Every Blogger's Nightmare ... It's Funny Because It's True

From the hilarious Doug Savage.

Julie and Scott agree to make coffee for Ulysses in return for a cube of deceased vegetation.

Also, they read Way Station by Clifford D. Simak.

Get it at A Good Story is Hard to Find.

Just When My Plan Was All Coming Together ...

... the catalog was ahead of schedule and I was going to have this weekend off and was assured of Thanksgiving weekend also.

And then the client changed a very basic formatting issue in such a way that we are going to have to work on every page much more.

Darn it!

So, my very cursory blogging will have to continue. Thank you for your patience!

Something I'm Reading ... Flunking Sainthood

Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor by Jana Riess

The premise of this book is that the author was to try a different spiritual discipline every month. She failed at each, if I understand the back of the book (and the title) properly. However, it seemed an interesting read if for no other reason than to read her quotes from other sources and for her take on the various disciplines.

I dipped into this a while back when I received it and found it an easy read but the author came off as really whiny (they call it wry, but whiny was my reaction, especially in March where she really, really did not like Brother Lawrence -- who I've always found rather endearing).

Picking it up again, I decided to skip to the end to see if there was a worthwhile result and any hope that the whininess would lessen (however amusingly the whining might be couched). Definitely there is a big payoff ... and one that I can relate to. Therefore, I picked it up from March and am going to see if the other disciplines sit a bit better on the author. Perhaps encountering Brother Lawrence so early in the process was simply unfortunate for both the author and the book.

More later ...

BLEG: Recommendations for a book about "offering it up?"

The concept of offering one's suffering to God as a sacrifice was introduced last week at RCIA.

It is never an easy concept, but one person in particular struggled with understanding it. A request was made for a book recommendation.

I have no clue, people. At least about a book to help with this concept.

Recommendations?

Just as a source of further information, should someone be reading and wonder what the heck we're talking about, here are two previous posts of mine on the subject:

• "Offer It Up." What the Heck Does That Mean?
• The Holy Mass and Personal Self Surrender

Community benched ... scheduled "to return at some point..."

Nooooooooooooooo!!!!!

Say it ain't so!

The Catechism Demystified

This is a talk that I gave to our RCIA class last week. I'm sharing it here for anyone else who'd like a little help finding their way around the Catechism, which can be confusing but need not be.

I am not an expert on the Catechism, but I do know how to use it.

The Catechism can be a bit tricky to find your way around so I wanted to take just a couple of minutes to familiarize everyone with it.

Let’s start with what the word catechism means. A catechism is a summary of principles.

So, the Catholic Catechism is specifically designed as a reference guide. Some people call it the Catholic “rule book.” It is much more than that though.

“In the Catechism, we see the wealth of teaching that the Church has
received, safeguarded and proposed in her two thousand years of history. From Sacred Scripture to the Fathers of the Church, from theological masters to the saints across the centuries, the Catechism provides a permanent record of the many ways in which the Church has meditated on the faith and made progress in doctrine so as to offer certitude to believers in their lives of faith."

That is what Pope Benedict says about the Catechism ... and he should know.

The current Catechism was requested by Pope John Paul II and produced under Cardinal Ratzinger’s supervision. Cardinal Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI.

This Catechism is the first systematic synthesis of faith issued since the Council of Trent in 1566. Between then and now there were catechisms that were issued locally as various people saw the need.

The English version of this catechism came out in 1994 and was revised in 1997, so this is really current.

Think of it as the sort of encyclopedia from the days when all we had were books ... when you would sit down to look up facts about the moon and get pulled into other sections because they were so fascinating.

Of course, when you have a two thousand year old institution whose goal is to help get us to Heaven, they don’t think quite the way we do about organization.

The Catechism is arranged in four main sections that are often called the “Four Pillars” of the Faith:

• The Profession of Faith (the Apostle’s Creed)
• The Celebration of the Christian Mystery (the Sacred Liturgy, especially the sacraments)
• Life in Christ (including The Ten Commandments in Catholic theology)
• Christian Prayer (including The Lord’s Prayer)

Numbering system:

Let’s look at a page. (get pdf of sample page here)

Every paragraph is numbered. (red circle) Those numbers are very important.

When you look up something in the index, the numbers it refers you to are
paragraph numbers, NOT page numbers. This can be confusing until you get used to it, but it does give us an idea of just how much information is packed into each paragraph.

The numbers in the margins (green square) are cross-references ... to other paragraphs in the Catechism that refer to the same subject and may shed more light.

The cross-reference paragraphs are a good reason to have the actual book. The Catechism is on-line in a lot of places (the Vatican’s web-site, the US Bishops’ website, etc.) and is super handy for searching. I use the online version all the time.

But those versions don’t have the cross-reference paragraphs ... and sometimes those lead you to just what you were looking for or for added depth you wouldn’t have found otherwise.

In Brief:

The writers of the Catechism know that this may be more information than you wanted. Maybe you were looking for a simple answer and didn’t need all the extra info.

Each chapter ends with an “In Brief” section that summarizes the main points of the chapter in one or two sentence paragraphs.

Footnotes:

Of course, there are are copious footnotes for both direct quotes in the text and also where they refer to sources of the teaching, in particular the Scriptures, the Church Fathers, and the Ecumenical Councils and other authoritative Catholic statements, such as those issued by recent Popes.

Compendium

Just finding your way to the correct “In Brief” answers may seem a bit daunting if you’re trying to find something quickly ... which is something I’ve experienced in our small group.

And the writers of the Catechism realized that too.

So, in 2005 they came out with the Compendium to the Catechism. (Download a sample page here.)

It is a more concise and conversational version of the Catechism.

Again the paragraphs are numbered. These paragraph numbers don’t have any relationship to the numbers in the Catechism.

However, these numbers in the margin (red circle) DO correspond to numbers in the actual Catechism so if you want to read more, it is easy to find.

EVEN EASIER

Say you need more explanation though, and the Catechism is a bit too confusing. I’ve been there. Here are three good books. (Links lead to my reviews.)

• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Catechism
• Catholicism for Dummies (I haven't formally reviewed this ... but will ... but these many posts with excerpts give ample evidence of the solid value of this book)
• Catholic Mass for Dummies

Surprised?

For one thing, how can we trust these books though to tell us the truth about Catholic teachings?

Two reasons.

First, they all use those same, all-important paragraph numbers from the Catechism so that you can go check what they’re saying against the Catechism itself.

There is a much easier way to be sure though.

I didn’t trust these books myself ... until I saw that each went to the trouble of getting the Catholic seal of approval.

Here’s what I mean by that.

Look on the copyright page for one or more of these phrases (below). These mean that the book has been submitted to Catholic authorities to be checked for accuracy.

If the author belongs to a religious order, the book is submitted to the order’s superior. If the author is just a regular writer, the book is usually submitted to local Catholic authorities, like the local diocese.

In either case, first the book is examined by an expert, called a censor. If the book is accurate, they issue:

Censor’s stamp: NIHIL OBSTAT (“nothing stands in the way”)

After the Nihil Obstat has been obtained, the manuscript will be submitted another person for checking.

In the case of a religious order, it is examined by the order’s religious superior ... in which case it receives the:

Religious Superior’s stamp: IMPRIMI POTEST (“it can be printed”)

I have only come across the Imprimi Potest once ... in The Catechism, which has Cardinal Ratzinger’s stamp of approval.

In the case of the regular book given to the diocese, the manuscript would go from the censor to the bishop to receive the:

Bishop’s stamp: IMPRIMATUR (“let it be printed”)

The religious superior may also go ahead and submit the manuscript they approved for an Imprimatur. So it is possible to have a book with all three seals of approval.

By the way, it is only necessary to put the Imprimi Potest or Imprimatur on the book. You can assume it has gotten a Nihil Obstat first if it made it to those two stages.

Caution:

A word of warning though ... if you see a book that only has a Nihil Obstat, be cautious. It may be in error. This happened in the 1960s a lot and some of those books contained incorrect material, even heretical material. You need the double-check system to be sure something didn’t slip by someone. That is why if one bishop gave the Nihil Obstat, another bishop has to give the Imprimatur.

The Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are often followed by this statement on the copyright page:

The “Nihil Obstat” and “Imprimatur” are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat and the Imprimatur agree with the content, opinions or statements expressed.

So if one of these authors has all theCatholic truths right but is using them to try to prove that we shouldn’t drink hot coffee because it’s the devil’s temperature ... we can’t blame the Catholic Church.

FINALLY

Remember those footnotes in the Catechism? The ones for materials that are simply referenced, where they might have summarized twelve pages of a Church Council document into two sentences?

If you ever wonder just what was summarized, there’s a book for that too.

The Companion to the Catechism of the Catholic Church ... which is a compendium of texts referred to in the book but not quoted there.

It has every word of the pertinent part of the originally referenced materials, in English, so you don’t have to go all over the place looking for something.

It is almost 1,000 pages long and is really fascinating and enlightening if you want to see it all from original sources.

Just imagine if all this material had been included in the Catechism.

That would’ve been a book no one would have wanted to open.

It makes the Catechism not look so big after all, does it?

Crunch Time Means No Blogging ...

Sorry everyone, but the catalog is in crunch time ... layout calls ...

Back by next week, hopefully!

Thank you for your understanding.

Something I'm Reading Now: Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

Since I updated my Goodreads spot and they make it easy to share, I'm dropping it in here.

Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Rereading this for A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast, where Scott and I will be discussing it next week.


Here's what I said when I named it among my top fiction for 2009:

From SFFaudio's review: This story spans more than a century, but most of the ‘action’ takes place in the middle of the 20th century, over a couple of months. See, a friendly alien recruited Enoch Wallace to become something of a galactic station master shortly after the American Civil War. Now, with his neighbors generally accepting his mysterious eternal youth, Enoch has a curious and unseen visitor watching him from the woods. Enoch is lonely, with his only friends being a completely deaf and mute young woman and his kindly mailman. Will the visitor in the trees learn the truth? Will Enoch help guide the Earth to its ultimate destiny?

I really enjoyed this story which also sparked quite a debate about the nature of fiction and storytelling between Jesse from SFFaudio and me. (Dang, those comments were lost because I was using Haloscan at the time, which changed around became so complicated I switched to Blogger's commenting system.) This story makes you think of what it means to truly be human, the nature of conflict (and not just between Jesse and me), and also made me love and appreciate nature more than ever.

I'm looking forward to rereading this and discussing all these issues (and probably many more).

Urgent Prayer Request

I just got word that one of Hannah's best friends, Addison, went to the emergency room this morning, vomiting blood.

He has been hurried into surgery.

I don't know what is wrong, but please say a prayer for this young man, who our whole family is close to.

UPDATE
We got a brief text last night from Addison, saying that he was out of surgery ... that is all we know and we were grateful for that much.

Thank you for all the prayers and I'll update further when we learn more.

Curt Jester Adds to Diversity of SFFaudio

Which is my way of saying that Jeff Miller has begun reviewing audiobooks at SFFaudio and added another Catholic to the mix, which is one that ranges from atheists to Catholics and various points in-between. Although, now that I think about it, he hasn't so much made it more diverse, as a bit more Catholic. Though his Navy experience surely does add to the diversity!

Anyway, I'm thrilled!

Read his review, but also don't miss his comments at The Curt Jester (especially since he goes out of his way to praise A Good Story is Hard to Find).

Thanks Jeff!

Now, when are you going to be on the read alongs at SFFaudio? That would be something I'd love to hear!

Blogging Around: The Fast, the Furious, and the Literate

Meaning that I'm super busy, but here are a bunch of book-ish links you might like. Just the links, no comments, that's how busy I am!

• The All-Pro by Scott Sigler - free audiobook at Podiobooks
• The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia - review at SF Site
• Briarpatch by Tim Pratt - review at SF Site
• Finding Shakespeare - listen or read at Skeptoid
• Looking for Mysteries Where There are None - Andrew Ordover on Shakespeare as author
• What Happened to Downtime? The Extinction of Deep Thinking & Sacred Space by Scott Belsky - how to be proactive at creating silence and sacred space at 99% (nothing to do with literature but I was so intrigued to see a mention of sacred space at this site, that I found an excellent article)

Weekend Joke: The Bell Ringer

Thanks to Seth Peters for this one!

After Quasimodo's death, the bishop of the Cathedral of Notre Dame sent word through the streets of Paris that a new bell ringer was needed.

The bishop decided that he would conduct the interviews personally and went up into the belfry to begin the screening process.

After observing several applicants demonstrate their skills, he had decided to call it a day.
Just then, an armless man approached him and announced that he was there to apply for the bell ringer's job.

The bishop was incredulous.

"You have no arms!"

"No matter," said the man. 'Observe!' and he began striking the bells with his face, producing a beautiful melody on the carillon.

The bishop listened in astonishment; convinced he had finally found a replacement for Quasimodo.
But suddenly, as he rushed forward to strike the bell, the armless man tripped and plunged headlong out of the belfry window to his death in the street below.

The stunned bishop rushed down two hundred and ninety five church steps, when he reached the street, a crowd had gathered around the fallen figure, drawn by the beautiful music they had heard only moment before.

As they silently parted to let the bishop through, one of them asked, "Bishop, who was this man?"

"I don't know his name," the bishop sadly replied, "but his face rings a bell!"



WAIT! WAIT! There's more...




The following day, despite the sadness that weighed heavily on his heart due to the unfortunate death of the armless campanologist, the Bishop continued his interviews for the bell ringer of Notre Dame.

The first man to approach him said, "Your Excellency, I am the brother of the poor armless wretch that fell to his death from this very belfry yesterday. I pray that you honor his life by allowing me to replace him in this duty."

The bishop agreed to give the man an audition.

As the armless man's brother stooped to pick up a mallet to strike the first bell, he groaned, gazed down at his chest, twirled around, and died on the spot.

Two monks, hearing the bishop's cries of grief at this second tragedy, rushed up the stairs to his side.

"What has happened? Who is this man?" the first monk asked breathlessly.

"I don't know his name," sighed the distraught bishop, "but ...he's a dead ringer for his brother!"

Back to Basics: Sloth

The last of the seven deadly sins is sloth.

Sloth (sometimes called acedia) is laziness -- particularly when it concerns prayer and spiritual life. It centers on doing nothing or doing just trivial things. Sloth is always wanting to rest and relax, with no desire or intention of making a sacrifice or doing something for others. It's an aversion to work -- physical, mental, and spiritual. Sloth inevitably leads to lukewarmness and tepidity and then deteriorates into disinterest, discouragement, and finally despair. Sloth breeds indifference, which prevents joy from ever being experienced.

Spiritual laziness can only be overcome by practicing the virtue of diligence, which is the habit of keeping focused and paying attention to the work at hand -- be it the work of employment or the work of God. Diligent prayer and diligent worship can make you more reverent. Diligence in all things ensures that you don't become idle ...

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Recommended reading: Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. He examines the virtues in depth and also looks specific virtues and Beatitudes as antidotes to each of the seven deadly sins. Not a new concept but one that he writes about superbly (as always).

I have to say that, upon finishing this little review of these seven core sins I was surprised to find definite identification with two of them specifically. For the moment at least that has resulted in an identification of them in my daily life and an effort to move away from them through practicing the virtue prescribed as a remedy. Perhaps this is a sign to myself that whenever I feel too complacent it is time again to read through the list of sins and virtues to see what else I find.

Back to Basics: Greed

The sixth of the seven deadly sins is greed.

Greed is the inordinate love of and desire for earthly possessions. Things are cherished above people and relationships. Amassing a fortune and foolishly trying to accumulate the most stuff is greed, which is sometimes called avarice. Next to anger, envy, and lust, more crimes have been committed due to greed than any other deadly sin. "It's never enough. I've got to have more." That's the battle cry for greed.

Greed is also a sign of mistrust. "I doubt that God will take care of me, so I try to gather as much as possible now in case no more is left later." ...

Generosity, however, is the best weapon against greed. Freely giving some of your possessions away, especially to those less fortunate, is considered the perfect antithesis to greed and avarice. Generosity promotes detachment from material things that come and go...

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Recommended reading: Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. He examines the virtues in depth and also looks specific virtues and Beatitudes as antidotes to each of the seven deadly sins. Not a new concept but one that he writes about superbly (as always).

Next up, the last one in our list of seven deadly sins ... Sloth.

Julie and Scott talk about The Social Network, a movie written by Aaron Sorkin, then decide to sue Mark Zuckerberg for wearing flip flops in the snow.

We discuss The Social Network at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. Check it out!

Catholic Ministry Conference: Report, the Second

One of the joys of meeting in person is that the people we are friends with through blogging (or Google+ or other such means) are even more delightful in person.

Lisa Hendey
Foremost among those last weekend was Lisa Hendey of Catholic Mom. Of course, she and I met in San Antonio a couple of years ago at the Catholic New Media Conference. However, we didn't get to spend a lot of time together.

This time was different. We heard her talk about the saints on Friday and, after the conference was done, we all went to Mariano's for Tex Mex. We were able to talk and talk, fueled by the margaritas and brisket tacos.

The next day, we heard Lisa's excellent talk about new media and then chatted for a bit more before parting ways. Lisa is not only a wonderful speaker, with a relaxed and welcoming style, but extremely generous.

Both times she spoke, I was surprised because she found a way to mention my book and urge people to buy it while, having me stand and wave to the room. What a sweetheart!

Bernardo Aparicio
I didn't expect to meet Bernardo Aparicio, but on Friday at the book signing at St. Anthony Messenger Press's booth, a young man dashed up, "Are you Julie Davis?" When I assented, he thrust a copy of Dappled Things into my hands and said, "This is to thank you for supporting us over the years." I said, "Bernardo?" (Luckily I'd noticed that Dappled Things had a booth at the exhibit.)

What a pleasure it was to talk with him both that day and then on Saturday when I went over to check out the set up and subscribe to Dappled Things. I was thrilled to hear that he now lives in Arlington so we can get together in person (which I will be looking at my calendar for soon, Bernardo!).

Check out Dappled Things for things of beauty which will lift your hearts toward faith and heaven (a featured image can be seen here at Happy Catholic).

Paul Snatchko
Paul is a Google+ acquaintance. He's the manager of marketing and communications at Magnificat and we've chatted a bit on-line about the publication, which y'all know I'm a fan of. I'm also a fan of Paul who was great fun to chat with.

I am now reminded that I've been wanting to mention the Magnificat Missal Companion. Our church bought copies for everyone, which they made available last weekend. (Good thing they offer bulk discounts, I'm thinking, since several thousand attend our church each weekend.)

At any rate, this Missal Companion is a terrific guide to the changes in the liturgy that will be implemented when Advent begins. If your parish isn't as forthcoming, a copy is only $3.95 and I highly advise picking one up.

The HHS's War on the Church

Sister Mary Ann Walsh of the USCCB with a very informative and troubling post about HHS and the quiet little war it is declaring against the Church.

Markon’s story investigated how the grant process at HHS was manipulated to keep an office of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) from receiving an award to serve victims of human trafficking. USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) had scored high enough to be awarded a federal grant to continue its very successful anti-trafficking program. But the decision was “overturned,” so to speak, when Sharon Parrott, a top adviser to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, stepped in to “have a dialogue” (her words) in the process because the award would go through a Catholic agency. Their problem?: the Catholic Church—though providing food, shelter, and legal and other medical services for trafficking victims more effectively than any other—is forbidden by conscience from referring those victims for abortion, sterilization or contraceptives. So much for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and other federal legislation that protects conscience—not to mention ordinary fair-play in picking grant recipients.

Thanks to The Anchoress for the heads up on this.

"Explain to me, and to my flamethrower, why you are not The Thing. Make your explanation rhyme. "

Writing prompts from John Scalzi. They only get better as they go.

Ready?

Set?

Start writing!

(Thanks to Scott Danielson for the heads up on this!)

Back to Basics: Gluttony

The fifth of the seven deadly sins is gluttony.

Like lust, gluttony focuses on pleasure and finds it in food and drink... Both enslave the soul to the body, even though the soul -- being superior to the body -- should be in charge. Gluttons don't eat out of necessity or for social reasons, but merely to consume and experience the pleasure of taste...

Legitimate eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, aren't gluttony. They're medical conditions that require treatment and care. The sin of gluttony is freely choosing to over-consume. Gluttony is voluntary and merely requires self-control and moderation...

Periodic fasting, restricting the amount of food you eat, and abstinence, avoiding meat for some favorite food, are the best defenses against gluttony. Unlike dieting where the goal is to lose weight, fasting and abstinence are to purify the soul by controlling the desires of the body...

Catholicism For Dummies by John Trigilio

Recommended reading: Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. He examines the virtues in depth and also looks specific virtues and Beatitudes as antidotes to each of the seven deadly sins. Not a new concept but one that he writes about superbly (as always).

Downward and onward ... Greed will be up next.