Tapsearch Com EditorAbout our quest. (LINK)
February 14th 2008 23:30
( I apologize - I wanted to use the KISS principle here - keep it simple stupid - but I am not smart enought to do it. Please be patient with me. We hope you stay with us for this journey into the moral fog of our times. )
Resources - much of TheRationale.com will be based on notes from courses by Father McQuade SJ, my religion Professor from more than fifty years ago - revised and digested by my living experiences over the years. We also plug in thoughts from the writings of Jacque Maritain who was a convert to the Catholicism and authored more that 60 books. I call him the last philosopher before the moral fog took over.
I made the Cursillo and later, as a part of the team , gave the action talk. The Cursillos is a short 3 day course in Christianity followed by the "4th day" which is the rest of your life. I was the moderator for the Ultreya for several years which was a weekly meeting for those following the "4th day". I also will lay open my time in the Gabriel Richard program which is a Christian version of the Dale Carnegie course. I took both the regular and the instructor's course. Malachi Martin SJ made a life long impression on me as an author of several books. David du Plessi , a Pentacostal Minister, who took part in Vactican Two as a non-Catholic also affected my life deeply. Carl G Jung's book about speaking in tongues also is part of me especially since it is a study of this gift of the Holy Spirit in an external fashion from its religious connotations.
I find myself being a distance from the EWTN ( External World Telivision Network ) Catholic approach although I honor it. Dr. Richard Geraghty, Professor of Philosophy, at St Joseph House which is part of EWTN, is a friend and is the author of The Right Way to Live - Plato's Republic. His book is not something you can read and put down. It needs to be read frequently especially if you are someone like me who is bound by the KISS principle - keep it simple stupid.
I am delighted with one of Pope Benedict's first five cannonized affirmations being Father Alberto Hurtado - an intellectual "workers" priest. We posted an article - Mexican bishops say NAFTA leading to cultural death where several Mexican bishops have taken a stand against Free Trade. The bishops said,
"We cannot limit the practice of faith to the celebration of ritual and ethereal preaching - It is clear that the words of Jesus do not allow us to remain in the confort of selfishness and passitivity, but rather exhort us to all we can for the poor."
This takes me back to the Cursillo where I found the problems of the human dignity in the work day hindering spiritual growth. Dealing with what happens on Monday after Sunday's services or liturgy remains an obstacle. Prosperity Christianity bells rings in a funky way in a moral fog of our times. We forget that the eleven of the twelve apostles did not die a natural death and they truly trusted God for their daily needs. The bible account - and they shared everything in common - still haunts us in our economic day. Even the Communists and Socialists have used the biblical passage for their assaut on private property. And now Globalization and Free Trade use it in another way to rationalize their greed. Alan Greenspan in his book, The Age of Turbulence, uses the example of New Harmony working community , as an utopian failure. New Harmony was just a small example but Greenspan used it to defend greed. Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat, has been accepted even by a Jesuit who is President of a top university. Friedman's book blows by mind. We review his book at Tapsearch Com Flat World showing how he reverses cause and effect in an imagery all his own in so called "flatteners". The World is Flat is a corker. A dictionary defines corker as a remarkable person, an arguement, statement, etc. that appears conclusive or a preposterous lie. The World is Flat contains all three.
Hopefully, we will pass something worthwhile to another generation in a search for the common good. Today fragmentation has overtaken the common good in the midst of centralization. Centralization rules events but seems to divide us more and more while
De-Centralization seems to be a better way to control negatives that have surfaced in recent years. Glboalization must be questioned now for its assault on the common good. ( See posts at http://bizarrepolitics.com/
We start with this pronouncement:
" Do not depend on the hope of results,--------
When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, you may have to face the fact, that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no worth at all, if not perhaps, results opposite to what you expect.
As you get used to this idea, you will start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself." ~ THOMAS MERTON ~
( Thomas Merton was a Catholic Contemplative who actively wrote about the problems of our times and sensed a need to explore the Eastern religions in his latter years.)
We also note the remarks of Cardinal Newman a convert to the Catholic Faith. He said everyone must follow their conscience even if that conscience is ill-informed.
We start with this pronouncement when Pragmatism and Utilitarianism seems to govern our times. Perhaps it is time to return or search for real Idealism.
The Moral Fog - To be continued .....
Resources - much of TheRationale.com will be based on notes from courses by Father McQuade SJ, my religion Professor from more than fifty years ago - revised and digested by my living experiences over the years. We also plug in thoughts from the writings of Jacque Maritain who was a convert to the Catholicism and authored more that 60 books. I call him the last philosopher before the moral fog took over.
I made the Cursillo and later, as a part of the team , gave the action talk. The Cursillos is a short 3 day course in Christianity followed by the "4th day" which is the rest of your life. I was the moderator for the Ultreya for several years which was a weekly meeting for those following the "4th day". I also will lay open my time in the Gabriel Richard program which is a Christian version of the Dale Carnegie course. I took both the regular and the instructor's course. Malachi Martin SJ made a life long impression on me as an author of several books. David du Plessi , a Pentacostal Minister, who took part in Vactican Two as a non-Catholic also affected my life deeply. Carl G Jung's book about speaking in tongues also is part of me especially since it is a study of this gift of the Holy Spirit in an external fashion from its religious connotations.
I find myself being a distance from the EWTN ( External World Telivision Network ) Catholic approach although I honor it. Dr. Richard Geraghty, Professor of Philosophy, at St Joseph House which is part of EWTN, is a friend and is the author of The Right Way to Live - Plato's Republic. His book is not something you can read and put down. It needs to be read frequently especially if you are someone like me who is bound by the KISS principle - keep it simple stupid.
I am delighted with one of Pope Benedict's first five cannonized affirmations being Father Alberto Hurtado - an intellectual "workers" priest. We posted an article - Mexican bishops say NAFTA leading to cultural death where several Mexican bishops have taken a stand against Free Trade. The bishops said,
"We cannot limit the practice of faith to the celebration of ritual and ethereal preaching - It is clear that the words of Jesus do not allow us to remain in the confort of selfishness and passitivity, but rather exhort us to all we can for the poor."
This takes me back to the Cursillo where I found the problems of the human dignity in the work day hindering spiritual growth. Dealing with what happens on Monday after Sunday's services or liturgy remains an obstacle. Prosperity Christianity bells rings in a funky way in a moral fog of our times. We forget that the eleven of the twelve apostles did not die a natural death and they truly trusted God for their daily needs. The bible account - and they shared everything in common - still haunts us in our economic day. Even the Communists and Socialists have used the biblical passage for their assaut on private property. And now Globalization and Free Trade use it in another way to rationalize their greed. Alan Greenspan in his book, The Age of Turbulence, uses the example of New Harmony working community , as an utopian failure. New Harmony was just a small example but Greenspan used it to defend greed. Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat, has been accepted even by a Jesuit who is President of a top university. Friedman's book blows by mind. We review his book at Tapsearch Com Flat World showing how he reverses cause and effect in an imagery all his own in so called "flatteners". The World is Flat is a corker. A dictionary defines corker as a remarkable person, an arguement, statement, etc. that appears conclusive or a preposterous lie. The World is Flat contains all three.
Hopefully, we will pass something worthwhile to another generation in a search for the common good. Today fragmentation has overtaken the common good in the midst of centralization. Centralization rules events but seems to divide us more and more while
De-Centralization seems to be a better way to control negatives that have surfaced in recent years. Glboalization must be questioned now for its assault on the common good. ( See posts at http://bizarrepolitics.com/
We start with this pronouncement:
" Do not depend on the hope of results,--------
When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, you may have to face the fact, that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no worth at all, if not perhaps, results opposite to what you expect.
As you get used to this idea, you will start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself." ~ THOMAS MERTON ~
( Thomas Merton was a Catholic Contemplative who actively wrote about the problems of our times and sensed a need to explore the Eastern religions in his latter years.)
We also note the remarks of Cardinal Newman a convert to the Catholic Faith. He said everyone must follow their conscience even if that conscience is ill-informed.
We start with this pronouncement when Pragmatism and Utilitarianism seems to govern our times. Perhaps it is time to return or search for real Idealism.
The Moral Fog - To be continued .....
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