Mario Cuomo's Speech at Notre Dame 1984

http://speech-school.com/2010/04/mario-matthew-cuomo-speech-religious-belief-and-public-morality/#more-31

A Man for All Seasons: Fr. Barron

http://youtu.be/Q4GgN6D8mGI

Viktor Frankl: Man's Search for Meaning

http://www.ted.com/talks/viktor_frankl_youth_in_search_of_meaning.html

Video explaining the liturgical changes.

http://vimeo.com/25418957

Pope Benedict calls for Year of Faith

http://www.wordonfire.org/trackback/35729fcc-6e03-48aa-8d77-79edb2b28b75/Spirituality--Additional-commentary-on-faith.aspx

Fr. Barron on Conscience

http://www.wordonfire.org/WoF-Blog/WoF-Blog/October-2011/Spirituality-Additional-commentary-on-faith.aspx

Pope Benedict's Talk in Germany to students.

FREIBURG, Germany, SEPT. 26, 2011 (Zenit.org).- In speaking to the seminarians of Germany over the weekend, Benedict XVI pointed out the importance of one of his favorite activities: studying.

Today the Vatican published a translation of the Pope's words, which had been delivered without a prepared text. He addressed the seminarians Saturday at the Charles Borromeo Seminary Chapel in Freiburg.

The Holy Father returned to Rome on Sunday, ending a four-day state visit to his native Germany.

"In preparing for the priesthood, study is very much a part of the journey," the Pontiff affirmed. "This is not an academic accident that has arisen in the western Church, it is something essential."

Echoing the words of St. Peter, the Pope urged the seminarians to "be prepared to [...] account for the hope that is in you."

"Our world today is a rationalist and thoroughly scientific world, albeit often somewhat pseudo-scientific," he explained. "But this scientific spirit, this spirit of understanding, explaining, know-how, rejection of the irrational, is dominant in our time."

While acknowledging that scientific knowledge is good, Benedict XVI underlined the centrality of faith: "Faith is not a parallel world of feelings that we can still afford to hold on to, rather it is the key that encompasses everything, gives it meaning, interprets it and also provides its inner ethical orientation: making clear that it is to be understood and lived as tending toward God and proceeding from God."

"Therefore," he added, "it is important to be informed and to understand, to have an open mind, to learn."

A reason for faith

The Pope pointed to his own studies, noting that many of the currents of thought he studied as a student have been "totally forgotten."

He encouraged the seminarians to likewise dedicate themselves to contemporary currents, "for there will be some enduring insights among them."

"And most of all," he added, "this is how we learn to judge, to think through an idea -- and to do so critically -- and to ensure that in this thinking the light of God will serve to enlighten us and will not be extinguished."

"Studying is essential," the Pope continued. "Only thus can we stand firm in these times and proclaim within them the reason for our faith.

"And it is essential that we study critically -- because we know that tomorrow someone else will have something else to say -- while being alert, open and humble as we study, so that our studying is always with the Lord, before the Lord, and for him."

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Rare Flannery O'Connor recording.

http://blackmarketkidneys.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/some_aspects_of_the_grotesque_in_southern_literature.mp3

Thanks to Kevin O'Leary for this post.

http://www.freshminds.com/animation/alan_watts_life.html

Fr. Barron on Abortion

http://www.wordonfire.org/WOF-TV/Commentaries-New/Fr-Barron-comments-on-The-Two-Minus-One-Pregnancy.aspx

David Brooks on Individualism

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/opinion/if-it-feels-right.html?_r=2&hp

The Parable of Ground Zero

The Parable of Ground Zero

Video on Auschwitz and the Holocaust

Truth

The truth is not always the same as the majority decision.

Pope John Paul II

The New Paganism

Posted by Dr. Peter Kreeft • July 19, 2011 • Printer-friendly

The most serious challenge for Christianity today isn't one of the other great religions of the world, such as Islam or Buddhism.
Nor is it simple atheism, which has no depth, no mass appeal, no staying power. Rather, it's a religion most of us think is dead. That religion is paganism—and it is very much alive.
Paganism is simply the natural gravity of the human spirit, the line of least resistance, religion in its fallen state.
The "old" paganism came from the country. Indeed, the very word "paganism" comes from the Latin pagani, "from the fields" or "country-dwellers." Country people were the last to be converted to Christianity during the Roman Empire, the last to abandon their ancestral roots in pre-Christian belief. Today, country people are the last to abandon Christianity for the "new" paganism, which flourishes in the cities.
The old paganism was a far greater thing than the new. In fact, Chesterton brilliantly summarized the entire spiritual history of the world in this one sentence: "Paganism was the biggest thing in the world, and Christianity was bigger and everything since has been comparatively small."
There were at least three elements in the old paganism that made it great. And all three are missing in the new paganism
The first is the sense of piety (pietas), the natural religious instinct to respect something greater than yourself, the humility that instinctively realizes man's subordinate place in the great scheme of things. "Moderation" or "temperance" went along with this, especially in classical civilization. The motto "nothing too much" was inscribed over every temple to Apollo, along with "know thyself."
This natural modesty and respect contrast sharply with the arrogant attitude of the new pagan in the modern West. Only Oriental societies still preserve a traditional reverence. The West does not understand this, and thinks it quaint at best and hypocritical at worst.
The new paganism is the virtual divinization of man, the religion of man as the new God. One of its popular slogans, repeated often by Christians, is "the infinite value of the human person." Its aim is building a heaven on earth, a secular salvation. Another word for the new paganism is humanism, the religion that will not lift up its head to the heavens but stuffs the heavens into its head.
A second ingredient of the old paganism that's missing in the new is an objective morality, what C.S. Lewis called "the Tao" in his prophetic little classic "The Abolition of Man." To pre-modern man, pagan as well as Christian, moral rules were absolute: unyielding and unquestionable. They were also objective: discovered rather than created, given in the nature of things.
This has all changed. The new paganism is situational and pragmatic. It says we are the makers of moral values. It not only finds the moral law written in the human heart but also by the human heart. It acknowledges no divine revelation, thus no one's values can be judged to be wrong.
The new paganism's favorite Scripture is "judge not." The only judgment is the judgment against judging. The only thing wrong is the idea that there is a real wrong.
The only thing to feel guilty about is feeling guilty. And, since man rather than God is the origin of values, don't impose "your" values on me (another favorite line).
This is really polytheism—many gods, many goods, many moralities. No one believes in Zeus and Apollo and Neptune any more. (I wonder why: Has science really refuted them—or is it due to total conformity to fashion, supine submission to newspapers?) But moral relativism is the equivalent of the old polytheism. Each of us has become a god or goddess, a giver of law rather than receiver.
A third ingredient of the old paganism but not of the new is awe at something transcendent, the sense of worship and mystery. What the old pagan worshiped differed widely—almost anything from Zeus to cows—but he worshiped something. In the modern world the very sense of worship is dying, even in our own liturgy, which sounds as if it were invented by a Committee for the Abolition of Poetry.
Our religious sense has dried up. Modern religion is de-mythologized, de-miraclized, de-divinized. God is not the Lord but the All, not transcendent but immanent, not super-natural but natural.
Pantheism is comfortable, and this is the modem summum bonum. The Force of "Star Wars" fame is a pantheistic God, and it is immensely popular, because it's "like a book on the shelf," as C.S. Lewis put it: available whenever you want it, but not bothersome when you don't want it. How convenient to think we are bubbles in a divine froth rather than rebellious children of a righteous divine Father! Pantheism has no sense of sin, for sin means separation, and no one can ever be separated from the All. Thus the third feature, no transcendence, is connected with the second, no absolute morality.
The new paganism is a great triumph of wishful thinking. Without losing the thrill and patina of religion, the terror of religion is removed. The new paganism stoutly rejects "the fear of God." Nearly all religious educators today, including many supposedly Catholic ones, are agreed that the thing the Bible calls "the beginning of wisdom" is instead the thing we must above all eradicate from the minds of the young with all the softly destructive power of the weapons of modern pop psychology—namely, the fear of the Lord.
"Perfect love casts out fear," says St. John; but when God has become the Pillsbury Doughboy, there is no fear left to cast out. And when there is no fear to cast out, perfect love lacks its strong roots. It becomes instead mere compassion—something good but dull, or even weak: precisely the idea people have today of religion. The shock is gone. That the God of the Bible should love us is a thunderbolt; that the God of the new paganism should love us is a self-evident platitude.
The new paganism is winning not by opposing but by infiltrating the Church. It is cleverer than the old. It knows that any opposition from without, even by a vastly superior force, has never worked, for "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." When China welcomed Western missionaries, there were 2 million conversions in 60 years; when Mao and communism persecuted the Church, there were 20 million conversions in 20 years. The Church in East Germany is immensely stronger than the Church in West Germany for the same reason. The new paganism understands this, so it uses the soft, suggestive strategy of the serpent. It whispers, in the words of Scripture scholars, the very words of the serpent: "Has God really said...?" (Gen. 3:1).
The new paganism is a joining of forces by three of the enemies of theism: humanism, polytheism and pantheism. The only five possibilities for ultimate meaning and values are: atheism (no God); humanism (man as God); polytheism (many gods); pantheism (one immanent God); and theism (one transcendent God). The Battle of the Five Kings in the Valley of Armageddon might, in our era, be beginning. Predictions are always unwise, but the signs of the times, for some thoughtful observers, point to a fundamental turning point, the end of an age.
The so-called "New Age Movement" combines all the features described under the title of the new paganism. It's a loosely organized movement, basically a reflowering of '60s hippiedom, rather than a centralized agenda. But strategies are connected in three places. There may be no conspiracy on earth to unify the enemies of the Church, but the strategy of hell is more than the strategy of earth. Only one thing is more than the strategy of hell: the strategy of heaven.
The gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church; in fact, God uses the devil to defeat the devil, just as He did on Calvary, when the forces of the Hebrew, Greek and Roman worlds united to crucify Christ, as symbolized by the three languages on the accusation sign over the cross.
The very triumph of the devil, the death of God, was the defeat of the devil, the redemption of mankind, "Good Friday" Because God, who spoke the first word, always gets the last word.

"It’s Not About You" by David Brooks

This article that discusses happiness for young adults appeared in the New York Times on May 30, 2011  "It’s Not About You" by David Brooks

Great article on the issue of Love and Marriage in the Modern Age!

Linked below is a great article on love and marriage from Catholic.org. 

Article link click here.

Reflection for Easter

As we move through the section of the course that addresses the classic work by Pope John Paul II Love and Responsibility it is important to remember that the essential human quality that draws us all together is our desire to love and be loved.  This is what draws us to God and allows us to accept his grace into our hearts.  I just finished a fantastic little book entitled Atheist to Catholicism: Stories of Conversion.  Rebeccal Vitz Cherico tells the story of eleven converts from Atheism who became Catholics.  The one overwhelming thread of similarity in all their stories is the role that people played in the decision.  People in their lives, people whose writings inspired them, people that they shared a brief encounter with at a time when they needed some sign or direction.  As we celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ; lets be conscious of our role in the lives of the people around us.  Can I be that person for someone else?

Very Cool Video!

Interesting Ideas About Hell

Ash Wednesday Message

The Nature of Sin.

"'The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise' (Genesis 3:6), All sin has all three of those components.  There is something good in it, something desirable, and there is a something pleasurable in it."  

Fr. Larry Richards  Be A Man!

List of Converts to Catholicism

The Question of Evil

Flannery O'Connor Lecture

Great Article on Spiritual Blindness

This is an excellent article that addresses the question of spiritual blindness.  Would you have taken time to stop and listen to the music?

Reflection on the Quote from Henri Nouwein

How must it feel to be free to follow Christ in the path that He has set out for us.  Use the quote by Henri Nouwein for an evening prayer reflection. 

Rerum Novarum

I have added a link directly to the Vatican archives.  Rerum Novarum was published in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII and is as relevant today as it was the day it was written.  As future Catholic businessman you will be faced with a dilemma.  Profit or People?  Pope Leo calls on employers to pay their employees a "just wage".  A just wage guarantees that a man or woman can support a family on the salary they are being paid.  Have a conversation at home with your parents and ask them what they think is a just wage. 

Disturbing article about an abortion doctor in Pennsylvania

 Take a look at this article and reflect on the comments by Mother Theresa.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/19/kermit--gosnell-charged_n_810976.html

What is Law?

What, then, is law?  It is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense.  Each of us has a natural right- from God- to defend his person, his liberty, and his property.  These are the three basic requirements of his life, and the preservation of any one of them is completely dependent upon the preservation of the other two.  For what are our faculties but the extension of our individuality?  And what is property but an extension of our faculties?  If every person has the right to defend- even by force - his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly.  Thus the principle of collective right- its reason for existing, its lawfulness- is based on individual right.  And the common force that protects this collective right cannot logically have any other purpose or any other mission than that for which it acts as a substitute.  Thus, since an individual cannot lawfully use force against the person, liberty, or property of another individual, then the common force- for the same reason-cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person, liberty, or property of individuals or groups.


The Law by Frederic Bastiat

John F. Kennedy and Conscience

 In his inaugural address in 1961, JFK makes specific reference to the concept of conscience and its role in good decision making.

"And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

Transcription courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Video from Fr. Barron

Below in the Video link there is an excellent piece addressing the significance of St. Thomas Aquinas.  This is why we pray to him in class every day.

What does Vatican II say about conscience?

"In the depths of our conscience, we detect a law which does not impose, but which holds us to obedience.  Always summoning us to love good and avoid evil, the voice of conscience when necessary speaks to our heart: do this, shun that.  For we have in our heart a law written by God; to obey it is the very dignity of being human; according to it we will be judged (2 Cor. 6:10).  Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a person.  There we are alone with God, Whose voice echoes in our depths (John 1:3, 14).  In a wonderful manner conscience reveals that law which is fulfilled by love of God and neighbor (Eph. 1:10).  In fidelity to conscience, Christians are joined with the rest of humanity in the search for the truth, and for the genuine solution to the numerous problems which arise in the life of individuals from social relationships. Hence the more right conscience holds sway, the more persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and strive to be guided by the objective norms of morality.  Conscience frequently errs from invincible ignorance without losing its dignity.  The same cannot be said for those who care but little for truth and goodness, or for a conscience which by degrees grows practically sightless as a result of habitual sin." 

Gaudium Spes paragraph 16. Documents of Vatican II

The Power of the Rosary

"The rosary is a prayer which gradually takes the form of an intimate conversation with Jesus and Mary.  It is easy to see how saintly souls have found it a school of contemplation...the words are a kind of melody, which soothes the ear and isolates us from the world around us, the fingers being occupied meanwhile in allowing one bead  after another to slip through.  Thus the imagination is kept tranquil and the mind and the will are set free to be united to God"   Pere Garrigou -Lagrange O.P.  In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives this is motivation enough to take time out of our busy schedule and make time to pray the rosary.  Let's make that a class New Year's Resolution!