Recently in Catechesis Category

This is too cute: Little Irish children telling Bible Stories. HT Mary's Aggies via Mark Shea

Wish I'd understood this in my twenties.

Faith is not some state of feeling we get ourselves into. It is much simpler than that. It is simply believing in God and therefore believing everything he has revealed – no matter how we feel. “God said it, so I believe it, and that settles it.”

Feelings are influenced by external things, like fashions and fads, wind and weather, diet and digestion. But when God gives us the gift of faith, he gives it from within, from within our own free will.

The devil can influence our feelings, but he has no control over our faith.

We are not responsible for our (unfree) feelings, but we are responsible for our (free) faith.

Yet, though faith is not a feeling, it often produces feelings: of trust, peace, gratitude, and confidence, for instance. And faith can also be aided by feelings: for instance, when we feel trustful or grateful to someone, God or man, it is much easier for us to believe him than when we feel mistrustful or ungrateful.;

But even when we do not feel trustful or peaceful, we can still believe. Faith is not dependent on feelings. It is dependent on facts: divinely revealed facts.

- Peter Kreeft, Catholic Christianity

HT: Zach at The American Catholic

Colbert takes one of those "the Christians-made-it-up" "scholars" to school.

HT: CMR

People much smarter than me have word it better than I ever could.

In is letter regarding Barak Obama at Notre Dame (posted on American Papist), Charles F. Lennon Jr. Executive Director, Notre Dame Alumni Association writes:

Rather, the University has invited the President to campus for what he’s done for racial equality, and for his stands on poverty, health care, immigration, education, infectious disease, and seeking peace. These are causes dear to the heart of Notre Dame, and he has elevated these causes and made them his own.

Sigh. As stated on Jill Stanek:

African-Americans comprise 12% of the US population but disproportionately 32% of all abortions, according to Guttmacher. PP's founder, Margaret Sanger, was an anti-black eugenicist. Most abortion mills are located where the majority of blacks live, in metropolitan areas (87.5% - see Cenus Figure 2). According to Guttmacher, 95% of all mills are located in metropolitan areas.

Oddly, pro-life black Catholics don't seem to agree with Mr. Lennon. On Twitter, Alan Keyes tweets:

Obama's moral stature comes from exploiting race, yet his pro-abortion stance repudiates the black American heritage.

Yesterday, Matt C. Abbott of RenewAmerica has a letter from Fr. John J. Raphael, SSJ:

'I have spent eighteen years working with blacks and whites, Protestants and Catholics, to bring more African Americans into the pro-life movement. During the last two months the Obama administration has already begun to aggressively roll back the gains made in defense of life over the course of the last fifteen years.

'I have written two articles which attempt to show how the historical significance of the first African American president is emptied of its meaning if this same president refuses to embrace the rights of the unborn. I share them with you if you are interested in considering the devastating impact of these pro-abortion policies on the African American community in light of this historic election:

http://www.nbccongress.org/features/bridge-01.asp

http://clarionherald.org/pdfs/2009/02_07_09/page15.pdf.

'As an African American and a priest, as a principal of a Catholic high school and a member of the Admissions Advisory Board of the university, I cannot adequately express in words how deeply this action offends those who are committed to carrying out the task of Catholic education and witnessing to the Gospel of Life in the context of a Catholic school. Even if the university chooses to cooperate with certain policies of the president that are not contrary to the teaching of the faith, the conferral of this type of public honor is wholly gratuitous and incongruous with the mission of any Catholic institution...

more...

If we really want to address the race issue, let's address it in it's fullness. If not, then you are just using the fact that Obama's blackness as an excuse to pat yourself on the back for appearing so hip-which is pretty racist.

HT:Jill Stanek

It has been years now since pop culture has been embraced by Harry Potter madness and people seem to have long ago decided if they are for or against HP. Why keep beating a dead horse? I wonder why these books are the source of so much consternation...

I'm sorry, I just can't seem to be moved to any kind of emotion on this topic. I think that is because I don't really care for Harry Potter. I hate saying that in public because people draw the conclusion that a religious, Christian, conservative, homeschooling mother such as myself takes issue with the morality or the witchcraft or whatever. Or at least I do not like to voice out loud I don't care much for Harry because I do not want that assumption made of me. But I don't like HP because I find it boring. There, I said it. I actually do not hate it either. I just could not get into the books despite many attempts, and I fell asleep watching the last two movies.The movies are monotonous to me. I find the little details of living in a wizardry world fun, but beyond that, there is little attraction for me.

Rosey Posey (who despite being my child, is a totally seperate person with very different opinions) enjoys the books a great deal and desperately tried to make the last book stretch as long as possible. However, she has told me that she finds not well written. She said there are other book series she finds much better that do not get nearly as much publicity such as The Artemis Fowl Series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and The Ender Saga.

I would just love to here a discussion about what people enjoy or do not enjoy about the series without all the "Aren't these books fantastic because now even inner-city minority children are reading because of them!" or "they are instruments of the devil", or whatever other cliches we are used to hearing about them.

on Extra Ecclesium Nulla Salus or "No Salvation Outside the Church".

You are a Melancholic!

via Flos Carmeli.

St Nicholas Center: stories, ideas, coloring pages, kids' artwork, and a place to buy cookie cutters!!!

Hat tip: Coucoumelle.

Why didn't they have cool things like this when I was in college?

Tom of Disputations has a sharp post up: a rough-draft taxonomy of factions within the Church, based on which Sacrament they reject. He remarks that Confirmation is "rejected by pretty much everyone, since almost no one has any idea what it's actually for."

Well, I would dispute that. I am all for Confirmation (even though I'm don't have a complete understanding of what it's for. But I do have some idea.) So, does that mean I get my own faction? And if I do, what should I call it?

I first blogged about Confirmation in a combination "faith seeking understanding" and "resentful Gen-X rant" post last fall. I've had the question of Confirmation on my mental back burner ever since. It's something I want (and need) to study more, both to understand the Sacrament and to grow in understanding of the Holy Spirit and His actions.

I was thinking about it again more recently when I started hearing about the "Restored Order of the Sacraments" in the Latin Rite (that is, Confirmation before First Communion instead of adolescence or even later.) I saw it first on a Catholic mother's message board and then in this post on Fidelis.

Don't feel like slogging through the long meandering (recycled) reflection in the extended entry? Here's the executive summary: I think the Restored Order is a great idea. After the revolution, when I become Liturgist-in-Chief (complete with draconian powers of enforcement), I will implement it from east to west. While I wait for news of my appointment, I'll be studying up on Confirmation and learning more about the Holy Spirit, and striving to grow in devotion to Him.

What books might you recommend for someone who is planning to enter RCIA in the fall, who's on fire with excitement, and who needs some good reading on the Faith to tide her over till then?

The Catechism, of course. But what else? I think this person might benefit from a book that is complete and geared for adults, one that is clearly laid out, one that is geared for the average reader (not too scholarly -- the kind of thing one can read with a squirmy toddler climbing on one's head without losing one's train of thought); something that explains what Catholics believe and do, and why we believe and do it.

Thanks for your suggestions!

I tried Bill White's suggestion of addressing the ghosts-and-monsters issue by talking up St Michael. Hambet listened very attentively, and seemed to especially appreciate when I got to "St Michael and his big sword." He then eagerly interrupted to tell me that when St Michael is done with his sword, he puts it in a suitcase.

Well, he likes hearing about St Michael, but we are still having bedtime issues. Last night we settled the ghosts and monsters question and thought Hambet was asleep, when we heard that piteous noise again and were informed that there was a dinosaur in the bathroom. A lot of holding and reassuring, and almost a solid hour of hopping up and down before Hambet finally gave in and went to sleep.

***

Yesterday Hambet held up his palm and told us, "I like my volcano stick!"