Audio links of Bishop Perry and Fr. Mankowski, S.J.

From the Capstone Pilgrimage to Chicago, 2013...

Capstone students with Bishop Perry at St. John Cantius.

Click on the links below to hear and download the two major talks the students heard while in Chicago.  Also, the link at the bottom allows you to contribute to the travel and other expenses of the Senior Capstone Seminar - your generosity is appreciated.

• His Excellency, Bishop Joseph Perry of the Archdiocese of Chicago
• Fr. Paul Mankowski, S.J. of Loyola University, Chicago

Like what you see and hear about Capstone and Saint Agnes School?  Support the Senior Capstone Seminar (noting "Senior Capstone Seminar" in your entry).

Discussing Boethius' "Consolation of Philosophy"

We had a great first conversation today about Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy.

Boethius lived in the 6th century and was falsely imprisoned and executed for treason.  While in prison and without any books, he wrote this brilliant work.  The Consolation is an imaginary dialogue between Boethius and Lady Philosophy - a work which intertwines clever prose with beautiful poetry.

Today's discussion of the Book I focused on a number of interesting aspects, but one in particular caught everyone's attention:

• The reader meets Boethius writing melancholy poetry in jail, wallowing in his misery and pitying himself.  Immediately upon arriving at his side, Lady Philosophy chases away the Muses of poetry who have inspired Boethius sulk in his misery - albeit with beautiful poetry.  We then had an interesting conversation about our culture today and how much of pop culture art wallows in depression, misery and destruction.  This is starkly contrasted with how Lady Philosophy calls the Muses of poetry out and chases them away, for they are not leading Boethius to what is true, good and beautiful. 
• Pictured here is an image of Lady Philosophy who leads men toward virtue, truth and goodness.

The Problem of Evil

Book VII of The Confessions of Saint Augustine is absolutely fascinating!

Augustine's considerations of the problem of evil have immense ramifications for man.

Questions students are considering and discussing:
1.    Did God create evil?
2.    Is Satan/Lucifer evil?  Was he created as evil?
3.    Is evil a substance?
4.    Is God material or pure spirit?  Why?
5.    Are created things evil or good or a combination?  Why/how?
6.    Can human persons choose to do or love evil things?  Why/why not/how?
7.    From what does evil come or originate (according to Augustine)?
       a.    What do you think of Augustine’s answer?
8.    How does human freedom and God's providence fit into Augustine's consideration of evil?

"The Ethics of Elfland"

It is a great joy to read G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy with our seniors.

Today we discussed Chapter IV: "The Ethics of Elfland" which is quite possibly one of the richest 20 pages of non-fiction text one may ever encounter. One will find himself pleasantly surprised, laughing, agreeing, imagining, remembering, nodding and feeling an overwhelming gratitude toward God and His goodness.

I found myself on the verge of tears: tears of sadness for those who have lost - or are in danger of completely losing - the wonder of childhood (people like me!), that wonder which allows us to see the world as it is: a fairytale (e.g. "God chose to paint the grass green and the sky... well, He's changing it all the time!" vs. "Photosynthesis, a very predictable and knowable scientific process, has caused the grass to be green through..."); and tears of joy at Chesterton's golden line: "...perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony" (pg. 65 of the Ignatius Press edition).

The chapter reminds me of the wonderment of my own little ones and how I'm often "so busy" and serious about the work of the house or my school work... I have no time to stare at the moon with two-year-old Jude! No, Jude's right: work can wait; gazing at the moon for this fleeting moment cannot.

It is fun to see you, dear seniors, mull Chesterton's words of wisdom. Only he can say such things as:

"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors."

"Fairyland is nothing but the sunny country of common sense."

"The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore."

Mr. DeJak's latest: "Living a Catholic Life: What the Ratzinger Family can Teach Us"

March 1, 2012 saw the publication in English of Msgr. Georg Ratzinger’s new book My Brother, the Pope. Media outlets have widely reported this ultimate insider’s view of Pope Ratzinger and have published excerpts from the book. Of particular interest to this writer was Msgr. Ratzinger’s recollections of his childhood with his younger brother. The traditional piety with which they practiced the faith may strike some of us modern Americans as strange, but it is instructive. This type of traditional piety is something that we must rediscover if we wish to grow in holiness in our own families; and it is an essential to prepare for the dark clouds of persecution that gather day by day.

Though we are in the season of Lent, dear readers, indulge me as I quote Msgr. Ratzinger’s recollections of Advent and the Ratzinger family’s participation in the rich liturgical life of the Church:

Generally speaking, our family made a big thing of Christmas. The preparations already began with the First Sunday of Advent. At that time, the Rorate Masses were celebrated at six in the morning, and the priests wore white vestments. Normally violet is the color of the vestments in Advent, but these were special votive Masses that were supposed to recall the appearance of the Archangel Gabriel to the Mother of God and her words, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word” (Lk 1:38). That was the main theme of these “liturgies of the angels,” as they were also called, in which the appropriate passage from the Gospel of Luke was read. After we started school, we used to attend these Masses in the early morning, before classes began. Outside it was still night, everything was dark, and the people often shivered in the cold. Yet the warm glow of the sanctuary compensated for the early rising and the walk through snow and ice. The dark church was illuminated by candles and tapers, which were often brought by the faithful and provided not only light but also a little warmth. Afterward we went home first, ate breakfast, and only then set out for school. These Rorate Masses were wonderful signposts leading us to Christmas.

Read the rest of Mr. DeJak's article at The Wanderer Forum Foundation.

Fr. Barron on atheist Christopher Hitchens

We've asked the students to watch this and think about it; a great example of modern apologetics.

The pope on silence

Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As we draw near to World Communications Day 2012, I would like to share with you some reflections concerning an aspect of the human process of communication which, despite its importance, is often overlooked and which, at the present time, it would seem especially necessary to recall. It concerns the relationship between silence and word: two aspects of communication which need to be kept in balance, to alternate and to be integrated with one another if authentic dialogue and deep closeness between people are to be achieved. When word and silence become mutually exclusive, communication breaks down, either because it gives rise to confusion or because, on the contrary, it creates an atmosphere of coldness; when they complement one another, however, communication acquires value and meaning.

Silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist. In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves. By remaining silent we allow the other person to speak, to express him or herself; and we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested. In this way, space is created for mutual listening, and deeper human relationships become possible. It is often in silence, for example, that we observe the most authentic communication taking place between people who are in love: gestures, facial expressions and body language are signs by which they reveal themselves to each other. Joy, anxiety, and suffering can all be communicated in silence – indeed it provides them with a particularly powerful mode of expression. Silence, then, gives rise to even more active communication, requiring sensitivity and a capacity to listen that often makes manifest the true measure and nature of the relationships involved.

Read the entire message here. Lots to imbibe. Enjoy!

BXVI on Integrated Education

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.

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.

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.

Thanking that than which nothing greater can be conceived

We had a great conversation in yesterday's class on chapter ii of St. Anselm's Proslogion. Keep in mind that Anselm starts from a position of faith and is wrestling with the idea of God and its reasonableness. Faith in God is reasonable. Fides et ratio inform one another.

The frustration with the argument is legitimate and I remember feeling the same frustration when I read this for the first time as an undergraduate. The important thing to keep in mind with Anselm and all of these authors is to try not only to understand the words and meanings of their thoughts and writings but also--in the words of the late great Thomist, Fr. Leo Sweeney, S.J. (1918-2001)--to "inner-stand" them. A goofy word, I admit, but one that seems to capture what your job is as a student.

That job is to give the authors that you are reading a fair hearing. Ask yourself: who is this guy? what are his influences? what is the culture he is living in? what are the cultural assumptions of his time? Likewise, in addition to these questions, we must have the courage to leave aside some of our own 20th-21st century cultural assumptions (e.g., "Equality," understood popularly today as egalitarianism, was not understood that way in the 11th century.) The preoccupation with higher things--i.e., God, His nature, our life with Him, how to live well--was much more a part of an 11th century man's mind than ours today. This robust "life of the mind" is very instructive to us moderns and, indeed, as it is simply human, shows us the way. As a friend of mine once said (and I paraphrase), "sometimes the answer to the question you are asking has already been given; you just have to have the courage to open up a 900 year old book to find it!"

So keep wrestling with these authors; give them a fair shake; see them as good guys who are trying to find the right answers to life's questions; and remember to thank "that than which nothing greater can be conceived" for the great gift of your intellect to know and understand.

Happy Thanksgiving!

student sayings... [installment #1]

So far, our students have read and discussed the following works:

• Fifty Questions on the Natural Law, by Prof. Charles Rice (a selection on human nature and "personhood")
• Apostolic Fathers (selections such as St. Ignatius of Antioch)
• The Didache
• The Rule of St. Benedict
• The Confessions of St. Augustine
• St. Anselm's "Proslogion" or The Ontological Proofs of God's Existence
• "How the Monks Saved Civilization", by Thomas Woods (from How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization)
• "Address to Ministers of Culture", Pope Benedict XVI (on why the men and women went to the monasteries)
• The Compact History of the Catholic Church, by Prof. Alan Schreck (to give contextual background to the readings)

Below are some excerpts from the students' weekly papers; I believe they are a testament to the value of engaging such rich texts.

Reflecting on the importance and emphasis of the abbot by St. Benedict in the "Regula", Zach writes:

"The abbot is important; there is no doubt about it.  Without him, the monasteries would have never been successes, and thus would never have saved civilization and nothing would exist today as it does."

In our discussions, we noted that St. Benedict's Rule seemed almost "obvious" or common sense.  We wondered why the book had such an impact on the development of western culture.  Marianna reflects:

"[The Rule of St. Benedict] is about things that we already know.  But then I started thinking that in the past, these rules might not have been obvious as they are to us today." 

She also writes,

"...St. Benedict's fourth step of humility: 'He only that persevereth to the end shall be saved, let thy heart be comforted and expect the Lord.'  The phrase connected with me.  [...] It reminds us readers that we need to trust in the Lord no matter what."

We encouraged our students to attend the All Souls' Day Mass at the Church of Saint Agnes, in which is played Mozart's famous "Requiem" liturgy accompanied by full choir and string quartet; on this, Rose wrote:

"... I noticed right away the black vestments the priests were wearing; I liked the color black for it reminded me of the judgment all souls must endure.  Finally, the music registered in my head, and I was blown away.  [...] What truly moved me was the Dies Irae.  The English translation itself is something to marvel at, yet when Latin and the music are added, it is simply stunning.  [...]  The verses that really stood out to me were the ones that read, "The evil-doers have been silenced / Doomed to the bitter flames / Call me with the Blessed".  That struck me as something powerful, and it was even more so when the choir belted out "Confutatis Maledictis" over and over again."

Finally, reflecting upon St. Augustine's Confessions where in Books X-XII the great Doctor of the Church muses upon time, eternity, memory and the Triune God, Rebekah wrote on the mystery of God's being:

"God alone is eternal.  So where then did God begin?  He did not, because nothing was before Him.  [...]  Time is the means by which humans live their day to day lives.  So then is it a safe assumption to say that God, our Eternal Creator, runs by the same concept of time as humans do?  [...]  One cannot understand the fullness of God's eternal being.  It is impossible, and it is almost equally impossible to think of how time does not exist with God.  [...]  But this unsolvable mystery is a stepping stone to finding a relationship with the Lord."

These are mere snapshots of what our students are reading, writing and thinking about.  It is rewarding to see you, dear students, developing your own Catholic mind.

Building a "culture of the word"

The pope instructs "ministers of culture"

After reading The Rule of St. Benedict, we took in the pope's "Address to Ministers of Culture" when he visited Paris, France and Lourdes.  The pope gathered all the intellectual elites, politicians and dignitaries and, gathering them at an ancient Cluniac monastery, sought to teach them to re-discover their roots: in western monasticism.

The address is quite remarkable. 

The pope points out how every Christian is called to live in and develop a "culture of the word" whereby he contemplates the Scriptures and the various other great writings of the Church - precisely what we are doing in the Capstone Seminar.  I hoped to emphasize, dear students, that we are - in our class and in our small way - developing and living in a unique "culture of the word". 

Here's what the pope says [my emphasis]:

"What motivated men [the monks] to come together to these places?  What did they want?  How did they live?

"First and foremost, it must be frankly admitted straight away that it was not their intention to create a culture nor even to preserve a culture from the past.  Their motivation was much more basic.  Their goal was: quaerere Deum.  Amid the confusion of the times, in which nothing seemed permanent, they wanted to do the essential – to make an effort to find what was perennially valid and lasting, life itself.  They were searching for God.  They wanted to go from the inessential to the essential, to the only truly important and reliable thing there is.  It is sometimes said that they were “eschatologically” oriented.  But this is not to be understood in a temporal sense, as if they were looking ahead to the end of the world or to their own death, but in an existential sense: they were seeking the definitive behind the provisional.  Quaerere Deum: because they were Christians, this was not an expedition into a trackless wilderness, a search leading them into total darkness.  God himself had provided signposts, indeed he had marked out a path which was theirs to find and to follow.  This path was his word, which had been disclosed to men in the books of the sacred Scriptures.  Thus, by inner necessity, the search for God demands a culture of the word or – as Jean Leclercq put it: eschatology and grammar are intimately connected with one another in Western monasticism (cf. L’amour des lettres et le désir de Dieu).  The longing for God, the désir de Dieu, includes amour des lettres, love of the word, exploration of all its dimensions.  Because in the biblical word God comes towards us and we towards him, we must learn to penetrate the secret of language, to understand it in its construction and in the manner of its expression.  Thus it is through the search for God that the secular sciences take on their importance, sciences which show us the path towards language.  Because the search for God required the culture of the word, it was appropriate that the monastery should have a library, pointing out pathways to the word.  It was also appropriate to have a school, in which these pathways could be opened up.  Benedict calls the monastery a dominici servitii schola.  The monastery serves eruditio, the formation and education of man – a formation whose ultimate aim is that man should learn how to serve God.  But it also includes the formation of reason – education – through which man learns to perceive, in the midst of words, the Word itself."

Read the entire address of the pope here at the Vatican's website.

On science & stem cells

In the excerpt below from the pope's recent address to an international conference on stem-cell research, he summarized well the gifts and limits of scientific inquiry:

"Scientific research provides a unique opportunity to explore the wonder of the universe, the complexity of nature and the distinctive beauty of life, including human life. But since human beings are endowed with immortal souls and are created in the image and likeness of God, there are dimensions of human existence that lie beyond the limits of what the natural sciences are competent to determine. If these limits are transgressed, there is a serious risk that the unique dignity and inviolability of human life could be subordinated to purely utilitarian considerations. But if instead these limits are duly respected, science can make a truly remarkable contribution to promoting and safeguarding the dignity of man: indeed herein lies its true utility. Man, the agent of scientific research, will sometimes, in his biological nature, form the object of that research. Nevertheless, his transcendent dignity entitles him always to remain the ultimate beneficiary of scientific research and never to be reduced to its instrument."

In our recent discussions on The Rule of St. Benedict and Thomas Woods' "How the Monks Saved Civilization", we were reminded that the monks developed modern scientific inquiry from the fundamental belief that God's creation is good.  It is easy to forget this, but it is the fundamental reason why the west surpassed the east in scientific inquiry: faith in the God of Jesus Christ.  How can we have "science" if the cosmos isn't intelligible (random, chance, just an explosion) and if it hasn't been ordered by a Creator?  The image at right is of Monseigneur Georges Lemaître, a Belgian priest and scientist who developed the "Big Bang" theory; clearly this priest believed that we are more than simply the product of an explosion.

It is rewarding to have these conversations; it is even more rewarding to have them with high school seniors!

Read the rest of the pope's address at Vatican Radio.

Pupils Delighted

This article very much summarizes what we are attempting to do with the seniors in the Capstone Seminar.

"Pupils Delighted"
by Anthony Esolen

Here's an excerpt in medias res: 

"The Pearson Integrated Humanities Program must have violated every educational truism of our time. Two hundred freshmen and sophomores, for six hours a week for two years, sat in the company of three professors, John Senior, Frank Nelick, and Dennis Quinn, who discussed art, poetry, music, history, philosophy, and Scripture with one another, while the students overheard them and eventually learned to participate in the discussions themselves. The students also recited poetry, learned to waltz, and were introduced to such words as truth, faith, honor, love, courtesy, decency, simplicity, and modesty, not words much used in an Age of Iron, but then, Don Quixote was sent into that time precisely to bring back something of the Age of Gold.
The motto of the program was Nascantur in Admiratione, “Let Them Be Born in Wonder.” One of the pages of the brochure explains why:

In our day wonder has been so cheapened by sensationalism and so crippled by skepticism that the college freshman, instead of being as one newly awakened to the excitement of learning, is often, rather, as one who has never been born. To such a young person learning is so much drudgery and routine, alien to his real interests, remote from reality itself. To revive wonder may be said to summarize the aims of the Pearson Program. Hence it should be regarded as an elementary or elemental course, where one discovers the love of wisdom; a course for beginners, who look upon the primary things of the world, as it were, for the first time.
An ancient philosopher said that to look at the stars is to become a lover of wisdom—a philosopher. Since the Pearson Program aims to make all students philosophers in that sense, we say, with a modern poet, “Look at the stars! Look, look up at the skies!” Not only are students in the program required to look, literally, at the stars, but they are also expected to look up through poetry and through all that is great in Western civilization. It is by the light of the stars (or “something like a star”) that we discover the world, ourselves, and our destination."

Read Anthony Esolen's entire piece at Touchstone Magazine.

Ideology: the Tie the Blinds

Another excellent article from the Director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, Jason Adkins.

Adherence to Ideology: the Tie that Blinds

"The 2011 legislative session is finally drawing to a close.
Many were surprised by the inability of legislative leaders and the governor to reach a compromise agreement be­fore a shutdown occurred. When the two parties did finally produce a budget framework, neither side was pleased with an outcome that few believe represents the beginning of a long-term solution to the state’s fiscal woes.
The inability to compromise, however, was not based so much on stubbornness or sheer partisanship as it was on adherence to ideological principle.
On one level it is refreshing to see politicians stake out principled positions and stick to them. But on another level, an almost slavish adherence to ideology in politics can and does inflict harm to the very people public officials claim to serve. And it was ideology that marked the 2011 legislative session.
‘The Catholic mind’
An ideology typically involves building an intellectual system around a particular idea or truth, but to the exclusion of other ideas or information.
It is a lot like a theological heresy.  In many cases, an ideology represents an “ideal” system whose adherents are often, you might say, religiously devoted to it.
By contrast, what the Jesuit philosopher James V. Schall calls “the Catholic mind” is a radical intellectual openness to “all that is.”  It recognizes that truth and reality are not so much ours to create but instead are gifts to be received. We flourish as human beings only when we conform our actions to the truths around us, which we must first have the humility to recognize and receive."

Read the rest of the article at The Catholic Spirit.

The content of this article fits in well with our discussions about St. Augustine's Confessions.  Recall the section in LIBER X (Book 10, chapter 23, pg. 217) which Augustine takes to task those who even "hate" the truth because it exposes themselves to others.  Those men suffer from ideology.  See what Augustine says; it cuts to the heart of every one of us:

This is how we read our texts - with notes and markings in the margins for in-class discussion.