David Ancell / Saturday, September 30, 2023 / Comments(0)
Let me start by saying that I am very much opposed to utilitarian education. In fact, I would even go so far to say that, if you think that the purpose of getting an education is to learn how to make a living, then you don’t have a proper Catholic view of education. I definitely don’t think that we should be educating people with the end of college, which may land in the trash bin of irrelevance at the rate we are going. We should be forming the person.
I’ve been interested in writings that advocate for a return to Catholic education. I read with interest the book entitled Renewing Catholic Schools: How to Regain a Catholic Vision in a Secular Age. The book clearly advocates using a classical model of education, forming a community, and making God the center of everything. These are all aims that I would support.
However, whenever I encounter someone writing about this, there is one thing I find missing. At some point, people need to learn a skill that they can use to earn a living. They need a skill that makes a contribution to society. At what point is this taught, and how? While I’m no fan of the career mentality of our society, the fact is that many of the professions that are practiced in the world are needed. Where would we be without doctors, engineers, electricians, plumbers, etc? So, while I am in total agreement that education should not be utilitarian, I think it’s important that advocates of classical education address the practical questions that arise from their writings.
David Ancell / Thursday, August 31, 2023 / Comments(0)
In order to be able to fully live the faith, doing regular Catholic reading is vital. We really need to be filling our mind with the things of God, and reading is one of the primary ways in which we can do it. However, I’ve had a number of times when it has been very hard to find time to read a good Catholic book. I’ve found an idea that I want to share that may be helpful to people in that situation.
There are a number of good solid books with short chapters (or sections of chapters. They are usually pretty easy to read, and even in a pinch, it’s often possible to read these one section at a time. Here are a some examples:
I’m sure there are a lot of others out there also.
Anyway, to make it easier to have it with you whenever you have a moment to read, I’d actually recommend having them on your phone and/or tablets as e-books. They are usually less expensive that way, and you can have a number of books on one device. If you choose to do this, I highly recommend buying them as ePubs directly from the publisher rather than going with Amazon, Nook, or Kindle whenever possible. Avoid anything sold as an Adobe Digital Edition like it’s bubonic plague.
The reason for this is that books bought with the services mentioned above contain digital rights management (DRM) copy protection. It limits you to reading the book on their proprietary software (except for Adobe Digital Editions, but you are still more limited even here than with a non-DRM ebook). More importantly, however, is that your rights to read the book are dependent upon your account on a particular server. The publisher could pull the plug on your rights to use the book easily. With today’s cancel culture, who knows when some woke company employee will decide that they don’t want to keep providing access to a Catholic book. With a plain ePub, you can download the file and back it up and install it on anything that can read an ePub file.
I’ve been able to get more reading in doing this. It does mean that, when I do this, I’m reading lighter reading, but at least I’m able to do something. Recently, I’ve been doing this while also working on a longer or more complicated book just to allow me to maximize the amount of reading that I can do.
David Ancell / Tuesday, August 22, 2023 / Comments(0)
Sometimes I like to poke fun at something while also asking a question. You see, it has long been my decision not to buy music that is labeled as explicit lyrics. I might buy a non-explicit song off an album that was “stickered,” as I used to call it, but I would avoid the actual songs with the label. However, in looking through some recent music, I’m not so sure what to make of it anymore.
Now, I have to wonder what constitutes explicit lyrics and if I can even use that standard. Take the song, for example, named I’m Offended by John Rich. It’s labeled as having explicit lyrics. The only line that I can find in it that contains profanity is when he talks about how he prays to God and says to the atheist something like “You don’t believe he exists, so why are you so p*****?” I hear that word from people who don’t use other cuss words on a number of occasions.
Another curious example is the now-famous song “Try That In a Small Town” by Jason Aldean. He starts talking about how one day “they” are going to round up all the guns and says “That s*** might fly in he city . . .” Well, maybe you could argue that one shouldn’t play that for one’s kids, but that’s hardly explicit lyrics in my mind. In any event, I found that there is a clean version from Jimmy Levy that says “That stunt might fly in the city.” It has a little different sound to it, but it’s obviously the same song.
What makes the labeling of “Try That in a Small Town” more interesting is Oliver Anthony’s now famous “Rich Men North of Richmond.” I counted four uses of the “s” word, and it’s not labeled as containing explicit lyrics. Honestly, I have a bigger issue with the way he uses the words “Lord” and “God” in the song than the profanity itself. It just goes to show that there may not be a standard that is being applied here.
The funniest thing I saw on an online store was this album being labeled as explicit: Benedicta: Marian Chant from Norcia. No, I am absolutely not joking.! This album is literally Gregorian Chant, but one of the songs was listed on two different music services as having one song with explicit lyrics. The name is “Sequence Ave Maria . . . Virgo Serena.” Search for it if you don’t believe me. I really don’t think the Benedictine Monks are dropping F bombs in Latin.
As a disclaimer, I’ll add that this info is accurate at the time of this writing as I know that sometimes the labels get changed. However, my point is that, while there is a lot of music labeled as explicit that is clearly garbage, the label itself might not be much of an indicator of anything in particular anymore. It’s worth checking out the lyrics online to see if they really are or aren’t offensive and making the decision from there.
Category: Response
David Ancell / Saturday, May 13, 2023 / Comments(0)
For many years of my life, I’ve heard people say “God has a plan.” Some people say that there is no such thing as a coincidence. Well, I do believe God has a plan, but it seems to me that people who throw these phrases out seem to have forgotten that we are not marionettes that God has been keeping on a string. We really do have free will, and I find it difficult to fathom that God gives us free will but didn’t really intend for us to have any agency in our lives, even in accomplishing his plan. To think so would to suggest that God has intended every aspect of our lives to be some kind of decoding scheme where we are constantly trying to decode the one exactly right thing that God wants us to do.
To me, there have to be some things that are coincidental. If I run into a friend I haven’t seen in a long time, did God arrange the meeting? He might have. However, it’s still possible that both the friend and I simply made decisions in our free will to be at a particular place. This doesn’t preclude the action of God at all. He could then work in a myriad of ways through this. In fact, nothing happens that God doesn’t at least permit, and he did permit the meeting. This is why we can “accept all things as coming from God.”
We have an interesting example of God’s providence in our free actions that is found in the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary – the Visitation (Luke 1:39-56). Mary is informed of her calling to be the Mother of Our Lord by an angel. Joseph is told in a dream not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, and he is also told when to take the family to Egypt. However, in the Scriptures we do not find Mary having been commanded or even suggested to visit Elizabeth. She hears of Elizabeth’s pregnancy from the angel, and off she goes.
Through this, God does a work that begins with Mary’s greeting of Elizabeth. The infant John the Baptist leapt in the womb of Mary. Theologians tell us that John was redeemed in the womb of Mary. While God didn’t tell Mary to go to her relative as far as we can see, he allowed it and then worked a great work through it. We don’t know what would have happened if Mary had chosen not to go, but I would presume that she could have made that choice without having offended God.
Another thing to consider is that God can even use our sins to do the great work he wishes to do. This doesn’t mean we should sin so that God can work through it. However, if you look at the linage of Jesus, you will find that not everyone in his ancestry was amazingly holy. Even Bathsheba, with whom King David committed adultery, was in the linage (not to mention King David himself). Obviously, our sins are not willed by God. There is no way that God arranged for sin to be committed, though he may allow it with the intention to accomplish a greater good.
With all this being said, it is impossible to deny that God had definite plans for John the Baptist, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and King David. They had a definite calling that was made clear to them. All of them, especially Mary, had major roles to play in the salvation of the world. The will of God was definitely made manifest, and it will be in our own lives in the way God intends.
However, I think more could be said about our free will and the agency we have in accomplishing God’s plan. I don’t claim to have figured out how it works. I doubt we will figure this out this side of eternity. What I do know is that God created a real world and gave us a real role in it. God may even allow us our preferences in many circumstances. Our own choices may shape the way God accomplishes his will. However, we know that we can do nothing without God and his grace.
Category: Spirituality
David Ancell / Sunday, April 30, 2023 / Comments(0)
In the last few months, I’ve learned of a number of deaths of people who were all within 10 years (either older or younger) of my age. Some I had worked with. One was well-known in at least some Catholic circles. Another one, a wife and mother who was about 9 years younger than I am, I didn’t know at all. Her husband’s tweets just happened to appear on my Twitter feed.
Yes, I know they will rise again. Their families know this, too. All of them were of some kind of Christian faith. After all, in the Catholic Church, we are in the midst of a 50 day celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Still, I don’t think it’s right to deny the tragedy of their deaths.
The thing is that death was not part of God’s original plan for us. The fact that it happens is not really a natural part of life as I have been told by people. It’s an outrage. It is a sad reality of our human condition wounded by sin.
Jesus himself was not unmoved by this at all. In fact, go read John 11:1-44 where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. There is a notable verse (verse 35) that says “Jesus wept.” Jesus, who knew that he was going to bring him back from the dead in just a few minutes, wept over his death.
So, if Jesus wept at the death of someone whom he knew he was going to bring back to life in a few minutes, surely he is not unmoved by what has happened to all of these people at too young of an age. It’s true that he permitted it for the good of their souls. It’s true that they will rise again, and we know it. However, the fact is that all of their families now have to spend the rest of their time on earth without their loved ones. God is not unmoved by their sorrow, and neither should we be.
With this being said, I would encourage everyone to pray for anyone whom you hear is dying. It has been placed on my heart to pray the Divine Mercy chaplet for a number of people whom I heard were dying, only to learn of their deaths soon afterwards. After they die, pray for the repose of their souls. This is especially important if they are not Catholic as their family will not be aware that they need to do this, and probably won’t. Of course, don’t forget to pray for the comfort of their families that they will know the love of God during their time of mourning.
Category: Spirituality
David Ancell / Sunday, April 30, 2023 / Comments(0)
I just love the ending to the Gospel reading for today’s Mass. Jesus said he came so that we might have life and have it to the full. It’s a great reminder when our culture is constantly telling us that Christianity is oppressive or hateful. It’s also a great reminder when we are tempted to sin and maybe questioning why we can’t do what we are tempted to do. If Jesus came for us to have life to the full, then anything we try to do that offends him is not part of living life to the full.
Virtue is known to lie in the middle way. That means that virtue often lies in between two vices. One of them would to be to indulge our appetites, whatever they may be. We may experience some kind of pleasure like this, but it will be empty. We will become a slave to our passions. Ultimately, we will be so soft that we won’t be able to accomplish anything worthwhile.
However, there are plenty of people in our culture who are caught in the opposite vice, and maybe we have been at some point. We are caught in this when we are constantly working and constantly busy and fail to enter into his rest. Human beings are not machines and are not made to be continually working. Time needs to be taken for us to worship Our Lord, to be with the people around us when we aren’t trying to accomplish something, and to get some wholesome recreation.
Jesus will show us, even in the most difficult times, how we can live joyfully and live life to the full. Sometimes it requires more trust than others. Of course, the real fullness of life will come only when we are with him in Heaven. There we will know perfectly the fullness of life that he came to give us.
Category: Spirituality, Uncategorized
David Ancell / Friday, March 31, 2023 / Comments(0)
I’ve seen on the news lately that the House of Representatives passed a parents rights bill concerning our schools. It passed with all Democrats opposing the bill. Some Republicans also oppose it, but I saw that at least one of them did so, not because he opposed parental rights, but because he opposed additional federal regulations in education. For the people who did oppose parental rights, and I believe a lot of the naysayers do, one must ask why someone would oppose this?
There are many important concerns about what is being taught in public schools these days. However, I would say there is a deeper issue that I haven’t heard much about. If parents are not competent to know the educations needs of children, who is? How is it determined? To answer these, or similar questions, we need to first answer this – who is education for, and what is it’s purpose?
In order to know what a child needs to know, we need to know the fundamental purpose of the knowledge. Otherwise, we are aimlessly shoving academics at our kids with no real end in mind. This is something we really need to think about.
With this being said, I can’t think of anyone who would be better suited to direct the purpose of education than the people who love the kids the most. They certainly will know and understand their kids better than education system bureaucrats. Besides, if a set of parents messes it up, they mess up only their own children. The bureaucrats have the potential to cause an entire town, state, or maybe even the whole country to be poorly educated.
And besides, is there really an objective standard of what needs to be taught in a school? How is it determined? Are there things better taught by other means (I’ll say absolutely there are.)?
We’ve really got to think about these things.
David Ancell / Tuesday, February 28, 2023 / Comments(0)
Lent is here, and with it, I’d like to help clear up a misunderstanding. Giving up something for Lent has value in itself. I remember reading an article years ago from someone who had a priest get on the pulpit and tell people that giving something up for Lent is useless unless you donate the money saved to the poor.
Now, it’s a great thing if you donate the money saved to the poor. You may feel the need to do this in order to ensure you make a true sacrifice and don’t gain anything from it. However, making an offering to God that has no tangible value is perfectly acceptable. It can even help you avoid falling into the sin of pride for having benefited a charity, if you are inclined to this vice.
Giving up something is simply a way of offering something to God. It’s a way of reminding yourself that this world and its pleasures are passing. It’s also a way to detach yourself from something you enjoy. I remember a priest talking about how they get used to being without what they gave up. He seemed to think it made the penance useless. I’d say it made the penance successful, but if you are no longer feeling the sacrifice you made, then you can choose to make an additional sacrifice.
Also, giving up something is a good, natural means of strengthening the will. Think of it this way. . . someone learning to defuse bombs would not practice on a real bomb. They will use some kind of practice model. Likewise, if we are learning to resist sin, we can practice with something we can legitimately engage in whether than with something that would result in us having offended God if we did.
Also, if, for whatever reason, you aren’t donating money saved from your penance, you can always offer it up for someone who needs it. Maybe you can help someone get out of purgatory. There’s a lot of good to be done with it. So, give something up, but do it with intention.
One final note . . . if you do choose to give something up that isn’t sinful and then break your fast, you didn’t sin. You took on a voluntary penance, and you are free to modify it or even set it aside. However, Lent is a penitential season, so I would suggest ensuring you do some kind of penance.
David Ancell / Saturday, December 31, 2022 / Comments(0)
The death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI definitely makes for a sad ending to 2022. He was one of my biggest heroes in the Catholic Church. I have the Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club mug from before he was elected pope, which says “putting the smackdown on heresy since 1981.” I think I have the t-shirt also. When I was a new Catholic in the 1990s, I thought of him as some kind of theological fuddy-duddy. As I learned more of the fullness of the faith, I realized he was really one of the true defenders of the Faith.
By the early 2000s, when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, I really thought it would be great if he became the next pope. However, I figured he wouldn’t because of his age. Just before the conclave, I remember that he gave a speech warning about the “Dictatorship of Relativism,” and some media person remarked that he just disqualified himself from the papacy. Then, I was waiting, and occasionally refreshing the webpage on a news site. Finally, much to my surprise, a bar with a red background appeared at the top of my screen saying that “Cardinal Ratzinger is the new pope.” It was a dream come true!
I very much loved his emphasis on focusing on God himself. The Church is not a social work institution, though we do that kind of work, but the Body of Christ. It is ultimately Jesus Christ himself whom we must seek and whom we must serve. From what I remember, he wrote his Introduction to Christianity to help correct the errors of some theologians who were leaning towards some kind of socialist understanding of Christianity.
One great example of his focus was his book entitled The Spirit of the Liturgy. It was one of the best books on the Mass I have ever read. Solid formation on what the Mass is and how it should be celebrated is still probably the most difficult thing to come by. I dare say there are people with advanced degrees in liturgy who have things completely wrong. There were people spouting off stuff like how the churches needed to be that semi-circle shape so that we see each other and see Christ in one another. This essentially de-emphasized God himself and made the focus more on “the community.”
Before I read the book, I found it strange that he advocated the priest turning around and facing the same direction of the people (often called “having his back to the people,” but this is a misunderstanding). However, when I read what he wrote, I became completely convinced that this is how Mass should be celebrated. We, the priest and the people, are moving together towards God.
There is a lot that could be said about this holy man whom we had as pope for eight years. Now, he has gone to be with the Lord whom he served so well. Eternal rest, grant to him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.
David Ancell / Tuesday, December 13, 2022 / Comments(0)
Here we are in Advent. For those of you who aren’t Catholic, Advent is a season in our Church calendar which we are preparing for Christmas. The Church never just lets a major feast day happen. Days that are as holy as Christmas and Easter require preparation. Like everything else in life, our celebration is much better when we have taken time to prepare.
The thing about Advent is that the way in which we prepare for Christmas can be hard to figure out. When I was new to the Church, I saw my pastor in the purple vestments that signify penance, and I asked him if Advent were a penitential season. He told me it was “half-penitential.”
I can see why he said this. Just like in Lent, the priest wears purple vestments. The Gloria is omitted from Mass, but the Alleluia is still sung before the Gospel. There are some prescribed penances in Lent, but in Advent, there is no particular penance prescribed.
It makes sense that it is this way when one thinks about it. Lent is a preparation for Easter. However, in order to get to Easter, there is the Passion and death of Our Lord on the cross. There is no such death that we must commemorate before the birth of Our Lord. We are simply waiting for him to come. There is, however, a deep longing in the world, and many don’t realize that longing.
Maybe the best preparation is to do our very best to focus on the Lord and remember that he is the reason, not only for the season, but our whole lives. This can be difficult in the midst of our lives this time of year. We are in a pretty bad flu season, and I’m sure there are a lot of people who are either sick or caring for sick kids. If you are a student, you are likely either preparing for or taking final exams. Of course, it can also be crunch time in many jobs as well. There are plenty of parties to attend as well.
Combine this with the secular celebration of Christmas that we see in the world. On the one hand, we have retailers that don’t really want to mention the word Christmas despite making money from people buying presents for the holiday whose name they “forgot.” I’m not going to call it so much a war on Christmas as stupid secular political correctness but also unwillingness to not make the money. You can also listen to songs on the radio that speak of the such a wonderful time of year with marshmallows, caroling, mistletoe, and hearts glowing with loved ones near. However, such songs will say nary a word about why this is (or should be) so. Those are just a couple of examples.
I’m certainly not saying that we shouldn’t get gifts for people. I definitely wouldn’t suggest not doing the work that you have to do at this time. Don’t flunk your exams if you are a student! I don’t even want to suggest not going to people’s Christmas parties. We won’t bring people back to focus on Jesus Christ by offending them in this manner. The one kind of activity that I would suggest skipping out on is the ugly sweater contest. How does an ugly sweater give honor to the God who became man and came to die for our sins?
In some way, we need to take time to pray and think about how we are awaiting the coming of Our Lord. We need to prepare the way by making a good Confession. Take some time to show the love of Christ to someone less fortunate (who could even be your family members who have the flu). All we need to do is take a bit of time to think more on how we can keep the coming of Christ in our minds and hearts and act on it. Then, we can tell the world what we are celebration and the awesome reality that it is.
Category: Response