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Covetousness led to the Passion April 3, 2012

Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Interior Life, Latin Mass, priests, Tradition, Virtue.
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Covetousness is a grave sin.  And yet, it is increasingly held up as a virtue by our twisted, deformed “democratic” political system.  How many politicians make anger and envy at the success of others, and the ostensible “greed” which keeps their success from being taken by others, a fundamental part of their appeal to voters?  But covetousness is not merely a political problem, it is something all of us have to deal with in our daily lives.  I found the sermon below very moving.  For there are things I covet, even though I don’t need them. 

Incredibly tragically, disturbingly, our modern culture encourages covetousness on a mass scale.  The TV and other media constantly present a barrage of products with the intent of making us desire them.  The definition of what constitutes a “necessity” as opposed to a luxury has become incredibly blurred, rendered almost meaningless.  In fact, inspiring envy and desire for goods one may not really need is a fundamental part of modern American consumerist culture.  It is the ugly side of capitalism detached from morality, from an economic system that no longer (to whatever extent it ever did) governs itself by Christian morality.

All of this coveting takes our mind off the eternal things that should be our constant focus.  Not only is such coveting a great sin, which, if committed with sufficient gravity and consent of the will, is mortal, but even “minor” coveting causes us to continue to have profound worldly attachments which inhibit our growth in the interior life and keep us from fulfilling God’s Will for us. 

This is a very timely and important sermon.  It’s audio only, and I fear that these audio files don’t get listened to.  But it’s only 15 minutes, and really very, very good.   As the good priest in the recording states, “to be discontent with what we have is to presume that God is not already giving us what we need for our happiness.”

You can download the audio here.

What do you covet?  I’ll tell you, I have coveted cars.  Part of me would love to have a hot rod Shelby GT350 or something like that.  I’ve fancied up my truck way too much in the past, and part of me would like to do still more – gears, at least heads and cam but also maybe a power adder to put down about 450 hp to the wheels. But I have no need for such a thing.  So, I’m done sexying up my truck. 

Think about this – the entire porn industry, and much of fashion, too, is based on covetousness – desiring something we can not and should not have. 

I’m going to really search my conscience this Holy Week for things I covet and begin the work to eliminate my attraction to them.  The way to do that, as the good priest says, is mortification.  Other ways to reduce our attachments to the world are prayer, of course, but also holy reading.  Holy reading can shift our focus from the temporal to the eternal, and heighten our awareness of both sin and virtue.  Meditating on Our Lord’s Passion and death is also key – how can we sin against Our Lord, when He has suffered so much for us?

It’s really a very, very good sermon.

Tuesday before the long break non-sequitir April 3, 2012

Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, awesomeness, fun, Society.
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Cool video of shuttle launch from the SRB perspective.  That’s all history now.  I was never a big fan of the shuttle, it was way oversold and its design was compromised by Nixon budget cuts.  We’d have been far, far better off if this country had continued to develop Apollo hardware instead of pursuing a fanciful dream of “reusable” spacecraft.  Thanks alot, Walter Cronkite.  He actually played a substantial role in getting Apollo killed with his constant carping about “only getting a tiny capsule back from that huge rocket.”  Who cares!  It was way more capable and flexible than the shuttle.

Anyways……here’s a bit of history for Tuesday of Holy Week, before I go on break.  Too bad David R. cannot see this, as he very wisely gave up the intrawebs for Lent.

Stop Mandatum Abuse! April 3, 2012

Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, disaster, episcopate, error, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Liturgy, priests, Sacraments, sadness, scandals.
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And what a great plug for a friend!

Priests washing feet isn’t even the worst of it!  Go down to San Antonio and many parishes have lay people washing the people of lay people!  And not only that, EVERYONE gets their feet washed, in great big Communion like lines, where the person in front turns around and washes the feet of the person behind, and then that person washes the next, and so on.  It’s a great big Holy Thursday conga line! 

Here’s the linka to the book.

Voris is right, that those pushing these “feel good” corporate and/or abusive feet washings are inspired by modernism and seek to undermine the great gulf between the sacramental priesthood and the “common priesthood of the faithful,” as well as the all-male priesthood and many other modernist agenda items.   That doesn’t mean your local priest who permits this abuse is modernist, but those who have at the upper levels tried to push this effort are.