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KARL KEATING'S E-LETTER
TOPICS:
RESOLUTIONS I MIGHT BE ABLE TO KEEP
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
Sorry, but this E-Letter is going out a day late.
Our Computer Guy, Jim Rodgers, was on vacation yesterday--we allow our
employees to spend a few hours with their families, on the theory that
noblesse oblige tends to promote employee retention--and so this issue of
the E-Letter is going out on Wednesday instead of Tuesday.
I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN
Do you make New Year's resolutions? Neither do I. I have trouble enough
following the admonitions given me by my spiritual director. Why should I
load myself down with a list of other things that won't get done anyway?
(This is the voice of experience speaking.)
On the other hand, I feel a tinge of guilt at not working up a list and
following it through. I give other people advice all the time and really
ought to be a better exemplar. Lots of folks make resolutions and keep them,
and I have little excuse for not trying.
So, below are my ten resolutions for 2003.
That's not a misprint. These aren't resolutions for next year but for the
remainder of this year. By happy chance, the remainder of this year includes
only today, and today is half done already. This gives me hope of fulfilling
what I am about to resolve.
So here goes. I promise, for the remainder of this year:
1. Not to send you any long E-Letters. Done, since this is the shortest one
yet.
2. Not to send out an E-Letter that includes animadversions on something
appearing in the "National Catholic Reporter."
3. Not to use the word "animadversions" more than twice, but twice is okay
since I so seldom have a chance to use the word in print.
4. Not to forget my morning prayers. (I already remembered today's, so this
resolution is a sure-thing.)
5. Not to speak uncivilly to a majority of the Catholic Answers staff.
(Another easy one, since a majority of the staff is out of the office for
the rest of the week.)
6. Not to turn down an invitation to be the keynote speaker at the next
annual conference of the Association of Fundamentalists Evangelizing
Catholics. (Yes, it's a real group. Somehow, they always seem to ask someone
else, but I keep looking in my mailbox.)
7. Not to complete work on my tax returns. For that matter, not to start
work on them either.
8. Not to succumb to the Utraquist heresy. (The Utraquists ["both/and"-ers]
said that to receive the Eucharist validly, a communicant must receive the
host and also must drink from the chalice, on the erroneous theory that the
host is only the Body of Christ while the chalice contains only his Blood.
Today's Church encourages reception under both kinds, which is fine, but it
appears, unfortunately, that not a few Catholics now have the impression
that to receive the host only is to receive only half of Christ. Pulpit
catechesis, anyone?)
9. Not to fixate on obscure heresies, even if their names have a nice ring
to them.
10. Not to ignore them either, since heresies have a way of coming back.
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