TOPICS from A to Z

Saturday, July 19, 2025

I want to get closer to God and keep doing all I can, but nothing is happening. I feel far away... it's as if God is silent. What can I do?

On these Blogger pages we explore TOPICS in our desire to respond to Jesus' call to walk with Him in our world as his missionary disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring to humanity the Good News of the Father's love manifested and given in Jesus, the Divine Mercy. G.S.

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Dear Reader, two millennia of disciples of Jesus have preceded us on this journey of faith, and they came to know God personally through his love and mercy. The riches of their lives, writings, sayings, teachings, and example are accessible to us; they are not kept hidden, and we only have to seek them, ask for them, and we will find.

Our Roman Catholic Tradition accumulates, proclaims, and shares with all who would receive them, the teachings and example of Jesus, and especially his saving Passion, Death, and Resurrection. As well, Tradition stores for us the teaching and example of the shepherds the Lord gives us and also of the saints. For this and many other reasons, we do well to immerse ourselves daily in this life of the Lord's Church, his Assembly of the Saints... in the Prayer of the Church - the Liturgy of the Hours (American version - International version) - Holy Mass on Sunday and daily whenever possible, the duty of the moment in accord with our specific vocation in God, generously doing the works of mercy, attending to our duties in life, being hospitable to others, forgiving, and merciful to enemies, and so on... as Jesus taught and did.

It is as if Jesus, the Son of God, were a child saying to us children, "Won't you come out and play with me?" To put it differently, Jesus is the Bridegroom saying to us - each of us individually, personally, and to all of us collectively - "I love you. Won't you dance with me?" Jesus, with the Most Holy Trinity - He, the Son, with his Father and the Holy Spirit - constantly offer us to share in their divine life. It is always up to us to respond as God our Creator asks us to do: "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8. We are to do the right thing in our own life and in relation to others, even enemies, Jesus said, we are to be kind to all and to be open, honest, and humble before God, worshipping Him.

It is also advisable for whoever wants to come closer to God to seek and find a good spiritual director; who is holy and disciplined, in good standing with our Church, who understands your soul, and is not afraid to challenge you. Of course, you do well to follow your spiritual director's guidance, and I want not to interfere with that, but only to reflect with you here around the subject expressed in the title of this blog post, namely:

What is one to do when one wants to get closer to God, when even though one takes responsibility for one's life, one strives to love God and one's neighbour as oneself; with all the appropriate Christian disciplines and practices, and yet nothing seems to be happening... on the contrary, God seems farther away than ever, and oh so silent? What then? What is one to do then?

A good place to start, and as good as any, would be with an excerpt from St. Augustine's "Tractates on the first letter of John" under the subtitle "Our heart longs for God." It is to be found in the Liturgy of the Hours, Volume III, Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time, on pages 219-221. One could sum up his reflection simply by saying that it is God Himself who places in our soul holy desires, or more specifically, a holy desire; which is meant to draw us to Him. The Holy Spirit draws us on in that direction, but there is also a fair amount of waiting, because that desire is generally not immediately fulfilled or accomplished.

To quote St. Augustine here: "The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire. You do not yet see what you long for, but the very act of desiring prepares you, so that when he comes you may see and be utterly satisfied."

He goes on to use an image, that of a sack. It is as if our soul can be likened to a sack into which is to be deposited that for which we long and which God wants to give us. Our problem or challenge is that our sack is not large enough; it's capacity is too small to receive the magnitude of what it is that God wants to give us. However, we are not to despair; on the contrary, we are to hope, because the action of God, the Holy Spirit within us, is to use that holy desire to stretch and expand our sack, our soul. While we wait and experience a kind of suffering by exercising this holy desire while it is not yet being fulfilled; the capacity of our sack, our soul, is being stretched by God until the day when our capacity to receive becomes great enough to accommodate God's gift. We know that the Most Holy Trinity want to give us themselves, their own divine life and love; so, we do very well to accept to endure the waiting and the longing.

The Office of Readings for Tuesday in the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time offers us another insight on this topic, and in 1 Kings 19:1-9a, 11-21, it is with Elijah's trek into the desert to Mt. Horeb to meet God. Elijah had shown powerful faith in God when he confronted the 450 false prophets of Baal and challenged them to a duel. They were to set up a sacrificial offering, but make no fire, and call on their gods to demonstrate their divinity by sending down fire from heaven to accept and consume their sacrifice. They failed and in answer to Elijah's prayer, Almighty God sent down fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice, the wood, the stones of the altar, and the water all around it. The people cried out: "The Lord is God! The Lord is God!" Then, Elijah had the 450 false prophets brought down to the brook and slit their throats. The pagan Queen Jezebel then threatened to do the same to Elijah, and he ran for his life.

As he journeyed into the desert towards Horeb, God's mountain, Elijah slept and twice was awakened by an angel who told him to eat and drink; that he might have strength for the journey. Finally, he arrives at Mt. Horeb and takes shelter in a cave. God tells him to go outside because He was about to pass by. First, there was a mighty wind rending rocks, followed by an earthquake, and a fire. Elijah knows that God is not in the mighty wind rending rocks (which evokes for us our body strength*), nor was God in the earthquake (which evokes our emotions*), nor in the fire (which is like our intellectual acuity*). Finally, Elijah heard "a tiny whispering sound", like a gentle breeze or whisper of wind (which suggests the Holy Spirit, and in us, that would be the dimension of our soul or spirit*). "When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave." Elijah knew that he was in the Presence of Almighty God, his Creator and our Creator and Lord.

*It was while on an Ignatian Directed Retreat, while praying with this text of Sacred Scripture, and under the guidance of a spiritual director; that it occurred to me that the powerful wind images our body, our physical strength - rending rocks - that an earthquake images our emotions - which shake us up and can overwhelm us - that the fire images the "spotlight" of our mind as it seeks to penetrate reality in seeking the truth - and that the whisper of wind images the Presence and action of the Holy Spirit entering into our soul, our own spirit; as we open ourselves up to God. Jesus himself, in talking with Nicodemus, spoke of the wind as imaging the motion of the Holy Spirit in human beings born again in God, in the Most Holy Trinity; as recorded in his Gospel by John 3:5-8.

One of the truths which this passage of Sacred Scripture teaches us is that body, psyche / emotions, and mind are gifts from God, not to be neglected or abused, and God fills these dimensions with his life and love, but God comes personally to dwell within us in our soul. When God comes to us, into us, He inhabits our whole self, including our body, heart, mind, and soul, but it is in the "seat" of our soul that God comes to dwell. God has created our immortal soul with an emptiness, a capacity for receiving Him, his indwelling Presence; for which the Temple was but an image.

In the July 15th memorial of St. Bonaventure, we find an excerpt from "The Journey of the Mind to God" with the subtitle "Mystical wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit". Here, he writes about the ascent of the mind to God and similarly tells how we are to let go of all our varied expectations in order to be brought by the Most Holy Trinity into the communion they enjoy together in their unity. For this to happen, we need to experience a "passover" from everything of this world into the domain of God.

He writes: "For this passover to be perfect, we must suspend all the operations of the mind and we must transform the peak of our affections, directing them to God alone. This is a sacred mystical experience. It cannot be comprehended by anyone unless he surrenders himself to it; nor can he surrender himself to it unless he longs for it; nor can he long for it unless the Holy Spirit, whom Christ sent into the world, should come and inflame his innermost soul. Hence the Apostle says that this mystical wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit."

Catherine Doherty, Foundress of the Madonna House Apostolate, often spoke and wrote of having to fold the wings of our mind or intellect in order to advance further into this divine communion or to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is good for us to employ all of our God-given faculties mentioned above in order to seek and approach God, but then, we need to let go, to relax our efforts, and allow God to lift us up beyond the reach of our faculties.

It is like the woman in the Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon. She hears the footsteps of her beloved, a hint of his voice, she smells the fragrance of his garments, and turns around to see and seize him, but he is gone. Although this book never mentions God directly or indirectly, the Jews kept it in their Sacred Scriptures precisely because it speaks so eloquently of our soul's search for God who remains elusive; who plays "hide and seek" as it were with our souls.

We would not be able to bear the full intensity of the divine love, which is why we need rather to be gradually prepared for it. Our most practical daily opportunities to grow in love of God is to love all our neighbours, and especially our enemies; that is, those whom we find difficult to love.

What you may feel, Dear Reader, perhaps drawing you to the title of this post, is not unlike how a married woman may feel about her husband. Without realizing it, she develops expectations about how she would like it to be between them or how she would like to feel, but it doesn't happen. This could also happen to a married man in his expectations of how he would like his wife to be.

It really is like this; I have seen it time and again in couples. We are hidden in the mystery of how God our Creator has designed us, with an infinite desire for love that only He, our Creator, can satisfy. This is why He patiently leaves us free to experience this restlessness and dissatisfaction; until like St. Augustine we realize that our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. This is how God grows our desire for Him, and enables us to freely accept to let go of all tangible expectations and let our lives go, surrendering entirely to Him. This is how the anonymous author of "The Cloud of Unknowing" around the 13th or 14th century reflected on our searching for God. Here is a good overview of this spiritual text, its content and meaning, and its history - on Wikipedia.

At the time of the Counter Reformation, the Spanish mystic of the late 16th century, Saint John of the Cross, in his spiritual work "Ascent of Mount Carmel", likens this mystical faith journey to ascending Mount Carmel; which is an image for Christ Himself. There are many paths up the mountain, each pursuing some good grace or virtue, and these appear good, but because they are indirect ends and not Jesus Himself; they end up leading us away from Christ, or at the very least they distract our attention away from Jesus Himself, or they lead us on a longer, more circuitous path. We may, by his grace, eventually find Him, but the road will be more laborious and risky.

The most direct way, he teaches, is to renounce everything, all good things, all pleasures, and even all graces and spiritual ends; in order to desire nothing at all except Jesus Christ Himself, his Person, and all that pleases Him. The most direct route into communion in the Most Holy Trinity is to seek Jesus rather than graces and gifts; to prefer Jesus Himself rather than "our experience of Him". In other words, we are to prefer Jesus in Person to our own feelings about Him. When we do all that He asks of us, even when we feel nothing at all; we can be comforted and encouraged that He has us and that we have Him.

So, in light of this, getting back to our original question, and our feeling that we are not getting any closer to God, or that nothing is happening; we are simply to accept to endure this current condition, to set aside all those expectations, and ever strive to refocus the "peak of our affections", the focus of our holy desire, on Jesus, and Him alone. We set aside our feelings, our thoughts, our sensations in the body, the gifts and graces that God gives... everything... so as to set aside the gifts and desire only the Giver of the gifts. We let Him do as He wills with us in accord with his own Heart.

Our faith journey provokes many questions and even doubts. We do well to find, join, and remain rooted in a lively, faithful, and well directed community of faith. Within that living community of faith, we can also do some research and study of the Word of God and our faith tradition. One good Catholic Christian source where we can be assured that the reflections are faithful to the Word of God and the Magisterium, the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church, is from our American brothers and sisters: Catholic Answers.

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© 2006-2025 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2025 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

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Thursday, May 16, 2024

Humanity at the beginning of the Third Millennium is in crisis. The R.C. Church is in crisis, but so are the other Christian churches and other religions. What are we to do about it in 2024?

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There is a crisis currently in the R. C. Church, with the emergence of sexual abuse, as well as other forms of abuse, done to vulnerable people. This is only a symptom of the underlying problems.

A recognized general principle for understanding human society is to look not just at where we are, but to also see from whence we come, and also where we are going or trying to go.

Human societies have profoundly changed in the past two millennia, especially in what is called Western Society, as it is found in Europe, the Americas, Oceania, and with the spread of its values east and south into Asia and Africa. The Ten Commandments given by God to his Chosen People and, through them, to humanity, are essential principles. However, leaders who govern - in the Church as in society - need many more principles and skills, without neglecting or ignoring these basic Ten Commandments. We have only to observe how Pope Francis has tried to persuade Russia's leader to end the war on Ukraine in order to properly consider and appreciate how great a challenge it is to work to protect the innocent, stop and avoid war, and make peace instead. These are a few factors involved.

Christian churches, and worship centers for other religions, are all embedded in the societies in which they are situated. They cannot escape influences and pressures from their ambient society. They must be vigilant to monitor those influences and work to moderate them.
The historical passage in the last few centuries from Christendom to open western societies, with similar passages in eastern and southern regions, has deeply impacted churches.
There was at the outset in the Mediterranean world the gradual clericalization of the Church after the age of the Apostles and Fathers of the Church.
Simulteneously, there was a development which had a greater impact on the Church with the gradual invasion of their societies in the dwindling Roman Empire by the barbarian tribes from the north and east of Europe. When the civil authorities proved to be powerless in the face of the barbarian tribes invading their society, the populace looked to their bishop to protect them. Bishops tried to muster their resources to militarize and protect the population, and the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, was particularly successful for a time.
There has been a great impact by the emergence in modern times of societies giving priority to individual and personal rights of citizens - giving people an individual identity - as opposed to a social identity linked to one's village, town, city, tribe, nation, or worldly prince or monarch.
There was therefore over the last two millennia a corresponding emergence of dual dimensions to the leadership of local churches - in both dioceses and parishes - as well as in ecclesial movements and organizations: leaders had to deal with geographic and political entities; while at the same time they had to deal with the demands for individual and private rights.
The passage from primarily illiterate populations to heavily educated and professional populations highlighted the inadequacy of the Church's expectation that Holy Orders should be sufficient to empower and enable priests, in addition to their sacred and pastoral duties, to also manage every aspect of the life of a local church.

In a concise summary, here is a single statement of the problem as we find it today.

Whereas during the time of Christendom, when clerics were among the few people of their time with an education; it was reasonable for the Church to expect clerics to be able to lead and govern a local parish church or ecclesial movement. Then, with the emergence of more complex societies, with many more citizens - and even the majority of citizens in many places - having benefitted from higher education, formation in trades, and professional formation and training; the topography of human societies at every level has dramatically changed. In the Roman Catholic Church, as in many other Christian churches, the exercise of ecclesial leadership has developed into a dual role: that of PRIEST, yes, but also that of PASTOR or ADMINISTRATOR.

It is becoming increasingly evident - sometimes painfully so - that a man having received Holy Orders may be a holy man and an excellent priest, but he may simultaneously be a terrible pastor. Western society - with its governments, private and publicly traded companies, and NGO's, non-governmental organizations - has evolved so rapidly in the realms of human resources and personnel management, workers rights and unionization, that many churches have not been able to keep pace with those changes.

R.C. priests, even some recently ordained, suddenly find themselves assigned to pastor, as the responsible leaders of worshipping assemblies, along with parish staff and volunteers. They are responsible for financial management, the maintenance and repairs of buildings, the management of personnel and volunteers, and the protection of vulnerable people, among many other files and issues. However, in most cases, they have never received the proper formation pertinent to each of those areas. They may not be familiar with any of those concerns; unless they had experience in their previous life as private citizens.

In the Archdiocese of Montreal, where for two years now there is a general service to the population of an Ombudsman; this can and does open up situations in which a priest finds himself accused of some form of abuse, which may be nothing more than a problem to be resolved by a proper human resources department or personnel office, if the parish had one of these or both. This diocese, like many others, has not had the time, expertise, or financial resources to develop such departments and services, and has only recently begun to do so from scratch. As a result, everyone is caught short, surprised and in shock at the allegations transmitted by the Ombudsman. In some cases, a priest may even have been suspended for a year or more due to one or more personality conflicts, which could and should have been resolved at the source without having recourse to such drastic measures as a long-term suspension.

In addition to the first grievous wrong done by such a summary suspension, both to the priest and to the faith community which he had been serving, justice may not be served well at all by such a process. This is particularly true when the complainant may have had an axe to grind personally against the priest. If such were the case, then the entire process would be in effect co-opted by an abusive lay person, turning the entire process on its head.

If the true problem is not identified early and competently handled; then a succession of injuries may ensue, like the toppling of a long series of dominoes, leading ultimately to the destruction of the life and mission of the faith community itself.

When wisdom, prudence, and charity are lost; there isn't much left upon which to build truth, goodness, and beauty, those three transcendental qualities of God, in the context of human lives and society. We have heard that a professional review of this process is under way, and we eagerly await the results, and, in the meantime, entrust ourselves, our people, and our Church into the hands of Almighty God; whose Church we are.

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© 2006-2024 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2024 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

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Wednesday, May 15, 2024

LINGO MASTERY - How has Amazon become flooded with language books concealing legitimate authorship and publication credentials?

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LINGO MASTERY LANGUAGE BOOKS

WHO ARE THE REAL TIME AUTHORS?

WHERE IS THE PUBLISHER LOCATED IN REAL TIME?

Optical illusion scene from "Indiana Jones and the Lost Crusade"

I like to keep an inventory of books I have and acquire or dispose of. I generally log titles, authors, publication year, publishing house, and the city, state or province, or country in which the publisher is located. With digital publishing, this is a little more complicated when the book shows no publishing company or location in real time. However, I am usually able to track down both the publisher and city of publication.

Not so with Lingo Mastery. My search led me into a labyrinth of dead ends, that is, until I found a critical review of this issue on Reddit, where this blogger posted this question: Is this reddit user scamming $1,000,000 a year from amazon customers? This may not be an optical illusion, but what kind of illusion is Lingo Mastery? One of the comments on this Reddit post claims to have found that Lingo Mastery is actually published my Amazon itself. Is this true? If so, why conceal it if the publications are put together by real authors with legitimate linguistic formation, expertise, and experience?

Still, I decided to try to put the question to Amazon.ca and this is the note I sent them via their web email tool. We'll see what reply they will make.

"Hello. I've been purchasing books for years and I always find the headquarters of publishers, even when they are digital and at first there is only a website. I just bought 2 Lingo Mastery books but cannot find actual authors or their headquarters. They remain elusive. This is a red flag. Reddit has complained they are simulating authentic authorship and a fabricating reviews. This is against Amazon policy. These books show no real authors and the enterprise shows no real geographic location as headquarters. My complaint is that such an enterprise cannot be legitimate while concealing all real agency and faking reviews. What is Amazon going to do about this?"

It appears that this issue is merely one red flag uncovering the underbelly of our society in which the digital world and that of the web are rapidly falling under the influence of AI. An early sign was the challenge of identifying when a photo was faked with photo shop. Now, it's the entire domain of communication that is defying us to distinguish the difference between what is real and that which is only apparent.

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Saturday, July 1, 2023

Why are Western societies disintegrating? Western civilization? America may provide the template or key to the paradigm.

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Why are Western societies disintegrating?
Why is Western civilization falling apart?

What is happening in America may provide a key.

A friend recently wrote about being disturbed at seeing all kinds of misbehaviour in public in the U.S.A. and asked me what I thought, and whether it might be an exaggerated response. I believe such persons are having normal human reactions to abnormal human and social situations and happenings. In this blog, I will write as if addressing myself to you.

In fact, seeing all that you do see, it would be abnormal to take it all in as if there was nothing wrong. The social disintegration happening all over the Earth is, I believe, the primary cause of suicides; especially among the young who are not yet fully developed and therefore ill equipped to deal with all these complex currents and pressures in life. So, why are our societies sinking into savagery?

1. A first factor would be Godlessness, which will cause the disintegration of any society, and I believe that is one of the many factors at work in all that you abhor in the society around you. When human beings turn away from God our Creator, by the same token, we refuse his protection, guidance, inspiration, and help. We choose to be on our won. Unfortunately, while God behaves "like a gentleman" and respects our decisions, those entities identified as "demons" or "rebellious angels" are not so respectful, principled, or kind. They rather employ all manner of lies, deceptions, manipulations, and deceits in their disruptive behaviour and frantic activity "from the shadows" in pursuit of our destruction. The response demons like best from us is our naive refusal to believe they exist, because they thrive best by their "covert operations" in the "shadows and in the dark".

2. A second factor is the lack of civility. When kids have kids of their own, they may not be parents to carefully attend to their children and form them into decent human beings. It also happens as adults become parents but live lives entirely focused on their work, either because of the "new slavery" offering them the carrot of promotion, advancement, and raises in salary and benefits, but requiring them to neglect marriage and family more and more; or because they have to work more to make ends meet, perhaps to maintain an unrealistically high standard of living. Whichever way or for whatever reason it happens, successful and even less successful people may neglect their spouse, children, and home life; resulting in poorly formed children who are "raised" more by the law of the jungle at work wherever they go, at school, in their neighbourhood, and on the street.

3. A third factor is alcohol and drugs. People who remain addicted to alcohol or drugs for an extended period do sink into various forms of depravity and irrational behaviour; as a result of being under the influence, but also in criminal acts they may engage in as they try to obtain money for more drugs. It is also one of the causes of homelessness as well as the disintegration of neighbourhoods, cities, states, and nations into savagery.

4. A fourth factor would be what began with WW II. When Western nations came together to send soldiers to Europe, Africa, and the Pacific theatres of war, they did so with a sense of moral superiority; that we were better than the Axis coalition of dictator-led nations, because we understood that we were defending innocent nations against warlike invaders. However, moral superiority is difficult to maintain, and it is rarely unpolluted by baser motivations. This assumed moral superiority has made the U.S.A. an even worse bully nation than they were before towards their neighbours to the south.

The mostly American decision to carpet bomb German cities was not doubt a desperate if deliberate decision to try to accelerate an end to the war, by accepting the risk of wiping out much of the civilian population and help turn the German nation against its leader, Hitler. The accelerated development of the atomic bomb, also a mostly American decision to drop two on Japan, was similarly motivated to accelerate an end to the war, by accepting the risk of wiping out much of the civilian population and help turn the population of Japan against its obstinate leader, the emperor.

However, there is great risk when a nation sets itself up on a pedestal of moral superiority. that risk, among others, is that it may cease to be self-critical and think that everything it thinks and does is automatically morally superior. This may explain in part why the U.S.A. has gone on a continuous rampage throughout the world to topple governments it didn't like and support its multinational companies that exploit other nations for their resources, pollute the earth, water, and air, and leave local populations sick, dying, unable to feed themselves. The "American Empire" has become as bad or worse than the "British Empire" ever was.

This national stance of the U.S.A. since WW II has had a profound effect on its population in terms of soldiers killed or wounded, and the unresolved veterans' affairs issues in the States testifies to this. Many veterans have had psychological troubles leading often to various addictions and harm to or breakdown of marriages and families. In turn, the children carry heavy issues and may spend the rest of their lives trying to cope. There is also the unfortunate result in a nation having a commonly held conviction that "we can do no wrong" and that "American interests" are good for everyone, but often, they're not.

5. A fifth factor follows on the fourth in the artificial prosperity created by the rapid industrialization of the States during WW II to produce the equipment needed to achieve victory in the war. This created the monster known as the military-industrial complex, which today keeps growing the American military and exports weapons and equipment of violence around the world. With a growing military, America needs to keep finding theatres of war in which to expend these resources; so that more can be produced, making more profits. Of course, justification is needed to "sell" these "military actions" at home; so even outright lies will work, such as the fiction of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which never existed. Before Iraq was invaded, Saddam was a dictator, but he kept the "crazies" in line. Once he was gone, those factions turned on the Christians and almost wiped them out. Soon there will be no Catholics left in one of the cradles of the Christian faith, the Chaldean Catholic Church, where they speak Aramaic as Jesus did. It can't possibly go well with a nation at home that exports massive quantities of weapons around the world so that local bullies can blow each other up, as well as innocent bystanders, instead of fighting with clubs or knives.

6. A sixth factor in the disintegration of America would be the effects of this artificial prosperity on the general population. Americans never had it so good as they did in the decades after the war. The '50's and early '60's were a time of rapid growth, better salaries, women working, improved standards of living, and a new period of leisure and life, including the creation of the "teenager" years. These evolving conditions were exploited to the max by marketing and a naive population was exploited through the artificial creation of irrational "needs" requiring ever more money, more frantic seeking after ever higher salaries, and so on.

7. A seventh factor was that this became the ideal medium or soil for the springing up of all kinds of weeds, pardon the pun. Parents caught up with their work, careers, and salaries began to neglect their children, or to properly raise and form them. In turn, kids found their way into clics with the inevitable bullying, or worse, into gangs focused on all kinds of misbehaviour or even crime. People no longer prioritized or worked on their marital relations, ending in divorce and family breakdown, with all their destructive effects on everyone.

8. An eighth factor also emerged from this growing mess in the form of the "sexual revolution". Some of the "hippie movement" was innocent, but it also favoured experimenting with sex, alcohol, and drugs. Many lives were disrupted and not all of these experiments turned out well.

9. A ninth factor would be ways in which several of the above interacted with one another to become more destructive of lives, marriages, and families.

10. A tenth factor would be how the exponential growth in the consumption of various drugs created a "demand" which led to the creation of drug cartels due to the increasingly lucrative "market" for drugs. This in turn led the States to declare its "war on drugs". Among the casualties have been those who have been blackmailed to comply or seduced to take money in order to turn a blind eye or destroy evidence and other criminal acts. There are innumerable destructive effects of so much power and money generated by addictions.

11. An eleventh factor would be the perversion of American politics due in part to the control of lobbyists paid by multinational corporations, with the result that it is all to often no longer government by the people but by the rich and powerful. The rigidity of the American democracy as a republic with only two political parties makes it impossible for other views to gain ground, with the resulting frustration, anger, and the craziness that has embarrassingly become a spectacle to the world.

12. Many of these have in turn created a twelfth factor, which is the war against God and religion. The ACLU is on a rampage against any and every hint of religion or God, and they have succeeded in banning God, prayer, the Bible, and religion from the schools and, increasingly, from other public places. The result is dramatically clear in the mass shootings in schools. As some people say, God is a gentleman, and, being told to get out of the schools, He does, but his protection goes with Him. In the resulting moral and spiritual vacuum, all manner of evil and darkness swoop in.

13. A thirteenth factor follows, the war on life. Never in the history of humankind has there been such a war on the unborn, which has gone hand in hand with the sexual revolution. Not only have we discarded God our Creator's plan and design for our human life and happiness, and carelessly engage in uncontrolled, undisciplined sex, but we have gone further and declared war on the innocent unborn. It is a much worse slaughter of the innocents than what happened in Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth, and all that innocent blood cries out to God from the Earth, like the blood of Abel murdered by his brother Cain. It cannot possibly go well with a society that has become genocidal in the slaughter of its own offspring.

14. A fourteenth factor also follows on what has gone before in the current war on humanity itself, on human nature, on marriage, and on gender. It began in the late '60's with a new lobby to advance the cause of homosexuals. They pushed it so far as to succeed in changing public attitudes on homosexuality and even further to win same-sex civil unions, which they want to call marriage, but which religions refuse to call marriage. That wasn't enough for them; so, they went after our common understanding of what it means to be human, to be male or female. There's no telling how far that will go, but you are right to think that it is as bad as or perhaps may become worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.

15. As if that wasn't enough to thoroughly destroy human society in the States, consider as a fifteenth factor the enslavement of African natives kidnapped and sold in the States for generations. Then followed the Civil War precisely over this issue, which defeated the South and in principle freed the slaves. However, overnight very little changed in their lives. Some of them found ways to become prosperous - the "carpet baggers" - many of whom moved north into the states of the "Union". In the South, however, they remained as repressed and threatened with death as when they were slaves; until the civil non-violent revolt of the late '50's which began with Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus in Alabama. That led to all kinds of upheaval in the various States as people were forced to give up some of their prejudice and stop the outright criminal behaviour of lynchings, beatings, rapes of blacks by whites and other atrocities.

16. A sixteenth factor would be America's option for "law and order" which puts so many people in prison, more per population than anywhere in the world, I think. All too often, prison becomes a "school for crime" where petty criminals get their "Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. in crime". They can be absorbed by gangs that thrive both in and out of jail. Because the focus is far more on punishment and revenge than on corrections, so little money is spent on correctional approaches that they are no so effective and mistakes are made when violent offenders are paroled as should never be. Some societies do take a truly correctional approach to crime and they have remarkable results.

17. A seventeenth factor would be the perversion of the American justice system by several factors: the rabid profit-mongering lawyers and legal firms out to grab as much profit as they can from human misery, with little or no regard for human dignity, or the value of human life, and certainly not for any dimension of philanthropy. The lawyers put pressure on the system and it reacts with prosecutors determined to put the accused in jail, whether or not they are truly guilty. Political leaders are concerned with re-election, and they want the public to at least have the impression that they are doing their jobs.

18. An eighteenth factor would be the perversion of the American health and medical system. By turning it over to private enterprise, the focus has shifted to profitability, and the more it focuses on the rich and powerful, the more profitable it becomes. To hell with everybody else. Catholic hospitals are among the few that take in people and treat them, whether or not they can pay. Now the sexual and gender ideology lobbies have declared war on Catholic hospitals in the States for their own ends.

19. A nineteenth factor, which may actually be the first and most pervasive, would be the way that American capitalism has undermined its own democracy. A number of films have tried to demonstrate this theme. Capitalist interests, the rich and powerful, don't like religion because they see it as an obstacle on their path to more power and wealth. With their money and power, they exploit the legal system and the courts and have succeeded in turning the thinking and values of "the founding fathers" upside down. One example is that the signers of the Constitution wanted citizens to be free to practice their religion, which for them was primarily Christianity. Today, they have succeeded in turning the Constitution into grounds for establishing a society "free FROM religion". It is a perversion that can only be explained as coming straight from hell.

20. A twentieth factor, would be the exponentially expanding global plague of pornography on virtually all platforms and media. Those unscrupulous exploiters who exploit the innocent and the naive are aggressively going after children, adolescents, young adults, and older people caught in the frustration of their workplace rat race or having difficulties in their marriage or family life or simply lonely. Sadly, even a single look at or use of pornography threatens to set a person on a course of addictive behaviour. Many who start don't know how to stop or simply can't stop, no matter how hard they try. In such cases, they literally need the help of others to get off that merry-go-round and be accountable.

Warning: There are undoubtedly many other factors at work in a complex society which either improve or threaten, or worse, further disrupt human lives and society as a whole.

Conclusion: Is it any wonder, then, that with all these factors converging and impacting on one another and affecting individuals, families, and societies all all levels; that this process could result in anything other than social disintegration? That is perhaps why Jesus came not to reform any social institutions but rather to address Himself to each human person as a person; because only a human person can change for the better, with God's help.

So, I repeat, your discomfort and concern at the aberrations you see and hear around you are normal human reactions to abnormal human behaviours and situations.

For one reason or another, America has been a fertile ground for all these factors, perhaps more than in any other country. Unfortunately, many of these factors are at work worldwide, in varying degrees. Elsewhere, there are also radical violent groups who even have control of countries, such as the radical violent Hindus who now control the government in India, causing or encouraging lots of persecutions of Christians, bombings, and killings.

Lord God, our Creator, have mercy on your human children.

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© 2006-2023 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2023 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC

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Saturday, May 27, 2023

La place de l'assemblée, des offrandes, de la musique, et du silence dans la sainte Liturgie - de l'Église catholique romaine

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À toutes nos collaboratrices en liturgie et
À tous nos collaborateurs en liturgie,

Bonjour.

D’abord, merci de tout cœur pour tout ce que vous faites, et pour tous vos sacrifices, pour la gloire de Dieu, pour le salut des âmes, et pour l’avancement de la mission de l’Église que le Seigneur Jésus nous a confiée, à savoir, « Allez, faites des disciples de toutes les nations… »

Je reconnais d’emblée que je n’ai aucune autorité sur vous, à part celle d’être prêtre de Montréal envoyé par notre Archevêque pour servir.

Aujourd’hui, tous et chacun font valoriser leur droit de parole. Alors, à ce titre, je vous prie de me permettre de prendre aussi la parole concernant nos façons de « faire la sainte Liturgie » ensemble. Je vous offre mes 40 ans d’expérience en tant que prêtre, 29 ans en tant que curé en paroisse, et 4 ans comme vicaire.

Je reconnais en vous quelqu'un qui aimez Dieu et aussi tous ses enfants, et mon seul motif en partageant avec vous ces quelques pensées; est en vue de chercher avec vous une toujours plus grande excellence en chacun de nos gestes, de nos choix, de nos textes, et ce, pour une toujours plus pleine et signifiante participation dans la sainte Liturgie de la part de chaque membre de l'assemblée. À ce titre, je demeure ouvert à recevoir de quiconque vos observations et suggestions pour que moi aussi je puisse faire mon possible pour améliorer ma part dans la sainte Liturgie.

1. La place de l’Assemblée dans la sainte Liturgie

La Liturgie nous vient du mot grec « leitourgia » qui se traduit par le culte, les prières, et les sacrifices offerts par le peuple, les croyants, l’assemblée, à Dieu. L’Esprit Saint est à l’œuvre au sein de chaque membre de l’assemblée depuis leur dernière présence pour les inspirer à se préparer pour faire l’offrande d’eux-mêmes en communion avec le Seigneur Jésus qui offre sa vie à son Père. Tout ce mouvement spirituel de préparation et d’offrande ne fait qu’un seul mouvement orchestré par le Saint-Esprit.

Tous les rôles et ministères liturgiques sont alors au service de la participation plus active, plénière, et signifiante de la part de chaque membre de l’assemblée. La presque totalité des prières faites par le célébrant principal sont adressées à Dieu le Père au nom du Seigneur Jésus, dont la sainte Messe est le sacrifice. Ces prières sont conçues pour entrainer l’assemblée à se joindre dans leur esprit aux paroles de ces prières.

À plusieurs moments, il y a dialogue entre le célébrant et l’assemblée. Ces dialogues entraînent à une plus active et fervente participation. Tous les autres rôles : lecteurs, serveurs, animateurs de chant, et tous les autres rôles, visibles ou cachés, sont également au service de la participation plus active, plénière, et signifiante de la part de chaque membre de l’assemblée.

2. La préparation des offrandes pour la sainte Liturgie

Le pain et le vin représentent l’offrande que Jésus allait faire de sa vie pour le salut du monde. Ensuite, le lendemain de la dernière Cène, Jésus a littéralement offert sa vie en sacrifice au Père pour notre salut. Jésus a librement accepté de souffrir et mourir pour montrer à l’humanité le vrai visage de l’amour, qui va jusqu’à aimer ses ennemis et à leur pardonner leur mal, leur péché.

Jésus nous a démontré la puissance d’un acte d’amour véritable et authentique, et, par le fait même, Il nous entraîne à sa suite; afin que nous puissions décider librement de marcher dans ses pas et faire comme Lui. Donc, alors que le prêtre prépare le pain et le vin, c’est le moment pour nous de préparer en notre esprit l’offrande que nous voulons faire de nous-mêmes au Père en union avec Jésus et son offrande de Lui-même.

3. La place de la musique dans la sainte Liturgie

Le rôle de la musique liturgique est donc au service de cette montée de participation de la part de tous les membres de l’assemblée. En aucun temps, sauf au moment de la Sainte Communion, les chantres ou chorales, devraient-ils prendre la place de l’assemblée ou chanter « à leur place ». Voilà pourquoi ce qu’on appelle les « parties de la Messe » peuvent être mis à la musique, mais les paroles ne doivent jamais être changées. Il faut que ces paroles demeurent stables et familières; afin de faciliter la participation de l’assemblée. Sinon, s’il y a constamment changement des paroles, les animateurs de la musique mettent constamment en déséquilibre les membres de l’assemblée. Le risque est alors de transformer cette partie de la sainte Liturgie en spectacle, ce qui provoque les membres de l’assemblée à devenir passif et de perdre le sens de leur participation.

Après le Concile Vatican II, il y eut plein d’expérimentation dans la liturgie, et nombreuses sont les pièces musicales – qui existent encore aujourd’hui – qui ont modifié ou même abolies – les paroles des parties de la sainte Messe. On peut devenir familier et même aimer ces « tounes » liturgiques, mais le sens des paroles de la sainte Liturgie est alors perdu, ce qui affaibli le potentiel de participation signifiante pour l’assemblée. C’est un sacrifice, oui, de les abandonner, mais le Seigneur bénira notre fidélité à la sainte Liturgie. La sainte Liturgie ne nous appartient pas... elle est le Sacrifice de Jésus... et nous avons tous à la respecter.

4. La place du silence dans la sainte Liturgie

Il y a quelques moments durant la sainte Liturgie où l’Esprit Saint aime « travailler » nos esprits, et Il aime faire cela dans le silence, qui, dans la sainte Liturgie, devient un « silence sacré ». Le célébrant principal est le gardien du « silence sacré » de la sainte Liturgie. Donc, nul doit interrompre le « silence sacré », sauf le prêtre. Après la seconde lecture, on attend qu’il se lève avant d’entonner l’acclamation à l’Évangile. Après l’élévation du Sang du Christ, on ne doit pas entonner l’anamnèse avant que le prêtre n’en fasse l’invitation. Après la sainte Communion, nul de doit rompre le « silence sacré » sauf le prêtre.

Je vous remercie de m’avoir lu et de donner votre considération à ces propos, pour la gloire de Dieu.

Fr. Gilles A. Surprenant,
Priest & Poustinik
fathergilles at gmail dot com

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Monday, March 21, 2022

If there is a god - so what? Why bother to pray? If I decide to pray, how do I go about it? How do we pray together?

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Is there a god? If there is a god, what difference does that make?

All the pioneers of modern science in the second half of the second millennium were not only scientists but also believers. They pondered what they observed and then declared all that they observed in the universe manifests the qualities and character of a careful designer, the Creator. Richard Dawkins and the "new atheists" - some of whom have their own TV "science shows" - declare that science provides no evidence of god and that science has no need of a god or of such a "hypothesis".

As one example, Neil deGrasse Tyson in his many appearances on Science "shows" on TV and YouTube points to the as yet unexplainable "mysteries" of science as the grounds for belief in God by some people. However, he doesn't seem to address the real science by real scientists who do find scientific grounds in their scientific observations and experiments for belief in a Creator God who is the "Intelligent Designer".

Watch this excellent lecture by scientist Stephen Meyer of the Discovery Institute to better understand how the worldwide scientific community developed over the centuries, turned away from God, and by more carefully following the science, is now coming back to the "God Hypothesis". CLICK THE LINK

So what?

Either the existence and significance of God is of interest, or it's not, and "He" isn't.

If it's "No!"

If God doesn't exist; then the only choice I have is to live my life until I die and then it's all over, in which case I will have gained or lost nothing. However, if God does exist; then it would be wise to take interest and get to know a lot more about God so as to enter into a significant relationship with the Creator of the Universe before the end of my life. Otherwise, once my immortal soul or spirit leaves my body behind in death and I come "face to face" with God; it could be embarrassing. At the very least, I would not be able to claim having shown any interest whatsoever in the Creator of the Universe.

If it's "Yes!"

If on the other hand I believe that God exists, or could exist; then it's like any other human experience. Before I "nail" the interview and get the job I seek, I may know something about that position, but clearly I have a lot more to learn. We learn primarily in two ways: from other people's knowledge and experience - taking courses, reading, studying, listening to live and video conferences and podcasts, and so on - and from our own experience.

This also applies to our human relationships and "getting to know" someone. Initially, I may know "a little" about someone from conversations with others as well as from my initial observations. As I take interest in the other and spend more time with them; I get to learn a lot more about them from what they share with me, but also from continuing observation and personal experience. I learn a lot about others from what I think about them and from how I feel about them and when I am with them. Well, it is much the same with God.

Relating to / with God

Just about every people, tribe, nation, and culture of humanity on Planet Earth has its own "religious paradigm" or religion or "experience of God". What they all have in common is that over time there stand out certain individuals who "have an experience" relating to "the divine" and they then try to express that experience in testimony, teaching, art, or writing. As certain "religious practices" arise in relation to "the divinity"; a new religion is born.

About religions and gods

Depiction of Druid human sacrifices at Stonehenge

In all the "great" and "lesser" religions of humankind, the god or gods are all seen to have similar characteristics: they are "far above" humanity, they are "aloof" of human concerns, they are generally "disinterested" in being involved with human beings, if they show interest it is usually to enhance their own honor and worship, and at worst, they "lord it over" humanity with harsh demands of human sacrifice, that is, that live people should be put to death in their honour and as acts of worship. The motivating factor is universally to "appease the gods' wrath against humans" and to "obtain their favour" with regards to life, health, prosperity, protection from enemies and harsh climate, bountiful crops and children. Even in Islam, which claims to believe in only one God, and that this Allah is benevolent; nevertheless this religious tradition also teaches that their Allah is quick to punish and is "far removed" from humanity and can never be approached. No intimacy is possible with Allah.

Depiction of Mayan human sacrifices

God interferes in human history to "choose" the Jewish People

Unlike any other "religion", the faith of the Jewish People is based on the experience of God which their ancestors had and which every Jew, male and female, in every generation can verify in their own personal experience and relationship with the God of their ancestors.

For the first time in human history, God - the Creator of the Universe - interferes in human history be choosing to "reveal Himself" to a concrete individual and to offer to enter into a "covenant" with him. Since this people were a patriarchal culture, it is primarily with men, with the patriarchs of their "tribe", that God chose to relate. In time God revealed to them the history of our human origins in the stories told about Adam and Eve and then Noah.

Book of Genesis: God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob ca 1,850 B.C.

The initial religious history of humanity in relation to God the Creator tells a story about "gradually forgetting all about God", let alone having any significant relationship with God. After the time of Noah and his family's survival of the great flood, people forgot all about God; until He began to "reveal Himself" to Abram whose people lived in Ur of the Chaldees which was around 225 km southeast of where Baghdad is today, where Babylon once stood millennia ago, and about 16 km west of the present bed of the Euphrates River. This is the region which "origin stories" identified as the "original garden" in which humanity came to exist. Abram's people practiced human sacrifice in their tradition, and this was the man to whom God chose to "reveal Himself" and offer a covenant which would last "forever". This is the "story of the patriarchs" through the next 3 generations through Abram's sons Isaac and Ishmael and Isaac's son Jacob and his 12 sons who became the "12 tribes of Israel".

Book of Exodus: God of Moses: the "Torah / Law" ca 1,250 B.C.

Because of famine throughout the Middle East and by divine providence through the treachery of the sons of Jacob who sold their brother Joseph into slavery, all of Jacob's sons ended up taking their father and their whole family to Egypt. Unknown to them, their brother Joseph rose to prosperity as the Pharaoh's "right hand man" through the action of divine providence. In this way, God took care of his "Chosen People" who prospered in Egypt for generations until they became so numerous that after four centuries the new Pharaoh took fright at their growing numbers and began to oppress them. The people cried out to God and He sent them one of their own, Moses, to deliver them. God had to employ drastic and dramatic shows of power to convince Pharaoh to release the Israelites, and Moses led them through the desert towards the "Promised Land" promised by God to Abraham as his heritage. While in the desert, God continued to "reveal Himself" to Moses and entrusted Moses with the "Law" or "Torah" enshrining God's Covenant with his People.

Time of the Judges, Prophets, and Kings ca 1,200 to 1 B.C.

Human nature being what it is, we are inclined to "want to go our own way". As a result, God's "Chosen People" generation after generationwere constantly turning away from God. Some of them continued to "cry out to God"; so He sent them judges to govern them and protect them from their enemies. In time He sent them prophets; then the people wanted to be governed by a king like all the other nations around them. In effect, the people didn't like being governed by "God Himself", but He granted their request and gave them a king.

The first king given by God to his People was Saul, but he was too full of himself to obey God's will with care; so God rejected him. His successor David was the greatest King of Israel; son of Jesse and great grandson of Boaz and Ruth, the Moabitess widow who followed her mother-in-law the widow Ruth back to her home in Israel. David was "a man after the Lord's own heart" and the ancestor of Joseph, husband of Mary, Mother of Jesus.

That was not the end of their troubles; on the contrary, the kings often behaved as "rivals" against God and his authority over his People. The time of the prophets continued simultaneously with that of the kings. As they again turned away from God, He allowed them to be taken into captivity in Babylon. After 70 years God raised up a benevolent emperor who allowed them to return to Israel and rebuild their Temple. Like other nations they were overrun by Alexander the Great, and his successors oppressed Israel. Then for a few centuries they had no prophet or king, and God was preparing them for the coming of the promised "Messiah".

God as revealed by Jesus of Nazareth also called "the Christ"

Uniquely though, God - the Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - is a "divine being" and not a human being. This single divine being is not a solitary individual but an intimate communion or community of three divine persons. This means that in all that God says and does, all three divine Persons are involved, because "they" do everything together; each divine Person having its unique "place" and "role" within the Trinity.

Whereas in the past, God "played hide and seek" with humanity: He "hid" and they had to "seek" Him. Now the Son of God became human and took on a genuine human life as a man, as the son of Mary, Myriam of Nazareth, daughter of Joachim and Anna. She was married to Joseph son of Jacob, and He helped Mary raise Jesus to manhood. Jesus lived an ordinary life as "son of the Carpenter Joseph" and a carpenter Himself. Then in his final 3 years on Earth, He preached and revealed much about God, whom He called "Papa", and his love for humanity. Then, consistenly with all of human history, the "good guy" Jesus was rejected, falsely accused and condemned, tortured, and executed. True to his prediction, He then rose from the dead and revealed God's plan to give us resurrection after we die.

The life we have within us, containing all that we have ever said, thought, and done, will not be lost when we die. Our immortal soul "contains" all that we are - not unlike the "hard drive" on a pc - and when it is time, God will "raise up our mortal bodies to be like his own in glory", and we will be given to share in God's immortal community life and love.

So, why would we not want to "relate" to God?

However much "progress" humanity may experience, it is up to each and every human being to appropriate for themselves the fullness of life. No one can "get it for us". The wisdom and experience of others cannot be "injected" into us. There is no shortcut "to God" or to wisdom and understanding. It is up to each of us to "make the journey" in spite of the pressures, temptations, and allurements which we face every day of our lives. We must each decide how important God is, and to invest our time and energy in making ourselves open and available to this mysterious "divine Being" who is the Creator of the Universe.

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On these Blogger pages we explore TOPICS in our desire to respond to Jesus' call to walk with Him in our world as his missionary disciples empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring to humanity the Good News of the Father's love manifested and given in Jesus, the Divine Mercy. G.S.
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© 2006-2022 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2022 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
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