When Love Beckons

When love beckons to you, follow him, 

Though his ways are hard and steep. 

And when his wings enfold you yield to him, 

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. 

And when he speaks to you believe in him, 

Though his voice may shatter your dreams 

as the north wind lays waste the garden. 

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. 

Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. 

Even as he ascends to your height 

and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, 

so shall he descend to your roots 

and shake them in their clinging to the earth. 

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself. 

He threshes you to make you naked. 

He sifts you to free you from your husks. 

He grinds you to whiteness. 

He kneads you until you are pliant; 

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, 

that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast. 

All these things shall love do unto you 

that you may know the secrets of your heart, 

and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart. 

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, 

Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness 

and pass out of love's threshing-floor, 

Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, 

but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears. 

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. 

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; 

For love is sufficient unto love. 

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," 

but rather, I am in the heart of God." 

And think not you can direct the course of love, 

if it finds you worthy, it directs your course. 

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself. 

But if you love and must needs have desires, 

let these be your desires: 

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. 

To know the pain of too much tenderness. 

To be wounded by your own understanding of love; 

And to bleed willingly and joyfully. 

To wake at dawn with a winged heart 

and give thanks for another day of loving; 

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; 

To return home at eventide with gratitude; 

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved 

in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips. 

--Khalil Gibran (1883-1931), Maronite Catholic Mystic and Poet

A Heartfelt Plea for Chastity

Because of our sinful condition, everybody has intrinsically disordered desires, many of them sexual in character, and some of them quite weird and disturbing. Fantasizing about women gaining weight or expanding like balloons happens to turn me on, but I don't act on it, and I try not to even think about it. By God's abundant grace, I'm able to overcome this aspect of my fallen nature. Because I rest in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I can resist sinful passions. Catholic blogger and fellow Benedictine Oblate, Elizabeth Scalia, recently shared similar sentiments regarding her tendencies to overeat and commit other related acts of gluttony. We human beings are all broken in many ways, but there is hope—we can find healing.

And that's what Pope Francis' strong words on gay marriage and adoption are all about—the healing power of God, made manifest in the Church. "Let’s not be naïve, we’re not talking about a simple political battle," the Pope wrote in a letter regarding the legalization of same-sex marriage in Argentina, "it is a destructive pretension against the plan of God. We are not talking about a mere bill, but rather a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God." If we Catholics have the truth about human sexuality, the very key to embodied happiness—and I wholeheartedly believe that we do—it would be wrong not to proclaim this truth to the world.

Indeed, we must proclaim the truth, and it would be hateful not to, for that would mean abandoning people to wallow in pain and anguish. As Penn Jillette eloquently expressed it in a video, "If you believe that there's a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell—or not getting eternal life or whatever—and you think that, well, it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward, how much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?" Likewise, if sexual misconduct is as destructive a sin as the Bible makes it out to be, wouldn't it be rather callous not to care what people do with their bodies?

Please, all of you in the LGBTQ community who are striving to incorporate temptations of the flesh into your core identity, I ask you to listen to me. You don't have to reduce love to sex, or demand that sex express your love in a way that works against your own good and the good of others. It doesn't have to be that way. Sex is a sacred act that brings about new human life. To use it for anything less is to commit sacrilege against the most beautiful thing that God has made—the human body. I know that deep in your heart, you understand that the pleasures of sex exist for the purpose of drawing man and woman together so that there may be new life. Truth is hard, but you can bear it, and you can be happy without sin. And neither I, nor the Pope, nor the Church, is ever going to stop preaching that message, no matter how unpopular it may get.

Many people say that preaching the sanctity of marriage is not part of the Gospel, that our Lord never addressed LGBTQ issues, but listen to what Jesus himself says: "Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it" (Matthew 19:12). The Jews in Jesus' time were not ignorant about disordered sexual desires and other defects and the problems that they can pose; their Roman conquerers practiced and celebrated every kind of sexual union imaginable. And Jesus, and all faithful Jews, absolutely opposed these sinful acts.

I do not mean to sound inhumane—I am sure that it is a heartache to know that you might not ever be able to feel attraction for a woman and raise a family, just as it is a heartache for me to know that I am confined to a wheelchair and will never be able to walk. God did not make either of us this way, sin did—the sins of the fallen angels, perhaps the sins of our parents, and most certainly the imperfections of this sinful world that "is groaning in labor pains" and "awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God" (Romans 8:19, 22).

Again, God did not create your disordered desires; resist the voices that say otherwise. Not everything about us is good and God-given—if that were true, God would be a monster, because he would have to be the author not only of your sexual orientation, but also my physical disability. God is not the author of evil.

Put aside the rationalizations, excuses, and uneasy truces that you make with yourself. Whether you're straight or gay, stop committing sexual misconduct. Stop divorcing acts of sexual intercourse from procreative ends within loving marriages. Stop denying children what they rightly deserve by virtue of being human beings—a loving mother and father. Stop ruining lives, economies, communities, and souls in the pursuit of sterile erotic pleasure. Stop dressing up sin in the language of tolerance, progress, and charity. Stop using science to justify vices, when you know well that science, by its very nature, has nothing to say either for or against questions of morality.

"Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

I am begging you, do not exchange the truth of God for a lie that will only bring temporary relief and a feeling of pride and acceptance in the eyes of men. Do not become like the poor souls mentioned in St. Paul's letter to the Romans: "Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God handed them over to their undiscerning mind to do what is improper" (1:26-28).

Don't do this, my brothers and sisters—don't run away from the truth for fear of your weakness, "for power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). Come to our Savior and drink deeply from the living waters, and you will never thirst again—not for love, not for acceptance, not for power. Come, be at peace.

Divine Mercy and Dogville

The Divine Mercy Chaplet originated from a vision that St. Faustina had of an Angel, the executor of divine wrath, on the evening of September 13, 1935. She wrote:

"He was clothed in a dazzling robe, his face gloriously bright, a cloud beneath his feet. From the cloud, bolts of thunder and flashes of lightning were springing into his hands; and from his hand they were going forth, and only then were they striking the earth. When I saw this sign of divine wrath which was about to strike the earth, and in particular a certain place, which for good reasons I cannot name, I began to implore the angel to hold off for a few moments, and the world would do penance. But my plea was a mere nothing in the face of the divine anger. Just then I saw the Most Holy Trinity. The greatness of Its majesty pierced me deeply, and I did not dare to repeat my entreaties. At that very moment I felt in my soul the power of Jesus' grace, which dwells in my soul. When I became conscious of this grace, I was instantly snatched up before the Throne of God. Oh, how great is our Lord and God and how incomprehensible His holiness! I will make no attempt to describe this greatness, because before long we shall all see Him as He is. I found myself pleading with God for the world with words heard interiorly. 

"As I was praying in this manner, I saw the Angel’s helplessness: he could not carry out the just punishment which was rightly due for sins. Never before had I prayed  with such inner power as I did then. The words with which I entreated God are these: Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world; for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us."

Have we lost a sense of God's majesty and judgment in the Church today? I would say yes, we certainly have. Whenever I hear the Divine Mercy preached, it seems to me that the reasons for its consolations are entirely forgotten.

We human beings rightly deserve the fierce retribution of Divine Wrath, and anyone who spends a decent amount of time contemplating their own life can understand that. But to those who repent and rely on Jesus, Divine Mercy has been promised. Full pardon. What an incredible grace! However, for those who remain in their sins, who live selfishly and do not sacrifice for others, the Lord God will appear as a merciless judge who will pay back to everyone the full measure of evil that they have inflicted on others.

The time of mercy is brief. As Jesus said, "We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work" (John 9:4). The era of peace is quickly drawing to a close; a great and terrible period of judgment is coming that will shake the very foundations of the world. I do not think it will necessarily be the end, but it will definitely be an end—an end to everything we know and rely upon, of the nations, institutions, and organizations that have sustained us. Only the Church will survive, and many will die, even among the righteous.

Listen to Jesus. “Consider the fig tree and all the other trees. When their buds burst open, you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near; in the same way, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Luke 21:29-33).

Every generation must experience its own miniature apocalypse, true, but I believe ours will be the greatest one yet. Why? Because if God does not judge a generation with the blood of 1.2 billion children on its hands from abortion, a generation that has martyred over 40 million Christians, 6 million Jews, and that has enacted countless other genocides in the past century alone—if God does not bring a day of reckoning for our war against the family, against sexual morality, against every reasonable virtue, and against the very integrity of our planet's natural environment, then he is not a God of goodness at all. Rather, he is a licentious monster who is unworthy of our worship and devotion.

Open your eyes. We can no longer afford a Christianity of comfort, affirmation, and luxury. We cannot be casual Catholics any longer, or else the Lord will throw us into the eternal fire like nothing more than bits of useless straw. "For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. When people are saying, 'Peace and security,' then sudden disaster comes upon them, like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape" (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3).

We have abused and wasted the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we should not be surprised when grace abandons us, leaving us naked, alone, and in mortal terror. If you don't think things are going to get bad, it's because you're like a frog who hasn't noticed that the water has already begun to boil—you're already half-dead. Turn then, to the God who gives life to the dead, and pardon to the sinner. For if our world is to remain a place where life can dwell, judgment must come. If new trees are to grow, fire must consume the forest. This is the way of Christ.

If this message seems hard for you, I would recommend watching the movie Dogville. You'll need a strong stomach, but it is a painfully accurate depiction of Church teaching on mercy, forgiveness, justice, and the tragic hardness of the human heart.

God's forgiveness is free and full, but it isn't forever. Will we continue to reject God's grace until it is too late, or will we open our hearts to love before the final curtain falls? Only time, and prayer, will tell.

The 2-2-3 Plan: A Call to Radical Prayer and Fasting

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. 
-- Matthew 5:43-48

Our Lord gives us tough words for tough times. In recent months, I've found myself quite distraught over the state of the world, and increasingly, I'm beginning to realize that words like those quoted above offer the only salve for the wounds of my heart, addled as it is with anger and despair.

In the modern world, it seems that arguments for the truth of the Gospel have ceased to be effective. Admonitions fall flat. Calls to repentance go ignored. Fiery polemics burn in vain against hearts that have become colder than the vacuum of space. In spite of the Church's best efforts, in spite of a vast array of holy and saintly lives lived entirely by the grace of Jesus Christ, the wickedness of the world continues unabated and scandals choke out the glorious radiance of our Faith. And what can be done about it? We are powerless, absolutely and completely powerless. There is nothing left for us to do.

But, there is everything left for God to do. We cannot save the world, but Jesus can. We cannot convert the hearts of our families, friends, and neighbors, but Jesus can. No program of evangelization, or pamphlet, or blog that we create can ever be effective, but Jesus can. Jesus can do all things, if only our devoted love for our enemies allows God to work through us.

Friends in Christ, we are losing our spiritual war against the powers of evil because we have been fighting with the wrong weapons. "For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens" (Ephesians 6:12). We, me included, have been relying on reasoned arguments, appeals to beauty, messages of comfort and love, and warnings of damnation, as if we were contending with mere mortal men and simply trying to convince them to make good decisions in life. But, "the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:4). Therefore, our preaching falls on ears deafened by Satan, and our witness is lost on eyes dazzled by the false light of Lucifer. In brief, all our striving, all our activism, all our articles and magazines and forums and radio and TV stations—it is all useless, all pointless, all doomed to failure.

What then, remains for us to do? Again, nothing but love our enemies, "love your enemies and bless the one who curses you, and do what is beautiful to the one who hates you, and pray over those who take you by force and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44, Peshitta). We must appeal directly to God. The demons of this world are strong, and their grasp on humanity is firm. As Jesus himself testified, "this kind can come out only by prayer and fasting" (Mark 9:29). The Maronite Divine Liturgy elaborates that prayer and fasting are most potent weapons:

 fasting and prayer purify the soul and make the body chaste;
fasting and prayer spread a marvelous light, the light of Christ,
on those who fast and pray;
fasting and prayer raise the spirit, restrain the passions,
and mercy from on high pours forth;
fasting and prayer dispel evil spirits
and the Holy Spirit dwells in the soul created to be the
temple of God.

Therefore, I believe the Lord is calling me to advocate what I have named the "2-2-3 Plan." I have found inspiration for the 2-2-3 Plan in diverse sources ranging all the way from St. Anthony of the Desert to speeches given by past presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Although I myself am Catholic, I invite all Christians, and indeed, all men of good will, to try the 2-2-3 Plan. And what is the 2-2-3 Plan? That one should observe:

• 2 hours maximum of mass recreational multimedia use per day (TV, video games, Facebook, etc)
• 2 days a week spent in fasting and abstinence (no more than one, full, vegetarian meal)
• 3 prayer times every single day (totaling at least 30 minutes altogether)

I feel no real need to defend the 2-2-3 Plan, because it speaks for itself. 

God bless my readers, and may he move your heart to follow his own will in the matter that I have proposed to you. By all means, pray, and if you feel called, make the 2-2-3 Plan a part of your life, not just for Lent, but for always.  

Kids' Choice?

And if anyone hurts the conscience of one of these little ones, that believe in me, he had better have been drowned in the depths of the sea, with a mill-stone hung about his neck -- Matthew 18:6, Knox Bible

Unlike other dogs, Pomeranian Catholic is more bite than bark. It takes an awful lot to incite me, but once I'm incited, beware—I go into fire-and-brimstone mode. And I won't stop until people are crying, ripping their clothes, and pouring ashes on their heads. Thus, it is with a heavy heart and a fierce passion that I must now don my angry hat and shout out some good-old polemics.

Friends, you know that modern society has a sex problem. And the most pernicious aspect of the problem is the sexualization of children's programs. However, until recently, I tended to write off those who argue that our civilization is rapidly sliding toward the normalization of pedophilia as paranoid kooks. Not anymore. Consider the following video, in which Josh Duhamel mock-acts a particularly twisted form of...self-gratification...in front of children, among other sickening things.

If any public school teacher, priest, or law officer played with ejaculating-fake-boobies (yep, I called it, because that's what it is) in front of kids, they would rightly be prosecuted for gross sexual misconduct and shunned as perverts and pedophiles. I believe we should do the same to Josh Duhamel, and to anyone else who may be responsible for this absolutely disgusting video. Because apparently, our media elites think it's perfectly okay to take advantage of the sacred innocence of children.

Some may object that Josh was only mocking Katy Perry in good fun. Personally, I don't care what inspired the bizarre squirting-breast scene (if he wanted to mock Katy Perry's music video, he should've used sparklers, not mega-turkey-baster-nipples). Young children shouldn't be watching MTV anyway. And I really couldn't give a hoot about who approved the scene and under what authority. Watching it makes me want to ram some people full-throttle with my wheelchair. One may argue that the folks at Nickelodeon simply went a little too far with their jovial twistedness, unintentionally, but you know what? "As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and castrate themselves!" (Gal. 5:12) Because if they won't do it, I'd be happier than a beaver in a lumber yard to do it for them.

When it comes to sexual misconduct committed in front of or against children, I think it's high time we start hacking folks' balls off. And I'm tossing that out there as a serious point of consideration for our judicial system in this country. If people can't control their ding dongs, they don't need to have them. "It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna." (Mt. 5:30)

I don't appreciate turning on the TV to watch cartoons only to have my eyes assaulted by some dude squishing his candy-cain tits. We have YouTube for that (sarcasm). You had better believe I won't be watching Nickelodeon anymore, and neither will my future kids. Because whatever that channel was when I was growing up, now it's just a cesspool of vulgarity.

Can't kids just be kids anymore?

Kids' choice? Give the kids a real choice. Stop forcing them to drink from the toxic tap of pop culture, because trust me, they'd choose a good game of backyard knights-and-dragons over an opportunity to act just like the drug-addled, neglectful, and abuse-prone adults who always let them down, every freaking day.

P.S. I am angry at the whole world right now.

Commentary or no?

I recently received a Knox Bible from Baronius Press for my birthday, and I must say, this is an absolutely beautiful book. I'm extremely impressed with the binding and the typeset. My friend Travis, who gave me the Bible, however, has some minor complaints about the translation of the Psalms as prose poems and the general lack of book introductions and footnotes.

For Catholics accustomed to the NABRE, the rather spartan feel of most other Bibles in terms of study aids can present quite a culture shock. Because I was raised in a Protestant tradition, the exact opposite is true for me. I tend to get distracted by commentaries to the point where I'm reading footnotes more than the actual text itself! That's why I prefer my Bibles rather bare—just God's Word, with as little frills and thrills as possible.

In my opinion, a good, everyday use or family Bible shouldn't contain any study aids developed from a historical critical perspective. That kind of commentary quickly becomes dated as scholarly views shift. Holy Scripture shouldn't be like some sort of "iWord Portable" that you have to update every few years, which is one of my biggest pet peeves about the NABRE and several other modern versions. I think in-Bible study aids should be limited mainly to doctrinal explanations.

What's your opinion?

Pythagorean Theorem Water Demo

The sum of the areas of the two squares along the legs of a right triangle equals the area of the square along the hypotenuse.