Bishop Tobin is Right

Bishop Thomas Tobin

Recently, Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island landed himself in hot water with many in the popular culture with this Tweet over this past weekend about some...cultural events...taking place in many parts of the country during the month of June.

A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ “Pride Month” events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.

— Bishop Thomas Tobin (@ThomasJTobin1) June 1, 2019

Immediately the wolves of our culture came to denounce Tobin for "spreading hate," as they usually do to any bishop, priest, or deacon who speaks out about the moral law, and some even said that he was wrong to say anything because his words would encourage hatred against the "gay community." Even some members of the clergy have gotten in on the act, trying to say on social media that what Bishop Tobin said was not compassionate.

But is the Bishop wrong? Firstly, what is the Church's official statement of its own teaching on this matter? The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes it as clear as possible for us:

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

The Church holds, then, that while someone's proclivity to attraction of people of the same sex is not, in and of itself, a sin, that homosexual activity is a sin. The Church calls on us to treat homosexual persons with "respect, compassion, and sensitivity," but the Church is quite clear that this compassion does not extend to acceptance of sinful behavior, and indeed that would not be compassionate at all-it could endanger many souls.

Bishop Tobin also said that that Catholics should not attend events which celebrate "Pride Month." No doubt, some readers will say "but Deacon, doesn't the Catechism say that we should treat gay people with 'respect, compassion, and sensitivity,' so shouldn't we go all out and celebrate Pride Month to support them?


 



Are you also going on public marches or attending public events to support those who have a proclivity to adultery or fornication? Would you do such a thing? If you would, I would question any claim you might make to practice bona fide Christianity. Yes, we are all sinners, but we are still called to avoid sin and the near occasion of sin. Furthermore, if we attend events which promote sin, we are giving our approval to the sin by our presence there, and if we do not approve, we will have given scandal to many other believers by the appearance of giving public approbation to grave sin. At the very least, you are saying you are proud of your concupiscence and that of others. "YAY, I am proud of my human proclivity to potentially commit sin and do evil in the sight of God!"

Sacred Scripture certainly backs up what Bishop Tobin is trying to say:

"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God." -1 Corinthians 6:9-10

What reason would anyone have to attend a rally that supports and promotes homosexual acts and faux "marriage" other than to support those acts yourself? If you don't, why would you attend an event where they do? If you would not support other deadly sins, you shouldn't support "Pride Month" either.

Some on social media are saying that Bishop Tobin "backed down" because of this statement from the Diocese of Providence:

.

A close reading of this statement shows us, however, that Bishop Tobin isn't backing down at all. He is more effectively stating Catholic teaching:

I regret that my comments yesterday about Pride Month have turned out to be so controversial in our community, and offensive to some, especially the gay community. That certainly was not my intention, but I understand why a good number of individuals have taken offense. I also acknowledge and appreciate the widespread support I have received on this matter.

 The Catholic Church has respect and love for members of the gay community, as do I. Individuals with same-sex attraction are beloved children of God and our brothers and sisters. 

 As a Catholic Bishop, however, my obligation before God is to lead the faithful entrusted to my care and to teach the faith, clearly and compassionately, even on very difficult and sensitive issues. That is what I have always tried to do – on a variety of issues – and I will continue doing so as contemporary issues arise.

 In other words, Bishop Tobin is saying "I love you, what I said was true." Indeed, he reiterated to the news media that he stands by his statement.

One of the difficulties with Twitter is that you have so little space in which to express what you are trying to get across to others. Twitter has helped to reduce our society to one in which many people take the entirety of what others say by a few characters.

It is for this reason that I personally do not recommend the use of Twitter as a means of social communication for my brother clerics. When the time comes to address controversial social and moral issues, and one feels the need to address them online (as indeed I have done in this post), other means of internet communication such as Facebook, MeWe, or blogs exist so that we may say all that needs to be said, all that the Holy Spirit might place upon our hearts. 

I would humbly recommend to Bishop Tobin that he consider one of those alternatives when the time comes, as it inevitably does in the time in which we live, to address the state of our society on internet-based social media.

Even though other means might have been better means to convey the message, what Bishop Tobin said is true. "Gay Pride" events promote grave sin. Catholics concerned for the good of their souls and the souls of others should not attend or promote them.

Long Ago Prophets Knew...

One of my favorite Advent hymns is actually a more modern composition, written by Fred P. Green in 1971, listed in many hymnals as Long Ago Prophets Knew.


Long ago, prophets knew Christ would come, born a Jew, Come to make all things new, Bear His people’s burden, Freely love and pardon.

Ring, bells, ring, ring, ring! Sing, choirs, sing, sing, sing! When He comes, when He comes, Who will make Him welcome?

God in time, God in man, This is God’s timeless plan: He will come, as a man, Born Himself of woman, God divinely human.

Mary, hail! Though afraid, She believed, she obeyed. In her womb, God is laid Til the time expected, Nurtured and protected.

Journey ends! Where afar Bethlehem shines, like a star, stable door stands ajar. unborn Son of Mary, Savior, do not tarry!




This particular version is by the Choir of Lichfield Cathedral (the Cathedral of St. Chad and St. Mary, as it was known before Henry VIII) in England, and was part of the British hymns program Songs of Praise. Considering the religious climate in Britain, it is amazing the show is still on air, but it has been going for 50 years and more. In our bustle to prepare for Christmas and to get those last-minute gifts bought and even work out our schedules for Monday and Tuesday (who shall be visited when, when shall we eat, and what, and where) we have forgotten that we don't do these things because we have just declared that we need to mill about at our families' houses all day Monday and Tuesday...whether people realize it or not (and yes, many do not) is because this is a set-aside or sacred time of year. Our culture is moving away from that recognition, preferring "Happy Holidays" to "Merry Christmas," and as we have heretofore discussed, totally ignoring the Advent season.


Remember why we anticipate and celebrate this season of the year, this is not merely an excuse for family gatherings, an extra day or two off, or a schedule adjustment. When we realize those things without having to be reminded periodically of them, you have figured out what Advent is about...you've truly observed Advent, and you are ready for the coming of the Lord.

The choices people make

The question comes all the time from honest people, but especially after a terrible tragedy like the school mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut yesterday, is this: "How can a just and a loving God allow for such a terrible thing to happen?" If you are a family member of one of the slain children or adults, you might ask: "How could God let this happen to my baby?"


It would be disingenuous to say that there is an easy answer to these questions, because their isn't, but Scripture does give us an incredible piece of insight into God's way of dealing with human nature in giving us the free will choice between right and wrong (Deuteronomy 30:15-20):

"See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess."

I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." 

This passage is a warning by the Lord (which the Deuteronomist tells us was given though Moses) to the children of Israel to obey his commandments or face the harsh consequences of their own disobedience. God was warning the Israelites not that he was going to "kill them off" if they went their own way, but that they would bring about their own destruction in view of their own bad choices. What this important Old Testament passage is telling us today is something similar but far more simple-God has given humanity the free will to choose right and wrong, good and evil. God has shown us what good is, having done so sending his Son, the Word Incarnate into the world. Jesus Christ came into the world to redeem humanity, but he didn't come to force anyone to follow him or force people to do good or right. That choice is ours alone, and the choice we make has consequences.


Knowing this helps us understand that people have the power to make choices, even the most terrible choices. We believe that people will be held to account for their choice to rebel against the laws of God and his command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We believe that God loves the humanity that he created so much that he sent his Son into the world-the second person of the Trinity and the Incarnate Word-to redeem us from our own sins, our decision to make choices that lead to what the Scripture passage above calls "death and evil," to give us the ability through the redemption of the Cross to reclaim for ourselves the side of "life and good." It is this desire on the part of God from the very beginning to be reconciled with mankind which he made in his image and likeness that is what Advent and Christmas (and, for that matter, Lent, Holy Week, and Easter) are really all about.

In Newtown, Connecticut yesterday, for reasons we do not know and have no power or authority to judge, a young man chose death and evil over life and good. As public figures on all sides begin a disgraceful attempt to politicize the massacre, virtually no one is blaming the root cause that brings about all such violence in our age: A Culture of Death in Western society which not only says that the unborn and the aged and the infirm and the helpless have only the value that we as individuals assign to them, but one which glorifies violence, demeans and objectifies the human person, and perverts liberty itself. Our present culture is saturated with the glorification of sin and the public promotion and encouragement-and even promotion by the state-of the worst forms of social and human depravity, and we wonder how someone could get it into their mind to do such a thing.


When society chooses "death and evil," it is telling individuals that death and evil and all of the sins that go with them are also an acceptable personal choice. We will not see peace in our culture until we begin to choose life and good anew.


Pray for the families and the people of Newtown, Connecticut.


Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual Light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the Faithful Departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Spiritual direction...

I'm about to set off for formation this month momentarily, but I want to thank everyone for their prayers. In my last post, I commented about my need for a spiritual director, and it seems that prayer has been answered. I've been able to meet with Father Alex Waraksa, who is the associate pastor at my parish. With the Director of Deacons' permission, he'll be serving as my spiritual director from now on.

More about this weekend when I return.

Thoughts on the call to obedience

It is an unfortunate reality that we live in a skeptical age that is skeptical of God and of His Holy Church. Indeed, even though nearly 90% of Americans say that they believe in a Higher Power, nearly half of those people don't attend Church regularly. Some surveys have suggested that among the younger generation, the number of people skeptical or even in denial of the existence of God is much higher, and certainly the devil-may-care attitude reflected in modern popular culture reflects what Walter Cardinal Kasper has called "cultural atheism." In other words, our culture behaves as though God does not exist whether we say to ourselves or to others that He exists or does not.

Many people are rationalizing that because the Church has been rocked in the past decade by the priest sex abuse scandal and other singular abuses, that the Church somehow does not have the authority to command obedience to morality in the name of Jesus Christ. Truth does not change merely because some of those who have proclaimed it in the past have fallen into sin. It does not change even if the whole of those who have proclaimed it give themselves over to sin and the wiles of the devil. If such faulty theological logic had any merit, the Church would never have survived the first week after Our Lord was crucified. After all, with the exception of the Apostle St. John, all of the original 12 abandoned Jesus, one even openly denied him and did so three times. Yet it was the weak one who denied Christ three times who was chosen to lead the Church after Our Lord ascended to the Father. One of the remaining Eleven after our Lord rose again even refused to believe, yet Christ allowed that one to see as well as believe, he didn't reject him or tell him that he had no authority. Christ instead breathed the Holy Spirit on these imperfect men and told them to go forth and proclaim the Good News. Christ promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against the Church, but He certainly never promised that the Church would be composed of perfect people or that some of its leaders would not ever fall into serious sin or scandal themselves.

Catholic readers will recall, I am sure, the case of Father John Corapi, who stood accused of having an affair with a woman who worked with him, and was even accused (not, apparently, without some cause) of having multiple affairs with multiple women. Corapi left the priesthood, at first saying that without doing so, he would be unable to prove his innocence in a legitimate fashion. His religious community said that he was not fit for public ministry, but they didn't ever say "Father Corapi isn't welcome to return." Indeed, he was invited to come live in community with the rest of priests and brothers of his religious order, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT). It was when he openly refused to obey this order which was given in accordance with his religious vow to obey those placed in religious authority over him that SOLT said that Father Corapi was "unfit for public ministry" as a priest.

Many good Catholics were and remain rightly scandalized by the case of Father Corapi. This is because so many people were brought into a deeper relationship with Christ and with Our Blessed Mother through Father Corapi's powerful witness, teaching, and preaching, and two of those people included Nicole and myself. We didn't just watch Father Corapi's programs on EWTN, in 2005, we attended a day of reflection with Father Corapi in Kentucky. I was deeply moved by his powerful witness of fidelity to the Church and his own conversion story. He was keenly aware of his own past, however-he returned to the Faith from a world of drug addiction, worldliness, pleasure, and, to hear his own description, the worst forms of sin and vice imaginable in our modern secularist culture, and he said "if you ever pick up a newspaper and read that Father John Corapi was found dead in a crack house somewhere, it might very well be the truth, because the devil is always at work, and don't you think the devil doesn't know my addictions and weaknesses." I remembered Father Corapi saying this, but it didn't make his decision to leave the priesthood sting any less. His disobedience to and disregard for the authority of the very Church which he had preached for 20 years
that the rest of us should obey spoke volumes about the unfortunate path that he seemed to have chosen.

Since that time, Corapi seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. Indeed, many people who used to follow the work of his former ministry now have no idea what has happened to him. Like some of them, I too pray that he has come to obedience and that he has repented, returning to his religious community. Wherever he is, if he has not repented, I pray that he does so.

However, Corapi's apparent lack of repentance and his scandalous behavior do not negate the work of the Holy Spirit or lessen the power of the truths he was previously teaching, for we all have concupiscence. The decision by many folks to declare the entire Church corrupt based on the public actions of some smacks as much of a desire to find an excuse not to obey the Church as it does of any genuine personal scandal someone might feel about the actions of many priests and others in the Church who, like Father Corapi, fell into serious sin and shame. The reality is that we live in a culture that does not like obedience, especially if the power commanding our obedience is ultimately of Divine origin, which the Church is. The reality is that many Catholics want to call themselves Catholic but not bear the mark-and sometimes bear the cross-of obedience to the authority of the Church upon earth.

As an Aspirant who feels called to the deaconate, I have willingly placed myself within the Church's Divine authority in a very direct way. Those who are in formation for a vocation to the deaconate, the priesthood, or the religious life do this knowing that none of us are perfect, and that even our bishop is not perfect, but that, through the authority of the Church, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, he may tell us when and where, or even whether ever we may minister to others in the Church's name. My willingness to obey the Church is reflected not only in my developing call to the deaconate, but in an understanding that while the Church, including her leaders, are imperfect human beings, her authority comes from Christ, who gave her all power in Heaven and on Earth. All of us who are Catholics, whether laypeople or ordained, are called to accept the Church's teaching authority on faith and morals-she is mater et magister.

Those who know to do so and refuse to remind me of of the famous verse of scripture describing the errant children of Israel who refuse to accept Divine authority in Judges 21:25: 

In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

The Lord Is Truly Risen, Alleluia!

Genesis 1:1-2:2:

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth,
the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss,
while a mighty wind swept over the waters.

Then God said,
"Let there be light," and there was light.
God saw how good the light was.
God then separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night."
Thus evening came, and morning followed-the first day.

Then God said,
"Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters,
to separate one body of water from the other."
And so it happened:
God made the dome,
and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it.
God called the dome "the sky."
Evening came, and morning followed-the second day.

Then God said,
"Let the water under the sky be gathered into a single basin,
so that the dry land may appear."
And so it happened:
the water under the sky was gathered into its basin,
and the dry land appeared.
God called the dry land "the earth, "
and the basin of the water he called "the sea."
God saw how good it was.
Then God said,
"Let the earth bring forth vegetation:
every kind of plant that bears seed
and every kind of fruit tree on earth
that bears fruit with its seed in it."
And so it happened:
the earth brought forth every kind of plant that bears seed
and every kind of fruit tree on earth
that bears fruit with its seed in it.
God saw how good it was.
Evening came, and morning followed-the third day.

Then God said:
"Let there be lights in the dome of the sky,
to separate day from night.
Let them mark the fixed times, the days and the years,
and serve as luminaries in the dome of the sky,
to shed light upon the earth."
And so it happened:
God made the two great lights,
the greater one to govern the day,
and the lesser one to govern the night;
and he made the stars.
God set them in the dome of the sky,
to shed light upon the earth,
to govern the day and the night,
and to separate the light from the darkness.
God saw how good it was.
Evening came, and morning followed-the fourth day.

Then God said,
"Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures,
and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky."
And so it happened:
God created the great sea monsters
and all kinds of swimming creatures with which the water teems,
and all kinds of winged birds.
God saw how good it was, and God blessed them, saying,
"Be fertile, multiply, and fill the water of the seas;
and let the birds multiply on the earth."
Evening came, and morning followed-the fifth day.

Then God said,
"Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures:
cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds."
And so it happened:
God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle,
and all kinds of creeping things of the earth.
God saw how good it was.
Then God said:
"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
the birds of the air, and the cattle,
and over all the wild animals
and all the creatures that crawl on the ground."
God created man in his image;
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying:
"Be fertile and multiply;
fill the earth and subdue it.
Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth."
God also said:
"See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth
and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food;
and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air,
and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground,
I give all the green plants for food."
And so it happened.
God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
Evening came, and morning followed-the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth and all their array were completed.
Since on the seventh day God was finished
with the work he had been doing,
he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had undertaken.





Genesis 22:1-18:

God put Abraham to the test.
He called to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am, " he replied.
Then God said:
"Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah.
There you shall offer him up as a holocaust
on a height that I will point out to you."
Early the next morning Abraham saddled his donkey,
took with him his son Isaac and two of his servants as well,
and with the wood that he had cut for the holocaust,
set out for the place of which God had told him.

On the third day Abraham got sight of the place from afar.
Then he said to his servants:
"Both of you stay here with the donkey,
while the boy and I go on over yonder.
We will worship and then come back to you."
Thereupon Abraham took the wood for the holocaust
and laid it on his son Isaac's shoulders,
while he himself carried the fire and the knife.
As the two walked on together, Isaac spoke to his father Abraham:
"Father!" Isaac said.
"Yes, son, " he replied.
Isaac continued, "Here are the fire and the wood,
but where is the sheep for the holocaust?"
"Son," Abraham answered,
"God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust."
Then the two continued going forward.
When they came to the place of which God had told him,
Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.
Next he tied up his son Isaac,
and put him on top of the wood on the altar.
Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the LORD's messenger called to him from heaven,
"Abraham, Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he answered.
"Do not lay your hand on the boy," said the messenger.
"Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."
As Abraham looked about,
he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
So he went and took the ram
and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.
Abraham named the site Yahweh-yireh;
hence people now say, "On the mountain the LORD will see."

Again the LORD's messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:
"I swear by myself, declares the LORD,
that because you acted as you did
in not withholding from me your beloved son,
I will bless you abundantly
and make your descendants as countless
as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;
your descendants shall take possession
of the gates of their enemies,
and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing—
all this because you obeyed my command."

Exodus 14:15-15:1:

The LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me?
Tell the Israelites to go forward.
And you, lift up your staff and, with hand outstretched over the sea,
split the sea in two,
that the Israelites may pass through it on dry land.
But I will make the Egyptians so obstinate
that they will go in after them.
Then I will receive glory through Pharaoh and all his army,
his chariots and charioteers.
The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD,
when I receive glory through Pharaoh
and his chariots and charioteers."

The angel of God, who had been leading Israel's camp,
now moved and went around behind them.
The column of cloud also, leaving the front,
took up its place behind them,
so that it came between the camp of the Egyptians
and that of Israel.
But the cloud now became dark, and thus the night passed
without the rival camps coming any closer together
all night long.
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,
and the LORD swept the sea
with a strong east wind throughout the night
and so turned it into dry land.
When the water was thus divided,
the Israelites marched into the midst of the sea on dry land,
with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.

The Egyptians followed in pursuit;
all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and charioteers went after them
right into the midst of the sea.
In the night watch just before dawn
the LORD cast through the column of the fiery cloud
upon the Egyptian force a glance that threw it into a panic;
and he so clogged their chariot wheels
that they could hardly drive.
With that the Egyptians sounded the retreat before Israel,
because the LORD was fighting for them against the Egyptians.

Then the LORD told Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea,
that the water may flow back upon the Egyptians,
upon their chariots and their charioteers."
So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea,
and at dawn the sea flowed back to its normal depth.
The Egyptians were fleeing head on toward the sea,
when the LORD hurled them into its midst.
As the water flowed back,
it covered the chariots and the charioteers of Pharaoh's whole army
which had followed the Israelites into the sea.
Not a single one of them escaped.
But the Israelites had marched on dry land
through the midst of the sea,
with the water like a wall to their right and to their left.
Thus the LORD saved Israel on that day
from the power of the Egyptians.
When Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the seashore
and beheld the great power that the LORD
had shown against the Egyptians,
they feared the LORD and believed in him and in his servant Moses.

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD:
I will sing to the LORD, for he is gloriously triumphant;
horse and chariot he has cast into the sea.


Isaiah 54:5-14:

The One who has become your husband is your Maker;
his name is the LORD of hosts;
your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,
called God of all the earth.
The LORD calls you back,
like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,
a wife married in youth and then cast off,
says your God.
For a brief moment I abandoned you,
but with great tenderness I will take you back.
In an outburst of wrath, for a moment
I hid my face from you;
but with enduring love I take pity on you,
says the LORD, your redeemer.
This is for me like the days of Noah,
when I swore that the waters of Noah
should never again deluge the earth;
so I have sworn not to be angry with you,
or to rebuke you.
Though the mountains leave their place
and the hills be shaken,
my love shall never leave you
nor my covenant of peace be shaken,
says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
O afflicted one, storm-battered and unconsoled,
I lay your pavements in carnelians,
and your foundations in sapphires;
I will make your battlements of rubies,
your gates of carbuncles,
and all your walls of precious stones.
All your children shall be taught by the LORD,
and great shall be the peace of your children.
In justice shall you be established,
far from the fear of oppression,
where destruction cannot come near you.


Isaiah 55:1-11:

 Thus says the LORD:
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money for what is not bread,
your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Heed me, and you shall eat well,
you shall delight in rich fare.
Come to me heedfully,
listen, that you may have life.
I will renew with you the everlasting covenant,
the benefits assured to David.
As I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander of nations,
so shall you summon a nation you knew not,
and nations that knew you not shall run to you,
because of the LORD, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you.

Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way,
and the wicked man his thoughts;
let him turn to the LORD for mercy;
to our God, who is generous in forgiving.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.

For just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.


Baruch 3:9-15, 32-4:4:

Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life:
listen, and know prudence!
How is it, Israel,
that you are in the land of your foes,
grown old in a foreign land,
defiled with the dead,
accounted with those destined for the netherworld?
You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom!
Had you walked in the way of God,
you would have dwelt in enduring peace.
Learn where prudence is,
where strength, where understanding;
that you may know also
where are length of days, and life,
where light of the eyes, and peace.
Who has found the place of wisdom,
who has entered into her treasuries?

The One who knows all things knows her;
he has probed her by his knowledge—
The One who established the earth for all time,
and filled it with four-footed beasts;
he who dismisses the light, and it departs,
calls it, and it obeys him trembling;
before whom the stars at their posts
shine and rejoice;
when he calls them, they answer, "Here we are!"
shining with joy for their Maker.
Such is our God;
no other is to be compared to him:
He has traced out the whole way of understanding,
and has given her to Jacob, his servant,
to Israel, his beloved son.

Since then she has appeared on earth,
and moved among people.
She is the book of the precepts of God,
the law that endures forever;
all who cling to her will live,
but those will die who forsake her.
Turn, O Jacob, and receive her:
walk by her light toward splendor.
Give not your glory to another,
your privileges to an alien race.
Blessed are we, O Israel;
for what pleases God is known to us!


Ezekiel 36:16 (17a)-28:

The word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their land,
they defiled it by their conduct and deeds.
Therefore I poured out my fury upon them
because of the blood that they poured out on the ground,
and because they defiled it with idols.
I scattered them among the nations,
dispersing them over foreign lands;
according to their conduct and deeds I judged them.
But when they came among the nations wherever they came,
they served to profane my holy name,
because it was said of them: "These are the people of the LORD,
yet they had to leave their land."
So I have relented because of my holy name
which the house of Israel profaned
among the nations where they came.
Therefore say to the house of Israel: Thus says the Lord GOD:
Not for your sakes do I act, house of Israel,
but for the sake of my holy name,
which you profaned among the nations to which you came.
I will prove the holiness of my great name, profaned among the nations,
in whose midst you have profaned it.
Thus the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD,
when in their sight I prove my holiness through you.
For I will take you away from among the nations,
gather you from all the foreign lands,
and bring you back to your own land.
I will sprinkle clean water upon you
to cleanse you from all your impurities,
and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you,
taking from your bodies your stony hearts
and giving you natural hearts.
I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes,
careful to observe my decrees.
You shall live in the land I gave your fathers;
you shall be my people, and I will be your God.


Romans 6:3-11:

Brothers and sisters:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.

For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his,
we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
We know that our old self was crucified with him,
so that our sinful body might be done away with,
that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.
For a dead person has been absolved from sin.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more;
death no longer has power over him.
As to his death, he died to sin once and for all;
as to his life, he lives for God.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin
and living for God in Christ Jesus.


Mark 16:1-7:

When the sabbath was over,
Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome
bought spices so that they might go and anoint him.
Very early when the sun had risen,
on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb.
They were saying to one another,
"Who will roll back the stone for us
from the entrance to the tomb?"
When they looked up,
they saw that the stone had been rolled back;
it was very large.
On entering the tomb they saw a young man
sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe,
and they were utterly amazed.
He said to them, "Do not be amazed!
You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified.
He has been raised; he is not here.
Behold the place where they laid him.
But go and tell his disciples and Peter,
'He is going before you to Galilee;
there you will see him, as he told you.'"

The gift of the psalms

Not a few of my fellow Aspirants were left in wonderment after this past weekend's session of our deaconate formation classes. Sister Mary Timothea Elliott, RSM came not just to give us instruction on the Liturgy of the Hours, but to teach us about the psalms themselves. Firstly, I was left mesmerized, then I found myself thumbing through psalms and corresponding scriptures during Sister's talks. I was getting so much out of them that I couldn't wait from one break to the next to hear more. When it was finally over, there were several of us who said that we wished we could have at least another day of this, and we didn't want it to end.

                             Sister Mary Timothea Elliott, RSM                                                     

We've already had a great Old Testament Scripture scholar in Father Ragan Shriver give our Introduction to Scripture course. Father Bede Aboh, who gave our Philosophy lectures last month, told me that "you will love Sister Timothea, you won't want it to end." Father Bede was right...

It didn't take us long to figure out that Sister is not only well-educated (she is so well-versed in Hebrew and in the Biblical languages that Father Ragan-himself very learned in Hebrew-recommends her as a source of good material and information), but she is an educator and has been a very good one for years. She captivated a room full of grown men, and taught us so much about the psalms that none of us wanted it to end-we wanted more.

As I pointed out in my entry Thursday, I have always loved the Liturgy of the Hours ever since I was first introduced to it as a college student. Entering formation for the deaconate has truly deepened this love, and I resolved to pray the Office more faithfully, and less out of a mere sense of rote duty-in other words, I resolved to truly pray without ceasing in a way that I have never prayed before. Most importantly, I resolved to make my prayers, as best as I could understand to do so, conform to God's will and to the prayers of the whole Church rather than to my own personal desires.

It might very well be that Sister Timothea didn't realize what a gift she gave me when we read some of the psalms in the Scriptures. Of course, we pray the psalms as part of the Divine Office every day, but in some cases, certain psalmody are excluded from the Liturgy-all or part of the so-called Imprecatory Psalms, or Cursing Psalms. These portions of the psalter can be problematic when introducing the Office to laity who aren't well-catechized, and so for this reason the Church made the decision to remove them from the Liturgy. As Sister Timothea pointed out, however, just because these psalms aren't in the current edition of the Liturgy of the Hours does not mean that there may not be some appropriate reason to pray them privately. However, one can understand why we would not want to have public recitation of words like:

How blessed will be the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks. (Psalm 137:9)

Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the grave.
(Psalm 55:15)

Obviously, Christ is clear that we should not do such things to our enemies. However, those few people who knowingly embrace the lowest form of evil and reject all good with complete knowledge (Sister used the example of Nazis engaged in biological experiments and mass murder of Jews, Gypsies, and disabled people), praying psalms like this might be a way of petitioning God to put an end to such atrocities and those who commit them-indeed, one person who prayed this way would themselves become a great mystic.The idea of praying the psalms uniquely and individually seems as though it would be a source of deep spiritual richness and enhancement of prayer life.

Sister also took us through a lesson in how to use the Ordo of the Liturgy of the Hours and helped us learn to place our ribbons and use our liturgy books in a way that is proper.

I had the pleasure of sitting for breakfast with Sister Timothea yesterday morning. During the course of her lectures, she managed to confirm my personal bias toward the Revised Standard Version, and she told us collectively that she preferred to use it when teaching. However, when I asked her about using the RSV in the RCIA process (as I agree that it is a better version for teaching), she said the New American Bible would still be a better starter in RCIA-she pointed out that the NAB is far closer to what the catechumens and candidates will be hearing at Mass.


I'll have much more to say about this month's formation in the days ahead-it was a very spiritually rich and deeply fulfilling experience.

God, come to my assistance...

As part of the promises that every deacon makes to his bishop, he promises that he will pray at least two of the Hours of the Divine Office (the major Hours which have come in modern times to be called Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, specifically) every day for the rest of his life. This is one of the things that deacons do have in common with priests and with religious the world over-they are required to pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day. We're being started early on that daily routine, and this month our deaconate formation weekend will be designed to teach us everything that we need to know about the Liturgy of the Hours in order to make the Hours a vibrant part of our spiritual and prayer life. The class will be taught by Sister Mary Timothea Elliott, RSM.

The Divine Office is not new to me, because I've been praying it in some form for years. Nicole and I are Benedictine Oblates, so we are already under a promise to pray the Office (three times a day, not just twice!). You might think "wow, David, you are way ahead of the game, you know how to do this." Well...sort of. If there is one thing that the formation experience is teaching me it is that the things about our Faith that I thought I really knew well, I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did, but I am eager to learn. Other things about the faith that I didn't think I was very educated about, I am learning that I probably knew a little more than I thought about those things. Deaconate formation has completely reawakened the passion for the Office that I had when I was first introduced to Benedictine spirituality. I have definitely learned that I didn't know nearly as much about the Liturgy of the Hours as I thought I knew.

Those of you who may have had any part of your faith formation in the Benedictine tradition may have been introduced to the Divine Office in the short form, and in my case I was given one week's worth of the Office along with some additional hymns and canticles in a little three-wing binder called the Benedictine Oblate Companion. Every few months Oblates of St. Meinrad Archabbey are sent things to put in that little three-ring binder. It is all good spiritual information that fits well with the Benedictine way of doing things and specifically with ongoing Oblate formation at St. Meinrad. When presented with the Office, Oblates are presented with a one-week cycle. I discovered the other three weeks via what in those days was a fairly new spiritual tool called the internet. I found a website called Universalis which had a translation of every office every day, as it is supposed to be prayed for every day of the year, and you could choose your calendar based on what country you lived in. "Wow," I thought, "this is great. Now I can pray essentially the same prayers as everyone else does in the monastery."

Years later I discovered a site called Divine Office, which not only gave me the written prayers to pray, but included a podcast of people praying the Liturgy of the Hours in a worshipful way in which I could join in. I love this, and I use it every day now. Divine Office begins each day by giving you these volume numbers and page numbers, and last month I finally learned what that was all about.

Four volumes of psalmody, canticles, antiphons, hymns, and ordinary instructions for how to pray the Office. This is the Breviary, folks, all of it...

All of us Aspirants had to purchase a set of the entire Office, and we had to do this because Deacon Tim Elliott, are Deacon Director, wants us all learning from the same source, so the shorter volumes that have only those prayers of the Office which we would be required to pray aren't quite acceptable enough. A brand new set of the Hours is not cheap, and I know of at least one fellow Aspirant who now has two sets (he already had one). Mind you, I'm not complaining about possessing the entire Liturgy of the Hours-I've learned more about the Office since I've gotten my hands on these books than I ever knew before. Along with the book we had to read for this month, The School of Prayer, I've already learned a few things in advance of our class this month about the Liturgy of the Hours.

One is that the Church doesn't call it the Liturgy of the Hours for nothing. Praying the Office is a liturgical act and it is a form of liturgy, just as the Mass is a liturgy. The Liturgy of the Hours is a different kind of liturgy than the Mass, and it serves a different purpose than the Mass, but it is a kind of liturgy. The Liturgy of the Hours also is not meant as the sole province of priests and religious, or of the uber-holy. The Divine Office is meant for everyone, and anyone can pray the Divine Office, alone or in a group. Priests, deacons, and religious are under an obligation to pray the Office because everyone should be praying it, so those whose lives are devoted to prayer had better be praying the Liturgy of the Hours. That brings me to the other major thing that I have learned over the last month...

People familiar with the Divine Office have long known that it is best prayed in a group. Most of us who pray the Liturgy of the Hours, though, end up praying it alone. Nicole prays with me as her schedule allows, but usually two of the three Hours that I normally pray in a day are prayed alone. Yet, in the first four centuries of the Church's life, the Liturgy of the Hours was regularly prayed by Christians in community, patterned after the Old Testament hours of prayer. Peter appears to have been praying the Hours in Acts 10:9:

And on the next day, whilst they were going on their journey, and drawing nigh to the city, Peter went up to the higher parts of the house to pray, about the sixth hour [None].

Some of our parishes in the United States are praying at least part of the Divine Office every week, even if it is just one Hour. Most aren't doing that, and it may be from the lack of someone to lead the group. Many of us in formation have wondered why we need to buy a four volume set of the Office when it is freely available on the internet. The obvious answer came up ("you may be away from your computer') but I wonder if there is another motive. Like the Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours contains  red-letter instructions on how to lead a group in this important daily prayer.

We may need all four volumes in case any of us should need to lead a congregation of people in the Prayer of the Church