Thomas Merton, an American Catholic monk, has been described as “arguably the most influential American Catholic author of the twentieth century”.

A quotation attributed to him is, “Truth: know it, love it, live by it.”

This saying has always bothered me.

For all his respect as a mystic and an intellectual, Thomas Merton seems to have got it back to front.

* * *

In real life, surely must seek truth by first living by it — then loving it and, eventually, hopefully, coming to know it.

Who says so?

Jesus Christ himself said so, and he said so more than once.

Gospel of Matthew: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Every one therefore who hears these words of mine and does them, he shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock.”

Gospel of John: “If any man does the will of God; he shall know of the doctrine . . . Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law?”

Yes he meant the Ten Commandments of Moses: Love God, obey your parents, do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not covet anybody else’s things. And so on.

* * *

The purpose of human life, if it has a purpose, is to love God, and to enter into union with him.

This has to involve giving God one’s will — obeying him, in other words.

That has to come first.

God’s laws are not fashionable at present. They have never been easy.

But there is no other way.

ABORIGINAL Dreamtime stories, originally included in the Science Curriculum of Mr Rudd’s proposed National Curriculum, are to be removed.

Year 4 students were to hear “historical examples of different cultures, knowledge about the national environment and living things, for example, Aboriginal peoples’ Dreamtime Stories, that explain significant characteristics of the Earth’s surface and interactions between living things”.

Professor David McGaw, of the Curriculum Assessment Authority, says the Dreamtime stories must go — he hadn’t realised they were included in the science course until seeing media  reports last week:

“I’m a science graduate and a former science teacher. Dreamtime is a religious or spiritual interpretation of the beginnings of life. It shouldn’t be in the science curriculum, and we’re going to take it out. For the same reason, we wouldn’t let Intelligent Design or Creationism be included.”

* * *

Will Professor McGaw, in fairness, be deleting Evolution – another “religious or spiritual interpretation” – as well?

This blog has no beef with people wanting to believe in “evolution” . . . as explained on March 3.

In fact evolution is obvious – provided we stick to what the word “evolution” means in English — i.e. “a gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex form”, or more literally, “an opening out of what was rolled up”.

It’s some of the atheistic, agnostic, anti-God tit-bits, that evo-fans sneak in as part of the supposed meaning of “evolution”, which make the term suspect as part of a science course.

Professor McGaw said schools will be free to teach Dreamtime stories, Intelligent Design etc., in other classes, such as religion. Does not most of what usually passes as “Evolution” merit similar relegating?

* * *

Meanwhile it’s going to be hard to stop people doing what they’ve always done — to look at the night sky and say, “Yes, I believe in a Creator who made all this – and who is a rewarder of good and a punisher of evil.”

As the Bible says, going back 2500 years at least, “The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the skies announce what his hands have made. Day after day they tell the story. Night after night they tell it again.” (Psalm 19)

The 2010 Global Atheist Convention starts in Melbourne next Friday.

Tickets to the three day event have been sold out for months.

It will feature well known public atheists including Professor Richard Dawkins, Phillip Adams and Peter Singer.

* * *

24 Melbourne buses currently display the words, “Atheism – celebrate reason”, and will do so until March 29.

In Britain and Europe, both religions and non-religions have been buying up space on public vehicles for a while. British double-deckers have carried the slogan, “There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life”.

But don’t atheists spend just as much time, probably more, worrying about it all, than believers? Look at their countless books, countless websites — and now countless expensive public hoardings.

* * *

Atheism, no less than religion, is a kind of a faith. It goes beyond what can be scientifically demonstrated.

It gleefully mocks the rest of us for our inability to “prove” God’s existence.

Can they prove God’s non-existence?

Oh, no, they say, the onus of proof lies with believers, not with us.

* * *

Let people who pray, pray for those who have no faith — that they may discover the joy of knowing that God exists, and of knowing God himself.

Let us pray, also, for believers — that they may live faithfully by the Faith they profess.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death.  Amen.

When you go for a quiet walk and observe others walking with earphones on, you wonder what they are afraid of.

At church people talk right up to the moment the service starts — and resume talking the moment it ends.  You wonder why they came.

One can be arrested for polluting public air or water — but less likely for “noise pollution” (loud parties etc.). It’s so hard to police. Noise-makers are addicted to noise, often inebriated with alcohol or something else — they react with violence.

* * *

You could join the “Right to Quiet Society” organisation, which campaigns against noise pollution (www.quiet.org).

I wouldn’t.

Once we start talking “rights”, we’ve joined in the rat-race ourselves where he who shouts the loudest, (campaigns the hardest, clamours the most persistently) wins.

“Rights” are a bad way of thinking.

* * *

For what is left of Lent, you might give up canned noise.

Try not exposing yourself to electronically-transmitted sounds for 40 days.

You’ll find yourself praying without even meaning to . . . plus having more time for regular prayers.

* * *

Attend the Old Mass.

Most of the time the building is silent.

God is there.

Not only do you know in your head that he is there.

You can feel his presence in the quietness.

* * *

Blessed Mary MacKillop, renowned busy campaigner for children’s educational rights etc., spent long hours, silent, before the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel every day.

The original “Rule” for her Josephite Sisters said, “Silence shall be kept in every room, except during recreation in the community room. If necessity obliges, the Sisters may speak in other places, but in a whisper, and as briefly as possible . . . .  The hearts of the Sisters should be fixed upon God, and every occasion removed which would keep them attracted to external things . . . .”

Marriage provides a more stable family environment for growing children than does living with unmarried parents.

Ten times more stable.

This is confirmed by research, based on almost 30,000 family cases, published last Monday.  

The survey found that in 1992, 70 percent of married couples who had children stayed together until their child’s 16th birthday. By 2006, this had increased to 75 percent.

Only 36 percent of couples who were unmarried when their child was born stayed together until their offspring reached 16 in 1992. By 2006, it was down to 7 per cent. (Family Law Week, ‎22 February 2010‎)

 Dr John Hayward, director of the Jubilee Centre, which commissioned the study, commented that the evidence suggests that families headed by traditionally-married, biological parents provide the best environment for both themselves and their children.

 Didn’t everybody know that already? It seems funny that we need “research” to prove it.

***

Meanwhile, a “same-sex marriage” bill was defeated in the Australian Senate on 25 February 2010, by a vote of 45 to 5.

Those voting for it were all Greens Party members — a party ever so keen to provide the best environment for trees, whales, lizards and so forth, actively trying to promote what is , arguably, the worst possible environment for young humans.

How about that?

* * *

It is important to remember is that Marriage is, first and foremost, a Sacrament of God’s Church.

Marriage was invented by God — the God who created us.

Marriage is not just an option or a photo-opportunity.

Marriage is an obligation that God demands of those who would have children. It is a sin, punishable as God sees fit, to do otherwise.

* * *

Catholic Marriage, like all the Catholic Sacraments, is a means by which God offers us grace.

God’s grace is a practical thing.

The sacramental grace conferred by Christian Marriage offers married couples extra power, unavailable by any other means, for dealing with life’s day-to-day problems.

Couples who are not married must struggle on without this grace and power, in a state of spiritual poverty and impotence of willpower.

Somebody I knew for over twenty years died recently.

In our grandparents’ days, death was all around and thought of constantly. Sex was private and seldom mentioned.

Now we saturate ourselves in what passes for sex — all advertisements, entertainments and gossip seeming to drag sex in somehow.

But when forced to talk about death – as at funerals – we mostly find we have nothing intelligent to say.

* * *

Somebody gets up and describes the deceased’s hobbies, favourite music, favourite sporting club — and how “passionate” he/she was.

Cheer up, says somebody else, death is merely a journey. Whatever you do, do NOT get up and ask, “A journey to where?” Nobody will forgive you.

Modern funerals: we tend to call these embarrassing gatherings “not so much a grieving at his loss, but more a celebration of his life . . . .”

But clearly they are designed to celebrate, console and comfort the living – with little thought for any spiritual profit for the dead.

Yet death is a religious subject, whether we like it or not.

We can try having our funerals at the graveside, or at other places that are not churches . . . but we’re wasting our time. Death is religious by its very nature, and there is nothing we can do about it.

* * *

You, dear reader, are going to die:

 * make sure your relatives know that you want your funeral held in a church.

 * and that you want prayers said for your departed soul — both at the funeral and privately by all    present for the rest of their lives.

 * and that you want the priest to wear black vestments, as done for centuries for good reasons, and    abandoned recently for bad reasons.

 * and insist that you be buried, not cremated.