Coming in May: He Lives An Unusual Life ...

We all know that I'm a huge fan of the unusual blend of horror and spirituality that are the Odd Thomas books, don't we? (Read my commentary on the series.) Anyone who joins me in that fandom will rejoice to see that Dean Koontz has been channeling Odd Thomas again.

Via Unhurried Catholic.

Name 20 films that portray Christianity in a positive light.

That was the challenge that Steven Greydanus took on and that Jeffrey Overstreet blogged about ... and which he graciously guest blogged over at Catholic Media Review.

As you can imagine, the comments have been varied and interesting.

My addition to the list?

I Am Legend.

Check it out.

Noooooooooooo!!!!

Drat you, Brian St. Paul, for telling me about The Library of Congress collection at Flickr. As if I didn't have enough to waste my time on.

But they do have some fantastic photos, y'all ...

Grand Grocery Co., 1924, Lincoln, Nebraska
From The Library of Congress collection on Flickr.

"Having resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die" -- Malachy McCourt

What upset me more than anything is that for the first time in my life, I was actively hating someone. I’ve never hated anyone - not even people who have done me physical and spiritual harm. But I was hating this fellow. And hating him even more for “making me” hate him.

Which, of course, he could not do. No one can “make” you hate; I simply allowed hate in; I welcomed it in, gave it an honored chair and fed it. And fed it. And it was incredibly destructive and oppressive - to me, mostly - but it did nothing good for anyone who had to be around me if the subject had my head. My whole family, and a few friends, have had to endure watching me give myself over to this resentment, allowing it to have its way with me, and to own me, body and soul.

The Anchoress tells a story that we all can relate to ... one of resenting the treatment of a loved one, struggling with hate, feeling powerless in its grip, and, finally, of having loved ones become God's prophets ... called not to make us comfortable with our wrongdoing but to set us straight, even if it makes us uncomfortable. A truthful and fantastic story, and one not to be missed.

If only I could say that I did not related to that story. The one personal addition I will make is that when attending my CRHP retreat several years ago, I walked into the church with the group for Mass, saw that many of them had loved ones who had risen early and come in support of them. Instantly I thought of Tom (not there because he was home taking care of our girls ... and I knew this intellectually). I was filled with a resentment and hate of him for not being there that I could literally feel. It began at the top of my head and poured down my body as boiling hot, acidic liquid. I can't explain this except to say that I felt it. I also knew that it was deadly and would undo all the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit thus far. I could hold onto that hateful resentment or I could consciously reject it. I thought, "No! I'm not doing this," and pushed it away. Period. That feeling was instantly gone. The blessing of all that is that I recognized what was happening and rejected it so quickly. Truly, it was another miracle of that retreat because that would not have been my usual reaction.

I try to remember that feeling, which I have never had again, whenever I am subject to recurring fits of self pity, resentment, or ... yes ... hatred. It is a good reminder of what those feelings do to our souls when we indulge in them.

Clouds of Witness and Rays of Light

I meant to link to this amazing story last week and then thought that surely I'd see it making the rounds. But not so.

Therefore, I am very happy to tempt you into reading a miraculous story with which to begin the year ...

While visiting my friend in Dallas this past week, she asked me if I would mind going over to the house of a friend of hers who was out of town and has been having some troubles, and praying there for him. Though my friend is an Evangelical, her friend is a Catholic, so I asked her if she would mind if we went by his parish first for some holy water to sprinkle around, and she said she wouldn’t, so we did.

When we got to the house, we went in, and I noticed that it seemed very dark and cold inside. I told my friend that I wanted to start by the front door, and gradually work my way through every room in the house, praying and sprinkling holy water as we went. We walked over to the door and turned to face the room, and I crossed myself in preparation to pray.

The moment I began praying, I felt a sense of very heavy, dark oppression come over me – and at the same moment, my friend sank down to her knees. I wondered if she felt it, too, but said nothing and continued to pray. We slowly worked our way through each room, praying and sprinkling holy water, but the heavy, dark oppressiveness remained. Finally we had gone through every room, so I returned to the front door and faced the room again. I had prayed everything I could think of, but the darkness and heaviness was still there.

Now, go read the rest at Historical Christian.

Bach's Music Converting Asians to Christianity

For years, Richter observed with growing fascination how in his Gothic sanctuary, Japanese musicologist Keisuke Maruyama studied the influence of the weekday pericopes (prescribed readings) in the early 18th-century Lutheran lectionary cycle on Bach’s cantatas. When he had finished, he told the clergyman: “It is not enough to read Christian texts. I want to be a Christian myself. Please baptize me.”

But this scholar’s conversion could have been attributed to the impact of pericopes’ biblical texts on Maruyama. Why, though, would a fugue have such evangelistic powers as it did on the Japanese organist in Minnesota? Why would even listening to Bach’s Goldberg Variations, which contain no lyrics, arouse someone’s interest in Christianity? This happened when Masashi Yasuda, a former agnostic, heard a CD with Canadian pianist Glenn Gould’s rendering of this complex Clavier-Übung, or keyboard study. Still, Yasuda’s spiritual journey began precisely with these variations. He is now a Jesuit priest teaching systematic theology at Sophia University in Tokyo.

Fascinating ... read the whole story here. Via Brandywine Books.

Worth a Thousand Words

Strawberry Eclair by Duane Keiser

The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina, 2

The second of the three-part article from our church bulletin inserts about Lectio Divina. (The first part is here.)

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Accepting the Embrace of God
The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina
by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.*

2. THE UNDERLYING RHYTHM of LECTIO DIVINA
IF WE are to practice lectio divina effectively, we must travel back in time to an understanding that today is in danger of being almost completely lost. In the Christian past the words action (or practice, from the Greek praktikos) and contemplation did not describe different kinds of Christians engaging (or not engaging) in different forms of prayer and apostolates. Practice and contemplation were understood as the two poles of our underlying, ongoing spiritual rhythm: a gentle oscillation back and forth between spiritual “activity” with regard to God and “receptivity.”

PRACTICE - spiritual “activity” - referred in ancient times to our active cooperation with God’s grace in rooting out vices and allowing the virtues to flourish. The direction of spiritual activity was not outward in the sense of an apostolate, but inward - down into the depths of the soul where the Spirit of God is constantly transforming us, refashioning us in God’s image. The active life is thus coming to see who we truly are and allowing ourselves to be remade into what God intends us to become.

IN THE early monastic tradition contemplation was understood in two ways. First was theoria physike, the contemplation of God in creation - God in “the many.” Second was theologia, the contemplation of God in Himself without images or words - God as “The One.” From this perspective lectio divina serves as a training-ground for the contemplation of God in His creation.

IN CONTEMPLATION we cease from interior spiritual doing and learn simply to be, that is to rest in the presence of our loving Father. Just as we constantly move back and forth in our exterior lives between speaking and listening, between questioning and reflecting, so in our spiritual lives we must learn to enjoy the refreshment of simply being in God’s presence, an experience that naturally alternates (if we let it!) with our spiritual practice.

IN ANCIENT times contemplation was not regarded as a goal to be achieved through some method of prayer, but was simply accepted with gratitude as God’s recurring gift. At intervals the Lord invites us to cease from speaking so that we can simply rest in his embrace. This is the pole of our inner spiritual rhythm called contemplation.

HOW DIFFERENT this ancient understanding is from our modern approach! Instead of recognizing that we all gently oscillate back and forth between spiritual activity and receptivity, between practice and contemplation, we today tend to set contemplation before ourselves as a goal - something we imagine we can achieve through some spiritual technique. We must be willing to sacrifice our “goal-oriented” approach if we are to practice lectio divina, because lectio divina has no other goal than spending time with God through the medium of His word. The amount of time we spend in any aspect of lectio divina, whether it be rumination, consecration or contemplation depends on God’s Spirit, not on us. Lectio divina teaches us to savor and delight in all the different flavors of God’s presence, whether they be active or receptive modes of experiencing Him.

IN lectio divina we offer ourselves to God; and we are people in motion. In ancient times this inner spiritual motion was described as a helix - an ascending spiral. Viewed in only two dimensions it appears as a circular motion back and forth; seen with the added dimension of time it becomes a helix, an ascending spiral by means of which we are drawn ever closer to God. The whole of our spiritual lives were viewed in this way, as a gentle oscillation between spiritual activity and receptivity by means of which God unites us ever closer to Himself. In just the same way the steps or stages of lectio divina represent an oscillation back and forth between these spiritual poles. In lectio divina we recognize our underlying spiritual rhythm and discover many different ways of experiencing God’s presence - many different ways of praying.

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Coming next week:
Part 3. The Practice of Lectio Divina
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* The author considers this article to be in the Public Domain. This article may therefore be downloaded, reproduced and distributed without special permission from the author. You may find the original article here.

Part Three is here.

Who Would You Sit Next To?

Fly With Me podcast (done by an airline pilot) posed this question.

I've always kind of played a little game in my mind -- you know like those little parlor games you play where you ask people what books they would want on a deserted island, or where you ask "If you could invite five famous people to dinner living or dead, who would it be"? Well I always though it would be more telling to ask "If you could sit in first class next to anyone -- currently living -- who would that be? And what would you say to them?" This question has the advantage that it could really happen. You might realistically, in your lifetime, have that happen.

He chose Kurt Vonnegut, by which you may surmise that I'm a bit behind in my listening as this was a tribute to Vonnegut's writing.

I've been turning that question over in my mind ... who would I choose? Someone sprang to mind quickly, perhaps prompted by the pilot's choice and something a commenter recently said. So I also thought about actors, statesmen, great thinkers. No one satisfied like that first choice.

I choose Ray Bradbury.

Who would you choose?

A Noble Chore

The table has been cleared, and the last of your dinner guests has been ushered out into the night. The previous days' tumult of planning, shopping, and cooking has yielded another evening to remember--and a sink full of sauce-smeared plates and grease-smudged stemware. In the prostprandial hush, you calmly take stock of the task at hand and begin your labor. Working unhurriedly from the top of the pile, your hands gripping the soapy sponge, you work rhythmically as your body warms to the task and your mind, stoked by food and conversation, quiets itself. Call us old-fashioned, ascetic, or even slightly masochistic, but there's something about hand-washing dishes that we find, well, cleansing

#36 of Saveur's 10th Annual Top 100 list
--David Sax, January Saveur

This struck a chord with me. Our dishwasher broke a couple of weeks ago and the cheapest way to go was to start washing everything by hand.

I have a fondness for washing dishes by hand. Some of this may be linked to my uncanny ability to stack an incredible number of things in the dish drainer ... how often do I get to exercise this skill to the acclaim and amazement of my family? Not that often.

It also provides the equally intangible enjoyment of chatting with anyone who happens to stop off and dry a few glasses (this happens much more often than you'd think), let one's mind idly wander on any number of subjects which one might perhaps interlace with a prayer here and there, listen to music or a story ... or whatever.

Perhaps it is the regularity of this enforced task. Dishes, after all must be washed frequently or there is nothing to put our dinner upon. It provides at least twice a day (more on weekends!) during which conversation, pondering, or listening are the only options. Despite the work, which is admittedly light, in its own way dishwashing is restful.

Worth a Thousand Words

Featuring Stacy, a contestant in Miss Mustang 2008
from Confessions of a Pioneer Woman.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Stacey, Miss Arizona! Stacey’s favorite color is turquoise and she enjoys eating native grasses from her host family’s flower beds. If she wins the crown tonight, she hopes to use her exposure to further the cause of women’s rights, both in the equine kingdom and beyond. Welcome, Stacey!

Do go see all the candidates. A lovelier group of ladies you will not encounter elsewhere.

The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina, 1

I promised a while back to share some of the things that had helped me to develop a regular prayer time and to reflect more. This is the first of three bulletin inserts that ran recently about Lectio Divina.

You can go to the link at the end to get the entire article, or read it broken up into three parts as it will be presented via the bulletins as I post them.

I have read these several times and keep them by my Bible for quick glances if I get off track.

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Accepting the Embrace of God
The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina
by Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.*

1. THE PROCESS of LECTIO DIVINA
A VERY ANCIENT art, practiced at one time by all Christians, is the technique known as lectio divina - a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures which enables the Bible, the Word of God, to become a means of union with God. This ancient practice has been kept alive in the Christian monastic tradition, and is one of the precious treasures of Benedictine monastics and oblates. Together with the Liturgy and daily manual labor, time set aside in a special way for lectio divina enables us to discover in our daily life an underlying spiritual rhythm. Within this rhythm we discover an increasing ability to offer more of ourselves and our relationships to the Father, and to accept the embrace that God is continuously extending to us in the person of his Son Jesus Christ.

Lectio - reading/listening
THE ART of lectio divina begins with cultivating the ability to listen deeply, to hear “with the ear of our hearts” as St. Benedict encourages us in the Prologue to the Rule. When we read the Scriptures we should try to imitate the prophet Elijah. We should allow ourselves to become women and men who are able to listen for the still, small voice of God (I Kings 19:12); the “faint murmuring sound” which is God’s word for us, God’s voice touching our hearts. This gentle listening is an “atunement” to the presence of God in that special part of God’s creation which is the Scriptures.

THE CRY of the prophets to ancient Israel was the joy-filled command to “Listen!” “Sh’ma Israel: Hear, O Israel!” In lectio divina we, too, heed that command and turn to the Scriptures, knowing that we must “hear” - listen - to the voice of God, which often speaks very softly. In order to hear someone speaking softly we must learn to be silent. We must learn to love silence. If we are constantly speaking or if we are surrounded with noise, we cannot hear gentle sounds. The practice of lectio divina, therefore, requires that we first quiet down in order to hear God’s word to us. This is the first step of lectio divina, appropriately called lectio - reading.

THE READING or listening which is the first step in lectio divina is very different from the speed reading which modern Christians apply to newspapers, books and even to the Bible. Lectio is reverential listening; listening both in a spirit of silence and of awe. We are listening for the still, small voice of God that will speak to us personally - not loudly, but intimately. In lectio we read slowly, attentively, gently listening to hear a word or phrase that is God’s word for us this day.

Meditatio - meditation
ONCE WE have found a word or a passage in the Scriptures that speaks to us in a personal way, we must take it in and “ruminate” on it. The image of the ruminant animal quietly chewing its cud was used in antiquity as a symbol of the Christian pondering the Word of God. Christians have always seen a scriptural invitation to lectio divina in the example of the Virgin Mary “pondering in her heart” what she saw and heard of Christ (Luke 2:19). For us today these images are a reminder that we must take in the word - that is, memorize it - and while gently repeating it to ourselves, allow it to interact with our thoughts, our hopes, our memories, our desires. This is the second step or stage in lectio divina - meditatio. Through meditatio we allow God’s word to become His word for us, a word that touches us and affects us at our deepest levels.

Oratio - prayer
THE THIRD step in lectio divina is oratio - prayer: prayer understood both as dialogue with God, that is, as loving conversation with the One who has invited us into His embrace; and as consecration, prayer as the priestly offering to God of parts of ourselves that we have not previously believed God wants. In this consecration-prayer we allow the word that we have taken in and on which we are pondering to touch and change our deepest selves. Just as a priest consecrates the elements of bread and wine at the Eucharist, God invites us in lectio divina to hold up our most difficult and pain-filled experiences to Him, and to gently recite over them the healing word or phrase He has given us in our lectio and meditatio. In this oratio, this consecration-prayer, we allow our real selves to be touched and changed by the word of God.

Contemplatio - contemplation
FINALLY, WE simply rest in the presence of the One who has used His word as a means of inviting us to accept His transforming embrace. No one who has ever been in love needs to be reminded that there are moments in loving relationships when words are unnecessary. It is the same in our relationship with God. Wordless, quiet rest in the presence of the One Who loves us has a name in the Christian tradition - contemplatio, contemplation. Once again we practice silence, letting go of our own words; this time simply enjoying the experience of being in the presence of God.

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Coming next week:
Part 2. The Underlying Rhythm of Lectio Divina
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* The author considers this article to be in the Public Domain. This article may therefore be downloaded, reproduced and distributed without special permission from the author. You may find the original article here.

Part two is here.

What's Wrong With Porn?

Marcel LeJeune at Mary's Aggies has a very good post with both positives about sexuality and then discussion about how pornography makes us less human. Check it out.

Worth a Thousand Words

Street Musicians at the Doorway of a House
1665, OCHTERVELT, Jacob

Dutch painter (b. 1634, Rotterdam, d. 1682, Amsterdam)

Why are the wicked joyous?

St. Ambrose had a very good answer to this question.

Perhaps you say, Why are the wicked joyous? why do they live in luxury? why do they not toil with me? It is because they who have not put down their names to strive for the crown are not bound to undergo the labors of the contest. They who have not gone down into the race-course do not anoint themselves with oil nor get covered with dust. For those whom glory awaits trouble is at hand. The perfumed spectators are wont to look on, not to join in the struggle, nor to endure the sun, the heat, the dust, and the showers. ...

As Tom points out, this turns the whole "gospel of prosperity" on its head. We are working for the bigger reward than ease in this life. Its nice if it comes along, but that's not the point at all. It is about our immortal souls.

Worth a Thousand Words

Starfish on Pebbles found at Flickr's Cream of the Crop

The Arkangel Complete Shakespeare

I don't remember where I saw the Arkangel recordings of Shakespeare mentioned. It sent me to our library, which luckily has quite a few of the plays. I listened only to the beginning of Gentlemen from Verona, before deciding that I needed to begin with something a bit more familiar to get my "ear" accustomed again to the cadence of Shakespearean speech. However, even that brief encounter made me eager for more. Both the acting and the sound production were wonderful. It was sheer genius to have the opening scene over cocktails in a piano bar (or so it sounded). It clearly took me into the scene in an unexpected way.

I am now waiting impatiently for the library to get Macbeth to me. That story is much more familiar and I will have a better chance at absorbing it all.

Imagine my delight then when Thomas McDonald, the guest blogger who gave us yesterday's review of Bioshock, presented me with this thoughtful and complete review of the entire Arkangel series for Catholic Media Review.

Sit back, read, and enjoy. Then take thee to a library (or store) and begin enjoying Shakespeare in a whole new way! Thank you Thomas!

Worth a Thousand Words

Grange painted by Belinda Del Pesco

Fr. James Martin's Response to Joyce Behar's Anti-Catholicism

Foolish as it would be to look for deep theological insight from "The View," Joy Behar's recent statements on Catholic saints (a) not existing any longer and (b) needing medication, was about as close as you could come to a nice Youtubable, public display of anti-Catholicism, for any who doubt it still exists.

Martin, editor of America magazine, has a good article responding to Joy Behar of The View who recently went on a public anti-Catholic screed. Do go read his responses to each of Behar's embarrassing examples of ignorance of the faith she is attacking. I also like his points about why he's not worried and the implied charity of Mother Teresa probably already praying for Behar.

In addition to pointing out the problems with such impromptu examples of anti-Catholicism being the last acceptable prejudice, we should also remember to extend charity to such offenders by forgiving them and praying for them. Mother Teresa, pray with us and for us, as we pray for Joy Behar.

Bioshock Review

Rapture’s collapse is an object lesson in what happens when bioethics break down. The city is undone by genetic tampering, as people attempt to turn themselves into Gods with gene modifying drugs. God’s work is imperfect, people are told, so science must step in to improve it. At the top of the crumbling pyramid is Ryan, with his Godlike delusions and warped philosophy. He sees Rapture as a New Eden. Indeed, two of the gameplay elements are “ADAM”, a mutagen which allows people to modify their genetic structure to enhance certain powers, and “EVE,” the fuel for these genetic mutations. In order to get through Rapture, your character needs to become one of these mutants without sinking too far into madness. It’s a dangerous balance, and in the end only love is able to bring you back, if you choose the path of love.

Guest blogger Thomas L. McDonald, Editor-at-Large of Games Magazine, delivers a fascinating review of Bioshock over at Catholic Media Review. It takes into account societal standards and concerns as reflected in this game ... really good stuff, y'all!

If you have a child wanting to play this game (or already playing it) and want to know more about the content, this review is invaluable. Or if you just are in interested in playing it yourself check it out. It sounds darned good!