The Devil Hates Latin, Says Exorcist

I just attended a talk by the exorcist for diocese of San Jose dioceses Fr Gary Thomas. He is the subject of a book and a film The Rite starring Anthony Hopkins. (The talk was organized by a group called Catholics at Work.)

First, he was a great speaker. He described how almost by accident and after 20 years as a parish priest he found himself sent to Rome to learn how to celebrate the Rite of Exorcism. He was very clear in saying how, in his opinion, the rise in interest in New Age paganism in recent times has opened the door to adherents to the occult in greater numbers than before, which in turn opens the way to diabolical possession. He has always been inundated with requests (even before the publicity).

The fact that he described these things pretty much in the same straightforward, matter of fact way that one might describe what goes on in a marriage or baptism in a parish RCIA class only served to reinforce the truth of it all for me. And I would say that if anything is to increase your faith, it is  listening to accounts of how the Church overcomes the effects of possession by the devil and demons and the suffering of those poor people who are affected by them.

I wanted to pass on one little comment that he made almost in passing. I do not know where he stands liturgically in regard to the Mass - there was nothing in what he said that led me to believe that he celebrates the Latin Mass for example. However, he did explain that the Rite of Exorcism is only said in Latin. One reason is practical - there is no approved translation in English as yet. He gave another reason why he was so strongly in favor of the use of Latin in the Rite of Exorcism: 'The Devil hates Latin, it is the universal language of the Church'. I asked him about this afterwards and he repeated it saying that his personal experiences as an exorcist who has performed many, many exorcisms have convinced him of this. He told me he had heard from exorcists who did exorcisms in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese (the only approved vernaculars for this Rite) that Latin was the most effective language.

I found an interview with him online, which may interest readers, here.

and here is Fr Gary Thomas,

How Modern Psychology Fails to Account for the Fall

And why the success of Alcoholics Anonymous is based on the fact that it does! In my last blog posting I described the recorded lecture series from Audible.com, which is also a book, called the Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal. I enjoyed it and much of what I heard I found interesting and, as I described in the last posting, very helpful in many ways.

Whatever her personal beliefs on spiritual matters are, she approaches this subject in these lectures as a pure scientist who observes what influences human behavior in order to help people have greater self-control. I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of her observations of general human behavior or her methods for controlling personal behavior based upon those observations. As I mentioned last time, much was consistent with traditional methods for controlling behavior. There were some insights that were new to me and when I tried them out myself they were very helpful in my self control.

However it was when she started to describe why we had these difficulties in the first place that I found myself less convinced.

If you remember, her assessment of the sort of problems in self control arose from an inner conflict. Part of us knows what is good for us in the long term but some people have a problem because they don't have sufficient self control to live in accordance with what we know is good in the long term. This is because we are drawn to what will give us pleasure in the short term. So even thought the dieter knows he should eat healthily, he still can't resist the cream cake when it is put in front of him.

All pretty reasonable so far.

But then she starts to give her reasons as to why she thinks that this conflict exists. She accounts for it in terms of evolution. She begins by assuming that in prehistoric man, all instincts would be in perfect harmony with each other, and with external circumstances. Because man had evolved to deal with his natural environment, she assumes, our emotions and instincts would work well for the sort of situation that prehistoric, precivilization man would have to deal with. When food is in short supply for example, it is important to eat as much as you can when it is available, she says. That instinct remains with us even though the situation has changed. Nowadays we have a surfeit of food and these instincts don't help us. So we continue to act as prehistoric man would and our instincts keep telling us that we should just keep eating even when part of us knows that this isn't serving our long term goals.

The question one might ask at this point is, why didn't man evolve with his environment? Surely the more successful people, and those most likely to reproduce and dominate the general profile of the psychology of the species are those who stay healthy. So those who by naturally have instincts that do not cause them to over-indulge when there is an abundance of available food will dominate and the overall nature of the human race will change.

My guess is that her answer to this would be that something like this would happen in time, but the environmental change has to lead the evolutionary effect that it causes; and there hasn't been time yet for this change in human nature to occur. There is some evidence to support this - from what I recall those races who have had much longer exposure to alcohol historically (eg Jews and Italians) have a much lower rate of alcoholism than those who have a relatively recent exposure, (eg Celtic races such as the Irish, and especially Eskimos and Native Americans).

While I can accept that there might be some general pattern of improvement over time and that it is conceivable that evolution might have a part to play in chat change, I do not believe that this time lag in effect is the sole cause of our problems. Let's apply this to the case of the alcoholism. Clearly, before alcohol was invented there could be no alcoholics. This wasn't a problem for prehistoric man, or at least pre-alcohol, prehistoric man. Once alcohol came into society, the propensity for addiction to alcohol would be different for different people and natural selection would gradually weed out of the population that strain of those who have a greater propensity for alcoholism over time. This explains the observation referred to above, that Jews and Italians have a low alcoholism rate.

However, that doesn't mean, I suggest, that life was mental-problem free for prehistoric man. He was as much subject to Fall as we are. There will have been temptations to immediate gratification of the emotions then as there are now and evolution would never remove those. Regardless of how their environment brought them to the surface, these conflicts would have been as real for them in their interpersonal relationships as they are for us today.

As a Christian would propose the following hypothesis: man has a fallen nature. He will always be in a conflict between what his passions bid him do - the short term goals as described by Ms McGonigal - and between what he knows to good based upon reason. So while the actual temptations might change depending on where and when we live, there will always be something that is going to cause us problems. That's part of human life. Some people will always be greedy and the part of this that derives from as self-centered nature cannot be removed from man altogether by natural means.

In the Christian understanding of man, he is body, soul and spirit. The spirit is that part of our soul that is most likely to be aware of what is good for us in the long term (see more on this anthropology in a past article, here). By long term, I mean the longest term possible, eternity. The spirit is that part which desires our heavenly destiny. In the properly ordered man, spirit, soul and body are all in harmony. In man since the Fall, dubbed by St John Paul II 'Historical' man, these are in conflict. Hence St Paul says that the 'spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak'. Only in heaven will we have perfect ordering of spirit, soul and body. But by degrees we can move towards greater self control in this life.

Both hypotheses - that of modern psychology which says that short term and long term instincts were in harmony for prehistoric man; and the Christian one that says he was as subject to temptation and the effects of the Fall - are scientifically unproven and perhaps unproveable. Prehistoric man comes from a time when, by definition ,there were no historical records, so we just don't know enough about his psychology to be certain about what he was like.

The assumption that primitive man was perfect gained great popularity with the 18th century French writer, Rousseau and his concept of the 'noble savage'. For Rousseau civilization corrupted man, it did not perfect him. Modern psychology, if these lectures are anything to go by, seems to have adopted a faith in the very unscientific and ininspired speculation  of Rousseau.

For the Christian, the ultimate answer to our inner conflict is the same then as it was now, and that is grace - God's help. While this does not invalidate scientific, psychological methods of self control, it does offer an additional and I would say potentially even more powerful source of help for our problems relating to the conflict between the doing what we know we ought. It might even give an explanation as to why the the psychological solution works - it helps us to cooperate with grace.

In support of this I would point to Alcoholics Anonymous and the other 12-Step fellowships that deal with addiction. My understanding is that these are still the most successful means to overcome addiction. They are unapologetically spiritual in their approach. Generally the AA solution does make us of routines and exercises that are very similar to those suggested in the Willpower Instinct, but it adds also a spiritual dimension, such as prayer to a loving Higher Power, God.

No doubt some psychologists will look at AA and try to explain its success in purely psychological terms without consideration of the spiritual. But at root of all these explanations will be an assumption, an unproven hypothesis, that God does not exist and that there must be another explanation. So even where such a psychologist acknowledges the powerful effect of prayer or mediation for example, it will tend to discount the possibility that the reason that it is helpful is because there is truth to the beliefs that underlie them. So they might, for example, acknowledge those those who pray to and worship God have happier lives, but will tend to explain it in terms of a useful psychological trick of self delusion.

Scientific progress in all fields is one of the great blessings of the modern world. However, scientists and non-scientists alike should be aware of the limitations of what science is capable of describing. The underlying assumptions of the scientific method mean that it is absolutely incapable of having anything to say, for or against, about the spiritual realm. When you hear a scientist talk about the spiritual you should be aware of this fact. That person is not speaking as a scientist, but as a non-believing individual who has no more authority in this area than anyone else. The genuine scientist, speaking purely as a scientist, will acknowledge that science cannot test the truth of a hypotheses that relies on the existence of God and a spiritual realm for its validity; while allowing for the possibility, at least of its truth.

--------------

As an afternote: there is, in the Christian worldview a past in which man was perfect and that was man before the Fall. If man today, in the nomenclature of John Paul II is called Historical Man then the perfect man is not 'prehistoric' but pre-Historical. Pre-Historical man was called 'Original Man' by John Paul II. The Judeo-Christian tradition has proper names for Original Man - Adam and Eve. Furthermore, we do not need to wait for evolution to take it's course, which it might, for the perfection of man. By degrees we are transformed supernaturally in this life through our participation in the sacramental life of the Church. We reach our ultimate destiny in union with God in heaven.

So we should ask yourself if the perfect man looks like this:

...or this? To paraphrase St Paul: 'We preach the crucified Christ, who is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to modern psychologists...'

How Modern Psychology Can Help Us To Be Moral

And how it can reinforce the Christian understanding of human behaviour.

I recently listened to a recorded lecture series which was intended to help people increase their self-control in order to have better lives. It was called the Willpower Instinct and was by Kelly McGonigal.  It is available as a book or recorded lectures.

As I listened to this I had a number of thoughts. First, there is plenty here to help Christians to become more moral - I will describe these later on in this blog article.

Second, she approaches this subject as a pure scientist who observes the influences on human behavior in order to help people have great self-control. While I wouldn't quarrel with her observations as a scientist or her methods for controlling personal behavior based upon those observations; I would say that her explanations as to why they work were, for the most part, unproven hypothesis. In fact, it sounded to me as though a Christian understanding of the human person could add even more to what she was offering. I will discuss how in a separate article. Here I want to consider how it struck me that her presentation might help Christians.

These recorded lectures were based upon talks and workshops that she offers that use modern psychological research to help people to gain self control. From the sound of it a lot of her clients are addicts and failed dieters. Through her workshops, she helps people to assert their will power over their own behavior. She defines will power as the capacity to do what part of you really wants to do when another part of you really doesn't want to do it.

What it seems to boil down to in these lectures is trying to order our lives so that they are generally governed by our long term goals rather than short term responses. In order to do this we need to be able to do two things:

1. Do things that part of us doesn't want to do.

2. Resist the desire to do things that part of does want to do.

So, for the addict the need is to learn how to resist that part of us that desires the pleasure of taking whatever substance or indulging in whatever behavior we are addicted to. For those who are procrastinating over doing something that we know gives long term benefits, it is about learning to overcome that lethargy. And for the dieter it seems to a bit of everything: cultivating that part of you that wants to eat healthily, and trying to resist the desire of that part of you that wants to eat cream cakes all day long; and to overcome inertia towards exercising properly.

In this series of lectures she gives a series of exercises that she says have been shown to help people. I tried them out myself in order to try to overcome some bad habits and introduce some good habits into my life and they seemed to work.

The point to understand, she says, is that once a behavior becomes a problem the more we focus our attention on the problem, the more difficult it is to overcome it. So, for example, trying to tell ourselves constantly that we don't want to eat cream cakes is, paradoxically, more likely to increase cream cake consumption than reduce it. This is why dieting is so extraordinarily difficult.

Her suggestion for overcoming this hypothetical cream-cake problem is to introduce three simple exercises into our lives:

1. Find some little activity or group of activities that you don't like doing, but you know you can do regularly - for the slobs among us it could resolving to make your bed everyday, for example - and then resolve to do it regularly. This activity can be anything we choose except the problem behavior.

2. Find some little pleasure to which you are not too attached and then make a point of resisting it daily. Again, this can be anything you like except the problem behavior that you are trying to rid yourself of. This exercise strengthens our capacity to resist temptation if we do it regularly.

3. In a detached way, monitor how often you do the behavior that you really interested in trying to control, the problem behavior that you either want to either reduce or increase. It is important that you don't consciously try to reduce or increase the regularity. Just monitor how often you actually eat cream cakes each day. How many do you eat in a day or week, truthfully?

4. Set yourselves the highest ideals in life, but don't be too hard on yourself when you fall short. Draw a line underneath what happened and start again.

She then describes common pitfalls and temptations along the way and how to be prepared for them.

What struck me about this is how much it reinforces the traditional Christian practices of committing to fasts and abstinence; and to regular commitments to good works. It is not simply that these are good things in themselves, but also, as it was explained to me, if done regularly they will transform us. We become a person who is better at resisting the dangerous temptations; and more inclined to overcome acedia - a sloth towards doing what we ought to do.

So, just taking the examples of a regular routine I was given years ago: in habitual fasting we develop control over the passions and increases our capacity to resist our immediate wants. Similarly; in the habitual practice of loving action by, for example, doing some weekly voluntary commitment for a charity, it will make us better lovers who will take that increased capacity to love into all our relationships. If we habitually give thanks to God for the good things that we have in life regardless of we feel, then in time we will genuinely start to appreciate them and feel good about them. And if we habitually pray to God, regardless of how we feel during the prayer we will strengthen our faith.

The great value of what Ms McGonigal describes is the systematic approach to the subject which gives such great insights as to how to introduce such exercises into our lives so that they become very effective. Also, as in any situation where modern science reinforces traditional Christian practice, it helps to reinforce my faith still further and perhaps, you never know, might help persuade the odd atheist of the truth of the Faith.

What Ms McGonical does not do is help us very much to decide what we ought to want to do. What long term goals, for example, are going to make us happiest if we actually achieve them? Furthermore, in some of her explanations as to why man's desire for short term pleasure so often override what we know objectively will make us happier in the long run. More on this next time....

Denis McNamara to Speak In New York City February 6th (This Saturday)

The Catholic Artists' Society series of talks entitled, the Art of the Beautiful continues this Saturday in New York Saturday with a presentation from architectural historian, Denis McNamara entitled, Incarnation and Transfiguration: Rediscovering the Iconic Nature of Church Buildings. Anyone who has attended one of Denis's lectures or seen the series of talks produced by the Liturgical Institute in Mundelein, where he works, will know that this promises to be a stimulating and enjoyable evening. As usual with the CAS events the talk is followed by a reception and Compline.

Just in case you can't make out the detail on the poster above, the talk is at the Catholic Center, NYU, 238 Thompson Street.

Documentary about the original Divine Mercy image - is this really what Christ looked like?

One of the most familiar images in Catholic churches today is the Divine Mercy image.

Most will be aware of the story of the vision of Sr Faustina and how she instructed an artist in Lithuania to paint it. What I did not know is that the images that we see most commonly in churches, and which are usually reproductions, are not reproductions of the original, but of painted copies of the original.

You can see this in the trailer for the documentary here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSB7uiE7sTA

I present this because I know that this image has a central place in popular piety of Catholics. But I am going to have to come clean here and give my personal opinion. I do not like the Divine Mercy image - I find it a poorly rendered naturalistic image and very sentimental and not conducive to prayer at all. Although now that I look at it, the original, shown above, does look less sentimental than the one I am used to seeing, which always looks something like this:

I did hear a story that Sr Faustina was never happy with the image either and in the end reluctantly agreed to its use assuming that no artist could ever reproduce satisfactorily what she had seen. Then years later, so the story went as related to me, she saw an image of Christ painted in the iconographic style and said, 'That's what he looked like!' I can't corroborate this, but I find it plausible.

Putting my personal preferences about the style aside, there is another very interesting point about this image, I am happy to accept that there is at least a basic likeness between the image and what Sr Faustina actually saw in her vision and described to the artist. The Divine Mercy image of Christ corresponds to the classic likeness that we are used to seeing in so many paintings from the tradition. He has a beard and long hair, for example. This corresponds also to other images not created by human hand, such as the Turin Shroud and the Mandylion.

Is this what Christ looked like historically? The skeptic would say that the Divine Mercy image looks as it does because Sr Faustina's vision came from her imagination, which had been influenced by images that she had already seen; and it was not a vision direct from God at all. The criticisms from the politically correct who are interested in cultural diversity, would take the same line and then go further. They say that the whole tradition is influenced by a Eurocentric vision of the world that makes him a white Western European in flat contradiction to what history tells us about him.

I argue from faith and say that Sr Faustina did see a vision from God, and that (for all my reservations about the style of the painting itself) Christ did look like this. Furthermore, I would say, history backs this up. I will present the arguments in my next blog post on Friday...

May 2016 • World premier of major choral work and three-day conference for musicians and artists

I have just received early notice of the premier of a new major work by composer Frank La Rocca in Dallas, Texas on Saturday, May 21, 2016 at 8:00pm in Dallas, Texas. It is an oratoria called A Rose in Winter - the life of Saint Rita of Cascia. The original libretto is by Matthew Lickona.

The 90-minute work for chorus, orchestra, and soloists was commissioned by Saint Rita Catholic Church (URL) in Dallas, and is the brainchild of Alfred Calabrese, director of music at the parish.

The church is organizing a three-day conference entitled “High Above the Stars: Sainthood, Beauty, and Catholic Artistic Expression.” which will take place on three days prior to the performance (May 19 - 21. The conference is designed for musicians, artists, poets, theologians, and Catholic laity, and deals with the creation of sacred music and art, the promotion of beauty, and the quest for sainthood in everyday life. Masterclasses will be held for conductors, composers, and poets.

For more details, you can read a blog post on the Corpus Christi Watershed website written by Dr Calabrese, through the link here. We are told that a website with more details about the event and on how to register for the conference is coming soon. As soon as I have more information I will pass it on to you.

An essay on beauty, culture and the liturgy in the latest Antiphon Journal

I would like to draw your attention to the latest edition of the Antiphon Journal. As usual, all the writers are worth reading, and their names will be recognizable to NLM readers. I mention it particularly this time because of the subject discussed in one article, by Fr Chris Renz, called Liturgical Piety, Awe, and Beauty in a New Liturgical Movement”.

I was excited to get a preview of what Fr Renz has written. In it he discusses the importance of developing an authentic liturgical piety to the evangelization of the culture. He is thinking here of the creation of a Catholic culture in the widest sense of the word, what he calls an 'everyday way of being Catholic'. He explains very well, I think just how powerful an influence the liturgy is on the way we are as people and how this is reflected in what we do. This is a topic close to my heart.

Fr Renz is the Academic Dean and Assistant Professor of Religion and the Arts and Science of Theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (the DSPT) at UC Berkeley.

Paschal Candles

Here are some examples of Paschal candles created by Gina Switzer of Columbus, Ohio. Her parish is St Patrick's in Columbus (the Dominican church in the city).

I give you this information for two reasons. First is that if your parish needs a paschal candle you might consider commissioning one from Gina. Her website ginaswitzer.com has details of how to order and the designs that she has done in the past. So far she has six main themes and churches ask for modifications that make it appropriate to their parish. On the Paschal page of the website there is a downloadable catalog that has details. Smaller candels also make good gifts, named candles for baptisms for example.

. I asked Gina about her methods and she told me the following: 'We design and decorate liturgical grade, 51% beeswax Paschal candles. We have designed images that express Christological themes and so they are appropriate for their liturgical use. I create the artwork which is then reproduced onto a thin gelatin film. Metal leaf is applied by hand along with some hand painting directly onto the candle before the gelatin is applied, also by hand, to the candle. Because each candle is custom made to order, our basic designs can be tweaked to fit a particular parishes needs, for example the Dominican cross for a Dominican parish, a celtic border for St. Patrick parish, and so on.'

The other reason for writing about this is that I hope it might inspire other artists to do what Gina is doing. I am regularly asked by priests where they can get hold of Paschal candles as they find the designs in the usual catalogs unsatisfactory. There seems to be a dearth in the market .

Announcing the Sheen Center Catholic Artist Residency in New York City

Cole Matson, Artist-in-Residence, at the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Center for Thought and Culture, the Archdiocese of New York's new arts center in downtown Manhattan, recently contacted my to tell me about the residencies that it is offering for early- and mid-career Catholic artists (of all disciplines, including the visual, literary, musical, cinematic, and performing arts). They invite graduating and recently-graduated Catholic arts students to apply.

Artist residents receive two to four months of free housing at the Sheen Center, a partially or fully subsidized work space (depending on artist medium and space availability), plus free invitations and tickets to Sheen Center events when available. There will be at least one showcase of the artist's work at the Sheen Center (depending on artist medium and stated goals).

The residency does not include board, travel expenses, or a stipend. 

Cole tells me: 'The purpose of the residency is to support the development of Catholic artists, as well as to further the Sheen Center's mission of exploring the true, the good, and the beautiful. The residency should culminate in a final public project suitable to the artist's medium and goals, and the artist should expect to contribute to the life of the Sheen Center during his or her residency.'

Catholic artists of all disciplines are invited to apply. Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis, with a limit of 3 artists-in-residence at one time. 

Those interested should apply by email only to Cole Matson at submissions@sheencenter.org. Applicants will be asked to supply a covering letter (no more than two pages) and a statement of intent. The statement of intent should include the number of months requested, how you envision using your time at the Sheen Center, and how this residency will further your artistic goals. He asks that you include in this discussion of the Sheen Center mission, how your faith informs your work, and what benefit this period in New York City would have on your work as an artist right now. In addition you will be asked to supply one to three short samples of your work, or photographs of your work.

For more information, visit: http://sheencenter.org/about/submissions/artist-residency/.

Denis McNamara on Sacred Architecture, Part 10: The Documents of Vatican II

This is the tenth and concluding video of the series. Throughout, Prof. McNamara has been referring to the documents of the Second Vatican Council, but in this he recaps and spells out the directives more clearly. He refers to the desirability of a “pious skepticism” towards innovation, an attitude that is open to change, but generally skeptical of it, and respectful of tradition. I think that this is the frame of mind which produces the “hermeneutic of continuity” that Benedict XVI referred to. Put simply, it says, don’t change anything unless there is a compelling reason to do so.

He then goes on to highlight what the Council did ask for in regard to art and architecture, which on the whole reinforces the principles of the desirability of noble and resplendent beauty. Then, in his understated and polite way, he concludes by saying that nobody should ever think that Vatican II ever meant anything other than what it actually said, just because it came at a time that was “unfriendly,” as he put it, to ornament, image and traditional architecture.

Denis McNamara is on the faculty of the Liturgical Institute, Mundelein; his book is Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn79r6XumbE