Virtus In Medio Stat

The formulas of the faith and the conversion of the heart 2008-12-18 Laurence: I have five minutes to myself today, a rare occasion in my life over the last 6 weeks.  I look at this book, and others that you have reviewed and I have a deep reservation about the value of these essays.  The reservation is that they are constructed in the mathematical logic style of Thomas Aquinas.  They do not present the soul of Scripture and the invitation of Jesus to be His disciple.  This is the methodology of the theology that I was taught and which I have put behind me for many years now.  At the risk of sounding too Protestant, I have to make the point that the Scripture holds the foundation of our sacramental life.  The books you present are products of rules, regulations and Canon Law.  It is not very fulfilling to follow rules, regulations and laws.  It is much more fulfilling to choose a Master, listen to the teachings and follow the moral b...

The Literal Interpretation of the Scriptures: How I Understand It By: Laurence Gonzaga November 2007, originally posted on Xanga.com Download PDF I think it is very important, especially in this age, to reflect upon how we read the Sacred Scriptures. I would recommend that the reader abandon their preconceived notions and labels for a few moments as they read further. Personally, I think the word "fundamentalist" is a term popularized by a spirit in the Church which seems to be influenced by the doctrines of  Gnosticism (Hidden knowledge)  and Modernism (Denial of the Supernatural) , which therefore fosters a sense of  relativism (Truth is not objective and universal, it is subjective and particular) . After all, the "fundamentalist" asserts there is a concrete and exact sense of the Scriptures. I think it's a clever tactic they cooked up, since nobody wants to be labeled a "fundamentalist", since that often calls to mind the approac...

Facebook Thread There's so much to learn and so little time to learn it. There's also so much to share, and so little time to do it. My various work commitments have been preventing me over the years from devoting much time to writing as much as I used to in my mid- to late 20's. Just as well, I've lost the luster of youth anyway. I recently sat down with an old friend at lunch. A former seminarian, and by all measures that I could think of, he was a well-formed son of the Catholic Church. We don't have much opportunity to chat as much as we used to. I do recall a chat we had at lunch about a year ago where he asked me about my religious status, for lack of a better description. My response was to simply say that I believe there is a God, and His nature is understood best and taught best by the Catholic Church. In other words, I told him I am what I called "philosophically Catholic" . There's a whole story behind what likely brought that about b...

Last year I purchased a used book at the local Good Will, with a 1959 copyright, titled, Jung and St. Paul: A Study of the Doctrine of Justification By Faith and Its Relation to the Concept of Individuation . I recently received a question from a friend through Facebook about whether Jungian ideas are compatible with Christianity , and Catholicism in particular. Here were my comments: "I'm not so sure yet how much or to what extent Jung has influenced him (Dr. Jordan Peterson). I've never really read his work; I just know it from generalities. I do believe that his ideas could be used as a way of replacing religion with a new age spirituality . But I think historically Christianity has been able to transform ideas of pagan origin and Christianize them. So I think if this guy has good core Catholic or Christian values then I don't see how he couldn't do the same thing with Jung." So, this got me to start reading this book again. As I read through the...

No Apologies from the Apologists: Why Are Apologists Defending Ambiguity? Laurence Gonzaga, MA, https://virtusinmediostat.blogspot.com/ I don’t engage in as much apologetics activity as I once did years ago. It can get exhausting. If anything, it helped me understand the faith better by trying to explain it to others in a way they can easily understand, even if they end up rejecting it. To put it simply, I always understood apologetics as giving an account for the faith which gives us hope (1 Peter 3:15). I’ve been out of the game long enough to not really spend much time paying attention to the apologetics landscape. With the “controversies” and theological confusion that have been coming out of the current pontificate, it has been easier for the sake of my sanity to just stay ignorant of what is going on, after all, I have had a history of privately declaring certain seats vacant, not saying which. Not seriously; but very close at times. But this issue which came up for me ...

Fr. Cekada's Article I've always been intrigued by the sedevacantist mythology. There's something appealing about the conspiracy theory tone of it. Then again, this can be said to a greater or lesser extent of the entire right-of-conservative-Catholic circles which I am well familiar with. I've enjoyed many of Fr. Anthony Cekada 's (right) presentations as well as what I've read of Work of Human Hands , his critique of the variable parts of the Paul VI liturgy. With the advent, or near advent, of the new book by authors John Salza and Robert Siscoe , True or False Pope , the sedevacantist establishment is in a buzz. Maybe they are scared of what this book has to offer. Maybe they are excited that their obscure communities will get some attention again and maybe get fresh converts. Maybe they are honestly excited to see if Siscoe and Salza have something new to offer for their evaluation and critique. Considering the book has yet to be released (first shipm...

This morning I was able to listen to a debate entitled  The Church and the Modern University: Who's the Real Enemy of Science? - Robert Sungenis vs David Pence. You can purchase the debate here . I just wanted to offer a few reactions. I know it will be argued that I am biased on this topic, and I am. However, as I point out below, I was not always a geocentrist. I have come to accept the position over time. In any case, as far as debates go, clearly, Dr. Pence was ill-prepared for this debate and possibly presumed he would easily win over his home-court fans in the audience with his preceding reputation, his entertaining jokes, presentation style, and generalizations on Church teaching as well as logical fallacies towards Sungenis by equating his position with atheists and protestants. Pence's case, if it could be distilled is: We are in the 21st century and no modern pope or cleric believes or teaches that the Earth is the center of the universe, besides, look at the o...