Comments for Reflections in August at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 10 out of 10 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Sat, 18 May 2013 06:40:48 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/reflections-in-august.html#comment-12849 I look at all the "Tech" that my children have and myself for that matter. When i decided 20 years ago to become a nurse i did it to take care of people. I will tell you that the "tech" world was just starting to "BOOM",but even as the rest of the world has "Advanced","NURSING" has remained the same, helping one in pain holding the hand of the dying, washing of the body, ETC... is timeless and like a circle no matter how much "TECH" changes and evolves, the care of the sick will never change and one can 'HOPE" it continues to be done with love and respect for all human life, God Bless all the advances, and God Bless the fact that "human care, personal care,,,,Nursing care has stayed the SAME! - Jack,CT Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:16:17 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/reflections-in-august.html#comment-12745 Most of this urbanization is occurring in Asia, specifically China. The Church continues to struggle with the PRC government over when and how to build parish buildings, and even more critically, how to lead new parishes. Will it be the PRC or the Holy Spirit acting through the apostolic leadership of the Holy Father who decides what the response is to be to this new urbanization? Underground protestant sects have the jump on Roman Catholicism in this regard. We need to pray for the Church especially in those lands where it is opposed or persecuted. - G.K. Thursday Sat, 04 Aug 2012 08:26:36 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/reflections-in-august.html#comment-12743 Nice piece. As Christianity began in the world as and almost wholly urban phenomenon, perhaps this is where we are heading again. An interesting consideration would be the effect of the automobile on parish life. I tend to think this has been mostly negative since it has lead to the creation of numerous suburban parishes that operate more like shopping malls than truly neighborhood parishes that people in more tightly knit communities used to walk to. But if the trend toward urban/suburban walkability continues in the US maybe parish life will experience its own renaissance in the decades ahead - jsmitty Sat, 04 Aug 2012 06:41:12 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/reflections-in-august.html#comment-12741 Anything, e.g. urbanization or technology, that is not intrinsically evil can be either a sacrament (small-s) that brings us closer to God or an idol that takes us further from God. This principle of sacramentality, expressed by Saint Ignatius Loyola as finding God in all things, is at the heart of the Catholic thing. Without the Magisterium, the principle of sacramentality easily degenerates into relativism or pantheism. - Jon S. Sat, 04 Aug 2012 05:09:42 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/reflections-in-august.html#comment-12740 This morning's news reports a new app / application for handheld devices that reports and maps the name, age, address, and political affiliation of each American. "...the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science." - Winston Churchill - Mack Hall Sat, 04 Aug 2012 05:08:04 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/reflections-in-august.html#comment-12739 The last thing C.S.Lewis ever wrote was an article for the Saturday Evening Post on the sexual revolution and pop psychology (which are allies), titled "We Have No 'Right to Happiness.'" Like Chesterton, affirms Peter Kreeft, he saw that this was the most radical revolution of all because it touched the very sources of life. It was a matter of practice ( the 'technologisation' of the beginnig of life, with ART, test tube babies, genetic screening and so on, my add) and not just theory, and it would destroy both the first and most fundamental institution of society, the family, and the first and most fundamental precondition of all virtue, namely the principle of honesty, or truth, or light—that reason must control the passions rather than vice versa. - Paolo Sat, 04 Aug 2012 04:49:45 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/reflections-in-august.html#comment-12738 So, Manfred, your leaning is to bring even MORE millions into a world of diminishing resources, poverty, and strife, so even MORE people can stew in the toxic air of a declining planet. Your thinking is pure evil. People Breeding like rabbits with no proper hutches to house them in is cruel and evil. The point of living in this world is not only to squat in hot squalor praying to Da Lord, I don't think hordes of have-nots in the future are going to meekly suffer and die because The Pope urges them to keep breeding. Is the church going to do anything to actually help the poor other than thumping the bible and giving them a treat watching the Pope parade around in his chariot? Lesser may be better. - anon Sat, 04 Aug 2012 04:29:16 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/reflections-in-august.html#comment-12736 In the 19th century Cdl. Newman wrote a brief piece titled My Purpose in Life, and promised we would learn it in this world or the next. You cannot have a government whose sine qua non is to wipe as many people off the earth as this one which demands that every employee be provided free abortifacients and sterilization with serious financial penalties for failure of the employer to do so. Many serious people I speak with are asking: What is the POINT to being alive in this massive, anonymous, polarized world. I recall reading interviews with men who had trained to be suicide bombers-they realized there was no hope for their circumstances exept endless poverty and strife. At a recent businessmens' meeting the speaker told all the people in the audience aged fifty to sixty that they should stay in peak health as they would be working until they became incapable or they died. The economics could not support full retirement. I see it with my clientele. Those who were young at the time of WW II enjoy great retirements while "Baby Boomers" are losing jobs with no relief and are submitting "claims" which to a large degree (the zero interest returns are no help) are beginning to bankrupt the Long Term Care insurance industry. - Manfred Sat, 04 Aug 2012 03:01:50 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/reflections-in-august.html#comment-12735 One effect of urbanisation little remarked on is that there has never been a time in history when so many grandparents and grandchildren no longer share a common language. This is happening all over Africa and Asia A more complete deracination it would be difficult to conceive. - Michael Paterson-Seymour Sat, 04 Aug 2012 02:45:55 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/reflections-in-august.html#comment-12733 Technology is the science of tools and the techniques of their use. Any tool is nothing more than an amplifier of human nature and its reach. It can increase the effect of human will. A hammer may be used to make a new house or to crush the skull of a neighbor. Most tools are value neutral, but not all. Some tools are evil by design because the purpose for which they are created is immoral. The point is that human nature is fallen and when it extends its reach, much of the result will be degenerative. Those who put their faith in the idol of technology may be treated to flashing lights, smoke and noise as a distraction, but miss the point of living. The Lord of the World illustrates this brilliantly. Mr. Benson's projections regarding technology are quaint, but the man-as-god rhetoric is perfectly contemporary (frightfully so). When technology is used as a substitute for God, the spirit of the anti-Christ is present. - Othe Joe Sat, 04 Aug 2012 02:21:44 +0100