Hallowe'en

On this All Hallow's Eve, let us be like the Saints before us, who, though dead in sin, ate the flesh of the living Son of Man, and will rise with Him to new life.  

"Father"

We do not call priests "Father" because this is some title that they covet or desire, or because they seek to set themselves up with power and authority, to supplant God the Father.  It is not for their sakes at all, but for ours.  I have known priests who have asked to be called by first name, or some other diminutive.  I can well imagine why, I can see the gulf which separates the priest from the lay person, and the loneliness it entails.  But we cannot let ourselves forget that the priest is alter christus, and it is for that reason that we call him "Father."  We must call them "Father" precisely because we have no Master save Christ, no Father save Our Father, who art in Heaven, and hallowed is His name.

Theotokos

Of all her glorious and wondrous titles, I believe Mary prefers that which is really simplest: Theotokos, God-bearer.  Everything that she is is summed up in this single statement.  She is the Mother of God.  Every controversy and every honor comes back to this.  Blessed Pope John Paul the Great instructed us that the Marian Church, the church of discipleship, precedes the Petrine Church, or the hierarchical church.  Indeed, how could it not?  For Christ, in giving Himself to His disciples, to us, in the Sacrament, makes each and every one of us a little God-bearer.

Man's Worship

No matter what, Man will worship.  If not the One, True God, then many and more lesser ones.  This is observable everywhere, and the only ones who deny it are those who worship some part of themselves, and cannot see it for their pride.  The greatest proof of this isn't the plurality of religions, nor even the omnipresence of religion.  The greatest proof of this is people, whether religious or not, and their relationship to the material world.  The materialist philosophies of capitalism and socialism, for example, devolve into rapacious consumerism.  It is consumption that shows the deep seated human need for more.  If we could be satisfied by what the world had to offer, we would eventually be sated.  We cannot be satisfied, so we do not cease.  That is why we see even the men who have neither God nor gods, bowing down before their idols.

Soar

As your voice soars, so too does your heart.  So sing praises to our God.

Charisms

The Church is big enough to hold the charismatic movement.  The charismatic movement is not big enough to hold the Church.  It is fine to be involved with this renewal, and to seek the charisms, so long as one does not put more stock in them than in the Church, nor seek them for their own sake.  They are such small things next to Love, they are nothing compared to God.  Not for nothing did St. Paul call Love the greatest of gifts and vocations.  So seek first the Kingdom, that is Christ, that all these other things might be added unto you in their proper time and place.

Teachings

I think there is a tendency to get lost in Church teachings as teachings, to forget that everything the Church teaches actually comes to us from the Revelation Who is Jesus the Christ.  We Catholics have a tendency to think of Church teaching, instead of to think of the Person of Christ.  So we talk about abortion, euthanasia, homosexual marriage, and other topics of the day in the light of natural law, biology, philosophy and all the rest.  But the Church relates fundamentally to Christ, and her teachings are meditations on Him.  Christ is not only the fullest revelation possible of an otherwise ineffable God, but also the fullest revelation possible of the human person, of everything that it means to be Man.