After seven months of a pandemic, people are getting pretty restless. We just want to go back to the way things were, to when things were “normal.”
And I get that. I’m feeling just as restless and anxious as anyone.
But I do have a different perspective I think. For me, I want nothing to do with “normal” right now. Why? Because waiting for the past to come back is wasted time. Because what was “normal” before wasn’t necessarily even good. Rather, I want the Church to look at who we are right now, what we can do right now, and be Christ for the world right now. That’s the only normal we have.
It began with a small beggar, a little man with no academic training, no worldly power, no discernible skill beyond his peers. St. Francis of Assisi simply wanted to imitate Christ in humility and peace, and tell the world to do the same.
800 years later, we can look back and see that his example changed the Church and world. Not only did he create the largest religious order in Church history (something that inevitably had its affect on the day-to-day life of the Church), the brothers that did join were extraordinary in their own right. In honor of Francis week, I’ve come up with 22 contributions that the Franciscans have provided to the world. You’ve probably heard some of them, but I’m guessing you’ll be surprised by a few of them!
The Bible is a complicated book. Written and compiled over a period of 1000 years, more than 2000 years ago, it was original written in other languages, within other cultures. To understand it’s “purpose,” you’re going to need to study it.
But the Bible is more than just an academic endeavor. It is a holy book. It is the Word of God. It’s an encounter with the living God in our midst. Along with studying Scripture, me must pray with it.
But how? In the first video above, I suggest two ways to pray with Scripture that you can practice on your own. In the second video, I offer a guided meditation to guide you along.
There is a certain segment of the Catholic population that has nothing but negative things to say about Vatican II. Personally, I think that this group is extremely small and isolated, their voices amplified by the internet far beyond their actual relevance, but that’s me. The internet definitely has a way of building silos and organizing fringe ideas, so maybe that’s the case. In any event, regardless of its actual size, opposition to Vatican II is a prevalent topic online that needs addressing.
On Monday, I did a general video defending the very idea of Vatican II, calling for people to stop with their logical fallacies and to see that the problems of our world have complex causes beyond our control. Today, I’d like to look at a specific issue that needs addressing: the reform of the liturgy. While I’ve addressed the specifics of the reform before, there are some that believe in the idea of a reform is flawed because of a strict interpretation of Pope Pius V’s words back in 1570.
If this video seems oddly specific and completely unnecessary, it’s because it is. The very fact that I made a video addressing this topic is absurd. And yet, such is the world we live in. If we don’t want fringe groups to take over, we must speak the truth and respond to their ridiculous claims so that, as a well-informed Church, no one will be left confused or led astray.
Archbishop Viganò is at it again. In an interview published today, the former nuncio to the United States claims that all of the problems of the 1960s revolutions have a single cause: Vatican II.
Yes. The Women’s Liberation Movement was Vatican II’s fault. Blame the Gay Rights Movement on us. Vietnam protests? Sexual Revolution? Civil Rights marches? All the Church’s doing.
It’s a bit of a far-fetched argument, even for him, but he is by no means the first person to make such claims. In fact, I hear these sorts of things online so often that I actually filmed a video two weeks ago on this very topic, ready to be released today. Is it a direct response to Viganò? Only if you follow the logic that what comes after was caused by what came before… which I’ll address in the video.
Be sure to watch to the end as I do offer my own take on what has caused the problems in the Church and what we can do to fix them.
Breaking In The Habit 