Taking Communion to the Sick: An Amazing Photo

[triumphguy]

All well and good - but there’s a difference between informing the peoples’ consciences and allowing them to make adult decisions, and infantalizing them, keeping them uneducated, making the decisions for them, and publicly shaming them when they do not seem to comply.

 

[OraLabora]

That’s Original Sin 101. Jansenism is a very specific set of condemned heresies and positions. Did the Church in Quebec teach that grace did not exist outside of the Catholic Church? Did they say that it was impossible to follow the natural law? You may not have liked the culture and tone of the Church in that period but it is another thing to say that they were heretical.

On the matter of human depravity, look at Saint Louis Marie de Montfort. Saint Louis, and the rest of the French School, didn’t really think much of man. They all so emphasised our dependence on God because we are absolutely wretched and are incapable of much by ourselves. And they were also avowed enemies of the Jansenists. Saint John Eudes was hardly one to sit with a cup of tea and merrily talk about how you’re not really “that bad”. But he was no Jansenist.

And to be honest I would rather live in the days where the presumption of man was evil rather than the assumption that he is good. When left to his own devices, because of Original Sin. What is the great vision of “man is actually okay!” done for the world today? Man takes his every whim to be good because it came from him and haven’t you heard? He’s not really “that bad of a guy!” It leeches into a man’s mind and becomes a vehicle for permissiveness.

Whoa, take step back for a minute. I did not claim it was heretical, I said it retained some elements from it.

Quebec until the sixties when the “quiet revolution” started, was poor, backwards and subservient to English and American masters. It was almost impossible for a francophone to get a decent education, or even to work in his own language. The local church played a very big role in that.

Perhaps you would like to live in such a society. I wouldn’t.

Yes to a large extent we did throw out the baby with the bath water. Backlashes tend to do that. But I would never want go back to a society of serfdom which is what Quebec was. My generation was able to get a decent education, and I myself work entirely in French. While it doesn’t matter to me as I’m also fluent in English, that’s not the case for everybody.

 

[TimothyH]

I’m sorry, but I can’t help laughing at your post! I have to ask though, did your Priest ever use his belt on you? Not accusing you of anything, but I’ve never known a Priest to discipline someone.

Lower case “f” father as in, “Honor your father and mother.”

Not upper case “F” Father as in, “Bless me Father for I have sinned.”

-Tim-

 

[ProVobis]

You wouldn’t see that in Life today ( didn’t it expire? ), In 1942 the Catholic Church was part of American life and the media hadn’t become so secularized and ideological left leaning. And, I think most communion visits today are done by lay persons.

Linus2nd

FWIW back in 1942, communion wasn’t taken as often as it is today. I would bet most of the sick calling for a priest back then asked for confession and perhaps the last rites.

 

[M-Dent]

This all very true, in addition to forcing people to have very large families. If a woman wasn’t either pregnant or nursing during the priest’s annual visit, she had better have a good reason. The Church was very Jansenist at the time. French Canadian families had, for the most part, over 10 kids; 15-18 children wasn’t unheard of. It kept the population dirt poor.

Amazing I grew up thinking it was because…well…many people simply had large families! Heh

I am from a family of 14 in the Boston area (parents married in the 1940’s). The neighbors had a family of 18. Most other we knew had an average of at least 4 - 6.

I remember when my we had a Mass and celebration for my parents 50th wedding anniversary the parish priest serving at the time noted to my dad 14 kids was a sign of the appreciation of the sanctity of life. My dad quickly replied, “It’s more a sign of a Frenchman marrying an Irish Catholic!” (even though we cried laughing at his joke he was a unique man of faith).

We didn’t have many material goods yet we all went to Catholic elementary and Catholic High Schools (on our own to pay for College). I still marvel at how they could afford to do this with such limited means. But the families I saw weren’t considered dirt poor. May be because it was more of a choice?

 

[CruceSignati]

I’m sorry, but I can’t help laughing at your post! I have to ask though, did your Priest ever use his belt on you? Not accusing you of anything, but I’ve never known a Priest to discipline someone.

Lower case “f” father as in, “Honor your father and mother.”

Not upper case “F” Father as in, “Bless me Father for I have sinned.”

I was kind of wondering what kind of father you meant there…

 

[Jon_Paul]

Whoa, take step back for a minute. I did not claim it was heretical, I said it retained some elements from it.

Quebec until the sixties when the “quiet revolution” started, was poor, backwards and subservient to English and American masters. It was almost impossible for a francophone to get a decent education, or even to work in his own language. The local church played a very big role in that.

Perhaps you would like to live in such a society. I wouldn’t.

Yes to a large extent we did throw out the baby with the bath water. Backlashes tend to do that. But I would never want go back to a society of serfdom which is what Quebec was. My generation was able to get a decent education, and I myself work entirely in French. While it doesn’t matter to me as I’m also fluent in English, that’s not the case for everybody.

In your original post that I responded to you said the Church in Quebec at the time was very Jansenist. I just believe you misused the word. Jansenism refers to a very specific set of condemned positions. I am really knowledgeable on Quebec’s history, I’ma European. But I am somewhat aware of the French School and I believe that it took great roots in Quebec. The Sulpician seminaries were everywhere in Quebec weren’t they? And when I spent a few months in the North Country in America—which was a very Francophone area historically—the place was dotted with parishes dedicated to Notre Dame or Our Lady (I believe the French is used more often than the English). Now I also accept that Jansenism is more than the condemned propositions. There is also a culture that we can broadly call Jansenist, an attitude. And a part of the attitude and culture is a great de-emphasis on the Blessed Virgin. That is not apparent in the historical culture there is it?

I also find people sometimes tend to misuse the word Jansenism even when speaking of its cultural and attitudinal tones. What was “Jansenist” about the Church’s culture at the times? The wretchedness of Man and his unworthiness and disgustingness? That’s Catholic and it is apparent in all Catholic culture. I see people throw the insult of Jansenist against this view of man which is legitimate and Catholic. However when all one focuses on is this then we can easily loose site of our dependence on God because of God’s love for us. We can begin to loose sight that Christ has redeemed our Humanity, that Christ has sacrificed all for us. There’s a time for the whip and there’s a time for the consoling arms of the Sacred Heart.

I think the baby was thrown out with the bathwater and I think a major problem in today’s Catholic culture is that we have lost sight of our own wretchedness, that we are selfish and self-seeking, that we are dependent upon God. I like to take the Servites as an example. They are devoted to Our Lady’s Seven Dolours. That’s what they’re all about and it completely shapes and defines their spirituality. But they also have a great devotion to the Resurrection because it is traditionally held that Our Lord first appeared to His Mother. Can we imagine the joy of that visit? The warmth in her desolated heart when she first saw Him again? They are defined by the Sorrows of Our Lady but they do not lose sight of her Glory and Triumph.

Incidentally, I have never been in more fear of my life than at the times I was driving too and from Montreal’s airport. You Quebecoise do not know how to drive!

 

[ProVobis]

Lower case “f” father as in, “Honor your father and mother.”

Not upper case “F” Father as in, “Bless me Father for I have sinned.”

-Tim-

I was kind of wondering what kind of father you meant there…

Such distinction doesn’t work in German as Vater and Mutter are usually capitalized. (I used to read some of my mother’s writings.) Just sayin.

 

[thequietsinger]

Lower case “f” father as in, “Honor your father and mother.”

Not upper case “F” Father as in, “Bless me Father for I have sinned.”

-Tim-

My bad…

 

[Phemie]

Such distinction doesn’t work in German as Vater and Mutter are usually capitalized. (I used to read some of my mother’s writings.) Just sayin.

In English they are capitalized if they are used as proper nouns.

I told my mother I was going to the store.
vs
I told Mother I was going to the store.

 

[Sky_Pilot]

The priest, met by a family member bearing a candle.
The little girl at the gate, and others in the family, kneeling.
This is right and natural, and those of us who’ve worn Uncle Sam’s baggy green know what it is to come to attention and salute.
Whether the correct recognition is the bladed hand to the bill of the cap, or the bent knee and bowed head, it is ever proper to give due recognition to one’s superior officer.

 

[OraLabora]

I think the baby was thrown out with the bathwater and I think a major problem in today’s Catholic culture is that we have lost sight of our own wretchedness, that we are selfish and self-seeking, that we are dependent upon God.

That’s only half of the issue. As the Rule of St. Benedict teaches us, we also carry the image of Christ in us.

It’s wrong to focus entirely on the wretchedness, and leave out the fact that we also have capacity for good, which we can achieve through the Grace of God.

 

[ProVobis]

In English they are capitalized if they are used as proper nouns.

I told my mother I was going to the store.
vs
I told Mother I was going to the store.

I should keep that in mind when texting my brother.

Sometimes we just use dziadzia (Polish for grandfather) when referring to my dad. Rules get confusing when mixing languages.