Mystagogy: Victory Over Vice by Ven. Fulton J. Sheen

In, The Seven Sacraments: Entering the Mysteries of God, Stratford Caldecott explores the spiritual connections between the Seven Sacraments of the Church with other sets of seven in the faith: Seven Last words of Christ, Petitions in the Our Father, Theological + Cardinal Virtues, Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Days of Creation, etc. Neither the writers of scripture, nor the Fathers of the Church found sets sharing numbers as these to be coincidental, but reflective of a sacred order to Creation, especially when so ordered by the tradition of the Church. These organic spiritual links between all things bring a depth of understanding when meditating upon these sacred things and cause them to settle more firmly into our hearts, and minds and souls.

This book of Ven. Fulton Sheen, (included in Caldecott's Bibliography as The Seven Capital Sins) focuses on two of those sets, the Last Words of Christ on the Cross and how those words demonstrate Christ's Victory over the Seven Deadly/Mortal/Capital Sins. Since I already read Adrienne Speyr's The Cross: Word and Sacrament, which focuses on links between the Last Words and the Sacraments, I thought a table showing the words, the sacraments, and the conquered Vices might be interesting for comparison.

Christ Last Words on the Cross	Speyr - Sacrament	Sheen - Vice conquered
Father, forgive them, they know not what they do	Penance	Anger
You will be with me this day in Paradise	Anointing of the Sick	Vanity
Behold your son, Behold your mother	Marriage	Lust
My God, My God! Why have you forsaken me	Holy Orders	Pride
I thirst	Eucharist	Gluttony
It is finished	Baptism	Sloth
Into your hands, Lord, I commend my Spirit	Confirmation	Greed

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Introducing The Good Reverend Pudgemuffin

My favorite gentleman in the blogosphere is currently the Good Reverend Pudgemuffin at Are You There God? It's me, Atheist. He is a wonderful and impassioned seeker of Truth with regards to the existence of God, and from his blog's title, you can guess what side of the fence he falls. He is a fellow Ashevillain, and I highly regard his thinking and enjoy his irreverent skepticism which is humorous and critical without being snarkily polemical. Inspired, I wrote a lengthy reply to one of his entries, and he in turn devoted a whole entry in response to my response . Not to be outdone, I composed a response to the response's response, which I planned to keep hidden within his comments, but it far exceeded (more than double) the character limits. So thus ....

Noisy Gongs and Clashing Cymbals

To what shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, 'We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not weep.' For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, 'Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is justified by all her children. — Luke 7:31-35 , Gospel for the Wednesday of the 24th Week of the Year In which the Pilgrim tries to quiet his heart of all the noise of criticism and complaint against Mother Church and learn to dwell in silence and love listening only for the Voice of God.

But now ...

Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the Kingdom of God? ... That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. —St Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 6:11 "But now ..." what words of comfort to us sinners. St. Paul reminds us that before we were plunged into the death of Christ by Baptism, we were defined by our sins. "That is what some of you used to be ." But now, though sinners we remain and continue to sin the face of grace, we are no longer defined by them. Rather than conforming to an image of death, we have been restored to the image of Christ in which we were made.

Our Lady of Ashes

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