Here is a quote from the article that I believe beautifully captures the point of the Faith and Works issue.

Biblical faith is not just belief.  It is surrender.  It is a complete entrusting of oneself to God in Christ and acceptance of his power, his will, and his plan.  If we truly say yes to Him and let his grace into our hearts, we’ll never be the same.  His love begins to work through us and change our lives.  His Spirit takes up residence within us, giving us the strength to do what we could never do on our own, even to begin to love like He loves.

So true biblical faith is not passive.  It is active, dynamic, and alive.  That’s why St. James says that faith without works is dead (James 2:24-26).  Abraham believed that an unknown God was calling him to leave civilization and march into the desert to find a land that this God has promised him.  He did not sit and contemplate this call or set up a shrine to this God.  He got up and began walking (Genesis 12).

So we justified by faith, if we mean the authentic biblical faith that causes us to walk in God’s ways.  And we are justified by works, if we mean the works of charity that can only flow from faith and grace.

So really, it’s not faith vs. works.  It’s faith that works.

When we find many who think they hold the doctrine of Christ, some of them differing in their beliefs from the Christians of earlier times, and yet the teaching of the church, handed down in unbroken succession from the apostles, is still preserved and continues to exist in the churches up to the present day, we maintain that that only is to believed as the truth which in no way conflicts with the tradition of the church and the apostles.

There is a lot of good stuff in there that I won’t comment on here, choosing to focus on how he addresses the hope people put in technological progress. When I was a teenager, I completely embraced that hope until I came to a point where I wanted something more. This desire led to Christianity, which gave me my ultimate hope, but I did not initially find good answers to the issue of technological progress. This encyclical is the best treatment of this question I’ve found so far.

Here are a couple of quotes that I found particularly thought provoking. I provide them hoping that you will check out the rest of the letter and benfit from the treasures found there.

 First we must ask ourselves: what does “progress” really mean; what does it promise and what does it not promise? In the nineteenth century, faith in progress was already subject to critique. In the twentieth century, Theodor W. Adorno formulated the problem of faith in progress quite drastically: he said that progress, seen accurately, is progress from the sling to the atom bomb. Now this is certainly an aspect of progress that must not be concealed. To put it another way: the ambiguity of progress becomes evident. Without doubt, it offers new possibilities for good, but it also opens up appalling possibilities for evil—possibilities that formerly did not exist. We have all witnessed the way in which progress, in the wrong hands, can become and has indeed become a terrifying progress in evil. If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man’s ethical formation, in man’s inner growth (cf. Eph 3:16; 2 Cor 4:16), then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world.
(N. 22)

In this next quote, I was particularly struck by the fact that anything we might do to ensure moral goodness in future generations requires the loss of moral freedom. If people have true freedom, then they have freedom to be evil. We will never build a political system that will guarantee a perfect society.

 Let us ask once again: what may we hope? And what may we not hope? First of all, we must acknowledge that incremental progress is possible only in the material sphere. Here, amid our growing knowledge of the structure of matter and in the light of ever more advanced inventions, we clearly see continuous progress towards an ever greater mastery of nature. Yet in the field of ethical awareness and moral decision-making, there is no similar possibility of accumulation for the simple reason that man’s freedom is always new and he must always make his decisions anew. These decisions can never simply be made for us in advance by others—if that were the case, we would no longer be free. Freedom presupposes that in fundamental decisions, every person and every generation is a new beginning. Naturally, new generations can build on the knowledge and experience of those who went before, and they can draw upon the moral treasury of the whole of humanity. But they can also reject it, because it can never be self-evident in the same way as material inventions. The moral treasury of humanity is not readily at hand like tools that we use; it is present as an appeal to freedom and a possibility for it.
(N. 24)

I’m starting to like using it to post little snippets of interesting things I find on the web, more like what the original concept of a weblog (origin of the term “blog”) was. Twitter has a message size limit of 140 characters, which keeps one from writing a long post. This has the effect on me of encouraging me to go ahead and post something, even when I don’t have a lot of time, because I can’t write a real long post. All that to say that I have another alter ego on Twitter which you can check out if your so inclined.

By the way, the question above the input box on Twitter is, “What are you doing?” A lot of people use Twitter as a way to broadcast their current mood or activity. I’m a little too private for much of that, so I will tend to restrict my posts to things I consider more informative.

The Easter Vigil begins with a “new fire” lit outside the Church, from which a large white candle is lit. The Easter candle is carried in procession to the front of the church, which is completely dark except for the candle light. Three times on the way to the front of the church, the procession stops and the deacon or priest lifts high the candle and sings, “Christ our light!” The congregation responds, “Thanks be to God!” At celebrations I’ve been to, the congregation also has little candles that are lit from the Easter candle as it moves through the church.

When the procession reaches the front,  the deacon or priest sings the Exultet, which follows:

Rejoice heavenly powers!  Sing choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God’s throne!
Jesus Christ, our King is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered!  Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes forever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church!  Exult in glory!
The risen Savior shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God’s people!

It is truly right
that with full hearts and minds and voices
we should praise the unseen God,
the all powerful Father,
and his only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

For Christ has ransomed us with his blood,
and paid for us the price of Adam’s sin
to our eternal Father!

This is our Passover feast,
when Christ, the true Lamb, is slain,
whose blood consecrates the homes of all believers.

This is the night
when first you saved our fathers:
you freed the people of Israel from their slavery
and led them dry-shod through the sea.

This is the night
when the pillar of fire
destroyed the darkness of sin!

This is the night
when Christians everywhere,
washed clean of sin
and freed from all defilement,
are restored to grace
and grow together in holiness.

This is the night
when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death
and rose triumphant from the grave.

What good would life have been to us,
had Christ not come as our Redeemer?

Father, how wonderful your care for us!
How boundless your merciful love!
To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.

O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!

Most blessed of all nights,
chosen by God to see Christ rising from the dead!
Of this night scripture says:
“The night will be clear as day:
it will become my light, my joy.”

The power of this holy night
dispels all evil, washes guilt away,
restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy;
it casts out hatred, brings us peace,
and humbles earthly pride.

Night truly blessed
when heaven is wedded to earth
and man is reconciled with God!

Therefore, heavenly Father,
in the joy of this night
receive our evening sacrifice of praise,
your Church’s solemn offering.

Accept this Easter candle,
a flame divided but undimmed,
a pillar of fire that glows to the honor of God.

Let it mingle with the lights of heaven
and continue bravely burning
to dispel the darkness of this night!

May the Morning Star which never sets
find this flame still burning:
Christ, that Morning Star,
who came back from the dead,
and shed his peaceful light on all mankind,
your Son who lives and reigns for ever and ever.  Amen.

I want to give credit to the electronic sources of these texts which saved me from having to type them in by hand. I got the Exultet from Dr. D’Ambrosio’s Crossroads Initiative. Dr. D’Ambrosio is a former professor at the University of Dallas, but now he travels all over the country as a speaker. His website is a gold mine of informative articles, ancient texts, and other resources. Yesterday’s post from the Office of Readings came from Universalis, an online version of the Liturgy of the Hours (aka the Divine Office).

Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all”. Christ answered him: “And with your spirit”. He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light”.

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.