To a group of first year seminarians.
Okay, today we begin the course in Spirituality or Spiritual Theology. I'm going to dictate to you now the first lesson in the spiritual life, so write it down and underline it
- I .........AM ........ AN ........ ASS!
Who said it?
5 comments:
It came to pass
That "Brother Ass"
(As he his Body named)
Unto the Saint
Thus made complaint:
"I am unjustly blamed.
"Whatever I do,
Like Balaam you
Requite me with a blow,
As for offense
To recompense
An ignominious foe.
"God made us one,
And I have done
No wickedness alone;
Nor can I do
Apart, as you,
An evil all my own.
"If Passion stir,
'Tis you that spur
My frenzy to the goal;
Then be the blame
Where sits the shame,
Upon the goading soul.
"Should one or both
Be blind or loath
Our brotherhood to see,
Remember this,
You needs must miss
Or enter heaven through me."
To this complaint
The lowly Saint
In tears replied, "Alas,
If so it be,
God punish me
And bless thee, Brother Ass."
JOHN BANISTER TABB
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
+Williamson on doctrine is sound from what I've seen. He's old school explanations rather than the "soft tones" explanations we see today. That will make him unpopular but it's not a popularity contest. If he can lance the boil of his conspiracy thinking then good for him. There's a lot of Catholics out there in traditionalism who think this way and he isn't the only one. If he can start thinking more rationally maybe it will be a wake up call for other people who've gone down this route.
It's often said that people who go in for conspiracy thinking are very intelligent and very idealistic and I think +Williamson is both of these. I'll certainly be praying for him in the coming few weeks as he comes to a decision about what he wants to do that the Good Lord will pour a bucket of cold water over him and that he comes to his senses. Hopefully this will have a happy ending after all.
St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, pray for us and pray for +Williamson
In a way, unexpected but on reflection, perhaps not so unexpected.
I've only heard him once and everything he said made perfect sense to me. At the time he(+Williamson) was not talking about the Holocaust but about Spirituality.
And I was impressed by him.
I love Laurence's post about Brother Ass.
Thanks, Laurence for that.
I pray for a good, sensible outcome to all of this and hope that the undeniable talents of +Williamson can, indeed, be channeled productively and for the good of the whole Church.
JARay
There are two full pages devoted to Bishop Williamson including a large picture in today's Daily Mail. It is entitled 'A high priest of prejudice.' and if readers had not heard of him before, they will now.
Expected headlines such as 'The Sound of Music is pornographic' and 'Feminism is closely linked to witchcraft' have now been joined by 'But are Bishop Williamson's repugnant views the result of a festering grudge against Marks and Spencer.'
I do wonder why Bishop Williamson has not given an interview to British television. Many articles emphasise that he is British although this article says his mother was actually American which makes him only half English. However the fact that he is known to be English actually helps when talking about him with French friends, as we as a nation are known for our eccentricities there and are excused much as a result!
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