Benedict below the fold rant

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The Anchoress reports on Benedict's tweets. 
and gives an example of what he is tweeting:

Q: Any suggestions on how to be more prayerful when we are so busy with the demands of work, families and the world?
A: Offer everything you do to the Lord, ask his help in all the circumstances of daily life and remember that he is always beside you

Hmm...seems to be channeling the busy cook Brother Lawrence.   link


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Related item via Father Z: the new avant garde:

From  The Economist
father Z's comments in red

A traditionalist avant-garde
It’s trendy to be a traditionalist in the Catholic church
SINCE the Second Vatican Council in 1962, the Roman Catholic church has striven to adapt to the modern world. But in the West—where many hoped a contemporary message would go down best—believers have left in droves. Sunday mass attendance in England and Wales has fallen by half from the 1.8m recorded in 1960; the average age of parishioners has risen from 37 in 1980 to 52 now. In America attendance has declined by over a third since 1960. Less than 5% of French Catholics attend regularly, and only 15% in Italy.  [But remember... Vatican II produced many wonderful things!] Yet as the mainstream wanes, traditionalists wax.
Take the Latin mass, dumped by the Vatican in 1962 for liturgies in vernacular languages. [Umm... not quite. It was after 1962, but let that pass.  The date is not of the essence.] In its most traditional form, the priest consecrates the bread and wine in a whisper with his back to the congregation [That old "back to the people" chestnut again?  Sigh.]: anathema to those who think openness is the spirit of the age. But Father John Zuhlsdorf, an American priest and blogger, [Him again?] says it challenges worshippers, unlike the cosy liberalism of the regular services. “It is not just a school assembly,” he says. Others share his enthusiasm.

No, we don't have the Latin mass here in the Provinces, but then we also have a lot of people converting to protestant sects looking for holiness and the joy of a personal relationship with the deity.

Benedict wrote about the emotion of God's love in his encyclical on Love, insisting that love and truth is found in a personal and mutual love between us and God (and if it seems like he is channeling the Gita here,  never mind: most of the saints think alike).
But love without truth (which is today's society favorite meme) often means a religion that is an enabler of harmful and what used to be called "evil" actions.

So because God loves us, we love others and try to help them: not just by giving tax deductible money to fund dry institutions...and it is via worship and prayer that we "refill" our emotional being so that we don't suffer burnout.

Of course, this wasn't reported or taken seriously by the PC in the press or US church.... maybe because it also criticized organizations that push birth control as development without helping the poor (sounds familiar) and criticizes multinational corporations who ignore the needs of people and the environment.