More Augustine

St. Agustine died in the year 430. He had a profound influence on the development of Christian thinking and life. If you have the time you should make an attempt to read his works. Many scholars spend their whole lives studying St. Augustine. Fr. Groeschel once said, "The person who says he has read all of St. Augustine is lying."

Start by reading the article on Augustine at 'newadvent.org'

'Catholicradiodramas.com' has several of his homilies on their website. Many of them are narrated for listening.

St. Augustine

The desire of your heart constitutes your prayer
In the anguish of my heart I groaned aloud. There is a hidden anguish which is inaudible to men. Yet when a man's heart is so taken up with some particular concern that the hurt inside finds vocal expression, one looks for the reason. And one will say to oneself: perhaps this is what causes his anguish, or perhaps such and such had happened to him. But who can be certain of the cause except God, who hears and sees his anguish? Therefore the psalmist says: In the anguish of my heart I groaned aloud. For if men hear at all, they usually hear only bodily groaning and know nothing of the anguish of the heart from which it issues. Who then knows the cause of man's groaning? All my desire is before you. No, it is not open before other men, for they cannot understand the heart; but before you is all my desire. If your desire lies open to him who is your Father and who sees in secret, he will answer you. For the desire of your heart is itself your prayer. And if the desire is constant, so is your prayer. The Apostle Paul had a purpose in saying: Pray without ceasing. Are we then ceaselessly to bend our knees, to lie prostrate, or to lift up our hands? Is this what is meant in saying: Pray without ceasing? Even if we admit that we pray in this fashion, I do not believe that we can do so all the time. Yet there is another, interior kind of prayer without ceasing, namely, the desire of the heart. Whatever else you may be doing, if you but fix your desire on God's Sabbath rest, your prayer will be ceaseless. therefore, if you wish to pray without ceasing, do not cease to desire. The constancy of your desire will itself be the ceaseless voice of your prayer. And that voice of your prayer will be silent only when your love ceases. For who are silent? Those of whom it is said: Because evil has abounded, the love of many will grow cold. The chilling of love means that the heart is silent; while burning love is the outcry of the heart. If your love is without ceasing, you are crying out always; if you always cry out, you are always desiring; and if you desire, you are calling to mind your eternal rest in the Lord. And all my desire is before you. What if the desire of our heart is before him, but not our groaning? But how is that possible, since the groaning is the voice of our desire? And therefore it is said: My groaning is not concealed from you. It may be concealed from men, but it is not concealed from you. Sometimes God's servant seems to be saying in his humility: My anguish is not concealed from you. At other times he seems to be laughing. Does that mean that the desire of his heart has died within him? If the desire is there, then the groaning is there as well. Even if men fail to hear it. it never ceases to sound in the hearing of God.

St. Monica

Here is a link to information about St. Monica. If you know someone who is fallen away from the Church she is the one to imitate.

http://www.osa-west.org/saintmonica.html

St. Peter

This Sunday we will hear the Gospel of Peter's profession of faith.

For 500 years people have been attempting to be Christian without recognizing the role of the papacy and the Church. A radical individualism was introduced into Christianity with the protestant reformation.

More recently people love to be spiritual and not religious.

Just yesterday I read an article about someone who recommends staring at a mirror for an hour each week instead of going to Church. He thinks we should meditate on ourselves.

This same sentiment is expressed when couples preparing for marriage want their wedding to be unique. They want it in a garden or to do something in church that no one else does. (If you want a unique and special wedding try wearing white for a reason.)

When a marriage relationship or our relationship with God depends solely on our own emotions and feelings then what happens to the relationship when our feelings change.

Like a family, the Church is a communion of persons. Like a family there will be ups and downs and people who have weaknesses, but we do not abandon our family. We should always be striving to be more like Christ. As long as we are faithful to the testimony of Peter then we can be certain that we in the family established by Christ, the Church that will never pass away.

New Martyr

HYDERABAD, India, AUG. 18, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A 37-year-old Carmelite priest was tortured and killed on Saturday night as he traveled to the site where he was to celebrate Sunday Mass.The body of Carmelite of Mary Immaculate Father Thomas Pandippallyil was found by religious sisters headed to the Mass he was to celebrate at the center in Yellareddy, where he was director.The Carmelite had joined the Chanda mission of his order in 1987. He was ordained a priest in 2002.He was last seen alive by those same nuns who offered him dinner Saturday after he had celebrated Mass for them."Father Thomas is a martyr: He sacrificed his life for the poor and marginalized," said Archbishop Marampudi Joji of Hyderabad. "But he did not die in vain, because his body and his blood enrich the Church in India, particularly the Church in Andhra Pradesh -- the southeastern state where he died.""The Church in India is shocked and deeply saddened by this barbarous killing, the result of a growing climate of intolerance and violence against Christians in this country," the 65-year-old archbishop added.Archbishop Joji contended that the crime is the result of "jealousy of the Catholic Church.""Priests and nuns," he said, "have for decades been at the service of the least fortunate in India, and this makes them targets of forces of evil who do not want the marginalized and impoverished to become empowered."

Destiny vs. Providence

Almost every culture has some form of astrology. People have always wanted to know why things happen. What forces are controlling my life and the universe? Outside of monotheism people have turned to astrology to explain why things have happened. Sorcerers and shamans were consulted to find out the future. Destiny was the determining factor in life. Within Christianity superstition can disguise itself as faith. Superstition is a trust in these forces of the universe that determine life. Nowadays people who reject faith and astrology and any organized religon will express their superstion by believing in "Karma." Be nice to others and good things will happen to you. Be mean and bad things will happen to you. People who hold this view are supposed to be very enlightened. They don't need religion to teach them. the whole moral law is summed up in the phrase, "What goes around comes around." This is the law of the uncreated universe that governs our destiny.

Tuesday

Today is the second day of school. it was great to have all the kids back in the building yesterday. It will be a challenging year as we begin our building project. The rectory will be moved on Monday or Tuesday of next week.

We have a Catholic School because all of creation refers back to the creator. When we examine a scientiific problem or when we read literature we are attemtping with our intelligence to grasp reality. All things receive their being from God. If we recognize this connection between the world and God then we will be able to more fully penetrate and understand the world around us.

The person of faith is accused of escaping from reality. It is precisely the belief in God that makes the person of faith take the world seriously. God created everything with a plan and an order. If there is no creator and the universe is a random accident of chance then there is no order, there is no purpose to reality.

Science is the natural response of the intellect being infused with faith, the knowledge of the Creator.

The Assumption

We are made in the image and likeness of God. The Blessed Virgin is the one image of God that was never tarnished. An image shares in the existence of the reality it reflects. Mary in her purity participates in God's life as much as a human being can. Therefore it is fitting that she participates fully in the joy of heaven. Where she has gone we hope to follow.

St. Maxamilian Kolbe

Go to this link to more about this great saint who was killed in Auschwitz in 1941.
http://theanchoressonline.com/aug-14-morning-sacrifice-and-reflectings/

Feast of St. Clare

In this picture Clare mourns the death of her friend Francis.

Sunday rest

God's action is the model for human action. If God "rested and was refreshed" on the seventh day, man too ought to "rest" and should let others, especially the poor, "be refreshed." The sabbath brings everyday work to a halt and provides a respite. It is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money.

St. Louis

I had a fun time with the daughters in St. Louis. There were over 500 women from the US and Canada. Most of the Canadians spoke French. It is good to be reminded that there are Catholics outside of Kingman, outside of Kansas, outside of the English language. It is easy for me to become very parochial. Don't ask me to like people from another country, I don't even like the way they do things in Oklahoma. The Catholic faith has been incarnated in every country and in almost every language. If the faith can take root in the heart of Kateri Tekakwitha, it can also take root in my heart.

Daughters of Isabella

I am leaving after Mass on Sunday to go to St. Louis for the international Daughters of Isabella conference. It should be a crazy good time. I hope I am not the youngest person there. Is that bad?

Wisdom of St. Thomas

Just as weariness of the body is dispelled by resting the body, so weariness of the soul must needs be remedied by resting the soul: and the soul's rest is pleasure. Consequently, the remedy for weariness of soul must needs consist in the application of some pleasure, by slackening the tension of the reason's study. Thus in the Conferences of the Fathers, it is related of Blessed John the Evangelist, that when some people were scandalized on finding him playing together with his disciples, he is said to have told one of them who carried a bow to shoot an arrow. And when the latter had done this several times, he asked him whether he could do it indefinitely, and the man answered that if he continued doing it, the bow would break. Whence the Blessed John drew the inference that in like manner man's mind would break if its tension were never relaxed.

Wisdom of play

Augustine says "I pray thee, spare thyself at times: for it becomes a wise man sometimes to relax the high pressure of his attention to work." Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists in playful words or deeds. Therefore it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to such things at times.

Philippians Chapter 2
If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but (also) everyone for those of others. Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.