A sobbing Chavez pleads for life at Catholic Mass

Depends who you speak to Andrew.
For many peasants and poorer people, he was the only voice of reason.
Many Westerners that are not obsessed with the domination of the US and of Capitalism in this world also saw much good in him.

I am a Jesuit Brother on his way to Venezuela for 2 months of Spanish studies, so I am grateful to see the leader of this ‘socialist’ country pleading to God for his life in a Mass.

I can’t comment about his politics, and personally Andrew, unless you’re living in Venezuela or have family there, I don’t think you can either. All I know is that he waged war against the Rich in order to give more to the poor..at least he wanted to. Perhaps his ‘regime’ didn’t serve that purpose as much as he would have wanted. Maybe he was too autocratic in his approach. But maybe that’s what you need in certain parts of the world, to make people understand that this gap between the rich and the poor in unacceptable. Especially when the rich are so apathetic towards the plight of the poor.

There is something very Catholic about that mission…not the war waging part obviously, but the being a voice for those who are marginalized. That, way more than the battle against abortion and contraception, should be at the centre of our faith.

The Orgasmic “Yes” of Catholic Faith – UPDATED

I’ve tried to illustrate the point, before, and had a sense that it makes people uncomfortable:

God takes pity on human limitations and tries another way of teaching and reaching, a better way to know the transcendence. He says, in essence:

For your sake, I will become broken, too, but in a way meant to render you more Whole, and Holy, so that our love may be mutual, complete, constantly renewed, and alive. I love you so much that I will Incarnate, and surrender myself to you. I will enter into you (stubborn, faulty, incomplete you, adored you, the you that can never fully know me or love me back) and I will give you my whole body. I will give you all of myself, unto my very blood, and then it will finally be consummated between us, and you will understand that I have been not just your God, but your lover, your espoused, your bridegroom. Come to me, and let me love you. Be my bride; accept your bridegroom and let the scent and sense of our love course over and through the whole world through the church I beget to you. I am your God; you are my people. I am your bridegroom; you are my bride. This is the great love story, the great intercourse, the great espousal, and you cannot imagine where I mean to take you, if you will only be faithful . . . as I am always faithful.

So I tried a less overt example, while interviewing Father Robert Barron:

What I took from this book was something very warm and joyful—a continual gathering, or drawing in; a continual invitation that confers meaning on all people, all things, all events and leads us to one joyful and ecstatic moment of affirmation. Catholicism, then, is a giant and echoing “Yes,” reverberating from the moment of creation, described in Genesis, and relayed from Mary’s fiat?

Yes! Catholicism is about God’s “yes” and it presents humanity at the fullest realization of who God intends for us to be when our response to God’s yes is “fiat.” Let your “yes” be accomplished in me, in the Church, in the culture! This is why the Mother of God is the paradigmatic expression of the Christian life.

But Heather King fearlessly puts it all together:

Catholicism is not counter-cultural in that the world is liberal and Catholicism is conservative. It’s counter-cultural in that it is explosively, wildly, anarchically radical. Catholicism is our hearts, our bowels, our erotic energy, our lives! Catholicism is not some timid, rigid, dead set of rules. The whole purpose of the rules is to allow us to explode within them. To follow Christ, to be Catholic (or catholic-in-spirit) is to hover on the edge of metaphorical orgasm and to consent to continue to hover, indefinitely, in almost unbearable tension…which paradoxically allows us to break out in all kinds of other sublimely interesting, glorious directions and ways.

Look at the stories of Flannery O’Connor, the life and work of Emily Dickinson, the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem “Pied Beauty.” That–“Praise him” at the end is an ejaculation, with the beat, the silence, the lacuna, the gathering in before ejaculation (preceded, no less, by the generative thrust of “fathers forth”!), and it is all the more sublime for having been written by a gay man–a Jesuit priest and a severe depressive who stayed faithful to his vows and offered his suffering, his loneliness, his love, his failure as a teacher, his body, blood, genius and soul to Christ.
[. . .]
Because this is how sensual, how erotic Christ is—one of the manifestations of waiting is that pleasure is sharpened. Waiting brings pleasure and joy to their highest possible point, and to bring things to their highest possible point is explode with love. We will suffer, of course, we will undergo the agony—for that is the very highest point of love; the point that Christ reached on the Cross. Consummatum est. To consummate our love in every sense is to give our whole selves to the world.

And that is the opposite of no, no, no. That is one cataclysmic, self-giving, aching, life-affirming yes.

Read the whole thing; it’s not a long piece, but it says a great deal!

“Yes, yes, yes” is the great secret within the mystery of faith. It gets missed amid the noise.

UPDATE: From Marc Barnes at Bad Catholic, whose The Terrible Weakness of God is on the same track:

. . .our conversation centered around the idea of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. The baby lamb is meek and mild, yes, but far more important is this fact: The lamb is ready to die. Other animals struggle as they are being led to the slaughter, but the Sisters spoke of how the baby lamb offers the slaughterer its neck, how it nuzzles the hand of its killer. I watched a few videos of these lamb slaughterings, and they are remarkably heartbreaking affairs.

And yet, this is how God interacts with mankind. He kisses our hands and offers us his neck. He makes himself vulnerable to us. The idea of God that pervades our culture — God as a scary, old man and a monstrous rule-maker — becomes ridiculous when we realize that God came to us as a baby. He asks that we let him love us . . .

You’ll want to read the whole thing

RELATED: Read an interview with Heather King where she discusses her latest book, Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Therese of Lisieux

Tags: Catholicism, Culture of Life, Faith, Jesus Christ, Love, Yes

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Gingrich: I Pray Before Major Decisions

ATLANTIC, Iowa—Newt Gingrich spoke about his Catholic faith at several campaign stops, a nod to the Christian evangelical support he is likely to need to succeed in caucuses scheduled here Tuesday.

“I pray before virtually every speech and virtually every major decision,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich has been a Catholic for a few years, having converted after marrying his wife, Callista, whom he credits for his faith.

“Callista is a cradle Catholic and grew up in the Catholic church, I’m a convert. But all I can tell you is I find taking communion an enormously rewarding and deepening experience,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich changed religious denominations several times and his personal life, including his three marriages, has been played out in public. He has said several times he has sought forgiveness in his faith.

“I’ve been very clear publicly I’m not a perfect human being and I’ve made mistakes in my life and I’ve had to apologize to God and to seek reconciliation,” Gingrich said.

© Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Letter: New Mass hijacks our religion

EDITOR: I’m one of many Catholics who recently had our religion hijacked from us. While asking forgiveness for sins, we now go through the stupidity of saying our sins are “my fault” three times in succession and striking our breast like an ape.

I personally think God heard us say it the first time and doesn’t need to see a theatrical display.

We now start the Nicene Creed by saying “I” instead of “We.” Do Catholic leaders not realize if I say “we” believe something it also means “I” believe something? Why should they try to reinvent the wheel and make minor changes to wording, when all it does is make sentences longer and create a lot of confusion?

I’m 39 years old and am even able to recite these prayers responses in my sleep. I hope I’m forgiven if I respond the wrong way while sleeping in church.

I’m a little surprised that the word “Amen” wasn’t changed to “Nema” to symbolize how backwards the Catholic Mass has become. The Catholic bishops involved in this seem to have wasted a lot of time trying to prove a difference between “six” and a “half dozen.”

I have no intention of learning the new responses. My wife is Lutheran and if I must learn everything all over again, maybe I should be going to church with her instead.

Joel Knoeck,

town of Cassel

Quinn to meet with Cardinal George

December 16, 2011 (CHICAGO) (WLS) —
Francis Cardinal George was to meet with Gov. Pat Quinn Friday to discuss Quinn’s Catholic faith and his pro-choice position.

“If you’re Catholic, you believe that God has revealed something through his son, and that the son has created the church that teaches what God has revealed,” George told ABC7. “And so that’s our faith.

You can say sometimes, we can’t go along with it for various reasons, public figures particularly. But you can’t say that I’m against it in the name of my Catholic faith, that’s kind of a contradiction in terms and that’s the line that was crossed.”

George condemned Quinn for presenting an award to a rape victim at an abortion-rights event because of Quinn’s faith and the church’s stance against abortion..

At the time, Quinn said it was the Christian thing to do.

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Changes to Catholic Mass

GAYLORD, MI — Changes have been made to Catholic Mass that Priests say will be a springboard for a deeper level of faith.

Changes in the Catholic Church across America went into effect for the first time last week.

This is the third amendment to mass since the 1960’s, and the Priest of the mass speaks more in a poetic tone with a word-for-word translation of the Latin text, rather than just a summary.

One of the larger changes is when the Priest says, “Lord be with you,” parishioners will now respond with, “And with your Spirit.”

“To go into a deeper level of spiritual language so that people that use this language at mass are going into a different place than every day ordinary talk of the street, because it’s to deal with God, it’s a sacred kind of language,” explains Father Duane Wachowiak.

Guidance cards for the changes are in the back of the pews for the members to follow.

Other changes have occurred in the language of the Nicene Creed and with “Our Gloria.”

Most of the changes will be with the way the Priest leads mass.

For more information on the changes, CLICK HERE.

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