Video Meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

When Liam and I fell in love, I saw his strengths with perfect clarity. I knew him - what God had created him to be, all of the good, all of his beauty - as perfectly as I have ever known anybody. Over time, I added a knowledge of his faults and flaws to that. I know though that his shortcomings are not who he is, because sin can have no substance. Rather, those shortcomings are the gaps in who he is becoming, and it is my great privelige to be part of that journey. Knowing his flaws and sins has not in the least detracted from that first glorious vision.

- commenter Kate on "Exultet"

How can the mode of Eucharistic Adoration in the young be explained? Because these generations cannot live without images. In looking at the Host, certainly, we do not see Christ, in his Divinity nor in his humanity but we fix our eyes on the most direct sign of his real presence.

- a French bishop quoted by Amy Welborn

The profound meanings of the Faith are ideally passed on by more than just words. Sacred Tradition is more than just literary tradition. Only extreme literary geeks read the complete writings of the saints, collect quotes from popes, and generally POD out on G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Evelyn Waugh, and other illustrious Catholic writers. How sola scriptura of us. The vast majority gravitate to patron saints, icons, vestments, relics, incense, habits, and other POD-itties pleasing to the senses. They understand where the real profundities are....How much have we lost by this over-emphasis? It is something to ponder that St. Thomas Aquinas, who left us with the massive Summa Theologica, said that he learned more from a crucifix than from books.

- Sancta Sanctis

Teresa [of Avila] is arguably more advanced than John [of the Cross] in the level of prayer in her writings. The Carmelite Joseph of Jesus Mary and Benedictine Dom John Chapman both considered everything in Teresa's contemplative prayer to be after the Night of the Senses in John's writings. They considered John to be writing more of ordinary prayer, while Teresa wrote of higher ways.

- commenter on Steven's "Flos Carmeli". Lord help me if St. John wrote of "ordinary" prayer (Update: clarification)

Andrew Greeley writes a column excoriating the media for their Sullivanesque hysteria over a document that nobody has seen. He tells them to take deep cleansing breaths, and then calls for people to, like, give Benedict a break and see what he will, in fact, do. It's a strange day when Greeley is the voice of reason in the Church...And strangest of all, I agree with him.

- Mark Shea via the Curt Jester

At about the time I visited this [charismatic] parish, I had been in a long time of praying "Come, Holy Spirit, but make it a glancing blow. I'm afraid of what You'll want me to do!"...The first time I attended, last year, I was so surprised by the combination of the ancient reverence I exult in and the open demonstration of how people really felt about their Lord and Savior, I cried through the whole thing. After Mass, as I was being introduced to friends in the vestibule, people noted my red eyes and nose (when WILL I learn to cry pretty?) but my friends said simply "Oh, it's the Spirit" and that was that. These people expect to see tears and emotion. I was undone by the mixture of holy boldness and aching care to keep to universal worship, to join our Mass with the Mass being celebrated at all times at all places in the world.

- Therese of Exultet

G.K. Chesterton recognized that the psychiatrist’s couch was often a mere substitute for the confessional. Maybe these bleeding bloggers send a message to those of us who mindlessly stumble through the group confession at the beginning of church: perhaps there’s an existential need to confess or acknowledge one’s shortfallings in front of others. And when that need isn’t channeled properly, you get things like bleeding bloggers.

- Eric of "The Daily Eudemon" on a WAPO story concerning confessional bloggers

If we are faltering, if we are becoming no different than the pagans and near-pagans...we need to cling more closely to Christ in the Eucharist, to seek to understand what His presence there means, to be more prepared spiritually to receive Him and to let the fruits of that presence grow in our personal lives as well as in our life as His Body, the Church. To that end, catechesis, proper celebration of the sacrament, catechesis, popular devotion, and even more catechesis - as well as simple access to the Bread of Life - are all issues of import. If you read the interventions, you read the words of men who are taking the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist very, very seriously, not as a beautiful sign of Catholic identity or the truth of the Catholic faith, but as what He promised: The Bread of Life.

- Amy Welborn

When St. Therese was fourteen and desperate to enter Carmel, she went on a pilgrimage to Rome, in the hope that Pope Leo XIII would help her overcome all who were opposing her entry. There is something symbolic (and beautifully ironic) in journeying to distant lands in order to prove oneself worthy to live in a tiny cloister for the rest of one's days.

- Sancta Sanctis

The structure and the responses are universal now, too: just as it was with the Old Mass before Vatican II, the New Mass has the property that if I walk into almost any Catholic parish around the world, I may not know the language but I'll know what is being said and done at each instant. It's a gift I ought not take for granted. Most importantly, the Novus Ordo is home for me. I like to see the house cleaned up a bit (e.g. when the parish follows the rubrics), I even like to see the real wood floors even when linoleum is more popular (e.g. I enjoy the beauty of Latin in the Mass), but when it comes down to it, it's my home, and it's been very good to me...Spiritual pride is something I already have too much of.

- Patrick of "Orthonormal Basis"

[John Roberts] is a George Bush "trust me" candidate, and I do not trust George Bush's judgement on these matters. The fact that Alberto Gonzales was floated first and rejected by social conservatives is proof positive that GWB cannot be trusted. GWB appoints people he thinks are "good people" in some fuzzy sense, without regard for their substantive positions and legal philosophy.

- Zippy Catholic

If being an originalist were made a crime would there be enough evidence to convict Harriet Miers of being one?

- Patrick of Extreme Catholic