Of Euthanasia and Martrydom

*I have an article just published this morning in Crisis magazine (crisismagazine.com), which you can find here.  I will post it here after a few days, for your perusal.  We are indeed entering dark days in this Dominion of Canada, and I am glad to see the Archbishop of Ottawa, Canada’s primatial See, has asked that those requesting ‘assisted dying’ be denied the last rites, and that a novena be begun to Saint Joseph, Canada’s patron, beginning on March 10, and ending on the vigil of his feast, March 18.  I will post some sample prayers.

*Cardinal Collins also seems to have drawn a line in the sand about Catholic hospitals and their non-participation in assisted death. Here’s hoping that line stands, and that there remain some hospitals where one can go, or where one can send one’s mother, and not fear being offed by some zealous ‘medical personnel’ with a twitchy syringe finger.

*And speaking of prayer, we here at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom are nearing the end of our application for accreditation, so please do keep that intention in your prayers also.

*The evil and insanity of ‘certain forms’ of Islam continue, and we can scarcely keep up:  The beheading of a toddler in Russia, the murder, and we may say martyrdom, of four Sisters of Charity in Yemen, along with twelve of their co-workers (a fate that may await more of us than we may now think), and an undetermined number killed today throughout the world in various bombings and shootings.  I will have more to say on the connection between a voluntaristic view of God, and the immoral tendencies inherent within religions that follow such a metaphysical principle.  Is God bound by His commandments?  Are we?  Or is it all just a capricious act of the will?

*On a different note, I was at a parish recently, packed to the gills, standing room only, but (or and?) the Mass was rather charismatic and haphazard, with applause for the choir, applause for the sermon, modern music and, well, I won’t talk about some of the artwork.  Yet people seemed to be religious, and, did I mention it was packed?  There is faith and devotion there, but the experience prompted me to ponder the nature of the Liturgy more deeply, and I will have more to write on this all-important topic.

*And, finally, this is the day that Saint Thomas Aquinas died, on his way to the Second Council of Lyons in 1274.  He fell ill en route, and went to the Lord peacefully, while reciting a commentary on the Song of Songs, at the Cistercian monastery of Fossanuova in Italy.  The story goes, perhaps apocryphal, that the priest who heard his confession claimed that he had just heard the sins ‘of a five year old’, testifying to Thomas’ innocence, if not so much to the sacramental seal.  The Church moved his feast out of Lent, to January 28 (when his relics were moved to a Dominican convent in Toulouse, where they rest to this day).  So may the Angelic Doctor pray for us, pray for clarity, pray for truth.

Peace to all,

Saints Perpetua and  Felicity,early Christian martyrs

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