From the Pastor - A Red Letter Day

A weekly column by Father George Rutler.

The term “Red Letter Day” goes back to 325 AD when the First Council of Nicaea decreed that great feasts be marked in red on the calendar. Pentecost is quite literally a Red Letter Day since its liturgical color is red, to match the fire that came down on the apostles fifty days after the Resurrection remade the world.

Saint Augustine said that God made us without our help, but He will not remake us without our cooperation. We did not invent the biological process by which we were conceived and, as zygotes, given the 38 chromosomes that encode the physical nature we have throughout life, but we do have a moral freedom to decide how we are going to use that physical life. The Holy Spirit gives each of us in Confirmation, as he gave the whole Church at the first Pentecost in Jerusalem, seven powers to enable God to make us what He wants us to be: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord.

It is good to study the subtle differences between these gifts. This can easily be done by reading the Catechism, and praying daily for their increase. This is what Blessed Teresa of Calcutta meant when she used to say so often, “Just give God permission.”

There is no need to regret lost opportunities when we still have the breath of life, if we let the Holy Spirit breathe into that life the love that made us. What you might have wanted to become does not matter, so long as you let God make you what he intends you to be. Thomas S. Jones, Jr., a New York poet who died in 1932, wrote a gentle poem that still crops up from time to time:

Across the fields of yesterday
He sometimes comes to me,
A little lad just back from play –
The lad I used to be.

And yet he smiles wistfully
Once he has crept within,
I wonder if he hopes to see
The man I might have been.

We would be condemned to perpetual wistfulness at the contemplation of unfilled promise, were it not for what the Holy Spirit can still make us with our consent. Aristotle taught that the qualities of a good rhetorician are Ethos (talents and integrity of character), Logos (right use of the mind) and Pathos (sharing a sense of the challenges of life in a difficult world). The Holy Spirit shifts this to a formula for holiness by an Ethos that shares the heritage of the saints, a Logos which is God's own truth, and the triumphal suffering of Christ who died and rose again so that we might live forever with Him. So Pentecost is the reddest of Red Letter Days.

Diamond Jubilee March-past in Windsor Castle

Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Brtish Armed Forces mounted a special Parade and Muster at Windsor in honor of The Queen's 60 year reign on Saturday, May 19.

Troops representing the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force paraded through Windsor Castle and town before Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh. This was followed by a muster in the Castle grounds for a unique event before an audience of more than 3,000 Armed Forces personnel, their families, and veterans. An impressive, tri-Service flypast of current and historic aircraft concluded the celebrations.

Let Freedom Ring!

Archbishop Lori delivers an address on the Obama administration's assault on religious liberty.

The Archbishop of Baltimore, William Lori, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, delivered the keynote address at the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s National Religious Freedom Gala Reception and Award Dinner in Washington May 24. 

It has now been just over a week since I became the archbishop of Baltimore, and I find myself surrounded by history there. I live near the Basilica of the Assumption, the oldest cathedral in the U.S. The cornerstone was laid in 1806. The nation’s first bishop, John Carroll, is buried beneath the basilica, as are many of my predecessors.

John Carroll was a cousin of Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Charles Carroll’s story — and indeed Maryland’s early history — teaches us about the fragility of religious liberty and the importance of exercising vigilance in protecting it.

Chaplain Barred from Celebrating Mass in South Carolina Jail

From Catholic World News

A Catholic chaplain has been told that he cannot celebrate Mass in a South Carolina jail.

Msgr. Ed Lofton, who had been celebrating Mass at Charleston County jail for 15 years, was blocked from entering the facility because he was carrying altar wine. The jail’s policy bans all alcohol, and while state regulations in South Carolina make an exception for sacramental wine, Charleston County does not.

Msgr. Lofton reports that he bring a single ounce of wine to the jail, all of which he would consume himself. Prison officials told him that he must substitute grape juice. But a valid Mass cannot be celebrated without wine. 

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• Ousted after demanding wine for Mass, jail chaplain claims rights were violated (Post and Courier)

Doctors Tell the Truth About ObamaCare

The Democratic Party has produced a TV ad purporting to show Rep. Paul Ryan throwing grandma off a cliff for opposing ObamaCare.  A couple of San Antonio doctors have responded with the following ad:

God's 'Moral Imperative': A Voter's Guide

By Stephen Stone, President, RenewAmerica

This installment in our series on Mitt Romney and Mormonism takes a look at the moral imperative God requires of all voters. It's an imperative that has special relevance to those who wish to "do the right thing" this election.

Our analysis should be of particular interest to those who support Romney — a candidate whose liberal-socialistic record, and opportunistic, untruthful rhetoric, make voting for him problematic for moral conservatives this fall, notwithstanding the abhorrent record and rhetoric of Barack Hussein Obama, our nation's Muslim-leaning communist-in-chief.

We address our thoughts especially to Mitt's main political base: active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who stand almost unanimously with Romney in "sustaining and supporting" his pragmatic, immoral mischief, manipulation, and deceit.

We also address evangelical and other Christians who have deep reservations about voting for the "lesser of two evils" this election — in other words, Mitt — whom many consider a virtual stand-in for Obama, due to his hand in the creation of Obamacare, his enabling of pro-abortion policies as governor of Massachusetts (even after proclaiming himself "pro-life"), and his singlehanded imposition of same-sex marriage on his state, opening the door to gay marriage nationwide. (Click here, here, and here.)

As we proceed to discuss "voting as a moral obligation," our premise is that a moral citizen's only concern is to respect and obey the will of God, no matter the issue at hand, or the enticements, rationalizations, or self-serving arguments for doing otherwise.

This biblical premise has as much relevance to politics and civic obligations as any other area of life.

"Pro-Choice" Americans at Record-Low 41%

Americans now tilt "pro-life" by nine-point margin, 50% to 41%

 

From Gallup Politics

By Lydia Saad

PRINCETON, NJ -- The 41% of Americans who now identify themselves as "pro-choice" is down from 47% last July and is one percentage point below the previous record low in Gallup trends, recorded in May 2009. Fifty percent now call themselves "pro-life," one point shy of the record high, also from May 2009.

Gallup began asking Americans to define themselves as pro-choice or pro-life on abortion in 1995, and since then, identification with the labels has shifted from a wide lead for the pro-choice position in the mid-1990s, to a generally narrower lead for "pro-choice" -- from 1998 through 2008 -- to a close division between the two positions since 2009. However, in the last period, Gallup has found the pro-life position significantly ahead on two occasions, once in May 2009 and again today. It remains to be seen whether the pro-life spike found this month proves temporary, as it did in 2009, or is sustained for some period.