AmericanPapist Comments
500,000 hours in adoration would do far more good. And might produce a few vocations :)
Does this include pledges from the kids at the African-American Catholics schools that Wuerl is closing?
LCB: good works have got to count for something. Seem to remember that from catechism.
Adoration is a good work. Service divorced from prayer is an empty work.
Would that our high schools require X hours of adoration to go along with X hours of community service as a graduation requirement!
LCB and AmP,
Fine. good. yes. Ora et Labora. However, one does not outweigh the other. Both work together in the full Christian life, yes? Until there is some definitive evidence that these students are not praying, then I don't see what your beef is. Your comments assume a pessimistic view of the situation as the factual one, and does so without evidence. That being said, yes, I agree some time with the Blessed Sacrament and/or scheduled time praying the rosary should be done in tandem with these good works. I'm just having difficulty with the attitude of looking for fault where there isn't the implication of any.
I think people are a bit weirded by the concept of a "social service bouquet", when the traditional gift for churchmen is a "prayer bouquet" for the recipient's intentions.
Not a bad thing to do service, but kinda odd to do service instead of prayer. Ideally the two would go together.
I understand your point Maureen. If a school or another corporate body is offering something, it should be done corporately -- Mass or Common Prayer, or a coroporate social action not private prayer or individual volunteering.
How about pledging some hours to help fix up one of the run down Catholic schools in DC? Or better yet just spend the time in adoration,that would be far more fruitful and what is up with the naked looking Anastasia ad?
"I think people are a bit weirded by the concept of a "social service bouquet", when the traditional gift for churchmen is a "prayer bouquet" for the recipient's intentions."
This.
Prayer is either the most effective, efficacious, and fruitful activity a human being can engage in, or it is entirely worthless.
Our obsession with being God's social worker is dangerously pelagian. True Christian service is the fruit of prayer, not a substitute for it.
I sincerely hope the students prayed about this, but I am rather doubtful. Coming from the NCEA, this is a strong indication of the failure of Catholic Education in America. The article explains:
"Students choose how to spend their volunteer hours. Acts of service are broadly defined as anything that helps another person or improves the environment. Students are encouraged to conduct canned food drives, visit nursing homes, write letters to those in military service or to shut-ins, raise money for a charity or clean up a local park." No mention of God the Father, Jesus Christ His Only Son, or the Holy Spirit.
From the President of the NCEA "but the nature of the gift underscores the great foundation of Catholic education, rooted in civic engagement," she said. I'm glad Catholic education isn't rooted in the Church or the Most Holy Trinity.
The classic "My work is my prayer" is usually a cop-out.
My criticism stems from Benedict's critique of liturgy, making it a closed circle with the focus on us and our activity.
We will know when Catholic Schools have turned the corner when, in addition to the awesome gift of service, they also pledge an equal number of hours in Adoration.
There is no greater example of the power of prayer and how it enables true service than we see in Mother Teresa who spent hours daily in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
The Missionaries of Charity provide "extreme service", but not without Adoration first.
James 2:20
There's a lot of "Let the perfect become the enemy of the good" lurking here.
Ed, I agree. In fact, I'd say that particular problem lurks quite a bit in orthodox Catholic circles. That said, it is my experience that all too many Catholic schools really are much stronger on the good works/social justice/horizontal parts of our faith than on the prayer/catechism/ parts. Many religion teachers seem simply uninterested in the latter. As a consequence, our Catholic schools are producing men and women who grow into kind, decent, and compassionate evangelical protestents or secular liberals.
Mike --
That is not my experience, but where that is the case, we then have the question "well, the what is to be done?" I don't think the answer is to belittle the honorable and essential Catholic social justice tradition (and again, which I have found, even by itself does much to build the faith, not just promote a protestant/secular compassion and kindness).
I asked a young lady (maybe second grade) what she liked most about our inner city parish school. She told me she loved being able to have pray time in school.
Fortunately, our school was not on Wuerl's hit list.
"Of course this law has been discovered before; but it will stand rediscovery. It may be stated as follows: every preference of a small good to a great, or partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good for which the sacrifice was made.
Apparently the world is made that way. If Esau really got the pottage in return for his birthright, (3) then Esau was a lucky exception. You can't get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first. From which it would follow that the question, What things are first? is of concern not only to philosophers but everyone." -C.S. Lewis,
The entire short essay is worth reading.
If it seems that I am being harsh or reactionary, I apologize. However, it is my perception that the good has been made out to be the perfect. That is disordered, and persuing the good as if it were the perfect risks losing both. Judging by the state of American Catholicism, we are well on our way.
My Catholic High School experience is shared by many others, "Social Justice, Social Justice, Social Justice, Church teaching doesn't matter, whatever you believe is true, morality is just what makes you feel good about yourself, Social Justice."
If prayer is placed first, the service will naturally flow from it. I hope this doesn't qualify as lurking ;-)
I agree with LCB. I serve on two Catholic high school boards -- in different cities. While I think the boards desire an authentically Catholic education, for some reason the religious ed instructers invariably seem to be interested only in the social justice parcel of Catholicism.
Katherine, Catholics have not been catechized in 40 years. Period. Full stop. If you don't believe me, just ask a random several to define grace -- any kind, or how to recite the rosary or an act of contrition. But they were and are learning something in those Catholic school religion classes, aren't they? What do you think that is?
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