Change is Good

Change Is Good

Turn around and believe the good news!
— Jesus’ first preached words, Mark 1:15

The authentic religious life is a matter of becoming who we already are, and all that we truly are! Can you imagine that? Is the seed already within you—of all that God wants you to be? Do you already know at some level who you authentically are? Are you willing to pay the price, even the mistrust of others? Could that be what we mean by having a unique “soul”? Most saints thus described the path as much more unlearning than learning. There are so many illusions and lies that we must all unlearn. And one of the last illusions to die is that we are all that different or that separate. Finally we are all one and amazingly the same. Differentiation seems to precede union and communion, for some strange reason.

This growing illumination is not just one “decision for Jesus.” It is a whole journey of letting go and developing an ongoing practice of letting go, and turning around one more time, until it becomes a way of life. As the old Shakers used to sing and dance, “. . . To turn, turn / will be our delight, / ’Till by turning, turning / we come round right.” To be authentically human is to change, and to be a whole human is to change many times—away from my smallness and toward an Unspeakable Greatness—which itself is never fully attained.

— From unpublished notes

The Daily Meditations for 2013 are now available
in Fr. Richard’s new book Yes, And . . . .

Earlier  in my blog I published a book review of Rick Joiner's The Final quest.. 

The author claims to have eschatological visions which began in his mountain cabin in Colarado. Even without the imprimatear I felt comfortable with this book as it had perfectly homogenius spiritual continuity. 

Joiner would leave his cabin and the vision would resume exactly where he had left it before he left. Perhaps it is easier to think of him as a Protestant Dante, writing in elementary style for a modern American audience. As He tries to reach his children God will use whatever means available .... it often surprises me that God will always meet us on our own level as Numbers 22 : 28 proves !  CS Lewis has provided some excellent eschatological narratives, namely The Great Divorce.

Having gone through what seems like Purgatory Joiner is introduced the fringes of Heaven. The people here are exstatically happy. However as he is drawn closer and closer to the Heavenly source of light the people become even more content, the grace that expanded thier souls during life soaking up their Heavenly reward.  Close to the Throne of grace, from which all light comes the Preacher is introduced to the Apostle Paul. It is explained that we are all called to great things in life, which even Paul did not fully complete. He was the one that came closest to doing all that was in his heart during his lifetime.
           
 Rohr is correct - we do all have a sense of what we are supposed to do in life. Willingness is all a desire to swim against the tide and be willing to be unstinting through suffering. 

The gratitude that Christ talks of in these places can only be attained through humility, something that Francis is calling us to. The human heart is such that without suffering we will simply not be humble and as I look back at my own life I am reminded of what the Apostle said in 2 Corinthians 12:7 :

To keep me from becoming concieted, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.



 

"Peace of Mind" Is a Contradiction in Terms.

“Beginner’s mind” is actually someone who’s not in their mind at all! They are people who can immediately experience the naked moment apart from filtering it through any mental categories. Such women and men are capable of simple presence to what is right in front of them without “thinking” about it too much. This must be what Jesus means by little children already being in the kingdom of God (Matthew 18:3-4). They don’t think much, they just experience the moment—good and bad. That teaching alone should have told us that Christianity was not supposed to be about believing doctrines and moralities. Children do not believe theologies or strive for moral certitudes. They respond vulnerably and openly to what is offered them moment by moment. This is pure presence, and is frankly much more demanding than securing ourselves with our judgments.

Presence cannot be easily defined. Presence can only be experienced. But I know this: True presence to someone or something allows them or it to change me and influence me—before I try to change them or it!

Beginner’s mind is pure presence to each moment before I label it, critique it, categorize it, exclude it, or judge it up or down. That is a whole new way of thinking and living. It is the only mind that has the power to actually reform religion.

Adapted from Beginner's Mind (CD, DVD, MP3)
Richard Rohr

"Peace of Mind" is indeed a contradiction in terms . Rohr is correct about another thing - after being taught the basics - that none of this matters - the next step in the spiritual journey is to learn to live with Chaos and face duality, bridge biulding where we can but otherwise just accepting; handing over to the Father. As I and my family move forward in faith I find that the phenomena my wife and I struggle the most with is trying to understand our exponential spiritual growth curve. 

It simply cannot be done.

All the heart is made for is to recieve, not to understand. 

We will not understand the Beatific vision, just absorb it.

 Post enlightenment notions of "understanding" would however and measure Him with a measuring stick. Joyce was right - thought is thought of thought and without contemplation we can be totally overwhelmed and dishonest with ourselves.

We are not the sum of our thoughts. 

Our minds will never be at peace as they are made to analyse and not wonder. A religous experience is therefore when the mind is suspended and the heart simply over rides saying "this is right. I know this to be true."

The source of that knowing, that peace is facinating.  

We have had some beautiful weather here in Glasgow recently and on the way to work I was thinking about the sacrament of the present moment.

The key to seeing "the big picture" is seeing ourselves in the same, loving honest spotlight as God does, i.e. that we are nothing and exhalt in our own poverty, like the little man of Assisi whose visit to the Holy Land represents just about the sum total of all the West's peacemaking attempts to date. We are poor and our story is seldom told. these acknowledgements are the only way that we can drop all of our ownprevious misconceptions and step into what Rohr calls the True Self.

Our existence in the present is not contingent on our achievements in the past.

Our existence in the present moment is not contingent  upon thoughts of our achievements in the future. We just are. 

It was my privilege to attend a debate at St Andrews University on assisted suicide. An atheist philosophy teacher got up to speak. 

At other times the good professor was very mild mannered and always had the time of day for any student. On this topic however he was quite animated.

“do you know how much envisaging oneself in the future is imperative to being a human being? You simply cannot take the right to choose away from a paraplegic or someone else who has no hope for the future.”

A very high spiritual benchmark, but if our self image is truly based on the Imago Dei, living every consecutive present moment with God then we have nothing to fear. As per the New Evangelization we must be open to God preparing us for lives of Greatness, not success.  This is St Paul's battle with the Flesh. If the ego is in control success - the ultimate comfort - is strived for. If the soul is in the driving seat then we aspire to greater things. Contemplation is the mechanism by which we achieve this orientation. It is furthered by suffering, which is only understood par coer.

  The greatness to which we are all called is worked out in the economy of grace between us and whatever healthy form the IMAGO DEI takes for us. Alternatively occidental post modern and confused images of what the human person is will always call us to follow the ego. This is why America is such a fascinating place. 

There is so much innocence there, willingness to learn but the European culture and ways of comportment have been lost. Because nothing can be done without community culture was ultimatley supposed to teach us how to live with our fellow man.  However both societies now are living a lie as "selfish society" is an oxymoron. As Rome leads the Universal Church the Amercan church leads the Protestant world, but a more divided society I have not seen, not least between ethnic groups but also church "ghettos."

 The soul will always gravitate to the City of God, loving God and serving fellow man, but it needs to be freed of individualistic, Protestant self images if it is to be free to gravitate unhindered towards its purpose. 

This is achieved through initiation but as those who complete the 12 steps are encouraged to complete a fearless moral inventory contemplation is equally imperative as the Catholic Via of spiritual growth is moved along.

We can only recieve Grace in the present moment. People that can live totally in the present moment are spiritually bulletproof.

Some years ago here in the UK a beautiful young mother was stabbed maliciously in the back of the neck in London. She was permantely physically incapacitated, paralised from the neck down. Lying on her hospital bed she could only think of her family. Having no thought for herself at all that she could exclaim was “God is Doing marvellous things.” Her hospital bedroom was her reality, no present, no future. Knowing that God was there with her she had no thought outside of the present.

When we have reached such high mansions we know that the Lord we experience in the present his taking care of our future also. We trust for the future because of what we are experiencing in the now, the only place where we can truly experience the Divine. We cannot be truly present if we are weighing up our future, the person we are talking to and ourselves at the same time.

The young British mother mentioned is now the leader of a Community of faith in London. 

I remember watching Die Große Stille (Into Great Silence) with a dear Catholic friend. This is the year in a life of some of the most austere monastics in the word. My friend found the joy expressed by the Carthusian Monks amazing as these fully grown, austere religous men slid down the snow in the  Alps. 

These men knew where there community was and where free to grow. 

I am reminded of the two of us greeting a monk at Pluscarten abbey
in Elgin, Scotland. He was polite and friendly but it was clear where his priorites lay. As he crossed a style he greeted us wormly but it was clear that this 40 year old monk in a white habit just wished to get home !

Although another friend thought it a bit voyeuristic Die Große Stille was a fascinating film. Some three hours long an old blind, seraphically happy monk was interviewed at one stage. As he explained God had allowed his sight to be taken for the good of his soul even through translation the truth of what he was saying was eveident. Community helps us to deal with anything.

 Because of Calvin’s sentiments on success America has consistently been the most successful country on the Planet. For all intents and purposes the first nation founded on Protestant principles America has been affected by the apparently inexorable link between predestination and worldly success.  In contradistinction to the UK Thatcher said that the USA was affected more by “philosophy than history.” This is undoubtley the case. 

St Andrews had a high percentage of American students. Many of whom simply did semesters with us in Scotland. At the end of her semester I remember an aquintance of mine sitting on a step looking quite dejected. A student from a top American University chatting with her I came to see how she did not view her semester as “a success.” When Aristotle talked about looking at the things men “do” rather than what is in their hearts he was talking of virtue; actions and words done over a long period of time which become “virtue.” At least here Aristotle never mentioned “success.”

Fr Richard Rohr on Jung

RICHARD ROHR’S LINEAGE
Monday, July 16, 2012
Much of the teaching of C. G. Jung
Some people do not like the fact that I quote the Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung. I must admit that he’s had a major influence on my entire life. I first read him when I was very young, and again and again he would offer phrases that I knew were true. When I first read his work, I didn’t have the education to academically know that. I just knew intuitively that “He is right.” Carl Gustav Jung was a great thinker, and he wanted to bring externalized religion back to its internal foundations. He brought together amazing theology (his father was a Protestant minister) with very good psychology—and he is surely not an "enemy" of religion at all. When asked if he "believed' in God, he said, with wonderful simplicity, "I do not believe, I know."
I’m not saying I agree with every word he’s ever said, but what I am saying is that “much of the teaching of C. G. Jung” is in my lineage. He gives us more than enough wisdom to trust him. After all, I am sure you do not agree with every word I say. I would be disappointed in you if you did.

~ Richard Rohr, 2012
Adapted from Fr. Richard’s teachings on his lineage

Honesty

As I grow older, I find more and more people, in all fields of life, who seem more and more trapped and unfree. They seem unable to adjust to their own growing truth. The price is just too high, and so they choose security over honesty. In my field, I see bishops, priests, and ministers, who in moments of private honesty, reveal they do not really believe this or that any more, but they have to pretend to believe it to be faithful to the persona they built and created in their first 40-50 years. After a while, they actually think they DO believe it, but their lack of enthusiasm, commitment, or joy shows you that they do not. It is so much easier to repeat formulas and keep everybody–and your own soul–at bay. I would say this pattern represents the norm not the exception, at least in the church. So many are split personalities. And why wouldn’t they be? In fact, it would seemingly be predictable with the mystery of God always unfolding and leading us to ever further depths. If you do go to the depths, the price of speaking your honest truth from that level is just too high. Imagine all the people you would upset! It will call your job and self image into question. Plus, it is like throwing your previous life script out the window and admitting that much of it was mistaken. But that should be a given–if we are at all growing! THE STEPS TOWARD MATURITY ARE NECESSARILY IMMATURE.

Fr Richard Rohr - richardrohr.wordpress.com

The Cross - The Ultimate Barrier Breaker.

I am doing a short study of the Letter to the Ephesians on this lovely Sunday morning, and have had time to absorb some of its amazing insights. Paul, or whoever wrote it, says that the exact meaning of the cross is that “Jesus destroyed in his own person the hostility” between groups (In fact, he repeats it twice in both 2:14 and 2:16) Jesus did not take sides with his Jewish religion against the pagans, but instead he did a most amazing thing, which we have yet to comprehend. The author says that he destroyed the hostility “THAT WAS CAUSED BY THE RULES AND DECREES OF THE LAW”. In other words, the very identification of his group (or any group) with its own customs and practices is what justifies their hostility toward another group, and maintains their own superiority system–which is always violent in maintaining itself.

Is this not the core historical problem that continues to justify most hostility to this day? My group versus your group thinking? We do it this way and you do it the wrong way? Think of the genocides of the last century, which were usually in Christian based cultures, to realize how we have missed the message. Ephesians says that Jesus “killed” or “destroyed” the very ground of this hostility by himself being killed “under the law” (with the blessing of both religion and state), and thus revealing the limitations, blindness, and often complicity in evil of what are usually nothing more than cultural customs passing for divine law. Our “sacred order” is usually maintained at someone else’s expense. This is so much of a surprise that most of us still refuse to be surprised–and also disappointed in our capacity for missing the profound revelation from the cross of Jesus. Ephesians goes on to say that Jesus is trying to “create one single New Humanity” (2:15). We are still waiting for this new single humanity. It could still change history, and it eventually will, but probably we have to hit bottom first–and see how our sacralized beliefs and customs are themselves much of the problem.

richardrohr.wordpress.com

When we walk Without the Cross

First Homily

"When we walk without the Cross...." by Pope Francis

 In these three readings, I see that there is something in common :  it is movement. In the first reading, in the second reading, movement in the building up of the church; in the third in the Gospel, movement in confession.

To walk, to build up, to confess.

To walk. "House of Jacob, come let us walk in the light of the lord. " this is the first thing that God said to Abraham: Walk in my presence and be without reproach. To walk: our life is a journeyand when we stop it is no good. To walk always, in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, seeking to live with that irreproachability which God which God asked of Abraham, in his promise.

To build up: to build up the church, stones are spoken of.: the stoneshave substance; but living stones, stones anointed by the Holy Spirit. To build up the church, the Bride of Christ, on that cornerstone which is the Lord Himself. This is another movement of our lives - to build up.

Third, to confess. We can walk as much as we wish, we can build many things, but if we do not confess Jesus Christ, it is NO GOOD. We will become a humanitairian N.G.O., but not the church, the bride of the Lord.

When one does walk, one halts. When one does not build on stone, what happens? That happens which happens to children on the beach when they make sand castles, it al comes down, it is without substance. When one does not confess to Jesus Christ , I am reminded of the expression of Leon Bloy: "He who does not pray to the Lord prays to the Devil." When one does not confess Jesus Christ, one confesses the worldliness of the devil, the worldliness of the demon.

To walk to build/construct, to confess. But the matter is not so easy, because in walking, in building, in confessing, at times there are shocks, there are movements that are not properly movements of the journey : they are movements that set us back.

This Gospel continues with a special situation. The same Peter  who has confessed Jesus Christ says to him: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I will follow YOU but let us NOT speak pf the Cross. This has nothing to do with it. I will follow you with other possibilities, without the Cross."

When we walk around the Cross, when we build without the Cross, and when we confess Christ without the Cross, we are not disciples of the Lord: we are Worldly, we are Bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, but NOT disciples of the LORD.

I would like that everyone, after these days of grace, should have the courage, truly the courage, to walk in the presence of the LORD, with the Cross of the LORD; to build up the Church upon the Blood of the Lord that  was shed upon the cross; and to confess the only glory: CHRIST CRUCIFIED. And in this way the Church will move FORWARD.

I hope for all of us that the Holy Spirit, through the prayer of the Virgin Mary, our Mother, may grant us this grace: to walk, to build up, to confess Jesus Christ CRUCIFIED.

So may it be. 

Amen.

Mary Our Mother - By My Wife

Our Blessed Mother is most certainly the prime example of following Our Lord. In complete trust, love and surrender to the Will of God. So what do we know about Our Blessed Mother - the Mother of all Mothers?

We know that Mary treasures and ponders in her heart all that is said by and about Her Son (Luke 2).   We too seek our understanding and intimacy with Christ, we can do this by following in Her Footsteps. "In her journey of faith and always to her credit, she travelled always and everywhere in hope. We are called to do the same (Archbishop Vincent Nichols)."

On rare occasions the voice of Our Blessed Mother breaks through in Scripture. We hear this in John 2 :1-12 (wedding feast at Cana) and (the Annunciation) Luke 1:26- 38. When she speaks it is not to claim something for herself but to praise God who has done Great things for her. She reminds us that he will do Great things for us , she points us to Christ. "Do whatever he tells you," she commands the servants at the wedding feast. This command is for all of us.

Mary's huminility should not be confused as simpering or "yellow bellied." Her silence shows an abundance of courage. She had the courage to let go of her own plans for her life, to plough on through ridicule, evento endure when the disciples themselves walked away.

Silence has many meanings and can speak volumes. A signal of affirmation or protest. It can be a welcome respite or an uneasy truce. It can be a familiar understanding betwenn friends or a void between strangers.

In her silence, Mary grew for and in the Love of God, despite Her suffering and all the Trials that She endured. Reflection on the life of Mary should draw us to the Real Presence of Christ. Asa pure fine example of true love, Mary as Spouse of the Spirit, Mother of the Son and Faithful daughter of the Father is one certain example of Holiness, Trust and Complete Surrender.

Let us find a way through Jesus through Mary.

Ad Jesus per Mariam.

By My Wife handmadebymo.org

Salvation is From the Jews

Roy H Schueman

I have known my wife for fifteen years but we startred to court in a capacity of more than friends at "New Dawn," Walsingham some five years ago. This is where I heard mr. Schoeman speak for the first time. I have often noted to my Sergeant that our lectures on attack formation and defence strategies are the only that I have not fallen asleep in for 20 years ! Enjoying the beachfires and thespian opportunities of St Andrews far too much meant that I emerged after three fascinating years with a 'special,' one below an honours degree. Although my first love will always be religion my intellect is mush more perceptive than systematic. I find libraries as soporific as lectures. 

On a hot Kent day in an equally stuffy tent in July listening to Mr Schoeman was an exception to the rule that only military incisiveness has broken. Born an orthodox Jew he prayed the Talmud diligently every day. Claiming His God's Scriptural promises that those who ask for the Truth will be shown it he prayed diligently on his knees every night for illumination. After a full year a woman appeared to him who he knew to be Mary of Nazareth. She said not a word, but Roy "followed" her to the local Protestant church. To Schoeman all Christian churches were the same. He was promptly told, "We dont do Mary here," until his search brought him to Catholicism, where the once devout Jew stayed.

Schoeman is on the board of Harvard business school and his talks are touted, "Salvation Comes From the Jews." After John Paul II's historic moves towards "Our Older Brothers and Sisters in the Faith." I will be absolutely facinated to ask this abviously rational, religous man what he thinks of Jewish influence on capital hill and the evangelical inability to see the obvious semitic salvation story of sin and redemption repeating itself in the oppressed becoming the oppressor.

Queen Margaret Union Religion and Politics Debate

I am very much looking forward to this debate and hearing what "both sides" have to say.

As with most things many of these questions come back to having an Adequate Anthropology.

If we deny the transcendent we deny a ver large part of OURSELVES.

As such I look forward to asking the question:

Is it not true that religion as a systematic view or reality affects everyone and it is therefore 

inevitable that it will affect those in public life ? 

As such does this not make Atheistic creeds (such as militant socialism) more deadly as these 

adhereants have no higher moral reference point than themselves ?

Brennan Manning

A two-year leave of absence from the Franciscans took Brennan to Spain in the late sixties. He joined the Little Brothers of Jesus of Charles de Foucauld, an Order committed to an uncloistered, contemplative life among the poor — a lifestyle of days spent in manual labor and nights wrapped in silence and prayer. Among his many and varied assignments, Brennan became an aguador (water carrier), transporting water to rural villages via donkey and buckboard; a mason’s assistant, shoveling mud and straw in the blazing Spanish heat; a dishwasher in France; a voluntary prisoner in a Swiss jail, his identity as a priest known only to the warden; a solitary contemplative secluded in a remote cave for six months in the Zaragoza desert.

During his retreat in the isolated cave, Brennan was once again powerfully convicted by the revelation of God’s love in the crucified Christ. On a midwinter’s night, he received this word from the Lord: “For love of you I left my Father’s side.  I came to you who ran from me, who fled me, who did not want to hear my name. For love of you I was covered with spit, punched and beaten, and fixed to the wood of the cross.” Brennan would later reflect, “Those words are burned into my life. That night, I learned what a wise old Franciscan told me the day I joined the Order — ‘Once you come to know the love of Jesus Christ, nothing else in the world will seem as beautiful or desirable.’ “

http://brennanmanning.com/

Tilted Halos

A man walked into the doctor's office and said,"Doctor I have this awful headache that never leaves me. Could you give me something for it? '

"I will said the doctor, "but I want to check a few things out first. Tell me, do you drink alot of liquor?"
"Liquor?" said the man indignantly. "I never touch the filthy stuff."
   "How about smoking/"
   "I think smoking is disgusting. I've never in my life touched tobacco."
"I'm a bit embarrased to ask this, but - you know the way some men are - do you do any running around at night?"

"of course not. What do you take me for? I'm in bed by ten o'clock every night"

"Well what sort of pain is it?"

"Its kind of a shooting pain"

"you know what I think is wrong with you?"

"whats that doctor?"

"YOUR HALO IS SLIPPING !! "


from The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning.

The Final Quest.

In a recent excellent article for The Times Allan Massie said that Atheistic Communism was the Catholic Church's most recent opponent for religous global dominance. He goes on to say that the Eternal Church has weathered much more violent Tempests. As a religion Communism was flawed in that it did not provide a view of the eternal and as such was anti human. As Catholic Christians we must not neglect this element of our faith either.


Rick Joyner's The Final Quest answers this question as well as any 158 page paperback could.


This Protestant Pastor was given a series of visions lasting some months in which he was given a "tour" of Heaven in the context of our Age.

Among other gracious names Louis Marie de Montford gives the Blessed Mother the Title of "Eternal Wisdom," she that leads us directly to Christ. Throughout the narrative, despite the ecclesiastical status of the author, The Final Quest provides many similar paradigms , which take place in the form of a continuous stream of spiritual consciousness.

In this vein two anecdotes particularly stand out. One in which the author is subjected to a vision of himself giving out religous tracts while a homeless man languishes. Later, in Heaven the temporaly poor man of the anecdote is seen to be one of the highest saints in Heaven, owing to the fact that he was dealt a much harder hand in life than Warren, not having to unburden himself at the Eye of the Needle.

Secondly Jesus' parable of the Foolish Virgins is shown to be an eschatological narrative. As Joiner is taken by Eternal Wisdom closer and closer to the Throne of Christ in Heaven everything gets more and more brilliant. But the wailing and gnashing of teeth is not in fact Hell but a part of Heaven that is dark compared to the Throne but when one is there one is nonetheless in an ecstacy the like of which could not be found in any purely temporal reality.

Letter to the Edinburgh Evening News.

I agree with Professor Richard William's recent comments. Edinburgh is dystopian wasteland.

As I was reminded recently Glaschu mean Dear Family whereas Dun Eideann simply refers to a rock.

In any case it is not aesthetics but community that we should be looking at.

The affable fringe performer Morningside Malcom does an excellent parody on the difference between the two. Edinburgh is about image above all where Glasgow is about community,

You just have to walk down Sauchiehall Street to feel that you are a part of something whereas the exploded cultures that the prominent Jewish pedagogue Reuven Feurstien described come to mind in Morningide, let alone Craigmillar.

At least when you get off a bus in Detroit you feel like something is going to happen.

As a Scotsman my heart swells when I walk into the ground floor of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Seeing white marble busts of Fisherman's sons and other working class enlightenment heros who became philosophers, inventors, theologians and doctors typifies what this city, and as such this country, was once all about.

But as typified by the dilapitaded state of not only Adam Smith's hidden Grave at the Tolbooth but those other enlightenment polymaths on Calton Hill the last thing of any use that we gave the World was the first troops accross the Rhine.

We have completely lost any sense of ourselves.

I used to work at the Airport. What are we doing building a tramway when we have a perfectly good bus network? Because we want to be more European? Once upon a time we had a hand in forming this continent (and America to boot)!


http://news.stv.tv/scotland/214502-foreign-policy-magazine-article-says-edinburgh-is-in-abject-decline/



Letter to the Scottish Catholic Observer

Dear Sir –

Up until eight years ago neither myself or my wife knew anything but the longest Papacy in history. Concurrently the imminent papal conclave is both exciting and fascinating for her and I.

However I was disappointed with Kevin McKenna’s recent comments, “Pity Those who take a Pop at the Pope.” It dismayed a deep seated and parochial understanding of the faith handed on to us by Holy Tradition.

In addition the fact that Pius XII helped thousands of Jews during the war does not belong in your “Recent News” section.  John Paul II refered to the Jewish people as, “Our Older brothers and Sisters in the Faith.” Since the war It has been well known that after the horrors of war and anti-semitic Holocoust had subsided the chief Rabbi of Rome converted to Catholicism because of  the example of the much maligned Euginio Pacelli.

McKenna is correct in one respect – the purpose of Benedict’s papacy was to imbed what the man who personified the Sixties Council gave us.

As such we salute “Papa Beni” and after obviously contemplative works such as Jesus of Nazereth we, his loyal flock, look forward to further reflections in retirement.

 The church’s current position is unprecedented in modernity. As such Benedict will be a wise advisor to whoever next occupies the shoes of the humble Gallilean Fisherman. The best symbolic gesture he made was to change the crown on the papal coat of Arms to a more appropriate mitre.

However the embedding of the social democratic model has meant that the stated aim of the current Popes tenure – the re-evangelisation of Europe – was outmoded and outdated.  “Selfish Society” is an oxymoron and as we saw with the French Banlieue riots Europe teeters on a knife edge, unable to accommodate different world views.

Ideology has had its day and Chrisendom wisely looks south for a leader. What we need now is a man with a coherent systematic view of reality centred outside the continent that has given us some of the most fruitful and at the same time some of the most militantly atheistic outlooks of the last thousand years.

Commendable Leadership.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/category/catholic-church/pope-benedict-xvi/

I've just been putting up whatever I can find on the conclave that

1) looks to the future

2) Salutes our pragmatially brave incumbent  Holy Father Pope Benedict.

But looking through the Uk papers today I couldn't help but notice another example of leadership -

David Cameron at the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial - 

"This is a deeply shameful event in our history, one that Winstone Churchill described as "monstrous" at the time. We must never forget what happened here. 

And in remembering we must ensure the UK stands up for the right of peaceful protest around the World."

Hugo Chavez RIP

Socialism may well be outdated and outmoded in Europe but this man cared about his people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21682247


http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-liberal/2013/03/latin-americastop-anti-imperialist-leaders-fall-ill-with-same-disease-at-same-time-2456564.html
 

  

.



Our Town, Smalltown

Individual interpretation of Scripture has lead tosome of the grossest discrepancies in history. When doing Crossroads it was quite incredible approaching settlemennts and with typical North American earnestness, seeing signs; "REPRESENTED IN SMALLTOWN, USA" and a couple of hundred denominations denoted.

What has this done for us?

What legacy has the European enlightenment left the Great Experiment?

This is quite farcical, but at least ecumenism is stromger in a country where religion has no cultural tags or remebered grievances.

 What happens in practice is that legalism is returned to and adherents become even more religous than that which they were trying to leave behind in Europe. Constructing a systemitic view of reality on the back of with a few 'trump card' scriptures as their base gurus soon rise; as well the inevitable hypocracies when the new laws that are constructed to keep order are transgressed. 

What equally disturbed me was seeing a child's Catholic Apologetics card linking,  "I will lead you into all Truth" with the majesterium. I have found on my spiritual search that one thing is certain - Christ and any othe prophets did not come on Earth to establish more rules. They are about providing plumblines to the divine which are generally not straight! Christ could have done easily given Divine sanction to the the Whore of Babylon, the Roman Emporer, but chose not to,streching out His Divine arms in the Ultimate show of vulnerability. As we have seen (in Justicio) great men and women are made to decimate established juridical structures - to 'sense' the need of the people to move on. In the same way evil men, like Joseph Stalin, have half a finger on the pulse of the people, lacking the full picture. The are only able to stay in power by lying about how terrible it is on the other side.  This is made even more apparent as we look to North Korea.

With the all of the world's information now available to any individual let us hope we are now on the verge of some incredible advances. As the Police at Downing Street apparently found out it is technologically and technically no longer possible to lie.

Blood Brother Gael

People from honest hard working, mico cultures generally do not project self image but the problem with this is that you rely on others in your micro-community to tell you
 
1) what your meta-narritive is
2) Therefore what your values are
3) As such who you are

I guess this is what the enlightenment was about but concurrent definitions of progress were obviously flawed.

This is why the numerous Celtic siants were were generally forged in foriegn fields. In terms of zeitgeist Scotland has now fallen between two stools as after the collapse of the Neo-Conservative mindset there is noone left to fight and the enlightenment which she forged ultimatly led to holocaust. After independebce the Island of Ireland turned to the County system for peer arrirmation. By the relative of the eurozone she and the former eastern bloc sttes have only just been mercifully spared becoming one of Feurstien's expolded cultures. Otherwise the social democratic model has ruined the naturally creative, uncompromising Celtic soul. Protestantism gave us individuation and enlightenment. In addition the monarchical Celtic feminie bent towards following a personality rather than a law was satisfied for Scotland in Empire. As a part of something bigger than herself Scotland flourished for centuries and by the time of the Easter Rising Ireland was in much the same position it had been for centuries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlDNCjMoiiM 

Legacy

The problem with religion in the West is that it has been over-intellectualied. As a systematic views they must incorprate the mystical also.This is by definition terrestrillly impossible, as such creative space is needed, which can be done by subsuming and conquering evil, something which there has been ample opportunity for in the last century.We cannot terrestrialy adjudicate what is not of this Earth. If we try and do this our Popes and potentates neccesarily become Fuheurs.

It is no surprise that in undergraduate biblical studies John's Gospel is almost universaly totally ignored. It doesn't really matter who wrote the gospels. What matters is what is said in them. During a recent trip to the Holy Land I was astonished to hear not only theYouth but other members of the Pilgrimage getting hung up on the exact geographical location of the sights involved. Given that it was the only matching site in the area the cell in which Ye'shua bin Joseph was held after Gethsemine was most proably accurate. Attempts to explain this fell on deaf ears.  Due to lack of interest at one of the best Theological faculties in the Western Hemisphere a class on The Classics of Western Spirituality was cancelled.

All too often we have tried to apply rationlistic, post enlightenment thinking to concepts which transcend our 'small selves.'

 The saints speak to personal Truths in different cultural contexts.  As the family teaches the saints true self, their I is neccesarity connected with individuated we's. The most 'in touch' Saints were not generally canonised until long after their deaths.Greater Saints go even further, speaking to the world as a whole.

It was a pleasure to be near Rome for the beloved John Paul II's funeral. Right at the eye of the needle the longest serving Pontif is a unique case. The dust must neccesarily settle first, until it is universally acknowledged how far we are brought on by a saints example, unless there is considerable influence at the Vatican. Only then does the church cach up. Although one is never alone at such great times I qued for 12 hours throughout the Roman night to see the Polish Pope lying in state. Afterwards I waited with baited breath to see if the church would acknowledge the Polish cries of, "Sainto Subito (Saint Immediatly)."

Although possible according to Holy Tradition I guess we erred on the side of caution even here. Ultimately tags don't really matter as most Carthusians and house wifes go unnoticed anyway.

John Paul II was a multifaceted individual who courted everyone from Irish Protestantism to Islam to "Our older brothers and sisters in the faith," the Jews. We're often told that despite obvious post enlightenment,religous objections Mary of Nazareth is a spiritual force for genuine ecumenism. JP II was such a figure. However during my intership with the World Youth Alliance in New York I was informed that our evangelical breathren were, "Put Off" by the phrase, "Culture of Life." Coined by the Late Great caretaker of the church this was an excellent  up beat way of summarising the culture that we should ALL be aiming for. Secular thinking friends from all walks of life were otherwise fascinated by it, yet even here, with something that should have united there was division.

State of the Union.

To the next leader of the Labour party, a young man of integrity, "Ginger" Rooney.

In my home country, UK it was made abundantly clear at the Downing Street (White House) gates recently that even the UK police can sometimes make the mistake of thinking that they are above the law. As a family friend said recently, “Nobody polices the police.” Due to our traditional emphasis on free speech, tolerance and accountability we have always had a relatively incorrupt police service. Our laughing stock is our celebrity culture.  Starting with Jimmy Savile the ongoing police paedophile ring investigation is horrifying and beggars belief. It must be said however that it is no wonder that these people apparently behaved in the manner in which they did. The pattern by which we exhalt and then pulverise celebrity is perverse in itself. The police are not the only ones that believe they are above the law.

Andrew Mitchel was Conservative chief whip, but the hopefuls for the Downing Street job are becoming younger and younger.  In this amoral age we must ask ourselves the perennial question that we once asked of our leaders – “If these people are willing to act in this way towards their nearest and dearest then how would they behave towards us, whom they do not know?” British generic socialism should have fallen on the beach with Kinnock, but seems to have resurfaced with the fratricidal Ed Milliband. A Post social democratic, genuine and clearly articulated Third Way may have had a chance under Ed’s promising, brilliant and understated brother David Milliband but after the leadership was taken from under the latter’s nose in a typally leftist, definitevely Machiavelian and Stalinesque manner by his underhand brother  a young promising, self-effacing foreign secretary  used to addressing the United Nations was last seen on the board of a third rate UK soccer team. The left has always been fractuois and complicated which is generally a sign that something is far from God.

The word Diabolo means fractured.

The winning of the upper middle class has always been pivotal to gaining the political leadership of working social democracies. Aristotle noted that they weigh up and take the good from both the left and the right, deciding if either or is going to stay on or let another philosophy have a chance. The US copied the UK’s bi cameral system. Despite Reagan’s claims to Keep the world safe for Democracy North American voting apathy is a result of too much democracy -  the senate is completely elected. In the UK we must look to this as we tinker with the Lords, and remember that thus far our bi cameral system has given us left of centre triumphs like the NHS and Margaret Thatcher’s reforms from the right.  What is dangerous now however is that like the rest of the polity the middle class are generally narrow, historically ignorant and often apathetic. Tony Blair’s genius was similar to that of the great Christian writer C.S. Lewis  – making complicated things sound simple. Armed with such weapons the swinging middle class can then be wooed.

 Blair’s philosophy was never definitively articulated. All he offered was what we needed to feel good about ourselves at the time. In William Hague’s word’s He just sat on things. The Third Way is now dead, extinct under UK Labour and a damp squib under Obama.

Micro finance is emphasised and much is made of the hope that the Third World does not make our socio economic mistakes, but much closer to home in the Former Soviet Bloc the far right is being looked to answer the embarrassingly obvious questions that are being asked of the Occidental Social Democratic model.

Since the “Evil Empire” collapsed our wars have become hotter. We have fought governments and insurgents that we trained and funded ourselves. In so doing have stretched our respective militaries to breaking point. Blair’s transposition of traditionally right wing oratorical persuasion was imperative to America or she risked becoming an international pariah herself.

Current opinion polls might say otherwise but unless left with no other option the Upper Middle class will never elect Ed Miliband. In fact with the Labour party becoming at least unilaterally unelectable once again the UK is probably condemned to a generation of unstable government, absolutely defeating the purpose of our hitherto robust, sensible and productive First Past the Post System.  

The incumbent Prime Minister knows this and is completely justified in taking his chance and calling a vote on Europe. This is called leadership and should be applauded and not maligned.

Surprisingly for a man who was impressed by the ferocious audaicity of the late John Smith I would rather vote for David Cameron than Ed Milliband. Personal integrity in a politician is integral. With his EU exit referendum proposal Cameron has at least done something with his tenure and is offering us a plebiscite on EU membership. Britain will always be a masculine country of legalists and does not seem to fit into the generally Latin and therefore feminine spirit of the EU. As Scotland looks to her future in 2014 by 2020 as a country we should all at least have laid some perennial, niggling existential banshees to rest.

As a born and bred Scotsman it was a pleasure to recently experience the latest instalment of the Albert R. Broccoli franchise Skyfall. The film climaxes when Bond returns to his Highland roots. We learn that the arch British hero is in fact the product of a Franco-Scots marriage.  An acknowledgment of the current socio-political discourse?

Probably.