7 Quick Takes: Favorites edition, 11/6/15

Unbelievably, November is here!  Fall weather, foggy mornings, more rain, and football.  Ah, football.  At least one of my two teams is doing well.  For this 7QT, lucky you, they're all based on my favorite things!  My wife & son being first, and the rest being in no particular order.

1) My wife Erin is a beautiful, beautiful woman and I'm very blessed to be married to her.  Easy #1 choice for my favorites!  There's also my little son, Leo.  He's 9 months old now, and we only have a few minutes together in the morning and about an hour in the evening.  Work gets in the way, alas...  For Halloween, we dressed him up in a pumpkin costume.  Cutest and most wiggly pumpkin ever!  We couldn't get a single picture of him smiling and staying still.  

Just soak in the cuteness.  Imagine him crawling with
what looks like a little beer belly--even more adorable

Whoever on Pinterest that showed how to make an Ewok costume for a toddler, I will be thanking you next year.  

2) I love to read, especially books on the Catholic faith.  My interests also include history, although those books tend to require a little more discipline to read.  I just finished this book on Fatima, and I'd recommend it to anyone.  Tomorrow (11/7) is the first Saturday of the month.  Make this the first of your 5 First Saturdays, just like Our Lady asked!  

Come to our aid, Immaculate Queen!

3) Movies are another good source of entertainment, usually.  We've had hits--The Book Thief was excellent (though not a happy movie)--and misses (nearly any secular comedy we've watched in the last couple years).  We have tested out some religious movies, as well.  I've learned a few things... 

*Very few are made outside of Italy, which makes for a problem with... 

*...dubbed-over voices.  I'd much rather hear the actors speak in Italian than have a voice-over actor attempt to fill in the voices.  Can't stand it!

*Some religious movies, however well-intentioned, are bad.  BAD.  (there, I said it)  And it's okay that I feel that way.  It's a funny feeling, the guilt!  If some sort of secular movie had subpar acting, dialogue that doesn't translate well to the screen, I wouldn't feel the least bit guilty about lampooning it.  

*As long as a biblical movie doesn't wind up in the we-couldn't-make-it-through-20-minutes category, they're a good exercise in imaginative prayer.  We recently watched Mary of Nazareth, which was good.  There were so many scenes in the movie that I inwardly thought, 'I pictured it happening a different way' and... there you are, reflecting on a story from the Bible.  

*P.S. only two movies have made it into our we-couldn't-make-it-through-20-minutes category: one religious movie that out of guilt I will not name, and second, the horrendous secular movie Friends With Kids.  Its worst sin?  It wasn't funny.  It had an all-star cast of hilarious comedians and the movie was boring!  

4) Star Wars!  I grew up on it as a kid and I'm really excited to see Episode VII.  The new international trailer was just released... I don't buy the theories that say Luke Skywalker is Kylo Ren, but the tide of speculation is trending toward Luke turning to the dark side.  Kudos to JJ Abrams for this nice gesture, by the way.  

5) For football, Notre Dame is having a good season so far, and I think they'll end up a top 10 team.  Not so sure they'll make the playoff, but at least they're not having as bad of a season as the 49ers.  Seriously, seriously painful.  The owner and GM have driven the team into the ground.  

6) I came upon an old mix CD that I put together, entitled Relax Mix.  I hadn't listened to it in a while, so all the tracks were a surprise.  I'm still amazed at the effect that a great song can have--enticing your imagination to go off to a different place, using melodies, instruments, solos, and sometimes raw emotion.  This was one of the songs from that mix, enjoy!

7) Finally, I do like to write--though you'd never know it for often I write on this blog.  I was lucky to write another post at the Cora Evans blog, this time on 5 Catholic scientists making an impact on society.  My wife had the best idea of everyone on the list, Dr. Hilgers: the founder of the Paul VI Institute and one man responsible for probably thousands of babies being born.  Including Leo.  :)

More quick takes at www.thisaintthelyceum.org!

Fatima for Today, right now!

I recently finished Fr. Andrew Apostoli's book on the great phenomenon of Fatima, called Fatima for Today.  First things first: go buy this book and read it.

Fatima gets lost in the shuffle as yet another avenue of Marian devotion, one among many.  Our Lady is well-traveled and in her great love for her children, she's visited many places.  Some people take a liking to different titles of Our Lady, whether they be Lourdes (my favorite!), Guadalupe, Peace, Grace, Walsingham, and so on, and so on.

Before I read this book, I figured Our Lady of Fatima was another one on that list.  After I read this book, I think that every Catholic needs to know about it.  Here are my reasons:

1) It's one of the most decisive events in the history of the 20th century.
Three poor, shepherd children, two of whom died very young?  Yes!  The messages they were given aimed to correct the errors of the 20th century: first, hell does, in fact, exist.  This had long been frequently denied or ignored, a century ago just as it is today.  Look at the no consequences philosophies permeating our culture!  Second, penance is key to the spiritual life.  Materialist cultures like ours don't see a value in penance, don't understand it, and reject it as archaic.  Third, without serious correction and reparation, the world was headed for terrible suffering.  The death toll from two world wars; the atrocities committed by Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pot; war after war after war.  Our Lady was given the grace to know where our world was heading, and these messages were meant to warn us.

The apparitions at Fatima were decisive because of one of the largest controversies in the Church: the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  See below for my thoughts on the controversy, but Fr. Apostoli had a good take.  Look at how the Soviet Union "thawed" with Gorbachev... the manner in which the Berlin wall came down... how the U.S.S.R. dissolved without a shot being fired.

Imagine the alternative to each of those.

2) It's very important to learn the truth about the conspiracy theories, as not to get caught up in them.
A while ago, I googled the Fatima apparitions to learn more about them.  What a mistake!  I was surprised at all the garbage out there!  Various conspiracy theories claimed that the Third Secret finally revealed by Pope John Paul II wasn't the real Third Secret--Bl. Lucia wrote it on one page, and the photocopy had four pages!  The Sr. Lucia shown in photo X is not actually Sr. Lucia!  The Vatican kidnapped her and replaced her with an impostor!  There's still a fourth secret out there that the Vatican has suppressed!

Fr. Apostoli answers many of the common objections relating to Fatima... perhaps with the exception of Sr. Lucia being replaced with an impostor (which is silly).  

Sr. Lucia said herself that heaven accepted Pope John Paul II's consecration of the world as fulfilling what Our Lady asked at Fatima, to consecrate Russia.  It's really that simple.  No tales of intrigue, no rogue Curial bishops, no redactions from the Third Secret.  

Pick any hot-button moral issue today, and there's so much confusion.  What is the source of all the confusion about Fatima?  It's Satan!  He's attacked the message of Fatima to discredit it and sow discord within the Church... just as he did with abortion, contraception, euthanasia, gender confusion, and the like.  And sadly, he's done a damn good job.

3) The storms in our world are coming to a high point.  Our Lady of Fatima shows us the way through it--and her Immaculate Heart wins in the end.
These messages weren't just for the people of Portugal, Russia, or Europe.  The call to penance and conversion is a constant theme throughout the New Testament; there's nothing new there.  The difference at Fatima was first the insistence, and second, a reminder that our spiritual practices & life of penance (or lack thereof) has consequences.  She told the three visionaries that prayer & penance could've averted World War II, and the length of it was shortened.  So it is with our times!  Prayer/the rosary, penance, and frequent reception of the sacraments are the best defenses and weapons that we have against the evils of our time.

And lest we lose heart, she wins.  Evil loses.  There is hope!

There is so much to write about Fatima, and this will have to suffice for now.  Read about the Five First Saturdays here and start it this week!

Our Lady of Peace, pray for us.
Blessed Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, pray for us.

St. John Bosco's Dreams

I picked up a book of the dreams of St. John Bosco recently, looking for something light I could read before bed.  I haven't been disappointed, it's a easily readable but very substantial book.  I bought the Tan edition of Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco after reading his dream of the two pillars.  It was at once a comforting dream as a sobering one.   I won't spoil it, it's worth reading.

I was mostly ignorant of St. John before reading this book; I only knew of him as the patron of youth. After reading this, I see him as a spiritual master, an expert in spiritual warfare, and a mystic.  The book of St. John's dreams is worth reading.  Each of the forty dreams has its own chapter; they're pulled from his memoirs and the memoirs of his confrers.  The anecdotal style make them an easy read--but don't mistake 'easy' for 'fluffy.'

St. John frequently had dreams that identified the boys in his Oratory.  One of those, "A Dream About St. Dominic Savio," featured St. John being reunited with one of his pupils, St. Dominic.  At the end of their conversation in the dream, St. John asks about how he can help the boys at the Oratory.  St. Dominic hands him three lists: unconquered, casualties, and overcome by evil.  The first list was small, noting the names of the boys who had not been conquered by evil.  The second group, casualties, was comprised of boys who had previous run-ins with evil, but had been healed through Confession and the Eucharist.  The final group is a fairly obvious one, with a twist.  When St. Dominic handed St. John the list, he forbade him to open it in his presence.  It gave off an unbearable smell that, in his dream, forced St. John to vomit uncontrollably.

On one hand, we're curious creatures and want to know the future, our fate, and so on.  On the other hand, there are things that--even if only subconsciously--we would rather not know.  Reading this particular dream, two questions raised in my mind.

First, which list would I be on?  It isn't a question of which list I think I should be on.  The lists came from the Lord, Who sees and knows our hearts; He Who created us; He Who will be our judge.  What list would the Lord put me on right now?  There were many names on the final, stinky list that surprised St. John.  Who's to say that I'm any different?

Second, can you imagine the effect on the boys of the Oratory?  St. John related his dreams to the boys, and used them as teaching tools to effect further conversion of heart.  When he read the lists in his dream, he knew many of the boys on them.  Even further, he talked to the boys on the stinky list individually.  "Hey bro, can we talk?  That dream I told all you guys about... you're on the wrong list and on the path to hell."  Not that I'm disparaging St. John; better that the boys would know, and hopefully they turned their hears back to God.

Our Lady also figured prominently in some of St. John's dreams.  In "A Fiendish Elephant," the large beast (=Satan) starts attacking boys on the playground.  Our Lady's mantle became enormous and she threw it around the boys to protect them; all their wounds are healed when they're taken in by her.  She cries out, "Venite ad me omnes!" Come all to me!

It made me smile.  Here is Our Heavenly Mother, loving us, fighting for us, protecting us.  From that dream, St. John gave advice to his boys that we can all take to heart: "Turn to her; call on her in any danger.  I can assure you that your prayers will be heard."

St. John Bosco, pray for us!

Our Lady of the Rosary, 10/7/14

Today is the great feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, and I had the opportunity to go to Mass on my lunch hour.  The readings felt out of place at first, but the Holy Spirit had some remarkable subtlety when those passages were chosen.

The first reading, from Galatians 1, had me confused.  Paul speaks of his "former way of life" as a Pharisee who persecuted the earliest Christians.  That's fine, but for a feast day of Our Lady?  Then came:

"But when he, who from my mother’s womb had set me apart
and called me through his grace,
was pleased to reveal his Son to me..."

The Immaculate Conception hit me right in the face.  Mary, too, was set apart from her mother's womb, destined to be the mother of the Redeemer.  The Lord accomplished it through His grace; in Mary's case, being full of grace.  Although their vocations differed, Paul, like Mary, was the bearer of Christ to the world.  

The Psalm for today was a selection from Psalm 139.  I could hear the Blessed Mother praying these words, with the tender heart of a handmaiden of the Lord.  Here again, I heard the Immaculate Conception: 

"Truly you have formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother’s womb.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works."

An important theological point that non-Catholics often miss is that the veneration we hold/display for Our Lady is dependent entirely upon Christ.  Her role is there because of Him; she was preserved from original sin because of Him; we call her Our Mother rather than His Mother because of His gesture on the cross.  This point could not have been lost on her, either.  These lines don't offer thanks to God for this or that thing.  The Psalmist prays a beautifully humble prayer: thanks to God goes back to the beginning, for our very being was sculpted by His hands.  If the Psalmist hadn't written this, I could picture Mary writing it.

Finally, the Gospel reading: the well-known story of Martha & Mary in Luke 10.  Just like its predecessors, this reading seems an unusual pick.  However, praying the rosary brings us into an encounter with Jesus.  After all, Mary knows it's not all about her; everything she does, every heavenly effort she makes on our behalf is to lead souls to Her Son.  (see John 2:5)  The lesson that the Gospel reading is trying to teach us is clear: sit at the feet of Christ, as Mary did; recognize the "one thing" that should be our first priority.  In the rosary, we have such a wonderful avenue to contemplate Christ.  

Mary, beloved Mother, pray for us who have recourse to Thee!

Strive. (Luke 13:23)

My wife and I are nearly three weeks into St. Louis de Montfort's Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary.  So far, it's been very fruitful; I'd like to mention two of the biggest fruits.

The first was something simple my wife said--yet full of impact.  After reading the introduction to the first of four parts of the consecration, she said that she didn't want this to be a devotion where we do it and that nothing changes as a result.

I always want my prayers and devotions to "count" and to be done well... who doesn't?  I know I can be too laid back sometimes when it comes to practicing the faith.  St. Louis' consecration is meant to push us closer, deeper, & further in communion with Our Lord and Our Lady.  There's nothing easy about that pushing; it takes constant effort.

Plus, it's been easy to see how seemingly external things affect my spiritual life.  If I spend an excessive amount of time watching TV or playing a game on my iPad... if I'm lazy at work... if I yell too much while watching football... if I eat too much... and on and on.  Those things don't merely stay on the surface--all of those things echo in our souls.  Praying becomes more difficult as a result, not to mention attention at Mass.

In sum, yes.  Yes, I want to be different at the conclusion of this Marian Consecration.  If I can muster the effort and energy to cooperate with the graces being offered...

The second fruit was a discovery thanks to Fr. Michael Gaitley's book, 33 Days to Morning Glory.  He offers reflections for each day of the consecration, using the writings of St. Louis de Montfort, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Bl. Teresa of Calcutta, and Bl. John Paul the awesome.  For day 16 of the consecration, the reflection was more of an excerpt from one of Mother Teresa's letters.  It was written to the members of her religious community in 1993.  It was incredible!  Please read it.  It's very worth it. 

"Jesus wants me to tell you again, specially in this Holy Week, how much love He has for each one of you – beyond all you can imagine. I worry some of you still have not really met Jesus – one to one – you and Jesus alone. We may spend time in chapel – but have you seen with the eyes of your soul how He looks at you with love? Do you really know the living Jesus – not from books but from being with Him in your heart? Have you heard the loving words He speaks to you? Ask for the grace, He is longing to give it. Until you can hear Jesus in the silence of your own heart, you will not be able to hear Him saying, "I thirst" in the hearts of the poor. Never give up this daily intimate contact with Jesus as the real living person – not just the idea. How can we last even one day without hearing Jesus say, "I love you" – impossible. Our soul needs that as much as the body needs to breathe the air. If not, prayer is dead – meditation only thinking. Jesus wants you each to hear Him – speaking in the silence of your heart."

St. Louis de Montfort, pray for us!

The Defining of the Immaculate Conception

Sometimes people have funny ideas about the Catholic Church--wait, take out the "sometimes."  From the Middle Ages on, the Catholic Church has this persona of a stingy headmaster, sternly rebuking its children and using its power capriciously. 

I'm not denying abuses of power... but I'm not getting into that particular subject on this post.  If critics are going to blast us when we're in the wrong, in all fairness, they should give us kudos for what we do right.  (bwahahahahahahaha!!!  Kidding.  Can you imagine that?  Neither can I.  Really, it would be nice)  I'd like to highlight a great positive: the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus promulgated by Pope Pius IX in 1854.  The Constitution defined the dogma of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception.  You can read it yourself at New Advent, home of the Catholic Encyclopedia. 

To start the Constitution, the pope covers three main ideas: Mary has a place in the economy of salvation, the idea that Mary was immaculately conceived wasn't something new in the history of the Church or the sensus fidelium, and it's something worthy to be celebrated in the liturgical & devotional life of the Church.  The Holy Father then proceeds to examine Catholic Tradition, councils, and the extensive treatment of Our Lady by the Fathers of the Church.  They read the Old Testament typologically and saw Mary everywhere.

Next, Pius IX noted that the Holy See had been petitioned before on the matter of defining the Immaculate Conception.  Most recently, Pope Gregory XVI (Pius IX's immediate predecessor) had been petitioned about the matter.  Pius IX's first step?  He established a commission to study the matter.    Then, he wrote all the bishops in the world asking for their opinion.

Hmm.  That's odd, it doesn't sound too autocratic to me.  The Constitution proceeds to define the doctrine:

"We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful."

After that, the pope warns any Catholic who dissented from the teaching.

Here again... The Church would issue anathemas, right?  And punish all dissenters?  And banish them to hell?  Right?  That's what the Church does!  Sorry to disappoint those who hold a Catholic stereotype.  Pius IX presented dissent for what it really is: an action by a believer where he/she creates his/her own consequences.  In the action of dissent, that person would separate him/herself from the Church and do harm to their own faith.  Yes, the Church is presenting a doctrine for belief--but she provides pages and pages why the belief is in line with the deposit of faith.  If the Catholic Church was the severe, rigid autocrat as it is believed to be, why didn't Pius IX just write a letter, commanding belief or else?

From the ending paragraph of Ineffabilis Deus:
"Let them [the children of the Church] fly with utter confidence to this most sweet Mother of mercy and grace in all dangers, difficulties, needs, doubts and fears.  Under her guidance, under her patronage, under her kindness and protection, nothing is to be feared, nothing is hopeless.  Because, while bearing toward us a truly motherly affection and having in her care the work of our salvation, she is solicitous about the whole human race."

O Holy and Immaculate Virgin, pray for us!