Catholic Speakers Month: Interview with Ralph Martin

Not me!  This is Ralph Martin!

It's Catholic Speakers Month!

I'm one of the bloggers participating in this month to give some attention to excellent Catholic speakers across the USA (and beyond, I suppose, but I note they are English speakers!).  Other speakers and their interviews available at Brandon Vogt's The Thin Veil.

I drew Ralph Martin, who is director of Graduate Theology Programs in Evangelization at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, the host of an EWTN Show "The Choices We Face," president of Renewal Ministries, consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, and the author of many books, including The Fulfillment of All Desire: A Guidebook for the Journey to God Basedon the Wisdom of the Saints and his newest, Will Many Be Saved? What Vatican II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for theNew Evangelization.  He and his wife Anne reside in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

He graciously agreed to answer a few of my emailed questions in spite of going to Rome, like, practically tomorrow.  If you want to see him in action, there is a Renewal Ministries channel on Vimeo with a lot of his speaking (another is embedded at the end of this interview).  Everyone: enjoy!

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IC: I'm a college professor more than a speaker, but I find when I talk Catholic theology, I encounter a lot of ignorance and a lot of spiritual thirst, thirst they don't even know they have.  What do you encounter?
RM: I seem to encounter two types: those who are open, want to be Catholic and are moving towards deeper commitment; those who are confident they are Catholic but have developed a very deficient view of what Vatican II actually teaches, have drifted far away from a Biblical and truly Catholic world view, and are shocked when they hear the Bible, Vatican II and the Catechism taught with confidence and authority.

IC: You have a new book out on the New Evangelization.  Does encouraging and cultivating excellent Catholic speakers (in person, online, podcasts, etc.) have a role in the New Evangelization?  If it does, what does that look like?  
RM: Every form of speaking truth in love is part of Catholic evangelization, whether it be preaching, teaching, counseling, apologetics, personal conversations, or social media.

IC: I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a moment.  Most of the life-changing encounters with God in my own life have occurred in relative silence, or quiet conversation--in prayer.  Couldn't someone argue we live in a culture that is noisy enough? 
RM: We have to detach from the constant stimulation of the culture in order to have enough silence in our life to hear the voice of God. As the psalm says: Be still and know that I am God.

IC: I'm a supporter of Renewal Ministries and think you all do great work.  One reason I support it is that I have a charismatic background and spirituality, and find some sympathy there.  Where do you think Catholic Charismatic Renewal is going these days?  
RM: Charismatic renewal is doing differently in different countries and in different parts of this country. I think the most significant thing is that the scriptural, theological and spiritual awareness that has been stimulataed by this renewal is now being received in a very real way by the whole Church. 

IC: Who is your favorite saint?  And is there a saint that could really be called a saint for our time...a patron of the early 2000s?  
RM: I like them all and what they all have in common no matter how different their way of life or particular vocation is that they loved God and their neighbor mightily.

IC: It is clear from The Fulfillment of All Desire that you are appreciative of John Paul II, and his call to make parishes "schools of prayer."  How can Catholic speakers help do that? 
RM: A lot of the practical teaching contained in the wisdom of the Church in her saints and explicated in The Fulfillment of All Desire  is virtually unknown by most Catholics today. It needs to be taught – from the pulpit, in adult ed classes, in RCIA, etc.

IC: Finally, most Catholics aren't going to become Catholic speakers at missions, parishes, conferences, on podcasts. But we are called to speak up to the best of our ability as needed for the faith.  How do we all become "better speakers for Christ"?  
RM: We are all “on mission” whether we know it or not and our mission includes our family, our work environment, our neighborhood and our parish. We all are called to be alert to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and be prepared to “give a reason for the hope within us.”

Thanks so much for the exchange of emails, Ralph, and I encourage people to listen to him speak or read one of his excellent books.  Let's go out and speak the truth in love, everyone. --IC

 

Happy 25th anniversary to The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride--the perfect Ironic movie for Catholics and the rest of the human race. Happy anniversary! A sample quotation from the script is our Friday QOTD:  

Count Rugen: Your princess is quite a winning creature. A trifle simple, perhaps. Her appeal is undeniable.
Prince Humperdinck: I know, the people are quite taken with her. It's odd, but when I hired Vizzini to have her murdered on our engagement day, I thought that was clever. But it's going to be so much more moving when I strangle her on our wedding night. Once Guilder is blamed, the nation will truly be outraged - they'll demand we go to war.
Count Rugen: [snickers, then examines a huge tree] Now where is that secret knot? It's impossible to find...
[he finds it and the tree opens to reveal a hidden passage]
Count Rugen: Ah. Are you coming down into the pit? Wesley's got his strength back. I'm starting him on the machine tonight.
Prince Humperdinck: [sincerely] Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work, but I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it; I'm swamped.
Count Rugen: Get some rest. If you haven't got your health, then you haven't got anything.

OK, if that just sounds dark, you have to see the movie.

More Princess Bride quotations here.  Feel free to add your favorite lines in the comments.

If Garrison Keillor Authored the Apocalypse

It's been a quiet millennium in Lake Wobegon, my hometown, right there on the edge of the prairie.  The Sidetrack Tap got lots of business on Monday night, with the Packers game.  True, this is Minnesota, but if the Pack is playing and the Vikes aren't, you watch the Packer game to root for the opposing team and make fun of their cheesehead gear.  Well, when the Seattle team won that game on a botched referee call--after ten minutes of making Packer fans sweat it out--you would think Minnesota would rejoice.  And admittedly, given the extreme nature of the situation, you did hear a small "wooo" at the bar.  But most Minnesotans stayed true to nature, and immediately thought: this is too good to be true.  It must be a harbinger of the end times.

Actually, the Track crew wouldn't have necessarily gone straight to the end times if it hadn't been for Pastor Ingqvist, who had had a round or two with the neighbors and a bad day to boot.  He had gotten together  with other pastor buddies from the area to gather for Monday breakfast at the Chatterbox Cafe and what they called "the sin report"--you know, Agnes Hatterfoot stuck her thumb in her daughter in law's pie at the potluck, that sort of thing--but no doubt about it, this week's report was bad, really bad.  Maybe it was the election or maybe it was the end of summer and all its hopes, but everyone seemed to be out to hurt each other.  Churches coming apart, families spitting at each other, and the police blotter took up half the newspaper page.  They'd never seen such a thing.  Then Fr. Wilmer came to visit for a cup of caffeine and mentioned he had presided over 12 funeral liturgies in one week at Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility.  Pastor Ingqvist stared at him and mentioned he had seen quite a few funerals in the past month as well, and knew some of his flock were on the edge, but he thought it was a fluke.  But 12 in a week!  Think of it, that's more like a war zone than a prairie town.  How did you do that?, he asked Fr. Wilmer.  "Caffeine," asked Fr. Wilmer.  "Why do you think I'm here, for Luther's catechism?  I'm here because I'm out of coffee!"

Then Pastor Ingqvist went to the food shelf to drop off the church donation for the month, and ran into a family, a mom and three kids, receiving their weekly allotment: some hamburger helper, cereal, and two jars of peanut butter.  He was OK until he heard the mom stage whisper to the youngest child, a boy of three, "I know you haven't eaten since Saturday night, but we have to wait until we get into the car."  As he stood in shock, he registered that they were leaving, and quietly followed them, stopping the mother and giving her the cash in his wallet--eight dollars.  As she opened her mouth to say anything, he touched her shoulder, shook his head, and walked quickly away.

What is going on? he thought.  I've seen sin, death, and hunger, but.... Dear God.  And then he thought: the apocalypse.

He was immediately a little ashamed he thought of that, after all, he was an ELCA minister, not some gullible fundamentalist hack.  That 2012 Apocalypse thing is surely a hoax, he thought.  Surely it is.  But how to explain all these events?  He went to the office and moved directly into paperwork for the Lutheran conference, collections and attendance and income and debt report, because nothing takes one's mind off the impending apocalypse like bureaucracy.  It is the perfect inoculation against dangerous biblical interpretation and cultural malaise.  He was just about through the projected church budget for the next biennium when he heard a clop.  Then another.  Then a steady clop clop clop clop clop.  Horses, he thought.  Are the Amish in town again?  He looked out the window.  Nothing.

So when a parishioner met him outside the office and suggested he watch the evening game with him and his friends, Pastor  Ingqvist thought, why not.  Judy is out of town, and after all, how does one act in the impending apocalypse?  Does one go home and watch Dancing with the Stars?  Reheat the weekend pizza?  Read Revelation for the preview?  Besides, this has to be a fluke.  So he agreed to go to the Sidetrack Tap.

When the ref bungled that game clinching call, the bar cheered in its Minnesota fashion, that is, with reserved bloodlust.  But Pastor Ingqvist felt a growing chill as the ten minute delay grew longer, and longer.  When the bad call stood, he got up and walked outside.  Looking north, he saw a strange light in the night sky, a shimmering red something, eerie but almost beautiful.  The Northern Lights?  If it's the northern lights, I should be enjoying this.  But...could the apocalypse be beautiful?  Does that three year old have food still tonight?... He shook his head.  Stop this, he told himself.  Except, according to Scripture, it could happen, anytime.  Maybe those 2012 people aren't on to anything, but even a dead clock is right twice a day.  Maybe...

He went home, fed the cat, and went to bed.  On a whim, he called Fr. Wilmer.  "Sorry to bother you, Father," he said.  "But I was just wondering--did any more parishioners of yours die this afternoon?" "Did you see that game?" he thundered.  "I've got a couple Packer fans in the parish and I'm expecting a call any minute!"  After guffawing a bit, he said "Well, Irene Donahue died this afternoon, may she rest in peace.  It was expected, after five years in the home.  Why do you ask?"  "No reason, I guess," Pastor Ingqvist replied.  "I'm just thinking strange things.  I need to sleep.  Take care of yourself, it could be an odd night."  "Really?"  asked Fr. Wilmer.  "Why do you say that?"  "Oh..." he paused.  "The game. The game ... may be over.  It's good to remember that the game may be over anytime, and ... we can fight about the calls, but at some point, it won't matter, Wil.  It just won't."  Fr. Wilmer held a long silence over the phone.  "John.  It's not a game.  It never was.  But I go to sleep praying I am found on the right side, when that call comes.  I'm sure you do as well.  We can pray for each other tonight."

And so the light shimmered a little more peacefully over my little town, for one more graced night.

That's the news from Lake Wobegon, where--in days past--all the women were strong, all the men good-looking, and the children, above average.

--I.C.

Friday's QOTD

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

--Oscar Wilde

What Happens When the Church Secretary Rushes the Church Sign Before Lunch and Payday

 ...and now I'm hungry, darn it.

Psalm 42, New Revised Pirate Version

(Ahoy, me hearties! It be Talk Like a Pirate Day!)

Psalm 42

To a pirate marooned, or facing th' Cat O Nine Tails.

1 As th' jolly roger longs fer streams o' water,
so me soul thirsts pants fer ye, me God.
2 Me soul thirsts fer God, fer th' liv'n God.
When can I go an' rendezvous wi' God?
3 Me tears have b'n me burgoo day an' night,
while people say t' me all day long, “Where be your bleedin' God, bucko?”
4 These things I remember as I pour out me soul:
how I used t' go t' th' brigantine o' God under th' protection o' th' Almighty Buccaneer
wi' shouts o' joy an' praise among th' festive mateys.
 5 Why, me soul, be ye downcast? Why drowned in bilge within me?
 Put yer hope in God, matey, fer I will yet praise Him, me Sailor an' me God.
 6 Me soul be downcast within me; therefore I will reakon you from th' sea o' Galilee,
th' ports o' Holy call.
7 Deep calls t' blistering deep in th' roar o' your waterfalls;
all yer waves and breakers have swept over me ship like a storm at yer sea.
8 By day th' Lord directs his fair winds, at night his pennywhistle be wi' me—
a prayer t' th' God o' me life on the holy account.
 9 I say t' God me Rock, “Why hast ye forgotten me?
Why must I go bout mourn'n, oppressed by th' landlubbers?”
10 Me bones suffer the Davies as me foes take a cutlass to me,
say'n t' me all day blitheringly long, “Where be your God?”
 11 Why, me soul, be ye downcast? Why so unseaworthily disturbed within me? Put yer hope in God, fer I will yet swab His holy deck, me Sailor an' me God.

Arrrrrrrrrmen.

(If ye be going piratical on ye landlubbin' blog, give me ye link and a cup o grog and I be linkin' to it here.)

• It Came From Allen's Brain: The Gospel of Melvin, Piratical Version 
• Acts o' th' Apostasy's Cap'n Morgan an' Piratical Church Hymns (and I'd be commenting on thar fine work if Wordpress weren't a landlubbin' scallywag of a blogging plank, making me walk it ev'ry time)

Friday's QOTD

"At least six times during the last few years, I have found myself in a situation in which I should certainly have become a Catholic, if I had not been restrained from that rash step by the fortunate accident that I was one already."

- G.K. Chesterton

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and Blimey!  Countdown clock t' International Talk Like a Pirate day, when th' blog goes all Piratical on ye: See you September 19th!

A Candidate We Can Agree On!

St. Augustine for Prez 2012 pins.

"Can't hug every nun"

I can't let this momentous event pass without comment. A much crazier blogger than I, the one who coined "hifreakinlarious" and "craptastic" as bona fide Catholic blogging words, is hanging up her hat. Kat at The Crescat is taking a break and closing the blog. I completely understand but I have to admit I am bummed, because I have always loved Kat's craziness and honesty and taste in art. So as an homage: Kat's "You can't hug every nun" CatholicMatch.com parody.


 

 Love ya, dear. Selfishly, I hope you come back soon. Less selfishly, be happy.

Breaking: Cardinal Dolan To Offer Closing Prayer at National Green Party Convention, Minnesota Independence Party Convention, Local Burger King Grand Opening

New York, NY: Timothy Cardinal Dolan, president of the United States Bishops Conference, seems to be polishing his reputation as the spiritual equivalent of the Energizer Bunny. After offering closing prayers at two presidential conventions, he is on the road for his next stop as the "Pray-er in Chief": the Greens.

"The Cardinal didn't even know the Greens had a convention--well, really, none of us did--but they called and asked for equal time, and the Cardinal graciously said he would attend," admitted a brother bishop, who preferred to speak off the record.  "Then some of the Independence people in Minnesota heard about it, and offered an invitation before that anti-religionist Jesse Ventura could say no.  Once again, the Cardinal said when he's asked to pray, he doesn't need to be asked twice.  Then the new Bronx Burger King #77640 asked if he could close up their grand opening day like at those fancy conventions, and, well, the Cardinal has a heart for the working poor and the Whopper, so there he is on the schedule."

Breaking the practice of the previous conventions, portions of the closing prayers have been leaked to the press.  For the Greens:

Almighty God, Father of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus, and the Earth, we know that for you, everyday is Earth Day, as on earth, every day should be God Day.  Let us embrace your Ultimate Power as the source of Life as we embrace solar energy.  Let us recognize our interconnectedness as God's creatures of the same universe, including those yet to be born.  Let us remember that human beings are part of your creation as well, and that we desire policies, any policies, beyond a love of cleaner fuels and organic energies and "I don't celebrate Easter so let's have an Earth Day parade" celebrations....

For the Minnesota Independence Party:

Almighty God, Father of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jesus, yea, even Jesse, we praise you and plead that you give this party direction and purpose and an awakening to Your will.  A shoot will spring out from the stump of Jesse, your Holy Word says, and so we plead that the shoot may be, for example, a platform.  Almost any platform.  ...

And finally, for the Burger King:

Almighty God, Father of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus, you gave us manna in the desert, the original fast food.  We pray that your blessing may descend on this restaurant and its workers, who in turn remember that you are the true King of Kings.  We pray that the Whopper may feed those in need and be worthy of its name and caloric content.  We pray that the department of health is kind and merciful to these, your people, and grades the restaurant as clean and safe.  May we thank the Lord for all good gifts, burgers to shakes to fries to Bacon add-ons, forever and ever!  Amen!

Cardinal Dolan could not be reached for comment, although his secretary did mention portions of the prayers were released pre-event to prevent unexpected booing.  And she was relieved we weren't another convention coming to call.

--I.C.

p.s. We love ya, Cardinal.  Really.  Light humor here.

"Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction" segment gives it up for the DNC

(Clap. Clap. Clap.)

I want to open this by saying I am neither a Republican or a Democrat, and have big problems with both parties.  I paid more attention to the DNC just because my schedule allowed it.

But when we watch a political convention under political duress force the word "God" back into the party platform despite not having the votes from their own party, and Caroline Kennedy stand and say with apparently no irony (or logic) "As a Catholic, I take reproductive health seriously, and today it is under attack"* I think I can retire the "Truth is Stranger Than Fiction" segment of this blog.  I couldn't make this stuff up.

p.s. Best "as it happens" FB commentary by two friends:
--Eh, we're watching America's Got Talent.
--Well, I'm watching "America's Going to Hell in a Handbasket"
Ka-boom.


*To try to quell the inevitable argument: Of course we take health seriously.  Including reproductive health.  Contraception on demand is not health care.  Duh.