Please fast and pray every Thursday for the renewal of the Catholic Church in America. Please note: The Cybersociety will fast on Fridays beginning January 2013, in accordance with ancient custom.

This is not a photoblog; this is not a Catholic trivia blog. The story of our origins.

Friday, December 28, 2018

Feast of the Holy Innocents


"The mystery of the innocents is that they are the victims. The divine eagle gathered them as booty to himself. The blow aimed by the tyrant at our Lord fell on them instead. They serve as a kind of guard of honor to the divine Child--and the militant dialogue between God and anti-God in which they are caught up earns them heaven. But we have lost our awareness of that ceaseless duel...we ignore it completely. Yet no one can escape responsibility and at any moment God, exercising his sovereign power, may draw us into the thick of it."
--Alfred Delp,  S.J., The Prison Meditations



Friday, November 16, 2018

Psalm 20

Give victory to the king, O Lord;
 answer us when we call. (Psalm 20:9)

"Psalm 20 teaches us to pray for the earthly men and women that God gives to us as kings and queens and rulers all the while trusting ultimately in God and in His will, over and above the abilities, talents or charisma of politicians or princes. By praying such prayers we, in turn, learn to pray for the return of our true King, the One Who saves, and does not fail, Who comes to us alive out of the jaws of death and will give us eternal life: The only One who saves us all."
-- Sermon of Rev. Ted A. Griese, May, 2013.

Friday, November 9, 2018

Psalm 19


The heavens proclaim the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands. (Psalm 19:1)

"Creation had been given to man as a clean window through which the light of God could shine into men's souls. Sun and moon, night and day, rain, the sea, the crops, the flowering tree, all these things were transparent. They spoke to man not of themselves only but of Him who made them....Although we tend to look on the Old Testament as a chronicle of fear in which men were far from God, we forget how many of the patriarchs and prophets seem to have walked with God with intimate simplicity. As age succeeded age the memory of this revelation of God seems to have withered away, but its leaf is still green in the Psalter."

--Thomas Merton, Bread in the Wilderness






Friday, November 2, 2018

All Souls' Day


But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,
and no torment shall touch them.
In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died,
and their departure was thought to be an affliction,
and their going forth from us to be their destruction;
but they are at peace. (Wisdom 3:1-3)


Friday, October 26, 2018

Psalm 18

He mounted a cherub and flew, and he soared on the wings of the wind (Psalm 18:10)

"The cherub is a fierce winged beast, the charger ridden by the sky god in Canaanite mythology, not the dimpled darling of Renaissance painting." (Robert Alter, The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary)

Dr. D. Pochin Mould (Angels of God, 1963) says cherub is derived from the Babylonian karibu, those winged guardian gods with human heads and the bodies of lions. She goes on to say, however, "It is not true that the development of Jewish teaching on angels is a taking over of pagan mythologies; rather, Jewish thought tends to throw the one transcendent God into even greater relief."

St. Michael, above, not fierce but quite majestic.




Friday, October 12, 2018

Vacation Week


Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy (Psalm 43:4)


Friday, September 21, 2018

Prayer Post Florence

Loving Maker of the world who, by separating the soil of the earth and banishing the troublesome waters, set the land firm, so that it may produce seeds of different kinds, be beautiful and bright with flowers, abundant in fruit and yielding desirable food, cleanse with the freshness of Your grace the wounds of our sin-parched soul, that it may wash away in sorrow its evil deeds and wear down the power sin has to attract us.

Let our soul obey Your commands and keep far away from anything evil; let it be thankful that it is filled with good and may it never be struck down by death.

Grant this, most loving Father and You, the only Son, equal to the Father and, with the Spirit, the Paraclete, reigning through the ages. Amen. -- Vesper "hymn" from The Hours of the Divine Office, ed. by Leonard J. Doyle, Liturgical Press, 1965.

Friday, September 7, 2018

Psalm 17


"There are two buildings and two cities constructed since the beginning of the world. Christ builds the one, the devil the other....Those who are built on the structure of Christ are lifted up from the depths to the heights; those on the structure of the devil are hurled from the heights into the depths....If a man sees pride dominant in himself, he should not doubt that he is being unhappily built, or rather thrown down, in the city of the devil....Practice obedience with humility. Have you not read: 'For the sake of the words of Your lips I have kept hard ways'? [Psalm 17:4]. The commands of a superior seem difficult; how much harder will be the advice of the deceiver? How much harder are the things which avarice commands its advocates!"--St. Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 233, "To the Holy Monks at the Monastery in Blanzac"

Friday, August 31, 2018

Psalm 16, with commentary by St. Peter


Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices,
My body also dwells secure,
For thou dost not give me up to Sheol,
Or let thy godly one see the Pit. (Psalm 16:9-10)

"Brethren, I may say to you confidently of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet...he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses." (Acts 2:29-32)




Friday, August 17, 2018

Psalm 15

Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle?
Who may abide upon your holy hill?
(Psalm 15:1)

"We recognize that we are the true and living temple of God. God dwells...above all in the soul which has been made according to the image of God and was formed by the hand of the Creator....Christians who are chaste, humble, temperate and kind...observe peace and charity, and do not give false testimony--in such men the temple of Christ is kept intact, and Christ is known to dwell in them....Those who lead a wicked life and observe neither chastity nor justice, receiving 'bribes against the innocent' (Psalm 15:5) will have to endure eternal punishments."--St. Caesarius of Arles, Sermon #229, "On the Blessing of a Church.''

St. Caesarius was a wise pastor. Lest you lose heart, he goes on to say, "For this reason, brethren, with God's help let us avoid serious sin. As for the small sins of which we cannot be free, resist them by daily almsgiving and redeem them by continuous prayer." There's always hope.

Friday, August 3, 2018

Psalm 14

The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds....Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who...do not call upon the Lord? There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous. (Psalm 14:1, 4-5)
  The Latin Vulgate uses the term "voluntas" instead of "deeds." Voluntas also connotes will, choice, or desire. Therefore, their desires themselves had become abominable. Cassiodorus states, "Voluntas derives from volatus (flying), because the mind rushes where it wills with great speed." This etymology is a "fanciful notion," his translator says, but it doesn't prevent Cassiodorus from making a very accurate observation: an ignorant and corrupted conscience inevitably leads to "abominable deeds."

Cassiodorus continues: "So it was right that those who expelled from their minds the fear of the Lord, which is salutary in this world, were shaken with groundless trembling." That is, shaken at the Son's coming.

"The virtue preached to us in this psalm is that as far as we can we should with kindly hearts consult the interests of our enemies, so that they do not harden in blind obstinacy and be subject to ineluctable error. The Church rebukes a sinning people, urging them not to hasten to their own destruction; thus they can abandon their wickedness and cast off the vices which can cause them wholly to perish."


Friday, July 27, 2018

Psalm 13


How long wilt thou turn thy face from me? (Ps. 13:1)

"He asks for the appearance of Christ...for that face deigned to save the world. In this way both his longing for God's love was shown and his charity toward his neighbor was clearly fulfilled, since he continually begged for what he knew was beneficial to all. Both are joined in partnership with each other; God cannot be loved without neighbor, nor neighbor without God." (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms)

Friday, July 20, 2018

Psalm 12


"Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan,
I will now arise," says the Lord.
"I will place him in the safety for which he longs."
The promises of the Lord are promises that are pure...
(Psalm 12:5-6)

Catholics and Protestants now seen to be following the same numbering system, but what is Psalm 12 to us was Psalm 11 to Cassiodorus (c.487-c.580):  "It is certain that the sons of men can be freed by the power of the Lord. Then, since the strength of the number eleven, to which this psalm is assigned, is acknowledged as revealing to us a sign of the gospel, let us beg the Father of the household in His great mercy to admit us into the vineyard even at the eleventh hour, so that He may deign to bestow on our actions a reward not due to us, but gratuitous." (Cassiodorus, Explanation of the Psalms)


Friday, April 27, 2018

4th Week of Easter


"If these are the first fruits, what will the full harvest be? If this is the pledge,
 what will perfection be?"  -- St. Basil the Great

Friday, March 30, 2018

Good Friday


"All passes away. In the evening of life, only love  remains."
--Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity, O.C.D. (1880-1906)



Thursday, March 29, 2018

Holy Thursday


I will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord (Ps. 116)

I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it new with you in the kingdom of my Father. (Matt. 26:29)

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Tuesday of Holy Week


God is a strange lover...He stalks the soul with sorrows...
He blots the sun that could make her vision dim...
He robs and breaks and destroys.
Then he comes and there is nothing left...
But him and her love of him.
Not till the great rebellions die and her will is safe in his hands forever
Does he open the door of light.

(Jessica Powers, "God is a Strange Lover")

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Lent, from the Office of Readings


"...acknowledge your God....discover how far you have fallen."
--St. Gregory Nazianzen

Friday, February 23, 2018

Lent II


It will no longer do to hide,
To cover, to conceal,
To pretend to be building anything
Except a house of sin
Over a cellar of disordered love.

Only the bare bones can stay now
In mercy's clearing...
While still there is a recognizable heart,
Boneclean barrenness alone
Can look to spring.
--"Winterset" by Gervase Toelle, O. Carm. (1921-1967)

Friday, February 16, 2018

Lent


"Love ... commands only those who consent. Love is abdication. God is abdication." -- Simone Weil

"When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you not appear to be fasting, except to your Father, who is hidden." (Matthew 6:18)




Friday, January 19, 2018

Ordinary (Winter) Time


"Love of God is not something that can be taught. We did not learn from someone else how to rejoice in light or want to live, or to love our parents or guardians. It is the same--perhaps even more so--with our love for God. It does not come by another's teaching. As soon as the living creature [that is, man] comes to be, a power of reason is implanted in us like a seed, containing within it the ability and the need to love." -- St. Basil the Great

Friday, January 12, 2018

Who Said It?


"I cannot be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance. I feel most deeply that the whole subject is too profound for the human intellect." -- Charles Darwin