The feast was yesterday (see what Pius XII has to say about it) and today's the feast of St. Rose of Lima (may she intercede for the Peruvian quake victims), but she already has a Potpourri named after her.Popery:
- Ahhhh. Homily for the Assumption is up.
In his great work De Civitate Dei, St Augustine says once that the whole of human history, the history of the world, is a struggle between two loves: love of God to the point of losing oneself, of total self-giving, and love of oneself to the point of despising God, of hating others. This same interpretation of history as a struggle between two loves, between love and selfishness....
- Yesterday's audience (one of his best, so read it) continued his commentary on St. Gregory Nazianzen. I liked his point about the saint's inherent shyness, which he labored to overcome in light of his mission (sound like anyone we know?). St. Gregory also has the simplest rebuttal to the various heresies about Christ's person:
Gregory brings Christ's full humanity to the forefront: To redeem man in his totality of body, soul and spirit, Christ assumed all the components of human nature, otherwise man would not have been saved.
Against the heresy of Apollinaris, who assured that Jesus Christ had not assumed a rational soul, Gregory confronts the problem in the light of the mystery of salvation: "What had not been assumed had not been cured" (Epistle 101, 32: SC 208,50)... - Sunday's Angelus message was a commentary on Christ's claim that we brought not peace, but a sword.
Christ’s expression means the peace that he came to bring is not synonymous with the simple absence of conflict. On the contrary, the peace of Jesus is the fruit of a constant struggle against evil. The battle that Jesus has decided to fight is not against men or human powers but against the enemy of God and man, Satan.
Those who desire to resist this enemy, remaining faithful to God and the good, must necessarily deal with misunderstandings and sometimes very real persecution. Thus, those who intend to follow Jesus and commit themselves without compromises to the truth must know that they will face opposition and will become, despite themselves, a sign of division among persons, even within their own families.
- China: an underground bishop's arrested for disseminating the Letter to Chinese Catholics.
- India: In Calcutta they're planning a big pray-in on the 10th anniversary of Bl. Teresa's death. There's a new book of her letters out, by the way, and in the pearls before swine dept., Time magazine takes excerpts from it completely out of context. Sheesh.
- Italy: Communion & Liberation's annual meeting for friendship among peoples is wrapping up. Card. Bertone attended, bearing the Pope's good wishes. The president of the European Parliament was there, too, and he gave an interesting interview.
- Peru: Catholic response to the earthquake.
- UK: What is going on there? Every week we have one of these lunatic stories. (Curtsy: Zadok)
- Very interesting responses (more than 250!) to Fr. Z's request for folks who've attended the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite to say what they like about it. A common thread is that most respondents like their mass in Latin, ad orientem and sung in either form --I was really surprised how many of his readers actually prefer a sung Latin novus ordo to anything else ( me too). The "sung mass" preference is interesting. I prefer the ordinary form, Hubby the extraordinary, but we both feel at home in the Byzantine rite (which is completely chanted). In his lengthy (but worthwhile) podcast (see "Talk on Latin Mass"), Msgr. Charles Pope makes the same observation --he loves the missa cantata in the extraordinary form, the low mass doesn't do anything for him. People just don't like low mass (or monkey-business). Bishops & pastors, take note!
- The redoubtable Fr. Schall's entry into Summorum Pontificum commentary is very worthwhile, especially if you're wondering what the fuss has been about. The man's just so sensible.
