Note from the Assistant Editor:
In this week's reflection, Pope St. Gregory the Great reminds us that we are still in an age of miracles: "Every day the Church works in the spirit what the Apostles once did in the flesh." See "The Signs to Seek."
We have published the introduction to Fr. Jacques Philippe's book, Thirsting for Prayer. "Those who have prayer have everything, because on that basis God can freely enter their lives and act in them, working the marvels of his grace."
Then Mitchell Kalpakgian reviews Anthony Esolen's book Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity. "A masterpiece of apologetics, all twelve arguments justify God's all-wise, all-loving plan for marriage as a divine work of art."
On September 23rd, Pope Francis canonized Saint Junipero Serra in Washington, D.C. In "How the Church Has Changed the World: The Father of California," Anthony Esolen tells the story of the saint, "the father in the brown robe, who came to teach the natives, correct them, protect them, and love them with a love they had never known."
Again we have Mitchell Kalpakgian, this time talking about Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem 'As Kingfishers Catch Fire'" (so beautiful to read aloud). Hopkins' sonnet depicts the virtue of graciousness as one of the forms of beauty in the world.
Finally, Fr. Dwight Longenecker asks, "To Laugh Is Human, But Is Comedy Divine?" "Laughter is a mark not only of authentic religion, but mature humanity," he says. "Laughter lightens and enlightens the soul. Laughter is a sign of confidence and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm, after all, comes from the word 'enthuse,' which is derived from the Greek en theos — or 'God within.'" - Meaghen Hale |
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Previous CERC Weekly Update here
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The Church is ". . . an institution [we are] bound to hold divine — but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight." - Hilaire Belloc
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New Resources
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The Signs to Seek - Pope St. Gregory the Great - from a sermon on Mark 16:17-18
For the faith of believers to grow it had to be nourished with miracles.
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Introduction - Father Jacques Philippe - Thirsting for Prayer
What the world most needs today is prayer.
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Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity - Mitchell Kalpakgian - The Wanderer
In a crass world that debases everything beautiful and holy from the innocence of children to the sacredness of life to the beauty of nuptial love, Anthony Esolen's book restores the nobility of love to the realm of marriage and the family.
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Walking the Dog - Theodore Dalrymple - The Salisbury Review
A dog supplies what is missing in a loveless world.
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To Laugh Is Human, But Is Comedy Divine? - Father Dwight Longenecker - The Imaginative Conservative
In a world of overly serious ideologues we should take ourselves lightly, enjoy the joke, and radiate an eternal lightness of being.
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28th Sunday in OT - Father John Horgan - CERC
What is lacking is a real sense of relationship with God.
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Editorials of Interest:
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Editorials of Interest
Musings at the Midpoint - Aleteia
The Synod grinds slowly on, and you can see in Rome, with the naked eye, Synod Fathers who look haggard and worn out from long days spent in endless discussions.
Pope's Dormitory of Homeless is Inaugurated - Aleteia
The building was offered to Pope Francis by the headquarters of the Society of Jesus as a response to Francis's October 2013 appeal for buildings to be placed in service of the needy and those in difficulty.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput on the opening of the synod - Catholic Philly
In his opening remarks on the first day of the synod, Francis urged his brother bishops to be guided by three principles in the days of discussion ahead: apostolic courage, evangelical humility and trustful prayer.
The Church Deserves Better (and May Get It) - The Catholic Thing
Seeking to praise everything that shows some human value, as our contemporary politicians try to do, leads to absurd confusions between what normally works — tolerably well — and some of the most dysfunctional phenomena in the history of the human race.
The Catholic Church: Never Changing and Ever Changing - Patheos
Once it is understood that the things that cannot be changed are immutable by the very nature of their structure and nature then more people will understand why the Catholic Church does not change very much.
Everyday Artificial Stupidity - Chronicle of Higher Education
Machines are great at data-searching and number-crunching in narrowly defined domains; but the user-interface software they currently use is artificial stupidity.
How porn turns men into little boys - Catholic Gentleman
Addictions physically affect the frontal lobes of the brain. When the frontal lobes of the brain are weakened, the person slowly loses impulse control and the mastery of his or her passions. The very thing in the brain that is the mark of adulthood and maturity is the thing that is eroded as we view more porn.
On Resistance: What are the Options? - Crisis Magazine
In the end the question may be less what forms of cooperation with destructive social structures are permissible than how we will manage to make a living in an age of ever more comprehensive leftist Gleichschaltung.
Roger Scruton: 'My tribal religion' - Catholic Herald
An eccentric priest, a single mother and French vineyards offered Roger Scruton "a glowing exit sign" from the Church of England to Rome. So why did he never take it?
The old lies of the Young Turks - New Criterion
In a recent poll, well over 50 percent of Turks still believe that the Armenian Genocide is a figment of the Armenian imagination. This is in spite of statements made by Pope Francis and an increasing number of world leaders recognizing and acknowledging the events of 1915 as the twentieth century's first mass genocide.
Benedict Option FAQ - The American Conservative
The "Benedict" refers to Christians in the contemporary West who cease to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of American empire, and who therefore are keen to construct local forms of community as loci of Christian resistance against what the empire represents.
Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman and St. Justin Martyr, pray for us |
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