Unearned Luck

Working towards a more effective catechesis for native-born Catholics in the United States living in the first half of the 21st Century involves arriving at an understanding about the culture in which Catholics are living and participating and, therefore, the culture within which that catechesis takes place. At the same time many Catholics talk about establishing Catholic culture or re-establishing Catholic culture. Both discussions require a definition of culture and some idea of the purpose of culture. From understanding these then can come a broader discussion as to whether or not the current culture in which Catholics are participating is beneficial for them, whether a Catholic culture existed in the United States, and whether one could exist now and how does that develop. This conversation must begin, though, with an understanding of culture and the reasons for culture. Dr. Amos Wilson defines culture as the "...set of rules and procedures together with a supporting set of i

     In his conversation with Jonathon Pageau, Jordan Peterson identified the apparent lack of faith of Catholics, as represented in their behavior, as a significant obstacle to his accepting Catholicism and giving over his life to the faith. You aren't sufficiently transformed for me to believe, that you believe in God or that you believe the story you're telling me. The way you live isn't sufficient testament to the truth. Christians don't manifest the transformation of attitude, that would enable the outside observer to easily conclude that they believe.      Dr. Peterson's response is an indictment of the Church's ability to evangelize today. Yes, one could argue the illegitimacy of judging the veracity of a proposition by the behavior of its adherents or one could fall back on the divine/human aspects of the Church and explain how the sinful actions of the sinners within the Church do not corrupt the truths of the faith or one could refer to Christ's id

     One of the most fascinating aspects of art is found in its ability to teach or reveal truth. Art, though, speaks its own language and ignorance of the language leaves the depth of the art, its true beauty, ignored and overlooked. The faith of the Catholic Church can be viewed similarly. Without knowing the language in which the Church expresses God's revelation of Himself, then what should be a vibrant, life-altering faith is reduced to a shopping list of doctrines and dogmas viewed once and quickly forgotten.      As with art, education is the key to understanding the language in which the Church speaks and the Church's worldview. In the Church, this education is known as catechesis. In the United States, catechesis started as the memorization of specific answers to specific questions, which served Catholics well within their Catholic neighborhoods and their Catholic parishes, but failed them once they got out into the larger world and they began to face issues never addr

Photo by Alex Blăjan on Unsplash I greatly appreciate Fr. Matthew Schneider's (@FrMatthewLC) brief reply to my post, There Is No Secret To Reverse Parish Closings , via his Twitter account on May 11. As before, I wish to address the four points he raises in his reply, then move to a discussion of a larger topic. I greatly respect Fr. Schneider and am eternally grateful for his priesthood and the beautiful witness it is to the world. I will now address his Twitter comments very briefly. 1.     Fr. Schneider first addresses his writing style, describing it as "brief & with catchy headlines to hopefully increase readership." Alright. Increasing readership is an admirable goal for one devoted to evangelizing the masses via Twitter, but shouldn't a little more thought be given to what is being offered to them? While it may be important to form Catholics to evangelize the world, the issues raised in my earlier article requires evangelization and catechesis of t

Photo by Nathaniel Tetteh on Unsplash On May 8, 2018, Fr. Matthew P. Schneider, LC, of the Archdiocese of Washington, D. C. published to his blog on Patheos.com  an article entitled,  The #1 Secret to Reverse Parish Closings . While I am not in any way disparaging Fr. Schneider and I do hold him in the highest regard, I do mean to put an end to the lazy, thoughtless, and enduringly unproductive advice he restates, advice which finds relevance only in the small positive feedback loops in which it is circulated like pot at a Willie Nelson concert. We, as Catholics, seem to have a macabre horror of considering as relevant anything that finds Catholics or the Catholic Church at fault for its own problems. Fr. Schneider's oft-repeated trope, that "parish closures come from demographic factors like Catholics moving to the suburbs, ethnic parish attendance dropping, and the population decline of the rust belt," is a perfect example of this mindset.  Other than the

Photo by Julien Lanoy on Unsplash A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9 One of the most important aspects of the Catholic understanding of the human person is God's gift to Man of free will. How are we to understand will and free will. The will is that power within the soul, which “must of necessity adhere to the last end, which is happiness…” (S Th, I, q. 82, a. 1). This direction of the will to its last end is “voluntary because it is according to the inclination of the will” (S Th, I, q. 82, a. 1). Although the will is inclined to happiness by necessity as its last end, “we are masters of our own actions by reason of our being able to choose this or that.…choice regards, not the end, but the means to the end…” (S Th, I q. 82, a. 1, r. 3). The individual, furthermore, has free will, because “…man acts from judgement, because because by his apprehensive power he judges that something should be avoided or sought…therefore he acts from

Photo by Zhifei Zhou on Unsplash Wisdom was created before all things,  and prudent understanding from eternity. Sirach 1:4 How important is an understanding of metaphysics for Catholics, but especially catechists? Here is one example. The problem with the materialist world view is that it does not comport with our experiences. A theory asserting that a clump of atoms randomly assorted themselves into Socrates does not account for the individual and personal memories of Socrates. Neither does it account for personal responsibility, since atoms have neither conscience nor a system of morality. Finally, the materialist view cannot account for the unity of the individual across numerous changes, since each new assortment of atoms would be a completely new being. It would be impossible, then, for societies to form and associations to be made. Quantity as an accident inhering in substances can be seen in the various quantities in a human being. For example, there is

Photo by  Jonny Swales  on  Unsplash Hello! I'm starting a new project called " Ten Second Theology ," a series of short YouTube videos explaining different aspects of the Catholic faith. Click on through and be sure to tell me what you want to know next. Thank You!

Ashwin Vaswani on Unsplash The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to work, it ceases to exist.      -St. Gregory the Great Do you wish to discover the mysteries of God? Ask a man who, for the love of God, lives in evangelical poverty with joy. He knows the mysteries of God better than the wisest theologian in the world.                                    -St. Albert the Great True power is service. The Pope must serve all people, especially the poor, the weak, the vulnerable.                                    -Pope Francis It seems everyone is getting all in an uproar about the work Pope Francis is doing. It's what got Mr. Ben Shapiro into a dither. From whence comes such madness? Someone, perhaps George Weigel, said that St. John Paul II's papacy presented the philosophy of Catholicism, while Pope Emeritus Benedict's papacy presented the theology of Catholicism. Accepting that as accurate, then Pope Fr

Federico Respini on Unsplash "Foxes have lairs, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."       -St. Matthew 8:20 "I wonder sometimes how many times we despise good people in our hearts, good people who praise the Lord as it comes to them, so spontaneously, because they are not cultured, because they do not follow the formalities? [I mean really] despise [them]?"    -Pope Francis Yesterday's conversation presented as a solution to the dying Catholic parishes in the United States the evangelization of those under 40 in a manner similar to what is being successfully accomplished at the local non-Catholic, Christian megachurches. One part of that solution was the inclusion of weekly praise and worship services that include upbeat, uplifting, orthodox teachings on the core tenants of the Catholic faith. Another part of this solution that must be in place, when the praise and worship services begin is the opportuniti

Praise the L ORD ! Praise God in his sanctuary;     praise him in his mighty firmament! Praise him for his mighty deeds;     praise him according to his mighty greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound;     praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with timbrel and dance;      praise him with strings and pipe. Praise him with sounding cymbals;      praise him with loud, crashing cymbals! Let everything that breathes praise the L ORD ! Praise the L ORD !    -Psalm 150 Take heed often to come together to give thanks to God and show forth His praise. For when you assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith. Nothing is more precious than peace, by which all war, in heaven and earth, is brought to an end.                                                  – St. Ignatius of Antioch, The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1 "Those, who are closed in a formality o