Dr. Demetrios Katos on the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

OCN (mp3)

Divine Adoption

Zenit: ON GOD THE ALMIGHTY FATHER
"Despite the Crisis of Fatherhood in Many Societies, the Scriptures Show us Clearly what it Means to Call God 'Father'"

On the Lord’s Prayer
By Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh (+2003)

News.Va: Ukrainian eparch reflects on New Evangelization

Fr. Sherwin's Lecture at TAC

“Virtue, Ethics, and the Christian Life: Thomistic Reflections”

Remembering Ralph McInerny by Christopher Kaczor (via TAC)

Rome Reports: Latin, the most modern dead language in the world

For the Feast of St. Thomas

Whether St. Thomas is Boring? by Br. Raymund Snyder, O.P.

The New Definition of Common Good, Again

Begun on January 17.

How often does it need to be repeated and referenced, before it is established in the minds of Catholics as being of Tradition? As it stands, is the definition currently in vogue sufficiently precise? What is a necessary social condition and what is ideal or desirable but not necessary?

Zenit: NOTE ON THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S FREEDOM OF INSTITUTIONAL AUTONOMY

Given by the Permanent Representation of the Holy See to the Council of Europe regarding the Catholic Church's freedom and institutional autonomy.

1. The distinction between the Church and the political community
The Church recognizes the distinction between the Church and the political community, each of which has distinct ends; the Church is in no way confused with the political community and is not bound to any political system. The political community must see to the common good and ensure that citizens can lead a "calm and peaceful life" in this world. The Church recognizes that it is in the political community that the most complete realization of the common good is to be found (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1910); this is to be understood as "the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily" (ibid., n. 1906). It is the State’s task to defend it and ensure the cohesion, unity and organization of society in order that the common good may be realized with the contribution of all citizens and that the material, cultural, moral and spiritual goods necessary for a truly human existence may be made accessible to everyone. The Church, for her part, was founded in order to lead the faithful to their eternal end by means of her teaching, sacraments, prayer and laws.

Returning to the exposition given in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, it is stated that the common good is not "the simple sum of the particular[private?] goods of each subject of a social entity." Rather, "belonging to everyone and to each person, it is and remains 'common', because it is indivisible and because only together is it possible to attain it, increase it and safeguard its effectiveness, with regard also to the future." What, then, is it, if it belongs to each person and not common in praedicando? "The common good, in fact, can be understood as the social and community dimension of the moral good." Para 165 continues this line of thought. As stated before, the latter development is quite in harmony with Thomistic (traditional?) teaching on the common good.

It is still not clear to me if the first (or instrumental) sense can be harmonized with the second (or holistic) sense given in the Compendium. If the social or community dimension of the moral good is identical to the fulfillment of people as a group (specifically as the political community), then how can it be identical to the social conditions which enable it to be brought about? This confusion needs to be resolved - otherwise, devout Catholics who seek to talk about the common good may be doing so erroneously.

End of Christian Unity Week

Rome Reports: Benedict XVI meets with Oriental Orthodox Church leaders


Benedict XVI: Ecumenism requires a personal conversion to heal past wounds


Zenit: Papal Address to Orthodox-Catholic Commission
"All Christians need to work together in mutual acceptance and trust"

Medievalists.net: Ordering the medieval past : England and the continent compared

Pravmir: The Great Fathers of the Fourth Century and Their Significance for Us Today by Fr. John Nankivell

C21's issue on the Catholic Intellectual Tradition

here (via Mirror of Justice)

Enough for some to repudiate the use of that term?

BC's The Church in the 21st Century Center hasn't gone out of business yet. C21 videos.

Other Speakers for the Upcoming Saints Cyril and Athanasius of Alexandria Symposia

Information on our Symposia Speakers and Titles

Interview with Iconographer Marek Czarnecki

Seraphic Restorations

Rome Reports: Vatican sends proposal letter to Lefebvrians

Ethika Politika: Filling the Holes in the Swiss-Cheese Theory of Natural Law By Michael W. Hannon

The Beautiful and Efficient Anatomy of Pregnancy

Byzantine-rite Liturgy of the Hours

Thread at Byz Cath. Eastern Christian Publications - Let Us Pray to the Lord.

Rorate Caeli: Di Noia's letter - full text in French

(Some background info: Di Noia sends letter to SSPX priests - via Menzingen)

CNEWA launches Rome event for Eastern Catholic Churches (with an interview with the President of CNEWA, Monsignor John Kozar)

Fr. Lombardi Speaks

Lombardi editorial: Against arms

Zenit: ON CHRIST AS MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MAN
'Jesus [] is Truly God Among Us, 'The Mediator and the Fullness of All Revelation'"

Tomorrow at SVOTS

Dr. Peter Brown to deliver annual Schmemann Lecture at St. Vladimir’s Seminary Friday, January 18

Conversation With Bishop Kallistos Ware

From last year -

The virtue of justice: Ad alterum by Michael A. Hayes

It looks good, on first reading, but does it lack in precision? Acts of particular justice are towards the other, and they are ordered to the common good, through legal justice, and charity. But is the virtue of justice necessary for Christian morality? How is it different from the love of neighbor or of the common good?

The archives for Pastoral Review have been taken down? There was an interesting article from 2006 about the diaconate and its relation to "service."

The Chant Cafe: St. Dominic's Nine Ways of Prayer

The Smithy mentions a forthcoming book, Later Medieval Metaphysics
Ontology, Language, and Logic, and quotes an author of one of its essays, Terence Parsons, for his definition of medieval logic:

The first task is to decide what to count as medieval logic. Medieval logic consists of centuries of work by some very smart people working in a difficult area. I will be libertine about what is included in medieval logic. If any medieval logician ever said it, and if it is worthwhile, it is part of medieval logic.

It is rather circular, if a medieval logician is someone who writes about medieval logic. But Parsons probably refers to commentaries on the texts of Aristotlte and so on instead.

Via Mystagogy: A Pilgrim's View of Christmas on Mount Athos (Video)

A Short History of the Byzantine Rite Divine Liturgy

Fr. Taft - Robert Taft S. J., The Evolution of the Byzantine “Divine Liturgy”
(Orientalia Christiana Periodica XLIII, Roma 1977, p. 8-30)

I found the part on the litany interesting - I wish the article were longer, I'm not sure if he has a short book that would be a good supplement.

I've posted this video before? Maybe not:

Godzdogz: Dominican Seminar 2013 - Fr. Gerald Vann OP

BBC: In pictures: Orthodox Christmas celebrations
Vatican Insider

A New Grammar for the Year of Faith - with a piece from Fr. Robert Imbelli.

Brian Douglass on the Right to Self-Defense

The Question of a Right to Self-Defense

Christian Order

The website appears to be lagging less in updates, but limited content is available online. There is this article by James Likoudis, published in March of last year: MUHAMMED II, THE SCOURGE OF CHRISTENDOM, AND THE BYZANTINE SCHISM

I see that it was originally published in The Wanderer.

There is this editorial from May, regarding Vatican 2 and the SSPX.

Yet as we have often documented with a heavy heart, the Holy Father's commitment to the Vatican II vehicle he helped engineer is itself a stumbling block. Was it really necessary to place the defense of that problematic pastoral Council and its texts (often ambiguous, contradictory or superficial as he readily admits) at the very centre of discussions? After all, SSPX objections merely echo similar concerns voiced by eminent theologians who also accept the validity of the Council while decrying its subversive content and purpose. The highly esteemed Msgr Bruno Gherardini, to cite just one, insists that “Modernism hid itself under the cloak of Vatican II,” and that “Modernist corruption has hidden itself within the Council documents themselves.” The ongoing harvest of rotten Conciliar fruits, therefore, cannot all be attributed to rebellious appeals to a bogus "spirit of Vatican II." That malign "spirit" is often spelt out by the slippery "letter" of the Council itself; in weasel-worded phrases like "The Church of God subsists in the Catholic Church," instead of ‘The Church of God is the Catholic Church.’ As a wag observed: Anybody can say "is." Only an expensive lawyer can say "subsists."

Regardless, Tùbingen Benedict's unflagging devotion to the Council has not dampened Bavarian Benedict's yearning to have its most severe critics piped aboard the mangled Barque of Peter — "a boat about to sink," he warned dramatically in 2005, "a boat taking in water on all sides." It seems that the Benedictine anomaly is trumped by this pressing corporate reality, requiring all hands on deck — even those "sectarian" zealots he once felt "we cannot resist too firmly" [Principles of Catholic Theology, 1987, pp. 389-90].

Fr. Kenneth Baker, SJ Reviews IP's ENCHIRIDION SYMBOLORUM

Here. (via Insight Scoop)

Bloopers Reel for Orthodox in Dixie

Journey to the Midwest?

Maybe a retreat at Holy Transfiguration Skete would be nice. Or Holy Resurrection Monastery?

Zenit: ARCHBISHOP NICHOL'S STATEMENT ON PASTORAL CARE OF PEOPLE WITH SAME-SEX ATTRACTIONS IN LOCAL PARISH

"This Care has been Motivated by an Awareness of the Difficulties and Isolation they can Experience and by the Imperative of Christ's Love for all"

Yale Courses: Moral Foundations of Politics (PLSC 118)

Contemporary Communitarianism (Alasdair MacIntyre)





19. The Burkean Outlook

James Chastek on Nominalism

Two posts today: first and second parts.

Alasdair MacIntyre - Ends and Endings

A lecture at CUA from 2009.

Orthodox in Dixie

Here is the full movie:

(ROCOR Eastern American Diocese)

Saints Cyril and Athanasius of Alexandria Institute for Orthodox Studies: Prayer in the Church Fathers, with Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia

In Northern California (San Francisco): 16th-17th February, 2013

A lecture on the Jesus Prayer.

From 4 years ago:

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware at St Botolphs from Antiochian Orthodox on Vimeo.

On Behalf of All: The Eucharistic Liturgy in Ancient House Churches

Back, for now. Will post my plans for the year when I have some time.

Zenit: Pope's Homily at Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God [2013-01-02]