David Ancell / Thursday, January 16, 2003 / Comments(0)
Here’s a great article about a guy who makes his living restoring church art.
Category: Posts imported from Danger! Falling Brainwaves, Uncategorized
David Ancell / Wednesday, January 15, 2003 / Comments(0)
For those of you who don’t use Moveable Type, one of its great features is that you can categorize your blogs. I have archives sorted by category for the interested on this blog. I didn’t do it for Spiritual Pyromania because I wanted to simplify it (it gets fewer posts).
Anyway, for those who enjoy my liturgical rants, please check out my new Liturgy category. After this post disappears, you can find it on the category menu on the right-hand side of the page (or on the bottom if using low resolution).
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David Ancell / Wednesday, January 15, 2003 / Comments(0)
So often do we hear dissident groups say “The hierarchy needs to listen to the laity.” Well, there is a truth to that, but it isn’t what they think.
Yes, I think our Bishops need to hear the voice of the faithful, just not the group that calls itself such. They need to figure out why we aren’t singing at Mass. They can use our views on negotiable things. They need to take us seriously when we report problems, be it in matters of doctrine or in our Sacred Liturgy.
However, they cannot and should not try to compromise the Church’s teaching. They should listen to what we believe, but only so that they can teach us the true teaching. Such needs to be explained to us so that we might know and love the truth. To do this, they have to listen.
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David Ancell / Wednesday, January 15, 2003 / Comments(0)
If you read the post below, you’ll see that I referenced a post by Greg Popcak to help with a question posted on Busted Halo. Here is my response below:
I’ve just recently entered the board, and I have read through several posts. I have not come to such a conclusion. It’s true that not everything is black and white. There are decisions in which one must follow a well-informed conscience. However, it does not follow that nothing is black and white. Some actions, such as contraception, abortion, murder, adultery (for which definitions can be found in the Catechism and moral theology manuals) are intrinsically evil. These are acts for which no amount of pain should lead us to commit.
It’s true that there are situations that cause us to “twist and turn,” but that is sin that calls for repentance. When we don’t meet the ideal, we don’t decide that it’s just an ideal that doesn’t apply, we go to Confession and resolve to do better next time. If we fail again, we go back to Confession. God doesn’t condone sin; he forgives it.
The situation on the woman who uses contraception because she wishes to continue marital relations though unable to have a child is a difficult one indeed. Abstaining from marital relations, especially in our sex-saturated culture, would be a great sacrifice. However, God can and will provide the grace for doing so. Using contraception would really be a matter of personal comfort rather than a good moral choice. Even if her intentions are to please or stay close to her husband, one cannot do evil so that good may come of it.
NFP can be used with an irregular cycle. If she can’t use NFP, then God will provide the grace for her to abstain as long as needed. It’s a great sacrifice, but it will not go unrewarded in eternity.
In Christ,
David
There’s a couple of other posts on the forum. Let’s see what the Busted Halo crowd says in response. I’ll need God’s grace to be truthful and charitable in this, so please pray for me.
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David Ancell / Wednesday, January 15, 2003 / Comments(0)
Greg Popcak is trying to recruit some help for a sincere, seeking person. I have registered on the site and hope to help. This is the BustedHalo.com site he has linked to. It is run by the Paulist Fathers.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, January 14, 2003 / Comments(0)
I don’t mind ads in my web pages, but I hate those pop-up windows that come up without my permission. A few weeks ago, I found Netcaptor, and I registered the software soon afterward. It’s a kind of browser shell. You have to have Internet Explorer installed to use it. One of the nice things that it does it closes down the pop-up windows so that I never see them.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, January 14, 2003 / Comments(0)
I’m beginning to think I need a new category just for liturgy because I’ve posted so much lately on the subject.
I read this post by Amy Welborn because it was linked to from this post by Greg Popcak. My view is, of course, that I have mixed feelings about these emotional worship services, as indicated on my comment on Mrs. Welborn’s post:
I will not claim to know the answer to this, but . . . . do these “worship services” lead to a lasting, greater desire for union with God, or are they just an emotional fix. I have a natural suspicion of anything that does not appear to have a lot of depth. It’s not that I don’t think the people involved are sincere; it’s just that it doesn’t seem sincere. Perhaps this is because I do not notice any real changes in people’s lives after having been to such services. I’m not claiming changes don’t happen; I just don’t notice them.
Please do not think I am questioning the orthodoxy of or otherwise judging such people. I have no right to do so. The best way to sum up what I think about this is as follows:
What happens after people leave the service? Do they grow in prayer and virtue? Does this growth survive the end of the emotional fix? If the answer is yes, then contemporary worship is doing a great thing. If not, then I question it.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, January 14, 2003 / Comments(0)
I think I could write an entire article on why the Sacraments should be done properly. In fact, maybe I’ll do that next or close to next. I have a couple of ideas for my web page.
This comes to mind as I read this post by Jeff Miller. There’s a comment by a gentleman named Andy who is concerned that people will be punished because the priest botched the baptism. The article clearly mentions the principle of ecclesia supplet (which I intend to look up in Canon Law now that I know that’s where it is). I’ve heard of this concept before, but I don’t know how it works.
However, would God not bestow his sacramental grace because of a botched outward sign? I do think it is a possibility. God uses human beings to serve his divine purpose. Although only God can create a soul, the fact is that none of us would have been created if our parents had not performed the marriage act. We would never have been baptised to begin with if there hadn’t been someone to get us into the church, either physically or spiritually. God proclaims his message through human bishops and priests. Even in the writing of the Scriptures, God used human beings.
We know that it is possible for bishops, priests, religious educators, etc to do a bad job proclaiming the Gospel. We know that such has consequences. We see the consequences every day. So, knowing that God works through human beings and expects them to do their jobs right, it stands to reason that God would expect the outward sign of a sacrament to be done correctly.
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David Ancell / Monday, January 13, 2003 / Comments(0)
You are cordially invited to view my newly-redesigned web site at:
http://www.davidancell.com/
If you are using cdavidancell.com (adding the extra “c” for Charles), you can still get to the site. They addresses are actually one and the same. However, I recommend using davidancell.com because I may change this someday. I get spam on cdavidancell.com.
There’s not much new content, but the site is better integrated with the blog. I wonder if I need to do a little design work on this blog.
Also, I’ve added a few posts to the Best of this Blog. I hope to start looking for some posts to add to my best articles from others. I will be adding a Mark Shea article soon.
Here is what I added to my favorite posts:
Zoning Ordinances
Liturgical Music Guide
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David Ancell / Monday, January 13, 2003 / Comments(0)
I doubt that anyone who would actually read this blog would has found someone who talked about how we need to build community in our churches. This is coming back to my mind as a result of a discussion that I had with a couple of fellow Frassati Society members last night at the dinner table.
Some attempts to “build community” can actually inhibit that purpose. For example, the “greet your neighbor before Mass” approach is something that I cannot find a cuss word bad enough to describe. Who is really going to remember whom they met five minutes later? One person I was talking to suggested that the holding hands during the Our Father was a means to building community. Of course, these things are the result of nothing more than a lack of catechesis on the liturgy. These are orthodox people as far as I’m concerned.
I agree 100% with Mark Shea that you cannot build community by trying to build community. We need more faith in the Real Presence. We need more catechesis on what it means to be the Body of Christ. We need to work together to build the Body of Christ, not by closing in on ourselves, but by our apostolate. When we do these things, we will have a community. We will be of one heart and one mind as the Christian community in the Acts of the Apostles was.
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