Suicide by Choice? Not So Fast

I received this link last week from a friend who said: "An interesting article in the New York Times by a man who suffers profound disabilities. The writer explains he is against the assisted-suicide bill pending in Massachusetts (I think) because of concerns that disabled patients might be coerced into death."

It was enlightening indeed.

NEXT week, voters in Massachusetts will decide whether to adopt an assisted-suicide law. As a good pro-choice liberal, I ought to support the effort. But as a lifelong disabled person, I cannot.

There are solid arguments in favor. No one will be coerced into taking a poison pill, supporters insist. The “right to die” will apply only to those with six months to live or less. Doctors will take into account the possibility of depression. There is no slippery slope.

Fair enough, but I remain skeptical. There’s been scant evidence of abuse so far in Oregon, Washington and Montana, the three states where physician-assisted death is already legal, but abuse — whether spousal, child or elder — is notoriously underreported, and evidence is difficult to come by. What’s more, Massachusetts registered nearly 20,000 cases of elder abuse in 2010 alone.

My problem, ultimately, is this: I’ve lived so close to death for so long that I know how thin and porous the border between coercion and free choice is, how easy it is for someone to inadvertently influence you to feel devalued and hopeless — to pressure you ever so slightly but decidedly into being “reasonable,” to unburdening others, to “letting go.”

Perhaps, as advocates contend, you can’t understand why anyone would push for assisted-suicide legislation until you’ve seen a loved one suffer. But you also can’t truly conceive of the many subtle forces — invariably well meaning, kindhearted, even gentle, yet as persuasive as a tsunami — that emerge when your physical autonomy is hopelessly compromised.

Do go read the whole thing, especially if you live in an area where this is an issue to be voted upon tomorrow.

I Greet You, People of the Past

I will not turn my clock back. I will be living one hour in the future. I greet you, the People of the Past. Your ways are quaint.

Best Twitter Quote of the Day ... via Joseph Susanka.

Health-Care Law Spurs a Shift to Part-Time Workers

Some low-wage employers are moving toward hiring part-time workers instead of full-time ones to mitigate the health-care overhaul's requirement that large companies provide health insurance for full-time workers or pay a fee.

Several restaurants, hotels and retailers have started or are preparing to limit schedules of hourly workers to below 30 hours a week. That is the threshold at which large employers in 2014 would have to offer workers a minimum level of insurance or pay a penalty starting at $2,000 for each worker.

The Wall Street Journal's story Health-Care Law Spurs a Shift to Part-Time Workers discusses a change that never even occurred to me in considering the Affordable Care Act. When does health insurance hurt workers? When employers are squeezed so that they can't take any other measures.

Reading the article, I thought these employers were jerks. And then I got to the examples.

Pillar Hotels & Resorts this summer began to focus more on hiring part-time workers among its 5,500 employees, after the Supreme Court upheld the health-care overhaul, said Chief Executive Chris Russell. The company has 210 franchise hotels, under the Sheraton, Fairfield Inns, Hampton Inns and Holiday Inns brands.

"The tendency is to say, 'Let me fill this position with a 40-hour-a-week employee.' "Mr. Russell said. "I think we have to think differently."

Pillar offers health insurance to employees who work 32 hours a week or more, but only half take it, and Mr. Russell wants to limit his exposure to rising health-care costs. He said he planned to pursue new segments of the population, such as senior citizens, to find workers willing to accept part-time employment.

And I had to think differently. This employer is offering insurance in good faith. But the government's Affordable Care Act would penalize him for something that half of his employees are essentially turning down. They evidently don't need it.

And the employers are going to have to find ways around it to survive.

A bad situation forced upon all of them by the lack of thought that went into the Affordable Care Act.

If you have to ask, you're streets behind.

Pierce: Ay-bed, your social skills aren't exactly "streets ahead." Know what I mean?

Abed: [thinks] I don't.

Jeff: You're not alone in this case. Pierce, stop trying to coin the phrase "streets ahead."

Pierce: Trying? Coined and minted! Been there, coined that! "Streets ahead" is verbal... wildfire!

Annie: Does it just mean "cool," or is it supposed to be like, "miles ahead"?

Pierce: If you have to ask, you're streets behind.

Any Community watchers remember the episode where Pierce tried to coin "streets ahead" as slang. Which rapidly spread throughout the campus.

However, Rose was watching Help (that great old Beatles movie) lately and was stunned that one of the electricians used "streets ahead" as slang. Yes, way back in 1965 in England.

Turns out it is actual British slang.

In looking around, Tom found this great site, Not One Off Britishisms, which tells us all about it.

Who knew we were all streets behind on this? No one. That's who.

Yours is the Church: How Catholicism Shapes Our World - Mike Aquilina

Yours Is the Church: How Catholicism Shapes Our World by Mike Aquilina

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What has the Catholic Church done for humanity?

If you listen to popular culture today, you might get the impression that the Church is the universal enemy. The Church stands inthe way of progress. It exploits the poor. It oppresses women and children. It condemns everything that's good in our culture. And above all, it stands opposed to science and reason.

You've heard it all so often that, even if you're Catholic, you might half-believe it. But it's all wrong, and this book is going to show you why.

There are lots of books about great Catholics who have also been scientists, musicians, artists, or leaders--people who have done some good inthe world, even though they're Catholic. This book isn't like that. This book makes a much bigger and more startling claim: Everything about our modern world we think is good is there because of the Church.

The only reason we care about the poor is because Christianity has won. The only reason the rights of women and children are important is because the Church has made them important. The only reason we have science is because the Church taught us how to think.

This book is full of unbelievable statements like that. My hope is that, by the end of the book, you'll believe them all.

Yours is the Church that built up the best in modern culture. And yours is the church that has constantly defended the best against the horrors that rise against it. It's an exciting story, roaming up and down through two thousand years of history.

This introduction to the book gives a better overview than I could.

Aquilina covers various ways our civilization has benefited overall, and continues to do, from Catholicism's 2,000 years of cultural influence. Topics include: respect for women, the dignity of children, art, literature, music, charity, and more. He makes the points clearly by showing what pagan culture was like before Christianity, the influence of Christians on that culture overall, and then shows how our Christianity-infused culture is still shaped by that influence.

One of the things I liked best about this book is that Aquilina comes from such a positive point of view. As our priest often says, teaching from a positive point of view gets much further than stressing the negative continually. I have read many a book that sets out to refute the myths of what "everyone knows" about the Catholic Church. They may be effective for a few but they are often negative in tone which makes them difficult to read or care about if you are not fascinated by that particular topic. Aquilina's positive stance is evenhanded and makes one interested to see just how he's going to pull off the next "fantastic" claim.

Another thing that I really liked is that Aquilina doesn't sugar coat it when there is blame to be taken by the Church. I have never really been able to swallow defenses I've read of the later Crusades. Aquilina makes sure everything is put in perspective, such as making sure the context of an "inquisition" and the court systems of the times are covered, and then point out where blame is to be had. He does not leave matters there, often putting our own times in proper context in ways that open our eyes further. One of the most surprising instances for me was this bit of insight about the sex abuse scandals.

So our natural horror at child abuse--which by the way, is a good sign that our culture, for all its faults, may still be reasonably healthy--didn't come from the Greeks or the Romans. It came from the Christians. It was the Church that taught us to acknowledge the sacred rights of children as human beings.

The world judges Catholics by Christian standards now; the Christian victory has been so complete that it's practically invisible. When the babbling bloggers blame us for being Christians, they're really blaming us for not being Christian enough. Christian principles seem like part of the order of nature, laws as immutable as gravity and magnetism. But that's only because the Church succeeded, against all odds, in replacing what everyone thought was an immutable law of nature with a strange Christian idea--such as the notion that children are people too.

Although author Mike Aquilina is Catholic, his claims have been echoed to me recently from an unexpected source. Helping out with RCIA (classes for those interested in converting to Catholicism), subjects arose which prompted me to speak apologetically of how the Church has handled things such as the sex scandal.

Each time, one potential convert has spoken up saying, "Historically speaking ..." and setting the record in a larger historical context which makes it clear that shortfalls very often are not so much due to the Catholic Church as they are due to lapses on individuals' parts or even those of particular institutions within the Church (yes, Torquemada, I'm lookin' at you).

This particular "defender of the faith" comes from no particular religious background. His conversion began after visiting many of the cathedrals throughout Europe which then led him to begin reading history and noting the Church's place in it. I have to admit it has been refreshing to hear someone with no particular agenda comment on various contentious matters from a purely historical or statistical standpoint. Inadvertently, this person's casual remarks back up what Mike Aquilina states in this book. There is a lot of credit to be given to the Catholic Church that the world has become blind to ... and we can be proud of being part of this rich faith.

Novena for an Ordered Life

I picked this up from the Darwins some time ago. As I have mentioned and am going to mention regularly for at least a month, I'm very busy. This is an excellent novena for such times.

I myself haven't prayed it specifically as a novena, but have read it over slowly during prayer times as a meditative aid. And it has proven to be a wonderful reminder of what is really important. Which is a nice calming measure on its own as well as a connection to God's priorities rather than mine.

For Ordering a Life Wisely
St. Thomas Aquinas

O merciful God, grant that I may
desire ardently,
search prudently,
recognize truly,
and bring to perfect completion
whatever is pleasing to You
for the praise and glory of Your name.

Put my life in good order, O my God
Grant that I may know
what You require me to do.

Bestow upon me
the power to accomplish your will,
as is necessary and fitting
for the salvation of my soul.

Grant to me, O Lord my God,
that I may not falter in times
of prosperity or adversity,
so that I may not be exalted in the former,
nor dejected in the latter.

May I not rejoice in anything
unless it leads me to You;
may I not be saddened by anything
unless it turns me from You.

May I desire to please no one,
nor fear to displease anyone,
but You.

May all transitory things, O Lord,
be worthless to me
and may all things eternal
be ever cherished by me.

May any joy without You
be burdensome for me
and may I not desire anything else
besides You.

May all work, O Lord
delight me when done for Your sake.
and may all repose not centered in You
be ever wearisome for me.

Grant unto me, my God,
that I may direct my heart to You
and that in my failures
I may ever feel remorse for my sins
and never lose the resolve to change.

O Lord my God, make me
submissive without protest,
poor without discouragement,
chaste without regret,
patient without complaint,
humble without posturing,
cheerful without frivolity,
mature without gloom,
and quick-witted without flippancy.

O Lord my God, let me
fear You without losing hope,
be truthful without guile,
do good works without presumption,
rebuke my neighbor without haughtiness,
and -- without hypocrisy --
strengthen him by word and example.

Give to me, O Lord God,
a watchful heart,
which no capricious thought
can lure away from You.

Give to me,
a noble heart,
which no unworthy desire can debase.

Give to me
a resolute heart,
which no evil intention can divert.

Give to me
a stalwart heart,
which no tribulation can overcome.

Give to me
a temperate heart,
which no violent passion can enslave.

Give to me, O Lord my God,
understanding of You,
diligence in seeking You,
wisdom in finding You,
discourse ever pleasing to You,
perseverance in waiting for You,
and confidence in finally embracing You.

Grant
that with Your hardships
I may be burdened in reparation here,
that Your benefits
I may use in gratitude upon the way,
that in Your joys
I may delight by glorifying You
in the Kingdom of Heaven.

You Who live and reign,
God, world without end.
Amen.

Blogging Around: The Too-Busy-To-Post Edition

Luckily, these folks ain't too busy ...

• Terrapin: A Mystery - Jeff Miller has the review of a book I'd like to read.
• Darkship Thieves - Will Duquette has the review of another book I'd like to read.
• Light, Lovely Meringue Cake - The Anchoress has a recipe (and scrumptious looking photo) of a cake I'd like to eat.
• Monster Hunter International - another review by Will of a book I'd like to read ... it looks about the speed of what I can handle right now.

Sorry I've been gone so much. I should have a few goodies for you next week, just in time for Halloween!

I'm ready to tell you my secret now ...

... Scott and Julie both see dead people. M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense is the topic of discussion at A Good Story is Hard to Find.

A super-busy day again, so this will be my only posting today. Sorry, but go listen to Scott and me discuss the movie! There's plenty of Catholic goodness within!

The Wind in the Willows

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


So you've begun to get really busy at work and you're feeling stressed out.

Then you watched The Sixth Sense (by yourself, after dark) so you can discuss it on a podcast.

And finally, you just know you're going to have nightmares and possibly be afraid of the dark if you wake up having to make that trip out of bed ... based on the last time you watched that darned movie.

What do you do?

What DO you do?

You pull out your trusty copy of The Wind in the Willows, that's what.

This gentle, imaginative tale of small animals who straddle both animal and human behavior in the most charming way will pull you in and have you thinking of Rat's splendid picnic basket, Badger's den beneath the Wild Woods, or Toad's way of being infuriating while his friends love him anyway. It pulled me into that fantasy world as a child and does so again when I read it as an adult.

Highly recommended (after all Teddy Roosevelt can't be wrong ... and this book has his letter to the author in the introduction).

The Knox Bible (updated)

I am beginning that giant annual project today which leaves me a bit discombobulated and somewhat ... ok, a lot ... freaked out. All will be well and all shall be well and I know this is so. But the beginning is still a monumental task and so I am updating my review of The Knox Bible. See the update below.

The Knox Bible by Msgr Ronald A. Knox

It is unquestioned that for the past 300 years the Authorized Version has been the greatest single formative influence in English prose style. But that time is over …. When the Bible ceases, as it is ceasing, to be accepted as a sacred text, it will not long survive for its fine writing. It seems to me probable that in a hundred years' time the only Englishmen who know their Bibles will be Catholics. And they will know it in Msgr. Knox's version.-- Evelyn Waugh

I have been trying to get my hands on a Knox Bible for some time, ever since I learned of the existence of such a thing. An English translation done between 1936-1945 that strove to keep beauty while making all clear to the average Englishman ... translated directly from Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome, but while consulting the texts in Greek and Hebrew where needed. It sounded fascinating and possibly too good to be true.

Alas, Knox Bibles were nowhere to be found. Until now when Baronius Press has reprinted it in a nice serviceable edition ... sturdy-seeming but with lovely touches like ribbons, gilt-edging, marble end papers and more.

I have just begun to read but already have seen a couple of instances where the translation brought tears to my eyes when I read it aloud ... it struck a chord within.

UPDATE
As I sit daily and open this Bible up, I am struck by how readable it is.

Some of that is the format. Instead of having subheads telling us what we'll read, verse numbers at the beginning of sentences, and the formats we're used to ... it is in chapters and paragraphs. Just like a real book.

The verses are in tiny numbers on the outside margin. This sounds difficult, but as I've been checking this translation against others, I have found it is very workable.

Best of all, it leaves the reader free to just sit and ... read. As one would a regular book. I feel as if I can let the text hit me however it happens to for that moment, which surely is a good thing when we are trying to hear the Word in the words.

My biggest comparison with other translations was when I received it and sat down to look over the first couple of chapters of Genesis ... verse by verse ... compared with the New American Bible, the Revised Standard Version, the Douay-Rheims, and Robert Alter's superb translation. I didn't realize I had so many translations in the house until that moment. Which made me laugh. Bible geek - book geek ... it's pretty much the same thing at that point.

Reading them aloud, I read Knox's chapter 1, verse 2:

Earth was still an empty waste, and darkness hung over the deep; but already, over its waters, stirred the breath of God.

What is there in that to make me cry? I don't know but it touched my soul and I did. Something about that "stirred by the breath of God" was just so lovely and evocative.

You can imagine how I laughed, then, when reading my New American Bible:

and the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind was sweeping over the waters

A mighty wind? Hmmm ...

Of all the Bibles, Robert Alter's "won" the Genesis if I can call it winning. But the Knox Bible was a close second and it was often more beautifully put.

It also made me smile, when I read Genesis, chapter 2, verse 1:

Thus heaven and earth and all the furniture of them were completed.

There was something both amusing and also "right" about thinking of the animals, fish, plants, and people as "furnishing" the earth. It settled in my mind in a way that the other translations failed to do (array, hosts, etc.).

I read Knox's "The Englishing of the Bible" which is a collection of essays he wrote explaining his translation choices. He wanted language that would be accessible, beautiful, and timeless. He kept "thee" and "thou" because, as he put it, there were times when the "thou" would mean God and times when that same "thou" might mean man ... he didn't want his choices between "thou" and "you" to influence the reader. He wanted to leave that for the moment and the Spirit to decide. I do find "thou" awkward sometimes, but it always makes me think about Knox's choice and I think that is a good reason for the older language in it.

This morning I looked at Psalm 19 (18 in Knox's numbering):

SEE how the skies proclaim God's glory, how the vault of heaven betrays his craftsmanship! Each day echoes its secret to the next, each night passes on to the next its revelation of knowledge; no word, no accent of theirs that does not make itself heard, till their utterance fills every land, till their message reaches the ends of the world.

There is a dynamic quality in the day echoing to the night, to the night passing on its revelation, that makes me think of nature itself as crying aloud, "Cannot you see God? We are showing Him to you." (So much less eloquent than the psalmist or Knox, of course.) But I can feel it in the birds singing outside my window, in the wind blowing the puffy cloud along.

I continue to compare the translations and there is no perfect one. I love the RSV. Sometimes Knox's old fashioned verbs slow me down or the meaning is not as clear as another Bible. But that is not often so far.

It speaks to me. As does much of this splendid translation. I will be reading it every day.

Other readers' reactions:
The Anchoress: The Knox Bible is a Treasure ... who has some great excerpts.
The Hermeneutic of Continuity ... sharing memories of taking Knox's translation to class.

The Holy Family, Zombies, and Midrash: Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith

“Joseph? Mary? My name is Balthazar. This is Gaspar . . . this is Melchyor. We don’t want to hurt you . . . we’re just looking for a place to rest. But, Joseph? if you don’t put that pitchfork down, I’m going to take it from you and stab you to death in front of your wife and child. Do you understand?”

Wanted thieves Balthazar, Melchyor, and Gaspar, disguised as wise men, show up at a little manger in Bethlehem with a huge star blazing overhead, looking for a hideout from the law. But when Herod's soldiers begin slaughtering the babies in Bethlehem, Balthazar (a.k.a. The Antioch Ghost) takes the safety of the Holy Family into his own hands. As fugitives on the run to Egypt, they must escape not only Roman soldiers but creatures of mythology and the occult. Everyone's either gunning for the Antioch Ghost with a price on his head or the innocent newborn who has such an unearthly effect on those around him.

Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) finally stops inserting his words into other people's writing and writes a book in his own words. And a fine job he does of it too. For a violent, gore-filled, action-thriller there are a surprising number of very human characters, many of whom we are meant to recognize.

Pontius Pilate appears as an ambitious young officer ambivalent about truth. Mary and Joseph struggle with how to reconcile the truth of Jesus as God with the reality of a baby who must be fed, loved, and parented. Above all, this is Balthazar's story, who has a complex story-line driving his actions and attitudes. We learn how he became the cynical Antioch Ghost and we wonder if he will find a more worthy goal than vengeance.

Above all, I was surprised to find myself eventually thinking of Unholy Night as modern midrash. Midrash is a traditional Jewish way of trying to understand the underlying spirit of scripture, sometimes connecting it to modern life, by creating parables. This allows for some imaginative storytelling as rabbis look for interpretations that are not immediately obvious but are nevertheless held within the original text.

Grahame-Smith lives up to the midrash ideal by both being respectful to his source material and also using his vivid imagination on a Biblical event that is wide-open to interpretation: Mary and Joseph's flight to Egypt with the Christ child. Among other things, the author is very good at opening new views on familiar subjects, such as just how horrible King Herod was. It brings to life the terrible things he did very much as I have read them in history books. One also gets a deeper understanding of the locals' simmering, resentful hatred of the Roman empire.

Narrator Peter Berkrot is a reader I haven't come across before but will be seeking out in the future. He conveys just the right amount of cynicism as Balthazar, menace and insanity as Herod, and innocence as Mary. I am not sure how this book comes across in print but I'd listen to it again in a heartbeat thanks to Berkrot's narration.

Grahame-Smith has delivered a story of Biblical proportions in Unholy Night: zombies, swarms of locusts, epic sword fights, outlaws, obsessed rulers, vengeance, redemption, and more are in this entertaining action tale. That he did it all while staying true to original material that can be unpopular reading these days makes him a writer I am going to seek out in the future. Highly recommended.

This review first appeared at SFFaudio.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke

This is a collection of eight short stories that return readers to the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. As I enjoyed Simon Prebble's narration of Strange & Norrell, I returned to that format to hear these stories. Prebble shares narration duty with Davina Porter whose undeniable skill I enjoyed even more than Mr. Prebble's and that is saying quite a lot.

Since all but one of these stories were previously published elsewhere, they vary from mere fragments (The Duke of Wellington Misplaces His Horse) to retold fairy tales (Lickerish Hill). These are almost like some of the longer footnotes from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which often meander away to tell fully imagined stories before returning to the main narrative.

The one constant is Clarke's skill at conveying readers to a magical England in the style of well known 19th-century writers such as Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Clarke has a dry wit which enlivens many of the tales and a good imagination for weaving attention holding yarns. I enjoyed all these stories quite a lot. If you are wondering whether to take the plunge into Strange & Norrell, these stories might be a good test of the waters.

Originally reviewed for SFFaudio.

Troy and Abed Airing Someday ...

I believe in October 19 ... I believe, I believe ...

In One God: Professing the Creed for the Year of Faith

The Wine Dark Sea's series continues considering the creed phrase-by-phrase with "In one God" ... which is my contribution to the series as it turns out. Check it out at Wine Dark Sea.

In Which Virgilia's prevision comes in handy ... or does it?

More of The Unforeseen at Forgotten Classics.

The Good Cook Series

Every cook should have a set of The Good cook series. To find out why, read my review at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Baldur's Gate: The Greatest Role Playing Game of All Time.

I concur.

Although my true love is the second game, Shadows of Amn, it hasn't been easy to find for Mac's updated systems. The thing that impresses me is that there are enough Baldur's Gate fans to make doing an updated version financially viable. It's been around for a long time.

Why dwell on this now?

Because there is an enhanced version of the original Baldur's Gate and the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack (which I never had) coming out very soon. With more characters and extra quests.

AND (because that's not enough ... it never is) there will be a remake of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and the expansion, Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal.

AND (because even that is not enough) there is a plan to make Baldur's Gate 3 after both enhanced editions are done. Of course this depends on how well these other remakes do.

I am willing to do my part. Just get that Mac OS X version out there and I will buy it.

Frankenweenie: "I went to see this hoping that this would be Tim Burton's return to his former glory."

The concept is simple and should be charming. When Victor's dog and best friend Sparky is hit by a car, Victor uses the town's frequent lightening storms to bring him back to life. But when his fellow classmates discover his secret, they all begin to bring their pets back to life with disastrous results. So part of the problem lies in the fact that what starts out as a Frankenstein spoof suddenly turns into a monster movie during the climax only to abruptly return to the Frankenstein plot.

But the problems are greater than that. ...

Double Exposure (Rose) weighs in on Frankenweenie. I also was crossing my fingers for this one but dubious. Read it all at Double Exposure.

On the other hand, I still am excited about Looper and Argo which have gotten top notch reviews ... we might even go to the movies to see one or the other (is seeing both a dream that could come true? We shall see...)

A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron

A Dog's Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

IN THE BEGINNING
A bit of birthday book-a-liciousness that I had no idea what to think of. As a kid I reread Beautiful Joe and Black Beauty with no problems, though as an adult I cringe from revisiting those tough stories. As an adult I love Watership Down, but my overall experience with animal POV stories is that they tend to be sadder than is my preference. Reading Alice Walker's comment on the cover somewhere that she cried like a baby (ok, I'm paraphrasing) made me wary. However, I trusted my mother, who gave me this, so I figured I'd dip a toe into this doggy tale.

BY THE END OF THE BOOK
This is a simply told tale from the dog's point of view. I am loathe to say much about it because that would spoil the story. It is a very quick read, because of the simplicity, and yet it grabbed me in a way that is difficult to describe. I found myself thinking about it when I put it down. Part of the appeal is the various situations the dog finds itself in which are intriguing in the details of the experience. More than that I dare not say except to reiterate that it is much, much better than you might think.

Year of Faith: Professing the Creed

In his Apostolic Letter announcing the Year of Faith, Pope Benedict exhorts us to find a way to publicly profess the creed: “Religious communities as well as parish communities, and all ecclesial bodies old and new, are to find a way, during this Year, to make a public profession of the Credo.”

Melanie Bettanelli has begun a series meditating upon the creed. She's divided it into 47 pieces and invited a flock of bloggers to help. I myself will be chiming in very soon. Just click the pieces of the creed at The Wine Dark Sea to go to each post through the year.

Celebrate the Year of Faith by Reading the Documents of Vatican II ... or the Catechism

Jeff Miller at Happy Catholic Bookshelf says:

The start of ”The Year of Faith” coincides purposely with the start of the Second Vatican Council 50 years ago. Much has been said about the false “Spirit of Vatican II” which was a purposeful misdirection to the texts of Vatican II. While I have read some of the documents and parts of others I haven’t read through all of them. So I figured this was an opportune time to correct that.

So I have put together an ebook containing all the Councilar Documents which I will read this year and make available for others.

I too have read a few of those documents, enough anyway to show me that they were grossly misinterpreted by some people. I always meant to get around to reading all the documents. This is a great reminder to do just that ... and Jeff's ebook formats make it easy. Download them at the link above.

========

For this Year of Faith, Pope Benedict has encouraged you to study and reflect on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Well, here’s an easy way to do it.

Simply enter your email address and – starting October 11, 2012 – you’ll start getting a little bit of the Catechism emailed to you every morning.

Read that little bit every day and you’ll read the whole catechism in a year. Cool, right?

Sign up here. Via The Curt Jester who always knows what's going on.

Educating the women who didn't learn cooking from their mothers ...

My review of The Kitchen Counter Cooking School is up at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Julie's exploring a tomb. Scott's lost contact but he's sure she's fine, just fine ...

It's October. Time for the scary stuff!

Scott and I discuss four H. P. Lovecraft stories: Dagon, The Statement of Randolph Carter, The Color Out of Space, and The Dunwich Horror. All at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

Pope Benedict's Homily Opening the Year of Faith

Watch it right here.

If you have a PC, that is. It seems to want Microsoft Silverlight before showing the video.

I am lucky enough to have a pal who saved the audio of the homily and sent it to me.

Whispers in the Loggia has the homily for readers.

Three Items of Interest (Plus One)

ITEM 1: Catholicism Pure and Simple

It's no secret that I love Father Longenecker's writing. Catholicism Pure and Simple is no exception. I'll be doing a full review soon, but wanted to mention that it is out now ... and it's good. Really good. Here's the description which is really accurate ... and, now that I think of it, doesn't leave me with much to add. Never fear, I'll find more to tell you:

The Catholic faith doesn't have to be complicated. Fr. Dwight Longenecker shows how it can be Pure and Simple. Starting with arguments for the existence of God, this book takes the reader step by step through the basics of the Catholic faith. Without using churchy language, difficult theological concepts or confusing arguments Dwight Longenecker explains not only the truths of the faith, but how to embark on the adventure of living the Catholic faith today. He uses plain illustrations from ordinary life, and explains the faith without complex footnotes or intimidating references. Catholicism Pure & Simple is perfect for high school students, confirmation candidates, members of RCIA classes and anyone seriously seeking God in the modern world.

Item 2: FaithWorks!

This is a short, punchy weekly newsletter with articles on prayer, relationships, family, spirituality and service. Father Longenecker is writing this for the Year of Faith. It's just right for help with the practical practice of our faith.

Check out the latest issue and sign up here.

Item 3: One More Soul

One More Soul has created and published a very comprehensive challenge to the HHS mandate--"Obey Mandate or Scripture?" In this 24 page newspaper, over twenty authors explain why you should be very concerned about the Health & Human Services mandate and its requirement that virtually all health insurance plans cover the intrinsic evils of contraception, sterilization and abortion.

 These writers--including bishops, priests and a seminarian, doctors, lawyers, and economists--provide very readable and common sense explanations for why this mandate is evil in seven different ways. It is a must read for anyone who values their religious freedom, and the conscience rights of employers, medical personnel, and all Americans.

Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr has granted "Obey Mandate or Scripture?" his Imprimatur, assuring that the newspaper is free of doctrinal or moral error.
We sell the publication in newspaper format, the entire piece is viewable for free on our website. We really just want to get the information out.

One More Soul is a non-profit dedicated to educating people on God's design for love, chastity, and marriage, with a focus on the blessings of children, Natural Family Planning, and the harms of contraception.

Read One More Soul here.

Plus One More Item: One Body, Many Blogs

When T.J. Burdick launched his blog back in 2010, he was puzzled by one question: how do you become an effective Catholic blogger?

Two years and many blog posts later, T.J. had few answers. So he began searching for help. He emailed a number of blogging friends and asked, "in your opinion, what are the 'ten commandments' that Christian bloggers should keep in mind?"

Ten Catholic bloggers responded with a diversity of answers. Some were deep, some pithy; some were practical, some spiritual. But together they provided T.J. a solid foundation for Catholic blogging.

Wanting to help others, T.J. decided to package all of this wisdom into a short, $1.99 eBook titled One Body, Many Blogs: A Guide for Christian Bloggers (eBook, 52 pages).

Brandon Vogt has a great review that includes much more information about this interesting sounding ebook with a solid list of trust-worthy contributors. Here is author T.J. Burdick's blog.

Tandoori Pizza

Marinated chicken, mango chutney, green onions ... an amazing pizza. Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

"Everything that I can remember, I have told with perfect candor.

... if anything remains vague, it is only because of the dark cloud which has come over my mind—that cloud and the nebulous nature of the horrors which brought it upon me."

The Statement of Randolph Carter by H.P. Lovecraft ... read for us at Forgotten Classics by Will Duquette.

The Beckoning Fair One and Real Life Ghost Stories

Get 'em now at SFFaudio where my unabridged reading of the story is followed by Jesse Willis, Scott Danielson, and me discussing it ... and each telling about our own brushes with ghosts!

Weekend Joke

This one is in honor of the baseball playoffs. It never fails to make me laugh.

A man walks into a bar with a dog. The bartender says, "You can't bring that dog in here."

"You don't understand," says the man. "This is no regular dog, he can talk."

"Listen, pal," says the bartender. "If that dog can talk, I'll give you a hundred bucks."

The man puts the dog on a stool, and asks him, "What's on top of a house?"

"Roof!"

"Right. And what's on the outside of a tree?"

"Bark!"

"And who's the greatest baseball player of all time?"

"Ruth!"

"I guess you've heard enough," says the man. "I'll take the hundred in twenties."

The bartender is furious. "Listen, pal," he says, "get out of here before I belt you."

As soon as they're on the street, the dog turns to the man and says, "Do you think I should have said 'DiMaggio'?"

Why You Should Be Reading a Little Bit o' Lovecraft This Weekend

Because Scott and I will be discussing four of his short stories next week at A Good Story is Hard to Find.

And you know you want to find out why two good Catholics would love the lurking horror that is in these tales:

• Dagon
• The Statement of Randolph Carter
• The Colors Out of Space
• The Dunwich Horror

I recommend reading them in this order as the ethos and worldview build nicely that way.

Although I must warn you that I have had a nightmare about Dagon ... and he was invisible. So, there is that to consider.

Nonetheless, it is quite good fun and I'm excited that I was able to listen to the stories. Lovecraft's prose just rolls into your ear so beautifully.

6 Month Economic Forecast

I've done the accounting for our small firm for nigh on these twenty-three years. One of the interesting things is that we seem to reflect economic trends about four to six months ahead of the big business reports that show up in the newspaper.

If we're rolling in business and have built up a good cash reserve, months later the government is reporting a banner year for business and employment. If we're scraping for business, then about six months later we read a doom-and-gloom report from the Wall Street Journal.  I am not accounting minded and so even noticing this trend means it has to have been borne out repeatedly.

Suddenly, and I mean within the past month, almost none of our regular clients are paying their bills on time. There are always some people who pay late and some who pay on time. Like every business, we count on the "on time" customers to cover the ones who are slow. But now ...practically everyone is running into the 60-90 day overdue slot on all their bills. And my statements are being ignored ... I have  to call and put people on the spot to get those 60 days bills paid, which is also not usual. I've never experienced anything so sudden from so many at once.

Tom began checking around and found out we're not the only ones. There's a big slow down from everyone.

I'm don't keep up with any political economic plans or forecasts. We just keep working to pay the bills. But I'll tell you this from a purely practical standpoint ... whatever's being done now -- it ain't workin'.

Making the Mass More Personal: Reviewing "The Beauty of the Word" by Anthony Esolen

The Beauty of the Word: A Running Commentary on the Roman Missal by Anthony Esolen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Guided by Anthony Esolen, a master translator and professor of literature, you'll go deep into the meaning of each part of the liturgy. Esolen explains the importance of this new translation, and provides context, scriptural references, notes which reference the original Latin text, and more. This is a must-have guide for unlocking the riches of the newly implemented and newly translated Roman Missal. The Beauty of the Word gives a comprehensive, step-by-step commentary to the changes in the Order of Mass (including Prefaces), the Proper of Time, and the Proper of Saints. The unique insights found in this book give the reader a full understanding of the scriptural, liturgical, linguistic, and pastoral rationale of the revised Missal.

I am not sure exactly what I expected however I suspect that, once I have had a chance to reflect upon it, this book is going to deliver more than I realized. Anyone who has the Magnificat Roman Missal Companion published for the change in the liturgy, has an abbreviated version of this larger book.

Anthony Esolen breaks open the prayers of the Mass throughout the year, using the changes in the translation as a starting point. However, he goes beyond simply discussing word choices as he draws the reader's attention to connections with scripture, the Mass readings, and Christ in our lives. The first half of the book is devoted to the Collect, Prayer over the Offerings, Preface, and Prayer after Communion for every Mass through the year. Special times like the Triduum, of course, have commentary for many other prayers used only then. Thus we are given a rich source of reflection to add to the Mass readings themselves

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Prayer over the Offerings

Grant us, O merciful God,
that this our offering may find acceptance with you
and that through it the wellspring of all blessing
may be laid open before us.
Through Christ our Lord.

...the wellspring of all blessing: Echoing the words of Jesus to the Samaritan woman at the well: "The water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (Jn 4:14). The bridegroom in the Song of Songs, whom Christians interpret as Christ, says of his bride, the Church: "You are an enclosed garden,my sister,my bride, / an enclosed garden, a fountain sealed" (Song 4:12). We pray that the fountain may be opened to us, like the opened side of our Savior on the Cross.

The next section covers the Order of the Mass in detail, commenting not simply upon prayers but upon all the spoken liturgical elements. This book, unlike the aforementioned Missal Companion, contains comments for Mass elements arising only at special times, such as various Prefaces for Lent and Easter or Blessings at the end of Mass for Weddings.

The last section comments upon the Collects, Prayers over the Offerings and Prayers after Communion for the Proper of Saints. As Esolen says, there is not room to comment upon those for each of the saints in the year, which is a real shame. He makes general remarks that apply to all these prayers and then discusses the specific prayers for special feast days. Included among those we might expect, such as for the Annunciation and special feasts for Mary, we find commentary for interesting extras like the Chair of Saint Peter the Apostle, Saint Lawrence, and Saint Bartholomew. Certainly it is enough to make me wish for a book of commentary on the saints throughout the year.

This is an extraordinary resource and it is fascinating to see the riches contained in even the smallest prayers read during the Mass. They often catch my ear with personal meaning but this book will help draw me closer to Christ to consider the underlying beauty and depth in every portion of the holy Mass. I will be using this book for daily contemplation and as a prompt to look up the scripture to which the prayers refer. It will be a different sort of Bible study but one that should have immediate application every Sunday at Mass.

Highly recommended.

Indepth Investigation of Jesus' Death: Reviewing "Who Moved the Stone" by Frank Morison

This review first saw the light of day way back in 2004. I was reminded of it when I saw a new book with a similar premise mentioned by someone on GoodReads. I was really pleased to see that it is now reprinted and easily available. It is a terrific read and I highly recommend it.


Who Moved the Stone? by Frank Morison

In attempting to unravel the tangled skein of passions, prejudices, and political intrigues with which the last days of Jesus are interwoven, it has always seemed to me a sound principle to go straight to the heart of the mystery by studying closely the nature of the charge brought against Him.

I remember this aspect of the question coming home to me one morning with new and unexpected force. I tried to picture to myself what would happen if some two thousand years hence a great controversy should arise about one who was the center of a criminal trial, say in 1922. By that time most of the essential documents would have passed into oblivion. An old faded cutting of The Times or Telegraph, or perhaps some tattered fragment of a legal book describing the case, might have survived to reach the collection of an antiquary. From these and other fragments the necessary conclusions would have to be drawn. Is it not certain that people living in that far-off day, and desiring to get at the real truth about the man concerned, would go first to the crucial question of the charge on which arraigned? They would say: "What was all the trouble about? What did his accusers say and bring against him?" If, as in the present instance, several charges appear to have been preferred, they would ask what was the real case against the prisoner.

Strongly influenced by late 19th century skeptics, Frank Morison decided to discover Jesus' true nature by looking critically at the facts surrounding his death and resurrection. He wound up being convinced of Jesus' divinity but it is a fascinating read even if you had no doubt of that fact. I have never read anything quite like this book which still holds up even though it is over 70 years old. Morison evaluates things that I never thought to question such as why Judas chose that particular night to turn Jesus over to the Pharisees, whether the Pharisees and Pontius Pilate worked hand in hand in Jesus' case, and where the apostles hid out (and why) during the trial and subsequent events. In some ways this reads like a "true life" murder mystery as the author reconstructs events and traces people's actions.

I didn't agree with every conclusion Morison made such as the identity of the young man at the tomb. Nor did I approve of every reference that was used, such as the Gospel of Peter and Gospel of Hebrews, although he did use many reliable sources such as the works of Josephus, the Jewish Historian and the few historical writings on the character of Pontius Pilate. However, those quibbles aside, this is a classic apologetics work and one well worth seeking out. You definitely will examine the facts surrounding Jesus' death with a more analytical eye.

[UPDATED] Classic Tales Audiobook Sale: Buy One, Get One Free

For a limited time, buy one of our most popular titles priced at $9.99, and get another absolutely free! This includes not only favorites like She, A History of Adventure, Captain Blood and The Phantom of the Opera, but also many new titles like Hamlet, The 39 Steps and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This offer is available for a limited time only, so click the text link below and start saving!

Buy One, Get One Free!

If you aren't downloading The Classic Tales podcast already then you need to begin doing so. B.J. Harrison is a superb narrator. He doesn't leave his recordings up forever though. At some point, they get moved to his store and sold as audiobooks.

Harrison also sells audiobooks that he's recorded aside from the podcast, though a few of these sale items have appeared on Classic Tales.

At a price of $10 per book they are a good deal. A two-for-one sale is real value. Be sure to check it out.

UPDATED
I was asked what I recommend. Some of it, naturally, depends upon my own preferences. For example, I'm never going to buy A Room With a View by E.M. Forster.

Never. Ever.

I can't state that strongly enough.

That said, I have heard and can recommend highly:

• Captain Blood
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• Kidnapped
• Tarzan of the Apes
• The 39 Steps
• The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu
• The Mark of Zorro

So you can see I trend toward the adventure story and the horror story. No surprises there, I'm sure!

Review - Undead: Revived, Resuscitated, and Reborn by Clay Morgan

Undead: Revived, Resuscitated, and Reborn by Clay Morgan

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Clay Morgan uses our current fascination with zombies, vampires, and other undead figures to draw parallels with the need to come fully alive in our Christian spiritual life. He is engaging, interesting writer and Undead is an easy, fast read. I enjoyed the way that Morgan would segue from pop culture supernatural to his life and then bring it home to Christ and personal points we all can ponder about our own faith. This was always done with a light but sincere touch.

I especially appreciated several interesting points drawn especially from the interpretation of different parts of scripture. For example, I never caught the connection between Jonah and Peter before. Morgan points out that Jonah fled to Joppa when he was running away from God. In Acts, Peter raised Tabitha from the dead. Tabitha came from Joppa. Jonah went to Joppa in disobedience and Peter went in obedience to God. Just like bookends. Peter, in a sense, corrects Jonah's actions.

I must mention, though, that any Catholics reading this are bound to notice where the author is distinctly Protestant, such as when he says in a footnote:

So when he [Jesus] figuratively says to eat his flesh and blood they take him literally. When he says he will literally rise from the dead they think he's being figurative. Fascinating.

What is more fascinating to me is that the author provides no support for his interpretation of the above statement. He just assumes that everyone understands why he makes these statements. Now, a Catholic would say that Jesus was being literal about eating his flesh and that Jesus' followers did not think he was being figurative but were continually confused and unable to understand what Christ meant about resurrection. There aren't many of those moments and the above example is the most egregious, but they are there. Catholics can get a lot from this book but they need to know their faith and be ready to shrug off the places where the author diverges from Catholic teachings.

To be fair, pushing a Protestant "agenda" isn't the point the author is making. He is trying to draw people into a deeper experience life, whether they need to find Christ or know Him already. This book would probably be especially interesting to college age and young adults who love pop culture and are seeking a deeper meaning in life. I admit that I am far past those years but I enjoyed Morgan's humor and writing style. It isn't a very deep book but sometimes the simple things are what make us dig deeper on our own. I'm giving it thumbs up.

*I wrote this for the Patheos Book Club. Publishers pay for the Patheos Book Club to feature their books ... and I received a review copy free. However, my opinions are my own and I love or hate a book on its own merits.

Weekend Joke

Right now, I’m having amnesia and deja-vu at the same time. I think I’ve forgotten this before.

Steven Wright

Make the Bread, Buy the Butter

I have a review of this cookbook up at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen. I like it so much that I didn't wait until I was finished to talk about it, so check it out.

eBook Sale at Subterranean Press

We're down to the last few days of our ebook sale, where almost all of our titles have seen their prices dropped to the $.99 to $2.99 range. If you check out our ebook section, you'll find links to some honking big volumes (over 200,000 words each), including Cryptic (Jack McDevitt), The Best of Lucius Shepard, The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (Barry Hughart).

We haven't neglected the shorter gems. Our novellas, including The God Engines (John Scalzi), The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (Ted Chiang), and Muse of Fire (Dan Simmons), are part of the sale, as well.

Bridge of Birds is the most popular book I've ever read at Forgotten Classics (thank you again Barry Hughart for your generous permission). Now is your chance to pick up the eBook of his trilogy about Number Ten O and Master Li.

As well as a number of other great books. Just pick up anything by Ted Chiang. You can thank me later.

Subterranean Press's entire eBook list is here.

Now Mr. Ravioli just sits in the corner and reads ... while we talk about "Mary and Max"

And Scott is understandably confuzzled by the whole thing. So why did we watch it? Find out at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen

In which a Chinese emperor learns the value of one of his humblest subjects. Now playing at Forgotten Classics and read for us by Joseph from Zombie Parent's Guide.

Thanks to Joseph and Will, it's a regular smorgasbord of good listening over there! Don't miss out!

Confuzzlement* Abounds: Reviewing Mary and Max

Scott and I discussed Mary and Max for episode 43 of A Good Story is Hard to Find so I'm rerunning this review for anyone interested. The episode will air tomorrow.

Rose plucked this off the video rental shelf, saying she watched it after it showed up in her Netflix movie recommendation. She described it as being about a penpal friendship developed between a lonely 8-year-old Australian girl and an equally lonely 40-year-old New York man. They correspond for 20 years and we see how their lives are changed.

I would tell you more of the plot but that sums it up well enough. It probably is best categorized as a black comedy. There is plenty of humor, some of it rather subtle, although the movie often surprises with how serious some of the subject matter is and the depth to which the filmmaker is willing to explore it. This is all aided by the fact that Mary and Max are each, in their own way, complete innocents who write exactly what they are thinking, whether it will hurt or confuse the other person or not. This results in confuzzlement* not only for the main characters but also for the viewer at times. At one point I realized I was hanging on for dear life to the idea that the story would take a turn for the better. In fact, just like real life, the movie takes us through the comic and tragic which often are intertwined ... and does it brilliantly.

Although animated, this is not (repeat: NOT) a film for children. It is a stop-motion, claymation depiction of a story intended for adult audiences.

It also is the film that made me realize if the definition of an extrovert is someone who must discuss ideas aloud to understand them, then I am an extrovert. I was really not sure what I thought of this movie until after the entire family's animated discussion which followed for the rest of the evening. That conversation greatly clarified my thoughts, especially as everyone had been struck by different points.

At one point I asked, "Is it a movie to recommend to others?" Tom instantly responded, "It is a move that must be seen by anyone who values a richly told story." He is right. It is a film for those who are interested in stories exploring the heights and depths that imperfection, perception, and sheer humanity bring to our lives and the lives of those we touch (even if simply through letters). In fact, I imagine that at some point I will be watching this again to see more of the details and subtleties I missed the first time around. First though, I must have time to let this sink in more fully. It's that kind of a movie.


*Confuzzlement: confusion + puzzlement. Watch the movie. You'll see where it comes from. It is now a new household term for us.

Movie Talk: Six More Fast Ones

A few more of the movies we watched this summer.

• The Seahawk: Ferdy on Films (which any movie lovers should be reading) began an occasional series talking about "films of high adventure." This was a highly recommended movie and I highly recommend it as well. When you have Errol Flynn pirating Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth then you've got good fun ... and high adventure. Grade: A.
  
  
• Hugo: Martin Scorses's film version of the very popular book for young readers. Although the look and acting were spot-on, about halfway through the movie suddenly took on another complete storyline. It felt as if there was too much trying to be said at one time ... or something. I got the book from the library and the movie did indeed seem to be faithful to the book. Perhaps that extreme faithfulness was the problem as film is such a different storytelling medium.  Grade: C.
  
  
• The Adventures of Robin Hood: starring Errol Flynn and many of the actors from The Seahawk, this was a much less successful movie from my point of view. It may have gone over well back in the day for Robin and his Merry Men to actually stand, fists on hips, chortling, "Ha, ha, ha!" when Little John tosses Robin in the stream and other such scenes of merriment. However it just seemed lame from our vantage point. Also, the story was less complex and much less engaging than The Seahawk. I have had Captain Blood recommended as Flynn's best swashbuckler so that has gone on my list.
  
  
• Witness for the Prosecution: a classic Agatha Christie novella (or play or short story?) focusing on a courtroom trial. I chose it for Charles Laughton's performance which was wonderful, as indeed was every performance in the film. The cast includes Marlene Dietrich and Tyrone Powers so that isn't surprising. Unfortunately I remembered the twist ending from my many rereadings of Christie stories but Tom didn't see it coming and said that he was surprised, so it holds up well. Grade: A.
  
  
• The Mark of Zorro: After seeing Tyrone Powers in Witness for the Prosecution, I recalled that he was in many swashbucklers a la Errol Flynn and rented this 1940 Zorro movie. It was truly wonderful and I actually found myself remembering Flynn's performances as ... well ... much more wooden than I thought them at the time. In other words, Powers was subtler, funnier, and just plain better in his part. This is a great excuse to watch more swashbucklers in the future.
  
  
• Hanna: A teenage girl has been raised in isolation by her father somewhere Scandinavian. He's been emphasizing the lethal arts and when she says that she's "ready" to enter the modern world we find out why. Well, we actually don't find out "why" until much later but we can see that she needs her acquired skills as there are lethal forces out after this sweet looking teenager. I was interested in her encounters with real civilization and trying to make friends with a family she encounters, but the movie dashes on in favor of displaying more lethality. (I'm almost positive that's a word.) Ho hum. There were a few brief attempts to tie the story to fairy tales and many missed opportunities to do so. Had that been done more successfully this movie would have been deeper and more interesting. As it was, this is almost as bad as Taken. Let's leave it there.

Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest

"I'm not absolutely certain of my facts, but I rather fancy it's Shakespeare--or, if not, it's some equally brainy lad--who says that it's always just when a chappie is feeling particularly top-hole, and more than usually braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with a bit of lead piping. There's no doubt the man's right. It's absolutely that way with me. Take, for instance, the fairly rummy matter of Lady Malvern and her son Wilmot...."

Will Duquette reads for us at Forgotten Classics.

Weekend Joke: Mrs. Jesus

Someone asked me last week what I thought of the news reports that "Jesus was married." My first reaction, like The Curt Jester's it turns out, was surprise that the story wasn't saved to report near Christmas or Easter which seems to be when most of the ridiculous stories about Christ are reported as "news."

Honestly, a scrap of papyrus from the 4th century refers to this and it is treated as "news?" Meanwhile, people feel free to pull apart the Gospels which were written during the lifetime of those who followed Christ.

The best part was the jokes, some of which the Wall Street Journal printed this morning.

What would Jesus do? Whatever Mrs. Jesus told him to!
-------
Didn't the man suffer enough as it was?

And The Curt Jester is not to be outdone. Here is my favorite of the quips he made.

If Jesus had a wife she would never have allowed him to go out all night with the boys at the Garden of Gethsemane.

Go read the others and have a good laugh because that's all that so-called "news" is worth.

Blogging Around: The "Everything Old Is New Again" Edition

Eat Dinner With Your Kids Every Day

The older I get – I’m 62 now – the more I appreciate what my Mom and Dad did for us Dolan kids. We had dinner together every night when Dad got home from work. The meals weren’t elaborate (we couldn’t afford elaborate!) but they were vitally important for us to talk with one another, listen to one another, and, yes, be accountable to one another and to my parents.

I'm evangelical on this subject. It doesn't matter so much if you're eating chicken nuggets as it does that you sit down together around the dinner table to do so. Just do it.

Archibishop Dolan has a lot to say about this also. He links it to attractive statistics like helping your kids stay drug-free. And all that is true, I'm sure. But my point is to be a family, you must act like a family. Families have dinner together.

Give Your Kids Chores. And Make Them Do Them.

... Chores not only teach children important life skills that will prepare them for living on their own, and impart a pull-your-own-weight work ethic, but recent studies show that starting chores at an early age gives children an enormous leg-up in other areas of their life as well.

Unfortunately, very few children today are getting the training at home they need to become industrious, responsible adults. Studies show that children in the West spend little time helping around the house.

The Art of Manliness puts this under their Dadliness category but it works for Momliness too. Again, to be a family, you must act like a family. Everyone in a family does chores because it is nicer for everyone in the end.

A "Rising Tide" of Threats to Religious Freedom

Speaking to politicians, diplomats and religious leaders (including representatives of all four major branches of Islam in Lebanon -- Sunni, Shi'ite, Druze and Alawite), the pope insisted that "religious freedom is the basic right on which many others depend."

A new report released Thursday by the Pew Forum illustrates why, at least in this case, it's impossible to argue that the concern is misplaced.

Based on analysis of 197 countries and territories, here's the sobering conclusion: "A rising tide of restrictions on religion spread around the world between mid-2009 and mid-2010."

John Allen ponders the topic. Me, I heard someone talking about Oliver Cromwell the other day and was horrified to find that his tactics sounded familiar in my life as an American.

The Unforeseen

We've begun reading this eerie book at Forgotten Classics. It's old but we're giving it new life.

Movie Talk: 6 Fast Ones

Over the summer we began watching three movies every weekend. I've been meaning to give a brief rundown of them but just now have gotten the time. This isn't all of them, but it is a beginning!

• Last Action Hero: A young movie fan suddenly is pulled into the movie world of his favorite action hero (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger). Not bad but not great either. I was urged to watch this by a thoughtful movie-loving pal. To be fair, I believe it was on his list of guilty pleasures, so I won't hold it against him that we were less than enthralled. I think if we'd have seen it when it came out we would have had a much more positive response. Grade: C.
  
  
• Love in the Afternoon: a classic starring Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper, written and directed by Billy Wilder. Hepburn plays a detective's daughter who is fascinated by a womanizer (Cooper) on whom her father (Maurice Chevalier) has extensive files. Frothy, fun, and it works despite the age differences. Grade: A.
  
  
• Only Angels Have Wings: Cary Grant plays an unusual role, that of a pilot running a South American airline. He eschews serious relationships because his heart broken back in the Big Apple. Jean Arthur is interested in changing his mind. I picked this up because it was huge in it's day and directed by Howard Hawks. Hawks isn't afraid to kill off a character to enhance the sense of adventure and I was literally on the edge of my seat a couple of times. Plenty of plot twists make it a fun movie, if something of a soap opera. Grade: B.
  
  
• Bill Cunningham, New York: A documentary about Bill Cunningham and his obsession with documenting the way people dress on the streets of NYC. He's 80, has been taking photographs for decades, and has New York Times photographer has two New York Times style columns. I'll cover this one more later but we were quite surprised by how inspirational we found Bill himself. Grade: A.
  
  
• Happy Go Lucky: a highly praised British film about Poppy and how cheerful she is in all circumstances. After 30 minutes I truly hated Poppy. Watching her giggle and grin after having a painful back adjustment I was wondering if she was either psychotic or a drug addict. Poppy  might have been bearable had a plot of any sort been included. We didn't finish it. Grade: F.
  
  
• Lost City: a wealthy family living in Havana in the 1950s is caught up in the revolution that places Fidel Castro in power. It actually was about a cabaret owner trying to keep his club open, but unfortunately we got dragged through every travail of all his family members while that was happening. Bill Murray's character was really out of place throughout. Overall not bad and I truly empathized with parts of it, but too long and rambling. Grade: C.

6 True Stories That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

#5. Random Acts of Kindness from People Who Had No Reason to Care

...Then we have Virginia Saenz. Let's say one day you get a wrong number phone call from a total stranger. It's a woman who leaves a nonsense message on your voice mail, addressing a person who doesn't live there, with a message that goes something like this: "I can send you money for groceries, but that won't leave me enough to pay my mortgage this month, and the house is already in foreclosure."

Saenz, a real estate agent whose only connection to these people was that her phone number was a couple of transposed digits away from theirs, could have just deleted the message. Or, if she was motivated to be a good Samaritan, Saenz could have called the person back to let her know she had gotten the wrong number, so she'd know that the person she had intended to call would never hear her message.

But instead, Saenz called the stranger back and said, "I'll take care of the groceries, don't worry about it." The lady, Lucy Crutchfield, had meant to leave a message for her daughter. Saenz contacted the daughter and bought her and her family enough groceries to get them through the end of the month, allowing Crutchfield to pay her mortgage.

That is only one of the examples given in #5. Imagine how good you'll feel after reading all of the true stories at Cracked.

Remember, this is Cracked which means it is salted with bad language. But if that doesn't bother you then you're going to like these stories.

The Power of Vulnerability

Brené Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity. A talk to share

We watched this TED Talk at work today ... hey, when we offer enrichment, we don't stop halfway. It is indeed an idea worth sharing and I hope you will take the time to watch.

Highly recommended.

The Catholic Things We Do: Reviewing "Catholicism" by Robert Barron

This review originally ran almost a year ago. Showing up to help with our parish's RCIA program, I was delighted to find it is occasionally going to be featuring a DVD from the Catholicism series that this book accompanies.

Watching the first one last week brought this marvelous book to mind. Surprised to find that no one had heard of it, I thought I'd rerun the review to remind all of us about it. I am inundated with new books these days and have fallen out of my former habit of rereading. That's a shame since a fast-reader like me often needs more than one reading to gain insights. I may have to pick up this book again. In the meantime, I recommend it to you.

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This review is also appearing in my A Free Mind column at Patheos.

Since my conversion, I have read many a book about saints, angels, prayer, virtues, and all those good Catholic subjects. Reviewing the list, however, I was surprised to see how few of them covered Catholicism as a whole.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, of course, is a reference I use regularly. The impeccable logic of Peter Kreeft's Catholic Christianity helped settle my mind about Catholic teachings on controversial issues. Catholicism for Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Catholic Catechism are favorite references.

None of them, however, are designed to be engaging, uplifting reading (although the Catechism certainly can perform that function).

Enter Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith by Father Robert Barron. Barron has the knack of articulating Catholic theology in a way that makes one sit up in astonishment and delight as well-worn concepts take on fresh, new life. Look at his presentation of what the Incarnation means to us, as human beings.

In their own ways, Marx, Freud, Feuerbach, and Sartre all maintain that God must be eliminated if humans are to be fully themselves. But there is none of this in the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. The Word does indeed become human, but nothing of the human is destroyed in the process; God does indeed enter into his creation, but the world is thereby enhanced and elevated. The God capable of incarnation is not a competitive supreme being but rather, in the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the sheer act of being itself, that which grounds and sustains all of creation, the way a singer sustains a song.

And the Incarnation tells us the most important truth about ourselves: we are destined for divinization. The church fathers never tired of repeating this phrase as a sort of summary of Christian belief: Deus fit homo ut homo fieret Deus (God became human so that humans might become God). God condescended to enter into human flesh so that our flesh might partake of the divine life, that we might participate in the love that holds the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in communion. And this is why Christianity is the greatest humanism that has ever appeared, indeed that could appear. No philosophical or political or religious program in history—neither Greek nor Renaissance nor Marxist humanism—has ever made a claim about human destiny as extravagant as Christianity's. We are called not simply to moral perfection or artistic self-expression or economic liberation but to what the Eastern fathers called theiosis, transformation into God.

God's noncompetitive love and our transformation into the divine are touchstones that Barron returns to throughout the book. As he presents Catholicism in all its complexity—from Jesus as warrior to Mary and the saints to the Eucharist and beyond—readers begin to grasp that love and transformation are indeed the core of the Catholic faith.

Barron's enthusiasm is palpable and his examples vivid. I especially enjoyed the way he wove imagery throughout his text, only to suddenly expand it to make larger theological points. I already was familiar with Noah's ark as an image of the Church, as a place of safety for all. However, it was a revelation when he took it one step further and pointed out how medieval architects reinforced the connection by endeavoring to make cathedrals look like great ships. He gave me potent, mind's-eye images that stuck with me through the rest of that section.

Here, Barron makes a similar leap, bringing the gospel to life, and into our immediate lives, with great enthusiasm.

Saints are those who have allowed Jesus thoroughly to transfigure them from within. Paul caught this when he observed, "yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2:20). In chapter 5 of Luke's Gospel we find an odd story about Jesus and Peter. As the eager crowd presses in on him, Jesus spies two boats moored by the shore of the lake. Without asking permission, he gets into the boat belonging to Peter and says, "Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch" (Lk 5:4). What followed, as we have seen earlier when analyzing Mark's version of this scene, is the miraculous catch of fishes. Read with spiritual eyes, this story reveals the essential feature of sainthood. For a Galilean fisherman his boat was everything; it was his livelihood, his work, the means by which he supported his family. Peter's fishing vessel represents, therefore, his professional creativity, his link to the wider world, the key to his survival. Jesus simply gets into the boat and commences to give orders—and the result is the greatest catch Peter the fisherman ever made. Jesus' uninvited boarding of the vessel represents the invasion of grace, the incoming of the divine love into someone's life. Precisely because God is noncompetitive with creation, precisely because he wants human beings to come fully to life, this inrushing of grace does not destroy or interrupt what it invades; it enhances it and raises it to a new pitch. Peter, one presumes, had been successful enough as a fisherman, but now, under Jesus' direction, he goes out into the deep and brings in more than he could ever have imagined possible. This is what happens when we cooperate with grace, when we allow Christ to live his life in us.

The saints are those who have allowed Jesus to get into their boats and who have thereby become not superhuman or angelic but fully human, as alive as God intended them to be. The entire purpose of the church, as we have seen, is to produce saints.

The book is not perfect. Over a hundred black and white photos are included and they are well enough in their way, but color would have packed a greater punch. I would have traded the eight-page color plates at the center for colored photos scattered throughout the book, instead. Too many shots of great art were rendered unremarkable in black and white, which is ironic, as the book is a companion to a ten-part Catholicism television series. A key point of the series is the beauty of the Catholic faith as expressed through the work of human hands. While the book stands alone, it fails to amplify that beauty for its readers.

I also found that Barron occasionally couldn't resist diving instantly into complex concepts that might have done better with a more extended simple introduction. This is especially true in the chapter about prayer. He moves too quickly into the prayer lives of Thomas Merton, St. John of the Cross, and St. Teresa of Avila, all of whom may intimidate even seasoned Catholics with their far-reaching concepts. While Barron does address the sort of basic petitionary prayer that is the cornerstone of most people's experience, he quickly jumps to Merton. I was thoroughly confused halfway through and had to reread the chapter. Barron would have done well to recall that some readers may be completely new to prayer or may come from Christian backgrounds that might view the mystics with deep suspicion.

These points aside, Barron's book is a real treasure. His development of Heavenly imagery into a place I could actually imagine myself inhabiting has charged me with excitement about getting to Heaven. His points about Jesus as a warrior reminded me that I, too, am called to never give up, never surrender. His guide to Dante's Divine Comedy invested layers of meaning in the books about Purgatory and Heaven I completely missed when I read them.

Catholicism is a wonderful guide to the heart of the Catholic faith. It will no doubt explain the faith to many, and light the imaginations of those already on that journey.

Just Because I Like It - the Pope in Lebanon

From the Pope's visit to Lebanon. Something about this brings tears to my eyes ... it is that kind of jubilant feeling. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be inside the car?

This is from Margaret at ten thousand places who also excerpted three quotes from Pope Benedict's addresses so far. My favorite:

Why so much horror? Why so many dead? ... Those who wish to build peace must cease to see in the other an evil to be eliminated."

Pope Benedict XVI

Margaret links to a place with a lot more coverage. Drop by and browse.