11 days left to renew your membership

                             
                                      No membership fee required, just annual
                                                 Confession and Holy Communion

For those who may have strayed a little in the past year or so, a timely reminder that Holy Mother Church requires you to receive the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Eucharist at least once in the period of Lent.

At least, I have always understood it to include Confession but a quick check in the Catechism Compendium shows that only reception of Holy Communion is required.

Perhaps some learned theologian or canon lawyer could shed some light on this?

Not that it matters too much. If you have strayed at any stage (and, even if you have not) Confession during Lent is a very good thing.

And, of course, before you may receive the Body and Blood of Christ you do need to ensure that you are free from mortal sin.

The reason for the 'Easter Duty' rule is pretty obvious really.

The Church wants us to confirm that we are still members; if we drift we go into freefall spiritually, we begin to suffer the face in the mirror syndrome; we lose touch with the sort of person we should be.
We become secularised.

It's a little like eating alone, on every occasion. Over the years you imperceptibly lose the rationale for good manners.

Gradually you take short cuts and, before you know it you're down on the carpet gnawing at bones.

It is, of course, an added serious sin to fail to observe your Easter Duty but, if you have fallen away you may draw comfort from the words of Bishop Tobin of Providence Diocese in the US.

He issued this plea a couple of Christmases ago but the message still holds good for Easter, whether you have strayed, lapsed or are inactive.............


"....I decided against “fallen-away Catholic” for it suggests someone falling off a fence or out of a tree. The image isn’t helpful. 
And there’s really no such thing as a “former Catholic.” If you were baptized a Catholic, you’re a Catholic for life – even if you haven’t been to Mass for years, even if you’ve renounced the title and joined another Church. Your baptism infused your soul with Catholic DNA – it defines who and what you are. 
Thus, I’ve chosen the title, “inactive Catholic,” because even though you haven’t been “active” in the Catholic community for awhile, especially by attending Sunday Mass, receiving the sacraments and otherwise participating in the life of the Church, you’re still a Catholic. Sorry . . . you’re stuck with us! 
Perhaps the exact name isn’t very important though. What’s more important is why you drifted away from the Church, why you stopped coming to Mass, and what we can do about it. 
Did you leave the Church because you disagree with some of the Church’s teachings and practices; or because you found it boring and “didn’t get anything out of it”; or because someone in the Church offended you or disappointed you; or because you just got a little complacent, spiritually lazy, in the fulfillment of your obligations? Let’s look at each of these reasons. 
If you left the Church because you disagree with the fundamental teachings of the Church I’m afraid there’s not much I can do to help you. The essential teachings of the Church on matters of faith and morals aren’t negotiable – they weren’t made up arbitrarily by human beings but, in fact, were given to us by Christ. They can’t be changed, even if they’re unpopular or difficult to live with. I hope that you’ll take some time to really understand what the Church teaches and why. Sometimes, we find, good folks get bad information and that leads to confusion and then alienation. 
If you left the Church because you found it to be boring and “didn’t get anything out of it,” well, I understand. Sometimes, it’s true, leaders of the Church haven’t fed the flock very well – sometimes we haven’t provided sound and challenging teaching and preaching, and sometimes our worship has been banal and bland. Perhaps we haven’t been very kind or welcoming. I apologize for that; we can and should do better. 
On the other hand, when you attend Mass it shouldn’t be all about you – the focus is God! You should attend Mass to give, as well as receive – to worship the Lord, to ask forgiveness of your sins, to thank Him for His gifts and to pray for others. And for Catholics the most important reason to attend Mass is to receive the Holy Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, the Bread of Life. You can’t do that anywhere else! If you left the Church because another member of the Church offended or disappointed you, I’m truly sorry for that offense and in the name of the Church I sincerely apologize. I hope you’ll forgive us and give us another chance. Members of the Church – including priests and bishops – are completely human. Sometimes we say things and do things that are totally unacceptable, even immoral. But let’s face it – we belong to a community of sinners – that’s why we begin every Mass by calling to mind our sins and asking for God’s forgiveness. The virtue of forgiveness is an essential part of the Christian life – we all need to seek and grant forgiveness now and then."

We fly to thy protection......

H/T to Kate Edwards at Australia Incognita for this very timely prayer

A glimpse of what is to come

I was going to post on the implications of the Transfiguration but, Father Shelton has produced a post that is streets ahead of anything that I could say.

I would only add that many, if not all of us, will have seen signs of how Christ can transfigure us (just as Moses, after speaking with God, had to veil his face, so great was the reflected light from God on his countenance). A priest friend has forwarded a quote of Archbishop Sheen's which says it all:

  "Beauty of the face is only skin deep whereas beauty of the soul shines in the face"

Many priests and nuns, especially from the enclosed orders, have an imprint of such inner spirituality that actually is revealed in their face and in their nature or personality. So much so that they "glow" with holiness.

How much greater will that transformation be when, with God's good grace, we ascend to Heaven? Click HERE



Mount Thabor - the image completes the picture
in our mind






Google drops Lent in favour of Heinrich Hertz - who?

Google, so well known for its graphic doodles noting the particular event of the day (Charles Dickens' bi-centenary etc) has flopped miserably with regards to Lent.

No image of a dry crust of bread and a glass of water, just a wavy coloured line to commemorate Heinrich Rudolf Hertz - 155 years old today, well, I suppose that's quite an achievement for a start!

Who he? I say but I am sure that the SAs among you already know the answer to that question.....he is, of course, the German physicist who clarified and expanded the electromagnetic theory of light that had been put forth by James Clerk Maxwell He conclusively proved the existence of electromagnetic waves by making instruments to transmit and receive radio pulses using experimental processes that excluded all other known wireless phenomena.

Oh, so that's alright then.

But I bet he didn't know who sent the light in the first place.

* A Wiki note, Hertz's father converted to Catholicism from Judaism.
Young Heinrich, unaccountably, became a Lutheran before snuffing it at the tender age of 36. RIP.

Why Ramadan is bad and Lent is good

Mmm.....good soul food!





How does the Christian Lent compare with the Muslim fast of Ramadan? Is one really good and one really bad?

I believe so and will explain my reasons why.

Let me begin by quoting my own programme for today.

 Determined to make a good start in Lent and somewhat overwhelmed by the flood of good posts on fasting and by one Stanislaus Baboolovski's comments on Facebook, I began Lent in suitable style.

One Ryvita avec Marmite accompanied by a green tea was my first meal of the day - about 15 calories methinks.

Now, this is not in any way intended to be a brag, in fact, my normal breakfast is not much more than that.

But I did want to draw attention to what my good friends emphasized in their posts, namely, that giving up a bar of chocolate is pretty naff really and that our forbears did much, much more.

I recall my own parents' account of their Lenten fasts in Canning Town; one main meal a day which was always, salt cod - for the whole of Lent.

No milk or butter and the two remaining meals measured out so that they weighed only a couple of ounces.

Compare this with the Muslim regime during Ramadan.

No food or drink from before dawn until 9pm each night.

And the Ramadan diet!

Surely, that must be a better and more penitential course?

Well, if one was to ask a nutritionist to compare the two fasts, the Christian one would win hands down.

It is positively unhealthy to ask the body to go without food and liquids for anything up to 18 or 19 hours a day over a lengthy period.
It is also bad for the body (and the soul) to gorge on food as many Muslims do before sunup and after sundown.

It does not just make it penitential, it makes it life threatening. Why?

Think of a Brain Surgeon on a Ramadan fast, or for that matter, a bus driver or tool cutter or a nuclear physicist. Without sufficient liquid intake (especially), the body and subsequently, the brain, begins to malfunction; it begins to commit one's actions to errors of judgement.

In short, the chances that you are going to kill or maim yourself or someone else increase greatly.

It was customary in every College that I worked in, to bar Muslim students from working with any form of potentially dangerous technology during Ramadan. They were a danger to themselves and to others around them.

Furthermore, College staff would be reminded that severe fasting is liable to bring on what can only be described as temper attacks, when a student would snap at another and then a row or even a fight would break out.

Imagine now that you are a visitor to a Muslim country during Ramadan.What you do not do is walk through the streets eating an ice cream or quaffing a coke. You would come under verbal and physical attack and, in some countries, you would actually be in breach of the law.

Neither do you walk near a mosque or any place where folk gather in groups, tensions are heightened and the atmosphere is volatile.

Even Turkey, which might be described as a moderate country in Muslim terms, is far from safe for the unwary traveller.

Yet many Muslims regard our Lent as nothing more than an effeminate joke.

Whereas, we believe, as always, that so much of Catholic teaching and practice comes down to sound common sense and that our duty is to fast and abstain responsibly and safely.

Fast hard, but not so hard that you place your life and the lives of
         others in danger.

Pray, the one thing that we can be liberal about in Lent

Alms, the third requirement of this period, give and give until it hurts

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust of power, and idle talk;

But grant rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to thy servant.

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own transgressions, and not to judge my brother; for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages.