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June 7, 2017

Note from the Assistant Editor:

"The hindrances that prevent Jesus from uniting himself to our souls are disordered affections," writes Archbishop Luis Maria Martinez in our reflection.  These disordered affections amount to nothing while the love of Christ amounts to everything: union with Him.  See "As Many As Touched Him Were Healed."

We reprint the "Afterword" to Robert Cardinal Sarah's "The Power of Silence," penned by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.  "Cardinal Sarah is a spiritual teacher, who speaks out of the depths of silence with the Lord, out of his interior union with him, and thus really has something to say to each one of us."  The deep holiness of both these men is striking.

Then we have a really great piece from Fr. George Rutler: "Pentecost Was Not An Occasion for 'Enthusiasm.'" "Sensational outbursts of emotion were thought to be divinely inspired, and the formal clerical structure of the Church was caricatured as the sort of rigidity that quenches the spirit."  This is an attitude that still exists today, but it is important to not confuse strong emotion with divine inspiration.

In "The Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity," Fr. Peter John Cameron asks us to imagine our ideal God.  "We would want a god who was in love with us" and he already exists in Jesus, who shows us the Father and bestows on us the Holy Spirit.

The first in a series on conscience, in "Let's have a grown-up conversation about one's conscience," Fr. Robert McTeigue explains how we should understand the idea of the primacy of conscience.  We have a duty to educate "ourselves about ethical norms, incorporating that knowledge into our daily lives, acting according to that knowledge, and taking responsibility for those actions."

Our final article is almost magical: "How to defuse a child's tantrum with one question."  The key is to acknowledge your child's feelings, take the problem seriously (even if it seems silly to you), and enable them to find a solution.  Good advice for conflicts in general.

God bless you all this week! - Meaghen Hale



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Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man ... It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone." C.S. Lewis



New Resources


 
As Many As Touched Him Were Healed - Servant of God Luis Maria Martinez - from Worshipping a Hidden God, Unlocking the Secrets of the Hidden Life

Have we not felt from time to time that some barrier stands between Jesus and our heart?

 
Afterword - Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI - from The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise

Ever since I first read the Letters of Saint Ignatius of Antioch in the 1950s, one passage from his Letter to the Ephesians has particularly affected me: "It is better to keep silence and be than to talk and not to be."


 
Pentecost Was Not An Occasion for "Enthusiasm" - Father George W. Rutler - Crisis

The amiable classicist, John Bird Sumner, was the Protestant archbishop of Canterbury from 1848 to 1862.


 
World Loses a Great Storyteller - Father Raymond J. de Souza - National Post

Almost 60 years ago, a 6-foot-4 basketball player at Princeton was told by his coach, "You write basketball better than you play it."


 
The Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity - Father Peter John Cameron, O.P. - Magnificat

If you look into your heart and consider the kind of god you deem ideal, what you come up with is Jesus.


 
Let's have a grown-up conversation about one's conscience - Father Robert McTeigue, S.J. - Aleteia

First in a series on an essential, often misunderstood element of the moral life.


 
How to defuse a child's tantrum with one question - Fabiana Santos - Aleteia

This parenting tip could change the game with your little ones.


 
Book Review: Roger Scruton's 'On Human Nature' - Rev. Ben Johnson - Transatlantic Blog

On Earth Day, April 22, tens of thousands of activists held the first "March for Science" in cities around the world.


 
"Know Thyself" - Randall B. Smith - The Catholic Thing

One problem with the admonition "Know Thyself" is that we already live in a self-obsessed society.

Editorials of Interest:

Do-It-Yourself Biology - Crisis Magazine

Editorials of Interest


Pope Francis: Shepherds are not the centre of the Church - Radio Vaticana

The true shepherd knows how to step down from his church, because he knows that he is not at the center of history, but is a free man who has served without compromises and without taking control of his flock.


Bishop Angaelos to the Terrorists: You Are Loved - NC Register

The general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church reflects on the recent Islamist attacks that killed at least 29 Coptic Christians in Egypt and scores more in England and the Philippines.


How conservative ideas are censored, and how to break that barrier - Catholic Culture

Back in the 1980s, a young staff member at a Christian public-interest group in Washington created a bit of a sensation during a television appearance.


Fr. Dwight Longenecker: Birth Control and Catholic Priests - Patheos

A lie cannot sustain itself. I think young people are going to reject the contraceptive culture and choose a life-giving alternative, and with that will be an increase of young men and women who choose a religious vocation.


Peter Kreeft: God Is Moving to Unite Catholics and Protestants as Culture Crumbles - Christian Post

The oneness of the Church is not optional from God's perspective: it is His will.


Orthodox Christians in Europe more likely to believe than practice their religion - Pew Research Center

By comparison, Catholics in the region, while just as likely to report certain religious beliefs, such as belief in God, are more likely than the Orthodox to engage in religious practices.


Profile: Pro-life Catholic Andrew Scheer elected Canadian Conservative leader - Catholic Herald

Scheer describes himself as pro-life and says he will allow backbench MPs to bring forward legislation on the issue.


President Trump Proclaims Memorial Day as a Day of Prayer for Permanent Peace - White House

Memorial Day is our Nation's solemn reminder that freedom is never free.


Islamic State claims responsibility for Egypt attack - The Washington Post

The Islamic State group on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack on a bus carrying Christians on their way to a remote desert monastery south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, which killed 29.


Mindanao bishops support 'temporary' martial law in wake of violence - Catholic Philly

Catholic bishops in the southern Philippines supported the declaration of martial law in Mindanao following an attempt by a band of gunmen claiming to be Islamic militants to seize the city.


Faith Not Accidental for Pittsburgh Pirates' Pitcher Trevor Williams - NC Register

If baseball or anything less than God is placed on the highest pedestal, it will dominate us and disrupt our peace. God alone is meant to be most important.


Emily Dickinsons profoundly Catholic view of our place in the world - Aleteia

The poet Dickinson takes us by the hand and leads us through the process of discovering our own earthshaking value.


Speak up for the voiceless, Pence encourages Catholic prayer breakfast - CNA

"My mom would be so proud," he said of his speaking at the Catholic prayer breakfast, adding that "this honestly feels like coming home to me."


How Are We To Live in This Broken World? - Catholic World Report

No one can live in God's love, in His inner life, who does not want to be there. Such is our dignity that God only can accept us if we freely want to be there.


Is There Salvation Outside the Church? - NC Register

The most obvious evidence of original sin is that I have made myself my own god. If that is the way I am, then I reckon most other ordinary people are operating pretty much on the same basis.


Harvard Law Journal: Unborn Babies are Constitutional Persons - The Stream

Joshua Craddock argues that the Fourteenth Amendment, according to what the word person meant, the anti-abortion laws of the time, and what the people who wrote the amendment said about it, includes the unborn.


Do-It-Yourself Biology - Crisis Magazine

Authentic liberty always means conformity — not to the fictions, fads, and fashions of the day — but to the Truth of divine order.


A Healing Word for the Scrupulous and Fearful - Community in Mission

At the cross are plainly displayed both the awful reality of sin and the abiding love of God.


Stunning frescos revealed in Roman catacombs - Catholic Herald

Archaeologists have used lasers to burn away centuries of grime in the Roman catacombs to reveal stunning frescos more than a millennium and a half old.


Video: Do White Americans Have White Privilege? - PragerU

What exactly is white privilege? Documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz finds out as he interviews attendees at the White Privilege Conference in Kansas City.


Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman and
St. Justin Martyr, pray for us

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