"The theology of the body is the answer to all life's problems." --Fr. Thomas Loya
August 31, 2007
August 30, 2007
LIFE: WHAT IS THEOLOGY OF THE BODY?
"Theology of the body is the delivery system for the sum-total of the Church's wisdom." --Fr. Loya
LIFE: WHAT IS THEOLOGY OF THE BODY?
A new starting point for all theology (the body).
A new starting point for all philosophy (the body).
When I told my Mom to check my new blog she said: "I hope you're still going to send your mother personal emails."
August 29, 2007
PHILOSOPHY: SOME COOL PEOPLE AT CHRISTOPHER WEST'S THEOLOGY OF THE BODY SEMINAR!
Two CFRs, a couple from India, a lad from Ireland (who calls Theology of the Body "the lovely tee-ology of de body"), a fireman from Florida, two seminarians from Orlando, a guy from the legislature of Kansas City, a British sister who works with AIDS patients in Zambia, Jesse Romero (awesome bil-lingual Catholic apologist), young pregnant couple from Milwaukee, two moms from Montana, two single women from Kalamazoo, a non-Catholic woman from the healthcare profession in Alabama, an Air Force chaplain, a Byzantine priest, a young woman who is moving to Medjugorje to be a full-time evangelist, a grandmother of 28, two young adult missionaries to Jamaica, a film editor, a Long Island banker who gave up her job to run a crisis pregnancy center.
PHILOSOPHY: LIVE! FROM CHRISTOPHER WEST'S THEOLOGY OF THE BODY SEMINAR!
Here we are at a Mennonite retreat house in Amish country, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for a five-day Theology of the Body seminar with Christopher West. There are about 15 priests, 2 nuns, and 60 laypeople: couples, young, old, married, single.
The schedule is very intense as we are trying to squish a semester of teaching into the week! (30 hrs of teaching!)
The lectures are all before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in the conference room with us, daily Mass, opportunity for confession, morning and night prayer, adoration, etc.
Meeting great folks from all over (including India and Ireland) with incredible personal stories, conversions, reasons for being here. Making lots of new friends! Fr. Loya--Byzantine "TOB priest"--from outside Chicago is one of our chaplains.
I feel so privileged to be here, learning from "the best"! We pray to JPII before each class: "John Paul II, apostle of the human person, witness to hope and servant of Jesus and Mary, intercede for us."
TOB quote for the day: "Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible to himself; his life is senseless if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it." --Pope John Paul II
My mother asked me "What is TOB? Town of Belmont?" (my hometown)
August 26, 2007
LIFE: ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Drove thru 6 states today sweating like a stuck pig (no A/C in the car):
MA--God's country, "the bay state"
CT--God's country, ???????
NY--God's country, "the empire state"
NJ--God's country, "the garden state"
DE--God's country, "the first state"
PA--God's country, "the keystone state"
Crossed 3 rivers: CT, Hudson, Delaware--take that, George Washington.
Backed into 1 limo at Burger King. The driver was nice about the scratch.
CT has the BEST rest areas in the COUNTRY.
NJ has NO Dunkin' Donuts off the highway.
That ginormous aluminum Immaculate Heart of Mary statue that had been touring the country is in.....Delaware!
MA--God's country, "the bay state"
CT--God's country, ???????
NY--God's country, "the empire state"
NJ--God's country, "the garden state"
DE--God's country, "the first state"
PA--God's country, "the keystone state"
Crossed 3 rivers: CT, Hudson, Delaware--take that, George Washington.
Backed into 1 limo at Burger King. The driver was nice about the scratch.
CT has the BEST rest areas in the COUNTRY.
NJ has NO Dunkin' Donuts off the highway.
That ginormous aluminum Immaculate Heart of Mary statue that had been touring the country is in.....Delaware!
August 25, 2007
PHILOSOPHY: RELIGIOUS LIFE TODAY--EXCELLENT ASSESSMENT!
"We are at the threshold of a new era...that must engage the globalization of human suffering for the first time, not with the tired tools of Enlightenment activism but with the twin Catholic principles of communion and transcendent desire." [Yikes!]
"You and I are a part of a worldwide religious life movement that has recognized the failures of the economic and philosophical models that have monopolized our imaginations for decades now." [OMGosh!]
"The problems of religious life have been largely misdiagnosed." [Land sakes alive!]
"Our religious life culture, once informed and defined almost exclusively by the sacramental discourse of Christendom, has been reinvested in the secular and political discourse of the Enlightenment that drains the transcendent out of our every desire, leaving only material want in the place where the desire for God once beckoned." [Double Yikes!]
"We in the West inherit the persuasions of the Enlightenment, its framework of scarcity and competition." "We need to reinvest in a theology of abundance and a discourse about God, life and church that is relational." [Holy Cow!]
"It is the traditional Catholic belief in abundance, the theological recognition that God is good, all good, supremely good, all the time and to everyone.
That which stands behind the moon and the stars and the other planets is not some unfeeling force or anonymous isolate but a God who is undeniably social and calls each of us into relationship, into the intricate network of interdependence and mutual compassion." [Kazowee!]
"The good news is--and I know it has been a long time in coming--that religious are becoming newly aware of their deepest desires, increasingly disillusioned and dissatisfied by the desires fabricated by modern American life. We have experienced firsthand what the prophet Amos calls a 'famine for the Word of God' (Amos 8:11)." [Phew!]
"It doesn't matter how small we get; it is our international character that gives us strength and influence in the world today. What diminishes us is diminishment thinking." [Bam!]
--Father Couturier, OFM Cap.
(italics, bold, and bracketed commentary and sound effects are mine)
"You and I are a part of a worldwide religious life movement that has recognized the failures of the economic and philosophical models that have monopolized our imaginations for decades now." [OMGosh!]
"The problems of religious life have been largely misdiagnosed." [Land sakes alive!]
"Our religious life culture, once informed and defined almost exclusively by the sacramental discourse of Christendom, has been reinvested in the secular and political discourse of the Enlightenment that drains the transcendent out of our every desire, leaving only material want in the place where the desire for God once beckoned." [Double Yikes!]
"We in the West inherit the persuasions of the Enlightenment, its framework of scarcity and competition." "We need to reinvest in a theology of abundance and a discourse about God, life and church that is relational." [Holy Cow!]
"It is the traditional Catholic belief in abundance, the theological recognition that God is good, all good, supremely good, all the time and to everyone.
That which stands behind the moon and the stars and the other planets is not some unfeeling force or anonymous isolate but a God who is undeniably social and calls each of us into relationship, into the intricate network of interdependence and mutual compassion." [Kazowee!]
"The good news is--and I know it has been a long time in coming--that religious are becoming newly aware of their deepest desires, increasingly disillusioned and dissatisfied by the desires fabricated by modern American life. We have experienced firsthand what the prophet Amos calls a 'famine for the Word of God' (Amos 8:11)." [Phew!]
"It doesn't matter how small we get; it is our international character that gives us strength and influence in the world today. What diminishes us is diminishment thinking." [Bam!]
--Father Couturier, OFM Cap.
(italics, bold, and bracketed commentary and sound effects are mine)
August 24, 2007
LIFE: A SAINT IN THE FAMILY
My first cousin, Peggy Anne Canty, is a saint. She was a nurse for years at Carney Hospital in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and at 75 is more active than ever, hobnobbing for charitable causes in her beloved Dorchester. Peggy Anne is as Irish and Catholic and Boston as they come (she used to operate the elevator at Fenway Park). She rides the MBTA like a pro (on her way to meet us she was on the MBTA reading an old children's book on St. Christopher: "Wayfarer's Friend" by Bruce Publishing). She never married, and cared for her mother, father and two sisters till their deaths. One sister, Claire, was mentally retarded with the aptitude of a seven year old. She was supposed to die at 12, but lived till 59 with Peggy Anne's TLC.
Ma and I just met Peggy Anne today for lunch in Harvard Square at 96 Winthrop St: "Tommy O'Doyle's" (great food!). Peggy Anne's surprise, once we were inside, is that this restaurant used to be the home of my great aunt, Kate Burns--a total character, deaf as a haddock and had to use an ear trumpet--who used to work for the now-defunct Riverside Press in Cambridge. My father told lots of stories about Kate. There are lots of characters in my family. And at least one saint.
Ma and I just met Peggy Anne today for lunch in Harvard Square at 96 Winthrop St: "Tommy O'Doyle's" (great food!). Peggy Anne's surprise, once we were inside, is that this restaurant used to be the home of my great aunt, Kate Burns--a total character, deaf as a haddock and had to use an ear trumpet--who used to work for the now-defunct Riverside Press in Cambridge. My father told lots of stories about Kate. There are lots of characters in my family. And at least one saint.
August 23, 2007
LIFE: TWO REAL-LIFE PRINCESSES
Monsignor Schmidt of the Institute of Jesus Sovereign Priest has converted two present-day real-life playgirl European princesses (one a Borgia!) to Catholicism. One of them has written a European best-seller called "With New Eyes" (great title, eh?) Please pray it will be available in English soon!
August 22, 2007
MOVIES: "BEING JANE"
YY1/2
"Being Jane"--the story of Jane Austen's real-life love--is tedious and boring in the beginning, but the ending is so strong and has so many unexpected twists that you must see this movie! The characters and story are not effectively developed at first. Anne Hathaway's (Jane Austen) acting is satisfying, but James McAvoy (who plays Jane's love interest, Tom) does not convey the proper emotions which obfuscates the story. He seems to be almost intimidated by Hathaway's acting. The chemistry doesn't quite kick in till the end. I was disappointed that the prominence of writing in Jane's life wasn't a little more emphasized. However, the case could be made that Jane acted as she did because she was a writer (and therefore, the plot actually implicitly rests on this fact). Like I said, check out the ending. Wow.
"Being Jane"--the story of Jane Austen's real-life love--is tedious and boring in the beginning, but the ending is so strong and has so many unexpected twists that you must see this movie! The characters and story are not effectively developed at first. Anne Hathaway's (Jane Austen) acting is satisfying, but James McAvoy (who plays Jane's love interest, Tom) does not convey the proper emotions which obfuscates the story. He seems to be almost intimidated by Hathaway's acting. The chemistry doesn't quite kick in till the end. I was disappointed that the prominence of writing in Jane's life wasn't a little more emphasized. However, the case could be made that Jane acted as she did because she was a writer (and therefore, the plot actually implicitly rests on this fact). Like I said, check out the ending. Wow.
April 10, 2005
LIFE: CHICAGO--GRANT & MILLENNIUM PARKS
I am walking home from Mass and a pancake breakfast at Old St. Mary's on South Michigan Avenue on this sunny, sunny Sunday. This city has a soul. A calm, slow, warm, rich soul. This is a city that takes time to laugh. But I always knew that. (I lived here in the 80's.) Grant/Millennium Park is Chicago's Central Park running along Michigan Avenue close to Lake Michigan. No one appreciates sun like Chicagoans. Especially Chicagoans who live by the lake where there's almost always cloud cover. But we can't complain--it was an extremely mild winter.
Chicagoans are prouder of their architecture than anything else, and with good reason. They see themselves almost as accessories to their architecture. Maybe that's why everyone sits on the steps of the Art Institute. Everyone, old and young, gray-haired and green-haired--if only for a few moments--must plant their butts on the stairs and look leisurely between those grand, oft-photographed lions.
The sun transforms everything. Even the street people aren't hawking or begging. They're just reverently contemplating. This precious Midwestern Sabbath Spring sun defies work of any kind. There are "stop and go" chess and checker games set up on the sidewalk for passers-by. Young girls in bell-bottoms rollerblade for a few minutes, then rest, exhausted. A grandfather slings his tiny grandson upside-down over his shoulder. The outdoor ice rink is now a plaza for umbrella-ed tables. Dogs of every pedigree roam the grasses. Serious kite flyers unsnag a rainbow kite from a sapling. The jonquils are in full bloom: solid yellow and two-tone yellow. Lush multi-colored giant pansies overflow concrete planters. Families with gangly baseball-capped tween boys and strollers stroll. Seven paunchy old men in safety helmets take a lesson on how to ride a Segueway--at a safe distance from the rest of us. A fortysomething couple get a free lesson from a Segueway cop. Shirtless men read hardcover books at the base of a green Civil war soldier sallying forth on horseback.
I admit it: I'm a sun "worshipper." I have denied it all my life, but it was just sour grapes. I miss the quotidian L.A. sunshine. I never had to worry about bad weather Sundays--my one free day. Now I rejoice with overwhelming gratitude at the sun's fortuitous timing. No one enjoys the sun like people of the four seasons. L.A. never even smells like Spring.
People are walking nowhere. Sitting no place in particular. I reflect that these people are doing exactly what Terri Schiavo was doing: absolutely nothing. We humans will take any opportunity to do absolutely nothing. It is the goal of everything else we do: so that we'll have time to kill time alone or with loved ones.* What do we do when we hang out with friends? Absolutely nothing. What do we do when we're in love? Absolutely nothing. We are human beings, not human doings. This is precisely what we were created for--a tautology--we exist to exist. We are not means to an end. We are not functionaries. We are human beings. So why did we deny Terri that right?
Satan has lots of purposes for us. Lots of work for us. Lots of "meaning" for us. Lots of plastic perfection and efficiency for us. Satan invented labor camps, gulags and eight-day work weeks (the French Revolution), abortion, euthanasia, war, death of every kind, ugly uniformity, depopulation, despeciation. Satan wants the earth and our souls to be like his home: a scorched wasteland.
Next time you're just existing, enjoying something, toad-ing out, don't feel guilty. Remember: this is your purpose. And remember: that if you don't need to justify your existence, neither does anyone else. Human beings never have to justify their existence. Behavior? Yes. Existence? No.
_________
*recommended reading: "Leisure--the Basis of Culture," by Pieper; "The Unseriousness of Human Affairs," by Schall
Chicagoans are prouder of their architecture than anything else, and with good reason. They see themselves almost as accessories to their architecture. Maybe that's why everyone sits on the steps of the Art Institute. Everyone, old and young, gray-haired and green-haired--if only for a few moments--must plant their butts on the stairs and look leisurely between those grand, oft-photographed lions.
The sun transforms everything. Even the street people aren't hawking or begging. They're just reverently contemplating. This precious Midwestern Sabbath Spring sun defies work of any kind. There are "stop and go" chess and checker games set up on the sidewalk for passers-by. Young girls in bell-bottoms rollerblade for a few minutes, then rest, exhausted. A grandfather slings his tiny grandson upside-down over his shoulder. The outdoor ice rink is now a plaza for umbrella-ed tables. Dogs of every pedigree roam the grasses. Serious kite flyers unsnag a rainbow kite from a sapling. The jonquils are in full bloom: solid yellow and two-tone yellow. Lush multi-colored giant pansies overflow concrete planters. Families with gangly baseball-capped tween boys and strollers stroll. Seven paunchy old men in safety helmets take a lesson on how to ride a Segueway--at a safe distance from the rest of us. A fortysomething couple get a free lesson from a Segueway cop. Shirtless men read hardcover books at the base of a green Civil war soldier sallying forth on horseback.
I admit it: I'm a sun "worshipper." I have denied it all my life, but it was just sour grapes. I miss the quotidian L.A. sunshine. I never had to worry about bad weather Sundays--my one free day. Now I rejoice with overwhelming gratitude at the sun's fortuitous timing. No one enjoys the sun like people of the four seasons. L.A. never even smells like Spring.
People are walking nowhere. Sitting no place in particular. I reflect that these people are doing exactly what Terri Schiavo was doing: absolutely nothing. We humans will take any opportunity to do absolutely nothing. It is the goal of everything else we do: so that we'll have time to kill time alone or with loved ones.* What do we do when we hang out with friends? Absolutely nothing. What do we do when we're in love? Absolutely nothing. We are human beings, not human doings. This is precisely what we were created for--a tautology--we exist to exist. We are not means to an end. We are not functionaries. We are human beings. So why did we deny Terri that right?
Satan has lots of purposes for us. Lots of work for us. Lots of "meaning" for us. Lots of plastic perfection and efficiency for us. Satan invented labor camps, gulags and eight-day work weeks (the French Revolution), abortion, euthanasia, war, death of every kind, ugly uniformity, depopulation, despeciation. Satan wants the earth and our souls to be like his home: a scorched wasteland.
Next time you're just existing, enjoying something, toad-ing out, don't feel guilty. Remember: this is your purpose. And remember: that if you don't need to justify your existence, neither does anyone else. Human beings never have to justify their existence. Behavior? Yes. Existence? No.
_________
*recommended reading: "Leisure--the Basis of Culture," by Pieper; "The Unseriousness of Human Affairs," by Schall
March 31, 2005
PHILOSOPHY: TERRI SCHINDLER SCHIAVO
WHAT IS A HUMAN BODY?
We do not HAVE bodies, we ARE bodies.
Terri did not HAVE a body, she WAS a body.
DID TERRI HAVE A RIGHT TO EXIST?
Terri's body had a right to exist regardless of her state of mind.
Terri's body had a right to exist because it IS Terri.
Terri THE PERSON is both body and mind. Body and mind are united in one PERSON.
Terri did not need to justify her existence. No human being does.
IS THE MIND MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE BODY?
The body is not unimportant once the mind "goes" or is suspended.
The body is not just spare parts. The body has an integrity and a life of its own.
WHY DON'T WE AFFORD HUMANS THE SAME DIGNITY AS ANIMALS?
Veterinarians only consider animals dead when the heart stops beating.
WHY DON'T WE AFFORD HUMANS THE SAME DIGNITY AS HOUSEPLANTS?
What did it take to "keep Terri alive"? Less than it takes to keep me alive!
Terri needed a little nutrition and hydration. Folks, we do as much for houseplants.
THE TWO MAIN ISSUES: "EXTRAORDINARY MEANS" AND "TERRI WANTED TO DIE."
EXTRAORDINARY MEANS
"Artificial means" needs to be differentiated into "extraordinary" and "ordinary." Isn't a feeding tube so simple and commonplace that it could be called "ordinary" today? What if someone froze to death in their apartment because they didn't have heat. Would we say: "Oh, that's OK: electrical heat is artificial"?
Isn't that what modern progress is all about? Incorporating simple, life-preserving technologies and discoveries into our everyday lives?
TERRI WANTED TO DIE
If Terri indeed said: "No tubes for me," what did she mean by that? Did she mean heart/lung "tubes"? Did she really understand that she could live happily for years on a feeding tube? Would she have chosen to die of starvation? It's true that people don't have to be kept alive "artificially" if they don't want to, but shouldn't that decision be made early on in the process, not after the person has been living quite successfully for years? Even if Terri "wanted to die," do we allow euthanasia in this country? Do we allow suicide? Do we not stop people from jumping off ledges even if they really want to? Why do we have "suicide watches"?
DIDN'T TERRY HAVE A "RIGHT TO DIE" IN "PEACE" AND "DIGNITY"?
Didn't Terri's RIGHT TO LIVE come first? As Msgr. William Smith of NYC, a euthanasia expert, says: "The Bill of Rights has given us all the rights we need. If someone is handing out new rights: Don't get in line! It won't be good!"(See also above: "Terri wanted to die.")
Wasn't Terri LIVING in peace and dignity until she was starved to death? Are the disabled somehow robbed of peace and dignity and therefore should want to die (or should have that decision made for them)? Are there not healthy human beings deprived of peace and dignity in various ways? Should we kill them too? Exactly what is this "peace" and "dignity" that trumps the most basic of all human rights, the RIGHT TO LIFE?
ISN'T EVERYONE "DISABLED" IN SOME WAY?
I have a completely non-functioning thyroid. If I stop taking my synthetic thyroid hormone, I will die. Trust me, I tried it. As human beings, NONE of us is stand-alone "viable." Sorry. Did you raise yourself as a baby and a child? Even if you're living alone in the wilderness now, did you make the axe you use? How about the venison and berries you survive on? To be completely independent, you would have to have created first yourself, and then have created all the things that keep you in existence. Ex nihilo (out of nothing). Sorry. We are contingent beings. But this is not our shame, it's our glory! We are part and parcel of something, Someone way bigger than we are, with ALL the perks. And we are co-creators with the Creator! How cool is that?
Terri, you and I are the same age. I hope we all tried hard enough. Maybe we should have forcibly removed you en masse in a Joan Andrews Bell-type manuever.
"Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say: 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?" --Proverbs 24:11-12
We do not HAVE bodies, we ARE bodies.
Terri did not HAVE a body, she WAS a body.
DID TERRI HAVE A RIGHT TO EXIST?
Terri's body had a right to exist regardless of her state of mind.
Terri's body had a right to exist because it IS Terri.
Terri THE PERSON is both body and mind. Body and mind are united in one PERSON.
Terri did not need to justify her existence. No human being does.
IS THE MIND MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE BODY?
The body is not unimportant once the mind "goes" or is suspended.
The body is not just spare parts. The body has an integrity and a life of its own.
WHY DON'T WE AFFORD HUMANS THE SAME DIGNITY AS ANIMALS?
Veterinarians only consider animals dead when the heart stops beating.
WHY DON'T WE AFFORD HUMANS THE SAME DIGNITY AS HOUSEPLANTS?
What did it take to "keep Terri alive"? Less than it takes to keep me alive!
Terri needed a little nutrition and hydration. Folks, we do as much for houseplants.
THE TWO MAIN ISSUES: "EXTRAORDINARY MEANS" AND "TERRI WANTED TO DIE."
EXTRAORDINARY MEANS
"Artificial means" needs to be differentiated into "extraordinary" and "ordinary." Isn't a feeding tube so simple and commonplace that it could be called "ordinary" today? What if someone froze to death in their apartment because they didn't have heat. Would we say: "Oh, that's OK: electrical heat is artificial"?
Isn't that what modern progress is all about? Incorporating simple, life-preserving technologies and discoveries into our everyday lives?
TERRI WANTED TO DIE
If Terri indeed said: "No tubes for me," what did she mean by that? Did she mean heart/lung "tubes"? Did she really understand that she could live happily for years on a feeding tube? Would she have chosen to die of starvation? It's true that people don't have to be kept alive "artificially" if they don't want to, but shouldn't that decision be made early on in the process, not after the person has been living quite successfully for years? Even if Terri "wanted to die," do we allow euthanasia in this country? Do we allow suicide? Do we not stop people from jumping off ledges even if they really want to? Why do we have "suicide watches"?
DIDN'T TERRY HAVE A "RIGHT TO DIE" IN "PEACE" AND "DIGNITY"?
Didn't Terri's RIGHT TO LIVE come first? As Msgr. William Smith of NYC, a euthanasia expert, says: "The Bill of Rights has given us all the rights we need. If someone is handing out new rights: Don't get in line! It won't be good!"(See also above: "Terri wanted to die.")
Wasn't Terri LIVING in peace and dignity until she was starved to death? Are the disabled somehow robbed of peace and dignity and therefore should want to die (or should have that decision made for them)? Are there not healthy human beings deprived of peace and dignity in various ways? Should we kill them too? Exactly what is this "peace" and "dignity" that trumps the most basic of all human rights, the RIGHT TO LIFE?
ISN'T EVERYONE "DISABLED" IN SOME WAY?
I have a completely non-functioning thyroid. If I stop taking my synthetic thyroid hormone, I will die. Trust me, I tried it. As human beings, NONE of us is stand-alone "viable." Sorry. Did you raise yourself as a baby and a child? Even if you're living alone in the wilderness now, did you make the axe you use? How about the venison and berries you survive on? To be completely independent, you would have to have created first yourself, and then have created all the things that keep you in existence. Ex nihilo (out of nothing). Sorry. We are contingent beings. But this is not our shame, it's our glory! We are part and parcel of something, Someone way bigger than we are, with ALL the perks. And we are co-creators with the Creator! How cool is that?
Terri, you and I are the same age. I hope we all tried hard enough. Maybe we should have forcibly removed you en masse in a Joan Andrews Bell-type manuever.
"Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say: 'But we knew nothing about this,' does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?" --Proverbs 24:11-12
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