The Pope and Martin Luther

“How do I receive the grace of God?”

Last week our Holy Father Pope Benedict visited the monastery where Martin Luther studied for the priesthood and was ordained.

The Pope spoke with admiration about the depth of Luther’s desire for God:

‘How do I receive the grace of God?’ The fact that this question was the driving force behind Luther’s whole life never ceases to make a deep impression on me.

The Holy Father went on to outline how different we are now. The contemporary attitude effectively declares: ‘God doesn’t care about my foibles. If He actually does judge me, He magnanimously overlooks all my small failings.’

But, the Pope asked, are our failings really so small? “Is not the world laid waste by the corruption of great and small alike? No, evil is no small matter.”

The Pope went on to say:

We need God; we were created to have a relationship with Him. The more the world withdraws from God, the clearer it becomes that man, in the hubris of his power, in his emptiness of heart and his longing for satisfaction and happiness, increasingly loses his life.

Luther asked himself, “Where do I stand before God?” We must ask ourselves the same question. And when we do, Scripture provides us with the perfect prayer to make:

Justice is with the Lord, our God, and we are filled with shame…
We have been only too ready to disregard the Lord’s voice…
and each of us went after the desires of his own wicked heart.

Luther found himself paralyzed by his own inadequacy before the glory of God. But we need not so find ourselves. We believe in the forgiveness of sins ministered by the Church. God has plans for us involving happiness and not woe. A perfectly fresh start is never more than a good Confession away.

Tedious Politics

Click here for more scientific evidence that the Holy Father is right about monogamy vs. condoms.

…In a Solemn High Mass according to the pre-Vatican II Missal, the deacon kisses the hand of the priest some twenty times…

Should Notre Dame University have invited President Obama to address this year’s graduates?

Two springs ago, President Bush spoke at graduation at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. There were some protests. These protests seemed to me to be discourteous.

Notre Dame University

I do not find President Obama to be a convincing speaker. His legal position regarding procured abortion is incoherent and inhuman, as I explained last August.

Two springs ago, the peaceniks of southwest Pennsylvania howled because the evil warmonger was being honored on campus. St. Vincent President Jim Towey, formerly of the Bush administration, said that colleges need to welcome diverse viewpoints for the sake of dialogue.

Now pro-lifers are up-in-arms that America’s flagship Catholic university will honor history’s most pro-abortion U.S. President. And the University President says: “We hope for this to be the basis of an engagement with him.”

Give us a break, please. “Dialogue” obviously had nothing to do with the invitation in either of these cases.

What did have something to do with it is: The speaker in question is the President of the United States.

We live in a stable body politic; our leaders occupy stable offices. The offices are bigger than the individuals who occupy them. President Obama is wrong about legal abortion. But he is not the President of the “pro-choicers.” He is the duly elected President of the entire country.

The office of the Presidency of the United States carries genuine prestige by its own right. If the President is willing to address your graduates, don’t indulge in an uppity lie and say, “We intend to engage him in dialogue.” Just admit it: “We will be glad to have the President of our country speak to our graduates. It is an honor for us.” This is a perfectly reasonable thing for the president of any university to say.

What the President says in his speech may or may not be true, or memorable, or genuinely inspiring. But the President of the United States deserves our courteous attention, whether or not we agree with him. If he says things that are misleading or untrue, we have the freedom to point that out after he is finished. But if I disrespect my President, I am actually disrespecting myself.

P.S. Five minutes into the second half, Mizzou is beating up on the “unbeatable” Memphis Tigers! Yeah, buddy!! I’ve got Missouri picked to go all the way!

Remember, man…

...you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

T.S. Eliot wrote a complex, difficult, breathtaking poem for Ash Wednesday.

The Holy Father keeps Ash Wednesday in the Dominican church of Santa Sabina, on the Aventine Hill in Rome. He approaches the church in a solemn procession down Via Santa Sabina from the church of San Anselmo, which is about a quarter mile away.

“Tone Deaf”

John Allen calls the skilled pianist in charge of our Church “tone deaf.”

Fifty members of Congress have written to His Holiness, telling him what to do.

Here is the letter I wish he would write back to them.

The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away

Job 1:21

First: All the members of Preacher’s family would like to thank you for praying and supporting us with divine love. Please keep praying and supporting. God provides. He is good. Blessed be the name of the Lord! Everyone is still alive, thanks be to God.

We all have to take the good with the bad, however.

You would think that the Big Daddy of Big Daddies would give some relief to His unworthy servant and blogger. After all, your scribe has been launched into A.D. 2009 in a rough and tumble manner. (A sick relative and the victim of petty larceny, among other troubles.)

Everything looked so promising on Monday, December 29…

Papal Ermine

The Holy Father laying a bouquet of white roses at the feet of the Virgin

I would just like to say this: When the Pope wears the fur-lined shoulder cape, like Popes wore in the good old days, it makes me very happy.

Pope Benedict XIV, reigned 1740-1758. Voltaire wrote little poems about him.

I get cold easily, too. If I were the Pope, I would be wearing that thing all the time.

I think we all want our Holy Father to be nice and warm.

The Pope was here in Washington in April during the Easter season. So he wore a white silk fur-lined shoulder cape, as well he should.

Ermine-lined papal shoulder capes are the kind of thing that make this world a wonderful place.

Zephyrs, Beltway Battles, and Old St. Nick

Gimmicks with the uniform are never a good idea

Things had gotten so bad (3-13 record) that the Wizards decided to come in disguise to play the Lakers at the Verizon Center last night.

Then, amazingly, they almost beat my man Kobe and Co.!

Almost. The Wizards/Zephyrs are now 3-14. Kobe saved the game for the Lakers after a “valiant effort” in the fourth-quarter by the Wiz, as Phil Chenier put it.

The Graces

In The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, once the hobbits reach Rivendell, Samwise Gamgee has the idea that they will be able to give the Ring of Power to some greater and more consequential individual. He packs his bags, and his master Frodo’s.

Frodo wonders why Sam has been so eager to get ready to leave the city of the elves.

“Well, sir. You see, now that we’ve done our job, I thought we’d be off. Off home.”

To give thanks to the Lord before hitting the sack for our VERY early departure, let me acknowledge that, on our pilgrimage…

He has drawn us closer to His Mother and to the mystery of His holy Church.

He has drawn us closer to the Apostles Peter and Paul.

He has drawn us closer to St. Peter’s Successor, Pope Benedict.

He has drawn us closer to our Catholic heritage.

And He has drawn us closer to each other.

PRAISED BE THE LORD JESUS CHRIST NOW AND FOREVER.

Holy Father and Holy Apostle

The sun was rising over Rome as we passed through metal detectors in the colonnade of St. Peter’s Square and made our way towards excellent seats near the foot of the Basilica steps. We tried to keep warm in the crisp air. From the microphone next to the Pope’s chair, an American Monsignor welcomed all the pilgrim groups from the United States, including St. Mary of the Assumption, Upper Marlboro, Maryland!

Then the Pope arrived, passing in the popemobile just a few feet from our seats. By this time the sun had climbed high into the sky. We were surrounded by a large group of Bavarians on one side and Polish on the other. The Holy Father was greeted with cheers and singing in many languages.

Pope Benedict talked to us about St. Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith. We chanted the Our Father with him in Latin. Then he gave us his blessing.

St. Paul Outside the Walls

After the General Audience, Fr. Gus DiNoia welcomed us into the meeting hall of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This is where Pope Benedict conducted meetings for over twenty years when he was the Cardinal Prefect. The offices of this dicastery (ie., department of the Roman Curia) are in the “Holy Office” building, right next to St. Peter’s.

This afternoon, we visited the Catacombs of St. Domatilla. Then we made our way to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

All of us were rendered speechless by the splendor of the church, and by the fact that we had reached the tomb of the Apostle of the Gentiles. We toured the church, admiring many beautiful adornments, including the portraits of all the Popes since St. Peter.

Interior of the Basilica

We celebrated Holy Mass in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. Then we made our personal visits to St. Paul’s tomb.

I have been to this holy place before. But this year is special: the 2,000th anniversary of St. Paul’s birth. A new set of doors has been installed on the left side of the entrance, the Holy Doors for the Pauline Year. They are painted with the scenes of St. Paul’s conversion and martyrdom and marked with the following incription in Greek and Latin: “It is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me.”

All Roads Lead to…

Greetings to you from the neighborhood of Santa Maria Maggiore. After an afternoon stop in Orvieto, we have arrived in Rome.

We had a beautiful morning in Assisi to bid a bittersweet goodbye to Sts. Francis and Clare. Yours truly took advantage of the nearby friary full of Franciscan priests, and I went to Confession.

I don’t think any of us really wanted to leave Assisi, but we got on the bus anyway, because we are on a mission from God to get to the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and to see the Pope.

Orvieto funicular

We reached Orvieto at mid-day. The roads up to the ancient hilltop city are closed to outside traffic. So we traveled by funicular up to see the magnificent medieval Duomo. We explored the town and lunched. Then we had Holy Mass in the crypt of the cathedral, surrounded by the tombs of four bishops.

Our hotel here in Rome is two blocks from the Papal Basilica of the Blessed Virgin, where we will have Mass on Friday. Tomorrow morning we will go to St. Peter’s Square to see Pope Benedict.

Then we will go to the Holy Office. Not because I have been called in for questioning. An old friend of mine works there, and he wants to show us the place.

After lunch, we will visit the catacombs. Then we will go to the tomb of St. Paul, at his Basilica “Outside the Walls”—ie., south of the walls of the ancient city. We will celebrate the Holy Mass there.

The Holy Office, seen through the colonnade of St. Peter's Square

I wish I had more snapshots to show you. Our photographers have been working hard to provide nice pictures for these posts.

Unfortunately, computers do not work the way they are supposed to work. They bait and switch. It is unlikely that we will be able to have any more snapshots. It IS likely that I will throw my laptop out of the third floor window of this hotel.

These posts will not be enjoyable without snapshots. This blog is becoming lame. I am sorry.

Count on our prayers for you, though, at the tombs of the Holy Apostles.

Tomorrow, when we receive the Pope’s blessing, he will be blessing all those we represent, too–the entire parish of St. Mary of the Assumption and the whole loyal readership of P & BD.