hope that you have found this helpful!
Friday, January 16, 2009
A nice morning prayer from the 1962 Missal
Prayer for Consecration of the Day
O Lord God, King of heaven and earth, may it please Thee this day to order and to hallow, to rule and to govern our hearts and our bodies, our thoughts, our words and our works, according to Thy law and in the doing of Thy commandments, that we, being helped by Thee, may here and hereafter worthily be saved and delivered by Thee, O Saviour of the world, who livest and reignest for ever and ever. Amen.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Bible Reading: 1 Peter 4:7-11, Revelation 22:18-9
But the end of all things is at hand. Be prudent therefore and watchful in prayers. But above all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves; for charity covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without murmuring. According to the gift that each has received, administer it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let it be with words of God. If anyone ministers, let it be as from the strength that God furnishes; that in all things God may be honored through Jesus Christ, to whom are the glory and the dominion forever. Amen.
[Commentary: Notice that St. Peter, the first Pope, advises how to be prepared for the "end of all things..." not by panicking or by living any differently than in normal times that seem to last forever but to be "prudent" and "watchful" IN PRAYERS. St. Peter would say the same thing today. He would not say to stockpile AK-47's so that you can "defend your family's" "hoarded food" when "there are food riots during the 'tribulation.'" He in fact says the opposite. He says to anticipate the end of times WITHIN ONE'S OWN PRAYER LIFE. It is in prayer to God that one 'prepares' for the 'end of all things,' not in a single earthly deed.
In fact, St. Peter admonishes people to continue to "above all" have constant and mutual charity. The Greek translation uses the word "earnest" instead of "mutual." St. Peter admonishes people to anticipate the end of times only in their prayer life but to continue and even accelerate the graciousness and decency of genuine (earnest and mutual) charity. St. Peter doesn't waste time explaining why charity is the right thing to do; he cuts to the chase by saying that GENUINE MUTUAL charity "covers a multitude of sins." St. Peter is thus pointing out that people will sin just as they always have right until the end of times and that they better continue to live good Christian lives right up to and through the end, with more effort, not less, as the end may or may not be nigh.
St. Peter then says that if anyone speaks at all it better be "with words of God." St. Peter certainly did not mean to make up entire conversations "with God" and sell them in book deals to mislead the faithful even more. St. Peter is, through use of the word "if" is praising prudent silence. Thus he says that "if" "anyone speaks," it better be "with" as in speaking the actual words of God. The actual words of God can only be found in the scripture.
Further, if one goes farther than speaking, but "if" "anyone ministers," St. Peter explains that the ministry should come from the strength of God. What does he mean? Not to "be strong" as in the modern idea that one has to withhold against persecution. St. Peter means with certainty, as in being strong in one's proclamation of God. God provides strength to his ministers by providing the truth to them through the scriptures.
So St. Peter summarizes that "if" one speaks and "if" one ministers, "in all things" one is to honor God. The point of speaking or ministering is to honor God and nothing else. Further, as Christians, St. Peter reminds all that the way that God is honored is through Jesus Christ, who is God's ultimate gift to humanity. One honors God by honoring and praising the gift that he has given. Thus all praise and dominion are of God's, given through Jesus Christ.
St. Peter wrote this letter while in Rome near the end of his life, a few years before his martyrdom. Thus he was writing over thirty years since the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. He's had all of this time to be the "bridge," in partnership with St. Paul, between Jesus Christ as he lived and walked, and how people are expected to develop the faith and comport themselves until the end of all things. St. Peter had no way of knowing that he and St. Paul would not be the final speakers, the final witnesses, of this bridge from the Apostles to the birthed and living, growing Church, the body of the faithful for there would be one more book several decades later: St. John's Book of Revelation (Apocalypse).
Yet St. John's book, the last of the set that comprise the Christian bible, reinforces all that St. Peter taught, summarized in one very blunt line:
Revelation 22:18
I [Jesus] testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone shall add to them, God will add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.
The Apostles were fully aware that one of the greatest temptations that humans will succumb to will be to write themselves into the scripture as false prophets. Even they, however, could not have imagined that in the future people will dare to write that God and angels are chatting with them, saying non-scriptural things and weakening people's faith. However, it is because that the Apostles could never have imagined the extent that the false prophet syndrome (for money and prideful glory and celebrity, no less) Jesus certainly knows all, sees all, and this is why he dictated to St. John such a dire warning a few sentences from the end of what will be the last page of the Bible, the holy scripture. Jesus is not simply referring to "this book" as in the chapter that is Revelation. Jesus means the holy scriptures: ALL of it. No one is to add to the words of prophecy (the word of God) of THE book.
Jesus in the very next line also anticipates the power of "omission" that humans utilize, which is to skip over the parts of the Bible and the word of God that they just don't want to obey.
Revelation 22:19
If anyone shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his portion from the tree of life, and from the holy city, and from the things that are written in this book.
Friends, if I take great care to only explain and never add or omit from the Bible, I don't know how many of you in your turn dare to just pull whatever out of whatever part of your bodies and call that "messages" that you have "received" "from God" or from "angels," and then sell that in book format. I shudder, absolutely shudder at how each of you will have to answer for that.
I strongly suggest that you all go back to reading the Bible and especially following the very strong advice of the Apostles.
Worried about the 'end of all things?' Well, shut up, pray, and continue to do more and more of the day to day charity and other genuine good that you have been exhorted to do.]
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Catholic daily prayer schedule "Divine Office"
Many Christians, including Catholics themselves, grew up in modern times where they do not realize that the Church has a very rich prayer life and schedule.
The principle way that Catholics pray is to attend the Holy Mass. The Divine Office, which is the name of the daily prayer schedule, is the second most important means of prayer. Observance of the Divine Office is binding upon the religious orders of the Church, many of whom attempt to pray at least part of the Divine Office each day. Here is the schedule and the traditional names.
Matins prayers of the night
Lauds the morning praises
Prime morning prayer
Terce prayer of the third hour
Sext prayer of the sixth hour
None prayer of the ninth hour
Vespers the evening Office
Compline end of the Office, evening prayer
For example, we frequently see the Pope conduct Vespers during his travels, and special presentations of that one of the eight parts of the Daily Office may be broadcast on TV coverage such as on the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN).
Speaking of EWTN, when I have been in Birmingham, Alabama I have attended the morning prayer (before Mass) and Vespers.
I mention this today to encourage Catholics to understand that laity were much more prayerful than they are today, to explain to other Christians that Catholic doctrine is far more prayerful than most of you realize, and to give a friendly wave to my Muslim readers, so they know another thing our faiths have in common (and that is one reason why I enjoyed hearing the call to prayer when I spent some time in Turkey back in 1995).
I hope you have found this interesting and also a gentle nudge toward a more prayerful mindset during the day ;-)
The principle way that Catholics pray is to attend the Holy Mass. The Divine Office, which is the name of the daily prayer schedule, is the second most important means of prayer. Observance of the Divine Office is binding upon the religious orders of the Church, many of whom attempt to pray at least part of the Divine Office each day. Here is the schedule and the traditional names.
Matins prayers of the night
Lauds the morning praises
Prime morning prayer
Terce prayer of the third hour
Sext prayer of the sixth hour
None prayer of the ninth hour
Vespers the evening Office
Compline end of the Office, evening prayer
For example, we frequently see the Pope conduct Vespers during his travels, and special presentations of that one of the eight parts of the Daily Office may be broadcast on TV coverage such as on the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN).
Speaking of EWTN, when I have been in Birmingham, Alabama I have attended the morning prayer (before Mass) and Vespers.
I mention this today to encourage Catholics to understand that laity were much more prayerful than they are today, to explain to other Christians that Catholic doctrine is far more prayerful than most of you realize, and to give a friendly wave to my Muslim readers, so they know another thing our faiths have in common (and that is one reason why I enjoyed hearing the call to prayer when I spent some time in Turkey back in 1995).
I hope you have found this interesting and also a gentle nudge toward a more prayerful mindset during the day ;-)
Bible Reading: Daniel 6:11
[Background: King Darius, at the behest of jealous advisers, prohibited all prayer for thirty days, unless it was prayer directly to him.]
Daniel 6:11
Even after Daniel heard that this law had been signed, he continued his custom of going home to kneel in prayer and give thanks to his God in the upper chamber three times a day, with the windows open toward Jerusalem.
[My commentary: Notice how Daniel routinely prayed to God and gave him thanks three times a day. How many Christians do that nowadays? And Daniel continued to do it when it was flat out prohibited at pains of death by the "government." So I point this out so that people can get back to noticing these types of positive role model examples in the Bible of how people "really lived." Daniel is not going to the temple, obviously, being among the captives, but the parallel is that Daniel by habit prayed three times a day and didn't just wait to go to "church" on Sundays, if you know what I mean.
Daniel had the mindset that I like and traditional Catholic keeping of the hours emulates. Thus, if things were arranged the way I would like, I would attend the morning hours, daily Mass and the evening hours.]
Daniel 6:11
Even after Daniel heard that this law had been signed, he continued his custom of going home to kneel in prayer and give thanks to his God in the upper chamber three times a day, with the windows open toward Jerusalem.
[My commentary: Notice how Daniel routinely prayed to God and gave him thanks three times a day. How many Christians do that nowadays? And Daniel continued to do it when it was flat out prohibited at pains of death by the "government." So I point this out so that people can get back to noticing these types of positive role model examples in the Bible of how people "really lived." Daniel is not going to the temple, obviously, being among the captives, but the parallel is that Daniel by habit prayed three times a day and didn't just wait to go to "church" on Sundays, if you know what I mean.
Daniel had the mindset that I like and traditional Catholic keeping of the hours emulates. Thus, if things were arranged the way I would like, I would attend the morning hours, daily Mass and the evening hours.]
Friday, November 28, 2008
7 gifts of the Holy Spirit: (2) Piety
When you have "Fear of the Lord," it is therefore natural that next develop the gift of "Piety." Piety is simply the desire to worship and serve God.
Again, as in the previous analogies, one does not need to know "all about" God to be rich in "Piety." Piety in its earliest stages in the young, or early in an adult's spiritual renewal or conversion, is the strong desire to serve God and to pray, praise and worship him, yet one may not really feel they "know" God at all. This is why the gift of "Fear of the Lord" is such a great gift indeed, for it opens the door, like the door to school, and takes you "as you are," and allows your relationship with God to start, with the simple steps of Piety.
At first Piety feels like duty, or a little bit of a chore. Piety is often a young child's very first "chore," especially if God is introduced to the young child in the form of saying one's prayer before night time's going to bed. Often children first learn Piety by imitating their parents at prayer, for example in the daily call to prayers in the Islamic faith, or in the prayers during the day in the Orthodox Jewish faith. Christian children usually learn to fold their hands and pray from the parent who tucks them into bed at night. This is why it is such a dismal failure when parents who think they are liberal and allowing children to "decide to choose on their own when they are older" do not have a shared before bed prayer with their children. They are not laying the foundation of Piety and to be honest, a child who does not learn Piety as the form of their first "grown up chore" or "duty" often cannot find Piety at all when they are older. Even if they have a conversion experience, they are often confused by Piety and what it really means. This is where, for example, an adult who has a conversion experience decides that having fun in praise and worship of God in a kind of entertainment style is the same as having Piety. It is not.
Learning genuine Piety at a young age during good faith formation helps to ensure that as an adult, you don't find yourself "coincidentally" just happening to choose only the fun things that you enjoy doing to "offer up" to God in worship and service. If one has the gift of Piety, one is more likely to give to God the forms of worship and service that God desires from you, and not the ones that you find the most personally pleasurable. Piety is not only going to the "fun" church services, or doing service in countries that you wanted to visit anyway. Piety means that you discern what your duty to God and neighbor actually is, not what seems the most glorious or the most fun, or what you "feel like doing."
Thinking back to the example of the child who goes to school for the first time, Piety is like realizing that you have to keep going to school, on the fun days or not, when you have to memorize the addition and multiplication tables, or do something more interesting, and whether you feel good or not. Piety is not going to school only on the days you feel like it, only studying the lessons that you enjoy. Piety is being continually sensitive to the desire to worship and serve God the way God wants to be worshipped and served. Piety and Fear of the Lord together form the foundation of humility, which is essential to truly knowing God. Remember, Fear of the Lord does not require actually knowing anything about God (just like the baby does not know facts yet about his or her parents) and realize that Piety also does not require actual knowledge of God. Piety is the desire to worship and serve God the way God wants to be worshipped and served, and it is not motivated by "why" or "what I like to do" reasons of intellect or feelings.
Does that mean that Piety is not enjoyable? Not at all, but it is something that develops in enjoyment as the person matures. For example, we all know teenagers who are terrible about doing chores around the house, but when they have their own first home, they suddenly become interested in decorating, home improvement and home maintenance. What was a "chore" when one wants to only have fun, say as a teenager, suddenly does become fun when one "comes into one's own" in life. It is similar with genuine Piety. Piety becomes pleasurable when one begins to feel the love and satisfaction that comes from worshipping and serving God the way he wishes to be worshipped and served. Piety does not come from the mind; Piety comes from the heart. Piety does not come from the ego; Piety comes from the joy of modesty and genuine humility in the sight of the Lord God. Piety does not come from "depriving" one's self; Piety comes from the desire to "give" to God.
Much of the Bible describes the joy of genuine Piety that is based on a mature desire to please God, and not to please one's self as the highest priority and call that pleasing God. The classic example is the parable told by Jesus of the Pharisee and the Publican and his other teachings about worship.
Matthew 6:5-6
"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
Luke 18:9-14
You can see, therefore, that Piety is both internal and external, since Piety includes not only the prayers, rituals and services that you perform to worship and serve God, but also your mindset and attitude toward the external. Your internal Piety is how you actually feel about God and, by extension, your neighbor, your fellow believer. Your external Piety are the actions that you take when you worship or serve God.
This is why Jesus is very harsh about the hypocrites who pray loudly in the synagogue and on the street corner. Jesus is not condemning their external Piety, their form of visible prayer in public, not at all. Jesus is correctly identifying that their internal Piety is not directed toward God, but of showing off and looking superior to the others. Contrast this with in modern times, you see Orthodox Jews at the Wailing Wall who are visibly and loudly praying and that is pure and commendable prayer, since it is an outward manifestation of their internal Piety being directly solely toward God. When they pray at the Wall they are not doing so to look more holy than those around them; in fact, most would not even notice who else is there, as they are in fully within their internal moment of Piety in front of the symbol of their Lord. I mention this so that you do not misunderstand the scriptures to think that these two passages by Jesus are in any way saying not to be public or even fervent in one’s prayer. Rather, it is a way to measure the sincerity of one’s Piety if one would, in total secret and in private, with no “audience,” pray and worship the same with the same fervor. That is the point that Jesus is making with the first passage cited.
In the second passage Jesus is showing a second example of a problem with one’s internal Piety. Here the Pharisee is genuinely praying to God and not toward an audience (since he is praying silently, although probably making a bit of a pose out of his standing in prayer, knowing that at least one other person, the publican, is there). But the Pharisee is praying, basically, in a most impious internal stance, where he’s thanking God, yes he is, but thanking God for making him better than everyone else, including the poor guy praying next to him! So in the first example Jesus “outs the hypocrite” by demonstrating that God will make note of the dutifully person who prays, but does so with great showmanship and hypocrisy, but will amply reward the humble person who prays in totally pure internal Piety in privacy. In the second example Jesus demonstrates to the disciples that the Pharisee is not justified, despite his dutiful worship and his acts of charity, because he is doing so as a basis of thinking that makes him more justified and better than all others. The Pharisee is even insulting in his thoughts to God the poor man who is praying right next to him! This was one of the most powerful parables by Jesus and should resonate even more strongly in this “works” and “media mad” modern times of today.
To use a modern example, think of how one does exercise in order to stay fit. Every sit up that one does, for example, one is obviously doing for one’s self. In other words, your sit up doesn’t make someone else more fit. Further, you might not exercise in order to be healthy, but are exercising for the shallow but common reason to look more attractive to others. That is fine, and is very human. But what would it tell you of the character of the person exercising if with every sit up he or she thinks “Ha, this sit up is dedicated to making me look better than the slob over on the treadmill.” I would worry about the mental health of someone who exercised and with every single sit up was thinking how they are better looking or more fit than the person working out next to them, and that thus this made them a better and more successful human being. This is what Jesus demonstrates of how good deeds and good prayer, just like good exercise, can turn into something that is not praiseworthy and worse will risk being rejected by God because the internal Piety is self directed, and not directed toward God himself.
Children who are properly formed in their faith learn to pray because it is the right and good thing to do, not because “everyone else is doing it and they have to do it ‘better.’” Thus parents and religious instructors teach children through example that internal Piety comes first, that being the individual desire to worship and serve God. As the child becomes older he or she joins together with their family’s faith community in order to have public community worship, prayer, and to perform service to the Lord, often through charity toward neighbor. However, there is great danger in teaching only the external forms of Piety with the mentality that these are check-off lists of actions that earn future reward from God. Yes, Jesus states that even the hypocrite and the boastful Pharisee will have reward for their dutiful external Piety, but Jesus warns they are on a slippery slope because God is concerned more about internal Piety than the external. After all, the whole point of Piety is to please God and to have your first “baby steps” (no matter what your age) of relationship with him. If you are praying to God but thinking cruel thoughts of others, what Piety is that? What honor are you giving God if you are using his name and his ritual on the one hand, while thinking bad thoughts about others, others who God equally loves in ways that you can’t understand?
The final point is that as I’ve said, like “Fear of the Lord,” “Piety” requires no factual understanding of the Lord, as it is like that analogy of entering the school and showing up to learn, but not being expected to know any of the subjects before they have even been taught. Jesus demonstrates that in the parable by explaining that all the man in the first parable had to do to please God was to pray in the privacy of his room (in other words, no need to perform public ritual that requires knowledge) and even more to the point, the publican in the second parable needed only to repeatedly pray for God to have mercy on him. Jesus commends the publican in the parable not only as he serves as humble contrast to the Pharisee in his internal and external Piety, but also because he did not need to know facts about God, and to be fancy in his prayers. The Pharisee cites his knowledge of God in his prayer, checking off each requirement of the Law with satisfaction. But in the parable we have no way of knowing anything about the publican, if he follows the Law faithfully or not, if he is a sinner or not, or even if he is well versed. All that we know about him is his genuine Piety, expressed over and over as he asks God for mercy. Jesus underscores all that he is teaching in these parables when he shows people how to pray to God with the “Our Father,” also known as “The Lord’s Prayer.” Piety does not require understanding God, having knowledge of God and his laws, or even a structured prayer life. That is why genuine, true, pure Piety is a gift from the Holy Spirit, one that, like “Fear of the Lord” is foundational to all else, and one that must be cultivated in gratitude by everyone who seeks to know God.
I hope that you have found this helpful!
Again, as in the previous analogies, one does not need to know "all about" God to be rich in "Piety." Piety in its earliest stages in the young, or early in an adult's spiritual renewal or conversion, is the strong desire to serve God and to pray, praise and worship him, yet one may not really feel they "know" God at all. This is why the gift of "Fear of the Lord" is such a great gift indeed, for it opens the door, like the door to school, and takes you "as you are," and allows your relationship with God to start, with the simple steps of Piety.
At first Piety feels like duty, or a little bit of a chore. Piety is often a young child's very first "chore," especially if God is introduced to the young child in the form of saying one's prayer before night time's going to bed. Often children first learn Piety by imitating their parents at prayer, for example in the daily call to prayers in the Islamic faith, or in the prayers during the day in the Orthodox Jewish faith. Christian children usually learn to fold their hands and pray from the parent who tucks them into bed at night. This is why it is such a dismal failure when parents who think they are liberal and allowing children to "decide to choose on their own when they are older" do not have a shared before bed prayer with their children. They are not laying the foundation of Piety and to be honest, a child who does not learn Piety as the form of their first "grown up chore" or "duty" often cannot find Piety at all when they are older. Even if they have a conversion experience, they are often confused by Piety and what it really means. This is where, for example, an adult who has a conversion experience decides that having fun in praise and worship of God in a kind of entertainment style is the same as having Piety. It is not.
Learning genuine Piety at a young age during good faith formation helps to ensure that as an adult, you don't find yourself "coincidentally" just happening to choose only the fun things that you enjoy doing to "offer up" to God in worship and service. If one has the gift of Piety, one is more likely to give to God the forms of worship and service that God desires from you, and not the ones that you find the most personally pleasurable. Piety is not only going to the "fun" church services, or doing service in countries that you wanted to visit anyway. Piety means that you discern what your duty to God and neighbor actually is, not what seems the most glorious or the most fun, or what you "feel like doing."
Thinking back to the example of the child who goes to school for the first time, Piety is like realizing that you have to keep going to school, on the fun days or not, when you have to memorize the addition and multiplication tables, or do something more interesting, and whether you feel good or not. Piety is not going to school only on the days you feel like it, only studying the lessons that you enjoy. Piety is being continually sensitive to the desire to worship and serve God the way God wants to be worshipped and served. Piety and Fear of the Lord together form the foundation of humility, which is essential to truly knowing God. Remember, Fear of the Lord does not require actually knowing anything about God (just like the baby does not know facts yet about his or her parents) and realize that Piety also does not require actual knowledge of God. Piety is the desire to worship and serve God the way God wants to be worshipped and served, and it is not motivated by "why" or "what I like to do" reasons of intellect or feelings.
Does that mean that Piety is not enjoyable? Not at all, but it is something that develops in enjoyment as the person matures. For example, we all know teenagers who are terrible about doing chores around the house, but when they have their own first home, they suddenly become interested in decorating, home improvement and home maintenance. What was a "chore" when one wants to only have fun, say as a teenager, suddenly does become fun when one "comes into one's own" in life. It is similar with genuine Piety. Piety becomes pleasurable when one begins to feel the love and satisfaction that comes from worshipping and serving God the way he wishes to be worshipped and served. Piety does not come from the mind; Piety comes from the heart. Piety does not come from the ego; Piety comes from the joy of modesty and genuine humility in the sight of the Lord God. Piety does not come from "depriving" one's self; Piety comes from the desire to "give" to God.
Much of the Bible describes the joy of genuine Piety that is based on a mature desire to please God, and not to please one's self as the highest priority and call that pleasing God. The classic example is the parable told by Jesus of the Pharisee and the Publican and his other teachings about worship.
Matthew 6:5-6
"When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
Luke 18:9-14
But he spoke this parable also to some who trusted in themselves as being just and despised others. "Two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and began to pray thus within himself: 'O God, I thank thee that I am not like the rest of men, robbers, dishonest, adulterers, or even like this publican. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I possess.' But the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his breast saying, 'O God, be merciful to me the sinner!'
"I tell you, this man went back to his home justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted."
You can see, therefore, that Piety is both internal and external, since Piety includes not only the prayers, rituals and services that you perform to worship and serve God, but also your mindset and attitude toward the external. Your internal Piety is how you actually feel about God and, by extension, your neighbor, your fellow believer. Your external Piety are the actions that you take when you worship or serve God.
This is why Jesus is very harsh about the hypocrites who pray loudly in the synagogue and on the street corner. Jesus is not condemning their external Piety, their form of visible prayer in public, not at all. Jesus is correctly identifying that their internal Piety is not directed toward God, but of showing off and looking superior to the others. Contrast this with in modern times, you see Orthodox Jews at the Wailing Wall who are visibly and loudly praying and that is pure and commendable prayer, since it is an outward manifestation of their internal Piety being directly solely toward God. When they pray at the Wall they are not doing so to look more holy than those around them; in fact, most would not even notice who else is there, as they are in fully within their internal moment of Piety in front of the symbol of their Lord. I mention this so that you do not misunderstand the scriptures to think that these two passages by Jesus are in any way saying not to be public or even fervent in one’s prayer. Rather, it is a way to measure the sincerity of one’s Piety if one would, in total secret and in private, with no “audience,” pray and worship the same with the same fervor. That is the point that Jesus is making with the first passage cited.
In the second passage Jesus is showing a second example of a problem with one’s internal Piety. Here the Pharisee is genuinely praying to God and not toward an audience (since he is praying silently, although probably making a bit of a pose out of his standing in prayer, knowing that at least one other person, the publican, is there). But the Pharisee is praying, basically, in a most impious internal stance, where he’s thanking God, yes he is, but thanking God for making him better than everyone else, including the poor guy praying next to him! So in the first example Jesus “outs the hypocrite” by demonstrating that God will make note of the dutifully person who prays, but does so with great showmanship and hypocrisy, but will amply reward the humble person who prays in totally pure internal Piety in privacy. In the second example Jesus demonstrates to the disciples that the Pharisee is not justified, despite his dutiful worship and his acts of charity, because he is doing so as a basis of thinking that makes him more justified and better than all others. The Pharisee is even insulting in his thoughts to God the poor man who is praying right next to him! This was one of the most powerful parables by Jesus and should resonate even more strongly in this “works” and “media mad” modern times of today.
To use a modern example, think of how one does exercise in order to stay fit. Every sit up that one does, for example, one is obviously doing for one’s self. In other words, your sit up doesn’t make someone else more fit. Further, you might not exercise in order to be healthy, but are exercising for the shallow but common reason to look more attractive to others. That is fine, and is very human. But what would it tell you of the character of the person exercising if with every sit up he or she thinks “Ha, this sit up is dedicated to making me look better than the slob over on the treadmill.” I would worry about the mental health of someone who exercised and with every single sit up was thinking how they are better looking or more fit than the person working out next to them, and that thus this made them a better and more successful human being. This is what Jesus demonstrates of how good deeds and good prayer, just like good exercise, can turn into something that is not praiseworthy and worse will risk being rejected by God because the internal Piety is self directed, and not directed toward God himself.
Children who are properly formed in their faith learn to pray because it is the right and good thing to do, not because “everyone else is doing it and they have to do it ‘better.’” Thus parents and religious instructors teach children through example that internal Piety comes first, that being the individual desire to worship and serve God. As the child becomes older he or she joins together with their family’s faith community in order to have public community worship, prayer, and to perform service to the Lord, often through charity toward neighbor. However, there is great danger in teaching only the external forms of Piety with the mentality that these are check-off lists of actions that earn future reward from God. Yes, Jesus states that even the hypocrite and the boastful Pharisee will have reward for their dutiful external Piety, but Jesus warns they are on a slippery slope because God is concerned more about internal Piety than the external. After all, the whole point of Piety is to please God and to have your first “baby steps” (no matter what your age) of relationship with him. If you are praying to God but thinking cruel thoughts of others, what Piety is that? What honor are you giving God if you are using his name and his ritual on the one hand, while thinking bad thoughts about others, others who God equally loves in ways that you can’t understand?
The final point is that as I’ve said, like “Fear of the Lord,” “Piety” requires no factual understanding of the Lord, as it is like that analogy of entering the school and showing up to learn, but not being expected to know any of the subjects before they have even been taught. Jesus demonstrates that in the parable by explaining that all the man in the first parable had to do to please God was to pray in the privacy of his room (in other words, no need to perform public ritual that requires knowledge) and even more to the point, the publican in the second parable needed only to repeatedly pray for God to have mercy on him. Jesus commends the publican in the parable not only as he serves as humble contrast to the Pharisee in his internal and external Piety, but also because he did not need to know facts about God, and to be fancy in his prayers. The Pharisee cites his knowledge of God in his prayer, checking off each requirement of the Law with satisfaction. But in the parable we have no way of knowing anything about the publican, if he follows the Law faithfully or not, if he is a sinner or not, or even if he is well versed. All that we know about him is his genuine Piety, expressed over and over as he asks God for mercy. Jesus underscores all that he is teaching in these parables when he shows people how to pray to God with the “Our Father,” also known as “The Lord’s Prayer.” Piety does not require understanding God, having knowledge of God and his laws, or even a structured prayer life. That is why genuine, true, pure Piety is a gift from the Holy Spirit, one that, like “Fear of the Lord” is foundational to all else, and one that must be cultivated in gratitude by everyone who seeks to know God.
I hope that you have found this helpful!
The prayer "Act of Charity"
Back in the 1950's and 1960's we Catholic children used to regularly pray in our personal devotions prayers called the "Acts" (one each for faith, hope, charity and contrition). Here is my "favorite," the Irish form of the "Act of Charity" from my 1962 Missal.
Act of Charity
O, my God, I love Thee with my whole heart and soul, and above all things, because Thou art infinitely good and perfect and most worthy of all my love; and, for Thy sake, I love my neighbor as myself. Mercifully grant, O my God, that having loved Thee on earth, I may love and enjoy Thee for ever in heaven.
Amen.
One could certainly add this to one's daily prayers and find it very spiritual refreshing. Often people do not know what to pray, and this prayer cannot be too highly recommended as it has the priorities perfectly aligned.
Act of Charity
O, my God, I love Thee with my whole heart and soul, and above all things, because Thou art infinitely good and perfect and most worthy of all my love; and, for Thy sake, I love my neighbor as myself. Mercifully grant, O my God, that having loved Thee on earth, I may love and enjoy Thee for ever in heaven.
Amen.
One could certainly add this to one's daily prayers and find it very spiritual refreshing. Often people do not know what to pray, and this prayer cannot be too highly recommended as it has the priorities perfectly aligned.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Iran's Ayatollah speaks of importance of prayer
http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-24/0811194969173016.htm
snip
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei here on Wednesday said that prayers play a significant role in rectifying men and the society and that such Islamic symbols particularly prayers should be evident in various parts of the society.
The Supreme Leader made the remark in a meeting with participants in the 17th Nationwide Prayers Conference on Wednesday.
"If man successfully controls his carnal desires, he will attain bliss and happiness but if he fails to do so, he will end up in tyranny, prostitution, poverty and arrogance," said Ayatollah Khamenei.
Promotion of true culture of prayers would bring peace of mind, security and tranquility to the society, underlined Ayatollah Khamenei.
The Supreme Leader also advised the government to put construction of mosques in populated areas on top of its agenda.
Islamic culture should be properly demonstrated and observed in construction of mosques, underlined Ayatollah Khamenei.
***
This is another example of the wise and shared perception among Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders about the importance of prayer.
Notice that the Ayatollah, like other leaders of the divine faiths, emphasizes the healing role of prayer for the individual and the community.
Many people who fall away from prayer somehow think of it as a theoretical benefit, one they cannot see the results of, and they assume prayer is "only" done from obligation to be subservient and worshiping of God.
But as all the divine faiths have long realized, prayer is spiritual medicinal in character, affirming and healing the individual, protecting him or her from wrong directions, and also of benefit to the entire community and society.
It is interesting that many pagan-leaning modern "new agers" value the effect of "spiritual" acts such as meditation, but do not recognize that prayer, in comparison, is meditation that is done in partnership with God, and the benefit that this obviously confers on the individual and on all the world community.
snip
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei here on Wednesday said that prayers play a significant role in rectifying men and the society and that such Islamic symbols particularly prayers should be evident in various parts of the society.
The Supreme Leader made the remark in a meeting with participants in the 17th Nationwide Prayers Conference on Wednesday.
"If man successfully controls his carnal desires, he will attain bliss and happiness but if he fails to do so, he will end up in tyranny, prostitution, poverty and arrogance," said Ayatollah Khamenei.
Promotion of true culture of prayers would bring peace of mind, security and tranquility to the society, underlined Ayatollah Khamenei.
The Supreme Leader also advised the government to put construction of mosques in populated areas on top of its agenda.
Islamic culture should be properly demonstrated and observed in construction of mosques, underlined Ayatollah Khamenei.
***
This is another example of the wise and shared perception among Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders about the importance of prayer.
Notice that the Ayatollah, like other leaders of the divine faiths, emphasizes the healing role of prayer for the individual and the community.
Many people who fall away from prayer somehow think of it as a theoretical benefit, one they cannot see the results of, and they assume prayer is "only" done from obligation to be subservient and worshiping of God.
But as all the divine faiths have long realized, prayer is spiritual medicinal in character, affirming and healing the individual, protecting him or her from wrong directions, and also of benefit to the entire community and society.
It is interesting that many pagan-leaning modern "new agers" value the effect of "spiritual" acts such as meditation, but do not recognize that prayer, in comparison, is meditation that is done in partnership with God, and the benefit that this obviously confers on the individual and on all the world community.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Prayer for September 29 Feast of archangels
God our Father,
in a wonderful way you guide the work of angels and men.
May those who serve you constantly in heaven
keep our lives safe from all harm on earth.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
(from the Christian prayer book, Liturgy of the Hours, for September 29, Feast day of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels).
Important! Be sure to notice that this prayer is directed to God, not to the angels. Anything and everything that angels do to assist humans is at the behest of God and God alone.
in a wonderful way you guide the work of angels and men.
May those who serve you constantly in heaven
keep our lives safe from all harm on earth.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
(from the Christian prayer book, Liturgy of the Hours, for September 29, Feast day of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels).
Important! Be sure to notice that this prayer is directed to God, not to the angels. Anything and everything that angels do to assist humans is at the behest of God and God alone.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
A prayer I have written from scripture
When God gathers his people together, he calls them to his mercy. When his priest Zachary offered daily incense to the Lord, God announced to him a son in his old age, who would proclaim the coming of the Savior Jesus Christ. Through Gabriel, God promised his priest Zachary that in the spirit and power of Elias, the hearts of fathers will turn to their children, and the incredulous will turn to the wisdom of the just.
The true light enlightens every man who comes into the world. To those who receive Jesus Christ, they receive the power of becoming sons of God, who believe in his name. Jesus promised that we will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Jesus also said, Let not your heart be troubled: You believe in God, believe also in me.
***
I wrote this prayer as more of a meditation, rather than phrased as a petition to God, or offering to God worship.
This is because I think often about the struggles of fathers in this modern society with so much pain and distortion of human goodness, and so I thought of in a way "sampling" from the Gospel, and a few words from the Old Testament, a reminder of the holy relationship between fathers and sons. In this prayer I tried to summarize the continuity and gift of father and son relationship, first in the announcement of the birth of St. John the Baptist where Gabriel in the own words of God emphasized that the hearts of fathers must be turned to their children. Likewise Jesus himself speaks of the shared heritage of the father-child relationship that belief in Jesus entitles the faithful to. So my thinking in writing this prayer was that it would be a meditative reminder to fathers (and their children) about their essential ongoing role and share in salvation and faith history.
The true light enlightens every man who comes into the world. To those who receive Jesus Christ, they receive the power of becoming sons of God, who believe in his name. Jesus promised that we will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Jesus also said, Let not your heart be troubled: You believe in God, believe also in me.
***
I wrote this prayer as more of a meditation, rather than phrased as a petition to God, or offering to God worship.
This is because I think often about the struggles of fathers in this modern society with so much pain and distortion of human goodness, and so I thought of in a way "sampling" from the Gospel, and a few words from the Old Testament, a reminder of the holy relationship between fathers and sons. In this prayer I tried to summarize the continuity and gift of father and son relationship, first in the announcement of the birth of St. John the Baptist where Gabriel in the own words of God emphasized that the hearts of fathers must be turned to their children. Likewise Jesus himself speaks of the shared heritage of the father-child relationship that belief in Jesus entitles the faithful to. So my thinking in writing this prayer was that it would be a meditative reminder to fathers (and their children) about their essential ongoing role and share in salvation and faith history.
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