2024 August | penitents

Confraternity of Penitents Newsletter – August 2024

CFP RETREAT – AUGUST 14 – 18

August 14-18, 2024 at St. Felix Catholic Center, Huntington IN USA. Fr. Joseph Tuscan, OFM Cap, and CFP Spiritual Guardian, Retreat Master. Theme: Francis of Assisi: A Meditation on His Life and Writings as explored by Franciscan scholar Joshua Benson. Everyone attending the retreat will receive a copy of Benson's book.

Bring your own towels, wash cloth, body wash, and water bottle and fan. Other linens and all meals provided. Overnight retreatants: $220 plus $30 worth of food or paper goods OR $30 cash.

Commuters: $80 plus $30 worth of food or paper goods OR $30 cash.

Single day rate (no overnight) - $28

Special Mass with Bishop Kevin Rhoades and the Father Solanus Casey Society on Saturday of Retreat.

See penitents.org (on retreat link) for full schedule and deposit information.

SPIRITUAL GUARDIAN’S REFLECTION: THE PARISIAN BLASPHEMY AND THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

Fr. Joseph Tuscan, OFM Cap, the CFP Spiritual Guardian, asked that we reprint this article for his column this month. Permission to reprint granted by author Fr. Thomas Weinandy, OFM Cap

The Parisian Blasphemy and the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap.

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2024/07/30/the-parisian-blasphemy-and-the-sacred-heart-of-jesus/

Many people, including Catholic bishops and numerous Christians throughout the world, have condemned the blasphemous event that took place during the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Paris. As almost everyone now knows, there was a mocking display of the Last Supper where Jesus was portrayed as an obese female dressed in white. She was surrounded by a gaggle of drag queen “apostles,” and a young girl was also – we should worry why? – included in this hypersexualized and sacrilegious depiction.

Amidst all the condemnations and claims of the display’s offensiveness, what has not been stated, even by Christians, is that those who planned, orchestrated, and perpetrated such a blasphemous portrayal, unless they repent, will not die a happy death. At the very moment of their death, they will be about to face the very one that they blasphemously mocked and demeaned. And contrary to the sentimentalized Christianity of many today, Scripture itself tells us that He will be their judge – the holy and risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Moreover, God the Father will not allow His beloved incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, to be blasphemed. France, and particularly Paris, and maybe even the Olympic games themselves, will not go unpunished. Jesus declared to his disciples: “‘Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’ – for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’” (Mark 3:28-30)

Although all sins can be forgiven, even blasphemy against God, yet to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven. What is this blasphemy against the Spirit and why can’t it be forgiven?

To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to deny that Jesus is the Spirit-filled Messiah. Unbelieving Jews declared that Jesus was possessed by an unclean spirit, the devil, and in so doing, they blasphemed the Holy Spirit who dwelt within Jesus in all of his fullness. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to deny that Jesus is the Father’s beloved incarnate Son. Again, such blasphemy the Father will never tolerate, but eternally condemn.

Now, did those who made mockery of Jesus and his apostles not know that Jesus is the Spirit-filled Messiah? The answer to this question is “No.” If they did not know, what they did may be unseemly and tasteless, but they would not, because of their ignorance, be guilty of the unforgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. However, it is precisely because they did know that Jesus is the Father’s incarnate Spirit-filled Son that they mocked him, and so blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Contempt was the whole point of their blasphemous portrayal.

Thus, the entire event was demonic. The devil desires nothing more than for Jesus to be blasphemed, for Jesus, through his saving death and glorious resurrection, destroyed Satan’s kingdom. Satan clearly knows who Jesus is and what he is about. “Ah! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” (Luke 4:34)

Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy One of God, destroyed Satan’s dominion of sin and death. To this day, Satan and his demonic thugs, demons and human beings alike, continue to seek revenge, and they do so by fermenting blasphemy against him. This demonic provocation was fully on display in Paris at the Olympic opening ceremony – a demonic liturgical rite.

Was it, then, by happenstance that the blasphemous display was the portrayal of the Last Supper? No! Satan not only wanted to blaspheme Jesus, but he also desired to blaspheme the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the making present of Jesus’ one saving sacrifice, a sacrifice which vanquished sin and death. In the Eucharist, the faithful receive the risen body and risen blood of Jesus, and so come into living communion with Him.

The Mass is the ultimate exactment of Satan’s kingdom being ever destroyed, and the definitive expression of God’s kingdom being ever made present. For all times, the Mass sacramentally signifies Satan’s demise and Jesus’ triumph. It is an ever-present visible outrage to Satan and an insult that he cannot endure – but he is helpless.

On Montmartre, the place where St. Denis was beheaded (the patron saint of Paris), only a few miles from where the Parisian blasphemy was committed, stands the Basilica of Sacré-Coeur, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was completed in 1914. The sad irony is that it was built for the purpose of making worthy amends for the sins of France and Paris, and to obtain mercy and forgiveness from the Sacred Heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the basilica, there is perpetual adoration of the Holy Eucharist.

If there ever was a time when, before the Blessed Sacrament, reparation needs to be made to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, this is such a time. Jesus’s heart was pierced out of love for all. From His heart flows out an abundance of mercy and forgiveness. All Christians need to call upon Jesus, as the Sacred Heart, to cast out all demons from Paris and the Olympics. All Christian groups need to pray that Jesus would fill everyone, especially the athletes, with the love of his Holy Spirit.

The Olympics, as an international athletic event, symbolize the entire world, and it is not only France and Paris that need Jesus but the whole of humankind.

NO GREATER LOVE: THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE

In the Lord’s “Priestly Prayer”, given in John 17, Jesus prays for His disciples. “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they may also be consecrated in truth.” (Jn 17:16-19) Jesus is proclaiming a distinction the between the world and God. His disciples are to be “sanctified”. In Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict explains what this means. What does it mean to ''sanctify"? According to biblical understanding, sanctity or "holiness" in the fullest sense is attributable only to God. Holiness expresses his particular way of being, divine being as such. So the word "sanctify" (qadoš is the word for "holy" in the Hebrew Bible) means handing over a reality-a person or even a thing-to God, especially through appropriation for worship. This can take the form of consecration for sacrifice (cf. Ex 13:2; Deut 15:19); or, on the other hand, it can mean priestly consecration (cf. Ex 28:41), the designation of a man for God and for divine worship.

The process of consecration, "sanctification", includes two apparently opposed, but in reality deeply conjoined, aspects. On the one hand, "consecrating" as "sanctifying" means setting apart from the rest of reality that pertains to man's ordinary everyday life. Something that is consecrated is raised into a new sphere that is no longer under human control. But this setting apart also includes the essential dynamic of "existing for". Precisely because it is entirely given over to God, this reality is now there for the world, for men, it speaks for them and exists for their healing. We may also say: setting apart and mission form a single whole.

The connection between the two can be seen very clearly if we consider the special vocation of Israel: on the one hand, it is set apart from all other peoples, but for a particular reason-in order to carry out a commission for all peoples, for the whole world. That is what is meant when Israel is designated a "holy people".

As Pope Benedict explains for us, only God is holy. Perhaps He could be called the definition of holiness. The realm of God, the realm of the sacred, heaven, is distinct from the realm of the world, the “profane”. Of course, these two realms are not sealed off from each other. As Pope Benedict explains, priests are set apart for Divine Worship in a way which is distinct from the laity. In the Mosaic Law, given in the first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch, we read of all kinds of rules and regulations concerning food, clothing, worship, diseases, or who may perform certain actions, called the Law of Holiness, which may seem picayune to the western, affluent, modern, mind. Yet these rules tell us that the realm of God (the sacred) is above the realm of the world (the profane). This implies that God Himself is above the world. He is not simply a “depth dimension of reality” or the “ultimate reality” behind the visible world.

In the time of ancient Israel, the distinction between the sacred and profane was maintained by the Law and the Prophets, yet this distinction was constantly broken down due to the pull toward idolatry where humans elevated profane objects to divine rank or pulled the sacred down to the profane. In the book of Exodus, we read that when Moses was on Mount Sinai speaking with God, the people below had Aaron make a golden calf. “Here is your God, Israel,” they cried “who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” (Ex 32:4) The idolatrous Israelites probably thought of the calf they had made as a symbol of the power of nature which opened the sea for them, let them pass through, and then closed again to destroy the Egyptian army. They were not happy with the God of Moses who was also the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and who was making demands of them and commanding their obedience. Of course, even the pagans had a concept of the sacred. However, what they regarded as sacred was a human creation such as the golden calf or the pagan idols of Israel’s neighbors. Pope Benedict maintains that the truly consecrated is “raised to a new sphere which is longer under human control.”

For centuries, “modern” western man has been attempting to desacralize society, or get rid of the distinction of the sacred and profane. Some say that “God is in everything and everything is in God.” This is called panentheism. In this way of thinking, everything is in some sense sacred and thus nothing is truly profane since God is in everything. The being of God and the being of the material world are not differentiated from each other. This way of thinking opposes the traditional view of God as the “Supreme Being” who exists above and independently of the world, although He is able to interact with the world in any way that He chooses. A “non theistic” way of thinking is very attractive because it means that humans are not bound by commandments from above or the tutelage of the Supreme Being. Parts of Divine Revelation, which one finds unappealing, can be rejected as a product of a “pre-scientific” age or the product of time conditioned cultures. Divine Revelation is no longer authoritative but rather conditioned by human error and sinfulness. On the other hand, individual moral judgements can be considered to be authoritative, even above the Commandments of God, since God “is” in each of us. This is the basis of what is known as “situation ethics”.

Scripture does not use the term “Supreme Being” but one can easily find that view of God being assumed or even proclaimed. “The heavens declare the glory of God, the vaults of heaven proclaim his handiwork; day discourses of it to day, night to night hands on the knowledge.” (Ps 19:1-2) This is what much of modern theology rejects. God is reduced to a definition such as “ground of being” or “ultimate reality” or what one takes with “ultimate seriousness.” God is defined in such a way that He can be conceived as coming from “below” rather than “above” as proclaimed in the psalm. Of course, preachers and teachers will not openly say “there is no Supreme Being”. Instead, they implant that way of thinking by removing the distinction between the sacred and the profane. People who were initially religious believers become functional non theists. They use the term “God” but they live as though there is no God (Supreme Being).

How can this be done? At every Mass, the priest consecrates the host. Something which is common or profane is changed by the Holy Spirit acting through the priest into the sacred body of Christ. This can be done only from “above,” by the Holy Spirit. However, this action can be desacralized by simply calling the Eucharist the “celebration of the holy in the common” rather than a Holy Sacrifice. The sacrificial aspect of the Mass can be deemphasized by portraying the Mass as a communal meal. Even Protestants who maintain the “real presence” of Christ in the Eucharist believe that this presence only lasts as long as the congregation is present. In the Catholic Church, however, Christ remains in the Host and can be adored in Eucharistic Adoration. This practice recognizes that the Sacred Host is really sacred.

When the Lord says, “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they may also be consecrated in truth.” (Jn 17:19), He is establishing the priesthood as a sacred office. The priest is an ordinary man who is commissioned, ultimately by Christ, to perform sacred duties. This sacred office, established by Christ, assumes a real distinction between the sacred and the profane, the Being of God and the being of the world. This is what the nontheistic world view denies. This view believes priesthood and many other practices and doctrines in the Church have to be reinterpreted in order to purge the Church of the “outmoded” practices and thought patterns of a primitive prescientific world view.

This is the “fault line” which runs through the Church and even the entire society. Is God “above” us, not in the sense of space or elevation above the earth, but as the highest level of Being that we know of? Did God really give us dominion over Lower forms of life? “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living animals on the earth.” (Gn 1:28) Was our mastery over lower forms of being given to us from above? Some would deny any hierarchy of being and assert that humans are simply of product of mindless evolution. There is no “Supreme Being”, and if we talk of God at all we can only talk about the “ultimate reality” behind everything that exists. Disagreements in the Church and society about abortion, sexual morality, same sex marriage and many other things are ultimately rooted in disagreements about God and the nature of reality.

The Lord, in His teachings and his actions, certainly assumed the supernaturalist “God from above”. His words and actions demonstrated to his followers that He was from “above”. He demanded faith from His followers which meant that they must adhere to the One above them. Two thousand years after the Lord’s physical presence on the earth we have to decide who we are to believe. Was He a man who was totally “transparent to the ground of being” as the theologian Paul Tillich taught? Do we listen to the Apostle St. Matthew who reported that the Lord said “Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name”? As Pope Benedict teaches us According to biblical understanding, sanctity or "holiness" in the fullest sense is attributable only to God. –Jim Nugent, CfP

CONFRATERNITY OF PENITENTS PHOTO ALBUM: THE RINALDO'S

While Jim Nugent, CFP, will continue as Assistant CFP Treasurer and Madeline Nugent, CFP, as CFP Minister General, they have passed the reins for CFP Volunteer Coordinators on to a younger CFP couple, Ben and Kristen Rinaldo (pictured here).

Both life pledged CFP members, Ben and Kristen are shown with their two daughters Gianna (left) and Francesca (right).

The Rinaldo family is now living at the CFP headquarters at 1702 Lumbard Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA (Nugent’s live nearby).

In addition to their full-time employment with a Fort Wayne company, the Rinaldo’s have quite capably assumed the following responsibilities for the Confraternity of Penitents: updating the CFP Address List, assigning formators, CFP Paperwork and Filing, working with both the men’s and women’s Vita Dei Houses and house administrators, overseeing the CFP Property Manager, assisting with the Treasury, and assisting with CFP Holy Angels Gift Shop work.

Please pray for our CFP Volunteer Coordinators!

Repose of the Soul of Jan Scher, OFS

Janice Marie Scher, 77, of Huntington, Indiana, passed away on Monday, July 15, 2024 at her residence.

So begins Jan's obituary. But how can words capture the vibrant, energetic, and faith filled life of this very special Franciscan!

Jan was an Affiliate of the Confraternity of Penitents and most generous with her support of the CFP, donating many household iitems to Guadalupe Men's Vita Dei House. Active in her church and in the Father Solanus Casey Society as well as many other groups, Jan was a familiar face in the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese. She will be remembered in the Mass of the Dead at the CFP Retreat.

Jan, rest in peace and pray for us!

HUMOR

This morning, I accidently changed the GSP Voice to “Male.” Now it just says, “It’s around here somewhere. Keep driving.”

I couldn’t afford an ancestry DNA kit, so I announced that I’d won the lottery and I found out who my relatives are.

Procrastination is always a good thing. You always have something to do tomorrow and you have nothing to do today.

Don’t bother paying a therapist. I’ll tell you what’s wrong for free.

All of my childhood punishments have become my adult goals: eating vegetables, staying home, having a nap, going to bed early.

Sometimes I like to mess with my husband and hide his stuff where he can’t find it. Like I put his shoes in the shoe closet, his jacket on the hanger, and his keys on the key hook.

I signed up for an exercise class and was told to wear loose-fitting clothing. If I had any loose-fitting clothing, I wouldn’t have signed up in the first place.

9 out of 10 times when I lose something, it’s because I put it in a safe place.

When a guy says he’ll do anything for a woman, he means fight bad guys and kill dragons, not vacuum or wash dishes.

There is an ancient legend that says, “If you can’t sleep at night, it’s because you’re awake.”

LOOKING AT OUR LIFE: WHY DO PENANCE? AND WHY DO IT WITH CFP?

Ask most members of the Confraternity of Penitents what attracted them and you’ll most likely hear they wanted a more disciplined prayer life or they felt attracted to fasting. As for me, it was a gray, gloomy March day, and I was having no luck coming up with a topic for “Service Dealer’s Newsletter.” So, my mind wandered. I thought it being Lent, maybe I should be fasting more. After all, the current requirements for U.S. Catholics are miniscule, so proclaimed a number of Catholic bloggers.

So I did a Google search. After going through an interminable number saying to get closer to God one should do a water-only fast for 40 days, or a bread and water fast for 40 days, and all sorts of variations sometimes by Protestant ministers and other times by people seeking a quick buck, I stumbled across the Confraternity of Penitents. My recollection is that it was the only Catholic website with a plan for fasting. And a plan for prayer. And a plan for simplifying my life.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Did I feel like I needed to do penance about anything in my life? Perish the thought! It was later, as I went through the formation process and began praying the Psalms that I realized I had plenty for which to do penance.

Other members know exactly why they should do penance: some CfP members are serving life sentences for murder, others are wracked with guilt over an abortion, and the list goes on.

Ordinary life has plenty of opportunities to realize the need for penance. Perhaps one cheated on one’s taxes, or perhaps one gossiped about someone in a way that destroyed their reputation, or perhaps in the heat of a political campaign one finds oneself developing a hatred for one candidate or the other – a belief that he or she is not merely wrong, but in fact truly evil, and we start to share that with others.

Eventually, we find someplace on the web or in the media where we no one questions our ideas or actions. If anything, we are left with the feeling that we aren’t doing enough to save the country, and so we become more urgent in talking with others.

Jesus warned us about this; “The things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”

“Well, I was just talking; it didn’t cause any harm – and won’t cause any harm.”

Much of the country was horrified when former President Donald Trump came within an inch of being assassinated earlier this summer. “How could someone do such a thing?” people said. This is obviously the act of a madman, others said. Still others said if the U.S. had gun control, prohibiting AR-15-type weapons and bump stocks that can turn an ordinary rifle, the assassin might have been foiled.

That may be true, but it doesn’t address the environment in which that action was taken. Looking back at every assassination attempt on a president or presidential candidate since World War II, we notice that every attempt had one thing in common. The attempt occurred in an environment where there was intense hatred and fear of the target.

That was true for John F. Kennedy. His assassination occurred in a city where the common talk in newspapers and elsewhere was that he was if not a communist certainly a socialist – and in any case determined to radically change American life.

In the 60 years since 1968, there has never been as a year as filled with hate and loose speech as 1968. The Vietnam War was stagnating, students led by Students for a Democratic Society staged anti-war sit-ins and “teach-ins” on college campuses. The students were violent in their language and actions, and so were supporters of the war effort.

Meanwhile, the country was in the process of desegregating the public schools. Opponents of desegregation were loud and, in some cases, violent. Police attempts to “restore calm” often were violent; there had been pictures of attack dogs facing Black protest marches. On this issue, too, there was exceptionally violent language, attacking the motives and patriotism of the other side.

In 1965, in the wake of the assassination of President Kennedy, President Johnson launched the “Great Society” welfare program which was viewed by many as heavily favoring Blacks. Implementation of the program was just getting under way three years later.

All of this created an environment more toxic that any year since McKinley’s assassination. Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. In June, Robert F. Kennedy, President Kennedy’s brother and attorney general, was assassinated moments after giving his victory speech for winning the 1968 California primary.

From 1968 to 1972, violent talk generated by the Vietnam War and civil rights remained exceptionally high all the way into 1972, when Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who was known for his segregationist views, was shot during a presidential campaign stop, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

The election of Ronald Reagan, who was known for his anti-Communist views, stirred intense emotions. This time, it was the left that stirred the pot with attacks on his character and competence.

So, the assassination attempt against Donald Trump is merely the latest in attempts, some successful, against presidents and would-be presidents. In every instance, as was the case during the first assassination (Abraham Lincoln), public talk in the media and by leading figures created a toxic environment in which the attempted assassination took place.

What has been true since 1865 remained true this year: Violent talk by political opponents created the environment in which the assassination attempt occurred.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that there are many ways to commit murder. One is by saying things that destroy another person’s reputation. We would add by saying things that create the environment that breeds hatred that leads to murder.

When Jesus warned against violent talk in Mattew 15 when he said the things that come out of one’s mouth reflect one’s heart and warned against it. Jesus himself was a victim of violent, loose talk. Recall the crowd at his trial before Pontius Pilate, where the crowd was stirred up to cry for his crucifixion.

Why do penance? Because for many of us, our mouth spews the hatred that is in our hearts. We have yet to discover “the life saving joy of God’s peace and unconditional love.” It was after having that experience, Jill Jackson-Miller wrote, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”

Peace is “something to be worked at: it is not something one gains without effort, without conversion of mind and heart, without a sense of creativity and positive engagement in discussion,” wrote Sr. Jane Remson, O.Carm.

To the extent our speech inflames others it shows we – individually and as a society – have not had a full conversion of mind and heart.” Even if our heart and mind are completely healed, there are many who have not had that conversion of mind and heart, we can do penance for them and pray for their conversion. –Joel Whitaker, CfP