Author: Sal

Pete Vere Taus one on over at Envoy Encore…

…in response to my post on the Tau Cross below. I bought one at the giftshop of the Franciscan Monastery in DC this week. I’ve been getting some questions about it from various people since I started wearing it. It is a rich and powerful symbol. I will have to add Pete’s thoughts to my explanation of it:

To those who are outside the fullness of Truth, the way we live our lives is often our greatest testimony. For this reason, we should be doers of the word, and not preachers only. And this, I feel, pretty much sums up the spirituality of the Tau cross and why it serves as an important reminder to Catholic apologists.

Thanks, Pete!

Tax money at work in Maryland

According to the Washington Times, the Montgomery County Board of Education has voted in favor of a pilot program to teach 10th graders how to use condoms and “discuss homosexuality and other non-traditional lifestyles.”

There are any number of serious problems with the very concept of condom ed in the schools. First, there’s the question of whether public schools ought to be in the business of teaching minors how to engage in sex. To the extent that government schools have a legitimate or useful role in this area, it ought to be focused on discouraging sexual activity until marriage and alerting students to the health dangers that can result from sexually transmitted diseases.

I am complete agreement with the editors of the Times. It is absurd that a public school is teaching minors how to engage in sex. If I ever have children, and given my social calendar of late that is highly unlikely, I won’t be sending them to public school. This program is immoral for sure, but I think it should be criminal.

The Tau Cross

This coat of arms has been the symbol of the Franciscan for many centuries. The image of the two crossed arms, each with a nail wound in the hand, represent both Christ and St. Francis who received the Stigmata (the wounds of Christ) in his body two years before he died.

The cross behind the arms is actually the letter ‘T’ or ‘tau’ which is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Francis was very fond of the passage in the prophet Ezekiel (9:4) which refers to the faithful of God all being signed on the forehead with the letter ‘tau’. Francis often signed his letters with this symbol.

Pope Innocent III used this image from the prophet Ezekiel for the theme of the opening homily of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). The Tau became a symbol from the Council for spiritual renewal in the Church. It is thought that Francis was present at this council and used the Tau from that moment on.

“For even while he [Francis] lived among men,
he imitated angelic purity
so that he was held up as an example
for those who would be perfect followers of Christ.
We are led to hold this firmly and devoutly
because of his ministry
to call men to weep and mourn,
to shave their heads, and to put on sackcloth,
and to mark with a Tau
the foreheads of men who moan and grieve,
signing them with the cross of penance
and clothing them with his habit,
which is in the form of a cross”.

St. Bonaventure, The Life of St. Francis, Prologue n.2 from E. Cousins (trans.) Bonaventure: The Soul’s Journey into God, The Tree of Life, The Life of St. Francis, Paulist Press, New York, 1978.

Sola Scriptura

Thanks for your help with my Catholic apologetics emergency this week! Here’s a tidbit that seemed to get at least one point across. Sola Sciptura detached from tradition and the teaching authority of the Church is not “Scripture alone.” It is rather “what I think Scripture means alone.” Clearly there is no scriptural basis for that!

I’m discussing Papal infallibility with a friend. He just slammed me with this anti-Catholic web site. It looks like complete garbage, but I have to refute it in a credible way.
Also this piece on papal infallibility and sola scriptura.
Thanks!