Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Howard Thurman
Friday, April 12, 2019
What the world needs ...
Thursday, April 11, 2019
The Church and the Scandal of Sexual Abuse — Pope Emeritus Benedict
In his most significant pronouncement since he resigned the papacy in 2013, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has written a lengthy essay on clerical sex abuse in which he explains what he sees as the roots of the crisis, the effects it has had on the priesthood, and how the Church should best respond.I feel as if this is old news already since it is all over mainstream media, but I wanted to give a heads-up for anyone who wanted to read sources instead of sound bites.
[...]
The essay is divided into three parts. The first is an examination of the “wider societal context” of the crisis, in which he says he tries to show that an “egregious event” occurred in the 1960s “on a scale unprecedented in history.”
A second section deals with the effects of this on the “formation of priests and on the lives of priests.”
And in a third part he develops “some perspectives for a proper response on the part of the Church.”
I read the National Catholic Register summary, which is quite thorough, and it made a lot of sense to me.
You can read the whole essay at the Catholic News Agency. I've not read the actual essay yet but have printed it out.
Just glancing through it, this looks like classic, thoughtful, thorough Benedict XVI ... and it makes me realize how much I've missed his writing. With a few zingers like this one which made me laugh out loud:
What must be done? Perhaps we should create another Church for things to work out? Well, that experiment has already been undertaken and has already failed.(Thanks to Mark for pointing that one out to me.)
A Particular Love
It is hard to believe in this love. In a book by Hugh of St. Victor, which I read once on the way from St. Paul to Chicago, there is a conversation between the soul and God about this love. The soul is petulant and wants to know what kind of a love is that which loves everyone indiscriminately, the thief and the Samaritan, the wife and the mother and the harlot? The soul complains that it wishes a particular love, a love for herself alone. And God replies fondly that, after all, since no two people are like in this world, He has indeed a particular fondness for each one of us, an exclusive love to satisfy each one alone.
Dorothy Day, On Pilgrimage
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Trading Recipes
I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. Tuna fish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock.
Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Straight thinkin' is a delusion
Hoddan began suddenly to see real possibilities. This was not a direct move toward the realization of his personal ambitions. But on the other hand, it wasn't a movement away from them. Hoddan suddenly remembered an oration he'd heard his grandfather give many, many times in the past.I love this book so much. It is really funny.
"Straight thinkin'," the old man had said obstinately, "is a delusion. You think things out clear and simple, and you can see yourself ruined and your family starving any day! But real things ain't simple! They ain't clear! Any time you try to figure things out so they're simple and straightforward, you're goin' against nature and you're going to get 'em mixed up! So when something happens and you're in a straightforward, hopeless fix—why, you go along with nature! Make it as complicated as you can, and the people who want you in trouble will get hopeless confused and you can get out!"
Murray Leinster, The Pirates of Ersatz
Monday, April 8, 2019
Prescribing the right book
Between ourselves, there is no such thing, abstractly, as a "good" book. A book is "good" only when it meets some human hunger or refutes some human error. ... My pleasure is to prescribe books for such patients as drop in here and are willing to tell me their symptoms. Some people have let their reading faculties decay so that all I can do is hold a post mortem on them. But most are still open to treatment. There is no one so grateful as the man to whom you have given just the book his soul needed and he never knew it.
Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop
Friday, April 5, 2019
The End of An Era — Goodbye to Zoe
Last week, Zoe succumbed to cancer, as will surprise no one who has had Boxers. It is an ill that breed bears with their own particular merry cheer.
I wasn't going to mention it but saw from the stats that several posts have been looked at a lot lately ... those from when both Wash and Zoe joined our family. It brought back such good memories that I thought I'd share the link here for any other Zoe fans who want to see a little more about the hurricane that changed our lives.
It is impossible to sum up Zoe in a few words or even a few paragraphs. She could be wonderful, she could be equally terrible, and her intense, larger-than-life personality filled our house. As my husband said, "She was a military-grade hyper-Boxer." She's now a family legend.
I'll also say that she's the only dog I know of who had an entire sex industry convention at her feet: which you may read about here.
Of course we miss her. Life is calmer without her as Wash and Kaylee can't possibly fill that void, though they are doing their best.
Not just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue
When you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean.
Christopher Morley, Parnassus on Wheels
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Piku
I wasn't sure about this one but the universal rave reviews made us give it a try. And they were right. Practically perfect in every way, this movie must have resonated deeply with Indian audiences whose cultural reverence for their elders must often put them in such fixes as we see Piku struggling with. Heck, it resonated with us, even though we probably didn't understand all the nuances of the family interactions.
Excellent acting all round, especially from Irrfan as the taxi driver who does more with a silence or simple glance than most actors do with their whole body. I was afraid Amitabh Bachchan would pull a Jack Nicholson and just play a broad version of himself. But no worries. He is simply fantastic as the elderly father obsessed with a particular aspect of his health. The way the big Indian family is portrayed is also pitch perfect to anyone who's ever been part of one.
No song and dance numbers because, really, how can you build a good number around constipation?
Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
The Mighty King
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| The Mighty King by Ken Kelly via Not Pulp Covers (by way of SFFaudio) |
Holy Hacks by Patti Armstrong
Do you wish there was a more practical way to live your faith in the midst of a busy life?This little book is a gold mine of simple ways to focus our lives on living our faith more fully and growing closer to God. We all practice little shortcuts to shore up our faith and that's part of what makes this collection so appealing.
“Holy hacks” were created to help. This fun and fast-paced resource is full of concrete tips for living the faith right where you are. With about two-hundred simple and creative ways to grow in holiness, you can find something to help you engage your faith and grow in Christ every day.
Topics range from relationships, avoiding gossip, humility, and liturgical seasons like Lent and Easter. It isn't just lists of hacks. Each chapter has more in-depth commentary which is often broken into different sections — relationships, for example include family, friends, and marriage — with, of course, holy hacks for each.
I'm reminded of nothing so much as St. Terese's "little way" of living the faith fully by simple "hacks" like always smiling at someone she disliked or methods she used to ignore someone else's unconscious, continual pencil tapping.
A few of my favorite hacks:
- Say grace in public — even at vending machines.
- Make a prayer pick of the day for someone who makes your skin crawl, and pray for them. No matter how heroic you feel, remember that "the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you" (Mt. 7:2).
- Gossip Hack: Give a compliment about a person being attacked. It will stop gossipers in their tracks.
- Marriage Hack: When you are about to complain about something, stop and say a prayer for your spouse instead.
- Say a prayer and make a sacrifice, as a perfect go-together. Don't overlook little things, such as skipping a cookie and saying a Hail Mary.
- Do not address the devil unless you are renouncing him; speak only to God and the angels and saints. (This is one I already follow ... there have been times when I've responded to a temptation with, "You've gotta be dreamin. Just get lost." And then I turn to my guardian angel and St. Michael.
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
What else exactly did God want?
Faithfulness, obedience; but what else exactly did God want? Slowly, gropingly as it were, Abraham's descendants sought the answer, through episodes rich in symbols. Isaac's marriage signified that the clan of Terah was to remain pure and not mix its blood with any other; Jacob, "wrestling with an angel" for a whole night by the River Jabbok, was obliged to come to grips with his human condition and choose between the flesh and the spirit, personal interest and his vocation.
Soon the whole people was confronted by this problem. In Egypt, where famine led them and Joseph settled them, Abraham's descendants perhaps thought that, surrounded by idols with animals' faces, they would easily be able to preserve their faith. The answer they received was persecution, suffering, and anguish. Obeying God is not easy. But the seal put on His people by the Lord genuinely protected it.
Henri Daniel-Rops, What is the Bible?
Monday, April 1, 2019
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