More on Prayer from an Orthodox Perspective

Pravmir: The Holy Fathers on Prayer

Deacon = Servant [of Works of Charity]?

Internet Archive: November 2006 issue of the Pastoral Review: Deacons and the Servant Myth by Anthony Gooley

It is frequently argued that the distinctive character of deacons is that they are servants called to the charitable and social justice ministry of the Church. The belief that service is distinctive of deacons is the servant myth. It is based on a false reading of Acts 6 and it has consequences for the way in which the Church receives the ministry of deacons. Breaking down this myth is the first step in restoring an authentic diaconate in the life of the Church. Anthony Gooley is a deacon and Ministry Development Officer in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, Australia.

A proper understanding of what the order of the diaconate is necessary to address the question of whether there can be "ordained" deaconesses or not.

If we take the Greek text, as it is reproduced in RSV, we are able to construct a better picture of what is really happening in Acts 6.1-7. The Greek speaking Christians are complaining that their widows are being neglected in the daily diakonia. In Acts the diakonia is the proclamation of the Gospel.3 They are neglected for two reasons, the Aramaic speaking Apostles predominantly concentrate their proclamation in the Temple and the widows, who cannot comprehend the language and for social reasons are mostly restricted to the home, are overlooked in this daily diakonia. The solution proposed by the Apostles and agreed to by the whole Church is to appoint seven from among the Greek speaking community to do that daily diakonia in the homes of the Greek widows or as the expression in the Greek has it, to minister tables.4 Both the Apostles and the Seven had been entrusted with the same diakonia which is to minister or proclaim the word. To underscore this interpretation we see that Stephen immediately commences to proclaim the Gospel to the point of giving witness with his life (Acts 6-7.50) and Philip commences his diakonia of the word in proclaiming the Gospel, catechising the Ethiopian and baptising (Acts 8). The laying on of hands becomes the concrete sign that the ministry entrusted to the Apostles is to be entrusted to the Seven. The one thing we do not see the Seven do is charitable works or distributing food or funds to the widows, in fact we do not see anyone in the New Testament with the title of diakonos engaged in a specifically charitable service activity. This should give us some clues as we address the servant myth.

Would we have needed the development of the mendicant orders and their emphasis on preaching if we have a living, energetic diaconate at the time?

Related:
International Theological Commission - From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles (2002)

Unlocking Divine Action: Contemporary Science and Thomas Aquinas

DSPT: Book Launch: “Unlocking Divine Action: Contemporary Science and Thomas Aquinas” by Fr. Michael Dodds, OP - Tuesday, April 23, 7.30pm

CUA Press

Related:
The Nature of Scientific Explanation by Jude P. Dougherty

Fr. Ashley's last? book: Healing for Freedom: A Christian Perspective on Personhood and Psychotherapy by Benedict M. Ashley, OP

The Scale of Perfection by Walter Hilton

Currently on sale at Ignatius Press. (web edition)

I had not heard of him before...

THE SCALE OF PERFECTION: INTRODUCTION
Gloriana.nu
EWTN

CCEL

Pope Benedict's Final Angelus Address

Benedict XVI: I am not abandoning the Church (YT)

Último Ángelus Benedicto XVI - 24-02-2013
Ultimo ANGELUS di BENEDETTO XVI - VERSIONE INTEGRALE -
[HD] - Ultimo Angelus Del Papa 24022012 Last Angelus Pope

Pope Benedict XVI's farewell Angelus: I will never abandon the Church
Catholic World Report
Zenit: On the Transfiguration
The Lord is Calling me to Scale the Mountain,

Pope's last Angelus: I will not abandon the Church. I will serve in a different way
Saying Farewell to Benedict XVI in his last Angelus

Related: Benedict XVI: A Brief Theological Appreciation
Pope's Address At Conclusion of Lenten Spiritual Exercises

Fr. Benedict Ashley, O.P. Has Passed.Into Eternity

Notice from Communio.

Requiescat in pace.

When Fr. William Wallace meets His Creator and Savior, who will be left to represent the River Forest School?

I didn't know Fr. Ashley had written an autobiography.

More:
How the Great Books seminar turned a radical poet into a philosopher and priest. by Benjamin Recchie, AB’03 (Ordo Praedicatorum)

The Dominicans
St. Catherine and Contemporary Spirituality

The Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great
Aquinas Institute

Related:
Credo: Timothy Danaher finds rich rewards in austere monastic life

Less Than a Week to Go

Rome Reports: Benedict XVI finishes spiritual exercises, enters last phase of pontificate


Pope Benedict changes rituals for new pope's inauguration

Bishop Emeritus of Rome

Rome Reports: Top ranking cardinal reveals future title for Benedict XVI

Zenit: Pope's Reflection on Vatican II

Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4

Book Collects Ratzinger 'Communio' Articles

More from Crisis on Benedict XVI

Benedict’s Intellectual Mentors and Students by Tracey Rowland
The Strange World of Garry Wills by Tom Piatak
Will the Next Pope Oppose the “Dictatorship of Relativism” as Fiercely as Benedict? by Dr. William Oddie

Metropolitan Hilarion Interview

in which he discusses the abdication of Pope Benedict XVI.

MosPat: Metropolitan Hilarion’s interview with the Vesti v Subbotu (News on Saturday)

The metropolitan's remarks make for a contrast with the pleas by Roberto de Mattei and Enrico Maria Radaelli - Last-Ditch Appeal: The Pope Should Withdraw His Resignation. The two traditionalists seem to have a very "high" conception of the office of the pope, but I wonder if their conception is really warranted by Sacred Tradition, or if it is tied to a brand of ultramontanism.

Two from Ethika Politika

Monks Still Matter by J. L. Liedl
With Love as Our Byword: Ecumenism, Asceticism, and the Common Good by Dylan Pahman

Tracey Roland on the Pontificate of Benedict XVI

The Pope and the Philistines by Tracey Rowland
Benedict XVI’s papacy has been one of imagination and urbanity hampered by bureaucracy

A Piece on David Schindler

Philosopher of Love by Jeremy Beer
David Schindler has a remedy for the religious right

For the orthodox Christian, is doing one’s public duty more or less reducible to voting for the most socially conservative Republican on the ballot—and then shutting up about whatever misgivings one might have? Surely not. Yet for many election cycles, this has been often implied by the self-appointed guardians of practicality and political realism. It is even increasingly heard from the pulpit.

The assumptions that lurk behind this idea are that when it comes to ordering public life, modern liberal democracy in its best sense has things basically right. America rightly understood is the highest exemplar of this kind of liberalism. And the Republican Party is our best reasonable hope for defending this liberalism’s political, economic, and cultural accomplishments from its enemies. To question these assumptions is to be naïve or—a favorite epithet—utopian.

Is it truly the case...

that Latin theology has been deficient in comparison to Eastern theology with respect to the Holy Spirit (until, maybe, rather recently)? Were the medieval theologians, both the scholastics and the monastics, lacking with respect to Pneumatology? How good, then, is Yves Congar's I Believe in the Holy Spirit?

How about the place of the Holy Spirit in the Roman-rite liturgy, which is said to be more Christocentric than the othe rites of the Church given its antiquity? (I believe this is the thesis established by Fr. Jungmann.) In contrast, could it be said that the Byzantine rite is more "Trinitarian" (or, perhaps, it gives attention or invokes both Christ and the Holy Spirit in the worship of the Father)?

Is it possible for the Roman rite to "organically" develop in such a way that it retains the Christocentric texts for certain parts of the liturgy while other texts are added or emphasized in order to draw our attention to the work of the Holy Spirit in the liturgy? (I am thinking beyond the addition of a [quasi-]epiclesis to Roman rite.)

Related:
Fr. Hunwicke: The epiclesis of the Roman Rite
Fr. Z: QUAERITUR: Epiclesis in the Roman Canon
Hogardelamadre
Discussion at the Byzantine Forum.

Orientale Lumen XVI

Someone alerted me to the fact that the audio files for Orientale Lumen XVI are available. The theme of the conference was "Theology of the Laity."

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware - What is Prayer?

From 2009 - not sure if the content is similar to his first lecture from this past weekend.

Pravmir: The Struggle of Prayer – a Short Practical Guide by Fr. Vasile Tudora

Ordering Love: Liberal Societies and the Memory of God by David L. Schindler (via The Imaginative Conservative)

Related: America's Technological Ontology and the Gift of the Given (pdf)

Sandro Magister Guesses

Who Will Take Up the Keys of Peter

Related:
The War of the Two Councils: The True and the False
Pope Benedict's last great master class: Vatican II, as I saw it [full text]

Fr. Lev Gillet, The Jesus Prayer

@ Myriobiblos

Making Headway in Ecumenical Dialogue

At this point in time, would the Orthodox be willing to undertake a systematic analysis of their understanding of the offices of the bishop, metropolitan, and patriarch with the science of politics, or the study of constitutions, authority, rights and powers, and so on, as a tool? What of consent and the delegation of authority (and the question of whether such a delegation can be withdrawn - perhaps not individually but through collective action)?

To end the discussion by appealing to the canons does not seem to work, if the canons are instances of human positive law and not divinely instituted law?

A Precursor to His Work on the Russian Orthodox Catechism?

The book stand operated by HVC Bookstore had this title on display: The Mystery of Faith by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev. I will pick up a copy eventually.

Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy

Started reading Adam A. J. DeVille's Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy: Ut Unum Sint and the Prospects of East-West Unity today - it's been quite good so far, question-provoking and containing a lot of references to other works on the subject of the papacy and the patriarchal office. There is a review by William Tighe of the book for NOR here.

If the office of patriarch and such constituted through human positive law? Tighe's review makes note of an important distinction between the office of patriarch and the primacy of the bishop of Rome in the Church Universal.

A Manufactured Crisis?

From The Impossible "Road Map" of Peace with the Lefebvrists (via Pertinacious Papist and Rorate Caeli):

Fr. Barsotti wrote:

"I am perplexed with regard to the Council: the plethora of documents, their length, often their language, these frightened me. They are documents that bear witness to a purely human assurance more than two a simple firmness of faith. But above all I am outraged by the behavior of the theologians.”

"The Council is the supreme exercise of the magisterium, and is justified only by a supreme necessity. Could not the fearful gravity of the present situation of the Church stem precisely from the foolishness of having wanted to provoke and tempt the Lord? Was there the desire, perhaps, to constrain God to speak when there was not this supreme necessity? Is that the way it is? In order to justify a Council that presumed to renew all things, it had to be affirmed that everything was going poorly, something that is done constantly, if not by the episcopate then by the theologians.”

"Nothing seems to me more grave, contrary to the holiness of God, than the presumption of clerics who believe, with a pride that is purely diabolical, that they can manipulate the truth, who presume to renew the Church and to save the world without renewing themselves. In all the history of the Church nothing is comparable to the latest Council, at which the Catholic episcopate believed that it could renew all things by obeying nothing other than its own pride, without the effort of holiness, in such open opposition to the law of the gospel that it requires us to believe how the humanity of Christ was the instrument of the omnipotence of the love that saves, in his death.”

I think Fr. Barsotti may have just been musing, but if he was dead set in his judgment, he may have been wrong. The pre-conciliar Church may have been in bad shape after all, a decline that first began with the rise of the modern nation-state and nationalism. In the struggle between the Church and the state [at first nominally Christian but progressively secular], the Church has been losing? What is the nature of the defeat, and how did it happen? I will leave that speculation for a future post. What if the theses of the Constantinian Church/Constantinianism/Constaninian shift are not wholly wrong? The overlap between civil society and the Church was bound to lead to problems as the different authorities, temporal and ecclesial, came into conflict. The questions of the nature of each authority and their limits must be constantly revisited and rethought, and there is no guarantee that the answers of the virtuous and wise will prevail.

But Fr. Barsotti may be right to think that some thought they could renew the Church without first renewing themselves and focusing on their duties. Or they thought they could accomplish it by merely being academics and advocates, rather than as saints and true sons of the Church.

Related:
Robert Louis Wilken, In Defense of Constantine

Holy Resurrection Monastery Videos

Link More videos.

Fr. Rutler on Pope Benedict XVI's Decision

Benedict's Decision in the Light of Eternity(via Fr. Z)

More on Pope Benedict XVI

Dominicana: The Empty Chair, by Br. Henry Stephan, O.P.
Media Madness About Catholicism
Pope Benedict XVI's Musical Legacy by Jeffrey Tucker
The Debate Over the Council Continues and Quo Vadis?: The New Liturgical Movement Post-Benedict XVI by Shawn Tribe
Benedict: Last of the Heroic Generation by R. R Reno
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on Benedict
Papal Resignations by Kevin White
Benedict XVI's Last Days
The Meaning of the Pope's Gesture
Nemi: Benedict XVI’s fond memories of Vatican II
Benedict XVI’s resignation is a first for Canon Law
The Radical Return to Ratzinger by Sean Fitzpatrick



After a surprising abdication, an examination of Pope Benedict XVI's legacy
The Cycle hosts, Father Robert Barron, and NBC’s Claudio Lavanga talk about the pope’s abdication and the process of selecting his successor.

Fr. Robert Barron on the Next Pope

Key players in the conclave to choose the next Pope

Dcn. Andrei Psarev Interviews Fr. Robert Taft, S.J.

Are You Part of the Problem, or Are You Part of the Solution? An Interview with Fr. Robert Taft

Interesting:

I have tried to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. My latest paper that I will be giving at the North American Academy of Liturgy congress is an attempt, an ecumenical attempt to reconcile the Catholic and Orthodox views of the consecration of the Holy Eucharist. I try to show that both of these are different expressions of a system and are truly reconcilable, and I give the evidence for that. I’m a bridge builder.

I hope this paper becomes available online.

Pope Benedict XVI Resigns [Abdicates]

Pope announces he will be stepping down citing lack of strength
What was the cardinals' reaction to the Pope's announcement?
What will the Pope do when he is no longer Pope?
Sandro Magister

Archimandrite Irenei on the State of Orthodox Theology in America

Ancient Faith Radio: Orthodox Theology in America Today with Archimandrite Irenei (Steenberg) (mp3)

Fr. Irenei will be giving a talk at next weekend's symposium.

"Emotion and Virtue in Thomas Aquinas," by Fr. Nicholas Lombardo

Lumen Christi Institute

EWTN: Today's Homily 2013-01-30 - Fr Brian Mullady OP

Father was on EWTN Live this week.

"Thomas Aquinas on God and Evil," with Brian Davies, Denys Turner, Michael Kremer

Lumen Christi Institute

Dumbarton Oaks: The New Testament in Byzantium

2013 Byzantine Studies Symposium, April 26-28, 2013, Symposiarchs: Robert S. Nelson, Yale University and Derek Krueger, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Pravmir: China, Japan officially added to list of canonical territory of Russian Orthodox Church

I suppose the Nestorians aren't around to defend their claims, and Roman claims do not matter, either. Any dispute would be between Orthodox churches. A brief note at Byzantine, Texas.

Ordo Praedicatorum: Fr. Peter John Cameron Keynote Address

“The Catholic Roots of Religious Freedom,” by Robert Wilken

Lumen Christi Institute

“Newman, Vatican II, and the Hermeneutic of Continuity,” by Ian Ker

Lumen Christi Intstitute
http://player.vimeo.com/video/41242037

Chiesa: Between Rome and Dakar, the Machiavellianisms of Sant'Egidio

Summer 2013 Lumen Christi Institute Graduate Seminar with Russell Hittinger

Catholic Social Thought: A Critical Investigation
August 5-9, 2013
, University of California, Berkeley


More Graduate Seminars in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition.

Thomistic Institute Summer 2013 Conference

Dominicans and the Renewal of Thomism - July 1-5, 2013

Pacem in Terris

A conference last year -

Tu Weiming

Website.
Philosophy Now interview.

He is no longer director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. I see that he was giving some public lectures last year at Stanford. I missed out... but some vidoes are available below.





Confucian Humanism as Spiritual Exercise
Confucian Humanism as Scholarly Inquiry

Marek Jeziorek has some more videos of Professor Tu.

In a documentary by Bill Moyers -

Parts 2 and 3.

Homi Bhabha hosts Tu Weiming (杜维明) on 2010-04-07 at Harvard Humanities Center

Dr. Hittinger for the Lumen Christi Institute

VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE: "Benedict's Teaching for Dark Ages, His and Ours," by Russell Hittinger

Fr. Joseph Kenny, O.P., RIP

The Living Bread from Heaven

Nagel on Scientific Materialism

Is Scientific Materialism “Almost Certainly False”? by John Horgan

A review of Thomas Nagel's Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False.

Edward Feser has a series of posts on critics of Nagel; unfortunately he has not labelled his posts.


Related:

A Historical Survey of Liturgical Praxis in the Latin West

by a historian who has written about St. Thomas More, James Monti - A Sense of the Sacred: Roman Catholic Worship in the Middle Ages.

TAC: College Unveils Renderings of New Building, St. Gladys Hall

English Translation of Roberto de Mattei's Book Now Available

Loreto Publications

SPIRITUAL WAVES || Documentary about the Restoration of Jordanville

Related:
Ordination of Father Philosoph to Priesthood at Holy Trinity Monastery

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]

Zenit: ON THE FEAST OF ST. STEPHEN
"St. Stephen is a Model for All Those Who Want to Serve the New Evangelization"

Rome Reports - Review of January 2012

Rome Reports: January 2012: Pope approves several liturgies of the Neocatechumenal Way

Rome Reports: Urbi et Orbi: Benedict XVI issues Christmas greeting in over 65 languages and includes message to China


Zenit: On the Visitation
"Let us Strive Again to Make Room in our Hearts to Welcome the Christ Dhild with Love and Humility"
Pope Benedict XVI's Urbi et Orbi Message
"Truth has Sprung Up, Bringing Kindness, Justice and Peace"
Benedict XVI's Christmas Eve Homily
"What would happen if Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door"

Chant Cafe: The Musical Portions of the Christmas Vigil

Misc.
Friend Honors Author Who Criticized Abuse of Vatican II
Michael Davies Was a 'Man of the Church'

Should be leaving today for AZ. Be back next week.