Setting The Record Straight

Listen to Part 2 of the amazing and true life story of Father John Gerard. This is an except from “The Hunted Priest”, the autobiography of John Gerard, a Jesuit priest, who risked all in a savagely anti-Catholic England under Elizabeth I. He had been condemned to be tortured to death in the Tower of London yet managed to make a incredible escape. He survived to live a long life, multiplying generously his granted portion of God’s love.

Truth is more amazing than fiction. Especially when Jesuits write about what they will endure for the love of Christ. The Hunted Priest is an autobiography of John Gerard, a priest who dared and defied a savagely anti-Catholic England under Elizabeth I. At first he disguised himself as a country gentlemen and traveled about secretly administering the sacraments to underground Catholics. When he was found out, he hid in a series of the infamous “priest holes”, emerging once a day to say Mass and perform the sacraments. Captured, he was condemned to be tortured to death in the Tower of London. Listen to what happened next for that was only the beginning of his story.

Its Father’s Day ! We honor our Dads ! However in this “progressive” age many us have fathers that have disappeared from our lives. Some even have no idea who their father is. The one parent family is common now. Manhood is routinely condemned. Did this happen inevitably? Perhaps it could have been prevented if we knew its cause? It is curious that we do know its cause but most people refuse to believe it. It is a tragedy that the pathological effects of fatherlessness are not just emotional and social but include permanent neurological damage to the developing child.

How can today’s sensible secular intellectuals account for the unmatchable beauty, the order, and technical genius of the music of the Catholic “West”? “Parsifal” is Richard Wagner’s greatest opera. Unfortunately for some it is unashamedly Catholic and luminescent with sacred beauty. What had happened to the younger Wagner who, in Tristan and Isolde, had abandoned the order of logos and unleashed the relativistic chaos that eventually produced a school of modern classical music so ugly that no one now wants to hear it? Perhaps in “Parsifal” he had found the true sensuousness within the logos.

Unique and stupendous! No product of any other culture approaches the magnificent beauty and fecundity of the tidal wave of Catholic Art that began in the Church’s so-called “Counter Reformation”. The phenomenon occurred in every art form. Elizabeth Lev has just published a delicious book about this that is briefly reviewed here. This review leads into proposing a vision of what we will do in a heaven that is creative and fun. Finally there is a statement from Jordan Peterson about Catholicism that cannot be missed.

Vanished ! A thousand years ago there was a magnificent town. It clustered around the world’s largest basilica. It was the most advanced center of art and science on earth, and was carefully administered with sublime orderliness. Knowledgeable historians agree that our modern world began there on one particular day. There the “West” was founded. Now only a ruined tower stands alone. Much of the best ideas that formed our nation is were conceived and made real there. Like lost Camelot, not even a drawing of it can be found. Atheistic iconoclasts, once again, did a thorough job of destroying the inspired, lovely, and complex works of Catholics. Now few care that even the last insubstantial memories of it have begun to vanish.

“Saving souls” was the bold way Catholics used to casually refer to evangelizing. Christ commissioned us all to perform this laborious and dangerous endeavor. The courageous among us have obeyed Him. Listen to a brief sample of these amazing reports, called Jesuit Relations, that record the adventures of the brilliant and Indomitable French Jesuits in North America in the 17th century. The reports were published every year and were always best sellers in France.

This is Part 2 of reflections on the fire at Notre Dame du Paris. Chuck converses with his young son Dawson wondering how much we must lose of what is beloved and revered. In this first of two Podcasts they explore hopeful possibilities that arise from Catholicism, the Bible, Eschatology, and Astrophysics.

The near loss of Notre Dame du Paris was heartbreaking for hundreds of millions of people. Perhaps It will be restored as it has been several times in the past, perhaps as a Catholic Church again. However ultimately will Notre Dame du Paris be lost forever ?

Reflect with Chuck and his young son Dawson as they converse, examining questions of how much on earth we must lose of what is beloved and revered. In this first of two Podcasts they explore hopeful possibilities that arise from Catholicism, the Bible, Eschatology, and Astrophysics.

The near loss of Notre Dame du Paris was heartbreaking for hundreds of millions of people. Perhaps It will be restored as it has been several times in the past, perhaps as a Catholic Church again. However ultimately will Notre Dame du Paris be lost forever ?

“The Imitation Of Christ” is one of the most widely read works of Catholic literature. Many Christians have found these instructions, originally intended for novitiates, to affect them as if they were the words of a compassionate parent, clearly and gently leading them to center their attention on and in God. This is the last in a series of readings drawn from great spiritual writings offered for reflection during Lent of 2019.