How would you like to have a 60 million dollar bounty on your head? From al Qaeda?

That is the price on the head of Father Zakaria Botros, a Coptic Orthodox Priest from Egypt currently living in the United States. He has made it his life’s mission to preach the Gospel to the Muslim world, and the consequences have been severe for him. Catholic.org recently posted an interview he gave to FrontPage:

FP: Let’s begin with your own personal story, in terms of Islam and Christianity.

Botros: I am a Copt. In my early 20s, I became a priest. Of course, in predominantly Muslim Egypt, Christians—priests or otherwise—do not talk about religion with Muslims. My older brother, a passionate Christian learned that lesson too late: after preaching to Muslims, he was eventually ambushed by Muslims who cut out his tongue and murdered him. Far from being deterred or hating Muslims, I eventually felt more compelled to share the Good News with them. Naturally, this created many problems: I was constantly harassed, threatened, and eventually imprisoned and tortured for one year, simply for preaching to Muslims. Egyptian officials charged me with abetting “apostasy,” that is, for being responsible for the conversion of Muslims to Christianity. Another time I was arrested while boarding a plane out of Egypt. Eventually, however, I managed to flee my native country and resided for a time in Australia and England. Anyway, my life-story with Christianity and Islam is very long and complicated. In fact, an entire book about it was recently published.

FP: I apologize for asking this, but what were some of the tortures you endured when you were imprisoned?

Botros: Due to my preaching the Gospel, Egyptian soldiers broke into my home putting their guns to my head. Without telling me why, they arrested me and placed me in an extremely small prison cell (1.8×1.5×1.8 meters, which was further problematic, since I am 1.83 meters tall), with other inmates, and in well over 100 degree temperatures, with little ventilation, no windows, and no light. No beds of course, we slept on the floor—in shifts, as there was not enough room for all of us to lie down. Due to the lack of oxygen, we used to also take shifts lying with our noses under the crack of the cell door to get air. As a result, I developed a kidney infection (receiving, of course, no medical attention). Mosquitoes plagued us. Food was delivered in buckets; we rarely even knew what the gruel was. The prison guards would often spit in the bucket in front of us, as well as fling their nose pickings in it.

Read the whole interview here.

One of the consistent characteristics of Church history is the willingness of Christians to preach the Gospel in spite of terrible hardships and persecutions. We Americans can often get upset when the slightest difficulty arises from our Christian life, yet many have suffered greatly so that we might know Jesus Christ. Father Botros and others like him need our prayers (and assistance!) as they work to spread the Gospel to the most hostile ends of the earth.

Father Botros also has a web site which contains a large about of his writings, available for free.

Last night my wife and I went to see our beloved Cincinnati Reds play the Washington Nationals:

We were afraid the game would be rained out, but we were able to watch the first seven innings with no problem.

So, what does this have to do with Catholicism? Nothing really – although Inside Catholic did recently rerun an article on the “Virtues of Baseball.”

P.S. It took extra innings, but the Reds won, fortunately.

Great news: Jeffrey Steele, an Anglican priest and blogger at de cura animarum, has announced that he is coming home to the Catholic Church:

I am writing to make the announcement that I am becoming a Roman Catholic along with my wife Rhea and our six children. I realise that this decision is going to make some really happy, some very sad and others possibily angry. But, I have made the decision with the deepest sense of integrity and by conscience. I would like to share a bit of my faith journey though there are many gaps here, it is descriptive of my heart over the past few months. This is not particularly an academic account of what I have done in my studies but rather the spiritual wrestling that went on within me. The announcement was made this morning in all three parishes where I serve and is now a matter of public knowledge. My duties and licence in the parish end on 14 June 2009 (Corpus Christi Sunday) and my reception into Holy Mother Church is forthcoming.

My PhD studies really set me on my Catholic journey in a deep theological way though I did not realise it at the time. I have been looking at Bishop Lancelot Andrewes as a catalyst for ecumenism with the Catholic Church in the area of Eucharistic sacrifice. Andrewes was in regular dialogue with S. Robert Bellarmine SJ and it is in this dialogue and Andrewes’ other writings that I saw how Catholic he was with regards to the Eucharist being the Christian offering which consisted of more than a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. It was and is propitiatory as well as other things…

Be sure to read the whole post here.

Welcome home, Fr. Steele!

John Henry Newman, pray for us!

For some reason, I find this story hilarious:

Video game giant funds fake Christian protest of ‘Inferno’ game

Video game giant Electronic Arts has admitted it funded a group of fake protesters who pretended to be Christians as a publicity stunt to spur interest in its upcoming action game very loosely based on Dante’s “Inferno.”

The game company hired a group of almost 20 people to stand outside the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the Associated Press says. The phony protesters passed out amateurish material and held signs bearing slogans such as “Trade in Your PlayStation for a PrayStation,” “Hell is not a Game” and “EA = Electronic Anti-Christ.”

I can just imagine a bunch of snotty marketing types, sitting around a table drinking their latte grandes and trying to imagine how those hick “Christians” would react to their product. Their best idea was:

A web page in the crude style of 1990s web design was also created in connection with the stunt. It depicted crosses crushing the word “sin” and placed images of the King James Bible among phony condemnations and thinly-veiled promotions of the game.

I like the attention to detail: “images of the King James Bible” were used. For we can’t have any modernist, pagan bible like the NIV or The Message – people who read those editions would never protest the game.

Of course, what they don’t realize is that anyone who would be a “King James Bible” Christian would also probably think Dante’s Divine Comedy is just Catholic propaganda anyway.

George Tiller’s late-term abortion clinic is closing permanently.

We have homeschooled our children the past five years, and it has been a great decision for our family. Of course, we are far from alone in our decision to homeschool. Recently, the Department of Education released a report on homeschooling in the United States and it shows that homeschooling has grown considerably in the past decade.

What I also found interesting were the top reasons people homeschool:

1. Provide Religious or Moral Instruction
2. Concern about the Environment of other Schools
3. Dissatisfaction with the Academic Instruction Available Elsewhere
4. Child has a Physical or Mental Health Problem
5. Child has other Special Needs
6. Interest in nontraditional approach to education
7. More family time
8. Family finances
9. Ability to travel
10. Distance to school

Looking over this list, I note that six of the top ten apply in our situation. But what I find interesting is that our initial reasons for homeschooling are not necessarily the same reasons we continue to homeschool. For example, reason number 6: “Interest in nontraditional approach to education” did not initially interest us – when we first started homeschooling we simply made our homeschool like an institutional school, except at home. But over the years we have become more “nontraditional” in our approach, realizing that having children sit in chairs for hours on end while a teacher drones on is not necessarily an ideal educational environment, especially for boys. Homeschooling has given us the ability to tailor our educational program to the strengths of our own particular children, as well as to the strengths of their teachers – my wife and myself.

For whatever the reasons, the rise of homeschooling as a viable, mainstream option has been a great development in education in this country. It will never be the choice for all families in this country, or even the majority of families, but for those who choose it, it can be quite beneficial.

When abortionist George Tiller was killed last week, many Christians were surprised to hear that he was an usher at a Lutheran church. How could someone whose life clearly contradicted the Gospel be allowed to be not only a member, but an usher, at a Christian church? Many Catholics in particular might have assumed that Lutherans do not stand for life and are unapologetic supporters of abortion.

What was not reported is that Tiller was actually excommunicated from a Lutheran congregation years ago due to his abortion practice. So how was he able to be an usher at another Lutheran church? Because the two congregations belonged to separate, and very different, Lutheran groups.

His former church is part of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Its website proclaims:

Just because something happens to be legal does not make it moral, ethical or right. Abortion is perhaps one of the most dramatic examples of a situation where something is legal, but is very much a sin against God. Since 1973, abortions have been legal in the United States. Abortion remains a sin against God, whether or not it is legal in our society; therefore, we must “obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). The church needs to inform its members that abortion is sinful and then encourage them, as Christian citizens, to use available legal means to change the law. Christians do not resort to illegal activities to change our nation’s laws.

Tiller’s new church is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which states on its website:

A developing life in the womb does not have an absolute right to be born…The church recognizes that there can be sound reasons for ending a pregnancy through induced abortion.

Kudos to the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod for loving George Tiller enough to confront him with his evil practice. Shame to the ELCA for loving the sin and not the sinner. If the ELCA had confronted Tiller like the Missouri Synod church did, perhaps he would have followed in the footsteps of former abortionists like Bernard Nathanson. Now we’ll never know.

China is experiencing a multitude of social problems related to its one-child policy, since many families choose to abort any girls in order that their one allowed child might be a boy. A study recently found that for every 119 male births, there are 100 female births.

One example is the increase in “runaway brides,” women who take their “bride price” from desperate men, then leave their husbands after pocketing the money.

Another consequence is the kidnapping of young girls in order that they might become brides in areas which have few eligible girls for all the available bachelors.

So what do more “civilized” countries do in response? We create a do-it-yourself “Gender Test” so pregnant women can determine the gender of their child on their own and early in pregnancy. That sounds like a good idea.

We’ve all heard about the vocations crisis the Catholic Church has faced in the Western world in recent decades: not enough men are following the call of God to become priests, and not even men and women are hearing the call to the religious life.

The Nashville Dominicans, a wonderful order of teaching nuns, are also enduring a vocations crisis, but their crisis is a bit different:

Nashville Dominicans preparing for large postulant class

[W]hile other religious orders are struggling to stay alive, the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, better known as the Nashville Dominicans, are thriving. With 230 sisters serving in 34 schools in the United States, as well as starting a ministry in Australia, the order is truly alive and flourishing…

The Dominicans currently have 45 sisters in their initial formation program and are preparing for a large class of postulants to enter the community in August.

Sister Mary Emily, Vocations Director for the Nashville Dominicans, told CNA that she has seen “a steady increase in the interest in religious life and a great openness to considering it.”

“Many young women are attracted to this life that includes a strong prayer life, a strong community life, a single apostolate of teaching and the witness of a religious habit,” Sr. Mary Emily explained.

Wicks agreed, saying that the witness of the Dominicans is deeply attractive because they are truly alive in the Lord.

“If young people are going to give up their life, they want to give it up for something that is both challenging and beautiful,” qualities that she sees being lived out by the sisters. “They are faithful to Christ. They are fully habited. They are truly visible, living witnesses. And that witness speaks to the heart.”

It seems clear that in coming generations the Church will be blessed with many vocations to the priesthood and religious life, like it has in previous generations. The difference will be which orders will filled with members and which will be reduced to a historical footnote in the pages of Church history.

My quixotic campaign against Twitter continues:

H/t: Justine

Emmaus Road Publishing is soon releasing a Catholic Concordance for the RSV-CE bible. This looks like a valuable resource, but I’m mostly interested in it because it was compiled by one of my best friends in college, Chris Lyons (he goes by C.W. Lyons for the book, but I’m revealing his top secret name here). Chris is a great Catholic and has spent years compiling this text. It will be a welcome companion to anyone who wishes to study the Scriptures more deeply (and shouldn’t that be every Catholic?).

Yesterday was Trinity Sunday, which is the unofficial feast day for this blog. At the top of the page, I have an icon of the Trinity alongside the name of my blog “The Divine Life: Why We Were Created.” The reason I chose that icon is that the Trinity is our destination, the reason we were created. And what a destination it is! Complete and total Love, eternal and beyond our ability to even imagine. God is a communion of love and we were created to participate in it.

This also means that we were created with the capacity of receiving this divine love. One of the reasons do not feel complete in this life is that we were created for so much more. As St. Augustine wrote, “our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” Nothing in this life will satisfy us completely; if we try to find fulfillment with the things of this earth we will end up disappointed. That is why we must direct our lives towards God, knowing that only in Him will fulfillment come.

I absolutely love this article. A Baptist minister on sabbatical decided to bring his family to an Orthodox Liturgy. Needless to say, it was quite a culture shock:

Saint Anthony the Great isn’t just old school. It’s “styli and wax tablets” old school. We arrived ten minutes early for worship and the room was already filled with people lighting candles and praying. There was one greeter. I said, “We don’t know what to do.” She handed me a liturgy book and waved us inside.

Pews? We don’t need no stinking pews! Providing seats for worshipers is SO 14th century. Gorgeous Byzantine art, commissioned from a famous artist in Bulgaria. Fully robed priests with censors (those swinging incense thingies). Long, complex readings and chants that went on and on and on. And every one of them packed full of complex, theological ideas. It was like they were ripping raw chunks of theology out of ancient creeds and throwing them by the handfuls into the congregation. And just to make sure it wasn’t too easy for us, everything was read in a monotone voice and at the speed of an auctioneer.

I heard words and phrases I had not heard since seminary. Theotokos, begotten not made, Cherubim and Seraphim borne on their pinions, supplications and oblations. It was an ADD kids nightmare. Robes, scary art, smoking incense, secret doors in the Iconostas popping open and little robed boys coming out with golden candlesticks, chants and singing from a small choir that rolled across the curved ceiling and emerged from the other side of the room where no one was singing. The acoustics were wild. No matter who was speaking, the sound came out of everywhere. There was so much going on I couldn’t keep up with all the things I couldn’t pay attention to.

Lillian was the first to go down. After half an hour of standing, she was done. Jeanene took her over to a pew on the side wall. She slumped against Jeanene’s shoulder and stared at me with this stunned, rather betrayed look on her face.

“How could you have brought us to this insane place?”

Shelby tried to tough it out. We were following along in the 40 page liturgy book that was only an abbreviation of the service were were experiencing. I got lost no less than 10 times. After 50 minutes Shelby leaned over and asked how much longer the service would be. I was trying to keep from locking my knees because my thighs had gotten numb. I showed her the book. We were on page 15. I flipped through the remaining 25 pages to show her how much more there was. Her mouth fell open.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. And I think there’s supposed to be a sermon in here somewhere.”

“They haven’t done the SERMON yet? What was that guy doing who said all that stuff about…all that stuff?”

“I don’t know?” I said.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” she said. I looked around and saw the door at the back of the sanctuary swinging shut.

And then there was one.

Read the whole article and then read his account of attending alone the next week. Pastor Atkinson’s accounts are humorous, educational, and deeply humble. Instead of rejecting a form of worship so unlike his own, he appreciates its inner beauty and value.

Most American Christians – both Catholic and Protestant – have been in a rush to see how they can be the most “relevant” and “friendly” in their church services. It is nice to see there are still places which place worship at the center of a worship service.

For a while now I have been writing reflections on the Sunday readings for my main website. I enjoy doing it, as it allows me to consider the readings before I attend Mass on Sunday, but lately I have found it hard to find the time for it. So I am taking a break from the Sunday reflections for a while. I’ll keep the old ones up there and hopefully I’ll find the time in the future to continue the practice.

Last Saturday, my parish hosted a wonderful event: Andy Davy, a Marian brother, was ordained a priest. Having an ordination at a local parish is exceptional enough, but Fr. Davy’s ordination was especially touching: it was the fifth sacrament he has received at St. John Neumann. He was baptized, made his first confession, received first communion, and confirmed at our parish. Furthermore, his parents are founding members of the parish and his father is a permanent deacon here! Fr. Davy is a holy and faithful priest, and it was an honor for the parish to be part of such a special occasion.

You can read a very nice article about this event in our diocesan paper.

Pray for Fr. Davy and all the Marians as they spread the message of Divine Mercy to the world.