St. John Chrysostom: relevant words to us today

We think we live in bad times?  Here's an excerpt from a letter of St. John Chrysostom (c. 350-407), bishop of Constantinople, which he wrote from prison near the end of his life to his dear friend and colleague, the Deaconess St. Olympias:

Please listen to what I have to say.  I am going to try to make you a little less depressed and get rid of the dark clouds in your mind.  Why are you so worried, sad, and agitated?  Because the storm that has attacked the churches is harsh and menacing, and because it has wrapped everything in unrelieved darkness?  Because it is reaching crisis point?  Because it brings dreadful shipwrecks every day, while the whole world collapses about us?

We see the ocean whirling up from its uttermost depths and sailors' bodies floating on it.  We see others overcome by the force of the waves. . . . It is all so hopeless they can only scream, groan, cry, and weep. . . .  Everywhere monsters of the deep rise up and threaten travelers.  But no mere words can express the unutterable.  No terminology I can think of can adequately convey the terror of these times.

Though I am aware of all these miseries, I never cease to hope.   I always remember the universal Pilot.  He does not rely on steersmanship to suffer the storm and come through it.  He merely nods to calm the roaring oceans, and if he takes his time in doing so, well that is the Pilot's way.  He does not stop dangers straightaway, but banishes them only when they get close to their most ghastly point, and almost everyone has abandoned hope.  Only then does he show us marvels and miracles.  Only then does he reveal the power which he alone possesses, and teach the suffering how to be patient.

Quoted in the new full edition of Butler's Lives of the Saints, September, p, 112.   St. John Chrysostom, continue to pray for us.

Homily today: the prodigal . . .

I recorded my homily today, and thought it might be worth sharing.  See Luke 15:1-31.


If the above player doesn't work in your browser, you can download the MP3 file here:

http://www.archive.org/details/HomilyFor24thSundayYearC

How can we live with pain . . .?

Here is the talk that I gave at the meeting of our Good Shepherd Seniors' Group, "Young at Heart," at their lunch meeting on Saturday, September 11, 2010.  They asked me to speak on "How can we live with pain and the other things that are just 'not right' in life?"



If the player does not work on your computer, you can download the MP3 file here:

http://www.archive.org/details/HowCanWeLiveWithPain

Invocation at Memorial Service Beverly Hills, California, 9/11/2010

We remember the countless innocent people whose lives were taken away nine years ago today, as well as those who have suffered and died in the many events of its equally tragic aftermath.

But today we especially commemorate, and in a very real sense celebrate, those who have given their lives so that others may live, abandoned their own safety so that others may live secure, freely laid down their lives so that others may be free.

How tragic when life is taken by violence born of fear, anger, hatred, and mistrust. How precious is the life that is freely given for the sake of another.

May we honor the lives of these men and women – these heroes – by not yielding to the illusory satisfaction of revenge or retaliation. Rather, may we face the challenges of our world today with the courage to echo, in the priorities our lives, the timeless and ever-relevant words attributed to St. Francis, who also lived in a time marked by conflict, war, and violence:

May we be instruments of true peace.
When confronted with hatred, may we bring love,
in pain, forgiveness,
in doubt, faith,
in despair, hope,
in darkness, light,
in sadness, joy.
May we seek not so much to be comforted as to encourage,
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.
For in giving, we receive,
in forgiving, we are reconciled,
and in dying, new life is born.
Amen.

Note: It may come as a surprise that the beloved and traditional "Prayer of St. Francis" appears not to have a very long tradition behind it, has often been paraphrased, and has been used in many civic occasions such as this.  So there is ample precedent for my use of it here.

You can listen to it as delivered at the "9/11 Day of Remembrance" ceremony here:


or download it at this link.

http://www.archive.org/details/BeverlyHills911Memorial-Invocation

This is no way to end religious illiteracy | National Catholic Reporter

Excellent piece on media and religious illiteracy by John Allen.

This is no way to end religious illiteracy | National Catholic Reporter

Seventh Catholic History and Heritage Presentation: Questions and Answers

We dealt with topics such as the Roman Catholic-Eastern Orthodox split, Hitler and the Jews and Pius XII and the Catholic Church, and Vatican II.

Here's the player:



Or, if the player doesn't work for you, you can listen or download the audio files here:

http://www.archive.org/details/CatholicHeritagePresentation7
There were no notes prepared for this presentation.

Sixth Catholic History and Heritage Presentation: Vatican II and its turbulent wake

The full title and subtitle of this presentation was:

Vatican II and its turbulent wake: Reform and Resourcement; controversy and conflict

Who would have guessed what would blow in that open window?

Vatican II: fruit of the Spirit or spawn of Satan?  And . . . who cares?

A rather provocative title, I guess.  Then again, we live in provocative times!  Listen to the whole presentation online (my apologies for taking so long to get it posted):



Don't forget you can toggle between part 1 and part 2 with the two little triangles facing the lines right and left. 

As usual, if the embedded player doesn't work for you, you can download the original MP3 files at:

http://www.archive.org/details/CatholicHeitagePresentation6  (Uhm . . . yeah, there's a typo in the address, but it's too much of a hassle to try to change it on that site.)

And, of course, you can view and download the text of the notes, in PDF format, here. (This week I was not able to put any links for further information into the notes, but you can find a lot just by searching Google or Wikipedia with the obvious keywords.)

The reason why I was late in getting this online is that on Wednesday morning I received the 2011 price quotes from our Istanbul tour agency for the Early Christian World Pilgrimage, Orion-Tour, and have spent most of my spare time of the last few days putting together the initial publicity for the Pilgrimage in the form of a bulletin insert/letter for this weekend.  You can see that letter here, and you will be able to keep up to date on the Pilgrimage news and itinerary at my Pilgrimage blogsite, http://ecwpilgrimage.org.

If you are looking for the past presentations, scroll through the list or past blogpost titles on the sidebar to the right, and you'll find them.