SOCK GOBBLING

"We use the term to refer to everything that we do not comprehend from the deep knowledge of God to the way that the dryer gobbles up socks."

Basing this on what is a silly fable is a great way to start out....

This entire example is pure drivel.
Perhaps the people that brought us Jonathan Livingston Seagull are working for LT.
And the statements about 'man-made mysteries' are erroneous and ignorant.

He might have more of a point if he said the Council of Trent, which did seek to dissuade the accretion of popular myths, most of which had grown up around the cult of the Virgin, but come on...

Thanks for the replies, friends.

And Jam, you're right… really, the piece itself is pretty silly to say the least, and would be entirely dismissable if it weren't for the fact that this program serves as the primary catechesis for young people in some thousand-odd parishes in the U.S. and beyond.

It's tough to argue for progressive solemnity when forces like this would prefer that anything that was once solemn in the liturgy remain dismantled. I primarily work with college students, and since my parish recently adopted the LifeTeen program, I'm angsty about the extent of re-education that will be needed. It was an uphill battle already; this doesn't help matters.

I do find the whole "we must quiet ourselves down" part interesting, since the music they espouse for liturgy seems to be anything but quieting.

ST. JOHN VIANNEY'S VISION

What vision of Saint John Vianney (1800s France)?
Did Vianney ever have a vision about the Trinity?
Or was that Saint Thomas Aquinas (1200s Italy)?

QUICK TIPS FOR PRIESTS

This is the angst part for me: that a priest receives
an all-expenses paid two-year philosophy education followed by
an all-expenses paid four-year theology education
and needs "quick tips" like this.

celebration [...] celebration [...] an overused word.

:-)

dryer gobbles up socks.

Logical fallacy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_fallacy ).
How often has anyone found a sock in the lint trap?
How often has anyone counted the number of socks before and after using the washing machine?

mystery be preserved

Actually, that mystery be respected.

man-made mysteries were eliminated

Name one please. Anyone?

mystery is more intense than ever because it is directly in front of us.

So intense, that we would rather direct your gaze toward something else.
This is like being outside the Disneyland ticket-gates
and looking forward to standing in line for the Matterhorn
but someone helpfully provides you directions and tickets to Knotts Berry Farm.

Human beings need mystery.

No, mystery is not a need; it is a consequence of our nature.
The need is to probe mystery.
We learn bit by bit. We cannot learn it all. We must accept mystery. But we must also learn the bits.

Husbands and wives ... true love that you know experientially and that I can only contemplate.

How is this relevant to LifeTeen kids?
Is this a pity card about celibate priesthood?

sharing is not in the recitation of the dogma.

Gotta dis the dogma.

Saint Thomas Aquinas ponders his experience of the mysteries for years, and carefully put his insights into words, then is gifted with a more direct experience, and declares his words as straw compared to that more recent experience.

I guess our thoughts on the subject are just as good as Saint Thomas. Yeah, right. More than fifteen years ago I spent many many summer hours reading Saint Thomas. I am not the sharpest knife in the cutlery shoppe, so it was an effort. Then one day it happened, wow, briefly I thought I understood what Saint Thomas was saying, then it faded. I was left again with looking at Saint Thomas in the distance, and wondering what he saw in the distance beyond him, that he would abandon what I had yet to attain. Like a dog at the table: More scraps? Yes please!

"I say that" the LifeTeen blockquote is P.S. (processed straw) compared to Saint Thomas,
and if that is the best "tips" that can be given, there is no reason to wonder why teens
will still imagine the Holy Trinity as two dudes and a pigeon, and of no consequence.

None of those proclamations are false, in a legalistic sense. The one line I would challenge is "Obedient to the Magisterium". Well the pope has called for more Latin and chant. How obedient can they be?

Catholic hierarchy has allowed a whole bunch of things to happen which would scandalize the Orthodox and previous generations of Catholics--altar girls, communion in the hand, secular kinds of "worship" music.... these things are officially allowed, even if not preferred. So it's possible to be 100% Catholic and go for this kind of stuff, isn't it? When you're following your Catholic bishop?

No dig. Jam speaks the truth. The U.S. bishops have done a horrible job with the liturgy over the last 40 years. Don't look to them for guidance. They have been part of the problem, not the solution.

I don't mean to sound mean or derogatory or anything. I just remember having a conversation in one of my classes with a rather popular face from EWTN. We were talking about liturgy and tradition and Latin, etc., and his line was essentially, don't question Mother Church. As far as he was concerned, if the bishops and pope allowed something (e.g. altar girls), then we were bad Catholics to react against that or say it wasn't a good idea.

Of course, I don't have a such a problem questioning Catholic hierarchy. Come to think of it, I probably wouldn't have much more of a problem questioning Orthodox hierarchy...