Christmas homily of Pope Benedict XVI at Midnight Mass

Here's an excerpt from the pope's words:

"God became poor. His Son was born in the poverty of the stable. In the child Jesus, God made himself dependent, in need of human love, he put himself in the position of asking for human love – our love. Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the mystery of God’s humility, which in turn calls us to humility and simplicity. Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light."

Read the Holy Father's Christmas homily at the Vatican's website.

Merry Christmas!

A Child Is Born (Well... a different one)!

Benedict Joseph was born on December 24th at 1:17 a.m.!
Named after our dear Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, as well as St. Benedict the Father of Western Monasticism. Joseph is a family name (my great-grandfather, grandfather, and my own middle name); it is also fitting to name him after St. Joseph during this Christmas season. Deo gratias!
Mrs. A. and baby are well.
Thank you for your continued prayers.
Merry Christmas!
-Mr. A.

Images from the Windy City

Prima Pars (126 images)...


Secunda Pars (62 images)...

The Empire Builder (or, What I Saw On the Train)

Ok, gang. You all have to write papers, so in solidarity I too wrote one. After our discussion with your parents today, I decided to share a piece I wrote for the Wanderer Forum Foundation. Click here if you are interested.

Rommen and Ratzinger on Metaphysics: Its Importance for the Law and Society

In Fr. Robert J. Araujo, S.J.'s remarks on the natural law, he referenced a brilliant German lawyer and thinker, Heinrich Rommen. (If you haven't read Rommen, shame on you!) He was imprisoned by and later fled the Nazis for his defense of law as an "ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated" (Summa Theologiae I-II, 90, art. 4). The Nazi regime--as well as any totalitarian regime--in its embracing of the Modernist position (which is nothing other than the embrace of the Enlightenment project, specifically that of Descartes), perverted law from an "ordinance of reason" to be rather an "ordinance of will."

In our example in class the other day, we saw how an arbitrary exercise of the will can result in an unjust law. In the example given, we looked at the "reasonableness" aspect of the definition of law. But what is the foundation for a law's reasonableness? The answer lies in the Chesterton quote below. There we saw that one cannot escape the essential question of being or existence; and even more, the Ultimate Being or Existence Himself, God. In philosophy, this area of inquiry is called metaphysics. Rommen expands upon this in his magisterial tome The Natural Law. He looks historically at the times when natural law was esteemed:

The idea of natural law obtains general acceptance only in the periods when metaphysics, queen of the sciences, is dominant. It recedes or suffers an eclipse, on the other hand, when being and oughtness, morality and law, are separated, when the essences of things and their ontological order are viewed as unknowable. The natural law, consequently, depends on the science of being, on metaphysics (The Natural Law, 141).

I cannot emphasize enough, dear students, the importance of considering this fundamental question. Then-Cardinal Ratzinger in an article entitled, "Faith, Philosophy, and Theology," [11 Communio 351, 357 (1984)] stated: "The true philosopher, if he wishes to reach the ultimate questions, cannot free himself from the question of God, the foundation and end of being itself." The implications of this for the society are profound. It is the difference between the gulag and freedom.

GKC, Aquinas, Children, Grass: The Primacy of Existence

As we read McInerny's distinction between the Modernist View vs. the Classical View, I thought this quote by the great G.K. Chesterton to be well worth our consideration:

Without pretending to span within such limits the essential Thomist idea, I may be allowed to throw out a sort of rough version of the fundamental question, which I think I have known myself, consciously or unconsciously since my childhood. When a child looks out a nursery window and sees anything, say the green lawn of the garden, what does he actually know; or does he know anything? There are all sorts of nursery games of negative philosophy played round this question. A brilliant Victorian scientist delighted in declaring that the child does not see any grass at all; but only a sort of green mist reflected in a tiny mirror of the human eye. This piece of rationalism has always struck me as almost insanely irrational. If he is not sure of the existence of the grass, which he sees through the glass of a window, how on earth can he be sure of the existence of the retina, which he sees through the glass of a microscope? If sight deceives, why can it not go on deceiving? Men of another school answer that grass is a mere green impression on the mind; and that he can be sure of nothing except the mind. They declare that he can only be conscious of his own consciousness; which happens to be the one thing that we know that the child is not conscious of at all. In that sense, it would be far truer to say that there is grass and no child, than to say that there is a conscious child but no grass. St. Thomas Aquinas, suddenly intervening in this nursery quarrel, says emphatically that the child is aware of Ens. Long before he knows that grass is grass, or self is self, he knows that something is something. Perhaps it would be best to say very emphatically (with a blow on the table), "There is an Is". This is as much monkish credulity as St. Thomas asks of us at the start. Very few unbelievers start by asking us to believe so little. And yet, upon this sharp pin-point of reality, he rears by long logical processes that have never really been successfullly overthrown, the whole cosmic system of Christendom.

Ens is the present participle of the Latin verb esse. It means "being" or "existing." Existence is glorious! It is the hallmark and the sublime mystery of God Himself, Who named Himself "I Am Who Am." It is upon this foundation of ultimate reality, Existence Himself, that every thing else hangs.

Memorabilia

 

The Greatest English Teacher

Fabulous article that I can relate well to (I'll have to check my grammar on that dangling preposition). Required reading for all of you. Here is a sample:

Father John Becker, S.J., sat at the front of the classroom, paperback in hand, glasses pushed to the end of his nose. As he spoke, he looked intently from one student to another.

"This semester, I am going to teach you how to read 'King Lear,'" he said. "It may be Shakespeare's most difficult play. But it has a powerful message to tell."

When we were done reading "Lear," the priest promised, we would not only understand it, but we would have learned the secret of understanding any thing written in English — anything, that is, with a meaning to discern.

And we would love Shakespeare.

At the time, I don't think any of us understood what Father Becker meant. But the things he started teaching us that day made him the greatest English teacher I ever had.

Read the rest here.
The Greatest English Teacher CNSnews.com

(Incidentally, the English Grammar Book referred to in the article sits on my bookshelf. It is the classic, Writing Handbook by Frs. Michael P. Kammer, S.J. and Charles W. Mulligan, S.J. and updated by my English teacher at St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Fr. Bernard J. Streicher, S.J. Get it...you will not regret it!)

At St. John Cantius...

Preparing for Mass at St. John Cantius Church - 12/4/11

More photos from the Chicago trip to come...

Everything's Amazing & Nobody's Happy (a commentary on our culture)

This video is absolutely hilarious [pardon the brusque expression at the end]!  File it under "Our Dumb Culture"!

A little Something for your Advent: St. John Cantius: 18th Century Neapolitan Praesepio

Here is a interesting post on one of the items we saw at St. John Cantius. The beautiful 18th century Neapolitan Praesepio.

With the Cardinal

Senior Capstone Seminar students with Francis Cardinal George, OMI

"I told him his name was in the ledger too."

While at brunch we were amazed to meet and greet Tony Mockus, an actor who has played in several famous movies and is a parishioner of St. John Cantius.

This is a memorable scene where he plays the judge in "The Untouchables", a Chicago mob classic about Al Capone and Eliott Ness.  Click on the You Tube image to view...

Mr. Adkins and Tony Mockus

Mrs. Houghton and Tony Mockus

"We'll say 'hi' to the cardinal for you."

We'll all be in Chicagoland over the weekend to visit with His Eminence, Francis Cardinal George.  Below are some highlights of our itinerary.  We'll recap the journey here when we return...

[From the Saint Agnes School Parent Newsletter]

"Seniors in the Capstone Seminar class are traveling to Chicago with Fr. Ubel, Mr. DeJak, Mr. Adkins and Mrs. Houghton leaving this Saturday morning Dec 3^rd via train and returning Tuesday Dec 6^th. They will arrive at iconic Union Station in the afternoon and during their stay, students will have the opportunity to:

• visit with Fr. Robert Araujo, S.J., an internationally respected lawyer and expert on Aquinas and the Natural Law
• pray Solemn Vespers for the Second Sunday of Advent at the Monastery of the Holy Cross
• visit the famous Chicago Institute of Art
• tour the beautiful parish of St. John Cantius, known for its cultivation of sacred music and art
  sightsee in downtown Chicago from atop the Hancock building
• eat at at the legendary Pizzeria Uno 
• and -the highlight of the trip- we have a private audience and meeting with Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago and former President of the USCCB. The trip coincides with our readings of The Rule of St. Benedict, The Confessions of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas' Treatise on Law. A more detailed itinerary will soon appear on the Saint Agnes website.

The trip coincides with our readings of The Rule of St. Benedict, The Confessions of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas' Treatise on Law."

Chicago Trip Installment 2: St. John Cantius

On Sunday we will be visiting the "daughter parish" of Saint Agnes: St. John Cantius. If it weren't for Msgr. Richard Schuler and Saint Agnes, St. John Cantius wouldn't be the beacon of Catholic Culture that it is today! Check out this video to gain a taste of the glory that is St. John's!

Great quote on Natural Law

The following quote is from an address that the students read for Wednesday's class by Dr. Charles E. Rice, Professor Emeritus, Notre Dame Law School. 


THE NATURAL LAW


Albino Luciani - John Paul I



Charles E. Rice
Professor Emeritus, Notre Dame Law School
Address, Canon Law Conference
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
LaCrosse, Wisconsin
August 9, 2011

What is the natural law and why do we need it? The “September Pope,” John Paul I, at his general audience on September 6, 1978, gave us a clue:

Once a man went to buy a motorcar from the agent. The latter talked to him plainly: “Look here, it’s a good car; mind that you treat it well: premium petrol in the tank, and for the joints, oil, the good stuff.” But the other replied: “Oh, no, for your information, I can’t stand even the smell of petrol, nor oil; I’ll put champagne, which I like so much, in the tank and I’ll oil the joints with jam.” “Do what you like: but don’t come and complain if you end up in a ditch, with your car!”

“The Lord,” he continued, “did something similar with us: he gave us this body, animated by an intelligent soul, a good will. He said, ‘this machine is a good one, but treat it well.’” And God did more: “God gave [the Commandments] to us not to satisfy a whim, not in his own interest, but solely in our interest.” The Commandments are specifications of the natural law. Together they constitute a set of manufacturer’s directions, given by our Creator “solely for our interest.”

When the seller warned the buyer to “treat it well,” he meant the buyer should do good by his car. Everything has a nature, built into it by its maker. The good is that which is in accord with the nature of the thing. It is good to put gasoline in the tank. It is not good to put champagne or sand in the tank because that violates the nature of the car. If you do put champagne or sand in the tank, you will be pro-choice, but you will also be a pedestrian. That is so because the natural law is the story of how things work. John Paul I reminds us that our culture is like the guy who puts sand in his gas tank and is surprised when the car doesn’t run.

Read the full piece here at the Wanderer Forum Foundation's website.