I received on the tongue for the first time today and it was good but I’m also not sure how far I’m supposed to stick out my tongue and I’m pretty sure I looked ridiculous. But it was good.
The Shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre, Quebec
I’ve decided I like Luis Tagle, Angelo Bagnasco, and Peter Turkson. And of course Cardinal Sean but I’m pretty sure that’s not gonna happen soooooooo.
But seriously. Look at Cardinal Tagle. How could you not want this man to be pope.
| — | Isaiah 12:2 |
| — | Pope Benedict XVI |
Something I constantly notice is that unembarrassed joy has become rarer. Joy today is increasingly saddled with moral and ideological burdens, so to speak. When someone rejoices, he is afraid of offending against solidarity with the many people who suffer. I don’t have any right to rejoice, people think, in a world where there is so much misery, so much injustice.
I can understand that. There is a moral attitude at work here. But this attitude is nonetheless wrong. The loss of joy does not make the world better - and, conversely, refusing joy for the sake of suffering does not help those who suffer. The contrary is true. The world needs people who discover the good, who rejoice in it and thereby derive the impetus and courage to do good. Joy, then, does not break with solidarity. When it is the right kind of joy, when it is not egotistic, when it comes from the perception of the good, then it wants to communicate itself, and it gets passed on. In this connection, it always strikes me that in the poor neighborhoods of, say, South America, one sees many more laughing happy people than among us. Obviously, despite all their misery, they still have the perception of the good to which they cling and in which they can find encouragement and strength.
In this sense we have a new need for that primordial trust which ultimately only faith can give. That the world is basically good, that God is there and is good. That it is good to live and to be a human being. This results, then, in the courage to rejoice, which in turn becomes commitment to making sure that other people, too, can rejoice and receive good news.
”| — | Pope Benedict XVI |
| — | Ephesians 2: 14 - 16 |
This was the retreat song on the winter retreat my junior year of high school. I can’t believe it was four years ago…
(Source: Spotify)
So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
John 18:37
| — | C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain |
Looking through pictures of first week events and found some beauties from the Comm Ave Fair. Goodness knows how I evangelize anyone when I act like this hot mess.
We’re taking about Marian consecration this week and while I don’t feel called to consecrate myself to Mary, I’m interested in learning more about devotion to other saints and how you go about it. I’ve found a bunch on specific saint oriented novenas and whatnot but are there other ways people go about it? I’m thinking about Mary Magdalene in particular and was wondering what a devotion to a particular saint entails.
A friend once told me that Mother Theresa said that the opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s use. This phrase pops into my head at the most inopportune moments when I don’t want to admit that I’m using someone and just want to go on my merry way seeking superficial happiness. It used to make me experience that gut reaction everyone has to sin - the feigned disbelief that this could be true, the disgust that people believe this, the assertion that I’m in the right. But looking back on the past two years since I’ve started college, I truly believe that this idea has changed my life so much for the better. It is one of the truest things I have ever heard and is a constant reality check for me in my relationships with others. In realizing how I used a boyfriend as a crutch and used a friend as a self esteem boost without any regard for his feelings, among other things, I’ve realized how wonderful those relationships can truly be. I know why I used these people and can understand why I needed to, but it doesn’t make it any less damaging to them and myself. Right now, comparing who I was them to who I am now, I feel like the best possible version of myself. I feel like the girlfriend my boyfriend deserves and the woman my friends need. Basically, I feel pretty alright.
The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s use.
All this drama with people saying you can’t be an objectivist and a Catholic? To be blunt, fuck that.
Objectivism: “The belief that certain things, esp. moral truths, exist independently of human knowledge of perception of them”
I see no problem with this thus far. In fact, I believe that this definition serves to reinforce the notion of a God. If moral truths exist outside of human knowledge and perception, how else can we know them to be true than through God?
From Ayn Rand’s description of objectivism:
My philosophy, Objectivism, holds that:
- Reality exists as an objective absolute—facts are facts, independent of man’s feelings, wishes, hopes or fears.
- Reason (the faculty which identifies and integrates the material provided by man’s senses) is man’s only means of perceiving reality, his only source of knowledge, his only guide to action, and his basic means of survival.
- Man—every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
- The ideal political-economic system is laissez-faire capitalism. It is a system where men deal with one another, not as victims and executioners, nor as masters and slaves, but as traders, by free, voluntary exchange to mutual benefit. It is a system where no man may obtain any values from others by resorting to physical force, and no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. The government acts only as a policeman that protects man’s rights; it uses physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use, such as criminals or foreign invaders. In a system of full capitalism, there should be (but, historically, has not yet been) a complete separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.
Some may say that these things don’t jive with the church, but I would disagree. The most obvious problem is that of man living not to sacrifice or be sacrificed but to pursue his own desires, which seems to go against church teaching on charity. However, I believe that the deepest desires of our heart are God given and meant to be pursued. If pursuing these desires, ie following the will of God, is the highest moral purpose of man, then this seems to fall in line with the Church quite nicely.
Forgive me if this doesn’t make much sense. I just needed to get out some of my feelings on all of this because Ayn Rand is lovely and her books are lovely and her philosophy is lovely and so is the Church and we can all get along if we stop being idiots. Also Paul Ryan needs to go crawl in a hole and read the Fountainhead again to remember why he loved her and un-renounce her and then we can all live happily ever after pursuing the dreams of our heart without compromise. The end.
