News today of an apparent second assassination attempt on Mr Trump suggests that the Trump Derangement Syndrome one encounters nearly everywhere is, on the fringes, manifesting as lethal violence. But it is already, even at the centre, a kind of intellectual and moral violence.
I've been following Peter Kwasniewski for a while now. He might suggest that we are now reaping the whirlwind of godlessness from what was sown by Paul VI and left unchecked by JPII and B16 (and indeed Cardinal Mueller?) when they deemed it right and just to destroy and/or acquiesce in the destruction of the central work of God bequeathed to we the people of God by God incarnate and by the working of the Holy Spirit in the bosom of the Church over the course of her first 19 centuries -- that is, 'the Mass of the Ages.' I don't know what you think about that, but I wonder if that's what we should perhaps principally have in mind with the notion of 'remembering God.'
Politically speaking, it appears that both Harris and Trump are Moloch worshippers, Donald just a tiny bit less extreme than Mamala. (She's apparently a true fanatic, while he's merely an unprincipled narcissistic opportunist.)
As for trust not in princes, I tend to think this means trust not in politics at all. The foreordained fate of the city of man is in God's hands. Our task as Christians is not some kind of promethean neo-Pelagian crusade to save the city of man -- and I'm certainly not implying that we are are permitted to be politically indifferent -- but to remember that it is God who has indeed doomed the world to destruction, and that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Certainly those are principles of Christian faith from which the prelates of the Church seem to have silently and not-so-silently apostatized.
God has doomed the world to destruction? What then is the Mass? What was the point of the Incarnation itself, on which the Mass rests? If by "the world" one means "the society of corrupt angels and men," well then, "come out from among them" and be separate, be holy—a call more effectively communicated in the TLM than in the Novus Ordo, I would say, though the whirlwind of unholiness was not conjured up by the latter. But if one means what John means when he writes, "For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son...," then rejoice in the world's salvation, which was not and is not dependent on a particular form of the Mass. The law of prayer is the law of faith, to be sure, and weakened forms of prayer weaken the Church, but the power of salvation belongs to the triune God, who has exercised it from of old. He did not wait for the appearance of the Tridentine form to exercise it, nor does he cease to exercise it apart from that form.
Yes, that's my understanding: God has doomed the world to destruction. That is clearly what our Lord promises. And the apostles, e.g.: "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare." You take issue with that?? What then is the Mass? The Mass is provisional, a foreshadowing, an anticipation. It will be destroyed along with the world. That's my understanding. What's yours? It's obvious that God's salvation didn't await the Tridentine form of the Mass; that's beside the point that God did bring forth the Tridentine form of the Mass, and that his great and terrible Day of Judgment will appear in power at some point in history, and it's appearing might have some relation to the preceding destruction by evil men of the sacred form of the Mass that he had given to the Church (and no, I don't think that there is any necessary implication of definite temporal imminence in this -- only God knows the time). That seems to be the theory anyway. Seems nuts to you?
One must carry on with what Peter says there. "... But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." That is, for a renewed creation, the palingenesis or "renewal of all things" promised by the One some God sent into the world to save it, not to destroy it. Like baptism, the Mass is, so to say, a provisional and sacramental way of touching the renewal of all things: the end, yes, of what has been corrupted; the beginning of what is incorruptible.
I too am distressed, as Cardinal Muller is, at the practical atheism of many church leaders. They seem to, however, put much effort into image and making sure everything seems just dandy. Also, it seems there is a real anti-intellectualism, especially here in Canada. I do not know what it will take to wake these many church leaders up.
Thank you for this essay. Or sermon. We are told to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.
The Hebrews were told to remember that God took them out of Egypt.
The disciples were to told to ‘do this in remembrance of me’
Remembering God.
We are told to turn back to God. People have been running and hiding from Him for millennia. Adam, Eve, Moses, Balaam, Jonah…
However, Psalm 68 describes the chariots of God that leave his throne room on Mt Sinai.
Just a reminder that the ‘hoof beats of the horses pulling those chariots’ are reverberating every moment upon the earth and those who are running away from God cannot escape the vibrations.
Augustine, Calvin and many other saints have written about the inescapable nature of man who will worship someone, something. Let’s implore God that people will turn back to Him.
Let’s lie down in hope tonight people of God, as he sits enthroned in the heavens and while we cannot hear it through our mourning; we know He is laughing. So we can rejoice.
News today of an apparent second assassination attempt on Mr Trump suggests that the Trump Derangement Syndrome one encounters nearly everywhere is, on the fringes, manifesting as lethal violence. But it is already, even at the centre, a kind of intellectual and moral violence.
I've been following Peter Kwasniewski for a while now. He might suggest that we are now reaping the whirlwind of godlessness from what was sown by Paul VI and left unchecked by JPII and B16 (and indeed Cardinal Mueller?) when they deemed it right and just to destroy and/or acquiesce in the destruction of the central work of God bequeathed to we the people of God by God incarnate and by the working of the Holy Spirit in the bosom of the Church over the course of her first 19 centuries -- that is, 'the Mass of the Ages.' I don't know what you think about that, but I wonder if that's what we should perhaps principally have in mind with the notion of 'remembering God.'
Politically speaking, it appears that both Harris and Trump are Moloch worshippers, Donald just a tiny bit less extreme than Mamala. (She's apparently a true fanatic, while he's merely an unprincipled narcissistic opportunist.)
As for trust not in princes, I tend to think this means trust not in politics at all. The foreordained fate of the city of man is in God's hands. Our task as Christians is not some kind of promethean neo-Pelagian crusade to save the city of man -- and I'm certainly not implying that we are are permitted to be politically indifferent -- but to remember that it is God who has indeed doomed the world to destruction, and that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Certainly those are principles of Christian faith from which the prelates of the Church seem to have silently and not-so-silently apostatized.
God has doomed the world to destruction? What then is the Mass? What was the point of the Incarnation itself, on which the Mass rests? If by "the world" one means "the society of corrupt angels and men," well then, "come out from among them" and be separate, be holy—a call more effectively communicated in the TLM than in the Novus Ordo, I would say, though the whirlwind of unholiness was not conjured up by the latter. But if one means what John means when he writes, "For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son...," then rejoice in the world's salvation, which was not and is not dependent on a particular form of the Mass. The law of prayer is the law of faith, to be sure, and weakened forms of prayer weaken the Church, but the power of salvation belongs to the triune God, who has exercised it from of old. He did not wait for the appearance of the Tridentine form to exercise it, nor does he cease to exercise it apart from that form.
Yes, that's my understanding: God has doomed the world to destruction. That is clearly what our Lord promises. And the apostles, e.g.: "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare." You take issue with that?? What then is the Mass? The Mass is provisional, a foreshadowing, an anticipation. It will be destroyed along with the world. That's my understanding. What's yours? It's obvious that God's salvation didn't await the Tridentine form of the Mass; that's beside the point that God did bring forth the Tridentine form of the Mass, and that his great and terrible Day of Judgment will appear in power at some point in history, and it's appearing might have some relation to the preceding destruction by evil men of the sacred form of the Mass that he had given to the Church (and no, I don't think that there is any necessary implication of definite temporal imminence in this -- only God knows the time). That seems to be the theory anyway. Seems nuts to you?
One must carry on with what Peter says there. "... But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells." That is, for a renewed creation, the palingenesis or "renewal of all things" promised by the One some God sent into the world to save it, not to destroy it. Like baptism, the Mass is, so to say, a provisional and sacramental way of touching the renewal of all things: the end, yes, of what has been corrupted; the beginning of what is incorruptible.
I too am distressed, as Cardinal Muller is, at the practical atheism of many church leaders. They seem to, however, put much effort into image and making sure everything seems just dandy. Also, it seems there is a real anti-intellectualism, especially here in Canada. I do not know what it will take to wake these many church leaders up.
Beyond Hubris
Each of us, perhaps more than once,
In the journey of a life time,
Has built our own tower of Babel,
Reaching for that sweet taste of a god-like glory,
Wearing that dazzling crown, bright with
The sheer magnificence of our own success,
All around, the allure of adoring adulation,
And the pomposity of just this moment,
Though we often crave for more and for longer;
Hubris flows so sinister in all our veins,
Coursing surreptitiously through our frames,
Pumping our egos with arrogant audacity,
Driving our humanity with a grandiosity,
At the centre of this universe
Of our own creation, we demand more
Attention; the intoxicating applause of galleries,
High, we perch on our lofty self-importance,
We savour the eyes of the watching world on us;
And through time, each of us, with this hubris,
Feeds empires that bloat and boast,
Puffed up and swollen with conceit,
Mesmerised, we join in flattery of our invincibility,
We groom ourselves in fanciful visions of immortality,
Puffed out, we survey all that we have made,
We believe our destiny is the dominance of the stars,
We stand, Caesar-like with clenched and iron-clad fists,
We lord over creation with postures of our pride.
But our hubris is the mocking of our true being,
Look! The mirror is cracking under the falsity of our gaze,
Right now, we are called to see anew, with humble eyes,
The sacred light wants to shine in and permeate our souls,
She wants to realign us with our one essential self,
At last! The tempter’s hypnotic voice is overcome with Spirit’s grace,
Our true humanity is freed and unfolds within Creator’s realm,
Now, we know ourselves enshrined in Spirit’s majesty and love,
We bathe in the Presence, both within and from above.
We dare to journey on through these pleasures and these pains,
We step into our higher calling, and into more noble gains.
© Roger Arendse – 20200502
Thank you for this essay. Or sermon. We are told to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.
The Hebrews were told to remember that God took them out of Egypt.
The disciples were to told to ‘do this in remembrance of me’
Remembering God.
We are told to turn back to God. People have been running and hiding from Him for millennia. Adam, Eve, Moses, Balaam, Jonah…
However, Psalm 68 describes the chariots of God that leave his throne room on Mt Sinai.
Just a reminder that the ‘hoof beats of the horses pulling those chariots’ are reverberating every moment upon the earth and those who are running away from God cannot escape the vibrations.
Augustine, Calvin and many other saints have written about the inescapable nature of man who will worship someone, something. Let’s implore God that people will turn back to Him.
Let’s lie down in hope tonight people of God, as he sits enthroned in the heavens and while we cannot hear it through our mourning; we know He is laughing. So we can rejoice.