Blessed Henry Suso, OP (d. 1366)
Why Mary is Queen : Magnificat meditation, 22 August 2002
Remember, remember, clement beloved Queen, that you derive all your dignity from us sinful men. Why were you constituted as Mother of God, the chest in which eternal wisdom sweetly reposed? Lady, it was because of the sins of us poor creatures. How could you be called the mother of grace and of mercy if our afflictions did not clamor for your grace and mercy? Our indigence has enriched you; our infirmities have ennobled you above all creatures.
Ah, therefore, look at me, a poor creature, with those merciful eyes which your loving heart has never turned away from a sinful or disconsolate person. Enfold me under your mantle because you are my consolation and my hope.
How many sinful souls there are who at some time abandoned God and all the heavenly host, who denied God, despaired of God, and miserably separated themselves from him, but who, nevertheless, had recourse to you and were mercifully sheltered by you until through your grace they were again admitted to grace!
Is there any sinner, no matter how numerous his crimes and felonies, who cannot overcome his discouragement by thinking of you?
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
Moralism?
A reading
Magnificat meditation, 14th June 2000
The temptation to turn Christianity into a kind of moralism and to concentrate everything on man's moral action has always been great. For man sees himself above all. God remains invisible, untouchable and, therefore, man takes his support mainly from his own action. But if God does not act, if God is not a true agent in history who also enters into my personal life, then what does redemption mean? Of what value is our relationship with Christ, and thus, with the Trinitarian God? I think the temptation to reduce Christianity to the level of a type of moralism is very great even in our own day ... For we are all living in an atmosphere of deism. Our notion of natural laws does not facilitate us in believing in any action of God in our world. It seems that there is no room for God himself to act in human history and in my life. And so we have the idea of God who can no longer enter into this cosmos, made and closed against him. What is left? Our action. And we are the ones who must transform the world. We are the ones who must generate redemption. We are the ones who must create the better world, a new world. And if that is how one thinks, then Christianity is dead.
-- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
Magnificat meditation, 14th June 2000
The temptation to turn Christianity into a kind of moralism and to concentrate everything on man's moral action has always been great. For man sees himself above all. God remains invisible, untouchable and, therefore, man takes his support mainly from his own action. But if God does not act, if God is not a true agent in history who also enters into my personal life, then what does redemption mean? Of what value is our relationship with Christ, and thus, with the Trinitarian God? I think the temptation to reduce Christianity to the level of a type of moralism is very great even in our own day ... For we are all living in an atmosphere of deism. Our notion of natural laws does not facilitate us in believing in any action of God in our world. It seems that there is no room for God himself to act in human history and in my life. And so we have the idea of God who can no longer enter into this cosmos, made and closed against him. What is left? Our action. And we are the ones who must transform the world. We are the ones who must generate redemption. We are the ones who must create the better world, a new world. And if that is how one thinks, then Christianity is dead.
-- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Catholic Howl
Anyone familiar with Allen Ginsberg's beat classic will appreciate this expert parody.
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