Spanning the Proverbial Globe to Bring You the Constant Variety of Posts
I was talking with the nurses at the hospital the other day, and we were discussing how different expectant moms are now than they were 20 years ago. Then, many moms were willing to bear pain to protect their babies from drugs, and it was sometimes difficult to help them through labor. Now, most come in wanting and expecting a painless childbirth, and even for the easiest of labors they want all the drugs available...I just had 2 post-abortive women tell me that they don't feel guilty about their abortions (though they grieve for themselves that they won't be mother to that child) because by aborting the child they saved the child from pain. - Alicia of Fructus Ventris
Seems I'm not only boring, but smug and complacent as well. Who knew? I have been so without the sense of fellow feeling as to... to... read! The brute beasts in the farthest jungles have more kindness! But their judgments fall on my deaf ears and affect me not, for I'm afraid my heart is a stony, dead thing, impervious to even the most violent of sorrows. But for you, dear, misguided reader, there is still time. Get thee a Gameboy, download some porn, go see Michael Moore's latest, all to cleanse yourself. And while you so indulge in witless purgation, cast a cold eye on me, for whom all is lost, and give thanks you have avoided my fate. - Thomas of Endlessly Rocking, responding to a NYT article that castigated readers.
But one thing that has disturbed me has been the number of people who, at bottom, don't seem to really believe in grace or mercy. People, in fact, who habitually tend to regard mercy as weakness and charity as stupid softness. I shouldn't be shocked, of course. I'm the one that continually says that it is the Church's teaching on mercy, not sex, that is the most offensive and obnoxious item in its entire corpus of teaching. At the same time, we constantly hear demands for "holy priests". Great souled priests full of wise counsel and abundant pastoral mercies. People like "Father Joe", the Benedictine who saved Tony Hendra's soul and who brought a rather sleazy creature of the 60s back to a serious practice of the Faith after he had been nabbed making out with a married woman and then spent the next couple decades indulging himself in the normal plethora of Baby Boomer indulgences. There have been a number of raves about this book, and for good reason. - Mark Shea
Attempting to lead people in an intellectual manner without the glue of social interaction invariably has its risks. At the end of the day, I'd rather argue with someone face to face than over e-mail. I'd also rather argue with someone who trusts me (and whom I trust) than with a stranger, since both sides will treat the discussion with charity. Lask of honesty and trust can lead to sophistry and lies on the part of the speaker and stubborness on the part of the interlocutor. ... Let us not accept the mistrust and dishonesty that has caused public political discourse in this country to turn into shouting matches. Let us speak truly, with confidence and not hubris, while at once being open to the possibility that our friends here are correct and can lead us to the Truth. - Alexander on Mark Shea's blog.
The essence of blogs - publishing one's unedited and immediate thoughts and comments to a wide range of people - is somewhat at odds with humility. - commenter Ellen Hughes on Mark Shea's blog
I'm an evangelical who has managed to make it to London, and have a feeling that Rome is my final stop, if you follow my drift...One of things that I love about Rome is the Pope. It's hard to describe the respect - affection?! - I have for him. My friends think I'm nuts (and on the road to heresy, of course), but "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" was the most Christian modern book I've ever read. - commenter on Mark Shea's blog
"People are complex," as they say, and complexity makes for both good story-telling and fruitful meditation. How can honor and nobility co-exist with a willingness to kill to preserve slavery? That's an important question without a simple answer. - Tom of Disputations
My hometown of Chico, California, is possibly home to a miraculous weeping image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. While I'm not exactly a chaser of miracles and apparitions, I have no reason to doubt it. The Virgin weeps: we should be worried if she didn't. - Jeff of El Camino Real
First, resist the impulse to buy into the myth of self-righteous dissent. This has a long tradition in both our culture and its Christian circles. With both Jesus Christ and Martin Luther as handy patron saints, self-righteous dissenters imagine themselves the glorious would-be saviors of a rotten and God-forsaken establishment. Though this is sometimes the case, it is rarely so (in fact, it is less the case with even Jesus and Luther than many think). This mentality is responsible for a lot more broken institutions and abused individuals than revivals and redemptions. It feeds pessimism and cynicism among the dissenters and fear and intimidation among the institutions. This is, not least, because it assumes that God is behind you and has abandoned them. Don't go there — not yet, anyway, not as long as there is even a remote chance that (a) the Spirit still dwells and works there and (b) you might need some correction. - Telford on Camassia's blog
But when Your Sweetness added in your letter that you will continue to importune me until I write that it has been revealed to me that your sins have been forgiven, you demanded a thing both difficult and useless. Difficult certainly, because I am unworthy of having a revelation made to me; and useless as well, because you must not become secure about your sins, except when on the last day of your life you shall be able no longer to bewail those same sins. - St. Gregory via Bill of Summa (non)Minutiae
St. Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, had an IQ of over 200. This is evident from the scientific analysis of his writings in which he stated that the more Catholic knowledge a human intellect acquires about the science of God, the more perfectly he is able to love Him. In this way, God created our souls. He gave our souls two spiritual faculties - intellect and will. The object of the intellect is truth, and the object of the will is good. These two faculties of the human soul enable a person to know the true good and to choose it with the assistance of God's grace. God made us in such a way that we cannot choose what we do not know, and we need God's divine assistance to know the true good in order to choose it. - Rev. L. A. Stelter, preface to St. Alphonsus De Liguori's "The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection"
A slogan for Planned Parenthood, 'Keeping Minorities - Minorities'. - Jeff Miller
ABC News’ must-read The Note says some political reporters are desperately looking for Democrats who voted for Gore in 2000 but are voting for Bush in ’04. They’re having no trouble finding disillusioned Republicans but 9/11 Democrats? It’s easier to find a marriage counselor who is giving Britney’s marriage the thumbs-up. So look over here, Google: I’m a Democrat who plans to vote for Bush. Interview me! - Phil A. of philalbinus.com
are you telling me they have to eat one of my grandbabies and then we'll talk? - Smock's grandma's comment after finding out the alligator on her property was protected
No comments:
Post a Comment