Benedict XVI's Address to the United Nations

Must read! I will comment on it latter.

Benedict XVI's address to the United Nations

Childhood Devotions of the Ratzinger Family

Pope Benedict XVI’s only remaining sibling, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, answers questions about his younger brother in an interview with the National Catholic Register. Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, a priest in Germany, is known for his work as a director of the Regensburger Domspatzen, the cathedral choir of Regensburg.

During the interview Msgr. Georg Ratzinger describes the childhood devotions that help foster his family’s faith during a troubled Bavaria.

The Mother of God has played an integral part in our spiritual life.

At our parents’ house we often prayed the Rosary, we knelt on the ground, leaning on chairs. That showed us very early how important the Mother of God is for a Christian.

We also observed the many Marian feasts. My mother and my sister were called Maria. Obviously, the name has been important in my family. We also traveled to Altötting [one of Europe’s greatest Marian shrines]. We know we are indebted to the Mother of God and can carry all our worries to her.

The Rosary, the midday prayers on Sunday, the festive Corpus Christi processions in Bavaria: These practices of popular piety makes one’s faith becomes personal — not abstract or formal, but personal, human, kind and precious, a faith which enters our life story and claims an essential place.

This quote tells us something important about family devotion. The social teaching of the Catholic Church very clearly refers to the family as the first seminary. This was obviously true with the Ratzinger brothers. Devotional practices and prayer shape the faith perspective of the participants. Rituals and devotions are not impersonal and abstract but aide in reaffirming the sacredness of life by stressing the importance of God.

Msgr. Ratzinger, like his brother, also spent time in an American prisoner of war camp until the end of the war. He recalled the uncertainty of knowing the whereabouts of his parents and siblings and the state of his home. Fortunately the Ratzinger family had a happy reunion at the end of the war.

In describing his relationship with Pope Benedict, Msgr. Ratzinger cited the practical benefit of attending divine liturgy with the Holy Father.

There is also an important dimension in the Eucharist: Here is the Vicar of Christ celebrating Mass. There is a special atmosphere around that.

We Are the Living Stones

My post on We Are the Living Stones at Arrival: The Parousian Weblog.

Defending the Sacred Against Profanity

The torrents of the world sweep over many sleeping minds. The faithful must awaken, arise, and fight against this current; we are in a cultural - and furthermore a spiritual - war. Our primordial enemy is not flesh and blood, liberals and conservatives, anti-Christians, the media, atheists, religious fundamentalists, heretics and the such. Our enemies are demons, principalities, and sin—the horror outside the soul and the horror within the soul. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Mathew 10: 28). This war has eternal consequences and Love is at war with all that separates us from its source, God. The only way to win this war is through the renewal of our minds and committing to the will of God—Sainthood.

All are indoctrinated, despite the fact that much of the population denies this. Many are open minded to everything but the prospect of Truth. "Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid" (G.K. Chesterton). The academic arrogance of so-called enlightened thinking and reductive materialistic sciences negate the openness in our being that points to our affinity for truth. Beware of those who claim to look for truth and deny that it exists.

I believe that all good philosophy leads to mystery because “Being is shrouded in mystery” (Jacques Maritain). Reductive philosophies have devastating consequences on humanity's ability to transcend the physical universe through the suffering, sacrifice, and love symbolized in our language. All symbols have a spiritual dimension. We must combat the destruction of language through faithfulness to God, our family and communities, and Truth. When symbols become devoid of meaning, communities break down and individuals become spiritually isolated and depressed. Rational scientific knowledge cannot be allowed to totally inform our worldview. Only a willingness to accept mystery and approach others in humility will maintain our community, sanity, and openness to God. In seeking truth, I believe that love is the highest form of knowledge and that God is this love, agape. "Lord, in my zeal for the love of truth, let me not forget the truth about love" (St. Thomas Aquinas).

Since embracing the Catholic faith in high school, I have embarked on a long spiritual and intellectual journey. I am convinced that both faith and reason are needed to constitute a holistic worldview by which one can operate in the world. Our relationships, experience, and limited intellect mediate our insights and knowledge. The best we can hope for is an adequate but incomplete knowledge of things.

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know truth--in a word, to know himself--so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves –“Fides et Ratio” by Pope John Paul II

My desire for Truth has dominated my formation and has brought me to intellectual giants, philosophers, theologians, saints, and writers who have consistently challenged my worldview. Ultimately this desire has led me to embrace the Catholic faith wholeheartedly. More and more I have become convinced of the ontological goodness of all of creation and the falleness of humanity.

The title of this blog, “Taking back the Sacred,” refers to the Christian call to redeem culture by bringing the Gospel message to the world and living the sacramental vision. God has created all things good, but sin profanes the world and distorts our view and desires. We must seek to understand reality in its proper light so we can embrace what is good and speak out against what is evil. In the end, love will prevail, the challenge is whether we will allow love to prevail in ourselves.