Struggling with Church Doctrine? Go to Confession! | Matins Musings

Struggling with Church Doctrine? Go to Confession! | Matins Musings

A good message for all Catholics.

An Interesting Perspective on Sex and Our Culture

The McDonaldization of Sex 1 (Sex and Christianity 10)

The above is the first in a four part (more to come?) series regarding the largely unforeseen (Pope Pius XI clearly saw the looming consequences) and rarely discussed ramifications of contraception, legalized abortion, and the sexual revolution on our society as a whole.  I'm sure many will have no problem dismissing the perspective, but I'd hazard a guess that there is a bit of denial, shame and/or guilt coupled with a subconscious refusal to take an honest look at one's own culpability for how those feelings.

As a father of two daughters and a son, this makes me seriously consider what lies in store for them.  My daughters have already reached their teenage years.  And while I grew up in a time when worrying about how boys might treat your daughters was a real concern, I look at our society today and can't help but see that the risk is far greater now.  I think about the sexual content of TV, billboards, magazines and in public conversation 30 years ago and contrast that with today.  30 years ago we had slid a long ways from the days of "I Love Lucy" , "Dick Van Dyke" and "Ozzie & Harriet", but today?  Material that would have been R rated and only in theaters is now showing up in prime time shows that are framed to lure families and kids into watching, without any care taken to restrict access.  People converse publicly, in earshot of kids about sexual acts and use language that would have been inappropriate in any social context.  And everything points to sex as being just a disposable form of cheap entertainment and little more.

Read the series.  Honestly contemplate the reality it is describing.

UPDATE:  Looks like the series isn't finished, the 5th in the series was posted this week:  http://www.patheos.com//Catholic/McDonaldization-of-Sex-5-Tim-Muldoon-07-05-2012.html

Cooperating with the Will of God

Was reading Mark Shea today, and he had this quote from C.S. Lewis:

Can we believe that God ever modifies His action in response to the suggestions of man? For infinite wisdom does not need telling what is best, and infinite goodness needs no urging to do it. But neither does God need any of those things that are done by finite agents, whether living or inanimate. He could, if He chose, repair our bodies miraculously without food; or give us food without the aid of farmers, bakers, and butchers; or knowledge without the aid of learned men; or convert the heathen without missionaries. Instead, He allows soils and weather and animals and the muscles, minds, and wills of men to cooperate in the execution of His will. 'God,' says Pascal, 'instituted prayer in order to lend to His creatures the dignity of causality.' But it is not only prayer; whenever we act at all, He lends us that dignity. It is not really stranger, nor less strange, that my prayers should affect the course of events than that my other actions should do so.  They have not advised or changed God's mind — that is, His over-all purpose. But that purpose will be realized in different ways according to the actions, including the prayers, of His creatures.

For He seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye. He allows us to neglect what He would have us do, or to fail. Perhaps we do not fully realize the problem, so to call it, of enabling finite free wills to co-exist with Omnipotence. It seems to involve at every moment almost a sort of divine abdication. We are not mere recipients or spectators. We are either privileged to share in the game or compelled to collaborate in the work, "to wield our little tridents." Is this amazing process simply Creation going on before our eyes? This is how (no light matter) God makes something — indeed, makes gods — out of nothing.

Profound thinking from a great mind.

Mark used this as part of a discussion of the importance of Mary in Catholic theology and it is a great way of approaching any meditation on Mary.  But, it's also amazing to contemplate how much God desires a relationship with each of us, how much He loves us, how much He cares for us, and the ways He is always attempting to show and communicate His love and desire for us...