My Great Sin, or Why Ayn Rand love is an Evil

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After a recent discussion with a bromide filled atheist, one of her comments reminded me of one of the great evils my own atheism caused. She said "I don't need God, I'm happy with who I am", and I remembered a time, years ago, when I foolishly thought that too.

My mother had a life that would rival Job's, and I now pray daily that she is with our mutual Mother basking in the Beatific Vision.

Sadly, about twenty years ago I did not have that compassionate insight, only a pseudo intellectual philosophy born of the writing of the last Century's great fool, Ayn Rand. While Rand is more often right than wrong when discussing some of our world's economic and political follies, she of course was a true idiot when it came to the idea of "selfish love", which she now knows was a huge oxymoron. The truth of love is the Cross, of caring so much for another that you not only will painfully take nails in your hands, but will gladly offer to do so if it will benefit the other. Without sacrifice what she called love is really at best mere fondness, at worst a form of narcissism.

At 28 I did not know this, and armed with my sick "virtue of selfishness" went to once again visit my mother who needed help with her rent. This oh so troubled woman, was not only deaf since childhood, but had suffered many emotional and physical difficulties in her life (which I pray count much towards her time in purgatory, but that I won't go into here). She would not have ever won "Mother of the Year", but I wouldn't have won "son of the year" either. Abandoning us when I was eleven, I honestly didn't really ever know her, except as I got older, and only when my sister would call because of this or that problem my mom had gotten herself into.

One this particular day, she was being threatened with eviction, and I went to see what I could do, but only because I loved my sister and she had asked. I went back and forth with my mother and the rental office, and things did get straightened out, but not after this self serving boy became extremely frustrated. My mom, this frail and frightened woman, said to me something very telling "you act as if you don't love me!"
In full Ayn Rand "everybody must earn love" pretentiousness I said "but I don't"

While I have committed many evils in my life, that I said this to this poor daughter of God, will remain my greatest sin . . .and one I committed against not only her, not only to my God, but to my very soul.

A few months later I moved to DC, and would not see the woman that gave me birth until after my conversion, and after she had developed Alzheimer's. As a new Christian I started visiting her every Sunday after church, but she never knew who I was, never recognized the man she bore.

See, I would never be able to undo my words to her, never say "I love you mom", and have her understand. My foolish childhood philosophy of "earned love" had cost me the chance to tell my own mother she was loved . . .and as Jesus reminds us, even the Pharisees could did that.

While I pray she knows how sorry I am, and how much I love her, I will go to my grave knowing my last statement to my mother was that I did not love her.

That is why it matters that we have, and can give, the unconditional love of Christ.

U.N.-thinkable

Christ fully lived out

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Officer Patrick O'Rourke's wife speaks with 7 Action News about her husband

Today, Amy O'Rourke will put bury the body of her beloved husband Patrick.
This interview with her just days after he was shot and killed, where she talks of Christ and forgivness, is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen . . . this is truly Christ lived out!

Please keep this family in your prayers

The Gospel according to Peanuts . . . and Lewis

St. Rose

How wonderful a world it would be if the time modern folks spent at the gym, the nail or hair salon, or the mall clothes shopping was instead spent in prayer.

Explaing the Thousands of Protestant Denominations

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“He has wrought victory with his arm

 and he has scattered the proud 

with the opinion of their heart.”

PS: Non-Denominational is still a denomination (O:

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Next Shirt

Next Stop Narnia

Paraphrasing Luther on the Folly of Sola Scriptura

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Oh God what has he done,

there our now as many "churches"

as there are empty 7/11s

No Passing Trend

"The Catholic Church never suits the particular mood of any age, because it was made for all ages. A Catholic knows that if the Church married the mood of any age in which it lived, it would be a widow in the next age. The mark of the true Church is that it will never get on well with the passing moods of the world: "I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John 15:19

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

Mary the Dawn

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Mary the Dawn, 

Christ the Perfect Day;

Mary the Gate, 

Christ the Heav’nly Way!

Mary the Root, 

Christ the Mystic Vine;

Mary the Grape, 

Christ the Sacred Wine!

Mary the Wheat-sheaf, 

Christ the Living Bread;

Mary the Rose-Tree, 

Christ the Rose Blood-red!

Mary the Font, 

Christ the Cleansing Flood;

Mary the Chalice, 

Christ the Saving Blood!

Mary the Temple, 

Christ the Temple’s Lord;

Mary the Shrine, 

Christ the God adored!

Mary the Beacon, 

Christ the Haven’s Rest;

Mary the Mirror, 

Christ the Vision Blest!

Mary the Mother, 

Christ the Mother’s Son.

Both ever blest while endless ages run.

Amen.

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At what price your Volvo or BMW?

"Downie kids get murdered in the womb by the bushel

to “prevent a life of suffering”.

“Lives of suffering” is generally Boomer code for

“lives of inconvenience to Boomers”

Mark Shea

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Chick-Fil-A Day = Unity

Two things last week's blockbuster Chick-fil-a Day showed us
1) that folks are sick of clueless media types calling sincere folks "haters"
2) and that a united Christendom can change the world!

Medjugorje visions lack spiritual depth

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[Father Mitch] Pacwa said there is no chance for the visions to get approval while they're still going on, and it's a long shot even after they stop.

One quirk that emerged was when two of the Medjugorje visionaries said the Virgin Mary endorsed a book, "The Poem of the Man-God," that had been condemned by the Vatican. The fanciful 1940s biography of Jesus by Maria Valtorta contains details like a dancing girl brushing up against Jesus, Joseph giving young Jesus an anachronistic tool kit with screwdrivers and the Virgin Mary making statements such as "man disgusts me," Pacwa said.

"The book had been condemned by the church in 1959 because it said a lot of silly things that contradicted what was in the gospels," Pacwa said. "The church rejected it. Any vision must be judged by revelation that exists in the gospels. You can't say anything you want."

What may be the unraveling of the Medjugorje visions is the lack of any spiritual depth to the messages, Pacwa said.

"That is a much more pointed critique," he said.

The writings of Sister Faustina, now a saint, describe visions from Jesus. "As you kept reading, a new depth of spiritual life began to show itself," Pacwa said. "You can see definite growth over the years in her spiritual messages. I don't see that with the messages of Medjugorje. They tend to be the same thing over and over again. Something I would look for is a growth in spiritual depth. I haven't sensed it."

Pacwa said Vatican theologians will take all that into account and that Medjugorje in the end may be denied church approval.

"I don't have a sense this is going to go swimmingly. I am very impressed with a number of the positive things I have experienced there. I have a lot of respect for the good things that have occurred. But I'm not going to be naive about some of the problems. It has to be dealt with, with full integrity".
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Humility to Unity

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"I can't help but think that 

if everyone calling themselves a Christian 

would humbly beg Christ to remove all their pride, 

than we would see more Protestants
becoming Catholic, 

and see more Catholics
actually being Christian"

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