Pruning That the Rich Man May Enter Heaven

Just a train of thought that came to me and not intended for anyone else ... unless it strikes you personally. In which case, help yourself!

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.

He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.

You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.

Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.

By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

John 15:1-8

This was the gospel reading last Sunday and is again today. Between our Bible study and the Sunday homily many concepts were discussed: that Jesus is the living sap that feeds us, how branches intertwine to make community, etc.

However, I was truly struck by this commentary from Father Cantalamessa, preacher to the Pontifical Household, about pruning. It takes a totally different route and was quite enlightening to me. He is a consistent favorite of mine and perhaps this will strike y'all as well. Do go read it all but here's my favorite part.

One must have the courage to make choices, to put some secondary interests to one side to concentrate on the primary. To prune!

This is even truer in the spiritual life. Holiness is like a sculpture. Leonardo da Vinci defined sculpture as "the art of removing." The other arts consist in adding something: color to the canvas in painting, stone on stone in architecture, note after note in music.

Only sculpture consists of removing, of taking away the pieces of marble that are in excess, so that the figure can emerge that one has in mind. Christian perfection is also obtained like this, by removing and making useless pieces fall off, namely, desires, ambitions, projects, carnal tendencies that disperse us and do not let us finish anything.

One day, Michelangelo walking through a garden in Florence saw a block of marble in a corner protruding from the earth, half covered by grass and mud.

He stopped suddenly, as if he had seen someone, and turning to friends, who were with him, exclaimed: "An angel is imprisoned in that marble; I must get him out." And, armed with a chisel, he began to work on that block until the figure of a beautiful angel emerged.

God also looks at us and sees us this way: as shapeless blocks of stone. He then says to himself: "Therein is hidden a new and beautiful creature that waits to come out to the light; more than that, the image of my own son Jesus Christ is hidden there, I want to bring it out!" We are predestined to "be conformed to the image of his son" (Romans 8:29).

Then, what does He do? He takes the chisel, which is the cross, and begins to work on us. He takes the pruning shears, and begins to prune us.

Certainly, in my mind, it goes hand in hand with Rick Lugari's comments about how we are blessed beyond our own knowledge. I think that oftentimes we feel we are being pruned or carrying a heavy cross when we truly are just experiencing regular daily life for which many people of the world would give a lot to be able to live as we do. Not that God will not prune us using daily life. Of course, He will and does. However, I think that oftentimes what we, in our luxury, mistake for deep pruning is just cutting a few twigs.

I'm not complaining...not at all. The reason I'm painting the picture (perhaps more than I would normally care to) is to point out that I still think we have it easy. Very easy, indeed. It's not like we don't feel overwhelmed more often than not, but in comparison to much of the world and throughout history, it's a cake walk.

And here's some proof that all of us in this conversation have it far more easy than we think: We're all sitting here at a keyboard reading and typing away. Everyone should ask themselves just how much time they spend at their computer doing leisurely things like reading and writing blogs, etc. throughout the day. How about going to the movies, restaurants, watching TV, watching sporting events, reading books...?

We all have it made...we're just spoiled brats (certainly I am...if that shoe doesn't fit any of you, don't wear it).

That is why we must be careful to discern with dispassionate eyes and minds, just what is happening in our lives. I think that ours is what I recently heard called a "dry martyrdom" ... one that is all the more difficult because it is so internal. We must struggle against secular society, against the riches that tempt us to idolize them, against our own laziness or various temptations. No wonder Jesus said that it was difficult for the rich man to enter heaven. In his time so many of us would have been labeled as rich. And we know those struggles, understand why he said it.

All the more reason for me to remember to cling to that vine to which I have been grafted, to ask (even though with fear and trepidation, for I am no braver than anyone else) for God to chisel away what does not reflect Jesus Christ in me. Lord, hear my prayer.

Lord Hear Our Prayer ...

Let us pray to the risen Christ in whom all thirst is slaked:

R: Give us living water to drink!

You are the vine, and we the branches: bear in us the fruit of life - R

You are the rock in the desert from which the waters flow, and we the thirsty: cool our weary souls with the living waters of your Holy Spirit - R

You are the living Word, and we those who hunger to hear: bring life to those who grope for a sense of purpose in life - R

Our Father ...

Ever-living God, you have given us the water of life to drink through our risen Savior, vine, rock, Word. Make us so thirst for him that we will turn aside form all lesser thirsts, through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

May Magnificat 2006

Personal intentions:

• Maureen's friend
• Little Jack, 8, who has brain cancer
• The Anchoress' health
• MaryAnn with brain cancer
• My brother's job
• Klaire's CRHP team, readying themselves for discernment
• General intention: the too-busy and stressed-out
  

Lord Hear Our Prayer ...

In a world divided, let us pray for the Spirit of peace:

R: You hear your children's appeal

God of peace, make peace among those at war: R

God of justice, make right what we have made wrong: R

God of goodness, make holy what we have turned to our own selfish ends: R

May Magnificat 2006

Personal intentions:

• Maureen's friend
• Little Jack, 8, who has brain cancer
• The Anchoress' health
• MaryAnn with brain cancer
• My brother's job
• Deb's request for little Emma
• Klaire's CRHP team, readying themselves for discernment
• General intention: families

Well Why Didn't You Just Say So: &

The "ampersand," a familiar keyboard symbol, represents a shortened version of a cumbersome phrase. As the phrase was first used, it was "and per se and," or more literally, "and in itself and." In a much simpler form, this just means "and." The symbol derived from the Latin word et, which means "and" — its form evolved from the two separate letters, E and T, gradually merging into a single new character.

The Word Origin Calendar

And I for one am grateful that it did. "and per se and" ... cumbersome is not the word.

Calling Mothers with Large Families

These days anything over three qualifies as a large family I suppose.

A discussion is going on over at Et tu Jen that life today is so hard without traditional family groups living together to help watch the kids, etc., that it is only normal to limit families to a few children.

This is your chance to have a charitable, perhaps eye-opening discussion about it so head on over there.

The Trinity

Another blast from HC's past.

This is one of the descriptions of the Trinity that almost lets me wrap my brain around that whole mystery ... almost. Also, one of the best descriptions ever of the family's inner essence.

Our thoughts and our loves, the two distinctively human acts that no animal can perform, issue forth from us but do not become distinct persons unless aided by the flesh. In God, they are so real that they are the two additional Persons in God: God's word, or self-expression, is so real that he is the second person in God, and the love between Father and Son is so real that he is the third Person. Human creativity, both mental and biological, is the image of the Trinity. That is one reason why the family is holy; it bears the intimate stamp of the very inner nature of God, the life of Trinitarian love, the two becoming three in becoming one.

Fundamentals of the Faith by Peter Kreeft

We'll Be on the Lookout

Prison Break will be filming its second season in Dallas, beginning around the middle of June. We don't hang around the places where celebrities are likely to be spending any off hours. But it'll be fun to keep an eye out anyway.

IN OTHER TELEVISION NEWS
Reading this morning that President Bush will be speaking to the nation tonight about the immigration bill, I was struck by the idea that all over America, people were saying, "Not during 24! Please, no!" If the President is wise he won't try to compete with Jack Bauer. Let's face it. Who really can?

AND A LITTLE BIT OF LOST
Because how can we leave that out if we're discussing television? How Stuff Works has an interesting rundown of The Dharma Initiative.

Back to Basics: Sacred Tradition

God's word is more than letters on a page or sounds to the ear. His word is creative. When God speaks the word it happens. For example, the book of Genesis in the Bible tells us that God created merely by saying the word: "God said, 'let there be light,' and there was light."

Catholics believe that the Word of God is found not only in the Bible but also in the unwritten or spoken word — Sacred Tradition...

It took some time between what Jesus actually said and did from when the Gospel writer put it on paper (actually on parchment), so what took place during that period? Before the written word was the unwritten or spoken word. Just as in the Old Testament, things happened and were said long before they were written down, so, too, in the New Testament. Jesus preached his sermons and worked his miracles, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven long before anyone wrote it down. No one took notes while he preached. No letters were written between Jesus and the apostles. Sacred Tradition predates and preceded Sacred Scripture, but both come from the same source — God.

The New Testament is totally silent on whether Jesus ever married or had children. The Bible says nothing about his marital status, yet Christians believe he had no wife and kids. Sacred Tradition tell us that he never married just as Sacred Tradition says that the Gospels number only four...

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Honestly, the Sola Scriptura way of thinking just doesn't make sense to me. For example, nowhere in the Bible that I can see is our understanding of the Holy Trinity spelled out. Where did that come from, if not from except divine revelation which has been passed down by Sacred Tradition? When it comes to taking the Bible at its word as so many seem to insist on ... how about the part where Jesus tells everyone that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood (the words used mean "gnaw") so almost everyone leaves ... and he lets them go. No arguing or saying it was symbolic. Not even any behind-the-scenes different explanation as he so often gave to the disciples after everyone was gone. If we really want to get basic, how about what the Bible itself says is the holder of truth?

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.

I Timothy 3:14,15

At the Catholic Catechism Dialogue Blog, a former Protestant minister points out that Protestants have their own unacknowledged form of Sacred Tradition.

One. Protestants do not in fact make the Bible only their sole pillar of truth. No, they don't. They recall, study, emulate and if honest with themselves venerate the teachers of the founders {and there are several of them with several conflicting understandings of what the Bible alone teaches} of their Protestant faith. The Bible alone is not the actual sole guide.

That never occurred to me until he mentioned it but does ring true.

For Mothers' Day

Mary Cassatt, The Child's Caress, Source

I am not a fan of Mothers' Day. It is too much of a manufactured holiday. For Mary we have the month of May as well as other special feast days. For me ... my birthday is the day.

However, I do not begrudge the enjoyment of the day to all who are fans so ... Happy Mothers' Day!

Got 4 Tunes and a Shallow Plot? Let's Call it Opera!

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Rose got this movie yesterday for her birthday and we watched it last night. Interestingly it was so very operatic ... gorgeous sets, melodrama, haunting music (through quite similar to each other somehow ... they all seemed to run together and I could recognize them but had a hard time telling them apart also), glorious voices ... which did not necessarily make for the best movie ever. I think it was definitely a chick flick in that way.

We wisecracked our way through it and at one point I apologized to Rose for being so flip about a movie she obviously loved. She grinned and said, "Oh I know exactly what this movie is. But I love it anyway." Don't we all have movies like that? I didn't love this one but it was certainly entertaining enough.

The one thing it did leave me with was a desire to go see some real opera. My mother used to take us when we were in junior high and it engendered a love that has never left me. I never passed that on to the girls which I regret. At one point, Rose said, "I love this exchange. Listen to all three songs interweaving and then coming together." Classic opera at that point. Guess I'll have to check out what the Dallas Opera is up to when their new season starts and plan a field trip!

For those who want a quickie but not to sit through the movie, Occupation: Girl did one of her trademark movies in 15 minutes which is, as always, hilarious (you must be registered with LiveJournal but it's free).

Some Underground Lair

CHRISTINE [waking up]: What the crap is this musical monkey box? And I’m in a… swan bed? Whatever. So. Let’s see. I remember… a lot of candles…

A LOT OF CANDLES: *flicker*

CHRISTINE: …a horse…

HORSE: Neigh, baby.

CHRISTINE: And a big lake, and a boat… and some guy.

THE PHANTOM: [writing music]: Mornin’.

[She goes over to the Phantom and touches his face and he seems to dig it.]

CHRISTINE: So, I’m gonna take your mask off.

THE PHANTOM: Okay.

CHRISTINE: Peeling it off as we speak.

THE PHANTOM: Ten-four.

CHRISTINE: It’s totally coming off.

THE PHANTOM: Sure, have a party.

THE MASK: *comes off*

THE PHANTOM: OMG YOU (expletives deleted by HC) HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

(HC rating: Good despite lack of flubber)

Speaking of Over the Hedge

Here's the official Othercott spot with more info than simply urging you to go see a different movie than the Da Vinci Code. Scroll down for 10 "other" things to do on or before May 19th.

Me? Ahem ... I'm not gonna comment about Over the Hedge any more, however, that will be our wedding anniversary weekend as well as Hannah's baccalaureate mass and graduation weekend.

Movies are the last thing I'll be thinking about!

Dance, Dance Evolution

Got six minutes to watch the Evolution of Dance? Via Quiet Life.

Rose is Sweet Sixteen

Our sweet, smart, musical, savvy, sensitive Rose ... how can she really be 16 and getting ready to learn to drive? How time flies (trite but so true).

We'll be celebrating Tex-Mex style at Marianos. For the grand finale, she has chosen chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting (can't believe I found a photo for it though ours will be round not square). Mmmmm....

TAR: Monkeys!

Getting close to the end and I was very happy to see that MoJo got eliminated. I really could not stand her whining and crying a minute more. I feel that the Frat Boys will probably win but would be happy with either of the other two teams actually.

And, we loved the dear little monkeys ... I can only imagine what that shrine area must smell like! Whew!

"Now I understand why Sawyer squashed that tree frog"

So said soft-hearted, animal-loving Hannah upon finding out that the very loud, "whirring" sound she's heard all night for the last two nights is a frog outside her window. It's been driving Tom and her crazy. Me? I didn't even notice it until she asked what it was. Talk about tuning out...

In a World Where Mermaids Are Viewed as Sweet ...

... and where the first trailer for Lady in the Water was so innocent seeming and even boring, there comes this trailer that gives us a totally different view altogether. Not so nice after all. But interesting looking...

The Problem of Evil

Working my way through Peter Kreeft's Fundamentals of the Faith, I continue to be struck at how well he summarizes answers to common objections to the existence of God. While the existence of evil never particularly was something that struck me as a reason there could not be a God, it clearly is one of the main objections. In fact it is one of the only two objections that St. Thomas Aquinas could find. (The other was the apparent ability of natural science to explain everything in our experience without God.) You can find Kreeft's chapter on evil here. What I liked most were his comments on the philosophical problem of evil.

Finally, what about the philosophical problem? It is not logically contradictory to say an all-powerful and all-loving God tolerates so much evil when he could eradicate it? Why do bad things happen to good people? The question makes three questionable assumptions.

First, who's to say we are good people? The question should be not "Why do bad things happen to good people?" but "Why do good things happen to bad people?" If the fairy godmother tells Cinderella that she can wear her magic gown until midnight, the question should be not "Why not after midnight?" but "Why did I get to wear it at all?" The question is not why the glass of water is half empty but why it is half full, for all goodness is gift. The best people are the ones who are most reluctant to call themselves good people. Sinners think they are saints, but saints know they are sinners. The best man who ever lived once said, "No one is good but God alone."

Second, who's to say suffering is all bad? Life without it would produce spoiled brats and tyrants, not joyful saints. Rabbi Abraham Heschel says simply, "The man who has not suffered, what can he possibly know, anyway?" Suffering can work for the greater good of wisdom. It is not true that all things are good, but it is true that "all things work together for good to those who love God."

Third, who's to say we have to know all God's reasons? Who ever promised us all the answers? Animals can't understand much about us; why should we be able to understand everything about God? The obvious point of the Book of Job, the world's greatest exploration of the problem of evil, is that we just don't know what God is up to. What a hard lesson to learn: Lesson One, that we are ignorant, that we are infants! No wonder Socrates was declared by the Delphic Oracle to be the wisest man in the world. He interpreted that declaration to mean that he alone knew that he did not have wisdom, and that was true wisdom for man.

Another reposting as I continue to listen to Peter Kreeft's audio offerings and want to share with y'all just how inspirational and mind expanding I find his thinking.

Literary Post of the Week

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
By William Shakespeare

Katharina
Spit. Hiss.

Petruchio
Shut your mouth before I hit you.

Katharina
I can be civilized now that a man has bossed me around.
I love you madly, Petruchio.

THE END

Book-a-Minute Classics

Miracles: Evidence of God's Existence

If I were an atheist, I think I would save my money to buy a plane ticket to Italy to see whether the blood of Saint Januarius really did liquefy and congeal miraculously, as it is supposed to do annually. I would go to Medjugorge. I would study all published interviews of any of the seventy thousand who saw the miracle of the sun at Fatima. I would ransack hospital records for documentated "impossible", miraculous cures. Yet, strangely, almost all atheists argue against miracles philosophically rather than historically. They are convinced a priori, by argument, that miracles can't happen. So they don't waste their time or money on such an empirical investigation. Those who do soon cease to be atheists -- like the sceptical scientists who investigated the Shroud of Turin, or like Frank Morrison, who investigated the evidence for the "myth" of Christ's Resurrection with the careful scientific eye of the historian -- and became a believer. (His book Who Moved the Stone? is still a classic and still in print after more than sixty years.)

Fundamentals of the Faith by Peter Kreeft

Interesting idea isn't it? Just go check out the facts for yourself on those miracles and trust the evidence of your own eyes. It takes someone with a very open mind or a determination to prove the miracles false to go check them out. I think such people are much rarer than is commonly believed. Certainly, most atheists I know would not investigate but just argue from what they already know to be true.

By the way, I highly recommend Who Moved the Stone.

(Reposted from a long time ago ... I just like it too much.)

More Choices For That Pesky Da Vinci Code Movie

Yesterday I wrote about choosing between the Da Vinci Code and Over the Hedge movies as has been suggested to show Hollywood that we ain't gonna take it anymore.

My problem largely was that there are no good movie alternatives and Over the Hedge just looks so dreadful to watch that I thought a boycott and staying home would be better. In answer to a question about why my sudden dislike for Over the Hedge I must say that it is not sudden at all. I have loathed that movie ever since seeing the first trailers. It looks like the worst of "dumbing down, scatalogical" movies directed at kids. Think "Madagascar" put in the woods. Ugh! There just hasn't been any reason to mention it before now. Believe me, if you had to listen to me mention every movie trailer that looks terrible we'd all be here for a very long time.

Nehring the Edge talks about the superior effectiveness of a "buycott" and says that even paying for Over the Hedge while not seeing it would be a better alternative. I like the "buycott" idea but in response to saying that a boycott doesn't ever work I have noticed this morning that there has been a lot of talk about Mission Impossible III's relatively low box office numbers which has been attributed to Tom Cruise's self-inflicted over exposure and resultant lack of appeal, especially to women.

College Catholic via the comments boxes mentions that it might be important for Christians to see the Da Vinci Code so that they know what they are arguing about if asked questions after someone has seen the movie. He mentions paying for a different movie and then going to see the Da Vinci Code instead. I think that I've seen that idea before (though it may have been at his place, just can't remember).

Personally, after having thought about it for an evening I think that if I had to go see a movie I'd plump for Flight 93. It is an option that would still be at the movies most likely. Also, wouldn't it be nice to see a resurgence in box office numbers for a movie that promotes good movie making, heroism, and right ideals in place of the Da Vinci Code?

The Universal Prayer

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER (attributed to Pope Clement XI)
Lord, I believe in you: increase my faith.
I trust in you: strengthen my trust.
I love you: let me love you more and more.
I am sorry for my sins: deepen my sorrow.

I worship you as my first beginning,
I long for you as my last end,
I praise you as my constant helper,
And call on you as my loving protector.

Guide me by your wisdom,
Correct me with your justice,
Comfort me with your mercy,
Protect me with your power.

I offer you, Lord, my thoughts: to be fixed on you;
My words: to have you for their theme;
My actions: to reflect my love for you;
My sufferings: to be endured for your greater glory.

I want to do what you ask of me:
In the way you ask,
For as long as you ask,
Because you ask it.

Lord, enlighten my understanding,
Strengthen my will,
Purify my heart,
and make me holy.

Help me to repent of my past sins
And to resist temptation in the future.
Help me to rise above my human weaknesses
And to grow stronger as a Christian.

Let me love you, my Lord and my God,
And see myself as I really am:
A pilgrim in this world,
A Christian called to respect and love
All whose lives I touch,
Those under my authority,
My friends and my enemies.

Help me to conquer anger with gentleness,
Greed by generosity,
Apathy by fervor.
Help me to forget myself
And reach out toward others.

Make me prudent in planning,
Courageous in taking risks.
Make me patient in suffering, unassuming in prosperity.

Keep me, Lord, attentive at prayer,
Temperate in food and drink,
Diligent in my work,
Firm in my good intentions.

Let my conscience be clear,
My conduct without fault,
My speech blameless,
My life well-ordered.
Put me on guard against my human weaknesses.
Let me cherish your love for me,
Keep your law,
And come at last to your salvation.

Teach me to realize that this world is passing,
That my true future is the happiness of heaven,
That life on earth is short,
And the life to come eternal.

Help me to prepare for death
With a proper fear of judgment,
But a greater trust in your goodness.
Lead me safely through death
To the endless joy of heaven.

Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Pope Clement XI

Choosing Between the DaVinci Code and Over the Hedge

Barbara Nicolosi made a suggestion that has caught fire around the blogosphere. Instead of going to see the DaVinci Code go to see Over the Hedge.

But wait a minute.

Have y'all seen the trailers for Over the Hedge?

*shudder*

I've been dreading that children's movie for longer than I've been dreading the DaVinci Code.

So we should pay to go see one bad movie to make our objections against another bad movie? Hmmm ... I object strenuously to either being encouraged with our hard earned cash.

How about this? Her adoration idea is a good one. Let's all either go to adoration or, if that doesn't work for your schedule, stay home. Either way you're not pay for any intelligence-insulting dreck whether directed toward adults or children.

While you're home you can catch up on the summer blockbusters and why you might (or might not) want to watch them. I liked this about the DaVinci Code.

"What it's about: In the film adaptation of Dan Brown's mega-bestselling thriller, Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou follow a series of cryptic art-world clues to a long-kept religious secret.

Why it's probably a waste of time: Wasn't reading Brown's stilted, tortured prose bad enough, without having to hear Hanks declaim it too?

Why it might be worth seeing anyway: Given the film's massive budget, it's likely to look really, really good onscreen. Also, if everyone in the country goes to see it, maybe they'll finally burn out on Da Vinci Code fever and America can get a new national obsession.

Suggested alternate activity: Reading a good book, wishing someone would make a movie out of that instead."

Food for Thought: the Christian Family

Mike Aquilina at The Way of the Fathers has fast become a "must read" blog for me. Take a look at these two articles he wrote about the essential role of the Christian family in the development of the early Church and, indeed, in Christianity itself.

These are long but well worth the time. Eye opening and thought provoking, they tie in quite well to recent conversations generated both by my book club and by a weekly Bible study ... but I think they can be appreciated even without that "prep" work.

• Salt of the Empire: The Role of the Christian Family in Evangelization ... this actually was a follow up article to this post, The Stark Truth which is also well worth reading, as is the interview to which it links.


• Roman Cruelty, Christian Purity is a follow up article to the Salt of the Empire.

Gilligan = the devil?

This idea about Gilligan's Island from Orthodixie is both hilarious and thought provoking.

What Will We Do in Heaven? Part II

Peter Kreeft has an interesting answer to yesterday's question. It is one of intertwined goals. Not only does it make sense, but he even makes it sound like something I'd look forward to; like a giant house party where everyone is having the most fascinating conversations. This is heavily edited to make a readable length for the blog but I highly recommend reading the whole thing for yourself in Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven But Never Dreamed of Asking.

... First we review our past life with divine understanding and appreciation of our past life with divine understanding and appreciation of every single experience, good and evil: we milk all our meaning dry. Then we do the same to others' lives from within. We know them more intimately and completely than we could ever know our most intimate friend on earth because we share God's knowledge of each one. When these two preliminary lessons are complete - when we know, love, understand, and appreciate completely by inner experience everything we and everyone else have ever experienced - only then we are spiritually mature enough to begin the endless and endlessly fascinating task of exploring, learning, and loving the facets of infinity, the inexhaustible nature of God.

The idea is not new, for it corresponds to three traditional doctrines: Purgatory, the Communion of Saints, and the Beatific Vision. But each is given new life by being related to the others in this sequence. Purgatory turns out be part of Heaven rather than a distinct place, and consists of moral reeducation rather than mere punishment, rehabilitation rather than retribution. The communion of Saints is rescued from a vague, philanthropic goodwill and made as interesting as human love and communion on earth; getting to know people is in one way or another the only thing we find inexhaustible here as well as there. Finally, the contemplation of God is not boring because it is done with souls matured by the first two tasks. The difference this maturing makes is as great as the difference between a dying saint and a newborn baby...

Hey! It's That Towering Tough Guy!

... the real triumph for Adam Baldwin in 1980 was his role as Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard. For those sad, soul-bankrupt few of you who haven't seen this epochal film, Baldwin played a hulking, brooding loner with a mysterious and violent past. His protective services are retained by Chris Makepeace -- the spindly, afroed nerd -- in an effort to fend of Moody, a vicious school bully, played effectively by a then-unknown and too-young-to-shave Matt Dillon.

So Makepeace enlists Linderman, and then Moody gets his own bodyguard, this crazy guy, and then it turns out Linderman won't fight, and then the crazy guy throws Linderman's motorcycle in the lake...okay, now I'm going to start crying...

Ever since, Baldwin's been busy doing two things: (1) playing a string of nameless, towering toughs (he is 6'4", after all) in movies such as Predator 2, Wyatt Earp, and Independence Day, as well as appearing in countless lesser efforts (and you know we're veering into sketchy territory when we talk about "lesser efforts" to Predator 2 and Wyatt Earp) such as Cold Sweat, Deadbolt, and Sawbones. And (2) convincing people that he's not one of the Baldwin brothers. Because he's not. Seriously. It's Alec, Stephen, Billy, Daniel, Tito, Donnie, Ryan, "Ace," Stretchy, and Kip. No Adam.

Source

We never heard of Fametracker before picking up Hey! It's That Guy! for Tom's birthday.

In a family like ours, a book about character actors, especially when as wittily written as this one, is sure to be a hit. You can hardly turn around without having someone reading you a clever bit about some actor. And when you look at the photo ... "Hey! It's that guy ... who was in my mind's eye!"

We love the book and we love the website. Surely I'll be feature a few more H!ITG! profiles here in the future. They're irrisistible.

Vatican Reaction to Chinese Government's Illicit Ordination of Bishops

Vatican, May. 04 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has released a scorching criticism of the illicit ordination of two bishops for the government-approved "official" Church in China.

The statement charges that the government forced other Catholics to participate in the ceremonies, in a "grave violation of religious freedom." And it warned that the bishops ordained without the approval of the Holy See, and those who ordained them, are subject to excommunication.

The strong statement released on May 4 by Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls expressed the "profound displeasure" of Pope Benedict XVI at the two ordinations: of Bishop Ma Yinglin in Kunming on April 30 and Liu Xinhong in Wuhu on May 3.

The unauthorized episcopal ordinations, Navarro-Valls continued, constitute "a grave wound to the unity of the Church, for which severe canonical sanctions, as it is known, are foreseen." He cited #1382 of the Code of Canon Law. That canon stipulates excommunication as the penalty for any bishop who participates in an episcopal ordination without Vatican approval. However, the Vatican statement goes on to suggest that some participants in the two recent ordinations may have been acting under duress. "According to the information received," Navarro-Valls said, "bishops and priests have been subjected to- on the part of external entities to the Church-- strong pressures and to threats, so that they would take part in the episcopal ordinations."

Some clerics resisted this intimidation campaign, the Vatican reported, while others saw no alternative but to "submit with great interior suffering." By forcing bishops and priests to engage in an action "contrary to their conscience," the Vatican said, the Chinese government had committed a severe offense against religious freedom.

The AsiaNews service has noted reports from Chinese Catholics that the Catholic Patriotic Association has plans to consecrate 20 more bishops in similar illicit ceremonies. "If the news is true that other episcopal ordinations are to take place in the same manner," the Vatican statement warns, the "unacceptable acts of violence" seen in the past week must not be repeated.

"The Holy See follows with attention the troubled path of the Catholic Church in China," Navarro-Valls said. He added that Vatican officials had hoped that "similar deplorable episodes by now would belong to the past."

Source: Catholic World News

The only thing that I can imagine the Chinese government hopes to gain from this is to mislead Chinese Catholics. However, somehow I imagine that they are fairly well informed just through word of mouth. This is all just supposition on my part though.

What Will We Do in Heaven? Part I

Reposting this from a couple of years ago because it's just so good and we haven't had any Kreeft here in way too long.

Here's a common question. First of all, why do we care? Isn't it supposed to be perfect? Secondly, there's never a really satisfying sounding answer. Peter Kreeft tackles this in Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven But Never Dreamed of Asking.

Nevertheless, though the question "What do you do?" is not primary, it is important: first, because what we do flows from and reveals what we are; second, because what we do also flows into what we are, helps construct our selves. Third, creative work is a primary human need, and our conventional pictures of heaven are boring partly because they do not fulfill that need. Playing harps and polishing halos is an obviously bad answer to a good question. A second answer, the more philosophical alternative of an eternity of abstract contemplation of changeless truth, moves only philosophers (and even among them only the minority). The third, biblical answer, the enjoyment of God (Psalm 27:4), is true but must be fleshed out by the imagination. The mere words "the enjoyment of God" make sense only to those who already enjoy God; the vast majority of us seem to enjoy the vast majority of things vastly more than we enjoy God. (In fact, it is only God in these things that we enjoy, but we do not recognize that.)

We may even fear Heaven, consciously or unconsciously, because we fear boredom. Then death is truly terrible, for it offers only the two hellish alternatives of boredom or agony. Earth seems much more interesting than Heaven because there seems to be nothing to do in Heaven. What work needs to be done in a world of eternal perfection? Yet how can we be happy without creative work?

The answer to what we'll do coming tomorrow in Part II.

Chicago is Rose's Kinda Town

Rose's 16th birthday is next week and we all know what that means, right?

I'll put you out of your suspense. It means it's time to plan the father-daughter 16th birthday trip! Hannah chose San Francisco a couple of years ago ... just perfect for our almost hippie girl who loved tie dyed shirts at the time. She and Tom still talk fondly of the memories they made then.

Rose really didn't have any idea of where she wanted to go so I picked up a Fodor's USA guide. A few days ago she asked me to pick up a Chicago guide. The more she looked through it, the more excited she got. She has picked out every strange little museum and spot that they have for her and Tom to visit (that is her speciality by the way ... I'll never forget the doll museum in Paris ... who knew there was something like that tucked away being run by a couple of grandparents?).

More later, I'm sure but for now I'm almost jealous. Almost. (I've been to San Francisco, but not to Chicago.) I'm a grown up so I won't begrudge Tom and Rose this special time together.

But after the kids are out of school? And we have a little money again? Oh brother, is Tom gonna take me to Chicago!

Monsoon Wedding: Love — Exactly and Approximately

MONSOON WEDDING
This story of a large, Westernized, upper middle class Indian family gathering for a wedding is one that I watched several years ago. Somehow it didn't hit me then the way it did last weekend when I absolutely fell in love with it.

Aditi decides that her married boyfriend may never leave his wife so she agrees to an arranged marriage. The groom has been in Houston for four years and is flying back to India for the wedding. Aditi's father is struggling with stress as the wedding costs mount. As various families are added to the assemblage, we see the single cousins who are attracted to each other, the unmarried female cousin who has an old secret, the wedding event planner who falls desperately in love, and many other colorful characters. We also are given many glimpses of India itself as scene dividers. The scenes are so evocative of what I imagine the real place to be that it made me yearn to visit India and see all the seeming contradictions for myself.

It is rare to see a movie that is so charming and yet shows us so well many faces of love. We see the deep love of a father for his daughters, the respect and brotherly love of a man for his long-time family friend, the burgeoning love of two different couples from very different social backgrounds, and the dawning of love that comes for the wedding couple who are in an arranged marriage. We also are shown quite clearly the consequences of mistaking much baser emotions for true love. When that trust and faith is betrayed "everything is broken." However, we also are shown the power of forgiveness and the fruit it can bear.

I love the fact that the singing ismostly someone singing a line or two of a familiar song that others would pick up and sing. It really made me think of how much song is part of the Indian psyche.

This movie seems much more real than the recently popular Bride and Prejudice and certainly much less Westernized. I was charmed with the seemingly random mixture of English and Hindi (?) which everyone spoke. The English was difficult to understand before we became accustomed to the rhythm and pronunciation so you must listen carefully because when English is spoken there is no captioning. However, it does not take long for your ears to adjust and this is not a problem for too long.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

Scott Danielson and I discussed this at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

Hannah and Rose discussed it at An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast.

Bird Flu Hits Florida Trailer Park

From my in-box. Thanks Marcia!

Are You Reading Savage Chickens?

If not then you are missing a great comic pleasure every day. Reproduced with permission.

Back to Basics: The Basis for Belief in Transubstantiation

The miraculous changing of what was bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ that occurs during the Consecration at each and every Mass is called transubstantiation. It refers to the changing of substances, in this case, the substances of bread and wine into the substances of the Body and Blood of Jesus. Catholicism bases this belief in the transubstantiation on two points:

• In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, each writer uses the same phrase to describe the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, the day before Jesus was crucified. Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples and said, "This is My Body" (touto estin to soma mou in Greek; hoc est corpus meum in Latin). The verb to be is used such that an equality exists between This (which refers to the bread) and My Body. So the bread becomes the body of Christ. Because all three Gospels (Matthew 26:26, Mark 14:22, and Luke 22:19) meticulously repeat the exact same phrase, as does St. Paul (1 Corinthians 11:24), these sacred words must be taken literally.
• The words of the Last Supper spoken by Christ over the bread and wine are consistent with the New Testament: Jesus explicitly and graphically commanded, "Eat My flesh and drink My Blood," more than a few times. He also said, "My flesh is real food and my blood real drink." Some in the crowd said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" (John 6:52), and he responded, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:53). "After this, many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him," (John 6:66). The Church reasons that if Jesus had meant this to be symbolic, why would he allow so many of his followers to leave with a serious misunderstanding?
  

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Another Review That Makes Me Want to See "Flight 93"

Even if you don't want to see the movie, go read this first rate review ... 21st-Century Thermopylae.

I Can't Believe It Took Me So Long to Proclaim My Elite Status

It's an elite group.

It doesn't have to be that way though. Contact KT Cat to get on his notification list (check his site for the email address).

That Sound You Heard?

It was my mind blowing ... I'm tellin' ya'll, the Catechism is mind altering material. Handle with care.

What Is It About May?

Maybe May is Mary's month because mothers need a little help with sanity.

Our kids are past the age where they both have a play, musical program, awards ceremony and sports playoff in which to participate ... however ... just when I thought it was safe to not cringe when turning my calendar to May ...

First, May is our family festival month. Kicked off with Tom's birthday on April 30, we have also Rose's birthday, our wedding anniversary, and my birthday. See why I don't care about Mother's Day? I've had enough celebrating this month ...

Second, this year Hannah is graduating from high school. A joyous occasion to be sure and we are so proud of how well she has done with handling pressure and bringing home fantastic grades ... not to mention snagging a spot at A&M when it is apparently impossible (we didn't have any idea until hearing wave after wave of parents be incredulous that Hannah wasn't in the top 10% of her grade, didn't have an impressive resume of time-filling extra activities, etc.). So that means a senior class dinner, mother-daughter senior tea, graduation practice, Baccalaureate Mass, oh ... and the graduation itself. Probably with relatives in town, depending on various schedules. So there is that.

Then, we must not forget other obligations.

Such as Rose's Julius Caesar video project for English. Which requires five people spending the night for at least one weekend (probably two) for practice, on-location filming (at our office, which will involve Tom as camera man) and post-video production. Luckily Rose is a genius video editor but there is always something that seems to go wrong with transfers or some such thing, so that is where Tom steps in.

And, lest we forget, it has been quite some time since Hannah has had a shindig with her friends here ... and we hear through the grapevine that this is a popular location ... "so relaxed." That is the value of preparing mounds and mounds of food to have available at all times and then getting out of the way. Except for discreet supervision, of course, which hardly is needed with these kids. They are all good 'uns. Hannah and Rose have been negotiating times and dates to avoid Mother's Day. Hardly a problem around here (where I scorn it), but it does put a cramp in all the other kids' schedules for overnights. So far, I think we have it down to one weekend with overlapping gangs spending the night.

Good thing that we like having all these kids around! And I enjoy feeding them. It takes very little effort and they are always gratifyingly ravenous ... and appreciative.

May is Mary's Month

William Bouguereau (1825-1905)
L'innocence [Innocence]

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

The Homily

I can't match everything that Cathy Ward manages to communicate in exquisite brevity ... but will try. You will just have to imagine Fr. L's wonderful oratory style that leaves most people wanting to shout, "Amen" when he is done. Here goes nothing...

"It is not enough to know Jesus if we don't show it in our actions, words, and lives. Go show it."

Flight 93 Review

From Madeleine comes this review. I have pulled it out of the comments box because she did such a good job of describing the essence of the film and why she liked it ... and she may have convinced me to go see this movie.

I wanted to wait until I saw Flight 93 to weigh in on this discussion. I have just seen it, and it is one of the finest efforts I have seen in years of moviegoing. I am ready to say that this one will be a classic, along with Tora Tora Tora and films of that general type.

I want to say that the key to this film is the unquenchable courage of the human spirit. This is about a battle in the sky - a truly significant battle fought by ordinary American citizens. And of all the documentaries, re-enactments, narrations, etc., that I have seen dealing with that day, this is superior to and unlike any of them. It is gripping and spellbinding, and you will be proud of these people, and also get a good look at "the fog of war" and what the people in the FAA and military were dealing with.

The movie starts so very slowly, capturing the ordinary, familiar, even boring atmosphere perfectly. What we then are treated to is the story of how the ordinary people (just like me, just like you, just like our friends and neighbors) came to grips with a situation that became clearer and more perilous with each bit of gleaned information. I am so proud of those people words can't express it.

Please don't dismiss this movie expecting blood (very little), scenes of slaughter, etc. You won't find them. What you will find is an exceptional group of heroes. And if heroism makes you cry, then yes, you might want to tuck a Kleenex in your pocket. Sorry for the long comment and "mini-review", but as you can tell, I was very impressed. And I still haven't seen Saving Private Ryan, because I can't take violent movies.

Mini-Lit For the Weekend

This is all shamelessly stolen from Cathy Ward who you should all be reading anyway. She has taken the Books-in-a-Minute idea and run with it. She's got a gift for sure.

Mere Christianity
by C.S. Lewis

You can believe Jesus is the Savior of the world or not.
But if you don't, you're dumb.

THE END

===============

The Great Divorce
by C. S. Lewis

"Is this Purgatory, or is this Hell?"
Only you can decide.

THE END

=================

The Old Testament
by Various

God made it.
Man fouled it up.
God was mad.
And He certainly had a right to be mad.
Lots of turtledoves died.

THE END

===============

The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio
By Dante Alighieri

Dante: "You know what, Virgil? You're my best friend.
No - I mean it. I can't imagine being here without you.
I really love you, man. I just - - - - - Woah! Virgil, look over there!
Is that - Beatrice?! Man, she's hot."


Dante: (Turns to Virgil)
"Gotta go, V. Take it easy."

FIN

"Jesus is not a zombie!"

BONES

I don't know if anyone else out there is watching Bones but we just watched last week's show which took place in New Orleans and was heavily into voodoo.

This show is a good example of what happens if a network leaves a newbie on for more than three episodes so that character development can happen and plotlines can acquire depth (in this case, so that mysteries can actually mislead us, unlike the plots in the beginning of the series).

I find it especially interesting in the contrast between the forensic anthropologist, Dr. Brennan, and her FBI partner, Booth. She looks at practically all human interaction, and practices through an impassionate anthropological lens. Booth is a Christian and occasionally will contradict her to put forward his faith (or that of others) as motivation or cause for events. In this episode we discovered that he is Catholic.

Now none of this has a huge bearing on the overall show. However, in terms of being the direct opposite of the impartial view that Dr. Brennan consistently posits, it is an interesting emphasis to see brought up time and again. I can't remember which episode but it even was the subject of conversation for all the characters at one point: faith versus no faith. This is not the sort of thing that is usually seen on TV and I enjoy it because I think it mirrors real life more than most television shows acknowledge. At least, that is the sort of thing that seems to come up in my daily life more often than not.

(Just FYI, the headline quote was Booth's response to Dr. Brennan making a direct comparison between voodoo and Christianity based on Jesus' resurrection.)

Back to Basics: Transubstantiation

Catholicism professes that during the Consecration, a miracle occurs — the priest consecrates the bread and wine: Just as Jesus did at the Last Supper, the priest takes the bread in the form of a Host and says, "This is My body." Then he elevates the Host for the congregation to see, bells are rung, and he genuflects. Then he takes the chalice (cup) of wine, saying "This is the cup of My blood," elevates the chalice, and genuflects. Now it's the body and blood of Christ — it still looks, feels and tastes like bread and wine, but it's not. This change of bread and wine into the real Body and Blood of Christ is called transubstantiation.

The Bible says that God created merely by speaking: "God said, 'Let there be light' and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). Likewise, by merely speaking the words of Christ over the bread and wine during Holy Communion, the priest changes them into the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ through the authority given to him by the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Only an ordained priest has the authority to say Mass and consecrate the bread and wine.

Catholics kneel before the consecrated Host — the Eucharist — because it's not a piece of bread anymore — it truly is Christ. If the Holy Eucharist were just a symbol — such as bread and wine — then kneeling down and adoring it would be considered idolatry, but the Catholic Church has staunchly asserted for 2,000 years that the Holy Eucharist isn't a symbol. The Holy Eucharist is his body and blood. Therefore, the Holy Eucharist is Christ himself present in the consecrated Host...

Catholicism for Dummies by John Trigilio

Literary Post of the Week

The Confessions of St. Augustine
By St. Augustine

St. Augustine

I was a bad boy. Damn, was I a bad boy. Not anymore, though.

THE END

Book-a-Minute Classics

Back to Basics: Prayer and the Mass

Traditionally, Catholicism has four kinds of prayer.

• Adoration: Praising God.
  
• Contrition: Asking for God's forgiveness.
  
• Petition: Asking God for a favor.
• Thanksgiving: Showing God gratitude.
  

The Church believes that the Mass is the highest and supreme form of prayer, so it has all four elements in it. The Gloria is the adoration part of prayer, whereas the Confiteor and Penitential Rite are the contrition part. Later in the Mass, after the homily (sermon) and the Nicene Creed, comes the Prayer of the Faithful, also known as the General intercessions, which is a prayer of petition. The thanksgiving part comes after Holy Communion, when gratitude is shown for all the graces given at Mass.

Catholicism for Dummies by John Trigilio

4th Book Dropped

The Cell by Stephen King

Ok, I can hear it now. Yes, I should have known better. However, I was intrigued by the idea of a cell phone pulse that turns everyone into zombies.

Unfortunately it seemed that King has picked up his sense of timing from Jon Bon Jovi ("don't bore us, get to the chorus"). No character development, just blast us right into the gross horror and never quit. I got as far as the characters noticing a "hive mind" sort of development as well as "flocking behavior" ... got bored and quit.

Guess I'll go back to my usual Stephen King tactics ... keep rereading The Stand and The Shining and ignore his new books.

Love is More Than Feelings

Love for God does not consist in sensible feelings, although these too may be given to us by Our Lord so as to help us to be more generous. It consists essentially in the full identification of our will with that of God ...

Love is repaid with love, but it must be genuine love, which is seen in specific ways in the fulfillment of our duties toward God and towards others, even when our feelings do not incline us in this direction, and it may be for us an uphill struggle. The highest perfection consists not in interior favors or in great raptures, wrote St. Teresa, but in the Will of God that, as soon as we realize that he wills anything, we desire it ourselves with all our might.

In the service of God, a Christian should be guided by faith an in this way overcome the ups and downs of moods. To guide myself by mere sentiment would be like putting a servant in charge of the household and causing the master to relinquish his position. Sentiment is not what is bad, but the importance that is given to it ... In certain souls the emotions constitute all their piety, to such an extent that they are convinced that they have lost it whenever the feeling goes away ... If only these souls could understand that this is precisely the moment in which to begin to have it (J. Tissot, The Interior Life).

Lent and Eastertide (In Conversation with God, Vol. 2)

Laura H's Blog

For those of us, and we know who we are, who know Laura H. personally ... here is her blog. It has much to recommend it whether you know Laura or not. I especially was taken by her post today about confession.

Mozart Remix

Papa and his iPod. Via WardWideWeb.

No Man is an Island

ABOUT A BOY

It is rare that a movie has the plot synopsis as the very first lines, but the theme is aptly posed by the British "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" game show host, "Who said 'no man is an island?" Fliply answered by Hugh Grant's character, Will, "Jon Bon Jovi," we see another main aspect to the movie. He's shallow, admits it right up front and uses his money and charm to get him what he wants. He maintains that he is an island and that it is the best way to live, unencumbered by problems.

When Will decides that single mums are the best women to date and goes seeking the best venue to meet them, he encounters Marcus, a misfit school boy. Marcus, in turn, tries to recruit Will to date his suicidal mother in an attempt to get "back up" for when things go bad. Ostensibly about Will's attempts to find suitable girl friends, and ultimately love, the story actually is about how both "boys" influence each other to find happiness.

I've seen this movie many times and am struck by how consistently enjoyable it is. Toni Collette is a delight as the suicidal, hippie mom who dresses outlandishly and, in a sudden paroxym of need, shouts across the schoolyard to Marcus, "I love you." Nicholas Hoult is perfect as Marcus who loves his mother and will call, "I love you too, Mum" back across the schoolyard even though he knows exactly the beating this will earn him from all the bullies. Hugh Grant hits the exact right notes as the selfish but charming bachelor who has just enough empathy for an unhappy boy to make a mimimum of effort to help him out.

HC Rating: **** Nine thumbs up.

Sent to Preach

This excerpt is talking about when the twelve disciples were sent out to proclaim "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 10). It never occurred to me to wonder how the apostles felt about it. Jesus spoke and so they did it. But thinking of how reluctant I feel to put myself out there sometimes ... they must have felt much the same, at least at the beginning.

Matthew and John and Peter (whose Gospel Mark wrote) were among the six pairs of apostles sent out on that first mission (Mt 10). No one of them gives us a single detail. Yet it may well have been the most nerve-racking experience any of them had yet had. To begin with, they had been ordered to take the road with no money and no food, wearing nothing but what they stood up in — they went out as mendicant friars would later go. They were to live on what they were given, and for men not rich indeed but respectably brought up, this could have been trying.

Yet it was as nothing to what they had been told they must do. We can imagine the cold pain in the back and the gulp as they steeled themselves to their first miracle — would the disease obey them? Would the devils? Their first sermon might have meant a chiller pain, a more sickening gulp — anyone who remembers his own first speech will know about that. And preaching was such a long way away from fishing, or even tax collecting. Fishermen had no training as prophets, tax collectors still less.

Their instructions were so very exacting (some indeed envisioned a wider apostolate than this first one). They were to be wise as serpents — considering the part that the serpent's cunning had played in the Fall of man, it is interesting that our Lord mentions its wisdom. It is faintly surprising that he offers is apostles the serpent for their imitation at all.

The dove also is held up for their imitation. Yet there is nothing dovelike in what they must do is any house or city will not receive them or hear their words: "Going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet" (Mt 10:14). This shaking the dust from the feet was an exclusively Jewish gesture — Jews used it, for instance, when returning to the Holy Land from the lands of the Gentiles. The apostles must have been startled to be instructed to use it against their fellow Jews.

To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheed

Back to Basics: Uniting Past, Present, and Future

The Catholic Church professes that the Mass isn't just a reenactment of the Last Supper, when Jesus took bread and wine and said the words, "This is My body," and "This is My blood," (Matthew 26:26-29). More than a ceremonial reenactment of an ancient ritual, the Mass combines past, present, and future at the same time.

• Past: The exact words and elements that Jesus used at the Last Supper on Holy Thursday are used faithfully and precisely.
• Present: The Mass brings grace, nourishment, and instruction for the people who are present.
• Future: It foreshadows the sacred banquet in heaven. Jesus often spoke of a heavenly banquet or wedding feast where guests would be well fed, lasting for eternity and surviving well after the world ends.

The Mass is pivotal, because it transports the participants back in time to Christ's Last Supper with his apostles, Christ's Passion and death on the cross, and his Resurrection and the empty tomb on the first Easter Sunday. The same words that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper are used to consecrate the same things that Jesus used back then — bread and wine — during the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist. The same sacrifice is offered — namely, the Son is sacrificed to the Father on behalf of all humankind. The same risen Christ comes to enter the souls of each person at Holy Communion when the congregation eat and drink his living (risen, not dead) flesh and blood.

Catholicism for Dummies by John Trigilio

He Wants to Spend More Time With His Family ...

Dallas' cathedral's pastor has gone and no one's talking. In the diocese of Dallas that usually means only one thing. The law's on the way and the bishop's employing duck and cover tactics.

The pastor of Dallas' Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe suddenly left his high-profile post this week, stunning staff members and leaving fellow clergymen in the dark.

Catholic Bishop Charles Grahmann has tightly guarded news about the Rev. Ramon Alvarez's departure, which the priest disclosed to some co-workers Monday. By late this week, many other local clerics didn't know that it had happened, much less why.

Father Alvarez – who is a potential witness in two upcoming child-sex cases and has previously admitted misconduct with an adult – drove away from his mother's home without commenting Friday when reporters asked to speak with him.

Bronson Havard, the bishop's spokesman, wouldn't answer when a reporter asked whether the priest was in trouble. He later released a statement saying that the departure was "not related in any way to inappropriate conduct with a minor."

Full story at Dallas Morning News
(free registration required)

Of course, it is my cynical and suspicious mind that recalls Fr. Alvarez admitting to inappropriate sexual contact with a fully grown man who was not a minor.

I hope this all turns out to be a tempest in a teapot. If so the diocese is choosing an awfully strange way of putting rumors to rest ...

Remember Goliad! Remember the Alamo!

You mean to tell me that I had to find out it's San Jacinto Day from an emailing pal? (Thanks Don!) It wasn't even in the newspaper (well, ok, the front page of a section of the newspaper which is the stuff I read ... except for the comics ... but now I'm off track...).

Let's all go get a few margaritas and lift them high to the Texian heroes of the decisive battle of the Texas revolution!

Catholic Question of the Day

Here's a good question from a pal...

What the heck is a solemnity?

How handy that I remembered having posted about this ... and found it way back at the beginning of 2005. How time flies!

I'll put it all below as I found it interesting to read through again. NOTE: Fr. Stephanos made some good comments that I am using to amend the excerpt below. His comments are italicized.

We got our new Church calendar a week or so ago. Tom immediately started comparing it to the one he has set up for our church's web site (he's the web servant). Then the question arose as to what all those saint day celebrations actually meant ... solemnity, memorial, optional memorial ... what's the difference?

Here is a great source that answers all those questions. From most important to least here is what all those celebrations are:

SOLEMNITY
A Solemnity of the Roman Catholic Church observes an event in the life of Jesus, Mary, and the saints, beginning on the evening prior to actual date. Solemnity is made up of Latin words solet and annus, meaning a yearly (annual) celebration. They are observed throughout the entire Church.

A solemnity can be observed like a Sunday: it has vigil Mass the evening before. Also, any solemnity that coincides with a Sunday can take the place of the Sunday (but not during Advent and Lent).

Solemnities observed by the Roman Church

• January 1: Mary, Mother of God (formerly known as the Feast of the Circumcision)
• Sunday between Jan 2 & 8: Epiphany, in United States only; elsewhere January 6
• March 19: Joseph, Husband of Mary
• March 25: Annunciation
• March/April (varies): Easter Triduum
• 40 days after Easter: Ascension of the Lord
• 50 days after Easter: Pentecost
• Sunday after Pentecost: Holy Trinity
• Sunday after Holy Trinity: Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi)
• Friday after Body & Blood: Sacred Heart
• June 24: Birth of John the Baptist
• June 29: Peter and Paul, Apostles
• August 15: Assumption of Mary
• November 1: All Saints
• November (varies, always Sunday): Christ the King
• December 8: Immaculate Conception
• December 25: Christmas

FEAST
Religious feasts celebrate or commemorate certain concepts or events in the history of their respective religion with particular traditions and rituals.

A feast can take the place of a Sunday only if the feast is a feast of the Lord himself. For example, the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord (August 6) or the Triumph of the Cross (September 14).

MEMORIAL
In the Roman Catholic Church, a Memorial is a feast day of relatively low importance. However, all priests must recall the saint commemorated in their Masses and the Liturgy of the Hours.

OPTIONAL MEMORIAL
In the Roman Catholic Church, an optional memorial is the lowest class of the feast day. The priest is permitted to celebrate the feast day or not as he chooses. (See Memorial.) The saints or events celebrated in these feast days are considered to be of less universal importance to the Church. In addition, as long as no feast day of higher rank is foreseen for a particular day, a priest is permitted to celebrate a feast day that does not appear in his local calendar as an optional memorial, normally out of personal devotion to the saint.

Something that I thought was very interesting was that our calendar has on every month in capital red letters FRIDAY REMAINS A SPECIAL DAY OF PENITENTIAL OBSERVANCE. I have read in several places that although there is no stricture specifically against meat on Friday anymore this is merely so that people can put their own memorial penitence into place. As one source said (wish I could remember which), most people will find that the easiest one to implement is abstinence from meat ... and this is true in our household. After Rose suddenly held my feet to the fire about Friday penitence about two months ago we have done our best to just keep meat out of the diet on that day. It's amazing how difficult that can be and also amazing how it does a good job of reminding you why you are observing that penance.

Fear and Loathing ... at the Movies

For those who can't believe that I haven't seen Schindler's List or the The Godfather (or a few others), I must explain that two emotions dominate in my specific avoidance of those movies. Hand in hand with this is my desire to actually enjoy a movie ... which many of these make difficult through subject matter.

Of course, those are fear (of being traumatized) and/or loathing (of a particular subject or actor).

Specifically:

• Schindler's List - Fear: I still haven't recovered from Sophie's Choice which can make me break down and weep if I think about it too much. The trailers for Schindler's List left me in about the same shape. Sorry but I'm not going there voluntarily.
• The Godfather - Fear: cold blooded gangster movies, however well done, aren't gonna go down well. Loathing: Marlon Brando. Great actor no doubt but I can't stand him. 'Nuff said.
• Pulp Fiction - Fear: see notes from The Godfather above.
• Shawshank Redemption - Loathing: Tim Robbins. (Although I probably will see this movie eventually despite that. I saw Master and Commander despite my loathing for Russell Crowe and enjoyed it.)

Mission Impossible 3 ... Best of the Bunch?

So says Harry at Ain't It Cool.

He mentions two things I didn't know before ... it is directed by J.J. Abrams and has Philip Seymor Hoffman as the villain (second only to Goldfinger, says Harry). He says this movie is the best ever retooling of True Lies (a favorite of mine except for the overlong fight scenes which dominate the end).

Hmmm, I am going to have to rethink my previous disinterest now...

Back to Basics: Penance

Catholics believe that the Holy Mother Church gives birth in the Sacrament of Baptism, nourishes in the Holy Eucharist, helps Catholics grow in Confirmation, and heals in the Sacrament of Penance.

Medicine and therapy can heal a wounded body, but Catholics believe that only God's grace can heal a wounded soul. That's why Jesus left the Sacrament of Penance to heal our spiritual wounds, which we call sin.

Often, people think of sin only as breaking God's laws. Sure, stealing, lying, and murdering break some of the Ten Commandments and are considered sinful. But Catholics believe that God said, "Thou shalt not," because he knew these sinful actions would wound spiritually.

Catholics think of sin like a bacteria or virus to the soul. When a person lies, cheats, steals, or murders, it's like being infected with millions of deadly germs. The longer the infection is left untreated, the more it spreads and worsens. It wounds and can even kill the life of grace that enables entry into heaven.

Just as tumors are benign or malignant, Catholics believe that sins are venial or mortal. In other words, some sins aren't considered as serious as others and merely inflict a slight wound to the soul, but others are so intrinsically evil that they're considered deadly. They're called mortal sins, because they can kill grace.

The Sacrament of Penance (also known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession) is for spiritual healing. According to the Gospels, after the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the apostles, breathed on them, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained," (John 20:22-23).

Because Jesus gave the apostles the power to forgive sins, he must have wanted them to use it. So the Sacrament of Penance has been the very will of Christ from day one.

Catholicism for Dummies by John Trigilio

This was really brought home to me the last time I went to Confession. The priest was giving me several steps to do ... he kept repeating, "to heal your wounded soul." I realized that I had been thinking in terms of having broken a rule but not of the consequence to me. It was very soothing to think of my "wounded soul" being restored.

3rd Book Dropped This Year

On the Road with Francis of Assisi : A Timeless Journey Through Umbria and Tuscany, and Beyond

I got about a third of the way through this story of a woman and her husband following St. Francis' trail through Italy and realized what was missing. The passion of personal insight. Yes, they are physically following his trail so we get a fairly good biography of the saint. However, the most we see of the couple themselves is little details such as they had a tough time in Bologna just like St. Francis ... neither could get lodging. Wow, don't knock me over with those personal revelations!

Thanks, but I'd like a little more from the author than that. I am thinking of such books as John Paul the Great, Virgin Trails, or The Miracle Detective. If I wanted to read a straight biography of St. Francis I'd have gone to a different source. And that wasn't my main interest here.

I've Heard of Blood Brothers But This is Ridiculous

Of course, that is often the case with the tortured translations featured at Engrish.com.

How Amateurish Am I?

Very. I still haven't stopped laughing over this.

At least I'm in good company. Check out the new additions to Amateur Catholic.

Pope Benedict XVI - One Year Later

What can I say? I was thrilled when he was chosen ... wanting to jump up and down and clap my hands and drive around honking my horn.

A year afterward ... I love him. I am still thrilled that we have such a shepherd.

More eloquent people than I have said it much better, so I will direct you to:

• John Allen for the analysis
• Amy Welborn whose thoughts mirror my own amazingly
  

Casting Out Devils

There are many Christian circles in which even to admit belief that there is a devil makes one an object of curiosity. In such circles Christ's casting out of devils is never mentioned voluntarily at all; if some amused unbeliever raises the matter, the answer is that Jesus himself knew better, but found it saved trouble to use the language of the people of his own day, who, to a man, were confirmed believers in the devil.

But this view can arise only out of a prolonged abstention from Gospel reading. Jesus was not that sort of person. On a matter of no importance he might have used ordinary ways of speech. But he would never have used a way of speech, however ordinary, that was based on a religious error. When his disciples assumed that a man was born blind either because of sins he would one day commit or sins his parents had already committed (Jn 9:2), he told them plainly that neither of them was the cause.

Further, when we come to read some of the accounts of expulsions of demons, we should feel that he would have been carrying the use of popular ideas and popular language rather far, if he did not believe that there were any demons there. For he spoke to them, commanded them, questioned them, granted a request made by them, ordered them to be silent about himself. Further still, when he sent the Twelve out on their first mission without him, he expressly gave them the power to cast out devils (Mt 10:8)...

... there can be similarity between diabolic possession and nervous disease: the Catholic Church makes strenuous efforts to be sure that demons are actually present before she resorts to exorcism: it is possible even for the very skilled to be deceived — to the amusement, perhaps, of such demons as happen to be watching from the sideline. But Jesus could not be mistaken. At times we find him treating deafness, dumbness (Mk 7:32-35), blindness (Mk 8:22-26), with no mention of demons, his commands being addressed only to the afflicted body or the bodily affliction.

I have said that he orders demons out. It is fascinating to compare the speed and almost casualness of his exorcisms with the form prescribed in the Church — which occupies thirty pages of the Rituale Romanum...

He [Jesus] simply ordered the demons out, exactly as he had ordered their leader away after the third temptation. And they had to go. They might plead, they might abuse, but they went. Their inability to resist his word must have convinced them, as no miracle could, that he was something new in the world.

To Know Christ Jesus by Frank Sheed

Back to Basics: Receiving Holy Communion

When believers receive Holy Communion, they're intimately united with their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. However, Communion isn't limited to the communicant (the one receiving Holy Communion) and Jesus Christ. By taking Holy Communion, the Catholic is also expressing union with all Catholics around the world and at all times who believe the same doctrines, obey the same laws, and follow the same leaders. This is why Catholics (and Eastern Orthodox Christians) have a strict law that only people who are in communion with the Church can receive Holy Communion. In other words, only those who are united in the same beliefs — the seven sacraments, the authority of the pope, and the teachings in the Catechism of the Catholic Church — are allowed to receive Holy Communion.

In Protestant tradition, Communion is often seen as a means of building unity among various denominations, and many have open Communion, meaning that any baptized Christian can take Communion in their services. Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, see communion not as the means but as the final fruit of unity. So only those in communion can receive Holy Communion. It has nothing to do with who's worthy...

Similarly, Catholics who don't follow the Church's laws on divorce and remarriage, or who obstinately reject Church teaching, such as the inherent evil of abortions shouldn't go to Communion, because they're no longer in communion. It's not a judgment on their moral or spiritual state, because only God can know that. But receiving Holy Communion is a public act, and therefore, it's an ecclesiastical action requiring those who do it to be united with all that the Church teaches and commands and with all the ways that the Church prays.

Catholicism for Dummies by John Trigilio

I'm Curious

How many people were in various RCIA classes that were brought into the Church last Saturday?

The reason being that my group in 2000 had about 95 people in it. Around 75 catechumens were confirmed at our parish this year from what I understand.

I thought these were fairly normal numbers. However, I am not getting that impression now after reading people's account of the Easter Vigil. It seems that the average number was much smaller although it could be that these were less populated areas than ours.

Of course, one person entering the Church is reason for great rejoicing. I am definitely not trying to play any sort of comparison game ... I'm just surprised ... and curious ...

The Price of Deregulation: Rolling Blackouts

So now we see the price of deregulating the electric industry. They have to operate closer to the edge than ever. Maintenance overhauls were scheduled at several plants planning on the usual cooler weather that didn't have everyone's air conditioner working overtime. So they were out of the grid when the weather in Dallas hit an unseasonable 101 (I knew it seemed like summer today!) and the electric company had to institute rolling blackouts through the town. Not too long, maybe 15 or 20 minutes at a time. But that's the price we pay ...

Big Buncha Deep Thinkin' on the CCC

Gee whiz, everybody over at Catholic Catechism Dialogue Blog must have been chomping at the bit waiting for Easter to come so they could start posting.

Me? I took yesterday off (gaining compliments from the entire family as I didn't flip on the computer until evening).

As always, I did have a couple of thoughts ... these about the Catechism in general ... so although I'm late to the starting post I have joined the rest of the pack.

What Happened Here?

Ok, no fair Googling ...

What happened in Fairmont, West Virginia, on July 5, 1908?

Aren't y'all glad that we all got these trivia style daily calendars for Christmas?





UPDATE
The answer in "invisi-script"...

A special church service memorialized the fathers among some 350 West Virginia coal miners who had died in an accident the previous December; many consider the observance to have been the first formal celebration of Father's Day. The holiday was not officially established until 1972, when President Richard Nixon signed it into law. (It is observed on the third Sunday in June, however, not in July.)

Back to Basics: The Holy Eucharist

Of all seven sacraments, the Holy Eucharist is the most central and important to Catholicism, because of the staunch belief that the consecrated bread and wine are actually, really, truly, and substantially the body and blood, soul and divinity of Christ. For Catholics, the presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist is not just symbolic, allegorical, metaphorical, or merely spiritual. It's real. That's why it's also called the Real Presence —because Christ really is present.

Catholicism for Dummies by John Trigilio