A less than perfect democracy that is still a great success story

We must remember that America is still a great success story. When we criticize—as criticize we must—we should play the part of what James Madison called a "loving critic." Former Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan put it best: "Am I embarrassed to speak for a less than perfect democracy? Not one bit. Find me a better one. Do Is suppose there are societies that are free of sin? No, I don't. Do I think ours is on balance incomparably the most hopeful set of human relations the world has? Yes, I do. Have we done obscene things? Yes we have. How did our people learn about them? They learned about them on television and in the newspapers.

William J. Bennett, America: The Last Best Hope (Vol. I)

Max

Max
by the brilliant Edward B. Gordon

Blogging Around: Andy Serkis Reads The Hobbit, Gregory the Great, Chinese Persecution of Muslims, Black Leaders Blast Planned Parenthood

ANDY SERKIS READS THE HOBBIT
Later this month Andy Serkis (aka Gollum in the Lord of the Ring movies) has an audiobook recording of The Hobbit coming out. Needless to say I am thrilled. The Rob Inglis reading was never a favorite of mine and listening to Serkis's sample shows how good his narration is.

You can hear it a bit of Riddles in the Dark at YouTube.

GREGORY THE GREAT AND THE GHOST
Via Weird Catholic comes this great story from Pope St. Gregory the Great’s The Dialogues:

Source

"[A] priest used to bathe in the hot springs of Tauriana whenever his health required. One day, as he entered the baths, he found a stranger there who showed himself most helpful in every way possible, by unlatching his shoes, taking care of his clothes, and furnishing him towels after the hot bath.

"After several experiences of this kind, to priest said the himself: ‘It would not do for me to appear ungrateful to this man who is so devoted in his kind services to me. I must reward him in some way.’ So one day he took along two crown-shaped loaves of bread to give him.

"When he arrived at the place, the man was already waiting for him and rendered the same services he had before. After the bath, when the priest was again fully dressed and ready to leave, he offered the man the present of bread, asking him kindly to accept it as a blessing, for it was offered a token of charity.

But the man sighed mournfully and said, ‘Why do you give it to me, Father? That bread is holy and I cannot eat it. I who stand before you was once the owner of this place. It is because of my sins that I was sent back here as a servant. If you wish to do something for me, then offer this bread to almighty God, and so make intercession for me, a sinner. When you come back and do not find me here, you will know that your prayers have been heard.’

"With these words he disappeared, thus showing that he was a spirit disguised as a man. The priest spent the entire week in prayer and tearful supplications, offering Mass for him daily. When he returned to the bath, the man was no longer to be found. This incident points out the great benefits souls derive from the Sacrifice of the Mass. Because of these benefits the dead ask us, the living, to have Masses offered for them, and even show us by signs that it was through the Mass that they were pardoned."

CHINA'S GENOCIDE OF ITS UIGHUR MUSLIMS

In the most extensive investigation of China’s internment camp system ever done using publicly available satellite images, coupled with dozens of interviews with former detainees, BuzzFeed News identified more than 260 structures built since 2017 and bearing the hallmarks of fortified detention compounds. There is at least one in nearly every county in the far-west region of Xinjiang. During that time, the investigation shows, China has established a sprawling system to detain and incarcerate hundreds of thousands of Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities, in what is already the largest-scale detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II.

GetReligion has a wonderful guide to BuzzFeed's story. Every time we think China's not that Communist, remember this type of thing is going on all the time. Hong Kong is nothing new, just more public than a lot of the hijinks China has going on.

BLACK LEADERS BLAST "SYSTEMIC RACISM" OF ABORTION IN LETTER TO PLANNED PARENTHOOD

A coalition of Black leaders is calling out Planned Parenthood for “targeting” Black communities for abortions while professing to support the Black Lives Matter movement.

[...]

“This effort demonstrates the outrage among the Black community that we have been strategically and consistently targeted by the abortion industry ever since the practice was legalized almost 50 years ago,” said Human Coalition Action executive director Rev. Dean Nelson, whose organization coordinated the letter.

The letter noted that 36% of abortions in the U.S. are performed on Black women, who represent only 13% of the country’s female population.

“Black women are five times more likely than white women to receive an abortion,” the letter stated. “In some cities, like New York, more Black children are aborted every year than are born alive.”

“This is no accident,” the letter stated, noting that “79 percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion facilities are located in or near communities of color.”

About time. Read more at CNA.

The Bridge at Argenteuil

Claude Monet, The Bridge at Argenteuil, 1874

It is so glorious looking. I want to go to there.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #19 — Howl's Moving Castle

It's been 10 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

19. Howl's Moving Castle

19-year-old Sophie has resigned herself to a drab life in her family's hat shop ... until she is cursed by an evil witch to have an 90-year-old body. She leaves home and goes searching for a way to break the spell. In the countryside she comes upon Howl's strange moving castle which walks about on large chicken legs.

Howl is the young wizard who owns the castle and Sophie soon becomes part of the household as the housekeeper. As she gets to know the members of the little household, we also see that their land is under attack from flying ships dropping bombs. Not only must Sophie find a way to break the curse upon her, but she soon wants to help the others that she has met along the way.

Naturally, Sophie eventually discovers her hidden potential in the magical castle through her honesty, determination, and bravery. This is a complicated story and my summary is extremely simple. It is a pure delight but be prepared to pay attention.

Watching the Spring and Listening to the Wind

Watching the Spring and Listening to the Wind, Tang Yin

Gospel of Matthew — Get behind me, Satan! Continued.

Matthew 16:20-23

Let's continue from the thoughts last time which connect this moment of temptation with Christ's temptation in the wilderness by Satan. Looking at Jesus' words to Peter, William Barclay points out interesting language uses ... and what they mean.

James Tissot, Get Thee Behind Me, Satan (Rétire-toi, Satan), Brooklyn Museum</td>

A further development comes when we closely examine this saying of Jesus in the light of his saying to Satan at the end of the temptations as Matthew records it in Matthew 4:10. Although in the English translations the two passages sound different they are almost, but not quite, the same. ...

The point is that Jesus' command to Satan is simply: "Begone!" while his command to Peter is: "Begone behind me!" that is to say "Become my follower again. Satan is banished from the presence of Christ; Peter is recalled to be Christ's follower. The one thing that Satan could never become is a follower of Christ; in his diabolical pride he could never submit to that; that is why he is Satan. On the other hand, Peter might be mistaken and might fall and might sin, but for him there was always the challenge and the chance to become a follower again. It is as if Jesus said to Peter: "At the moment you have spoken as Satan would. But that is not the real Peter speaking. You can redeem yourself. Come behind me, and be my follower again and even yet, all will be well." ... So long as a man is prepared to try to follow, even after he has fallen, there is still for him the hope of glory here and hereafter.

Quote is from Daily Study Bible Series: Gospel of Matthew, vol. 2 by William Barclay. This series first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.

Holiday at the Pier

Alexander Rossi - Holiday at the Pier
via Gandalf's Gallery

You say your life is your own. But ...

You say your life is your own. But can you dare to ignore the chance that you are taking part in a gigantic drama under the orders of a divine Producer? Your cue may not come till the end of the play – it may be totally unimportant, a mere walking-on part, but upon it may hang the issues of the play, if you do not give the cue to another player. The whole edifice may crumble. You, as you, may not matter to any- one in the world, but you as a person in a particular place may matter unimaginably.

Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Mr. Quin

Listen Up: David Suchet Audio Bible - New International Version: Complete Bible

This is 83 hours (and 14 minutes) of wonderfully narrated Biblical audio goodness.

I'm here for David Suchet who, 17 chapters into Genesis, is helping me hear details I hadn't noticed before. Part of that is doubtless because I've not read the NIV translation before. However, it is equally due to the fact that listening to a book makes you notice new details.

As a sidenote, I only discovered this narration after learning that Suchet (who definitively played Hercule Poirot in BBC productions) became a Christian at 40 and then wanted to record the Bible. He did it in between shooting schedules and in his off time for over 200 hours of personal dedication. So inspirational!

Right now I'm thinking that I may use this for another reread of the entire Bible in chronological order. Except, of course, for the books the Protestants took out. Those aren't included in this so I'll read them the old fashioned way from one of my Catholic Bibles.

From the River's Edge

Henri Biva (French, 1848-1929), From the River’s Edge

Chocolate Mousse

Hannah asked for Chocolate Mousse for her birthday and I automatically pulled down The Silver Palate Cookbook which has a whole section of them.

It was the deepest, darkest, most luscious mousse ever. It was really easy, worked like a charm, and utterly delicious. Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon, Maxfield Parrish, 1902

Window View

Edward Okuń, Window View

Gospel of Matthew — Get behind me Satan!

Matthew 16:20-23

This is the passage in which Jesus begins to tell the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, and be killed. Peter rebukes him — shocking in itself for a disciple to rebuke his master — and Jesus says to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan."

This has always seemed fairly straight forward to me — a real "stop tempting me" moment. I liked what William Barclay says, in this speculative lectio divina thinking about what may have come to Jesus' mind, connecting it to when he was tempted by Satan himself.

Source

We must try to catch the tone of voice in which Jesus speaks. He certainly did not say it with a snarl of anger in his voice and a blaze of indignant passion in his eyes. He said it like a man wounded to the heart, with poignant grief and a kind of shuddering horror. Why should he react like that?

He did so because in that moment there came back to him with cruel force the temptations which he had faced in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry. There he had been tempted to take the way of power. ... It was precisely these same temptations with which Peter was confronting Jesus all over again.

Nor were these temptations ever wholly absent from the mind of Jesus. Luke sees far into the heart of the Master. At the end of the temptation story, Luke writes: "And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time" (Luke 4:13). Again and again the tempter launched this attack. No one wants a cross; no one wants to die in agony; even in the Garden that same temptation came to Jesus, the temptation to take another way.

And here Peter is offering it to him now. ... Peter was confronting Jesus with that way of escape from the Cross which to the end beckoned to him.

That is why Peter was Satan. Satan literally, means the Adversary. That is why Peter's ideas were not God's but men's. ...

What made the temptation more acute was the fact that it came from one who loved him. Peter spoke as he did only because he loved Jesus so much that he could not bear to think of him treading that dreadful path and dying that awful death. The hardest temptation of all is the one which comes from protecting love. there are times when fond love seeks to deflect us from the perils of the path of God; but the real love is not the love which holds the knight at home, but the love which sends him out to obey the commandments of the chivalry which is given, not to make life easy but to make life great. ... What really wounded Jesus' heart and what really made him speak as he did, was that the tempter spoke to him that day through the fond but mistaken love of Peter's hot heart.

I have often recalled that bit of Luke's gospel which Barclay mentions — "he departed from him until an opportune time" — and wondered when Jesus felt the sting of temptation at times when it wasn't mentioned in the gospels. For that reason, perhaps, Barclay's thoughts here resonate with me.

Quote is from Daily Study Bible Series: Gospel of Matthew, vol. 2 by William Barclay. This series first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson

When Erik Larson moved to New York City he began musing on the experiences of those who lived through the September 11 terrorist attacks as well as the aftermath. Thinking of similar situations he focused on Londoners during the Blitz and Battle of Britain in WWII. The resulting book looks at Churchill's ability to lead and inspire when things seemed hopeless, which is to say during the time before the Americans finally entered the war.

Larson does a fantastic job of making you feel you understood those struggles, those times, and those people. By the last third of the book I was fully invested in the people and the story. In fact, I had tears of joy about the victory celebrations.

This one's a keeper and I know I'll be reading it again.

The God Who Performs Daily Miracles

St. Augustine hits the nail on the head, as usual. We live in a world of miracles, so deeply embedded that we no longer recognize they are miracles at all.

This is the God, after all, who performs daily miracles through the whole of creation. These, though have grown cheap in people's eyes, not because they are easy, but because they happen all the time; while the rare things done by the same Lord, that is, by the Word who was made Flesh on our account, have struck people with greater amazement, not because they were indeed greater than what he does every day in creation, but because the things that are done every day occur, so it seems, in the natural course of events; while the others seem in people's eyes to be manifesting the activity of a power actually present here and now.

I said, you remember, that one dead man rose again, and people were struck dumb with amazement, while nobody marvels at those — who did not exist — being born every day. In the same way, who is not astonished at water being turned into wine, while God is doing the same thing every year in the vines?

St. Augustine,

Homily 9 on John 2:1-11

Coromants' Boulder

Cormorants' Boulder, Remo Savisaar

We won't "remote everything" because there's no "energy."

There’s some other stupid thing in the article about “bandwidth” and how New York is over because everybody will “remote everything.” Guess what: Everyone hates to do this. Everyone. Hates.

You know why? There’s no energy.

Energy, attitude and personality cannot be “remoted” through even the best fiber optic lines. That’s the whole reason many of us moved to New York in the first place.

You ever wonder why Silicon Valley even exists? I have always wondered, why do these people all live and work in that location? They have all this insane technology; why don’t they all just spread out wherever they want to be and connect with their devices? Because it doesn’t work, that’s why.

Real, live, inspiring human energy exists when we coagulate together in crazy places like New York City.

Jerry Seinfeld: So You Think New York Is ‘Dead’(It’s not.)

The New York Times

Exactly. People've got to be together to really connect. We'll make do with Zoom and Google Hangouts and so forth until this pandemic is over and then we'll be back to connecting as usual — with energy.

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Scout, the most patient dog in the world

What with the pandemic and all, we're having Hannah's birthday catered. As you can see!

Hannah actually chose Chocolate Mousse for her celebration so I'm breaking out The Silver Palate Cookbook which has stood me in good stead for Lime Mousse and Pavlovas.

Hannah's our tree loving, animal loving, sweet girl who is smart as a whip, funny, generous, and thoughtful. No wonder we love her so much. We just can't help ourselves! Though how she got to be a married lady expecting her first baby in November ... well, I do remember how but somehow those years just breezed by. She's been a blessing and a treasure through all of them.

Happy birthday, dear Hannah.

Cake by Cake Couture by Tina
Do you live near Cebu City? That's where Tina is. Get one of her cakes!