Worship Faux Pas

Ironic Catholic has a hilarious list (funny because it's true!) of worship faux pas and how to avoid them. My favorite:

4. If you come to Mass tired, don't slump disrespectfully. Depend on the skills that got you through high school. At least hold your head in your hands in such a way that you look reverential.

Tom's favorite:

10. When all else fails, remember the secret Catholic motto: "I can sing quieter than you can sing."

My contribution would be: If you are kneeling in prayer avoid breathing down the neck of the person in the pew in front of you (discreet throat clearing is allowed so the person knows you're there and might lean forward slightly.)

This has spread like wildfire so be sure to check IC's comments boxes for other good additions, as well as her links at the end of the post to other bloggers who have taken up the list.

Three Things I Learned When Debating the HPV Vaccine Issue

1.

Essentially this issue boils down to whether you trust the government to have your best interests at heart in protecting you and your family.

I was stunned at how many people have such a great trust in this that they were willing to wave aside a possible money trail between Gov. Perry and Merck. I am not. People are people, profit is profit, and corruption is ever with us, sadly enough. Shouldn't the "smoke" be investigated to see if it is a dust cloud or a real fire before we put our children's health in the mix? I say yes.

I have discovered that I do not trust the FDA not to be influenced by pressures that may not include my family's best interests. Vioxx. Fen-phen. Rezulin. Remember those? I do.

I do not trust Gov. Perry to not be pandering to some special interests group or interested in money. I do not trust him to care more about my children's health ... or mine ... than I do. Or even as much as I do.

So there you go.

2.

We are a nation of the fearful. I had heard that before but it never struck home as these conversations made it do. We have forgotten how hard life can really be and really is for people in most other places in the world. We have it easier than any generation in history and we spend all our time being afraid ... of suffering, of disease, of death.

Is natural to be afraid of those things. Our desire for the quick fix, the safe bet, the sure thing has led us to stop thinking for ourselves and often simply parrot the ideology of either the Pilgrims or the Park Rangers (mentioned in Right to Be Wrong, linked to below). We are trading our freedoms at an alarming rate for governmental promises of protection and safeguards. Our ancestors would have laughed at us. They would be right to do so.

3.

I was reminded that the principles written about in The Right to Be Wrong apply to all facets of life today and not simply with religion. It has been a pleasure to debate various items with the courteous, reasonable people even as they have disagreed with me over the last day. It has made me think, made me investigate the issue more deeply, and made me examine the other point of view.

That old phrase, "agree to disagree" has never had more meaning. I can respect them while still not agreeing with them. In short, the people with whom I have been disagreeing have the right to be wrong. And I appreciate them respecting my right to be wrong too.

Real Transformation

Her [Edith Stein's] contemplative practice led to her firm belief in the traditional Christian doctrine of deification. If we are not being transformed along the way, she was convinced, then all our preaching and service is in vain. She was careful to point out the difference between "leading the self-satisfied existence of the 'good Catholic' who 'does his duty,' ' reads the right newspaper,' and 'votes correctly' -- and then does just as he pleases" and becoming a new man in Christ. The beginning of real transformation precipitates a difficult but lifesaving crisis: "If, up to now, a person has been more or less contented with himself, the time for that is over. He will do what he can to change the unpleasant things he finds in himself, but he will discover quite a bit that can't be called beautiful and yet will be nearly impossible to change. As a result he will slowly become small and humble, increasingly patient and tolerant toward the specks in his brothers' eyes."

By Way of Grace: Moving from Faithfulness to Holiness
by Paula Huston

This really hits the mark for me in terms of forcing our dependence of God and also being able to see ourselves for who we really are.

Bleg - God's Ball of Yarn

I'm trying to find a post that I thought I had bookmarked but obviously didn't ... the blogger wrote not too long ago about their mother (or mother in law) knitting ... and ended with a reflection about God's ball of yarn.

Can anyone help me out with that? Thanks!

Undeserved Love

Undeserved love also brings with it the possibility of being shamed. From the great chasm that lies between what we are and what those who love us think we are rises up a fruitful and challenging embarrassment, especially when it is they who glimpse our true calling long before we ourselves can see it. The German philosopher Nicolai Hartmann says that someone who is loved this way is "pushed beyond himself." In this sense, love becomes a clarion call to transformation -- the transformation of human nature made possible through the sacrifice of Christ.

This aspect of love -- that it urges us to be better than we are, to grow into what God intended us to be -- explains how the person who loves us most can also be our best critic. It is because he or she wants our life to be truly good. Thus, the true lover forgives rather than excuses our human failings. The distinction is an important one. In excusing, he pretends that something bad did not happen after all. In forgiving, he affirms that it did indeed happen and that he hopes and prays we will come to recognize this fact and repent.

By Way of Grace: Moving from Faithfulness to Holiness
by Paula Huston

I never thought of that concept before ... that someone who is undeservedly loved is pushed beyond himself. But that is exactly what God does with us. Fascinating ... and humbling.

I Never Thought I'd Be a Conscientious Objecter

Updated resources below.

*Alliance Teacher: And now, everyone can enjoy enlightenment and the comfort of true civilization....

Pupil: Why were the Independents even fighting us? Why weren't they looking to be more civilized?

Alliance Teacher: So with so much social and medical advances we can bring to the Independents, why would they fight so hard against us?

River: We meddle.

Alliance Teacher: River?

River: People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think. Don't run. Don't walk. We're in their homes and in their heads and we haven't the right. We're meddlesome.

Alliance Teacher: River, we're not telling people what to think. We're just trying to show them how. (Stabs River in the forehead with pen)

Serenity

In my cowardly way I always was secretly relieved that my girls were too old for me to have to worry about what to do when I heard about certain vaccines for children that were made using aborted babies (ugh!).

However, here comes a different vaccine with different issues attached ... that requires us to take a stand.

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry – usually a hero to social conservatives – surprised many of them Friday by making Texas the first state to mandate a vaccine for sixth-grade girls to prevent a sexually transmitted infection that leads to most kinds of cervical cancer.

Dallas Morning News (free registration required)

It so happens that not too long ago I had printed out Catholic Medical Weekly's evenhanded and informative article about this virus. I even read various portions aloud to Tom and Rose, with this being the money quote for us. (I have edited the layout to make it easier to read.)

Why isn’t it a swell idea?

First. The vaccine does not remove the need for Pap smears nor will it do anything for a lady already infected.

Second, it doesn’t do anything about other sexually transmitted diseases, although it’s easy to imagine a 12 year old (remember, that’s the target audience) who thinks it does. For that matter, I can easily imagine a 20 year old who might think it does, but that’s neither here nor there.

Thirdly, there are concerns that the FDA has "fast-tracked" licensure of Gardasil, without adequate study of its safety in little girls.[5]

Fourth, and most importantly, no one knows what effect universal vaccination of 9 year olds might have on adolescent tendency to have sex. However, the data of the past forty years of social experimentation suggest that it would tend to increase sexual activity. That’s been the outcome of all the other experiments on early immersion of young children into the fetid world of “sex ed” and teenage contraception, and there’s no reason this should have a different effect.

Regarding the morality of the vaccine itself, its manufacture does not involve aborted babies[6]. So the moral problems attached to, say varicella or rubella vaccines do not apply here.

HPV is a sexually transmitted disease. You don’t get it if the person next to you coughs, and you don’t get it from a water fountain or a toilet seat. Requiring HPV immunizations for young girls (and that is what ACIP “recommendations” amount to: requirements) is, in my view, no different from requiring that all school age girls be put on contraception....

I encourage anyone with daughters to go read the full article as it gives very good information about the vaccine and the issues involved. No matter what your thoughts on the main issues it is important to be fully informed when you make decisions about this vaccine.

It is important to keep in mind also, that although this vaccine is being trumpeted as the answer to avoiding cervical cancer, it is vital to recognize what it really does. The vaccine may reduce the incidence of infection with the HPV virus and does not necessarily prevent cervical cancer.

I have had grave misgivings from the time that the FDA changed policies to allow fast tracking of drug clearances and this just seems to prove my point. Our society at this time seems to be governed by knee-jerk reactions and policy mandates made based on public opinion and incomplete research. I object on those grounds, much less on those outlined in CMW's article.

I am not sure whether this requirement will be imposed as a retroactive measure on girls over the age of 12 such as my own high school and college age daughters. Governor Perry does allow an "out" for objectors.

In his executive order, Mr. Perry said girls must receive the human papillomavirus vaccine before school starts in September 2008. While noting that parents may opt out of the vaccine for conscience or religious reasons, he said it "provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer."

Dallas Morning News

Talking about the legislation yesterday, I told Rose that I do object. Without missing a beat she said, "I don't need you to object. I object on my own behalf. They can forget it." (A proud mom moment there.) I will be sending article links on to Hannah so she can see the facts behind the spin.

* I knew I was missing some TV quote to set this whole post off ... and just couldn't think of which one. Thanks to Tim for stepping up on this one!

UPDATE - way more than you wanted to know about what I was thinking

A good friend challenged me on some of the material and also was surprised that one of the reasons I didn't like the idea of the vaccine was the possibility of the effect on adolescents' tendency to have sex (as mentioned in the excerpt above).

I guess I should have qualified it more ... mostly because I hear through Hannah and Rose how much misinformation they are told by friends "is absolutely true" and most of the time it is about half-true if that.

So I looked at this and thought of the girls who come into their freshman year of high school pregnant because "everybody knows" that you can't get pregnant when you're on the pill or using condoms or without full penetration ... or whatever the myth is that they've been told. And this just looked like a silver bullet for people to start saying that it works on all STDs.

Another objection of mine is the money trail from Merck to Perry mentioned in the DMN article, but I didn't get into that ...

It also annoys the heck out of me that one of Perry's main justifications was "but I talked to my wife about it" .... does she think with her ovaries? And is he unable to think on this issue because he doesn't have any? Sheez! (Don't blame me, I voted for "one tough grandma!")

Also I guess that I was responding to my extreme dislike recently of having a "nanny" government mentality everywhere. Cities than ban transfats, people who want to ban smoking in all public places in Texas, etc. I just saw this as one more thing that "the man" is sticking to us. It comes down to trusting us to make intelligent decisions ourselves ... OR letting us choose how to go to hell in our own way.

Talking to the girls about "the old days" when I was growing up I also have seen the contrast between "live-and-let-live" back then and an extremely narrow-minded, intolerant judgement meted out by individuals and governments. So I react to that as well ...

However, I didn't feel like writing about it that way. Lazy ya know.

Actually it was good that my friend pushed me on this because I went looking for more information and found 10 things you might not know about Gardasil (see Other Resources above for the link). Interesting if for no other reason than giving us other questions to ask ... and I'd never have found it if not for my friend making me smarten up! Good on her!

Other resources to check - updated:

• Catholic Mom has been addressing this issue for some time.
• American Papist is doing full coverage as well with many links to different resources.
• Dr. Melissa Clouthier has another look at this issue and also brings good questions to mind.
• A letter to the editor in our newspaper this morning brought up the fact that thalomide was thought perfectly safe and, therefore, was prescribed to women for morning sickness ... an uncomfortable situation to be sure but one that most people can get through on their own while just feeling terrible. The now-infamous result was to mutate the next generation in a terrible way. Tom points out that this was a problem was visited upon British children but not Americans because the FDA was still testing the drug ... back in their cautious days for which I am thankful. An interesting comparison to be sure.
• Rev. Thomas Euteneuer has a good column about this issue. (Thanks to Georgette for this ... I still miss her blog.)
• 10 things You Might Not Know About Gardasil looks into the HPV vaccine for a whole slew of different reasons and backs up their questions with info from Merck and the FDA.
• I really don't think of myself as being part of the "religious right" (which I realize may make some laugh, especially with a blog name like Happy Catholic). However, having excerpted something which mentions a possible increase of sexual activity for minors seems to have put that particular topic top of mind for most readers, despite the other more pressing misgivings mentioned in this post and the update above. My attention was politely directed to a post which discusses the fact that mandatory vaccination requirements allow availability to the less fortunate and keep costs down. I would have found this more convincing had there been more facts to back up the basic premises and less time spent lambasting those with which the author took umbrage, namely the abstinence movement and the religious right. However, be that as it may, the core arguments are valid for those who believe the vaccine is safe and you can read it for yourself here: Rejecting Vaccine "Choice". (If anyone can provide me with a post but that has some solid documentation and less polemics to sort through ... let me know and I'll put it here ...)
• Medical Cost versus Benefit Modeling: from a commenter comes excellent, unemotional information about how to evaluate this vaccine ... and links to recommendations already made in professional medical journals.
  

Faith is Hard

Only then did I discover the truth: religious faith is not comforting, as atheists so often accuse, but hard. Hence, its status as a virtue. In order to keep it, we must nourish it and protect it; otherwise it will be blown away by the changing winds of fashion. More, we must never forget that this virtue is a theological one, which means that it comes through grace. Sometimes keeping faith means nothing more than clinging with the desperate need of a trusting child.

By Way of Grace: Moving from Faithfulness to Holiness
by Paula Huston

Amen to that! I never had characterized it to myself in that way until reading this passage. I was raised with the understanding that religious believers were clinging to false hope because they couldn't take real life, they needed the easy answers. On the other side of the equation, as it were, I know that living one's faith is a challenge that never ends ... luckily it is an interesting, exciting ride ... even when one is not having the best of times it is never boring.

Catholic Blog Award Nominations

Don't forget the nominations begin Sunday and are open through Friday.

This is a great way to recognize your favorite blogs. I know I have a long list that I'll be nominating. The categories are much more to the point this year, so take a look and see who you think fits them best.

The A&M Report

Hannah is up to all kinds of things these days. Her classes are easier than last semester (thank Heavens!) and so she's able to plan a trip to Austin to see a concert, start thinking about how many hours of work she needs to log on a summer job to earn the money for a 4-week trip to do field research with bats next year, get in lots of rock climbing at the MSC ... and all kinds of other interesting things.

Dearest to my heart is the fact that she was chosen Chaplain of the Christian sorority she joined last semester. I'm not sure what else the position entails but it includes running a Bible study. She didn't have anything available to specifically study the Bible but she did have that old reliable Mere Christianity to hand.

Who better than C.S. Lewis to start a discussion of the cardinal virtues? She was really surprised because no one had ever heard of cardinal virtues. "I didn't remember what they were," she said, "but I did know that they existed!"

Inevitably, after she read the excerpt containing this unknown concept to the girls, the question arose, "Is this a Catholic book?"

She was thankful to be able to assure them that C.S. Lewis wasn't Catholic.

Subsequently a good and interesting discussion was had by all.

Why Did You Revert or Convert?

That's the question that Open Book asked and the comments are worth the time taken to read them. I am printing these out to read at my leisure but answers range from "my iPod!" to John Paul II (yes I saw you in there Bender!) to the Eucharist (which is my personal reason). I love getting to see all the ways that God reaches out to pull people to the Church.

And I see that Baptists asking questions have a lot of Catholic converts/reverts to their credit also. Interesting.

Via A Quiet Catholic.

Resting in God

"In meditating," he [St. Francis de Sales] says, "we as it were count the divine perfections which we find in a mystery, but in contemplating, we sum up their total." The contemplative gaze is a holistic one, and one steeped in love. We are in the presence of God, and like human lovers who "are content, sometimes, with being near or within sight of the person they love without speaking to her, and without even distinctly thinking of her," we simply rest in God's nearness.

This contemplative repose is easily disrupted if we become overly aware of ourselves, a special temptation in modern times. People who "voluntarily forsake [the state of contemplative repose] to note their own behaviour within, and to examine whether they are really in content, disquieting themselves to discern whether their tranquility is really tranquil, and their quietude quiet," soon become distracted.

Rather than maintaining their focus on God, they "employ their understanding in reasoning upon the feelings they have; as a bride who should keep her attention on her wedding ring without looking upon the bridegroom who gave it to her. There is a great difference ... between being occupied with God who gives us the contentment, and being busied with the contentment which God gives us." We must stop studying our emotional reactions as though we were involved in a scientific experiment if we are ever to meet God as he is. Though honest self-awareness is critically important to the spiritual life, contemplation only happens when we learn to set aside self-study in order to lose ourselves in God.

By Way of Grace: Moving from Faithfulness to Holiness
by Paula Huston

I agree that this is quite a challenge in modern times where, as a people, we tend to analyze everything up to and including ourselves. However, it is a part of "letting go" in general to just push those inclinations aside when it comes to prayer.

Around the House

Rose and Kill Hannah
She came belting in from Kung Fu last Tuesday with her eyes alight and aquiver with excitement. "Kill Hannah is having a concert on Friday and there are 11 tickets left!"

Ah, Kill Hannah, every girl's androgynous dream band!

Her good friend Anna got two of those last 11 tickets and also managed to sweet talk her parents into letting her attend. The only thing they were worried about was the same thing that we were ... the trip downtown and back. Tom will be driving them down and picking them up later. And I might just go along to keep him company. It will mean a late night. But it's worth it to see Rose all revved up like that.

To Ruin that Voice in Your Head ...
... at least if you're like me and have mental "voices" to go with the bloggers you read.

I'm going to be interviewed on "The Catholic Guy," hosted by Lino Rulli, to discuss Happy Catholic live around 5:00 ET (which is 4:00 to me). It airs on The Catholic Channel on Sirius Satellite Radio, 159.

For those of us who don't have Sirius or know anyone who does I am trying to find out if they have a download or some such thing.

Felting Question
Every time I see felting mentioned, a top-loading washer is always specified. What about us poor schmoes who have front-loading washers? Are we doomed to live felt-less forever? Or is there a technique that works as an alternative?

Craft 'N Pray
For those who were interested in that Craft 'N Pray time I mentioned long ago, it is finally time to get it going. We'll be meeting on the second Saturday of the February, from 2-4 in the afternoon at my house. If you live in Dallas and are interested email me and I'll give you the details (julie @ glyphnet . com). [If you don't get a response in a day or so, it is safe to assume that my spam filter ate your email. In that case, leave me a comment with your email and I'll contact you.]

Perpetua & Felicity Book Club
As long as I have the Craft 'N Pray notice above I might as well throw in our little Catholic women's book club too ... we meet on the third Monday of each month from 8-10 p.m. at my house. We're beginning Triumph: The Power and Glory of the Catholic Church by H.W. Crocker III. Nothing like reading a history of the Catholic Church during Lent, eh?

I see that I didn't actually review this book but piggybacked on a review of Mama T's and that link is dead for some reason. Suffice it to say that this was one of my favorite books of 2004. Crocker is hilarious (or snarky as Mama T says) and I liked the fact that he made no attempt to hide his partisanship ... especially obvious when talking about Martin Luther ... maybe because I agreed with him. It was refreshing to find a history that didn't stop and back up every few steps to apologize for the non-correctness of our forebears. I remember that I was so caught up in it that I read this in about a week. I'm looking forward to rereading it.

Again, if you're interested email me for information.

Questions About Catholicism?

What you think you know about Catholicism may not be the reality of Catholicism.

Rafting the Tiber

I can't remember if I've referred y'all to Rafting the Tiber before or not.

Mark Windsor has a good, solid base of posts written about some of the questions that come up when people are looking into the Catholic Church ... whether they are contemplating swimming the Tiber (a.k.a. converting) or just taking a look inside the door to get the real scoop. He has some great information about Mary, the papacy, and more.

Even better, as his blog is fairly new, he is answering questions when they arise as in his most recent post which responds to a bevy of questions from a commenter about what the Church teaches. Mark is taking great care to be accurate, even going to the trouble of applying to the bishop for a Nihil Obstat on a particular post (don't know what that is? go read his latest post).

If you have a question I can't think of a better person in St. Blog's to ask.

Tuesday's Classic Book in a Minute

The Collected Work of Jane Austen
By Jane Austen
Ultra-Condensed by Christina Carlson and Peter da Silva

Female Lead
I secretly love Male Lead. He must never know.

Male Lead
I secretly love Female Lead. She must never know.

(They find out.)

THE END

Source

Savage Chickens

It is Savage Chickens' second anniversary. If you're not reading this then you're missing one of the funniest cartoons around. Check it out.

Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall ...

Funk says, "The practice of humility is to be neither too high nor too low" in this self-estimation. If we see ourselves as more important than we really are, we are guilty of vainglory; if we see ourselves, who have been created in the image of God, as utterly worthless, we are guilty of dejection. The trick is to gaze in the mirror and name with is truly there. In a sense, we are to look at ourselves contemplatively, for as Aquinas reminds us, "Contemplation refers to the actual, simple, looking at the truth." Humility allows us to see ourselves clearly and realistically so that we are not tricked into either self-inflation or self-hatred.

Only when we are humble can we safely follow out our natural urge toward excellence. The two--humility and excellence--are in a sense joined. "Nothing lights the way to a proper understanding of humility more tellingly than this: humility and high-mindedness not only are not mutually exclusive, but actually are neighbors and akin." High-mindedness or excellence is "the striving of the mind toward great things." (Pieper, Four Cardinal Virtues) My urge to be the best I could be was not inherently wrong or sinful--quite the contrary. God made us for himself, and buried deep within this natural longing of ours for higher, better things is thelonging for God. Our striving for great things can be easily derailed by vainglory or even pride, however, if humility--our estimation of ourselves according to truth--is not there to safeguard us.

By Way of Grace: Moving from Faithfulness to Holiness
by Paula Huston

I like that definition of humility: our estimation of ourselves according to truth. I have seen similar comments before but what opened this one up a little further for me was adding "striving for excellence" into the equation. It is only natural to want to be the best we can be ... as long as we have it balanced by a healthy sense of humility and remember that we are doing all in order to glorify God and not ourselves.

What a Nerve!

If you think that you got the whole story of Frank Abagnale, Jr.'s, escapades watching the movie then think again.

I am about two-thirds of the way through reading Abagnale's book, Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake, and am amazed at what he got away with. For instance, he taught sociology classes at a college one summer. During the classes he'd illustrate the lessons with stories about criminal behavior ... his own if only anyone else had known it. Or then there is the time that he decided having a real "flight crew" (read that a bevy of beautiful stewardesses) around him would add to his believability. I was stunned at the audacity with which he brought that one off. The most incredible so far is the time he talked his way out of jail and then went and robbed a bank. I'm not telling you any of the details that would ruin the book but please believe me when I tell you that I'm running out of adjectives for Abagnale's escapades.

The movie brought off the feel of Abagnale's life of crime but when you pile story upon story it just becomes even more amazing.

Notice

Blogger finally let me change to the new Blogger. (Think maybe I could have been held up by the fact that I have almost 5,000 posts here?)

I am going to be using the labels feature to help categorize things, such as quotes, excerpts, Bible studies, and more. However, that will require updating the template and I'll be in various stages of disarray for a bit.

Thanks for your patience!

"Star Wars" Wars

Not really "wars" but definitely there is an interesting conversation going on about Star Wars, origins, and redemption going on in the comments here. Everyone seems to be responding to the excerpt. I do encourage all to go read the linked article. More fodder for discussion surely is there as Mike Resnick takes apart sci-fi movies for their lack of logic and science.

In This House of Brede: Anglican or Catholic?

I started looking into this after some response to the Rumer Godden post raised the question.

My impression was that they were Catholic, no question about it. After all, they were very interested in the papal conclave that happens in the book, going so far as to bring a television in to watch the doings. Also, I see from the Loyola notes that Godden converted to Catholicism partway through living near the abbey and doing the research. That also indicated a Catholic setting.

However, it was brought up that High Anglicans also might be quite interested in the papal election.

So I went to other sources. My fellow Brede-addict, The Anchoress points out:

The Brede nuns are undoubtedly Roman Catholic, which is why they were so interested in the election of the new pope and were so keyed up over the post Vat II changes, masses facing the congregation, etc.

... also, remember the Brede nuns were chased out of England during the reformation, had to go to France and then slowly came back to England. Definitely Roman Catholic. Also, anglicans don't do rosaries.

From Loyola press comes the reminder:

Godden's model for Brede was Stanbrook Abbey, a Catholic Benedictine convent which is in the process of being sold.

Unless something very definitive comes to light, I'm going with Catholic.