refreshing limeade
dancing over cool ice cubes
nectar of the gods.
joy envelopes me
reading erudite monkey
my soul is lifted
If there were a cynicism and insult meter, this program would easily be the most sarcastic, cynical program on television. House himself is constant barrage of bitter, sarcastic wit. His co-workers have little choice but to answer -- and work -- in the same terms. House won't even turn it off for strangers or patients. Add to this the fact that for most of the hour, the doctors are openly guessing what the disease-of-the-week might be in something not unlike a parlor game of "20 Questions." Yes, they conduct tests and use the most technologically sophisticated diagnostic techniques and they are all very bright, but in almost every show you will hear some version of "We have no idea what this is," and "Let's try this and see if it kills them." ...The Internet Monk does a much more thorough job of analyzing "House" than I ever would ... but he articulates a lot of things that I have thought about after each episode.
Dr. House isn't a one-dimensional ogre, however. He has relationships, a history and an inner life. Already, we know he has an ex-wife, an ex-lover (now his supervisor at the hospital) and the romantic interest of one of his young female associates. Why would anyone ever love such a character? It's a marvelous question. Why is grace, grace? House deserves no friends or lovers, because he gives them all nothing except his bitterness, sarcasm or silence. The fact that House needs to be loved, and is a walking advertisement for what humanity without love can become seems to be part of the answer. House would have fit in well on the 70's show "M.A.S.H." or in Joseph Heller's "Catch -22." Cynical and sarcastic, but in the end, you realize these characters had to cope with themselves and their fears, with the war, its hypocrisies and its losses. Their twisted adaptations weren't their ultimate human face, but it was the one that came to dominate in the day to day.
FAMOUS CAT OWNERSInexplicably not included, Happy Catholic - Truffles. (Next week, of course, will be famous dog owners.)
Samuel Johnson - Hodge
Edward Lear - Foss
The Kennedys - Tom Kitten
Charles de Gaulle - Gris Gris
Cardinal Richelieu - Perruque
The Simpsons - Snowball II
John Lennon - elvis
Churchill - Margate, Jock
Alice (in Wonderland) - Dinah
Mark Twain - Beelzebub
T.S. Eliot - George Pushdragon
Nicholas I - Vashka
Schott's Original Miscellany by Ben Schott
Don't you just love the international spectrum of the crowd and that Benedict XVI made a point to address his brothers and sisters in more than the usual 2 languages?? I was moved that he entrusted himself to OUR prayers immediately. I never appreciated that I personally could be of that much assistance to the Pope!I might have to look into the history of the Chicken Dance ...
I guess they're dancing in heaven! Maybe The Chicken Dance, in honor of Benedict's German heritage??;-)
frida kahlo and haikus go together like manchego and quince paste, so, this was bound to happen. my friend julie submitted the first haiku with the appropriate picture -
I don't believe you
I will not look behind me
There is no monkey
i could not help but be inspired and pen the following haiku -
how silly you are
frida is not behind me
no, i will not look.
There is a puzzled attitude among many in St. Blog's Parish about all the media attention to the papal election. Each person behind a blog has ideas about who they think would be right for the next pope, but there is also a kind of serenity and faith: that the Holy Spirit is in charge and that a great Pope could be elected, or a mediocre one, or even bad Pope. Believing Catholics take as a matter of dogma and doctrine that "The gates of Hell will not prevail" against the Church, and that the Holy Spirit will somehow prevent the Pope and the Church from falling into error.That's exactly it ... and that is how my friends all feel. At a prayer meeting on Saturday practically every person had a different way of saying it but the common prayer was for the Holy Spirit to have His way with the cardinals on who would be the perfect good shepherd to next lead our Church.
Of course many among the faithful are offering prayer, sacrifice, fasting, and/or mortification for the intention that the electors will listen more to the Holy Spirit than to the temper of the times.
Alicia Huntly, Spero News
The Christian should not leave his faith aside in any circumstance. Non-sectarianism. Neutrality. Old myths that always try to seem new. Have you ever stopped to think how absurd it is to leave one's Catholicism aside on entering a university, a professional association, a cultural society, or parliament, like a man leaving his hat at the door? (St. Escriva, The Way). This attitude is equivalent to saying -- in politics, in business, in leisure or in entertainment, when I am with my friends, when it comes to choosing a school for my children -- that here in this situation God has nothing whatever to do with it; in these affairs my Christian faith must not exert any influence, for none of this comes from God or is ordained to God.
Nevertheless, the faith casts light on the whole of existence. Everything is ordained to God. But this ordination must respect the particular nature of each thing. It is not a matter of turning the world into one big sacristy, or homes into convents, or the economy into a benevolent institution. Without naive simplifications, the faith should inform a Christian's thought and action, because he should never in any circumstance, in any moment of the day cease to be a Christian and to behave and think as such.In Conversation with God: Lent and Eastertide
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Mary, model of contemplation
10. The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the face of Christ as faithfully as Mary. The eyes of her heart already turned to him at the Annunciation, when she conceived him by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the months that followed she began to sense his presence and to picture his features. When at last she gave birth to him in Bethlehem, her eyes were able to gaze tenderly on the face of her Son, as she “wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger” (Lk2:7).
Thereafter Mary's gaze, ever filled with adoration and wonder, would never leave him. At times it would be a questioning look, as in the episode of the finding in the Temple: “Son, why have you treated us so?” (Lk 2:48); it would always be a penetrating gaze, one capable of deeply understanding Jesus, even to the point of perceiving his hidden feelings and anticipating his decisions, as at Cana (cf. Jn 2:5). At other times it would be a look of sorrow, especially beneath the Cross, where her vision would still be that of a mother giving birth, for Mary not only shared the passion and death of her Son, she also received the new son given to her in the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). On the morning of Easter hers would be a gaze radiant with the joy of the Resurrection, and finally, on the day of Pentecost, a gaze afire with the outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).
Mary's memories
11. Mary lived with her eyes fixed on Christ, treasuring his every word: “She kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19; cf. 2:51). The memories of Jesus, impressed upon her heart, were always with her, leading her to reflect on the various moments of her life at her Son's side. In a way those memories were to be the “rosary” which she recited uninterruptedly throughout her earthly life.
Even now, amid the joyful songs of the heavenly Jerusalem, the reasons for her thanksgiving and praise remain unchanged. They inspire her maternal concern for the pilgrim Church, in which she continues to relate her personal account of the Gospel. Mary constantly sets before the faithful the “mysteries” of her Son, with the desire that the contemplation of those mysteries will release all their saving power. In the recitation of the Rosary, the Christian community enters into contact with the memories and the contemplative gaze of Mary.
The Rosary, a contemplative prayer
12. The Rosary, precisely because it starts with Mary's own experience, is an exquisitely contemplative prayer. Without this contemplative dimension, it would lose its meaning, as Pope Paul VI clearly pointed out: “Without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without a soul, and its recitation runs the risk of becoming a mechanical repetition of formulas, in violation of the admonition of Christ: 'In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think they will be heard for their many words' (Mt 6:7). By its nature the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord's life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In this way the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are disclosed”.
It is worth pausing to consider this profound insight of Paul VI, in order to bring out certain aspects of the Rosary which show that it is really a form of Christocentric contemplation.
The root of the Pope's thinking - that there are eternal truths no one can change even if one wanted to - is completely incomprehensible to the progressivist mindset. There are no absolute truths, everything's in play, and by "consensus" all we're really arguing is the rate of concession to the inevitable: abortion's here to stay, gay marriage will be here any day now, in a year or two it'll be something else - it's all gonna happen anyway, man, so why be the last squaresville daddy-o on the block?
We live in a present-tense culture where novelty is its own virtue: the Guardian, for example, has already been touting the Nigerian Francis Arinze as "candidate for first black pope". This would be news to Pope St Victor, an African and pontiff from 189 to 199. Among his legacies: the celebration of Easter on a Sunday.
Why, the pope asked, had God lifted a Pole to the papacy? Perhaps it was because of how Poland had suffered for centuries, and through the 20th century had become "the land of a particularly responsible witness" to God. The people of Poland, he suggested, had been chosen for a great role, to understand, humbly but surely, that they were the repository of a special "witness of His cross and His resurrection." He asked then if the people of Poland accepted the obligations of such a role in history.
The crowd responded with thunder.
"We want God!" they shouted, together. "We want God!"
What a moment in modern history: We want God. From the mouths of modern men and women living in a modern atheistic dictatorship.
The pope was speaking on the Vigil of Pentecost, that moment in the New Testament when the Holy Spirit came down to Christ's apostles, who had been hiding in fear after his crucifixion, filling them with courage and joy. John Paul picked up this theme. What was the greatest of the works of God? Man. Who redeemed man? Christ. Therefore, he declared, "Christ cannot be kept out of the history of man in any part of the globe, at any longitude or latitude. . . . The exclusion of Christ from the history of man is an act against man! Without Christ it is impossible to understand the history of Poland." Those who oppose Christ, he said, still live within the Christian context of history.
Christ, the pope declared, was not only the past of Poland--he was "the future . . . our Polish future."
The massed crowd thundered its response. "We want God!" it roared.
As you know, the two Marian events/devotions to which John Paul was most committed, and most identified, were the Divine Mercy, and Fatima. The Church's celebration of the feast of Divine Mercy began at sundown today, the First Saturday (cf. Our Lady of Fatima's request) of April. Because he died after sundown in Rome but before midnight, he passed on the one sliver of time in the entire year -- maybe even in years, given that Easter is not on a fixed date -- when both Fatima and Divine Mercy intersect.From Dallas News writer Rod Dreher
The husband ought not to seek only his own interests, but also those of his wife; and she, those of her husband. Parents should look after the interests of their children, and these in turn look after the interests of their parents. The family is the only community in which man "is loved for himself," for what he "is" and not for what he "has" ... Respect for this fundamental norm explains as the apostle hiimself teaches, why nothing should be done out of a spirit of rivalry or for vainglory, but rather through humility, because of love. And this love, which is opened up to others, makes members of the family true servants of "the domestic church," where all desire the good and the happiness of each one; where each and every one gives life to this love with an urgent search for that good and that happiness.
Pope John Paul II
Homily of the Mass for families
Found in "In Conversation with God: Lent and Eastertide"
SPERO NEWS LAUNCHES APRIL 11Read the rest at Santificarnos. This is the network in which I'll have some columns appearing as will several others from St. Blog's.
ALTERNATIVE NETWORK FOR NEWS, COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS
Madrid, Spain/Houston, Texas /April 11/ -- Communication in today’s world requires openness and a new approach with respect to media. Spero News is that new approach.
Initially in English, and soon expanding into Spanish, Spero News is a bi-lingual weekly electronic magazine and community spanning the globe providing premium content submitted from its nearly 100 collaborators. Spero News aims to enhance society by creating a premier, alternative network for readers seeking quality news, information and interaction through the Internet by providing news, commentary, and analysis that encourages citizen participation. In that respect, Spero News is a unique experience towards creating a constructive dialogue between media and readers with the aim of promoting a correctly informed and discerning public opinion as reflected in Judeo-Christian values. By melding journalists, citizen journalists and sector professionals, Spero News also guarantees that its news is by the people and for the people.
For man, the right to life is the fundamental right. And yet, a part of contemporary culture has wanted to deny that right, turning it into an "uncomfortable" right, one that has to be defended. But there is no other right that so closely affects the very existence of the person! The right to life means the right to be born and then continue to live until one's natural end: "As long as I live, I have the right to live." ...
It is necessary to recognize that, in this context, we are witnessing true human tragedies. Often the woman is the victim of male selfishness, in the sense that the man, who has contributed to the conception of the new life, does not want to be burdened with it and leaves the responsibility to the woman, as if it were "her fault" alone. So precisely when the woman most needs the man's support, he proves to be a cynical egoist, capable of exploiting her affection or weakness, yet stubbornly resistant to any sense of responsibility for his own action...
Therefore, in firmly rejecting "pro choice" it is necessary to become courageously "pro woman," promoting a choice that is truly in favor of women. It is precisely the woman, in fact, who pays the highest price, not only for her motherhood, but even more for its destruction, for the suppression of the life of the child who has been conceived. The only honest stance, in these cases, is that of radical solidarity with the woman. It is not right to leave her alone.
[commenting on Cardinal Law being at the Pope's funeral] I think this basically illustrates three things. First, the good news about the Catholic Church is: it's like a big family. Second, the bad news about the Catholic Church is: it's like a big family. We've seen these sorts of "What's *he* doing here?" stuff at our own family funerals.Not only does he crack me up but it is absolutely true. He follows up with a very good observation which you can read here.
Birth order of children
Your Clothes:
1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.
Preparing for the Birth:
1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously.
2nd baby: You don't bother because you remember that last time, breathing didn't do a thing.
3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your eighth month.
The Layette:
1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes, color-coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the baby's little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?
Worries:
1st baby: At the first sign of distress--a whimper, a frown--you pick up the baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your three-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.
Pacifier:
1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you put it away until you can go home and wash and boil it.
2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, you squirt it off with some juice from the baby's bottle.
3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop it back in.
Diapering:
1st baby: You change your baby's diapers every hour, whether they need it or not
2nd baby: You change their diaper every two to three hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before others start to complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.
Activities:
1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing,and Baby Story Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.
Going Out:
1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home five times.
2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.
At Home:
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.
Swallowing Coins (a favorite):
1st child: When first child swallows a coin, you rush the child to the hospital and demand x-rays.
2nd child: When second child swallows a coin, you carefully watch for the coin to pass.
3rd child: When third child swallows a coin you deduct it from his allowance
One of the greatest challenges to spiritual life is to receive God's forgiveness. There is something in us humans that keeps us clinging to our sins and prevents us from letting God erase our past and offer us a completely new beginning. Sometimes it even seems as though I want to prove to God that my darkness is too great to overcome. While God wants to restore me to the full dignity of sonship, I keep insisting that I will settle for being a hired servant. But do I truly want to be restored to the full responsibility of the son? Do I truly want to be so totally forgiven that a completely new way of living becomes possible? Do I trust myself and such a radical reclamation? Do I want to break away from my deep-rooted rebellion against God and surrender myself so absolutely to God's love that a new person can emerge? Receiving forgiveness requires a total willingness to let God be God and do all the healing, restoring, and renewing. As long as I want to do even a part of that myself, I end up with partial solutions, such as becoming a hired servant. As a hired servant, I can still keep my distance, still revolt, reject, strike, run away, or complain about my pay. As the beloved son, I have to claim my full dignity and begin preparing myself to become the father.
Henri Nouwen
The Return of the Prodigal Son
85 year-old Mae Margourik of LaGrange, Georgia, is currently being deprived of nutrition and hydration at the request of her granddaughter, Beth Gaddy. Mrs. Margourik suffered an aortic dissection 2 weeks ago and was hospitalized. Though her doctors have said that she is not terminally ill, Ms. Gaddy declared that she held medical power of attorney for Mae, and had her transferred to the LaGrange Hospice. Later investigation revealed that Ms. Gaddy did not in fact have such power of attorney. Furthermore, Mae's Living Will provides that nutrition and hydration are to be withheld only if she is comatose or vegetative. Mae is in neither condition. Neither is her condition terminal.Read the whole story at Thrown Back. Via The Curt Jester.
Just a funny story from Jim Caviezel, actor, who met with the Pope after filming The Passion of The Christ. He was talking about this the other night on The Larry King Show...
Larry King: What was it like when you met him, James?
JAMES CAVIEZEL, ACTOR: Well Larry, I went into the Vatican and they took me from one room into the next. And immediately, I was intimidated. You know, I had an opportunity to meet him in 1984, I could have seen him and I didn't, and I always regretted it. So, when we were in Rome, I had this chance.
And finally, when I walked in the room, there he was, he was like 100 yards away. And by the time I got to him, I was so out of breath... and he looked at me, how are you? Jim Caviezel, not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.
He said, Jim Caviezel, what have you learned in playing Jesus Christ? I said, well, holy father, I've been hanging out with -- he goes, yes, I said I think Jesus was Italian. He said, what? I said well, he didn't leave home until he was 30. He always hang out with the same 12 guys, and his mother believed he was God, so he had to be Italian, you know. I said, you're not upset with me.
He said, no, I always believed he was Polish.
Post poached shamelessly from
Regina Clare Jane at I Still See A Spark In You
I have a sweet tooth for song and music. This is my Polish sin.
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul's traveling press entourage was the most international (and for many years the largest) in the world. That meant that the questions were asked in five or six languages, and often answered that way by the multilingual pope.
That could be a problem for English-only reporters on a tight deadline. You never knew if the answer given in Spanish, French, German or Polish was going to be the real news, or one of the English answers you were able to understand.
Don Lattin at the San Francisco Chronicle
Via Get Religion
Bono: This is an amazing—this was an amazing moment for all of us gathered, actually. I just said to him, “I know you’re a very—you’re a holy man, but I know you are a showman.” And noticed him spotting the fly shades as I was walking up to him, so I just gave them to him, and he put them on, and he made this kind of wicked smile.
Toiling quietly behind the scenes in Pope John Paul II's final hours were five Polish nuns who dedicated their lives to his service, beginning when he was Bishop Karol Wojtyla of Krakow.
Sisters Tobiana, Germana, Fernanda, Matylda and Eufrosyana, from the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, were "the pillars" that supported the pope, a Vatican insider told AFP...
Sister Germana's vegetable pies - especially spinach - wowed the late Italian president Sandro Pertini, who was a regular at papal working luncheons and dinners when John Paul II was well enough to entertain guests.
Others fondly remember the carp served on Christmas Eve as a typical Polish delicacy.
For Polish visitors to the Vatican, the obligatory dishes included piroshki - dumplings with meat or fruit filling - pates, cheesecake and fish in aspic.
Sister Fernanda was in charge of the pope's pantry, replenishing it mainly with fruit, vegetables and milk from Castelgandolfo, the pontiff's summer holiday home just outside Rome.
John Paul II's wardrobe was the responsibility of Sister Matylda, who must have suffered immense humiliation during a papal visit to France, when a horrified French bishop gasped: "There's a smudge on the pontiff's robe!"
Women in the Pope's Life
Via Get Religion
Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one mustn't misuse it.
Pope John Paul II
What do we need in a new pope? I was thinking yesterday about what name a new pope could take. I don't think an unending succession of John Pauls would be a good idea. The new pope should return to a traditional name. But the choice of a name indicates the orientation of the new reign. I think we need another Gregory--this would be Gregory XVII. The spirit of St. Gregory the Great is what the Church needs now. To be sure, John Paul II had it. Paul McLachlan associates Gregory with music and liturgy--think Gregorian chant--but there is more that the Church needs in his heritage. St. Gregory was a pope of renewal--he was involved with the early spread of the Benedictine Order. He was a pastoral pope--his Regula Pastoralis was the standard of pastoral theology for a thousand years; at the same time he was a pope of great learning. Most of all, he was a missionary pope. In his day, Italy was mostly occupied by the Lombards, who were partly pagan, partly Arian, whom Gregory worked to evangelize. He was inspired to begin the evangelization of England, where he sent St. Augustine, who became the first archbishop of Canterbury. We need all of these qualities now--a new pope Gregory, whoever he is. May the Lord send us one.Henry Dieterich at A Plumbline in the Wind has a wishlist of papal qualities. I concur. Via Roz at Exultet.
Although I have lived through much darkness ... I have seen enough evidence to be unshakably convinced that no difficulty, no fear is so great that it can completely suffocate the hope that springs eternal in the heart of the young ...
Do not let that hope die! Stake your lives on it! We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures; we are the sum of the Father's love for us and our real capacity to become the image of His son.
Pope John Paul II
World Youth Day, Toronto 2002
On Saturday, a ink-stained FrontBurnervian tells me, the News decided it might be nice to overprint "John Paul II In His Own Words," a beautifully produced special section for the Sunday paper, and distribute it gratis to local Catholic churches. When they called the diocese to enlist its help, spokesman Bronson Havard went ballistic and told them that any News employee who stepped on the Church's property would be arrested. Presumably this edict did not apply to those Catholic employees who went to Mass yesterday--at least we haven't heard yet of any who were led away in handcuffs.Now you can see why around Dallas all you have to do is start a sentence with, "Bronson Havard..." and people's heads start shaking.
Front Burner (D Magazine's blog)
How -- and for whom -- does the Pope pray?
You would have to ask the Holy Spirit! The Pope prays as the Holy Spirit permits him to pray. I think he has to pray in a way in which, deepening the mystery revealed in Christ, he can better fulfill his ministry. The Holy Spirit certainly guides him in this. But man must not put up obstacles. "The Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness." ...
Because the Pope is a witness of Christ and a minister of the Good News, he is a man of joy and a man of hope, a man of the fundamental affirmation of the value of existance, the value of creation and of hope in the future life. Naturally, this is neither a naive joy, nor a vain hope. The joy of the victory over evil does not obfuscate -- it actually intensifies -- the realistic awareness of the existence of evil in the world and in every man. The Gospel teaches us to call good and evil by name, but it also teaches: "Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good" (Rom. 12:21). ...
The Pope, like every Christian, must be keenly aware of the dangers to which man is subject in the world, in his temporal future, and in his final, eternal, eschatological future. The awareness of these dangers does not generate pessimism, but rather encourages the struggle for the victory of good in every realm. And it is precisely from this struggle for the victory of good in man and in the world that the need for prayer arises.
The Pope's prayer, however, has an added dimension. In his concern for all the churches every day the pontiff must open his prayer, his thought, his heart to the entire world. Thus a kind of geography of the Pope's prayer is sketched out. It is a geography of communities, churches, societies, and also of the problems that trouble the world today. In this sense the Pope is called to a universal prayer ... [which] permits him to set forth before God all the joys and hopes as well as the griefs and anxieties that the Church shares with humanity today.
2:15 PM Here’s a nice little bit of trivia: When JPII dies, according to tradition, the carmelengo will take a small silver hammer and lightly tap his head and say, “Karol Wotyja are you there?”
Then he will tap him again and say, “Lolek, are you there?”
“Lolek” is the nickname his mother had given him. When a man is named pope, one of the first things he is asked is by what nickname his mother called him. He is asked this because in old days, when it was not always possible to tell if one was dead or deeply comatose, it was believed that if one was called by the sweet name of one’s babyhood, one might respond to it.
It is an old idea, of course, and it might be “silly” today - clearly, we will KNOW when the pope dies…and yet, I think it is sweet and lovely, that at the moment of the man’s death, he will be called by the name his loving mother gave him. This article says the pope will not be hammered according to the new, streamlined plans...but who knows...it's still kind of lovely.
Update on the Pope
The latest information coming out right now says the Holy Father’s blood pressure is dropping, his breathing is getting shallow, his “cardio-vascular system has worsened.” His blood is being “poisoned” by the failures causing organ problems. It won’t be long now.
You and I are here to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know.W.H. Auden
I know not how to abstain from reading.Samuel Pepys
[obviously we are soul mates]
A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down.Robert Benchley
Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.Goethe
[another soul mate]
Outside of a dog, man's best friend is a book. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
Father in Heaven,Lord, hear our prayer. Amen.
Thy will be done. Your faithful servant has served the faithful long and well. Thank you for the gift of him. If it be your will, let us keep him with us a while longer. Nevertheless Father, I'm certain that he is longing for home. Thy will be done to thy greater glory.
Amen
Steven Riddle at Flos Carmeli
Why did the Lord include so many fishermen among His Apostles? ... What were the good points that He saw in them? I think there was one thing which He specially appreciated in those who were to be his Apostles: an unshakeable patience ... They had worked all night and had caught nothing; long hours of waiting after which the grey light of dawn was to bring them their reward, but there was none ...
What a lot of waiting the Church of Christ has had to endure throughout the centuries ... partiently extending her invitations and leaving grace to do its work! ... What does it matter if she has worked very hard in one place or another and reaped very little for her Master? On the basis of his word, in spite of everything, she will launch her nets again until such time as his grace, the limits of which are in no way proportioned to human efforts, brings her again a new catch of fish. (R.A. Knox) We don't know how or when, but all apostolic effort bears fruit, even though it often happens that we do not see it. Our Lord asks from us Christians the same capacity for patient waiting as he found in the fishermen. He asks us to be constant in our personal apostolate with our friends and acquaintances, never to abandon them or to give up anybody as being impossible. ...
If we persevere and carry on in the firm conviction that the Lord wills it, signs of a Christian revolution will appear around you, everywhere. Some will follow the call, others will take their interior life seriously, and others -- the weakest -- will at least be forewarned. (St. Escriva, Furrow)
The Pope's condition
Fox News is reporting that an Italian news agency has said that the Pope’s condition has taken a turn for the worse. I don’t have any more information than that and am waiting for our Rome correspondent to notify us if there’s any real information. Until you can verify such things from two or more sources in Rome, I suggest you treat it as the rumor that it is.
That said, a few prayers for the Holy Father would not be out of order.
Update: CNN is reporting that he has received the last rites. Other sources say he’s had a urinary tract infection and is receiving antibiotics. Stay tuned.
Dom Bettinelli at BettNet
He said not:
Thou shalt be troubled, thou shalt not be tempted, thou shalt not be distressed,
but He said:
thou shalt not be overcome.Julian of Norwich
Schiavo, 41, died quietly in a Pinellas Park hospice 13 days after her feeding tube was removed despite extraordinary intervention by Florida lawmakers, Congress and President Bush - efforts that were rebuffed at every turn by the courts.
Her death was confirmed to The Associated Press by Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, and announced to reporters outside her hospice by a family adviser.
I have been surprised at the level of my ambivalence over this tragedy. I would call myself a "rational liberal" (stop laughing!) ...and am seriously conflicted over how much I want the government in my life. We always want it to be consistent with our selfish desires, don't we?I'm just sorry that y'all don't have a chance to get to know Toby. She's one in a million!
I freely admit that I formed an opinion before learning the details. Some of the "details" are fraught with hyperbole and difficult to believe. Motives are questionable, emotions are high. But the primary issue that has moved me from "let her go" to "examine more" is the absence of CURRENT testing.
We have a friend that has recovered from a devastating lack of oxygen to her brain ...she was diagnosed as having only "brain stem" activity, and would be unable to regain any kind of awareness. Today she is verbal, functional and taking vocational rehabilitation. She even remembers her friends and family from before the incident. She will never be "her old self", but she has become a welcomed and cherished member of her assisted living home. She is a loving, supporting and truly caring friend to her fellow residents.
It can happen ...everything should be done to give Terri a chance.
How's that for a 180, Julie!
Those who heard Him preach the Beatitudes were invited to stretch themselves out on a cross, to find happiness on a higher level by death to a lower order, to despise all the world holds sacred, and to venerate as sacred all the world regards as an ideal. Heaven is happiness; but it is too much for man to have two heavens, an ersatz one below, and a real one above. Hence the four "woes" He immediately added to the Beatitudes.But alas for you who are rich; you have had your time of happiness.Crucifixion cannot be far away when a Teacher says "woe" to the rich, the satiated, the gay and the popular. Truth is not in the Sermon on the Mount alone; it is in the One Who lived our the Sermon on the Mount on Golgotha. The four woes would have been ethical condemnations, if He had not died full of the opposite of the four woes: poor, abandoned, sorrowful, and despised. On the Mount of the Beatitudes, He bade men hurl themselves on the cross of self-denial; on the Mount of Calvary, He embraced that very cross. Though the shadow of the Cross would not fall across the place of the skull until three years later, it was already in His Heart the day He preached on "How to be Happy."
Alas for you who are well-fed now; you shall go hungry.
Alas for you who laugh now; you shall mourn and weep.
Alas for you when all speak well of you; just so did their fathers treat the false prophets.Luke 6:24-26Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen
The Beatitudes cannot be taken alone: they are not ideals; they are hard facts and realities inseparable from the Cross of Calvary. What He taught was self-crucifixion: to love those who hate us; to pluck out eyes and cut off arms in order to prevent sinning; to be clean on the inside when the passions clamor for satisfaction on the outside; to forgive those who would put us to death; to overcome evil with good; to bless those who curse us; to stop mouthing freedom until we have justice, truth and love of God in our hearts as the condition of freedom; to live in the world and still keep oneself unpolluted from it; to deny ourselves sometimes legitimate pleasures in order the better to crucify our egotism -- all this is to sentence the old man in us to death.Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen
Let Him come into a world which believes that one must resort to every manner of chicanery and duplicity in order to conquer the world, carrying doves of peace with stomachs full of bombs, say to them, "Blessed are the peacemakers," or "Blessed are they who eradicate sin that there may be peace"; and He will find Himself surrounded by men engaged in the silliest of all wars -- a war against the Son of God; making violence with steel and wood, pinions and gall and then setting a watch over His grave that He who lost the battle might not win the day.
Let Him come into a world that believes that our whole life should be geared to flattering and influencing people for the sake of utility and popularity, and say to them: "Blessed are you when men hate, persecute, and revile you"; and He will find Himself without a friend in the world, an outcast on a hill, with mobs shouting His death, and His flesh hanging from Him like purple rags.Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen
Let Him come into the world which denies Absolute Truth, which says that right and wrong are only questions of point of view, that we must be broadminded about virtue and vice, and let Him say to them, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after holiness," that is, after the Absolute, after the Truth which "I am"; and they will in their broadmindedness give the mob the choice of Him or Barabbas, they will crucify Him with thieves, and try to make the world believe that God is no different from a batch of robbers who are His bedfellows in death.
Let Him come into a world which says that "my neighbor is hell," that all which is opposite me is nothing, that the ego alone matters, that my will is supreme law, that what I decide is good, that I must forget others and think only of myself, and say to them, "Blessed are the merciful." He will find that He will receive no mercy; they will open five streams of blood out of His Body; they will pour vinegar and gall into His thirsting mouth; and, even after His death, be so merciless as to plunge a spear into His Sacred Heart.
Let Him come into a world which tries to interpret man in terms of sex; which regards purity as coldness, chastity as frustrated sex, self-containment as abnormality, and the union of husband and wife until death as boredom; which says that a marriage endures only so long as the glands endure, that one may unbind what God binds and unseal what God seals. Say to them, "Blessed are the pure"; and He will find Himself hanging naked on a Cross, made a spectacle to men and angels in a last wild crazy affirmation that purity is abnormal, that the virgins are neurotics, and that carnality is right.Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen
The Sermon on the Mount is so much at variance with all that the world holds dear that the world will crucify anyone who tries to live up to its values. Because Christ preached them, He had to die. Calvary was the price He paid for the Sermon on the Mount. Only mediocrity survives. Those who call black black, and white white are sentenced for intolerance. Only the grays live.
The Lord Who says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," comes into the world that believes in the primacy of the economic; let Him stand in the market place where some men live for collective profit, or where others say men live for individual profit, and see what happens. He will be so poor that during life He will have nowhere to lay His head; a day will come when He will die without anything of economic worth. In His last hour He will be so impoverished that they will strip Him of His garments and even give Him a stranger's grave for His burial, as He had a stranger's stable for His birth.
Let Him come into the world which proclaims the gospel of the strong, which advocates hating our enemies, which condemns Christian virtues as the "soft" virtues, and say to that world, "Blessed are the patient," and He will one day feel the scourges of the strong barbarians laid across His back; He will be struck on the cheek by a mocking fist during one of His trials; He will see men take a sickle and cut the grass from a hill on Calvary, and then use a hammer to pinion Him to a Cross to test the patience of One Who endures the worst that evil has to offer, that having exhausted itself it might eventually turn to Love.
Let Him come into our world which ridicules the idea of sin as morbidity, considers reparation for past guilt as a guilt complex and preach to that world, "Blessed are they who mourn" for their sins, and He will be blindfolded and mocked as a fool. They will take His Body and scourge it, until His bones can be numbered; they will crown His head with thorns, until He begins to weep not salt tears but crimson beads of blood, as they laugh at the weakness of Him Who will not come down from the Cross.Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen
The key to the Sermon on the Mount is the way He used two expressions: one was, "You have heard"; the other was the short, emphatic word, "But." When He said, "You have heard," He reached back to what human ears had heard for centuries and still hear from ethical reformers -- all those rules and codes and precepts which are half measures between instinct and reason, between local customs and the highest ideals. When He said, "You have heard," He included the Mosaic Law, Buddha with his eightfold way, Confucius with his rules for being a gentleman, Aristotle with his natural happiness, the broadness of the Hindus, and all the humanitarian groups of our day, who would translate some of the old codes into their own language and call them a new way of life. Of all these compromises, He said, "You have heard."Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen
In the Beatitudes, Our Divine Lord takes those eight flimsy catch-words of the world -- "Security," "Revenge," "Laughter," "Popularity," "Getting Even," "Sex," "Armed Might," and "Comfort" -- and turns them upside down. To those who say, "You cannot be happy unless you are rich," He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." To those who say, "Don't let him get away with it," He says, "Blessed are the patient." To those who say, "Laugh and the world laughs with you," He says, "Blessed are those who mourn." To those who say: "If nature gave you sex instincts you ought to give them free expression, otherwise you will become frustrated," He says, "Blessed are the clean of heart." To those who say, "Seek to be popular and well known," He says, "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely because of Me." To those who say, "In time of peace prepare for war," He says, "Blessed are the peacemakers."
The cheap clichés around which movies are written and novels composed, He scorns. He proposes to burn what they worship; to conquer errant sex instincts instead of allowing them to make slaves of man; to tame economic conquests instead of making happiness consist in an abundance of things external to the soul. All false beatitudes which make happiness depend on self-expression, license, having a good time, or "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die," He scorns because they bring mental disorders, unhappiness, false hopes, fears, and anxieties.
bell·weth·erI was talking to my mother on the phone last night and realized just how far I'd come in not thinking like the rest of our society. I can't remember why this came up but she suddenly was laughing and saying, "Why won't the pope just quit? That stubborn old guy ... what is his problem?" I was shocked into silence.
Pronunciation: 'bel-'we-[th]&r, -"we-
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, leading sheep of a flock, leader, from belle bell + wether; from the practice of belling the leader of a flock
: one that takes the lead or initiative : LEADER; also : an indicator of trends
Once people stop believing in God, the problem is not that they will believe in nothing; rather, the problem is that they will believe anything.C.S. Lewis
The number twelve is symbolic. The Book of the Apocalypse speaks of the twelve foundations of the Church. There were twelve patriarchs in the Old Testament, and also twelve tribes in Israel; there were twelve spies who explored the promised land; there were twelve stones on the breast of the High Priest; when Judas failed, a twelfth Apostle had to be named. The Apostles are most often referred to in the Gospels as "the twelve," that title being attributed to them thirty-two times. In choosing these twelve, it was evident that Our Lord was preparing them for a work after His Ascension; that the Kingdom He came to found was not only invisible but visible; not only Divine but human. But they had so much to learn before they could be the twelve gates of the Kingdom of God. Their first lesson would be the Beatitudes.
