Another Postcard from KC

Hey, at least I'm not "live blogging" the reunion.

Yesterday we went to Pierpont's, a very nice restaurant in Union Station, the old railroad station. The station is very grand and has many shops but what fascinated Tom and me was the hallway that had the doors where you used to board the trains. At night with no people around you really could almost go back in time to when this place was just as busy as DFW Airport is today.

Reinforcing that is the General Pershing Memorial which is on top of the hill across from the station. It is imposing and grand and also done in that 1920's style. Really a wonderful sight to see and reflect on. It was so sad to look at the inscription that talked about "The World War" and realize all the joy of the war being over that was reflected in the monument was so short lived as WWII happened so soon afterwards.

My brother-in-law was astonished that this existed in KC and my mother never even knew it existed despite all the time they spent in and around KC during our formative years. It makes sense, though, because General Pershing was from here, Truman was from Independence just down the street (so to speak), and Eisenhower was from Abilene ... all those people coming from Kansas. And being in the middle of the country with the railroad as the main form of transportation, KC was vital to the war effort during the first World War. You tend to forget that these days.

Today my brother and his brave wife have taken all the kids to Worlds of Fun (local amusement park) while the rest of us are left to our own devices. Tom and I are meeting The Happy Capitalist and Merry Stitcher (check my sidebar) who are my old college friends from KU (we're not gonna go into how long ago that was!

Kind of funny during all this family interaction to look at how everyone has changed and in what ways ... how one family is very much like ours while another kind of reminds me of the family dynamics I grew up in. It's interesting.

Postcard from Kansas City

Hey y'all! We're having a blast here in K.C. Since our family is so small there are only 14 of us all total and there are no planned activities so this is like having a great vacation with your entire family. Very cool.

Won't bore everyone with the details but my sister's family and ours went to the zoo yesterday while waiting for the others to arrive in K.C. I think she had the best summary of the experience: "It's like they went for the San Diego zoo but forgot to put in the animals." I have never walked so many long concrete trails through very nice landscaping and seen so few animals ... especially at a ZOO!

Best Indian restaurant name ever (found in Westport):

Korma Sutra
The Sensual Food of India

Lords of Dogtown

*** Liked it despite absence of flubber. (see rating key at bottom)

The Lords of Dogtown is a movie about the Z-Boys who started the skateboarding craze in Venice, California, in the 1970s. If you are at all interested in the Z-Boys, skateboarding or Heath Ledger (the movie's one "name") then you probably will enjoy this gritty look at that time. The movie did a great job of showing us the boys' disparate backgrounds and problems and how they handled their eventual fame with the accompanying sex, drugs, and partying.

Not really being interested in any of those things I still found the movie to be well done and compelling, though it could have used a little less skateboarding for my taste (hence my rating). It is a really well done piece though and, not being a Heath Ledger groupie (unlike some in my household!) I was really impressed with his performance in a less than glamorous role. He was totally believable as the surf shop owner who first forms the skateboard team and then has to face who he really is in the wake of their rise to fame.

Extras: a killer soundtrack from that time period and cameo appearances by the actual Z-boys (if you're in the know).

______________________________
HC Rating System
(from The Simpsons, what else?)

**** Listen, we've been meaning to have a talk with you about your reviews. Everything's a rave! Nine thumbs up, what the hell is that? (newspaper editor to Homer)
*** "Liked it despite the absence of flubber..." - Mel Gibson reading Prof. Frink's review
** Christian: You desecrated a classic film. This is worse than "Godfather III."
Mel Gibson: Whoa, whoa, hey, whoa! Let's not say things we can't take back.
* "Your movie was more boring than church. All you did was yak, yak, yak. You didn't even shoot anybody." -Homer Simpson's comment on movie screening

The Spirit and the Church

The Holy Spirit is to the Church what the soul is to the body. He is the Church's soul, the Church's life. The Church is "the Temple of the Holy Spirit" (CCC 737). Our bodies, too, are temples of the Holy Spirit (see Cor 6:19), because we are cells in the Body of Christ.

The Holy Spirit infallibly guided the Church's earliest ecumenical councils to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity -- including the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Why do Catholics believe in the Holy Spirit? On the authority of the Holy Catholic Church, which teaches it. And why do Catholics believe this Church has infallible authority? Because the Holy Spirit, and not any human spirit, is her soul.

"[T]he Church's mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but is its sacrament" (CCC 738).

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Second Rate Movie is No Treasure

NATIONAL TREASURE
HC rating: Worse Than Godfather III **

I had so many people recommend this movie that against the movie critics' better judgment we rented it this weekend. I like Nicholas Cage and had a sneaking desire to see it so I can't blame it all on everyone else. Ho hum. Second rate plot. Lackluster acting except from John Voight who, with the lack of actual material to work with, seemed to be channeling the father from "Everybody Loves Raymond" and Sean Bean who turned in his usual excellent performance, though with an equal lack of decent material he was reduced to a lot of teeth gnashing. Distinctly boring puzzle pieces and mystery to solve. Nicholas Cage seemed to think that being scholarly involved a lot of sleepwalking in this part. The movie makers evidently were under the impression that if they mashed bits of a lot of classic movies together they could come up with a winner. Wrong.

You can do much, much better by renting one of the movies they were trying to copy.

• A great adventure movie: Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark
• A great movie with a quirky father-son chemistry: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• Fabulous mystery to solve with two adversaries working against each other: The Fugitive
• Humor, romance, puzzle solving mystery: Romancing the Stone
  

______________________________
HC Rating System
(from The Simpsons, what else?)

**** Listen, we've been meaning to have a talk with you about your reviews. Everything's a rave! Nine thumbs up, what the hell is that? (newspaper editor to Homer)
*** "Liked it despite the absence of flubber..." - Mel Gibson reading Prof. Frink's review
** Christian: You desecrated a classic film. This is worse than "Godfather III."
Mel Gibson: Whoa, whoa, hey, whoa! Let's not say things we can't take back.
* "Your movie was more boring than church. All you did was yak, yak, yak. You didn't even shoot anybody." -Homer Simpson's comment on movie screening

How to "Get" the Holy Spirit

We cannot "get" him; we can only let him get us. He is God. Only God can give him. Christ gives him. He comes from the Father through the Son...

The Spirit is free. He is God's gift. There is nothing we can do to "get" him; we must simply ask, in faith, like a child trusting his father's love. That same is true of the Spirit's gifts, such as wisdom: we get them simply by asking and believing: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith" (Jas 1:5-6).

But be careful what you ask for, because God will take you at your word. The Spirit's job is to sanctify, to make saints, and saints are not safe! They are like the One who makes them. God is not safe. Rabbi Abraham Heschel says: "God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake."

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

I think we all get to feeling so "familiar" with God that we forget who we're dealing with sometimes. That's why I like Rabbi Hershel's reminder, "God is an earthquake."

The Spirit and Scripture

When a Spirit-filled Christian reads the Word of God -- the Word this very Spirit inspired -- the book seems to "come alive" and "light up" from within itself. This is because its primary Author is really present in the reader, alive, interpreting his own words...

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Does it get any cooler than that? Nope.

Best Summer Movie Ever!!!

MR. & MRS. SMITH
HC rating: Nine Thumbs Up ****

Better than Bond. More fun than True Lies. More gorgeous than ... practically anyone (except Tom Cruise ... or actress of your choice - not really my forté, actresses).

No real need for more details but let me just say that when Hannah and Tom go to see this movie next week (and they will), Rose and I will be going too. It was just that much fun.

UPDATE: Barbara Nicolosi thinks the movie was a "Reece's Peanut Butter Cup" while her friend, Sean, goes for the chocolate truffle. Of course, I'm with Sean on this one. She also thinks a Christian would have made a better movie...

... If we made that movie, we would be more interested in the marriage issues than the shoot-em-up sequences. We would be more interested in showing how real love makes being an assassin by profession impossible. Then, I think it would be okay for us to do.

Perhaps so but it would not have been the same movie and I think it would have been virtually impossible to do in a way that would be appealing to the same crowd. She's talking about a different movie, one that I'd like to see, but not this one. I really expected this movie to take the "War of the Roses" turn (a movie I despised) and was very pleased when it didn't.

______________________________
HC Rating System
(from The Simpsons, what else?)

**** Listen, we've been meaning to have a talk with you about your reviews. Everything's a rave! Nine thumbs up, what the hell is that? (newspaper editor to Homer)
*** "Liked it despite the absence of flubber..." - Mel Gibson reading Prof. Frink's review
** Christian: You desecrated a classic film. This is worse than "Godfather III."
Mel Gibson: Whoa, whoa, hey, whoa! Let's not say things we can't take back.
* "Your movie was more boring than church. All you did was yak, yak, yak. You didn't even shoot anybody." -Homer Simpson's comment on movie screening

Human Sexuality

God invented sex. That is why it is not "bad" or "dirty". Nor is it merely neutral, to be used as we please. It is good and holy.

No aspect of the Church's teaching is more misunderstood and rejected today than her unchanging and unchangeable principles of sexual morality. For these cannot be understood except in the context of her vision of man.

Man has not evolved by accident or blind chance. Man has been loved into existence by God. Man is willed by God, deliberately designed, as male and female. That is the first reason why sex is holy.

The second reason is that God has designed and willed not only the existence of sex but also its purpose. It is holy not only because of its origin but also because of its end. That purpose is to be the means of procreating the greatest things in the universe: new persons, with immortal souls. "By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and woman as spouses and parents cooperate in a unique way in the Creator's work" (CCC 372).

Sexual intercourse is like the Consecration of the Mass. It is a human work that God uses as the material means to do the most divine work done on earth. In the Mass, man offers bread and wine, the work of nature and human hands, for God to transform into the Body and Blood of Christ, In sex, man offers his work -- the procreation of a new body -- for God to do his work: the creation of a new soul. God grants priests the incredible dignity of being his instruments in working one of his two greatest miracles. God grants spouses the incredible dignity of being his instruments in working the other...

The principles of sexual morality are essentially unchanging because the meaning of sex is essentially unchanging. They stem from human nature itself, which God designed, not from the changing mores of society, which man designs. God's law is very clear: no adulterated sex, that is, sex outside of marriage. As Holy Mass is the place for Transubstantiation, holy marriage is the place for sex.

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Demons

Angels have intellect and free will, like man. Some angels chose, at the beginning, to rebel against God's will and became demons, or evil spirits.

Just as good spirits help us, evil spirits seek to harm us by tempting us to sin.

Any baptized and believing Christian has the power to resist temptation, whether it comes from "the world, the flesh, or the devil" - that is, (a) from the external world of fallen human society, (be) from the internal world of our own fallen, selfish instincts, of body or soul, or (c) from the supernatural world of evil spirits.

No faithful Christicn can be demon-possessed against his will, though many will be severely oppressed and all will be tempted. The Church, like Christ, has the power to free those who are "possessed" by exorcising the evil spirits. Christ promised this gift to his Church (Mk 16:17). In most times and places, demon possession and exorcism are rare. But they are real.

If the devil is not real, the Bible lies (for example 1 Pet 5:8), and Christ was a fool, for he certainly believed in demons and in Satan (see, for instance, Luke 10:18).

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

The Hill of Crosses

I can't get this place out of my mind after reading about it in Catholic Shrines of Central and Eastern Europe by Kevin J. Wright. Steve at November Song brought it to mind again by this post which has some really wonderful links to information and photos of this unique outward testimony to the faith of the people of Lituania. This is one of the lengthier entries in the book but I am putting it because it pulls together everything so well.

One of the most unforgettable and emotional sites in Lithuania is the Hill of Crosses. An intense place of pilgrimage, the shrine offers a glimpse into the history of Lithuanian Catholics and their struggles with the former Communist regime. A worldwide attraction, the two-humped hillock is today buried amidst a multitude of crosses.

More than 170 years ago, however, the site was simply a hill overgrown with weeds. That all changed in 1831, when the first of hundreds of crosses were placed in the ground to honor those killed or deported to Siberia in an anti-Russian uprising. Thirty years later, more crosses were mounted on the hill in memory of those tragically killed in the peasant rebellion of 1863. In the ensuing years, more and more crosses were added to the site. At the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, the faithful came here to pray in solitude or take part in religious processions. They came to present their needs to God, to mourn those who had been killed, imprisoned, or exiled, and to recall important historical events.

When Soviet authorities took power in Lithuania after World War II, the new government designated the place as "forbidden" and severely punished those who defied them. The great drama then began to unfold as authorities destroyed the crosses on the hill in an attempt to smother Christianity and erase the "fanaticism." Between 1941 and 1952 the Lithuanians suffered greatly as many of their people were exiled to Siberia. Entire villages were emptied. In 1956 the people began returning to their homes.

Only a short time later, the faithful began secretly replenishing the hill with crosses again in memory of the unbearable torture they had endured and of those who had died and in gratitude for coming back. Lithuanians who returned from captivity in Siberia also put up crosses to thank God for the chance to walk the paths of their homeland and breathe its air again. In time, the Hill of Crosses with its heart-wrenching inscriptions became an open book of people's lives. The site symbolized resistance to violence, oppression and genocide. The resurrection of the crosses on the hill told the world that the nation of Lithuania was not dead.

But once the Communist authorities discovered the freshly planted Christian symbols, they attempted in the spring of 1961 to rid the site of its religious sentiments once and for all. Under the strict guard of the Red Army and KGB, soldiers bulldozed the area, burned the wooden crosses, recycled the iron ones, and buried the stone crosses in the ground. A maple tree, planted by the people to symbolize Lithuania's independence, was also uprooted. (Ironically, however, the townspeople later returned the tree to the hill in the form of a cross.)

When new crosses began cropping up, the Soviets attempted new ways of destroying the hill. On oe ocasin, the Soviets flooded the place, turning the Hill into a virtual island. The Communists exhausted themselves in designing new ways to stop the faithful from planting the symbols of resurrection. They dug ditches, closed bus stops, posted signs, punished trespassers, and blocked roads. But all was in vain. Ironically, one of the new crosses erected during the night read, "Jesus, do not punish the villains for they not know what they are doing." In total, the government bulldozed the hill three times, only to see the crosses spring up again and again. In 1975 the authorities leveled the hill for the last time.

Since then, more than fifty thousand crosses have been placed on the hill -- a testament to the spirit of the people. the planting of crosses can be traced to the Lithuanian tradition of erecting crosses near roads and settlements. In fact, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, so many crosses had been placed on the side of roads that the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Empire issued an edict forbidding the erecting of them. However, the order had little effect, as the cross had already become a deeply rooted symbol in the heart of theLithuanian people...

Prayer of the Cross

Jesus, you became an example of humility, obedience, and patience, and preceded me onthe way of life bearing your cross. Grant that, inflamed with your love, I may cheerfully take upon myself the sweet yoke of your gospel together with the mortification of the cross and follow you as a true disciple so that I may be united with you in heaven forever and ever. Amen.

Getting Closer to Jesus: Silence, Our Father, and Glory Be

The prayers that make up the Rosary are simple and easy to memorize (though I will admit I haven't really got the Apostles' Creed down yet). You can go here for instructions on which prayers are said when.

Before beginning each decade it is customary to announce the mystery and read the scripture associated with it, sometimes along with a short meditation. I tend to do most of my meditation while I am saying the prayers rather than before but I like to take a moment before each decade to center my mind on what I will think about, as you can range far wider in the Gospel than merely the announced mystery. This is usually when I "dedicate" each decade to an intention. Oftentimes the entire rosary will be dedicated as well but different mysteries will be applicable to different needs on your heart at the time.

Listening and meditation are nourished by silence. After the announcement of the mystery and the proclamation of the word, it is fitting to pause and focus one's attention for a suitable period of time on the mystery concerned, before moving into vocal prayer. A discovery of the importance of silence is one of the secrets of practicing contemplation and meditation. One drawback of a society dominated by technology and the mass media is the fact that silence becomes increasingly difficult to achieve. Just as moments of silence are recommended in the Liturgy, so too in the recitation of the Rosary it is fitting to pause briefly after listening to the word of God, while the mind focuses on the content of a particular mystery.

The thing that I really noticed when I started saying the rosary was that the decades of Hail Mary prayers were always begun with an "Our Father" (aka The Lord's Prayer) and ended with a "Glory Be" (Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.). In my mind they "cradle" the other prayers, surrounding the entire proceedings with God to whom all our thoughts and prayers should be offered during that time. Quite often when I am saying them, I also am thinking of how perfectly planned but yet unexpected God's plan of salvation is.

The “Our Father”
After listening to the word and focusing on the mystery, it is natural for the mind to be lifted up towards the Father. In each of his mysteries, Jesus always leads us to the Father, for as he rests in the Father's bosom (cf. Jn 1:18) he is continually turned towards him. He wants us to share in his intimacy with the Father, so that we can say with him: “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6). By virtue of his relationship to the Father he makes us brothers and sisters of himself and of one another, communicating to us the Spirit which is both his and the Father's. Acting as a kind of foundation for the Christological and Marian meditation which unfolds in the repetition of the Hail Mary, the Our Father makes meditation upon the mystery, even when carried out in solitude, an ecclesial experience.

When I was learning the "Glory Be" I was struck by its perfection as well. It was a long, long time before I could get past thinking about the sheer mystery contained in "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end." How do so few words communicate so much about God's nature and glory and what he has done for us?

The “Gloria”
Trinitarian doxology is the goal of all Christian contemplation. For Christ is the way that leads us to the Father in the Spirit. If we travel this way to the end, we repeatedly encounter the mystery of the three divine Persons, to whom all praise, worship and thanksgiving are due. It is important that the Gloria, the high-point of contemplation, be given due prominence in the Rosary. In public recitation it could be sung, as a way of giving proper emphasis to the essentially Trinitarian structure of all Christian prayer.

To the extent that meditation on the mystery is attentive and profound, and to the extent that it is enlivened – from one Hail Mary to another – by love for Christ and for Mary, the glorification of the Trinity at the end of each decade, far from being a perfunctory conclusion, takes on its proper contemplative tone, raising the mind as it were to the heights of heaven and enabling us in some way to relive the experience of Tabor, a foretaste of the contemplation yet to come: “It is good for us to be here!” (Lk 9:33).

RESOURCES:

• Rosary Center
  
• EWTN - Rosary, How to Pray the Rosary, The Rosary and Sacred Scripture
• All quotes are from: Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis by Pope John Paul II

Angels

Angels are not mythical but real. They are not an optional addition to the Catholic faith; their existence is a dogma of the faith (Lateran Council IV). Angels appear many, many times in Scripture. The life of Christ especially is surrounded by their work (see CCC 333).

"Angel" means "messenger". "St. Augustine says: '"Angel" is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is "spirit"' " (CCC 329). Angels are spirits who worship and serve God by ministering to men. (So do we!) They minister to men by announcing messages from God (their most important messages were at Christ's birth) and by guarding and guiding us.

Every human being has a guardian angel assigned to him from birth to death. Christ himself assured us of that: see Matthew 18:10 and Luke 16:22.

"Christ is the center of the angelic world. They are his angels" (CCC 331). When he returns at the end of the world, he will come with all his angels (Mt 24:31; 25:31).

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Man's Place in Creation

God created "the heavens and the earth" (Gen 1:1), that is, "all that is, seen and unseen" (CCC 326, referring to the Nicene Creed). Man lives in both dimensions. He lives in the visible world of matter by his body, and he lives in the invisible world of spirit by his soul. The acts of the soul are invisible and immaterial: thoughts, feelings, desires, and choices have no size, weight, shape, or color.

Man is the lowest of the spirits and the highest of the animals. He is the center and bridge of the created universe. He is creation's priest, for when he offers his whole self to God he offers all creation, since he is in himself all that creation is: spirit (mind and will), which he shares with angels; sensations and feelings, which he shares with animals; organic life, which he shares with plants; and physical matter, which he shares with chemicals.

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Good Job, Genius!

STAR WARS III, REVENGE OF THE SITH

WARNING, SPOILERS

Everyone has gone into great detail with various reviews and I am just going to give my general impressions here. Probably the best commentary for discussing how George Lucas deals with details that must be settled to flow into Star Wars IV (the real first movie) is found at Quoth the Maven. Loaded with spoilers, so watch out if you haven't seen it.

• So when Obi Wan kept complaining "he was supposed to bring BALANCE!" ... it never occurred to anyone that two Jedi would be the balance to two Sith? Ok, so they're not rocket scientists.


• Moral relativism charges about this movie ... having seen the movie, I now can reply, "Bunk!" Didn't anyone hear Chancellor Palpatine talking to Anakin about "Good is all in your point of view?" That's how he started messing with Anakin's mind in the first place, through moral relativism. When Obi Wan said that "absolutism was the way of the Sith" in my personal opinion he was talking about the way that Anakin was judging people to be either all good or all evil ... as tools to be used.


• Watching the "mosquito" ships on the Wookie planet, and seeing General Grievous turn into a giant cockroach without his cloak, and seeing that lava planet ... just kept reminding me of Texas in August. And I don't like to look into the future like that.


• The best character in this movie was a toss-up for me ... either R2D2 or Yoda.


• The best real-life actor was (to my great surprise) Hayden Christensen. If he doesn't decide to become an architect instead of going on acting as I read on someone's blog (can't remember where), then he should specialize in villainous characters (with or without glowing yellow eyes) Second best actor was Ian McDiarmid (Councellor Palpatine).


• There was still absolutely no chemistry between Anakin and Padme, although because Anakin kept obsessively talking about his mother, I did believe that his one true goal was to save Padme from death. Ironic that as the Emperor told him in the end, Anakin actually did kill her ... though the Emperor was just saying whatever worked to raise the hatred and self-loathing levels.


• I want to ride a giant lizard like Obi Wan did.


• Order 66 ... what a good idea that was (if you were evil, anyway).


• There is nothing so fun as watching Yoda go ballistic on someone. When it is on the evil Emperor then it is twice as fun.


• Where did "Good job, genius!" come from? That was Rose's reaction when Anakin pushed Samuel L. Jackson out the window and then said, "What have I done?"

The Cows Got Into the Corn Field

I always am likening having our own business to being farmers. When the kids didn't want to help with filing or come up to the office during the summer I would talk about how farmers' kids would be helping milk cows. When we had to cut vacation short or Tom had to work incredible hours to make a deadline I would think of having to get the harvest in before it rained. So now we have damage control after the cows have broken through the fence and trampled through the corn.

Our office was broken into last night. The good news is that we are insured and that the thieves were not interested in anything but obvious computers. Just one room over were all our servers where we also host other sites. Now that would have been a nightmare if they had had the smarts to go prospecting and knew what to look for. The bad news is that they went for the glossy stuff: our sub-leaser's G5 and Apple monitor, my computer and 1-day-old Apple monitor (sigh), and Chris' computer and one day old Dell monitor (we were comparing the Apple and Dell to see what the differences in color were ... neglible for anyone who is interested). No files were lost, at least those of any importance, because they are all kept on the servers, which were spared. Anyway we back-up nightly and take the tapes home in case of fire, flood, or ... theft.

So not that big a deal except in terms of time lost and finances juggled to replace the computers to get up and running as early as possible tomorrow.

The Distinctiveness of the Doctrine of Creation

It is a simple and startling fact that no human mind on earth ever conceived the idea that the entire universe, visible and invisible, was created out of nothing, not just made or formed out of something, by a single all-powerful God -- not one except the Jews and those who later learned this idea from the Jews, namely, Christians and then Muslims.

The Jewish idea of the universe as something created was as unique in history as the Jewish idea of God the Creator -- the idea of a single all-perfect, all-powerful, all-wise, all-holy, all-just, and all-merciful God. The uniqueness of both ideas can be explained by the same fact: both came from God's revelation not man's imagination. (see Is 60:1-3).

The truth about our ultimate origin -- the doctrine of creation -- had the same supernatural source as the equally unique and startling doctrine about our ultimate destiny -- to be spiritually married to the one perfect God. That too is something "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" (I Cor 2:9).

Different human cultures imagined different ultimate destinies: Nirvana, the Happy Hunting Grounds, the Elysian Fields, the Return to Paradise -- but all these pale in comparison with the divinely revealed truth about our destiny. Similarly, different cultures also invented many different so-called creation myths, but none ever got as far as a Creator of the universe out of nothing.

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

How perfect that I read this just the other day. Yesterday our priest's homily was really amazing. He's always an amazing speaker but I have never heard anyone do such a wonderful job of saying that Christianity is the true religion while not saying anything bad about the other ones. He took the above concept as his starting point and then went further to talk about God stepping over the gap to meet us in humanity ... the humanity of Jesus Christ ... and about using that as a stepping stone for meeting each of us personally in our hearts and in our lives. The way to do that? Prayer, of course.

The Nature of God

God is infinite; therefore he cannot be defined. But this does not mean he has no nature. He is not a "whatever", an "everything in general and nothing in particular". He has a character. He is one thing and not another: righteous, not wicked or indifferent; wise, not foolish; merciful, not cruel. But each of his attributes is infinite (unlimited): he is infinitely righteous, indefinitely wise, infinitely merciful, and so on. He is infinite, but not indefinite. He is infinitely himself.

And we can get to know this character:

1. better by faith than by reason; better by trusting his own revelation of himself better than by trusting our own cleverness;


2. better still by prayer, by real personal contact with him, both private and public, both spontaneous and liturgical;


3. and best of all by loving him, doing his will and obeying his commandments, especially that of loving each other; "for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 Jn 4:20).

We can know something of God's nature, or character, from ourselves, from our deepest desires. God is our ultimate joy. God is the one whose presence will give us infinite and unimaginable ecstasy without boredom forever. What must God be, to do this? A sea of infinite beauty, a light of infinite understanding, a heart of infinite love. And more, always more, infinitely more, "what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived" (1 Cor 2:9).

Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Faith and Trials

God tests our faith by allowing us to suffer. He does not make us suffer, but he allows it. He does not miraculously shield us from suffering, though he could. He does this so that we learn to trust him more; he does it to mature and strengthen our souls and thus to increase our ultimate happiness.

God also tests our faith by remaining invisible, so that we must believe him instead of seeing him. He could manifest himself in constant miraculous displays, but he does not do so, for our sake. For more "blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" (Jn 20:29).

He tests our faith to make it stronger, as a gardener prunes a plant or a blacksmith forges iron in the fire or an athlete trains his muscles by exercise.

That is why he holds back and lets himself be forgotten, ignored, or even rejected. If we could not refuse him, our faith would not be a free choice. It is the Godfather who makes you "an offer you can't refuse", not God the Father.

We do not need to have faith in the moon: we can see it. We do not need to have faith in an equation: we can prove it. But we need to have faith in the goodness of our friends, our parents, our spouse. God is more like a friend, a father, or a husband than like the moon or an equation.

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

What I Learned From the Star Wars "Trili-gon"

The way everything ended up we had about 7 boys and definitely 3 girls spend the night. However, this is not accounting for the "floaters" who came and then had to leave for other events or those who were at other commitments and then came late ... and left later. In fact, one boy who couldn't make it Saturday showed up at 8:00 on Sunday and stayed until 3;00 with the other hangers-on.

I was told we were "brave" and that it sounded "chaotic" but not really at all. One dad who teaches at the school called and asked Hannah, "So how is it over there? Cats and dogs sleeping together? Boys and girls doing the same? How about your parents? Are they watching the movies with y'all?" Ummm, boys and girls in separate parts of the house and though I drifted in every so often to see which part of the movie was on we didn't intrude tooo much. The good thing about this gang is there is a lot of positive peer pressure. They really were there to watch the movies, play "Collector's Edition Classic Star Wars Trivial Pursuits", etc. And, we trusted Hannah that if anything untoward happened she'd alert us to the situation.

It was a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed having a bunch of boys around since the ratios always have been reversed until this weekend. So, what I learned:

• You can never, ever have too much food around when you are feeding 7-10 teenage boys. Three 16" pizzas disappear as if they never existed. 6 quarts of popcorn likewise. Four liters of pop are gone in four hours. Good thing I had emergency supplies of pretzels, Doritos, etc or they would have wasted away to nothing.


• A chocolate sheet cake creatively decorated with crossed blue and red light sabers and "May the Force be with you" (all done by Rose) is NOT regarded as dumb and, in fact, may result in having people "call" the pieces of cake with the light sabers.
  
• If you have a gallon of whole milk for breakfast, you will get called a hero by many and hugged by three boys you do not even really know. Girls will smile and be thankful, but not as openly appreciative.


• No one can get every ounce of enjoyment out of Star Wars like a bunch of guys. My first clue was hearing the discussion begin as they trooped down the hall to watch Star Wars, "So do you think there is any significance to the fact that Luke starts out with a blue light saber and then winds up with a red light saber?"


• StarWarz Gangsta Rap is seriously funny.


• I'm not sure exactly which demographic Gray's Anatomy is appealing to but I was interested to overhead one of the guys saying at breakfast that the ads looked "raunchy" to a chorus of agreement. If teenage guys don't think all those sexy shenanigans in the ads look good ... but maybe they're too smart for the show ... or at least the ads. Haven't seen it but it was the "raunchy" factor that turned me off too.


• George "Michael Moore" Lucas says that the over-25 crowd likes the three older movies while the under-25 crowd like the newer movies. He wishes. Only parts of the newer two movies are acceptable and they were all discussed at length. I mean Darth Maul is very cool and how about when Yoda whoops up on the evil count? Good moments but they can't make up for that tragic romance (and we're not talking Romeo and Juliet kind of "tragic"). This doesn't mean that no one is going to see the third movie. Everyone will see it with high hopes that something will finally measure up to the first three.


• Tom is one savvy guy. We were talking later about how much we liked these kids and how nice they are (while still being normal ...). I was shocked when he said, "Yeah, you can see no one has any shenanigans in mind. No one is going out to their car every 10 minutes or anything." Gee, I hadn't even thought of something like that. But he was quietly assessing everything. So nice to learn new things about each other even after so many years.


• Dallas is a much smaller town than you'd think. Turns out one boy's mother dated someone who later married someone who was a very good friend of mine many years ago. The guy is Jewish and keeps kosher while my friend is Baptist (?). This leads to my next point...


• Theology teaching moments come up at the oddest times. During the "break" with everyone standing around eating cake and drinking milk in kitchen when that whole Jewish guy who married my friend thing came up ... the boy said, "Yeah and she's always telling him he's going to hell because he's not a Christian." Just didn't sound like my friend but we haven't been in touch for years. Anyway, then he went on to say, "Just like my 1st grade teacher and my confirmation teacher talking about how non-Catholics are going to hell." Which was my chance to leap in and say that was totally against Church teachings and tell about the American bishop who recently was excommunicated for preaching that very thing. All were much impressed and I heard this being peripherally talked about later.


• When it came to going to Mass the next morning I surprised even myself by suddenly lowering my "cool mom" factor several degrees when I suddenly began quizzing each and every kid there, "Are you Catholic? Then when are you going to Mass today if you don't go with us?" Which led to more "non-Catholics WON'T go to hell" talk.

Bottom line, these are good kids, they were a heck of a lot of fun to be around, and when Hannah has her "Firefly" shindig later this summer I'll buy lots more pizza.

Faith and Belief

Faith includes belief, but it is more than belief. Here are some of the differences.

Belief is an act of the mind; faith is also an act of the will.

Faith is an act by which one person says to another: "I choose to trust you and believe you."

The object of belief is an idea; the object of faith is a person.

Belief alone is not something to die for. But faith is. Faith is also something to live every moment.

Belief alone is not enough to save us from sin and bring us to heaven. "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe -- and shudder" (Jas 2:19). But faith does save us. We are "justified by faith" (Rom 5:1), if it is a faith that is alive and thus produces good works (cf. Jas 2:17).

Non-Catholics who, through no fault of their own, do not believe that the Catholic faith is true can still be saved by the faith in their hearts that leads them to love and seek God. For Christ promised that "he who seeks finds" (Mt 7:8). So while correct belief without faith cannot save anyone, faith without correct belief can.

Catholic Christianity:A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Faith and Feeling

Faith is not some state of feeling we get ourselves into. It is much simpler than that. It is simply believing in God and therefore believing everything he has revealed -- no matter how we feel. "God said it, so I believe it, and that settles it."

Feelings are influenced by external things, like fashions and fads, wind and weather, diet and digestion. But when God gives us the gift of faith, he gives it from within, from within our own free will.

The devil can influence our feelings, but he has no control over our faith.

We are not responsible for our (unfree) feelings, but we are responsible for our (free) faith.

Yet, though faith is not a feeling, it often produces feelings: of trust, peace, gratitude, and confidence, for instance. And faith can also be aided by feelings: for instance, when we feel trustful or grateful to someone, God or man, it is much easier for us to believe him than we feel mistrustful or ungrateful.

But even when we do not feel trustful or peaceful, we can still believe. Faith is not dependent on feelings. It is dependent on facts: divinely revealed facts.

There is a Chinese parable about faith and feeling. Fact, Faith, and Feeling are three men walking along the top of a well. As long as Faith keeps his eyes on Fact, ahead of him, all three keep walking. But when Faith takes his eyes off Fact and turns around to worry about how Feeling is doing, both Faith and Feeling fall off the wall. (But Fact never does.)

Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Are There Animals in Heaven?

I have a few friends whose pets have died recently or who have just found out about a bad pet illness. This is from last July for anyone who wants to see what Peter Kreeft says about the subject.

Interpreting Scripture

... the Church is the servant of Scripture, as a teacher is faithful to her textbook. Her Book comes alive when the Holy Spirit teaches through her, as a sword comes alive in the hands of a great swordsman (see Heb 4:12).

Some of the most important principles of interpreting Scripture are:

1. All Scripture is a word-picture of Christ. The Word of God in words (Scripture) is about the Word of God in flesh (Christ).


2. Therefore the Old Testament is to be interpreted in light of the New (and vice versa), for Christ came not "to abolish the law and the prophets ... but to fulfill them" (Mt 5:17).


3. Saints are the best interpreters of Scripture, because their hearts are closer to the heart of God, Scripture's primary Author. Christ said, "If any man's will is to do his [the Father's] will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God" (Jn 7:17).


4. The Gospels are the very heart of Scripture. The saints found no better material for meditation than these (see CCC 125-27).


5. Each passage should be interpreted in its context -- both the immediate context of the passage and the overall context of the whole Bible in its unity, all the parts cohering together.


6. Scripture should be interpreted from within the living tradition of the Church. This is not narrow and limiting, but expansive and deep. It is also reasonable; for suppose a living author had written a book many years ago and had been teaching that book every day: Who could interpret that book better than he?

Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Where Do I Go When I Need to Feel Closer to Jesus?

About two weeks ago when I just felt like I needed to get closer to Jesus. I instinctively started praying the rosary. That answer might surprise people who don't know about the rosary. I know it surprised me when I first started learning about it.

The first time I ever prayed the rosary was about five years ago when Hannah had woken us in the night with extreme stomach pains and Tom wound up taking her to the emergency room to see if it was appendicitis. I didn't know the first thing about the rosary except that it was supposed to be a great way to pray ... and, truth to tell, I was in quite a panic and wanted someone who would relate to me ... another mother ... Mary. Of course, I did it all wrong. I managed to dig up the actual prayers, I counted off the prayers as I said them aloud and ... I prayed to Mary for Hannah to be well. It was like a textbook case of what critics of the rosary would point to. Hannah was fine and I know that God understood my total confusion. But with that panic filled night arose my determination to find out what the story was with Mary and that rosary.

I went to Amazon (where else?) and got the easiest book I could find to fill me in, Christ's Mother and Ours by Oscar Lukefahr. I already knew the rosary beads are simply a set of counting beads to help you keep track of your prayers. As you say each prayer you go on to the next bead. However, what I learned was that the vocal prayers are intended to be aids in meditating on various events in Jesus' and his mother's life. When you pray, you mentally concentrate on either the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, or Glorious mysteries. You put yourself "in the scene" for each of the mysteries. I have heard it said that praying the rosary is praying the Gospels. As Pope John Paul II said in his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae we are contemplating Christ with Mary.

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.

When I found out all that then the rosary started to mean something to me. It didn't change my life. I am not devoted to it. I go through fits and spurts and usually wind up saying it while driving to work (long ago having memorized the prayers and mysteries). However, if I really stay focused and meditate on the mysteries it is a rare occasion when I do not come away enlightened ... sometimes by something in an event, sometimes by God reaching through the prayers to touch me. And, if nothing else, I have been spending about 20 minutes contemplating events from the Gospels ... and that can't hurt!

I'm in the mood to talk about the rosary so there'll be more later about the prayers themselves and what those mysteries actually are.

Why We Need Faith

We need faith because our world is full of death.

And so are we. Each one of us will die. So will each nation. Many individuals and nations will also kill. Our world has always been a world at war with itself, because it has been at war with God. Thomas Merton wrote: "We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves. And we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God."

Human nature does not change. Today we live in what the Vicar of Christ has called "the culture of death," a culture that kills children before birth and kills childhood after birth, kills innocence and faithfulness and families. What is the answer to this culture of death?

Faith. The Catholic faith is the answer.

Faith in the God who has not left us in the dark but has revealed himself as our Creator; who, out of his love, designed us for a life of love, in this world and in the next.

Faith in the gospel, the good news of the man who said he was God come down from heaven to die on the Cross to save us from sin and to rise from the grave to save us from death.

Faith in the Church he left us as his visible body on earth, empowered by his Spirit, authorized to teach in his name, with his authority: to invite us to believe the truth of his gospel, to live the life of his love, and to celebrate the sacraments of his presence.

This church is our only sure and certain light in this beautiful but broken world.

Faith is the answer to fear. Deep down we are all afraid: of suffering, or of dying, or of God's judgment, or of the unknown, or of weakness, or of our lives slipping out of our control, or of not being understood and loved. We sin because we fear. We bully because we are cowards.

Faith casts out fear as light casts out darkness. God has shone his light into our world, and it is stronger than darkness (Jn 1:5).

That light is Jesus Christ.

Catholic Christianity: A Complete Catechism of Catholic Beliefs based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church by Peter Kreeft

Let's Talk Doctrine ... Catholic Doctrine, That Is

Y'all may remember that Wayne, the Questions and Answers guy had some "easy" questions for me.

1. Has the Catholic church ever been wrong on doctrine?
2. If it were wrong on a doctrine how do you correct it?

I'm going to begin with looking at where Catholic doctrine comes from. In so doing, I believe the answers to the above questions will become obvious. Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says.

God has said everything in his Word

65 "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son." Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father's one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. St. John of the Cross, among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2:

In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behaviour but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.

There will be no further Revelation

66 "The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries

67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.

Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfilment, as is the case in certain nonChristian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations".

Catechism of the Catholic Church

So what that all boils down to is that, because God revealed his plan of salvation to us through the prophets of the Old Testament and then came as Christ to reveal the plan's culmination, we cannot change the deposit of faith. We have to stick with what we were given. We do not have the authority to change it.

This doesn't mean that the faith doesn't change, however. As explanations and interpretations of the original deposit of faith happen over time the faith grows from within, somewhat like a plant. However, every new interpretation must be tested against the original deposit of faith (see this for Cardinal Newman's seven tests of doctrinal development which help illustrate this point).

The interpretation and transmission of the faith is done by the Magisterium.

The Magisterium of the Church

85 "The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ." This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

86 "Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith."

87 Mindful of Christ's words to his apostles: "He who hears you, hears me", The faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their pastors give them in different forms.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Based on the fact that I trust Jesus set us on the right road and that the Holy Spirit is working through the Magisterium to maintain the deposit of the faith, my answer to the question of Catholic doctrine ever being wrong is ... no, it has not been wrong.

This is not to say that people, being the fallible creatures that we are, could not misapply doctrine either through error or for their own purposes. When we look at the 2,000 year history of the Church we can see, sadly, too many examples of such behavior. However, the doctrine itself is divinely revealed and we also can look at that same history and see where the Holy Spirit has put the Church back on the proper course.

The law of God entrusted to the Church is taught to the faithful as the way of life and truth. The faithful therefore have the right to be instructed in the divine saving precepts that purify judgment and, with grace, heal wounded human reason. They have the duty of observing the constitutions and decrees conveyed by the legitimate authority of the Church. Even if they concern disciplinary matters, these determinations call for docility in charity.

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2037

That leads neatly to the question of what one would do if a doctrine were wrong, which I will look at from the point of view of a doctrine being misused. Church history gives us examples of saints who had various problems with the powers-that-be of the time. I have read time and again of many different types of saints who were trying to found orders, get the pope to move from France to Rome, or other tasks that seemed impossible to effect. In all the cases I can think of, they were first of all obedient to any orders given them, but persisted in prayer, petition, and working toward their goals within the confines of obedience ... and God used them for dramatic reforms in some cases. Just as the saints give us examples of how to grow closer to God, they also are the examples I would use in seeking reform.

However, before going through all that it would behoove me to thoroughly study the doctrine in question. This is something that I went through on several issues after I converted and so I have very strong feelings about it.

"So I should blindly follow, eh?" Well ... no. We ought to find out why we disagree. If we're really about truth and seeing the whole picture, we'd be concerned about what part we were missing. What does the Church know that we don't? Once you look into all the reasoning behind the Church's stance and understand, it's pretty obvious that it's the truth. I've also found that the more often you do this, the more your conscience conforms to Catholicism and you begin to see that what you believe is the same as the Church's belief. Which is good. So what I'm getting at is that it's logical to believe whatever the Church teaches on faith and morals because if follows from the conclusion in the paragraph above, but we have to force our wills and intellects to do it.

De Fidei Obedientia

If I had not gone through the process that De Fedei Obedientia describes (and done it more than once) only to find that my logic had nothing on that of 2,000 years of Church Fathers, then I would not be Catholic. There would be no point to it because without believing in the Catholic doctrine and the Holy Spirit's guidance of the Church then you are left with nothing.

The only honest reason to be a Christian is because you believe in Christ's claim to be God incarnate. The only honest reason to be a Catholic is because you believe the Church's claim to be the divinely authorized Body of this Christ.

Peter Kreeft, Catholic Christianity

Sources: Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catholic Christianity, Why Do Catholics Do That?

May is Mary's Month

(After I told Steven Riddle I didn't like poetry, what did I find in my quote journal but this which cries out for being posted on May Day.)

The May Magnificat

May is Mary's month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:

Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season --

Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,

Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour

Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?

Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother;
Her reply puts this other

Question: What is Spring? --
Growth in everything --

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather
Grass and green world all together;

Star-eyed strawberry breasted
Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;

And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising

With that world of good
Nature's motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind

How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord

Well but there was more than this:
Spring's universal bliss

Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple

And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surféd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes

And magic cuckoo call
Caps, clears, and clinches all --

This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth

To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Haiku and Monkey

In his pursuit of poetry, Steven Riddle has moved on to haiku, which is one form of poetry that I always have admired.

I share this admiration with Monkey who celebrated April as National Poetry Month although I neglected to share any of this with y'all. Always the artist with prose, as anyone could tell from reading this delicate tale of composing a Pannetone Bread Pudding, Monkey also is an spontaneous composer of haiku as when during a pause in making Limeade, this came forth:

refreshing limeade
dancing over cool ice cubes
nectar of the gods.

Is it any wonder that Monkey's friends respond in kind?

joy envelopes me
reading erudite monkey
my soul is lifted

Truly inspirational.

Hitler, Iraq, and Rose ... Oh My!

I was fixing dinner. Rose was reading about World War II, telling me of various revelations ... Hitler said that he was on tenterhooks during the first 48 hours after invading the Rhineland because if France had moved to stop him, Germany would have had to retreat ... Goebels said that if the authorities had moved against the Brown Shirts in the early days the Nazis never could have regrouped and regained their power ... and so on. She was struck by the fact that because people failed to step up and do the right thing, all the destruction and evil of WWII had happened. We then wondered how many similar tragedies had been averted that we never would know about ... simply because people had stepped forward to do the right thing when it didn't seem as if it would matter.

Later, she suddenly looked up from her book and said that she was struck by the connection between Hitler and Saddam Hussein. "What the????," I elegantly replied. Rose had just read that after the final treaties of the war, democratic leaders everywhere vowed they would never appease another ruthless dictator. She said, "That is just the way Saddam Hussein was doing things ... like Hitler ... the Rhineland, Austria ... a little here, a little there to see what everyone would put up with. We were appeasing him until we sent troops in."

It's not an exactly similar situation and no doubt greater minds than ours have already seen this connection ... but in our kitchen, that light bulb went on and we wondered if this was one of those situations where a huge tragedy was averted by doing the right thing when it didn't seem as if it would matter.

What the Heck is Anime?

Find out in in the new issue of Spero News ... along with a whole lotta other interesting stories. Why did I mention the anime story? It's mine. ha!

You Should Be Watching "House"

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." ...

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.

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.

One of the most interesting episodes dealt with House kicking his pain-killer habit ... not to get off of the drugs but to get a couple of weeks free from clinic duty. At the end of the episode, now clean, he goes right back to taking his drugs, arguing that his is a "livable" addiction. He's still paying bills, working, etc. It doesn't matter what arguments his friend advances toward staying off the pills, he likes life with them more. Yet for all his faults we see beneath the facade (very rarely and not deeply) to see the tortured soul who needs at least one person to be his friend.

Probably the most fascinating aspect of this show is that it will bring up a very touchy issue and then refuse to pander to either side in its thinking ... rather like House's character. When a woman was going to have an abortion so that she could then donate a kidney to her ailing husband, pros and cons from both sides of the moral fence were brought into play, without slamming either side. This happens consistently and is one of the things that I enjoy most about the show ... you aren't always cringing wondering when the "MESSAGE" is going to be stamped on you with a big, heavy foot.

This show has provoked more conversation within our family than any other about real life examples of the fallen state of man and how to live in the real world with all our flaws.

Plus, it's a killer medical show. So give it a try.

A Little Useless Information

FAMOUS CAT 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

Inexplicably not included, Happy Catholic - Truffles. (Next week, of course, will be famous dog owners.)

Hannah and the SAT

Remember when I said Hannah was going to take the SAT after no additional studying and without freaking out or even worrying? We now have results.

She got 1980 overall (2400 is the highest on the new SAT) and 8 out of 12 possible on the essay. According to her guidance counselor both scores are considerably above the US averages so far ... woohoo!

Howl's Moving Castle

The trailer for the latest anime by the "Walt Disney of Japan," Hayao Miyazaki can be found at Ain't It Cool. Just scroll to the bottom of the column under the movie poster to find the links. It looks like a cross between Spirited Away and Kiki's Delivery Service to me.

Chicken Sauté with Vinegar

Yes it sounds odd but it pleased everybody in the house, including our famously picky eater! Head over to Glad Gastronome to give it a try.

POPE BENEDICT XVI

Cardinal Ratzinger elected ... could I be any happier? NO! PRAISE GOD!!!

UPDATE: My friend, Maroy, made a couple of great points...

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 guess they're dancing in heaven! Maybe The Chicken Dance, in honor of Benedict's German heritage??;-)

I might have to look into the history of the Chicken Dance ...

ALSO, Alicia makes a good point about The Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club ... it has been overrun and their server has crashed.

Habemus Papam!

The bells are ringing ... now we just have to wait and see who it is ... this is like Christmas morning!!! The suspense is killing me!!!!

That means the vote had a 2/3 majority in 5 or less votes ... what a strong message for whoever this is ...

Dueling Haikus

Monkey is famous for delicate, spur of the moment haiku so "dueling frida kahlo haikus" seem natural. Just a taste to get you started, although for the full flavor you must go to the site and see the photos [the julie mentioned is not me].

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.

Waiting on the Holy Spirit

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.

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

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.

Faith in the World

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

The Final Day of Mourning

The last moments of Pope John Paul II as reported in the Times.

Some of the crowd then broke into applause for the life of the Pope; others sobbed uncontrollably at his passing.

As the end approached, history's best travelled and third longest serving pontiff had urged his followers not to cry for him by dictating a message to his secretary.

"I am happy and you should be happy too," he said. "Do not weep. Let us pray together with joy."

His last moments were described early today by Father Jarek Cielecki, director of Vatican Service News, a Catholic TV channel. "The Holy Father died looking towards the window as he prayed, and that shows that in some way he was conscious," Cielecki said.

"A short while before dying, the Pope raised his right hand in a clear, although simply hinted at, gesture of blessing, as if he became aware of the crowd of faithful present in St Peter's Square, who in those moments were following the reciting of the Rosary," he added.

"Just after the prayer ended, the Pope made a huge effort and pronounced the word 'Amen'. A moment later, he died."

Contemplating Christ with Mary

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.

Apostolic Letter
Rosarium Virginis Mariae
of the Supreme Pontiff
John Paul II to the Bishops, Clergy
and Faithful
on the Most Holy Rosary

My Review of Millions

You can find it here at Spero News, the new weekly virtual newspaper. While you're there take some time and look around. I think they have a week's worth of good reading ... at least I know that I'm going to be reading practically everything I saw there.

Freedom

Freedom consists not in doing what we like,
but in having the right to do what we ought.

John Paul II

Our Nine Days of Mourning

As we go through these days of mourning, I will put my favorite links about Pope John Paul II here and move it to each day as we go along.

• Papa Familias has the Papal Carnival up with many wonderful contributions from people with their memories of our pope.
  
• Nancy at Flying Stars is inspired by the pope to proclaim her Catholic identity in public.
• Mark Steyn about why progressives never understood the Pope.

  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.

• The Curt Jester's meditation on John Paul II's two names and the way he reflected those apostles.
• Mama T remembers being in Rome and telling the pope she loved him.
  
• Mary at Ever New gives us yet another gem (how does she do it every time?) in comparing the Church to the ocean and reminding us of why we must not fret about who is chosen to sit in the chair of Peter.
• Peggy Noonan takes us back vividly to Pope John Paul II's visit to communist Poland and reminds us exactly why he was great and the work he did for Christ.

  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.

• George Wiegel has a piece in Newsweek with a more personal look at the Pope. Again we see the "serious sweet tooth" mentioned. My kinda guy. Via Get Religion.
• Dinka has a tribute to the pope. I especially like her commentary about how being Catholic is to be be separated from society, even though one is right in the middle of it.
• Mark Windsor features photos from Poland showing the people remembering the pope and links to a site that has many more.
• TSO's reflections on seeing the body of a shepherd being carried by his people.
  
• Abba Pater, a slideshow by Dom at Bettnet. A touching tribute.
• Via TSO
  

  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
  

• Santificarnos shares a joke that the Pope was said to enjoy. I like the idea of the pope laughing at this one.
• John B. at The Catholic Packer Fan has a thorough, easy-to-understand timeline of events to come. And he has a comment that I agree wholeheartedly with which is why I'm not wasting my time worrying about anyone's "picks" on the next pope.
• Mark Shea quotes Tolkein for the best I've seen so far at how our pope's homecoming to Heaven must have felt.
• Tremendous Trifles has an original poem for Our Holy Father.
• Ignatius Insight Scoop has a really thorough list of reactions and wonderful links to the Vatican pages. If you look at nothing else from the Vatican, be sure to see this page which shows John Paul II's pontificate. You click on each cross going up the hill to show all the accomplishments during that time period. Really amazing.

UPDATE: Some great tribute links are showing up in the comments boxes. Be sure to check them out.

Congratulations to ...

... Julie M. and Jaymen.