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In Honor of Fr. James Flanagan, SOLT. A personal testimony in honor of Father James Flanagan, SOLT.More
In Honor of Fr. James Flanagan, SOLT.

A personal testimony in honor of Father James Flanagan, SOLT.
Uncle Joe
When he turned 50, Einstein granted an interview in which he was asked point-blank, do you believe in God? “I am not an atheist,” he began. “The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand …More
When he turned 50, Einstein granted an interview in which he was asked point-blank, do you believe in God? “I am not an atheist,” he began. “The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws."
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Einstein continued: “My religiosity consists of a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we can comprehend about the knowable world. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”
fatherjasonworthley
I wonder if angels and demons can affect us at different points in our timeline. So, we ask God to delivers us from evil influences upon our past, present, and future? Hmmm..
Dr Bobus
@Uncle Joe. Those Space-Time distortions which blur the distinction between past, present, and future don't affect the day to day world. That's why so much effort by Einstein et al has been spent trying to establish a Unified Field Theory, which would synthesize the world of blurred distinctions with day to day experience.
Uncle Joe
In 1952, in his book Relativity, in discussing Minkowski's Space World interpretation of his theory of relativity, Einstein writes:
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Since there exists in this four dimensional structure [space-time] no longer any sections which represent "now" objectively, the concepts of happening and becoming are indeed not completely suspended, but yet complicated. It appears therefore more natural to think …More
In 1952, in his book Relativity, in discussing Minkowski's Space World interpretation of his theory of relativity, Einstein writes:
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Since there exists in this four dimensional structure [space-time] no longer any sections which represent "now" objectively, the concepts of happening and becoming are indeed not completely suspended, but yet complicated. It appears therefore more natural to think of physical reality as a four dimensional existence, instead of, as hitherto, the evolution of a three dimensional existence.
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Einstein's belief in an undivided solid reality was clear to him, so much so that he completely rejected the separation we experience as the moment of now. He believed there is no true division between past and future, there is rather a single existence. His most descriptive testimony to this faith came when his lifelong friend Besso died. Einstein wrote a letter to Besso's family, saying that although Besso had preceded him in death it was of no consequence, "...for us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one."

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Aquinas seems to disagree.
Dr Bobus
I would think the reference to past evils (malis praeteritis) refers to past evil causes with effects continuing into the present.
fatherjasonworthley
Uncle Joe,
I believe that somehow, according to God's will, our prayers can affect the past. For example, in the Extraordinary Form, after the Our Father, the priest prays that God will deliver us from all evil "past, present, and future." That is a most interesting prayer.More
Uncle Joe,

I believe that somehow, according to God's will, our prayers can affect the past. For example, in the Extraordinary Form, after the Our Father, the priest prays that God will deliver us from all evil "past, present, and future." That is a most interesting prayer.
Uncle Joe
Dear Reverend Fathers,
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the things of God transcend time. So when a priest blesses the body of a Saint, perhaps the blessing can touch the life of that saint in the past, before his canonization!!!
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A very interesting thought and discussion.
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Extrapolating a bit. If it is possible to affect the life of someone (a saint in this case) in the past by a blessing, is it not also possible to, through …More
Dear Reverend Fathers,

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the things of God transcend time. So when a priest blesses the body of a Saint, perhaps the blessing can touch the life of that saint in the past, before his canonization!!!

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A very interesting thought and discussion.

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Extrapolating a bit. If it is possible to affect the life of someone (a saint in this case) in the past by a blessing, is it not also possible to, through prayer, affect the life of someone who has not been canonized?

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Theoretically, if the past still 'lives' in some sense, could changes be made which will then not only affect the person prayed for but also affect us or others either now or in the future on an individual or collective basis?
Abramo
Thank you for your witness about Fr Flanagan. When I was studying in Rome, I lived in the same house as Fr Tom Showalter SOLT (a great guy, he wasn't a priest yet) who died way too early.
fatherjasonworthley
I get your point, Abramo. Maybe we could look at it this way: In the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the priest makes the sign of the cross over the Consecrated Host several times. Even though the Host is already consecrated, and the "blessing" of the priest can add nothing to it, it is still done. Or perhaps we could look at it another way: the things of God transcend time. So when a priest …More
I get your point, Abramo. Maybe we could look at it this way: In the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the priest makes the sign of the cross over the Consecrated Host several times. Even though the Host is already consecrated, and the "blessing" of the priest can add nothing to it, it is still done. Or perhaps we could look at it another way: the things of God transcend time. So when a priest blesses the body of a Saint, perhaps the blessing can touch the life of that saint in the past, before his canonization!!! 👍
Abramo
Interesting that Fr Flanagan did bless the tomb of Pope John XXIII. I understand that a priest blesses a tomb, but I don't think the tomb of a saint should be blessed because in this case the blessing should go the other way around.