Still Running Off at the Keyboard

"SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM"

The motu proprio has been released. It can be read in English translation on the Vatican website.

The accompanying Pope's letter to the bishops can also be read here.

For an analysis of what it says and what it potentially might mean, go to the article at Catholic World News.

Benedict has spoken, and now the ball is in the bishops court. What are the odds they will put pressure on their priests to prevent the Tridentine from being used in the parishes?

RETURNING TO RABBI ADIN STEINSALTZ'S COMMENTARY ON THE TANYA

I began posting quotes from Steinsaltz's book yesterday. Now I'd like to add more quotes.

The Jews are called the "Chosen People". That is Scriptural. In 1 Kings 3:8 the newly chosen King David speaks to God: "I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted." Today the issue of whether the Jews are still the Chosen People repeatedly surfaces in conjunction with the possibility of a dual covenant which provides a way to heaven that does not depend upon Jesus Christ. Some say yes. Some say no. In any case, the Jews still view themselves as God's Chosen People according to Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. Picking up where I left off yesterday, Steinsaltz continues with his theme that the Jews are by nature compassionate, bashful, and charitable:

Obviously, a non-Jew can also be charitable, compassionate, or bashful; in a non-Jew, however, these are not natural traits but traits that must be acquired and cultivated through education and training, just as the Jew must cultivate many positive traits (humility, joy in serving God, and so on) that are not natural to him, for they are not part of his biological self and must be acquired through education and hard work and often only by vanquishing his natural instincts. ...

Thus, the "the [sic] good characteristics that are to be found in the innate nature of every Jew" form part of the natural dynamic that defines the relationship between matter and spirit in every living creature. In the Jew, this dynamic might be more sophisticated and possessive of a higher consciousness, but it is essentially similar to that of every other natural soul....

Because the natural soul of the non-Jew is wholly kelipah, devoid of all manifest holiness, all the good that the non-Jew does derives from egocentric considerations, be it to the aim of priding oneself with one's good deeds or the aim of achieving peace and harmony in the world that the "I" inhabits. It does not turn toward the other; rather [here Steinsaltz quotes the Tanya - ct]all the good that the nations do, is done from selfish motives. As the Talmud comments on the verse, "The kindness of the nations is sin": "All the charity and kindness done by the nations of the world is only for their own self-glorification" and so on. [end of quotes from the Tanya - ct]

The author is not coming, with these brief sentences, to define the nature of the non-Jew. Whatever he says here about non-Jews is just the background for the issue with which he is dealing--namely, the uniqueness of the natural animal soul of the Jew. For when we say that the Jew is chosen and unique among the peoples of the world, it is in regard to his animal soul and not regarding the Jew's "Godly soul"...which the non-Jew does not possess at all. (p. 67-68)

When Stainsaltz says the non-Jew does not possess a Godly soul, he is referring to Christians along with the adherents of other religions. He means anyone who is not racially and religiously Jewish. That is a perspective of chosenness from the inside, so to speak. A belief that the Jews are, by their very human nature, a superior people. As Steinsalts puts it:

The process of Israel's becoming a chosen people is described in the book of Genesis not unlike the process of genetic selection in the breeding of plants....This is the story told in the book of Genesis: from millions of human beings, God chooses one seedling; from the progeny of this seedling, He again selects one branch, one individual, whom He carefully cultivates into a new breed of human being. (p. 68 - 69)

As you read those quotes, keep in mind that Adin Steinsaltz is President of the newly formed Sanhedrin, the court which will preside over the Noahide Laws...Laws which are meant to apply to non-Jews, and which will forbid idolatry under pain of beheading...courts which will consider a belief in the Trinity to be idolatrous. Also keep in mind that Judaism is not monolithic as it exists at the present time.

AN ORTHODOX PERSPECTIVE ON ANTI-SEMITISM

As you know, the problem of anti-Semitism was solved in Western Christianity within the so called "Theology after Auschwitz". This theology was happy to proclaim that all the Christian Fathers and teachers of the Church in whose writings one can easily find some negative attitudes towards the Jews, all these Fathers, were wrong and even bear their part of the responsibility for Auschwitz.

Now we come to the central problem of the Orthodox Church. I believe that Orthodoxy will never reject its own heritage. Nobody will dare to say that St John Chrysostom or St Maximus the Confessor were wrong. Nobody will dare to say that for centuries Orthodox Christian teachers were wrong, but we who are sinful and have not even a glimpse of their sanctity are right. This theological solution to the Jewish problem is impossible in Orthodoxy. /Unlike Protestantism and modern Catholitism Orthodox Christianity is at least as faithful to its own Tradition as is Orthodox Judaism.

But what is really interesting: the Orthodox Fathers' attitude towards Jews does not at all frighten those Jews who become Orthodox Christians in Russia, does not prevent them from becoming Christians. Yes, being a Jew one cannot be pleased by these words of the Christian Fathers, but who ever said and when was it ever said that Christianity was established to bring us pleasure. Christianity does bring us pleasure, but a spiritual one, nevertheless, it demands from us something: to hate one's "soul in this world"(Jn.12.25), which is not a pleasant exercise....

Here lies the main misunderstanding of the Church on the part of both Judaism and the post-Auschwitz theology. Non-Orthodox Christians can call themselves gentiles if they want (take for example German theologian Jurgen Moltmann), Orthodox Christians will never call themselves gentiles and will never acknowledge this name being called in this way by the Jews. The reason is quite simple, the main point of Christ's mission in this respect was to destroy the wall of separation between Israel and Gentiles.

Quotes taken from this website.

THE ALL TIME LUCKIEST WEDDING DAY

Pamela Yager scheduled seven pre-nuptial special events leading up to her 7 o'clock wedding on Saturday, which just happens to be luckiest wedding date of all time: 7-7-07.

"We definitely chose it for lucky-number purposes," said Yager, an Academy of the Sacred Heart alum who now makes her living in Los Angeles as a stand-up comic known as the "Sassy Debutante." "Both my brothers were born on the 7th. I was supposed to be born on the 7th, but Hurricane Betsy changed that. 717 is my address."

Yager is just one of thousands of brides everywhere hoping to hit the matrimonial jackpot on Saturday, a triple-lucky-number date that comes up only once per century.

The number seven has long been magical and mystical, and associated with good luck. So superstitious couples are cramming churches nationwide, marrying judges have full schedules and wedding chapels in Las Vegas are doing bang-up business.

No one is quite sure how many couples will walk down the aisle Saturday but a good measuring stick is the popular Web site TheKnot.com, where some 38,000 couples are registered for that date, more than three times as many as any July Saturday in 2006.

Even the rich and famous are rolling the dice that day, highlighted by the nuptials of "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria and San Antonio Spurs player Tony Parker, who will wed at the posh castle Chateau de Chantilly in France.

Continue reading...

WEB PRAYERS

NAZARETH, Israel - Dressed in his embroidered robes, the Rev. Andreas Elime steps from the altar of St. Gabriel’s Church and into the view of the Web cams on the church’s marble pillars. His voice fills the empty 250-year-old sanctuary with a Greek Orthodox hymn, while a computer on a nearby pew transmits personal blessings to three Americans thousands of miles away.

Christian pilgrims have long traveled to the boyhood town of Jesus to seek blessings. Now the Internet can save them the trip.

A service recently launched by Modefine Ltd., a Cyprus company, enables worshippers to log on and watch as a priest utters a prayer for them.

“This takes things to a new level,” said James Martin, a Jesuit priest and associate editor of the Roman Catholic magazine America, who has watched religious trends develop on the Internet. Martin said in a telephone interview that the technology also gives believers a new way to carry out an old practice: asking others to pray for them in sacred places.

“Going to Israel is quite expensive,” said Martin. “So for people who can’t afford it but can afford their monthly (Internet) bill, this is one way to do it.”

Since opening on May 1, the site has fielded hundreds of requests, some 70 percent from Americans but also from Hong Kong, India, Mexico and Australia, said Said Salem, Modefine’s Holy Land representative.

“We have something special here,” he said. “Mary lived here. Jesus grew up here. This is a holy town. This is the basis of Christianity.”

Read the rest...

CANCER JOURNAL - UPDATE

I saw my oncologist this morning. She has seen the bone scan results and talked with the radiation oncologist. She is still not convinced that what is showing up in the bone scan is anything more than arthritis. She has seen this sort of thing before in a patient. She had the patient go through a battery of tests to determine what they were dealing with and found the additional tests tend to be non-conclusive. As it turned out the patient didn't have cancer in her spine, but she turned into a basket case over the tests. Bottom line, the recommendation is to wait and see with another bone scan in a month or two. In any case, the treatment wouldn't change even if it has spread to my spine, since it's already been present in the lymph nodes on both sides of my body.

Cancer, it seems, has become a chronic disease in some cases, and not always a terminal illness. And my case seems to be among them. There isn't any hope for a cure, but life isn't over yet, either.

OPENING THE TANYA

For some time I've been reading Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's book OPENING THE TANYA: DISCOVERING THE MORAL & MYSTICAL TEACHINGS OF A CLASSIC WORK OF KABBALAH. The book is a commentary on a classic Jewish spiritual text. It is unlike any other material on Kabbalah that I have read to date. Some of the things Rabbi Steinsaltz writes were interesting and even startling. In the passages quoted from the book, the bolding is mine.

The Tanya talks about each human being having two souls. Steinsaltz addresses the animal soul first:

...the soul enclothes itself in the blood of the human being. It hides itself in the blood and manifests itself in the blood, providing the body with the spiritual force of life and vitality, and hiding behind the body's obscuring veil of corporeality. The blood is the medium through which the animal soul--the spiritual force that supplies the body with physical life--manifests itself. (p. 60-61)

How would a Jew view our sacrament of the Eucharist in light of that belief?

...even in the animal, biological sense, the Jewish soul is a species unto itself. Just as living things are a unique genre in creation, and the human being is a unique species of animal, so is the Jew a unique species of human. ...in keeping with the Talmudic statement, "Three distinguishing features mark this people: they are compassionate, bashful, and charitable. So integral are these qualities to the Jewish character that it was said that whoever does not exhibit these traits is not of the seed of Israel. (p. 64-65)

To be Continued...

IS THE MARK OF THE BEAST "XMARK" ?

It's certainly a strange choice for a name!

According to their webpage VeriChip, the implantable chip, will now be marketed as "Xmark" along with other similar products.

MALACHI MARTIN

One of the reasons the sexual abuse scandal was so believable when it hit the headlines was the work of Malachi Martin. Traditional Catholics often cited Martin's words as a source of evidence for sinister dealings inside the Vatican.

It came as a shock when Robert Blair Kaiser charged Martin with seducing his wife, a charge that was leveled after Martin's death, and thus was a charge Martin could not defend himself against.

Novus Ordo Watch offers more evidence that Martin was involved in activities as early as Vatican II that did not exactly support Traditional Catholicism. They charge him with being an agent for the American Jewish Congress and instrumental, along with Cardinal Bea, in the promotion of Nostra Aetate. Read it and draw your own conclusions.

LESBIAN GANGS

It should be part of a science fiction movie about the condition of society after the bomb has been dropped. It should be some reporter's fevered brain embellishing a story to get a front page byline. But since it's found on LifeSite, I doubt that it's either one.

MEMPHIS, July 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last week, the Fox News' O'Reilly Factor exposed the increasing trend of lesbian gang violence terrorizing neighbourhoods and schools, especially in large cities across the United States. According to FOX News crime analyst Rod Wheeler there are some 150 such gangs in the DC area alone, including Washington, Maryland, and Virginia.

The gangs, known as Dykes Taking Over (DTO) or Gays Taking Over, are forcing children into homosexuality. Wheeler told host Bill O'Reilly: "there is this national underground network, if you will, Bill, of women that's lesbians and also some men groups that's actually recruiting kids as young as 10 years old in a lot of the schools in the communities all across the country."

In addition to carrying weapons and violently attacking people the lesbian gangs rape girl victims they recruit. "As a matter of fact," said Wheeler, "some of the kids have actually reported that they were actually forced into, you know, performing sex acts and doing sex acts with some of these people." (see the O'Reilly Factor segment: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CFgXVyeGh2A )

An Eyewitness News Everywhere report from earlier this year brought in a police officer from the Memphis police department to discuss the growing problem of GTO gang violence in schools. Deputy Beverly Cobb from the Shelby County (Memphis) Gang Unit told Eyewitness News that GTO gang members "will sodomize [with sex toys] and will force (victims) to do all sexual acts, they are forcing themselves on our young girls in all our schools."

Continue reading...

Hat tip to NOR.

CANCER JOURNAL - PRACTICING PATIENCE

After the encouraging report from my oncologist that the cancer was "resolved", she made appointments for me with a radiation oncologist and my surgeon.

Unlike my oncologist, the radiation oncologist was skeptical of the CT scan results and thought the stuff in my back might not be the result of chemo as the report and my uncologist both believed. The radiation oncologist needed further evidence before she would make a recommendation for treatment. She wanted another bone scan. Scan number seven was done last Friday.

I saw the surgeon Tuesday. When she learned that another scan had been done and the results were not yet available, she refused to offer any opinion. So the hour spent in her office waiting for that visit was wasted, and I still don't know what's next.

I have another appointment with the radiation oncologist next Tuesday. In the meantime I've been thinking about the implications. If the cancer has not metasticized, I can consider going for a cure, which will mean, as near as I can determine, a double mastectomy followed by radiation. Or, if there is cancer in my spine, the only option left is chemo.

It was inevitable, I suppose, that I would wake up with a backache yesterday morning. It was a very familiar backache--the kind I get when I've been out in the yard digging in the flower beds. The kind that goes with using muscles that haven't been used for a while. The kind that yesterday morning was surely an indication that I have cancer in my spine. The imagination is not always friendly or welcome, and my ability to shut it down is waning with all the delays.

I've been contemplating the future once they get through with me. The chemo eliminates my hair, including eyebrows and eyelashes. The estrogen suppressants banish any desire for a post-menopausal sex life. The attempt at a cure will take care of what was recently described by a radio talking head as "lady lumps." When they get through with me I will have more in common with a cross-dresser than with another woman. When I have to put on my hair and those other anatomical features each morning the way I would put on a Halloween costume, it will be hard not to feel neutered. And that's the good news. The way I see it right now, I have a choice of dying with my hair on or my boobs on, and it's also possible I will die without either, since this cure, if it comes at all, comes without a guarantee.

I watched the fireworks last night wondering if I were seeing them for the last time. Some days it's not good to contemplate tomorrow.

UPDATE

Moments after I hit the publish button my radiation oncologist called to say that the results of the bone scan agreed with the CT scan, which means that there is a good chance that the cancer has metasticized. But, of course, she doesn't have a clear plan for treatment, and she will be talking with the other two doctors. The surgeon, however, is going out of town for a few days, which means that I probably won't have an answer for quite a while yet.

In any case, the radiation oncologist would like to have a bone biopsy. That sounds really pleasant!

PARISHIONER PLEADS WITH BISHOP FOR ACTION

Why doesn’t San Francisco Archbishop use his authority to bring to an end the scandal caused every year by Most Holy Redeemer parish?

The question is part of an article at California Catholic Daily which consists primarily of a parishioner's letter to Archbishop George Niederauer requesting that he review the evidence presented in Fr. John Malloy's blog of the activities associated with Holy Redeemer's participation in the Gay Pride Parade.

Will the Archbishop finally address this matter, or can we expect yet another whitewash?

Hat tip to Spirit Daily.

DISOBEDIENT NUNS

There is a bizarre little story in the news from Poland today. A group of 60 or more disobedient nuns, Sisters of the Family of Bethany, are refusing to vacate their convent despite an order from the Vatican Congregation for Religious that the occupants have been expelled from their order.

The nuns follow their mother superior who has made decisions based on religious visions. There are conflicting stories about a threat of mass suicide, and/or a single sister threatening suicide. One source claims the report is faked.

Another story claims a Franciscan friar, suspended for disobedience, is staying with the nuns.

Gas and electricity to the convent have been cut off, but townspeople sympathetic to the nuns have been providing food and water under cover of darkness.

LATIN MASS AND CATHOLIC-JEWISH RELATIONS

Pope Benedict XVI's expected decision this week to ease restrictions on a traditional Mass that includes a reference to Jewish conversion could damage Catholic-Jewish relations, interfaith leaders say.

The pope is said to have authorized the broader use of the Latin-language Tridentine Mass, which was widely supplanted more than 40 years ago by a less formal Mass in the local vernacular.

When celebrated in the traditional format that is favored by some conservative Catholics, the Good Friday liturgy contains a passage stating that Jews live in "blindness" and "darkness" and asking God to "remove the veil from their hearts." A reference to Jews as "perfidious" was excised from the liturgy in 1969.

"At a time when anti-Semitism is rising around the world, there's symbolism in permitting a wider reading of a prayer to convert the Jews," the associate director for interfaith affairs at the Anti-Defamation League, Eric Greenberg, said. "We're monitoring it very closely."...

An adviser on Catholic-Jewish relations to various church and civic organizations, Philip Cunningham, said the traditional Good Friday liturgy contradicts the belief statement of the Second Vatican Council.

Continue reading...

DEAD THEOLOGIANS SOCIETY

Intrigued by a candlelit basement chapel filled with Gregorian chant and burning incense, 11 teens gathered at St. Francis de Sales Church in Newark, Ohio, for what would become the first Dead Theologians Society meeting.

Ten years later, the now-Wisconsin-based Catholic apostolate devoted to teaching high school teens and university-aged young adults about the lives of the saints is making its debut in Canada.

In late May founder and director Eddie Cotter Jr. visited St. Justin Martyr Parish in Unionville, Ont., to discuss how to start a parish chapter this September.

“It is a cutting-edge idea, it’s a challenging program, (and) it’s not entertainment based like a lot of (youth) programs out there,” said St. Justin Martyr pastoral assistant Cale Clark, who will co-lead the program with pastor Father Joe Singh and other adult volunteers.

Read the rest...

THE GOD WITHIN - WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE ?

An article at Catholic Exchange today, linked by Spirit Daily, talks about the God within:

We often hear of the Trinity as a mystery we believe in but cannot understand. Although there is some truth to this, when we contemplate the Trinity, we as "children of the light" (Eph 5:8) do not speak of something light years beyond us, as something unfamiliar to us. We speak of Persons within us, of a Light united most intensely to us. Theological tradition has named this phenomenon the Indwelling T
rinity. Contemplating this mystery would profit us much.

God is present everywhere. He is present to all things by his creative power and action. But in those enlightened by grace, God is present in a more profound way — by a personal union, a living relationship, and a redeeming covenant of love above and beyond his creative power and action. We believe in this mystery of the Indwelling Trinity because on the night before He died, Jesus said to his apostles, "If any man loves me, my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (Jn 14:23). Jesus also speaks of the Indwelling of the Spirit: "And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth... you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you" (Jn 14:16-17). How did we receive such a surpassing gift?

If that sounds New Agey to you, you're not alone.

Here is what the document "Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Waters of Life" in part has to say about the God within:

3.5. The “god within“ and “theosis”

Here is a key point of contrast between New Age and Christianity. So much New Age literature is shot through with the conviction that there is no divine being “out there”, or in any real way distinct from the rest of reality. From Jung's time onwards there has been a stream of people professing belief in “the god within”. Our problem, in a New Age perspective, is our inability to recognise our own divinity, an inability which can be overcome with the help of guidance and the use of a whole variety of techniques for unlocking our hidden (divine) potential. The fundamental idea is that 'God' is deep within ourselves. We are gods, and we discover the unlimited power within us by peeling off layers of inauthenticity.(63) The more this potential is recognised, the more it is realised, and in this sense the New Age has its own idea of theosis, becoming divine or, more precisely, recognising and accepting that we are divine. We are said by some to be living in “an age in which our understanding of God has to be interiorised: from the Almighty God out there to God the dynamic, creative power within the very centre of all being: God as Spirit”.(64)

They are both talking about the same thing. One source--Br. Hyacinth Marie Cordell, O.P. and Br. James Brent, O.P.at Catholic Exchange--promote it and the other source, the document condemning the New Age at the Vatican website, condemns it.

Is it any wonder that Catholics are falling hook, line, and sinker for New Age doctrine?

Whether we are talking about the New Age god "indistinct from every aspect of reality" or the concept promoted by these Dominicans that "God is present everywhere", to a mind not schooled in the nuances of theology, they are one and the same thing.

Whether we talk about the Dominican God who is "in those enlightened by grace," and "present in a more profound way" or the New Age approach that teaches followers to "discover the unlimited power within us by peeling off layers of inauthenticity" we are again talking about the need for something extra that will make God within possible.

Clearer lines of differentiation must be drawn between New Age concepts and those offered by the Dominicans if Catholics are to be drawn out of New Age beliefs. On the other hand, it might be that those New Age concepts are much closer to Catholic concepts than anyone wants to admit.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

BUSINESS AS USUAL IN CHICAGO CHANCERY

Top leaders in the Archdiocese of Chicago responsible for complaints about predatory priests kept their positions or rose in the church in the aftermath of the Rev. Daniel McCormack's 2006 arrest, according to archdiocesan reports and interviews.

Vicar General George Rassas was elevated to auxiliary bishop. Chancellor Jimmy Lago was named the primary point person on child abuse cases. Leaders from the offices of Vicar for Priests to Protection of Children and Youth stayed in key posts.

And Cardinal Francis George -- whose handling of the McCormack matter led to calls for his resignation -- appears poised to be elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Meanwhile, elementary school Principal Barbara Westrick, who reported McCormack to civil authorities, lost her job. The archdiocese said the two matters involving Westrick were unrelated.

Westrick complained publicly about the cardinal after being admonished by the archdiocese for not alerting authorities sooner about McCormack. The archdiocese said Sunday that other individuals were also disciplined but that details were "private personnel matters."

McCormack, 38, is expected to plead guilty today to sexually abusing five boys and receive a five-year prison term, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times. He could serve as little as 2• ½ years.

Nothing is going to change so long as the Old Boy Homosexual Network remains in place, and apparently it remains in place in Chicago. Business as usual.

SOME INTERESTING MEMBERS OF THE ACTON INSTITUTE STAFF

MARVIN OLASKY

Senior Fellow at the Acton Institute.

Profiled by Rush Limbaugh this way:

A major influence on Bush has been a very interesting man called Marvin Olasky. Professor Olasky is both a sports writer and a Presbyterian elder. He was born Jewish, turned atheist at 14, then became a member of the Communist party. Some years ago he became an evangelical Christian, and is now a middle-of-the-road conservative. He believes in the free market, but with a social conscience.

Professor Olasky, as well as everything else, runs a magazine, has set up a centre for 'effective compassion', and is a member of The Acton Institute, a religious think tank. He says his earlier interest in socialism has influenced his present conservative thinking.

Hmmmmm. I wonder what his next incarnation will be? And how long he will stick with it? In any case he has a lot in common with the founder of the Acton Institute who is also good at reinventing himself.

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FRANK HANNAH III

Member of the Board of Directors at Acton.

Gerald Renner mentions him in a dust up over an Atlanta, Georgia private Catholic School:

Board members of the Donellan School before and after the sale include Frank Hanna III, a multimillionaire businessman well known in Georgia for his support of conservative Republican causes, and a member of Regnum Christi, the Legion's organization for laity that stresses loyalty to the pope and submissiveness to the will of the Legion's priests.

While the order does not publicly outline its ambition for a network of schools, the movement is significant for several reasons. Not least, it enjoys the favor of Pope John Paul II. The order's standing with the papacy appears to remain unshaken despite serious allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against its founder, Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, by former priests and seminarians. The allegations became public in 1997.

If you have time, read Renner's entire account of the tactics used at this school and the high rate of turnover the takeover by the Legionnaires has caused.

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION

All bolding in the following quotes is mine.

Empowering Thoughts: The Secret or The Law of Attraction in The Torah, Talmud & Zohar - Receive whatever you want !

by Rabbi Avraham Tzvi Schwartz

"The Secret of Recieve whatever you want" or "The Law of Attraction" is not a new concept.

In fact, it isn't a secret at all.

This Secret was first promulgated by some of the earliest wise men, and it appears again and again throughout the Torah, Talmud and Zohar.

But very few people have learned or understand it. That's why it's unfamiliar to many and the reason it remains virtually a secret.

This work is a collection of pieces on how to receive all we wish to receive - "all" here meaning all!

The key lies in holding empowered thoughts in our mind. Such thoughts, in and of themselves, are a type of prayer, and with such prayer we release every type of goodness into our lives; with such mental images we unleash the very power of Creation.

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From Wikipedia:

The Law of Attraction is commonly associated with New Age and New Thought theories. It states people experience the corresponding manifestations of their predominant thoughts, feelings, words, and actions and that people therefore have direct control over reality and their lives through thought alone. A person's thoughts (conscious and unconscious), emotions, beliefs and actions are said to attract corresponding positive and negative experiences "through the resonance of their energetic vibration." [1] The "law of attraction" states "you get what you think about; your thoughts determine your destiny."[2] Many proponents of the idea claim that with practice a person can use the law of attraction to change their lives. However, the idea has received intense criticism from multiple circles in the media, the scientific community, and even other areas of the New Age Movement. [1]


History

The idea that thoughts introduced into reality can attract like energy dates back thousands of years. Buddha states, "What you have become is the result of what you have thought." It can be found in beliefs as ancient as Hinduism.[3] In the West, the idea of "positive thinking" became popular during the 19th century. One of the earliest known formulations of the ideas now known as as the Law of Attraction is contained in the 1906 book Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World by William Walker Atkinson[4], editor of New Thought magazine. Dozens of books in the first half of the 20th century addressed the topic under various names of "positive thinking" and the "Law of Attraction."

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A book by Greg Kubisak

From the review:

If you are interested in spiritual studies, chances are you have heard about the Law of Attraction and the movie, The Secret. While the movie is relatively new, the Law of Attraction is not a new concept by any means. It basically states that like attracts like. Thoughts are things that send messages to the Universe about what you wish to experience in your life. So whatever you think about, you will attract into your life. That's where the Law of Attraction gets a little tricky. ...

Words are powerful things. They are thoughts expressed. They can be emotionally stirring, or just off-handed, flippant remarks. So in order to attract abundance into your life, it is important to choose your words carefully, as well as monitor your thoughts. Now don't get discouraged because you have negative thoughts, or say things without thinking. When you notice yourself having a negative thought, or when you say something negative, replace it with something positive. Positive words and thoughts are much more powerful than negative ones.

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A book by Stephen H. Martin

From the review:

A sect of Jews with a bent toward the mystical called the Essenes, who lived in the Middle East from the second century before the current era through the first century, are thought by some scholars to have taught it to Jesus of Nazareth when he was a boy. Though some Christians may not be aware of it, Jesus preached “The Secret” openly - “All things are possible for him who believes” - and he practiced it as expertly as anyone before or since if the miracles recounted in the New Testament are even partially true.

Tradition holds that the Rosicrucian Order passed down “The Secret,” also known as the law of attraction, from the time of ancient Egypt to the present day. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “The Secret” became fairly widely known because of the New Thought Movement that flourished in American and England.

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A book by Bob New and Kathleen Rich-New

From the review:

Not unlike "The Secret" and the Law of Attraction, "Looking for the Good Stuff" is about bringing the good things in your life in to clear focus. What you focus on is what you get. The questions you ask determine the answers you will receive. This universal law is born out by quantum physics and by Dr. Emoto's "Messages From The Water". We simply need to shift from the bad news of the day to "Looking for the Good Stuff."

About the Author
With experiences covering the spectrum from hard-nosed MBA programs to the fast pace of a Silicon Valley start-up, to spiritual studies in Bali, Kathleen Rich-New and Bob New bring a unique blend of practical experience and clarity of focus to their writing, speaking and consulting.

They each have over 25 years of experience in corporate management with companies including Apple Computer, GTE (now Verizon) Nortel, SGI and IBM.

In 2002, Kathleen was a facilitator for "Listening to the City," a 5,000 person town hall meeting in NYC using Appreciative Inquiry to get feedback on the rebuilding and memorial at Ground Zero. At GTE, Bob was on the core team to introduce Appreciative Inquiry to 64,000 front line employees. Over 10,000 innovations were attributed to their efforts.

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From the website of St. Mary of Vernon Catholic Church:

Appreciative Inquiry

The following description of the Appreciative Inquiry process is reprinted by permission of the Diocese of Cleveland, Vibrant Parish Life Task Force:

Appreciative Inquiry is a process that invites people to inquire about what most “gives life” in their parish life and ministries. It forms the foundation for envisioning a community that is centered in the ‘Good News’ of the Gospel message as that message is lived in the lives of its people.

Appreciative Inquiry counteracts deficit-based thinking, which outlines only problem situations. Constantly pinpointing weaknesses leaves a parish focused on its lack of resources rather than the abundance of blessings which God has created. Negative thinking takes away the capacity to create new visions and new images of a vibrant future. It can stifle hope and produce a community lacking in energy and enthusiasm.

Appreciative Inquiry instead asks people to take a deep inventory of their personal and communal experiences, recount events and times that had the most vitality and inspiration, and then compile those compelling features into a vision for positive change and a fuller life.

To define terms, “appreciate” means to value, recognize or affirm the strengths, successes and potentials in people and communities. We appreciate things that give life, health, vitality and excellence. To “inquire” is to explore or discover. It is to ask questions with the hope of seeing new potentials and possibilities. “Appreciative Inquiry” is thus the process of asking questions and exploring thins that most give life, health, vitality and excellence.

These moments of life and excellence in parish life should never be taken for granted. They are the ways in which we give glory to God and inspire people to be Catholic – the “Good News” of parish life. The spirit of hope and envisioning the future is reflected well in the words of Pope John XXIII: “Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you have tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”

SEND HIM TO THE CORNER - MAKE HIM WEAR THE DUNCE CAP

This is a Catholic theologian who doesn't know his Catholic theology!

MILWAUKEE, June 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a letter to the New York Times on Monday, Daniel C. Maguire, a professor of moral theology at Marquette University and prominent Catholic dissident, stated that bishops should stop "harassing" Catholic politicians who vote in favor of abortion.

Maguire drew on St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas who both thought that to allow certain moral evils would prevent “greater evils.” He further cited Aquinas, who said that the “wise legislator” imitates God, who “tolerates certain evils lest greater evils ensue.”

The letter continued, “Similarly, today legislators who truly think abortion immoral could vote to keep it legal since greater evils, multiple deaths of women (especially poor women) from botched abortions as seen before Roe v. Wade, would follow.”

Phulease! That tired old argument has been refuted countless times. The man should be fired for incompetence. What sort of inferior quality theologians are colleges hiring these days? Marquette is supposed to be a university with a reputation for quality, but obviously they are falling down on the job!

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EVEN THE GUARDIAN FOUND IT NEWSWORTHY !

It's a little Jesuit College with an enrollment of less than 7,000, located in the cultural boondocks of Omaha. Yet it's making the news all the way across the pond in one of the most prestigeous papers. Does this fact represent a new direction for the Church--a return to orthodoxy led by faithful bishops who are willing to stand up and be heard?

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - The Omaha Archdiocese has severed ties with a Jesuit university's family center after two researchers urged the church to allow unmarried couples to live together and have sex and children as long as they are engaged.

The Creighton University researchers' essay, published in the June issue of U.S. Catholic magazine, said that more unmarried Catholic couples are living together today, and that they doubt the claim that the couples are living in sin.

``It would appear closer to the truth that they are growing, perhaps slowly but nonetheless surely, into grace,'' Michael Lawler and Gail Risch wrote.

The essay prompted a letter to the editor from Omaha Archbishop Elden Curtiss. The June 5 letter, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press by the archdiocese, aimed to discredit the researchers as Catholic theologians and dissociated the university's Center for Marriage and Family from the archdiocese.

``The teaching of the Catholic Church about fornication is clear and unambiguous; it is always objectively a serious sin,'' Curtiss wrote.

Curtiss wrote separate letters to the authors and Creighton's president, Rev. John Schlegel, said the Rev. Joseph Taphorn, chancellor of the archdiocese.

Taphorn did not know of any collaborations that were canceled because of Curtiss' decision, but said the archdiocese had worked with the university's center on several projects in the past. One project was designed to help couples assess their religious beliefs and bond from them.

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NEW ZEALAND BISHOP DEFENDS CHURCH TEACHING

The Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, Barry Jones, is opposing a visit by a controversial feminist nun from the United States.

He has written to priests saying that next week's visit by Benedictine nun Sister Joan Chittister is unauthorised.

Permission for the event had not been sought or given, and Jones did not want it promoted through Catholic churches.

"The point is that silence generates the misunderstanding that this is all approved, when it's not. I have made my position clear to the priests," he said.

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Two thumbs up for Bishop Jones!