The Marian Dimension of Mother Teresa’s Dark Night

Not so long ago, with the publication of Blessed Mother Teresa’s letters to her spiritual director much misinformation was disseminated about her “dark night,” namely, that is Mother had lost her faith. The arch-atheist, Christopher Hitchen’s and other anti-Catholic enthusiasts were quick to vilify this holy woman, whose trial should be a source of edification.

Recently Zenit interviewed Missionary of Charity Father Joseph Langford, cofounder with Mother Teresa of her community of priests, the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, about his new book Mother Teresa: In the Shadow of Our Lady.

Blessed Teresa, like Our Lady, took the road to Jerusalem in obedience to Jesus: Unless you pick up your cross and carry it, you cannot be my disciple. Perseverance in the dark night of faith is spiritual chivalry, spiritual prowess and largess, and in the case of Mother Teresa, it is an extension of the Marian Way of Beauty.

One cannot argue with likes of a blasphemer like Hitchens. In an debate between him and Bill Donahue of the Catholic League he referred to the faith-based defense of Mother as “white noise.” All we can do is say to Hitchens is “come and see.” His only hope is the Way of Beauty . . . and of course, prayer and fasting. Here is an excerpt of the Zenit interview with Father Langford: Continue reading

The Church of Oprah


Oprah has become a real cult prophetess. For some time, she has been in cahoots with sham artist and new age guru Eckhart Tolle, as was pointed out here by prolepticlife not so long ago. The latest information indicates that this is not just a passing interest. What is more, her new religion is also good for her bottom line:

And what’s different about the Tolle connection for Winfrey is that for the first time in her much-applauded Book Club’s history, she’s gone into business with the author. And the author is not one of a novel, memoir or cookbook; he’s the mysterious creator of a philosophy that Winfrey endorses and suggests her readers live their lives by.

I noticed that even Salon.com was scandalized by Oprah’s crooked promotion of The Secret.

Just how shameless is all this too-good-to-be-true hype that has become the hallmark of Oprahware? Salon author Peter Birkenhead refers to The Secret sham as a “bottle of minty-fresh snake oil.”

Here is just one example: when I was researching The Secret, I took a look at the cast of characters employed by the author Rhonda Byrne. One of her gurus is a gentleman by the name of “Dr.” Joe Vitale, who goes under the revealing nickname of Mr. Fire (take it as you like), and promotes himself as a marketing expert. Indeed. I checked out some of his books. If this is not a red flag, I do not know what is. That’s right, the title is Hypnotic Writing: How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words. Now that’s shameless.

I cannot emphasize enough how destructive this way of thinking is to our moral and cultural future. Turn Oprah off.

Did Tolkien Object to Narnia on Doctrinal Grounds?

aslan.jpg

Steve found this article some time ago and asked me to comment. It’s an extremely interesting topic to me, so I’ll give it a go.

If you are really interested in this topic you can also follow this thread on Mark Shea’s blog from last month. (I have a terrible time getting a link to Shea’s blog to work permanently . Follow the link provided above and then scroll down the page to An Interesting (and Pretty Persuasive) Essay on the Anti-Catholicism of C.S. Lewis and Why It Bugged Tolkien. There are about thirty comments.)

The article, by Eric Seddon, is entitled Letters to Malcolm and the Trouble with Narnia: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Their 1949 Crisis. Anyone who is familiar at all with the friendship of these two literary giants knows that while they both shared an appreciation for mythic literature and for much of each other’s literary work, Tolkien had no use whatsoever for The Chronicles of Narnia, and he made Lewis acutely aware of his distaste for it. In fact, Tolkien’s frankness on the matter seems to have put somewhat of a damper on their relationship, or at least was a contributing factor to its cooling. Continue reading

For Christ and the Church

corpus_christianum.jpgRobert brought my attention to an international organization known as the Corpus Christianum, which is a private association of the faithful, “dedicated to praying for a renewal of Christendom.” The group seems to be very Marian, they pray The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is principally the work that inspired the Knight’s Psalter. Check it out. Great work.

Also of interest, related to the website of Corpus Christianum, is the FAQ page that includes a recommendation for further reading on the subject of Catholic Chivalry. There you will find links to a work that I have recommended before, Kenelm Henry Digby’s Maxims of Christian Chivalry, which is an abridged version of a much larger, and extremely hard to find work, The Broad Stone of Honour. What is news to me is that this latter work is online in four volumes, each volume receiving its title from a different knight:

Godefridus,

Tancredus,

Morus,

Orlandus.

This is a real find. Thank you Robert.

Fatherly Watchman

From The hermeneutic of Continuity:

A month or so ago, I wrote about the book Dominus Est by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, published by the Vatican Press in which he argues for Holy Communion to be received on the tongue and kneeling.

Vodpod videos no longer available. posted with vodpod