I am not a proponent of CIA sponsored right wing coups, or dictatorships of any stripe. On the other hand, all branches of the legitimate Honduran government, including his own ruling party, deposing Zelaya, as he attempted to illegally circumvent the Honduran constitution is another thing.

But our President castigates the defenders of the Honduran constitution and supports Zelaya and his Marxist dictator allies. Just what we need, another Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez on our back porch. Obama and Hillary Clinton couldn’t stay neutral, couldn’t note that Zelaya brought this on himself by his own attempt to subvert his own country’s constitutional term limit for presidents?

When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature bill to extend O’s eight years. Yes, a congressional House resolution , H.J.Res.5, filed by a New York Democrat, to repeal the 22nd Amendment and allow President Obama to run for unlimited terms. The resolution was filed on January 6, 2009, before the Inauguration of the President. That is the kind of hubris that puts any Republican ambitions to shame. With a new supermajority in the Senate, control of the House, and more Supreme Court appointments to come, it’s getting scary out there, if the 2010 elections don’t restore some political balance.

And to think only a few years ago some people were worried about an Evangelical theocracy in America.

It wasn’t the economy. It wasn’t stress. It wasn’t mental illness. It hit me the minute I heard the news — it was ownership.

She made a good case for her position. What surprised me was that Ms. Reimer, an ardent abortion rights advocate, has never made the obvious logical connection between abortion and ownership and the malignant maternalism it exemplifies. When it comes to abortion, the mother asserts ownership and the power of life and death. She owns. She chooses. Ownership is one of the core arguments made by abortion rights advocates. They couch it as “self ownership” (“my body”), despite the fact that it really is about ownership of another life.

Abortion is all about ownership of another. Isn’t it about maternal ownership and the power to kill another? And not just any other, but the most intimate other. But, abortion, unlike paternal homicide, leaves no gruesome crime scene for the police and the community to deal with. The bodies are smaller and disposed of by accomplices with medical degrees, often men, paid by other men complicit in the killing of their children. Sometimes it is the grandmothers and grandfathers who facilitate the killing of their grandchildren.

For every horror story we hear about fathers killing their wives, their children and themselves during this harsh economic time, we know there are hundreds more unseen killings going on in the abortion mills of America.

So we need to ask ourselves. Do you think you own somebody? Who thinks they own you? Your father or mother, husband or wife? The State? Who owns you? These are life and death questions, temporal and eternal. The wrong answers lead to death, physical and spiritual. A lot of Americans are failing the test. The bodies, large and small, visible and invisible are piling up.

Who owns you?

The Student Government Association of St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Oklahoma presented to its community on January 20, 2009 A Resolution Concerning a Community for Life, which could serve as a model resolution for all Catholic institutions of higher education in America. It is a concise, single page, statement of and a call to a concrete commitment, by the Catholic community for which they speak, to an uncompromised, unadulterated commitment to the first principles of the sanctity of life: it is from God, it is good, the summum bonum from which all others derive. How sweet it is.

Look at the resolution and ask yourself, could this resolution make it through most Catholic College and University Student Government Associations in America today? And if it did, would it be welcomed by the faculty, staff and administration? That such questions need be asked is sad enough. What good is salt if it has lost its flavor? No need to ask the questions about public universities or colleges. There it is moot.

The St. Gregory’s University Student Government Association is the voice of its community and its resolution is a perfect example of the laity acting in its proper sphere of influence and apostolate. It is a laity formed, supported and strengthened by its Benedictine sacramental ministers and their collaborators, sent out to convert the world, starting within its own community, calling it to be light and leaven in a dark and heavy culture and calling it to put its money where its mouth is. May the work of its hands prosper.

From the beginning, in the Didache, also known as The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, the Church has taught: “There are two ways: a way of life and a way of death, and the difference between these two ways is great…. you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten” Various moral and spiritual battles face each generations, some are perennial, some cyclical, some stretch over decades, generations, even centuries.

To a battle weary generation, the bugle call from St. Gregory’s lifts the spirit, refreshes the soul. New troops are answering the call, taking up the banners. It is a message to those who promote and facilitate the culture of death in language they will recognize, if only as an unexpected echo. “We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you . “

As Campion, at the cost of his life, spoke truth to power in his generation we too say of our struggle: “The expense is reckoned, the enterprise begun; it is of God, it cannot be withstood.”

Oxymoronic Media Mantra — Look! A Pregnant Man!

Like so many carnival barkers standing in front of the freak show tent, media outlets from the homosexual magazine The Advocate, to Oprah, to ABC TV News, pitch the gullible public on the newest weird wonder — the pregnant man!

“Step right up folks! See the AMAZING PREGNANT MAN! I know it sounds
impossible, but it’s true: A PREGNANT MAN! Just check you brain at the door and you too will have to admit that it REALLY IS A PREGNANT MAN! Even the TV and major newspapers have written about and intervened this wonder!

“See his pet jackalope, which he captured while on a snipe hunt with reporters.”

Except she isn’t a man, just a woman who wishes she were a man, masquerading as a man and the reporters writing about it seem to be related to jackalopes on the equine side of the family.

Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?

Because, Henry, you twit, she’s a woman! And all the wishing and hoping and surgery in the world cannot change that fact, even if some appearances may be altered. In this case the woman in question, Tracy LaGondino, AKA Thomas Beatie, had a double radical mastectomy and took injections of male hormones, which explains the facial hair and flat chest, until she decided to get pregnant via at-home artificial insemination, at which time she stopped taking the male hormones and began ovulating and menstruating again until she became pregnant, since all her female reproductive organs are still in place.

What to Expect in the Next Few Weeks — Father Gives Birth to Baby!

I can’t resist scooping the headlines we will see in a few weeks, when “dad” is expected to give birth. And after a period of post-partum recovery we can expect a new round of interviews, and articles, complete with cooing over the poor misbegotten baby. Pity the child.

As H.L. Mencken once observed: “No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” The American media and political class are cashing in. How much stranger can it get? I am calling my local country music radio station and asking them to play that old song, ”I Am My Own Grandpa.” Maybe that will make things seem more normal, whatever normal is. One thing is sure. What seems “normal” lately sure isn’t natural.

We children, not present during our parents' courtship, are now witnessing a kind of inverse courtship as their relationship here draws to a close with all the intensity and passion with which it began.

Mom now displays the ardor Dad once showed to get her to the altar of their nuptial Mass, as she prepares to take him to the altar for his funeral Mass, where their sons will be the groomsmen and their daughters the bridesmaids. Meanwhile Mom is attentive to Dad's needs, solicitous of his desires, patient in making sure she understands him and that he understands her.

The atmosphere in the house is quiet, not like a hospital or library, but like a monastery. No television or radio disturbs the peace. Visitors are received; mail and the daily newspaper are delivered and read. When Dad is awake there is conversation and even laughter, more laughter than you might expect. Dad is still lucid, though now bed bound. Reading has become difficult for him, so Mom reads their morning and evening prayers and Dad gives the responses. Certain psalms and prayers strike chords that start Mom crying gently as she reads. In the evening, after dinner, Mom reads aloud from a book chosen by Dad and they discuss the passage. Tears can well up unexpectedly anytime from anyone in the house.

Love is on a collision course with death, grief and eternity. At that intersection stands the crucified and risen Christ. 

St. Paul of the Cross, whose feast is celebrated October 20, addresses the meeting of love and grief in one of his letters. He writes about the passion of Christ and the suffering we must all endure if we dare to love the Lord. But it applies equally well to enduring love between a man and a woman, husband and wife, who have become "one flesh."

"Love is a unifying virtue which takes upon itself the torments of its beloved Lord. It is a fire reaching through to the inmost soul. It transforms the lover into the one loved. More deeply, love intermingles with grief, and grief with love, and a certain blending of love and grief occurs. They become so united that we can no longer distinguish love from grief, nor grief from love. Thus the loving heart rejoices in its sorrow and exults in its grieving love."

If our love is unquenchable we will, sooner or later, enter into its flames, believing we will meet the Lord, and all those we love, there. Then we will live the prayer:

"Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindled in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, and thou shall renew the face of the earth."

The new year of the liturgical calendar begins on the first Sunday of Advent, four Sundays before Christmas. But Advent is about more than just Christmas. Liturgically we are also looking back at the last Sunday of the liturgical year, the Feast of Christ the King – focused on the Second Coming in glory at the end of time - reminding ourselves that Christ will come again. This, even as we look forward to something that has already taken place, the Incarnation and birth of Jesus, which we celebrate at Christmas.

The hinge between Christmas and the Feast of Christ the King is the Easter Triduum, which celebrates the Last Supper, passion, death and resurrection of our Savior and our King. There on Calvary the wood of the manager becomes the wood of the Cross upon which the King of Kings is enthroned. The humble beginning and the humiliating end of Jesus' life are contrasted to His glorious Resurrection, Ascension and Second Coming. So the Advent season begins with the strains of "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel," while at the same time the Church prays "Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!" as we wait in joyful hope for the coming again of our Savior, Jesus Christ, this time in glory.

The Great Prayers of Advent: Every Day, All Year

In the Mass readings from the Gospel of Luke during Advent we find three of the great prayers of the Church: the beginning of the Hail Mary on December 20^th and 21^st (Lk 1:28, 42, 43), the Magnificat or Canticle of Mary on December 22^nd (Lk 1:46-55) and the Canticle of Zachariah on the 24^th (Lk 1:68-77). The official Morning Prayer of the Church's Liturgy of the Hours ends daily with the Benedictus or Canticle of Zachariah and Evening Prayer ends daily with the Magnificat. Many of us were taught the Hail Mary at such an early age that we cannot even remember when we memorized it.

A fourth great prayer of the Church from Luke's infancy narrative is in the Gospel for the Feast of the Holy Family, the first Sunday after Christmas. There is the Nunc Dimittis or Canticle of Simeon (Lk 2:29-32), which is prayed daily at the end of Night Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours.

What we can learn from Advent, whether we are looking back at the birth of Christ or forward to His second coming, is that we should do so with a prayerful sense of expectant joy and grateful thanksgiving for all that our Savior has done, is doing and will do for us.

Zachariah, Mary and Simeon show us the way and the Church recommends we follow.

Morning Prayer: The Canticle of Zachariah (Benedictus)

Blessed be the Lord, The god of Israel;

He has come to His people and set them free.

He has raised up for us a mighty savior,

Born of the house of His servant David.

Through His holy prophets He promised of old

That He would save us from our enemies,

From the hands of all who hate us.

This was the oath He swore to our father Abraham:

To set us free from the hands of our enemies,

Free to worship Him without fear,

Holy and righteous in His sight all the days of our lives.

You, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

For you will go before the Lord to prepare His way.

To give His people knowledge of salvation

By the forgiveness of their sins.

In the tender compassion of our God

The dawn from on high shall break upon us,

To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,

And to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Evening Prayer: The Canticle of Mary (The Magnificat)

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

For He has looked with favor on His lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:

The Almighty has done great things for me,

And holy is His name.

He has mercy on those who fear Him

In every generation.

He has shown the strength of His arm,

He has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,

And has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

And the rich He has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of His servant Israel

For He remembered His promise of mercy,

The promise He made to our fathers,

To Abraham and his children forever.

Night Prayer: The Canticle of Simeon (The Nunc Dimittis)

Lord now You let Your servant go in peace;

Your word has been fulfilled:

My own eyes have seen the salvation

Which You have prepared in the sight of every people:

A light to reveal You to the nations

And the glory of Your people Israel.

The recent and not-so-recent spate of school shootings, and the killings in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and other locations should be a wake-up call to America. This kind of thing has been going on for quite a while and with escalating frequency. One has to wonder if America and the media have ears to hear and eyes to see, or if their perception is so distorted that they are missing the obvious. As Struther Martin’s warden character said to Paul Newman’s Cool Hand Luke character: “What we got here is failure to communicate.”

Flannery O’Connor said that her stories of grotesquely violent characters were efforts to shout loud enough for hearing-impaired America to hear the message of God’s grace.

Maybe the media is communicating in spite of itself. Maybe the message is so plain on its face that the American people will get it even if the media transmitting the screaming, streaming video doesn’t. Maybe we need to turn off the sound and just look at the pictures when we watch the news. What we see is men doing what comes naturally, unimpeded by any sense of moral absolutes — which can only come from an absolute source. And absolutes are something America will absolutely not tolerate.

The killers seem to have the common traits of hopelessness and despair, which built up to an angry explosion of violence. Though some of these cases may involve truly psychotic individuals, it would be hard to make the case that most of them fit that diagnosis. More often than not we are witnessing the manifestation of a sickness of soul rather than of the brain. Though a spiritual sickness, it is just as natural as a physical disease and may even cause physical and mental illness. It certainly brings death to the victims and often their assailants, too.

Natural man with a fallen nature is not the mythic product of Rousseau’s Enlightenment imagination, the noble savage who still inhabits the thinking of our secular world. He is man on a downward track that can only end in death and destruction, unless redeemed, transformed and sustained by supernatural grace.

In stark contrast to the hopelessness, despair, and violence that has burst upon them, among the families of the victims in Lancaster we see evidence of the fruits of the Spirit as, even in their pain, they exhibit evidence of the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. These are people doing what comes supernaturally in the face of almost preternatural evil. Only grace, the life of God within them, can explain their ability to resist the force of the storm and not be swept away by their own hate in response to the brutal murders of those they loved. We have seen this grace before at work in the families of those killed at Columbine and in other places.

The Amish of Lancaster are so radical a witness to grace that the nation is stunned into an almost reverent awe and silence. What sustains them? It is nothing natural. Only the Spirit produces this kind of life, love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” and prays for the one who has murdered their children in cold blood. What we got here is communication: a holy communication that transfigures natural men into supernatural children of God. Let us pray that we become such witnesses, the floodgates of God’s grace open upon the world.

© Copyright 2006 Catholic Exchange

Stephen Pohl is a graduate of Towson State University with a degree in Theater Arts. He lives with his wife and daughter in Baltimore, Maryland, where they are members of St. Gabriel's parish.

Ahead of Its Time

This has led to an explosion of “multimedia presentations” in many learning environments, whether it is the traditional school context, the corporate training center or the recreational setting.

Marshall McLuhan, the father of the modern study of communication and a Catholic convert, titled his groundbreaking book The Medium Is the Massage. It explored the way media affect human consciousness. A later McLuhan book, The Medium and the Light: Reflections on Religion, includes an essay titled “Liturgy and Media.” Although his analysis is often called “prophetic,” his thoughts on the liturgy were surprisingly traditional. And that brings us to the liturgy, that ancient multimedia presentation of the greatest message of all time by the greatest teaching institution of all time, the Catholic Church.

Who would have guessed that the “smells and bells” and all the other sensory elements of the ancient Catholic liturgy were ahead of their time and on the cutting edge of modern education theory just when the world is proclaiming the obsolescence of the Church, its message and its Founder? “God is dead!” You can’t get more obsolete. Unless you can’t keep that Good Man down. The Resurrection keeps getting resurrected. Now there was a multimedia event, the Resurrection. What leads up to it and what flows from it is what the liturgy is all about.

Learning the Catholic Language

Many who become fluent in a foreign language speak of the experience of total immersion in a foreign environment as the key to attaining fluency. Even for those skilled in classroom studies and exercises, the experience of total immersion can be very stressful, but it yields the desired goal of fluency. One friend told me of her experience as a foreign exchange student speaking French in Belgium. She was stressed for months, always mentally translating from French to English or from English to French in her head before speaking or understanding, until finally at the moment of greatest stress when she found it hard even to sleep, the breakthrough came. She began to dream in French and during the dreams no mental translation needed. From that point she was able to think and speak French without having to translate conversations in her head.

People come into the Catholic Church in many ways. For some it is a process similar to osmosis through immersion. They come to Mass every week with family or friends or by themselves, drawn by grace and an internal need. At first the liturgy may seem alien, foreign, incomprehensible, but they are among friends. Months or years may pass. At some point they begin to think of themselves as Catholics because they understand; the liturgy is no longer foreign, it has become their natural spiritual environment and language. They dream Catholic dreams and understand them without need of translation.

Many who study the Catholic faith in books and classrooms, yet lack the experience of immersion in the liturgy for an extended period, never really understand the Catholic faith. The essence gets lost in translation. They never experience the breakthrough that allows them to “think Catholic” without mental translation from their native spiritual language. It does not flow through them. They lack fluency.

Sadly many who are “born Catholic” and “raised Catholic” also fail to achieve fluency in the Catholic faith for a variety of reasons. They are like Americans who never master their native tongue, while encountering those of foreign birth who speak English exquisitely and often resenting them.

Getting the Message Across

When we are immersed in the liturgy we are totally engaged in worship; body, mind and spirit all lifted up by sight, sound, smell, touch, taste and movement, in what the Catechism calls “the source and summit of the Christian life”; ”the sum and summary of our faith”; “a pledge of the glory to come”; and ”an anticipation of the heavenly glory” (CCC 1324, 1327, 1402). No sensory mode of conveying the great message is left out. We are invited not only to “taste and see” but also to smell, hear and feel the goodness of the Lord. It’s remembrance, but it isn’t Memorex or virtual reality; it’s really live. It’s the real, not the counterfeit. It’s incarnational.

The celebration of other sacraments too is part of the liturgy of the Church. So we find these other sacraments integrated into the eucharistic liturgy in many places. From beginning to end, from baptism to the anointing of the sick, we encounter Christ through the senses of our flesh, as well as through our spirits. Christ comes to us in the sacraments through the “media” of word and matter in the liturgy. He who was baptized and anointed, baptizes and anoints us. He feeds us the bread of life and the cup of salvation. He forgives us our sins. He ministers to us in His priests.

The liturgy is the sacred work of the Church and the public experience and exposition of the Catholic faith for Catholics and non-Catholics alike. This is why the Church must get its liturgical act together and perform its public work well. There is delicate work to be done. We must avoid or root out errors and abuses that distort the message and garble the language that is the liturgy. But this has to be done without stifling legitimate cultural diversity.

Bishops, pastors and their lay associates must understand that it is in the liturgy, more than in any other religious education program, that the Catholic faith is taught and learned. If we don’t get the message across in the liturgy, it’s not likely we will get it across in a classroom. If we celebrate the liturgy poorly, the faithful will receive a distorted faith because they will receive a distorted transmission of the faith. Classroom education in the Catholic faith should focus on explaining the faith in the context of the liturgy so that a learning synergy exists, rather than a cognitive disconnect. It is not by accident that the first half of the Catechism consists of the Profession of Faith and the Celebration of the Christian Mystery. Without that solid foundation there is no life in Christ, no Christian prayer, no fluency in the Catholic faith. And fluent Catholics are exactly what are needed for the articulate evangelism that is our common vocation.

© Copyright 2006 Catholic Exchange

Stephen Pohl is a graduate of Towson State University with a degree in Theater Arts. He lives with his wife and daughter in Baltimore, Maryland, where they are members of St. Gabriel's parish.

Other than young mothers hoping to prevent their children from being distracted by other children, what does it take to get a Catholic to sit in the front pew? Are all the rest really afraid of being caught up front on the Sunday when the Gospel reading is from Luke 14? (By the way, this is an open book question.)

Has your pastor ever moved the lighting of the Easter Vigil fire inside to the church vestibule because of rain? Did he forget the newly installed fire and smoke alarm system immediately overhead? That was my daughter's first Easter Vigil. Does your first Easter Vigil still ring loudly in your memory?

Why is it that the only thing harder to train than an aspiring altar server is the pastor's dog? For help on this difficult question you are allowed one lifeline call to your parish deacon.

Parishioner A sits in the fifth pew and Parishioner B sits in the tenth pew. Parishioner A's stride is six inches longer than Parishioner B's. There are three feet between each pew and there are twenty rows of pews. The distance from the church to the parking lot is 25 yards. Assuming they both wait until the end of Mass, who will get out of the parking lot first? I haven't worked this one out myself yet so there is no answer even in the back of the teacher's edition.

This is an essay question for those who journal. Why do most places have dress codes for men at work, but are fearful of attempting to codify a dress code for women, and even more so at Church? Perhaps this task should be assigned to Mr. Phelps. And why might Mr., Mrs., Ms., or even Sr. Phelps chose not to accept this mission impossible? Don't even think about asking Fr. Phelps.

Parents are still willing to pay to see nuns in habits, but now they have to go to the box office instead of the schools. Why is that?

Here is another essay question for those who journal. The young won't really get this one because it is intentionally skewed to the advantage of Baby Boomers, but they can try blogging their way through it.

This multiple choice bonus question, under the heading of cultural sensitivity, is based on a true story. Some years ago we were invited to the 25th anniversary celebration of my aunt's vows as a sister. The event was held at the order's motherhouse adjacent to St. Mary's Hospital in Huntington, West Virginia. When we arrived the afternoon before the formal celebration our large extended family was put up in a wing of the enormous convent. My brother was sent out to pick up some snacks and a few cases of beer. As he was checking out at the liquor store the clerk said: “Looks like you're having quite a party. Where is it?”

What was my brother's response?

A. St. Mary's Convent.

B. You wouldn't believe me if I told you.

What answer would you have given?

How many of you would have made up a lie because you weren't quick enough to think of answer B?

Final question: How many ushers does it take to…? Never mind, we see these guys every week and they usually tend bar at our church socials. We want to stay on their good side.

(Stephen Pohl lives in Woodlawn, Maryland with is wife and daughter who encourage him to write during his free time in the vain hope it will keep him out of trouble and out of their hair. They all are members of St. Gabriel parish.)