Weekend reading: strong critique of personalism May 23, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in abdication of duty, Basics, disconcerting, episcopate, error, General Catholic, Papa, reading, Saints, scandals, secularism, self-serving, the return.comments closed
I was sent the following article by reader TC (maybe he’s well known enough to use his full name, I don’t know). It is a very strong and effective critique of “personalism,” especially that personalism that made up so much of Pope Saint John Paul II’s writings and audiences. The critique was written by John Galvin, who also wrote an analysis of Humanae Vitae that I posted years ago.
As reader TC said, “JPII’s ‘personalism’ has been, is and will be an ongoing Trojan Horse in the Church.” In saying that, it is not so much to pick on the sainted Pope, but to examine an idea he played a very large role in normalizing and institutionalizing in the Church. What is personalism? Well, it’s a bit nebulous, really, but it is a philosophy clearly rooted in modernism and the really problematic phenomenology of the first half of the 20th century. It is a philosophy that informs ideas like “the primacy of the individual conscience.” That latter concept has been central to the erosion of acceptance of Church Dogma.
It’s a somewhat long article, a little over 9 pages, but I highly recommend it being widely read. While there may be arguable points therein, I think one really important point the author Galvin makes is that personalists, like modernists, very frequently not only twist and radically change the meaning of what many Saints and Fathers said to advance their pet beliefs, they even butcher quotes from various sources in so doing. This was a point Fr. Dominique Bourmaud illustrated repeatedly in his book on modernism, how modernists in the Church would take a quote ostensibly from some great Father, radically change not just its meaning but its very content, and then pretend that Father was an early proponent of some modernist belief. That modernists have been able to get away with doing such for decades is incredible, but that is the reality of the situation.
We have also seen an example of this very recently, where modernists/progressives have suddenly trotted a completely discredited book from the 1970s that argued that the Council of Nicaea judged that Catholics who had divorced could receive the Blessed Sacrament. This is a total fabrication, the Council said nothing of the sort, and was in fact referring to those Catholics who had apostasized under Roman persecution. Those people, once they had confessed and done penance, were judged worthy to receive the Blessed Sacrament, as opposed to the Novatian position that said one apostasy and you were finished, forever, as a Christian. The Council did nothing to undermine, reexamine, change “pastorally,” or modify in any way the constant belief and practice of the Church that bigamists, persisting in a manifest state of grave if not mortal sin, cannot approach the Blessed Sacrament. But modernists in the Church are once again trotting out made up “proofs” from the distant past, hoping general ignorance of these events will work in their favor as they go along, totally redefining what the Church has always believed.
Enough intro. Here is the critique: John Galvin – Waldstein Response 2
I picked up the following at Fr. Peter Carota’s site. Great, succinct point from the Doctor St. Francis de Sales:
No Flightline Friday this week, instead, you get Catholic art May 23, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in Art and Architecture, awesomeness, fun, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Our Lady, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
Every few months I stop by Holy Card Heaven and see what has been uploaded. I did that early this week, and since I don’t really have anything ready to share on Flightline Friday, you get Holy Card Friday.
This blog, worth every penny you pay for it:
I really like that one.
Does this still happen in Europe? How about here? There are little shrines all over Europe……do people still venerate them?
I like that imagery of Our Lady coming to the aid of a soul in distress.
On a totally different note, since we seem to be doing obscure movie references lately in the comments, here is one: “For the father, nothing.” Or……”Perhaps it was the result of an…….anxiety.”
If you can guess either one you get to read this blog free for an entire year.
Sermons on Sacrament of Penance May 23, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, Grace, Interior Life, Latin Mass, priests, sanctity, Spiritual Warfare, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
Two good sermons, I think, on the Sacrament of Penance. I heard these some time back but I found them on Video Sancto recently and thought I would share. There are some really nice reflections on the Sacrament of Confession below.
As usual I am short on time on Friday so I won’t give a lot of explanation, but I can say that the first one deals with the embarrassment that keeps some souls from revealing perhaps their darkest or worst sins. Some Saint, I cannot recall which one, had a vision of such a soul. When they were in the Confessional, they would literally vomit out all these little disgusting demons, but the really huge, monstrous one would come out partway – indicating the soul was trying to get to the point of confessing that sin – but then it would go back in, and so would all the other little demons, because the Confession was invalid, since the soul had willfully refused to reveal all its sins. That soul died a short time later, and was not saved.
Don’t let embarrassment keep you from confessing all your sins! Even if you have been away from the confessional for a long time, even if you think you have some truly uniquely awful sins…….guess what, you don’t. The priests have literally heard it all before. So get all those deepest, darkest secrets out! This is absolutely vital for any kind of growth in sanctity.
Some really nice imagery of confessions below:
Part 2 below.
According to the Council of Trent, the Sacrament of Confession is a sacrament for conversion. Are we still confessing the same old sins week after week, month after month, that we were years ago? If so, are we really trying to overcome these sins, are we really converting? Some serious food for thought, there:
St. Bernard on Our Blessed Mother May 23, 2014
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Our Lady, reading, sanctity, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
St. Bernard did much to advance Marian devotion in the Church. He was in many ways the first 2nd millennium apostle of Our Lady. This being Mary’s month, I thought I might try to honor Our Lady by quoting one of Her most devoted advocates. St. Bernard wrote in such gorgeous prose for Our Lady’s glory (taken from Divine Intimacy):
“Oh! How sublime is your humility, which never yields to the seductions of glory, and in glory knows no pride. You were chosen to become the Mother of God, and you call yourself servant! O Blessed Lady, how were you able to unite in your heart such a humble idea of yourself, with so much purity and innocence, and especially such plenitude of Grace? O Blessed Lady, whence comes such humility? Truly, because of this virtue, you have merited to be looked upon by God with extraordinary love; and you have merited to charm the King with your beauty, and to draw the eternal Son from the bosom of the Father.
O Mary, you are holy in body and mind. You can say in a special way: ‘My conversation is in Heaven’ (cf Phil 
III:20). You are the garden enclosed, the sealed fountain, the temple of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit; you are the wise Virgin who not only provided herself with oil, but filled her lamp with it. O Mary, how were you able to reach the inaccessible majesty of God, if you did not knock, ask, and seek? Yes, you found what you wree looking for, and that Angel said to you, ‘You have found Grace before God.’ Yet, how could you, who were already full of grace, find more grace? Oh! you were truly worthy to find grace, because you were not satisfied with the fullness which you had, but asked for a superabundance of grace for the salvation of the world! ‘The Holy Spirit will come up on you,’ said the Angel, and this precious balm was poured over you in such abundance that it flowed from you over the whole earth……If heretofore the Holy Spirit was in you in the fullness of Grace, now He comes upon you, as if to call attention to the superabundant plenitude of Grace which He pours upon you. If in the past grace was present only in your soul, it now invades 
your breast also…the divine power makes you fruitful and you conceive of the Holy Spirit!”
Oh Mary, faithful Spouse of the Holy Spirit, look upon my wretchedness and my weakness. God has placed in you the fullness of all his gifts so that I may understand that all hope, all Grace, all salvation come from you! You see how hard my heart is, how dull my mind; help me, therefore, O faithful Virgin, to overcome the resistance of my pride, my selfishness and my cowardice, so that my souls may open itself fully to the invasion of grace, abandoning itself with docility to the action of the Holy Spirit, promptly following His impulses, inspirations, and invitations.
I never get tired of posting this picture
A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics 