Tolkien's Response to Scandals in the Church

...is here, pg. 192 of Joseph Pearce's Tolkien: Man and Myth.

Update: ..pg 193 continues:

[If Christ is a fraud then the spectacle exhibited by the Church is a]...gigantic fraud. If not, however, then this spectacle is alas! only what was to be expected: it began before the first Easter, and it does not affect faith at all - except that we may and should be deeply grieved. But we should grieve on our Lord's behalf and for Him, associating with ourselves with the scandalizers not with the saints, not crying out that we cannot 'take' Judas Iscariot, or even the absurd and cowardly Simon Peter, or the silly women like James' mother, trying to push her sons.

It takes a fantastic will to unbelief to suppose that Jesus never really 'happened', and more to suppose that he did not say the things recorded of him - so incapable of being 'invented' by anyone in the world at that time: such as 'before Abraham came to be I am' (john viii). 'He that hath seen me hath seen the Father' (John ix); or the promulgation of the Blessed Sacrament in John v: 'He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life'. We must therefore either believe in Him and in what he said and take the consequences; or reject him and take the consequences. I find it for myself difficult to believe that anyone who has ever been to Communion, even once, with the right intention, can ever again reject Him without grave blame. (However, He alone knows each unique soul and its circumstances.)

The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise. Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week is more nourishing than seven times at intervals...

I myself am convinced of the Petrine claims, nor looking around the world does there seem much doubt which (if Christianity is true) is the True Church, the temple of the Spirit dying but living, corrupt but holy, self-reforming and rearising. But for me that Church of which the Pope is the acknowledged head on earth has a chief claim that it is the one that has (and still does) ever defended the Blessed Sacrament, and given it most honour, and put it (as Christ plainly intended) in the prime place. 'Feed my sheep' was His last charge to St. Peter; and since his words are always first to be understood literally, I suppose them to refer primarily to the Bread of Life. It was against this that the W. European revolt (or Reformation) was really launched - 'the blasphemous fable of the Mass' - and faith/works a mere red herring. I suppose the greatest reform of our time was that carried out by St. Pius X: surpassing anything, however needed, that the [Second Vatican] Council will achieve."

The Underappreciated Fr. William Most

I'm not that well-read on matters theological but I've always liked Fr. Most and thought him not as well known as he should be. As much as I like Scott Hahn, he (Hahn) tends to dodge grace/free will/God's sovereignty issues, while Most got his hands dirty, tackling the toughest issues known to man (boy I liked saying that monosyllabic word "man"... I get so tired of reading "human being" every fifth sentence in the politically correct New Jerusalem bible.)

Anyway, I just found a webpost (ht: Reginald) in which one of the pioneer web apolgists, Dave Armstrong, touts Fr. Most, calling him a "brilliant, underappreciated theological genius":

I think Fr. Most's remarkable "why didn't I notice that before?"-type solution is entirely satisfactory, since it accepts and incorporates paradox, human free will, divine sovereignty, universal divine salvific will, the profound mercy and love of our heavenly Father, and biblical analogy and parable alike. I believe that it (almost miraculously) resolves the continuing difficulties of both competing schools. It maintains the Thomist unconditional election before any consideration of merits, but also at the same time human free will, by making reprobation dependent on human rejection of God, without the instinctive discomfort which I feel about both traditional proposed explanations.

Makes me glad God kept Molinism and its variants an option - see Oligarch post at bottom of this link concerning Pope Clement VIII.

Another Contributer to the Police Endowment Fund

I see our friend and blogging colleague Jim (or "Ji", email me Jim if you don't know why) got pulled over for a speeding ticket. He fought the law, and the law won.

They put a sign up 17 feet from the roadway if'n you can believe that, and then a police cruiser sneakily parked just beyond it.

I liked what he told the judge:

If the purpose of the 35 mph zone was to 'reduce accidents, injuries and death' then the sign should be moved to the same spot as all the other traffic signs-but that if it was a source of revenue then they best leave it where it was.

My prediction is the sign'll stay just where it is. Revenue doesn't grow on trees. The last time I got a ticky-tack ticket (for a right turn on a green light!) I tried to look at it this way: I'm helping some cop's child through college (say five times fast). Indirectly of course.

At Sunday brunch my stepson brought along a friend of his who reported that he got pulled over for his Jetta producing "gaseous emissions"! He said there was nothing wrong with his car whatsoever. Now there's a powerful tool for cops to pull people over, 'eh? Reminds me of the book "Burning to Read" as quoted a couple posts ago and how words are fragile and provide a pretext for power grabs (as Henry the VIII did) when stripped from context.

Rather than bring down the tone of this blog, I will omit making any 'gaseous emissions' jokes here. (Though please feel free to insert your own.)

Bloom's Beginning to Pray

A meditation from Anthony Bloom (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh), from Beginning to Pray via Dylan of More Last Than First, which begins: "I would like to remind you of the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican..."

A Defense of St. Thomas More

It's always surprising to find a modern, secular scholar defending anything or anyone Catholic. Catholicism is seen as archaic, hierarchical, inimical to free thought or expression. So's you can imagine my surprise at finding Burning to Read, a book written by James Simpson, a professor at that Catholic hotbed of Harvard. His main point is that the Reformation was a regression, not a progression, and was triggered by ill-use of a new technology (mass production of books):

I'll look at the ways in which an exceptionally prescient Thomas More foresaw the outcome I have been describing...More's positions, usually dismissed by historians as the manic reflex of a persecutory temper, turn out to be deeply meditated, brilliantly argued, and, up to a very precise point, extremely plausible. The essence of his argument is that texts are trustingly made and re-made in human history and by human institutions. The literal sense is only ever a fragile thread whose sense can be constructed within trustworthy communal understandings and traditions, some of them necessarily unwritten. The society of pure contract, along with the clarity and fullness of the literal sense, is always only a fiction...Evangelical readers insisted on the explicit, written covenants in Scripture as the sure rock of their faith. Contracts are the product of a lack of faith, of a need to have everything written.

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As Richard Hooker was to say about the scriptura sola position in his Of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1586-c. 1593): "Admit this [scriputra sola] and what shall the scripture be but a snare and torment to weak consciences, filling them with infinite perplexities, scrupulosities, doubts insoluble, and extreme despairs?"

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The debates and struggles between 1520 and 1547 [between More and Tyndale] are about differing definitions of self and communities that derive from different reading practices. They are not primarily debates about vernacular translation; and neither are they, therefore, primarily debates about depriving lay readers of the Bible in English. It's also a confrontation that has the dimensions of a tragedy, since each of the two reading cultures becomes more rigid in the face of the other, and the Catholic side in particular contracts a kind of virus of literalism from the evangelical side, while the evangelicals contract an idolatry of the book and the written. This is the kind of confrontation in which both sides are inevitably and permanently transformed from within by contact with each other.

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The relatively new textuality of print was at the same time commanding and thoroughly impersonal. It was commanding not the least because its power of reproduction was so immeasurably greater than that of manuscript reproduction; it was impersonal because it was so much more uniform than the system of manuscript transmission.

At their broadest reach, however, More's arguments offer an alternative to a variety of textual impositions and receptions characteristic of early modernity. That said, it's also true that he was unlikely to win this debate: for More's profound position demands that we take verbal, pre-textual circumstance into account. But in the new environment of polemics, conducted in print, with print's new and demanding impersonality, debate had itself become a written phenomenon. As More fought in print, and as he fought by extensive, precise quotation of the printed works of his enemies, he was fighting in a mode that ran counter to his persuasion that intuitive and/or oral pre-texts are the real determiners of meaning. More's polemical works were fighting, that is, under a debilitating handicap: the formal manner of encounter into which he was drawn ran directly counter to the content of the position to which he was most deeply committed. Although he fought in printed texts, he believed that only oral or unwritten communication made sense of written texts.

Movie Reviews in the Form of Haikus (hey that rhymed!)

Are you too time-crunched to read lengthy movie reviews? Do you agree that the problem with instant gratification is that it's not quick enough? Do you like the idea of poetry but need some utilitarian function added in order to legitimize it? Then look no further! To paraphrase the Reese's Cups commercial: "'Hey, you got poetry in my movie review!' 'You got movie review in my poetry!'"

Dog-lovers beware:
avoid film I am Legend--
too canine-tragic.

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Sweet is Enchanted,
stars the next Julie Andrews
smiles for miles.

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Watch Burt Lancaster
age decades in The Leopard;
it feels like real-time.

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Don't look, Hannah's nude!
Made you look but fine message;
it made quite a Splash.

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The Lives of Others
shows love where you least expect:
East German Commie.

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Charlie Wilson's War:
historically dubious
yet cinematic.

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Men without huts in
The Flowers of St. Francis
oddly compelling.

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Fred for Rudy

An orthodox Catholic blogger for Rudy Giuliani is about as rare as a McDonald's cinnamon melt with extra frosting and, while not as welcome, is definitely more interesting.

Perhaps it's the natural contrarian in me and my allergy to group-think, or more likely it's simply due to the fact that I like and respect Frederick of Deep Furrows fame, but I found it oddly refreshing that he's apparently supporting Rudy for Prez. I hope the mayor doesn't win and I'm for either McCain or Romney, but I liked this part of Fred's defense of Rudy: "He's working class, was mafia connected, but prosecuted the mafia aggressively."

He also mentions Rudy's pragmatism, of which I am conflicted. I like the lack of utopianism inherent in that while hating pragmatism as a philosophy.

Giuliani does seem to act like an adult in his political life, if not in his personal. (Btw, thanks go out to Dylan, without whom I'd still be typing "Guiliani".)

Update: FYI, Frederick writes:

My big issues are the freedom of parents and the Church to educate, respect for human life at all stages, and realism: an openness to experience in all its factors and allowing this experience to change one's mind. Let me add here a compassionate approach to immigration that embraces all the factors involved.

I really like that "freedom of parents and the Church to educate" after reading Steven Kellmeyer's provocative book Designed to Fail. As far as "an openness to experience in all its factors and allowing this experience to change one's mind" I think of this as one of George Bush's tragic flaws (example: how long it took to change strategies in Iraq) and one of Mitt Romney's particular strengths.

It is not a matter of revving ourselves up to experience again the wonder of the Christ Mass. There is no point in trying to recapitulate Christmas as you knew it when you were, say, seven years old. That way lies sentimentalities unbounded. The alternative is the way of contemplation, of demanding of oneself the disciplined quiet to explore, and be explored by, the astonishment of God become one of us that we may become one with God. He embraced the whole of our experience, beginning as an embryo, as we began as an embryo. In his abject helplessness is our only help. - Fr. Neuhaus of "First Things"

Grace is perhaps the most confusing thing ever. Prevenient grace, sanctifying grace, actual grace, habitual grace, justifying grace. It has spawned heresies from Pelagianism to Quietism. No one knows exactly how it works and why. It's elusive, frustrating, at times despair-invoking. I don't pretend to know much about grace, but over the years I've grown to understand that it works well when it works with another. Indeed, the Church has always taught that one major effect of Confession is that it reconciles us to each other and revitalizes our relationships, making them right. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1469) When one grace-filled person meets another, goodness sparks from the contact. - Eric Scheske of "The Daily Eudemon"

I won't vote for a Democrat unless the Republican candidate is Ron Paul (for a multitude of reasons, not just his foreign policy ignorance). - Bill of Summa Minutiae

I stated earlier that I will be voting for Ron Paul. - Jeff of SCD; that's what makes a horse race

Watching Fox News, I heard an authoritative anchor-type fellow announce that, with the Iowa carcasses a mere two weeks out... - Bill of Apologia

Like Mr. Bush, [Huckabee's] approach to politics seems, at bottom, highly emotional, marked by great spurts of feeling and mighty declarations as to what the Lord wants. The problem with this, and with Bushian compassionate conservatism, which seems to have an echo in Mr. Huckabee's Christianism, is that to the extent it is a philosophy, it is not a philosophy that allows debate. Because it comes down to "This is what God wants." This is not an opener of discussion but a squelcher of it. It doesn't expand the process, it frustrates it. - Peggy Noonan

[Alan] Keyes is the invisible man, too white for black people and too black for whites. A tragedy. - Bill Luse

In the absence of missalettes we are totally at the mercy of the lector and her dropping of the masculine nouns, pronouns and adjectives. Complain to the bishop and you ended up in Monty Python's Argument Sketch, with the lector denying she ever said what you accuse her of saying. - commenter on "Ten Reasons"

Zip, I'd know your opinion better if I could read Latin. - Bill Luse after a cryptic Zippy Catholic comment

I remember saying to some LDS honcho not long after that, "I'd like to apply for whatever dispensation Marie Osmond has." - then-Mormon Karen Hall of "Some Have Hats" regarding Mormon childbearing policies

One of the things that I think I've learned most about life-- particularly from my experience of having been a pastor, is that the people that you think are the best people on earth? Well, they've got some secrets sitting in there, about some pretty dark spots. And the people you think are the dregs of the earth-- there's some qualities there. May not be on the surface, but they're there. - Gov. Mike Huckabee

From latest National Review...

Oprah Winfrey stumped for Barack Obama in Iowa and South Carolina. Miss Winfrey is, without question, the most important woman in America; overall, she is a force for good, a black female Benjamin Franklin, offering uplift and useful advice. Straying into politics for patently racial reasons is a risk for her, but she has negotiated other speed bumps in her career with ease, and will surely be at her post after the next president leaves office. What she said in Obama’s favor was nonsense. “You can’t be fooled by this experience question because you know it’s not the amount of time you spend with your child, it’s the quality of that time.” America as a nursery: just the message for a time of war, overspending, and global competition. But the audience ate it up, since the Democrats are the party of children, desperate to be suckled. And Hillary Clinton must be sweating bullets.

Splash Redux

Caught the 20+ year old movie Splash on Saturday. Haven't seen it in at least fifteen years. My reaction to it changed a bit. Single then, married now, I'm more cynical of the instantaneous love between them, perhaps in part because of the celebrity culture in which someone is always divorcing months after professing their undying love.

I now see God instead of just sex appeal in Madison, Daryl Hannah's character. She's guileless, tenderhearted, unspoiled and simple. Love wasn't as complicated for her as it was the Hanks character, who stewed mightily over how and when to say "I love you" and whether to ask her to marry him.

Sentiment looms larger when young; it is, after all, the engine oil of youth. And emotion and action, like it or not, are linked with the latter typically flowing from the former. It does no good to be contemptuous of feelings just because they can be seen as merely a means to an end. Since only actions matter, there's a tendency to see feelings as undependable props, as means to a God-ordained end. But whenever something becomes merely a means to an end it’s hard not to see that something lose all its value, which is why it’s so pernicious in the human sphere and part of the reason embryonic stem cell research is so chilling: humans become a parts warehouse for other humans. But feelings, for all their irrationality and flightiness, are a part of what makes us human and thus it is part of the necessity we become as little children in humbly accepting them.

On this, the feast of St. Stephen, his heroic martrydom was amazing not merely for the fact of it, but the way of it. He went willingly, smilingly as it were, with positive feelings. It's easy to mistake grace for feelings and feelings for grace, but that is false since that would mean we could blame God for our sins: "I was not given the grace (i.e. feeling) to do good."

But I digress. Back to the plot at hand. Would she give up the sea for a life on land with him? Yes. But when that became impossible, would he give up land for a life in the sea with her?

It was more disconcerting than I'd remembered it, that is how freely Daryl Hannah would accept his decision. She understood how difficult for him to give up all he knew for she had just faced the same decision. She proved resistable for some period of time on the pier until, finally, he took the plunge. Literally and figuratively.

A primer on trends in psychology from a Catholic perspective.

Eight is Enough

It seems the usual practice these days is to sign your pets' names to Christmas cards. Yesterday we received one in the mail which certainly got my attention. After the three humans (here crossed out to protect the guilty), there's a slew of animals:

Fictional Friday

Grey weather marred the photographer’s plans. He’d imagined a sunnier day in which to show off the patchwork settees and levees that surfed the Irish landscape. Through the viewfinder it all seemed an acquired taste, and though he knew no one bought a poster except on impulse he took the picture anyway and it was eventually reproduced with seven letters spaced far apart at the bottom as if to magnify a great ominousness:  I R E L A N D.

“I”, “R”, “E” in their order signified. The upright “I”, the righteous one guarding the nation's left flank against the outside world, the one wronged by oppression but not yet humbled. “R”, regal with its outward sashay, the very panache of it, the rounded Celtic upper half with the rooted lower half, rooted as the potato crop, leading to…“E”, the balanced letter, the one of symmetry, of poetry, of ethereal beauty. Three letters – a trinity – such as Patrick explained of the Divine to the converted pagans. Three letters did precede the common Saxon “land”.

He hoped to spark, in the poster, the wonder of it. Then they would explore it for real, a few of them, maybe one percent of the college-age poster-buyers. They would want to see what then was a totem on their dorm wall and no more real than a Tibetan temple or Marilyn Monroe’s naked legs. But if it got under the skin enough, if they could almost smell the peat burning and see the sheep locking horns with the clouds and ranging like king salmon up the green-stream hills… Then they’d go to the ancient sod, the site of their myth, and they’d put their hands in the soil like Thomas would in the side of Christ. And then?

* * *
Patrick McIntyre was a freelance photographer who credited his full stomach to his ancestor’s empty one: in 1847 his great-grandfather Thomas McIntyre traded the misery of the once-sainted isle for the misery of a ‘coffin ship’ and then again for the misery of life in the tenements of the Five Corners in Manhattan. The 'land of milk and honey' came true for his children, and Patrick's parents lived comfortably when he was born. Years later he sampled the products of the old sod, Guinness and Harp, as if his ancestors left something that could be found there.

In the Guinness-mist of an October 2003 day, Patrick read the label that would change his life. A freshly opened can depicted a little thatch hut with the accompanying text "win an Irish pub!".

Fifty words on why he wanted to run an Irish pub. He could do that. Nine months later he found himself in front of Gus, a beefy, squat man whose ancestors had been coming to the pub since 'the battle of the Boyne' and would not allow anything in the pub to be changed or moved. (to be continued)

Remarkable story of identical twins separated by the Berlin Wall.

Fear God, Trust Self vs Fear Self, Trust God

Blessed Mother Teresa wrote, "I fear all things from my weakness - but I trust blindly in His Greatness." Which got me thinking how often we fall into the opposite notion: we fear God and His judgment while having not fearing ourselves much. Our work life generally teaches us that the harder and longer we work, the more we'll succeed. So we are trained to think that success is within our control. In response to difficulties we can amp up our production. But we fear God because we know he is outside our control. We cannot make him save us or cause him to "amp up his production of grace". And the grace often doesn't look much like grace - He often brings sufferings in order to heal us, like the doctor who would cut into us in order to get at the source of infection.

I generally fear doctors and dentists more than myself because I'm easy on myself and they are (superficially) hard on me. But when I am in the doctor's or dentist's chair, a very different thing occurs: I fear myself more. I fear that I'll move my eye just as that laser is doing its thing. Or, when I got my forehead stitched up after colliding with an errant elbow during a basketball game I was conscious of needing to lie perfectly still lest I have a permanent scar. So maybe Mother Teresa saw herself as always in God's operating table, never really outside of it.

Fr. Cessario in the Magnificat publication, writes that the Blessed Virgin Mary is praised for her obedience to God, for her response to God. But he says, "These sentiments are true and praiseworthy. Even so, we must remember the distinctive rhythm that the Annunciation introduces into the world of Christian faith and practice. 'The angel Gabriel was sent from God.' In every good and meritorious thing that happens in our lives, God acts first. This means that the Christian who wants to live a holy life must receive the personal energies to accomplish his or her holy purpose from the same divine Source that Mary did."

In other words, he who would operate on himself has a fool for a surgeon!

Report from the Peanut Gallery

Went to my wife's work-holiday party at a dinner-theatre on the east side of Columbus.

The food was delicious. And free. And the alcohol was free - as much as you could drink. I got a rare whiskey on the rocks - a double shot of Maker's Mark. And also an Amber Bock (they had no Guinness or dark beers) because: "I'm a double-fisted drinker when the drinks are free." (Which is a corollary to the famous saying "if it's free, it's for me!")

I must say the hug thing has *really* caught on. I'm always taken aback when some new cultural practice comes about without my knowing anything about it. I expect new things with kids and 20-somethings, but it's disconcerting when the middle-aged have glommed on to a new practice and I had missed the memo. It makes me wonder what else have I missed the memo on.

So back to the hug - two really tight bear hugs from the secretary of my wife's bosses' boss. I don't know her from Adam (or should I say 'from Eve') having met her not two or three times over Steph's career and having said all of three sentences to her. But it seems it seems the new social lubricant is the extravagant hug, making any awkwardness go away. Seems to work reasonably well.

Recta Ratio - Time Traveller?

The blogger at Recta Ratio has escaped the bind of time and is already experiencing December 24th!

There is plenty of fine art there and since most of us won't be posting to our blogs on the 24th or 25th it's not a bad idea. To paraphrase the phrase "paying forward", he's "posting forward".

Church Fathers Timeline



Via Lofted Nest...

Found on Drudge Report

Interesting Katie Couric interviews on how much the voters should weigh marital fidelity in judging presidential candidates.

Joe Biden: I remember asking-- one-- one of the people who's-- a-- a smart guy, is this guy Frank Luntz, who does these groups. And I remember hearing him speak and saying that the polling data shows that the characteristic-- he asked the question generically.

What characteristic do you think the American people most look for in their-- in-- in-- in their president? And I immediately said-- honesty, integrity. In my mind. And he said, no, no. Then he asked the audience. And they said-- the simple most important thing they're looking for is resilience. Someone who can take a 'hit' and get back up and move on. That's an interesting phen-- phenomena.

I've been in public life most of my adult life, and I wouldn't have said that. But ya think about it. It's probably one of those characteristics that-- gives people confidence that you can lead the country through what they know are gonna be ups and downs.

Voter Stats

This WSJ piece has a nifty little break-down chart on candidate preferences among different groups.

Among Democratic primary voters, it's interesting to see that John Edwards, who talks about the poor a lot, is least favored by the poor. (The poorer, the least likely they are to support him.) Hispanics are especially favorable to Hillary Clinton, and least inclined towards Obama. Blacks really dislike Edwards, (or are simply more pro-Hillary & pro-Obama) giving him just 2%.

On the Republican side, Huckabee isn't getting as much of a gender gap as I'd thought, only 1% difference. The big gender gap is women liking Giuliani much more than men. That is a bit surprising to me.

I also looked at how predictable my own potential choices (McCain and Romney, although I have deep misgivings about both) are by various statistical measures. They finished 1st & 5th in my region and my gender. 3rd and 4th with respect to age group & occupation. 1st & 6th with respect to area type (suburban, urban, rural). 2nd and 5th with respect to news source (internet, blogs).

Parody is Therapy updated...

....with the story of a new technology that makes things much easier for those who relish identify politics.

Link Lightning Round

Ave Maria radio host Al Kresta with his book recommendations.
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On reconciling the infancy narratives.
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Ignatius Press is asking $14.95 for the Pope's encylical? That's highway robbery! (Though in fairness I think they're putting it out in hardcover.) I think the USCCB is publishing it for $6.50 (softcover).
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No XYZ Necessary: One good thing about cold weather is when you go outside you know immediately if you forgot to zip your pants.
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Jim of Bethune Catholic means how he likes Great Expectations. I read it in high school and for a long time it was my favorite novel. Should read it again. He also posts this: "It just occurred to me that maybe the classical form would make parents take the sacrament of Baptism more seriously." (The classical form being in which the parents ask for Faith, rather than Baptism.) To which I say "eggsactly". That was an unfortunate Vatican II change. Tis Faith that modern man is hungry for, and the current insouciance that surrounds the sacrament is odd, like a starving man treating a steak dinner lightly.
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I'm shocked that she's shocked:

"It was a shock for both of us, so unexpected," Jamie Lynn Spears told OK magazine in its new edition, which hits New York newsstands today. "I was in complete and total shock, and so was he."

The "shock" was that Britney Spears' 16-year old sister is pregnant. So let's review, shall we?

Sex is by far the leading cause of pregnancy.

Birth control is not 100% effective.

That's assuming they were even using birth control. But if not, how do you put those two facts together and come up with "shock"? That is, unless they were having sex during their sleep and weren't conscious during it.
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The '08 election is interesting in that one might think, based on Ron Paul's Iraq war position, that Steven Riddle would like him. One might also think, based on Ron Paul's view that the fault, dear Brutus, for Islamic extremism is us would be unpalatable to some of the St. Blog's traditionalists who see the phrase "Islamic extremism" as redundant and yet are supporting Paul. Strange bedfellows this time around?
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Al Kimel of Pontifications is back with a post on the wickedness of double predestination. The bright side about growing up a semi-Pelagian is that I had no clue that such a doctrine existed and had no doubt God loved me. Perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on my '70s-era catechesis; I hadn't considered the alternative.
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Hee Haw With the Stars

...including a cameo by Hall of Famer Johnny Bench:

From the Local Paper

Another for my "barbarians with a badge" file. Cop hassles another innocent man (click to enlarge:

Photos, We've Got Photos, We've Got Lots & Lots of...

Last week I found myself outside a delightful local bookstore with lots of festive lights. I took a pic with my cell phone but it came out blurry:

I also happened by an apartment with some books in the window:

And I was looking through ancestry.com's passport photos and didn't find any ancestors but here is a sampling, taken during before 1920, that give a flavor:

        

            

A major step in my conversion was because secular radio stations stopped playing traditional Christmas carols and I was chased into the realm of Protestant radio to find the songs I loved since I was an atheist child. - Jeff Miller, who grew up atheist but liked Christmas songs and then searched for the songs but stayed for the message

Sam [our son] had done something, what exactly slips my mind. I said to him, "Child, have you no restraint." His response: "Of course I do, I just don't choose to exercise it." Linda and I were practically rolling on the floor.
- Steven of "Flos Carmeli"

[During Advent] I used to think there shouldn’t be any bustle or parties, and the gross displays of consumerism disgusted me. . . .But it later dawned on me: There can be no Christmas celebration without preparation...You can’t honor the entire 12 days of Christmas — visiting distant relatives, spending time with friends, ringing in the New Year — unless you’ve prepared. And the preparation requires activity, which in turn spills excited joy into the soul. And where there’s joy, there’s an urge to share it. The bustle of preparation spills over into parties and celebrations, people jumping the gun before the 25th. It’s unfortunate, but understandable...Christmas celebrates great paradoxes — the God made man, the Almighty baby, the coming of great joy to undertake the greatest sadness. Fittingly, it’s marked by contradictory traits: hustle and contemplation, bustle and prayer . . .- Eric Scheske, who just might be overestimating the joy in preparation, at least the shopping part of it

Nudity is not bad so long as the individual is wearing enough clothing.
- helpful commenter on Catholic.com forum concerning the morality of nudist colonies

what ever happened to the abc project? ok, c is for chance. childbearing changes my relationship to chance. what once was a wondrous and fascinating element that leads me to metaphysical questions is no longer an idea but a force that at every turn may reckon with the body of my tenderest love, my child. life, predicated on chance, is also threatened by it.,,,so forms and writing processes that celebrate the accident, the mistake, the flaw, the multiple, are less enchanting, more threatening, scary. whimsy bears a sickle.
- professional poet and new mother Heidi Lynn Staples

what are the odds???
- Robert of "Tribal Pundit" remark concerning Mark Shea's declaration that George W. Bush was the "Worst President Ever" and Dick Cheney the "Worst Vice President Ever"

Verily, while I have never found a historian who has run with it, I have noticed that every major reform of the Protestant Reformation moved Christianity in the direction of Islam, including scriptural literalism, legalism and the deconsecration of clergy. - David Warren, scribe at "Western Standard" newspaper, via Bill White; Ham, if you're reading this: we still have far more in common than not

Contraception Is So Gay - title of Zippy Catholic post

So what have I gained from my study? The index of the CCC only lists two references [to Purgatory] and both take place in the context of the section about Liturgy. We contribute most to the Economy by going to mass... The abundant blessings that flow from Eucharistic Adoration attest to this. We do more to serve the common good by adoring God than we do by works of social justice. This turns everything I learned growing up on its head. The above statement would be roundly disputed by my religion teachers, parish life coordinators, and parents. In fact, I used to dispute this point vigorously just a few years ago...I say this more in response to what I was taught growing up- namely...that kneeling to wash the feet of the poor is of far greater value than incensing a gold monstrance. Yet, every saint who has ever served the poor has spent time before the Blessed Sacrament and accorded it its rightful honor. The one HAS to flow from the other. But I was brought up to believe that social justice is our mission and purpose and all those trappings from olden days are passe. My family honors Romero and hopes for his canonization. But even Romero prayed before the Blessed Sacrament. So did Mother Theresa and St. Francis- they were not merely about social justice. They were impelled by their devotion. So we have JPII and Papa Benny to thank. They have brought about a re-conversion of Catholics to the Eucharist. It's not what we do that matters most. It's how much we adore and worship and revere God, and any doing that flows from that is praiseworthy. Any doing that ignores adoration will bear its own fruit, which may or may not be God's. - "Catholic Land", after no less than thirteen posts examining the subject of Purgatory, via Frederick of Deep Furrows

This I Believe
- title of Terrence Berres post concerning a dotCommonweal commenter who said, "I’m guessing that a fair number of Commonwealers have enjoyed the NPR series...". The series was also titled "This I believe"

How can something be sad and glad at the same time? ... "All unhappiness," says Mrs. Quin, "as you live with it, becomes shot through with happiness; it cannot help it; and all happiness, I suppose, is shot through with unhappiness." - from a Rumer Godden novel via via Julie of, appropriately, "Happy Catholic"

Mary’s heart is so loving toward us that the hearts of all other mothers taken together are but a piece of ice in comparison. - St. John Vianney

'I'm in debt to many of your readers for comments they've left on your site and for their own blog writing as well, and I'd be glad of an opportunity to extend my regards to them. And to solicit their prayers, almost always our most beneficial gift to each other..' I said a long time ago he was the most self-effacing blogger I knew, and when reading his stuff I always felt touched by that 'grace and peace' he never failed to extend to others. I think we can spare a prayer for his brother. - Bill Luse quoting and then commenting on Francis Mooney, whose brother is fighting leukemia

I pray for you - because I have a feeling (more a near certainty) that God, for some ineffable reason which to us may seem almost like humour, is so curiously ready to answer the prayers of the LEAST worthy of his suppliants - if they pray for others. I do not of course mean to say that he only answers the prayers of the unworthy (who ought not to expect to be heard at all), or I should not now be benefitting by the prayers of others. - from J.R. Tolkien letter

Adeste, fideles

...via here

Stuck in '68

It's interesting how political parties, like individuals, become locked into their positions sometimes due simply to the vagaries of unconscious timing. Kevin Jones posts about how Dems became the pro-abortion party simply by the timing of changing their nominating process. They made the process more democratic in 1968 (insert laugh track here), a year of insanity, which is sort of like choosing your career while on acid:

In Stricherz's telling, the old party bosses who dominated the party from the New Deal through the 1960s selected candidates with an eye towards practical success...These bosses were overwhelmingly Catholic and patrons of blue-collar workers.

Though often democratic in outcome, the boss system was undemocratic in process. Realizing the need to create a more responsive party leadership, the ethnic bosses and other party leaders agreed to reform the party delegate system. In 1968.

That was a bad time to rewrite the rules for selecting delegates. Young anti-war activists, fearing for their lives, made sure their partisans were on the selection committee.

Enter the McGovern Commission. Though only racial discrimination was a problem in Democratic caucuses, the commission instituted quotas based on race, youth, and sex.(This explains the Democrats' continuing affinity for quotas.)

To paraphrase John Lenin: "Imagine the Dems without the sacrament of abortion...it's easy if you try."

Meanwhile, on the Democratic primary front, I'm amused by all the "sky is falling" going on in the Hillary camp and/or on the Drudge Report. As Dick Morris says, she and Rudy will still likely win their party's nomination. I could be wrong, but it's likely all much ado about nothing. Dems like to go risky until they pull back for something safer, i.e. like they did with Howard Dean before settling for John Kerry.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Every December I appreciate the thoughtfulness of our neighbors in being behind the times. The Christmas lights are almost uniformly tacky, but ‘70s-tacky rather than ‘90s-tacky (the latter best represented by inflatables). ‘70s lights lend themselves to nostalgia for someone my age and I soak in the ambience on a walk around the block as if I’m in a James Lilek book.

The song “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” comes to mind, so redolent of family associations. Dad would sing it whenever he spied the season’s first lights and how exciting for children to know that Christmas was coming! How I loved to hear that song. The lights then and in our neighborhood now are bulbous reds and greens and blues, not the lean, mean whites that don many latter day too-tasteful displays. The big bulbs, which could possibly cause a fire and thus fell out of favor due to our safety mania, have a mesmerizing quality that lingers long in the mind such that the next day you look at traffic lights differently, seeing in them the Christmas colors of red and green.

Ever the lazy moderate, I put out a string of lights on the tree out front, enough to add a bit of seasonal color but nothing like the four or five hard workers down the road with houses positively drenched in color and paegentry. Most people seem to be all-or-nothing on Christmas lights: marathoners or couch potatoes, Fundamentalists or agnostics. I’m grateful for the lights the Fundamentalists put out. I walk the dog and have something to look at, and the lights blur slightly with the watery eyes produced by the cold and wind.

Not Your Father's TV Shows?

I have low expectations of television dramas, especially regarding matters spiritual. But I'm take aback by how a couple of shows are so different from any show from the '70s, so anti-Pelagian if you will. I'm speaking of My Name is Earl and Journeyman. In both cases the protagonist helps people, but what is so different from the '70s shows is they are not in control.

Dan, the main character of Journeyman, travels back in time to help people but there are typically two problems: one, he can't turn on and off his power: "God" transports him back and forth in time at His will. And two, it's not always exactly clear who it is Dan is supposed to help. Dan still has a free will in the sense that he struggles with who to listen to while on a journey: God's quiet voice, often in the form of his fellow time-traveler's wisdom, or his own desires, including the desire to change his own history.

Compare this to, say, The Incredible Hulk. The Hulk was a creature of material processes in the form of an overdose of gamma radiation, not divine intervention (although we certainly don't know for a fact that Journeyman's journeys are divinely-inspired so I'm probably jumping the gun here - but it's obvious that an intelligence of some sort is actively controlling Dan's journeys). Dr. Banner of the Incredible Hulk could trigger his superpowers by getting very angry, and the Hulk knew who to pulverize with his green "ID" sense of justice.

Earl in My Name is Earl has found that free will is free but has consequences. Years of criminal behavior has led him to make a list atoning for every crime by making something right for each victim. 'Karma' is television's non-threatening label for God, or at least Earl's, and karma intervenes enough (although generally with great subtley) that Earl will often speak to it, asking what it wants. Earl knows he is not in control: when he works to strike someone from his list he'll sometimes find out in the course of it that he was actually supposed to help someone else on his list. Or he'll find, as in a recent episode, that karma can work through him even when he thought he'd made a mistake.

Ponderables

Please pray for Steven Riddle, who is going thru a bit of a slog right now.

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Our pastor gave a marvelous sermon on why John the Baptist asked whether Jesus was the “one to come” when John knew from the womb He was and witnessed the supernatural events at Jesus’ baptism. It was that John, the indominitable one, the one who I took as iron such that I didn’t really conceive of him as fully human, was in prison. And knew the end of his life neared and naturally had doubts considering his understanding that the Messiah would come in power and it wouldn’t end this way, not in the pagan power Herod killing him. Jesus had John’s disciples remind him of all the things Jesus had done, all the Isaiah prophecies that had been fulfilled. When Jesus said John was the greatest born of women “yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he”. What does that mean? Does Mary qualify as the latter? Is the kingdom meant in the sense of the New Covenant? Or Heaven? Or in terms of mercy rather than justice?

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Winter causes a great cessation in unobligatory exertions. No working in the garden or spreading mulch or long bike rides in the country or even, lately, hikes in the woods. Excema, the dirty bastard, has climbed down from my neck to my stomach and chest, in spots. He’s a loser but he still keeps on trying. Got the tube of Elidel and still the stilleto itch on my solar plexus. Dry skin the cause. Whoda thunk it? I'm turning metrosexual by necessity, having to buy moisturizer. I mean who cares about dry skin but middle-aged women trying to look 20 again? Now I do. And I have to buy moisturizers, which before last year I thought was the biggest scam since bottled water.
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Spent a pleasant day reading, though reading admittedly provocative and not restful or escapist materials. Lots of the Pope’s Spe Salvi on hope, much of Joseph Pearce’s biography of JR Tolkien, an essay about Poe from Allen Tate, some of Tolkien’s collected letters, a taste of Updike’s “Due Considerations”, more of the warm, almost scriptural Mother Teresa book. No fiction other than a bit of “Europe Central”. Saturday was rent by the 10:30am-5:pm work on drywalling C's house. C made some jab about my lack of prowess with the drywall driver and truth-be-told I was surprised at how inept I was. For all my supposed athletic ability, perhaps mostly in my mind, I had the damnest of time hitting that sucker square. I thought later of a good response to Chris: “a man has to know his limitations,” which is his favorite quote and certainly applies to my handyman abilities.

With Tolkien, I was secretly relieved when he said in one of his letters that all of his characters in LOTR had more of what he lacked: courage. He’s obviously exaggerating his deficiency but I can’t say I didn’t like the company and it would explain how we always tend to concentrate on our weaknesses (i.e. the preacher who preaches against sexual sin precisely because he is so tempted by it). I was also relieved when C.S. Lewis, while praising LOTR said it was far from escapist literature: “If it errs, it errs in precisely the opposite direction: all victories of hope deferred and the merciless piling up of odds against the hero are near to being too painful.” Indeed.

What’s so horrible about escapism? Lord knows I could use more of it. I come back after a period of escapism refreshed and in a better mood and more able to give what paltry service to God I reguarly give to Him.. Isn’t escapism part of his plan, as sleep is? No wonder St. Basil praises God for sleep in his morning prayers.

The great thing about the Sunday read is that while I tend to perceive it as being self-indulgent, in truth it’s often helpful in focusing on others since in reading we sometimes lose ourselves in other people’s concerns. Especially narrative histories or in fiction. Flannery O’Connor once said something about how her writing was the time she thought about others, her characters, and John Updike wrote that it’s no fun to write fictional characters based on himself because it takes all the enjoyment of writing in the sense of getting to live a life not your own for awhile.

Why Does God Test Us?

The whole ground of the Christian life fascinates me because it seems there are two opposing threads to it even if they are not actually oppositional: love and testing. Family and employment contract. At the very kernel of it is the mystery of the Garden, of Adam and Eve and the temptation they would have to overcome in order to get from earthly paradise to heavenly paradise, just as the angels either passed or failed a test in order to become angels or demons. But emphasis on test leads to a contract-type relation, a worker-employee relationship between God and man. Do we test our lovers? Do we test our newborns? No, we love at first sight. We ascribe to them qualities they do not have at first meeting. We accept them unconditionally until proven wrong. There is no apriori testing. We may disown a son or daughter, but that is very hard for a son or daughter to accomplish. A test implies challenge, a bell curve in results. But there is no bell curve in parents disowning children. The curve would be ridiculously weighted with a bias towards passing. The mystic Anne Catherine Emmerich, whose visions some of “The Passion of the Christ” were based on and who is a standard-bearer of many a traditionalist, was not so traditional in her views of Hell. She couldn’t accept that anyone was in Hell but was told point-blank to drop-ski the Universalism-ski. She was presumably conflicted about how love and test could be married.

St. Faustina writes that Jesus told her, “If you don’t believe my words, believe my wounds.” She wrote that love demands reciprocity. If Jesus tasted bitterness for her, she must taste bitterness to prove her love for Him. How could man reciprocate to God if man had not test? God created us, and we would’ve had no way to even re-pay Him in the smallest way for that without the test of the forbidden fruit. Things spiralled down from there such that Jesus would go and die for us, but if we have it tougher than Adam did in Paradise, so does God! He had it far tougher in redeeming us than in creating us!

I get nuggets that GPS me a bit closer to Him, to understanding things better and I’m grateful though I regret how they slip through this sieve of my mind so quickly. “Given for you”, the words of the Consecration hit as if for the first time – given to you, that is me too. “This is my body which is given for you…” It seems a disassociation with His Body, to make a gift of it…the idea of being outside one’s body such to the extent one can offer it, as if hoovering above it already and giving it away while still in use of it. What more could He possibly do to establish his oneness with us and still nourish faith? To be present and still invisible?

Merely avoiding wrongdoing is not enough. Instinctively we know it’s not enough, because we think: “what’s the point?”. Love is not the avoiding of wrongdoing! It is some thing, some One, it’s not the negation of anything. So how can the testing and love be married? And yet how can they not be? For it is precisely in the testing that we experience need and thus dependence. Statis, the opposite of testing, is self-reliance. How can creatures love God and be self-reliant?

Don’t old soldiers relive their twenty months on the front for the rest of their lives? Why? Because it was the defining experience of their lives. One can’t help be lead to the thought that the test of war was a gift. And in that test there was love. They experienced love and self-sacrifice in the very midst of agony. And, as in war, God is our foxhole mate in the struggles. The tests may be from God, it’s true, but, oddly, but they are also experienced with God. He is both tester and testee, as he became tested like one of us, and then stuck around in the Eucharist to become one with us.

All this about testing seemed disloyal after reading some of Mother Teresa’s book and the Pope’s encyclical. The Pope’s encyclical implicitly emphasizes the truth of Peter’s words: “Lord, to whom shall we go?” When Don Imus was on MSNBC I watched too much of him and his favorite response to some egregious Bernard off-color, politically-incorrect and/or downright hateful statement was: “that’s just not helpful.” So naturally I liked the Holy Father’s straightforward IMUS-y line: “To protest against God in the name of justice is not helpful. A world without God is a world without hope (cf. Eph 2:12). Only God can create justice.” If we “steal a base”, in Jonah Goldberg’s phrase, and substitute testing with suffering and love with God, then we see Benedict saying later: “In the end, even the “yes” to [God] is a source of [testing], because [God] always requires expropriations of my “I”, in which I allow myself to be pruned and wounded.”

I also see that Benedict mentions the origins of the concept of Purgatory as from before Christ, in the Jewish thirst for justice, in an intermediate state between death and resurrection (which is the state of Abraham and Lazarus in Jesus’s parable). That’s a different impression I got from Leon Podles’ book, which basically said that Purgatory was doctrinally developed as a result of medieval woman mystics’ desire for mercy. Whatever my unease with testing, I would rather God test than man NOT test, for we know what man is capable of even in the "best" of "untested" families!

Steven Riddle mentioned helpfully that it's not so much testing as the idea of purification. The natural response to our unfinishedness is to ask why we weren't created finished but that's to abrogate to ourselves God's privilege, hence the crucial necessity of humility. Pope Benedict quotes St. Augustine in his letter about how deferral (or testing) is God's way of enlarging our hearts: "Man was created for greatness—for God himself; he was created to be filled by God. But his heart is too small for the greatness to which it is destined. It must be stretched. 'By delaying [his gift], God strengthens our desire; through desire he enlarges our soul and by expanding it he increases its capacity [for receiving him]'."

Christmas & Advent

Resistance is futile – you will celebrate Christmas beginning Dec. 1st…or at least by the 2nd Sunday of Advent. Not because of commerce. Not because of premature carol-ulation (I was hearing Christmas carols on the local Christian radio station BEFORE Thanksgiving, causing me to switch channels quicker than a mo’ fo.) Nor because of the Christmas lights or Christmas trees.

No, Christmas early is caused by the incandescent Advent readings from Isaiah. How can one possibly hear these readings, the best of the Church year in my opinion, and not celebrate? The Mass readings just before Advent are apocalyptic, speaking of the end times, and then we feel pentitential but now is the time of the exuberant readings of Advent in which Christ is promised and tasted. The Advent readings – including the daily Lit of the Hour refrain: “your light will come Jerusalem…” - begin to wend their way along your epidermis and into your bloodstream and suddenly the Christmas carols are so very timely and.the inspiration of all those Christmas carols seems apparent. “God and sinners reconciled…Born to give them second birth.” Advent and Christmas are infused with hope in a way that no other liturgical season seems and hope is the greatest modern need. Easter (the Resurrection) is God acting with power, and we’ve grown weary and distrustful of power because of man’s example. But the Incarnation is God acting with tenderness and love, becoming a baby. Now, that is truly shocking.

Possible Lenten Read



It's never too early to think about Lent, especially given how fast time goes these days and Julie of Happy Catholic just recommended what looks to be a good Lenten read called "They Come Back Singing".

And the Angels Cried...

...well, angels are non-coporeal beings but you get my jist concerning the following statement from Karen Hall about her Mormon days (part 1, part 2, part 3):

...someone in charge of the "program" (we took turns) would lead about an hour of discussion before we broke out the pizzas and non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated beverages.

Well, the pizza part sounds good anyhow.

But the real story is of course that Karen Hall used to be a Mormon. She was an "Osmond convert" (and now I can't get that song out of my head, you know the one that goes "and they called it...puppy love..."). This was the second Osmond convert story I've come across in my extremely limited reading concerning the LDS.

Karen really didn't like Romney's religion speech, calling it dishonest and manipulative because she says he's "spinning it as if it's no different than him being a Presbyterian." I don't know that I can hold that against him since everyone pretty much tries to make their religion non-threatening to outsiders (even Scientologists I guess). I concede that Karen has forgotten more about Mormonism than I know but I wonder if hers is an overreaction, the same overreaction one finds in ex-Catholics.

Her main objection seems to be that Romney doesn't talk about "Mormon particulars", but let's assume for the sake of argument two things ...: one, his faith is precious to him and two, he doesn't feel qualified to defend it in the context of a political speech. He might've made the decision that it's better for the Mormon faith that he not get into the weeds lest he be a bad apologist for it and do more harm than good. Or he might feel that discussing religion with cynical unbelieving "gotcha" reporters would be throwing "pearls before swine". (Even given that some of what Mormons see as pearls we obviously see as stones.)

She had some great lines in her post (hey, she oughta be a writer! -Oh, that's right, she is!) on the candidates:

Hillary: No one ever said the anti-Christ had to be a male.

Obama: My biggest problem with him, other than all the extremely important issues wherein we disagree, is the fact that if he were a blue-eyed blonde, there's no way in the world anyone would be considering someone with his limited resume as a serious candidate for the presidency. And that strikes me as ... I don't know... racist?

Fred Thompson: Every time I watch him speak, I get visions of him falling asleep in a cabinet meeting.

Least Popular Bowl Games

Although the proliferation of college football bowl games has primarily been caused by a thirst for revenue, there are some that actually lose money, such as the famous American Standard Toilet Bowl. Here are a few other very unpopular bowl games:

The Hairy Bowl

The Rapture Bowl - (less than eleven players on a side permitted in case of Rapture)

The Bowl Haircut Bowl - (free scissors and bowl to first three hundred visitors)

The 99 Cents Wendy's Side Salad Bowl - (with halftime show starring the Croutonette's)

The Leftover Soup Bowl

The 9-11 Truthers Nutcase Bowl - (free pack of nuts to all ticketholders)

The Cafeteria Catholic Bowl (where the fans make up the rules as the game goes along)

The Wardrobe Malfunction Bowl

The Open Borders Bowl (fans allowed anywhere on the field during the game)

The Beat the Whammy Bowl (that's for Kim)

The Kosher Pigskin-Free Bowl (now hotdog free!)

The I-Bitch-Slapped-My-Ho Bo' (free admission to gangbangers)

The Obscure Literary Reference Bowl

The Bilbo Baggins Alliteration Bowl

The Dyslexic Blow

The Old Order Amish Bowl (manual scoreboard, day game, no beer but broasted chicken served family style)

"Drank Another Glass of Skim Last Night..."

Cracks me up how Jim Curley goes from the profound (JPII) to the quotidian (milk) and back (Our Lady on the Tilma) so easily. This is stream-of-consciousness par excellence:

There is so much good stuff at The Bride and the Dragon I never have time to read it all. For example, look at today's lead article on living simply and living wages. And then go down and read John Paul II - the man I loved from last week-if you get that far. There is a lot in between you can get stuck on. Drank another glass of skim milk last night-and still didn't notice a difference. One of our parishioners brought a beautiful picture of our Lady on the Tilma back...

What I do in a blog he does in a blog post! I can relate to his milk situation as I too love milk and drink it by the gallon (though not necessarily at one sitting). I went from whole milk to 2% milk to 1% milk...haven't made it to skim milk yet.

Excerpts from Vollmann's Europe Central

On the composer "Mitya" Shostakovich during the Stalin era:

...he still didn't swallow the notion that music must be fettered to any "content," but since his well-wishers kept reminding him that he didn't eat the people's bread merely in order to exist for himself, he sincerely aspired to be ideological, to invest his talent with feeling, and to the very end, or at least until he composed Opus 110, he would remember with haunting vividness the purity of this project: create beauty and be useful. Beethoven for the Baltic Fleet, who was anyone to say that that hadn't helped win the Civil War?
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Music gushed out of his fingertips in orgasms of joy; what a young artist lacks in craftsmanship he often makes up for in sincerity; even when principle demands that he withhold, he can't avoid giving of himself.
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And who hasn't felt the same way? The punished child, the one whose lover has just kindly, gravely announced that she's leaving him forever, the Arctic explorer perishing for want of food, how can they not keep faith with the proposition that undeviatingly following a given method will save them?
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Nourished by the melodies he composed, he kept up his fighting strength, such as it was (to look at him, you'd think him far from formidable), his expectations guarded and comforted by the knowledge that should the pressure ever become more than he could bear, the world within the black keys would shelter him....his music conceals extremely deep lyric feelings which are carefully protected from the outside world. In other words, is Shostakovich emotional or not? Feelings conceal -- feelings!
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Although it might be irritating to him to do as others told him to do, as long as he could build secret trapdoors and escape hatches into every score, so that the world beneath the piano keys hadn't been forgotten, he was still living on his own terms. Ancient masons used to wall up a live victim in each temple or bridge they built; when he was much older Mitya would immure himself in just this way in the cornerstone of his Opus 110; but for now there was no need to be as drastic as that. ..If I bow to Lenin's memory and then create what I please, have I been any more constrained than a poet would be by the arbitrariness of rhyme?...Didn't Mitya himself believe that content was irrelevant? Hadn't everything already been said? Our task was to say it in a new way, that's all.

Romney's Got the Big Mo

National Review just endorsed Romney, as has Michael Novak.

I think Huckabee's "electability quotient" has been falling rapidly due to a faux paus on Mormonism and another on AIDS. I love candor, but you have to be ready to apologize quick-like if you're candid and wrong. Huckabee has been sluggish to apologize which is not surprising since he is George Bush redux and like George is a bit stubborn.

As for Romney's flip-flopping on abortion, the Left embraces flip-floppers (i.e. from Jesse Jackson to Ted Kennedy to Al Gore on abortion), should the Right do less? Some of the strongest proponents of the right-to-an-abortion were originally pro-life, so maybe Romney will be their foil.

Things Biblical

For what it's worth, of the top ten most popular bible verses three were Christ's direct words. The favorite verse, John 3:16, is a reflection on God's action.

I happened across Matthew 18:7-8 the other day. A more piquant one-sentence summary of the earthly condition from Jesus could scarcely be found:

Alas for the world that there should be such obstacles!

Continuing in the Jerusalem Bible translation: "Obstacles indeed there must be, but alas for anyone who provides them!"

I like the back and forth from the early Christian giants weighing in on Scripture in the Catena Aurea:

Gloss, non occ.: The Lord had said, that it is better for him who gives offence, that a mill-stone be hanged about his neck, which He now subjoins the reason, "Woe unto the world from offences!" i. e. because of offences.

Origen: This we may understand not of the material elements of the world; but here the men who are in the world, are called the world. But Christ's disciples are not of this world, whence there cannot be woe to them from offences; for though there be many offences, they do not touch him who is not of this world. But if he be yet of this world in loving the world, and the things in it, as many offences will seize him as those by which he was encompassed in the world. It follows, "For it must needs be that offences come."

Chrys., Hom., lix: This does not subvert the liberty of the will, or impose a necessity of any act, but foreshews what must come to pass. Offences are hindrances in the right way. But Christ's prophecy does not bring in the offences, for it is not done because He foretold it, but He foretold it because it was certainly to come to pass. But some one will say, If all men are recovered, and if there be none to bring the offences, will not His speech be convicted of falsehood? By no means; for seeing that men were incurable, He therefore said, "It must needs be that offences come;" that is, they surely will come; which He never would have said, if all men might be amended.

Gloss. interlin.: Or they must needs come because they are necessary, that is, useful, that by this mean "they that are approved may be made manifest." [1 Cor 11:19]

Chrys.: For offences rouse men, and make them more attentive; and he who falls by them speedily rises again, and is more careful.

Hilary: Or; The lowliness of His passion is the scandal of the world, which refused to receive the Lord of eternal glory under the disgrace of the Cross. And what more dangerous for the world than to have rejected Christ? And He says that offences must needs come, forasmuch as in the sacrament of restoring to us eternal life, all lowliness of suffering was to be fulfilled in Him.

Origen: Or; The scandals that are to come are the Angels of Satan. But do not look that these offences should shew themselves in a substantial or natural shape, for in some the freedom of the will has been the origin of offence, not liking to undergo toil for virtue's sake. But there cannot be real good, without the opposition of evil. It must needs be then that offences [p. 627] come, as it must needs be that we encounter the evil assaults of spiritual powers; whose hatred is the more stirred up, as Christ's word invading men drives out the evil influences from them. And they seek instruments by whom the offences may the rather work; and to such instruments is more woe; for him who gives, it shall be worse than for him who takes, the offence, as it follows, "But woe unto that man by whom the offence cometh."

Jerome: As much as to say, Woe to that man through whose fault it comes to pass, that offences must needs be in the world. And under this general declaration, Judas is particularly condemned, who had made ready his soul for the act of betrayal.

Hilary: Or; By the man is denoted the Jewish people, as the introducers of all this offence that is about Christ's passion; for they brought upon the world all the danger of denying Christ in His passion, of whom the Law and the Prophets had preached that He should suffer.

Chrys.: But that you may learn that there is no absolute necessity for offences, hear what follows, "If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, &c." This is not said of the limbs of the body, but of friends whom we esteem as limbs necessary to us; for nothing is so hurtful as evil communications.

Jerome: So all affection, our whole kindred, are severed from us; lest under cover of duty any believer should be exposed to offence. If, He says, he be united to thee as close as is thy hand, or foot, or eye, and is useful to thee, anxious and quick to discern, and yet causes thee offence, and is by the unmeetness of his behaviour drawling thee into hell; it is better for thee that thou lack his kindred, and his profitableness to thee, than that whilst thou seekest to gain thy kindred or friends, thou shouldest have cause of failings. For every believer knows what is doing him harm, what troubles and tempts him, for it is better to lead a solitary life, than to lose eternal life, in order to have the things necessary for this present life.

Origen: Or, The priests may with good reason be called the eyes of the Church, since they are considered her watchmen; but the deacons and the rest her hands, for by them spiritual deeds are wrought; the people are the feet of the body, the Church; and all these it behoves not to spare, if they become an offence to the Church. Or, by the offending hand is understood an act of the mind; a motion of the mind is the offending foot, and a vision of the mind is the sinning eye, which we ought to cut off if they give offence, for thus the acts of the limbs are often put in Scripture for the limbs themselves.

Mitt Romney's Notes on Religion Speech

This is high-larious (via Terrence Berres) - click to enlarge:

Bad Photographer, Bad!

Via The Daily Eudemon, there's the Strictly No Photography website. My wife has a lot of pictures of me just beyond "No Trespassing" signs, so I can relate to this site.

Czestochowa at St. Pat's Church

On the cusp of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I was inadvertently introduced to the Black Madonna (more here), of whom Hilaire Belloc wrote.

(Click to enlarge)

A couple days ago I'd read this Dec. 9th entry from St. Faustina's diary (Revelations of Divine Mercy):

I had permission to visit Czestochowa while on my journey. I saw the Mother of God [image] for the first time, when I went to attend the unveiling of the Image at five in the morning. I prayed without interruption until eleven, and it seemed that I had just come.

At first I thought the actual painting was on tour, but the replica was hand-painted and I was still able to share in seeing up close that which had moved two of the greatest lights of the past half-century or so, Pope John Paul II and St. Faustina.

The grim visages of Jesus and Mary in the painting remind me of the Byzantine iconography. I thought the jagged tears down the Madonna's face gave mute testimony of the sword that would pierce her and that the gold bands surrounding them emanate from the Christ child and envelope Our Lady's head.

I learned here that some of the tears are wounds or scratches:

The face of the Virgin stands out in that whoever looks at the painting is found immersed in Mary’s gaze: the pilgrim looks at Mary who looks back. The Child also faces the pilgrim but with a fixed look. Both faces have serious and pensive expressions, giving the painting an emotional tone. Two parallel scratches crossed by a third mark the Virgin’s right cheek. Her neck shows six other scratches, two of which are visible, whereas the other four can barely be seen. In the image, Jesus wears a scarlet tunic and rests on His Mother’s right arm as a makeshift throne in order to be seated. The Child’s left arm holds a book, and the right arm is raised as if he was giving his blessing. The Virgin’s hand rests on his chest, points to the Child, and appears to tell us: “Pay attention to my Child Jesus.” The Virgin’s dress and mantle are adorned with the flower of lis, a symbol of the royal family of Hungary. The brightness of their apparel contrasts with the dark colors of their faces. A star with six vertices is depicted on Mary’s forehead. Both the Virgin and Jesus have golden halos. Given the dark color of the face and hands of Our Lady, the image has been fondly called “the Black Virgin,” a phrase which reminds us of the Song of Songs, “I am dark-skinned but beautiful.” Her darkness can be attributed to many reasons, one being the poor conditions of the places where she has been hidden to safeguard her. In addition, numerous candles have been lit before her, causing her to be constantly amidst smoke. As well, she most likely has been touched by a multitude of people. In the image, the wounds on her face were caused by some bandits who tried to steal the image in 1430. The wound on her throat was caused by the Tartars who besieged the castle of Belz; one of the enemy’s arrows went through the Chapel’s window and hit the icon. The two cuts on the cheek of the Virgin, along with the harm previously caused by the spear through her throat, always reappear despite the repeated attempts to restore the image.

Once again, Planned Parenthood suggests that contraception not abstinence is the answer. I have seen lots of contracepting ladies get pregnant. I have never seen a pregnancy in a woman who is not having sexual relations (i.e. is abstinent). -- (except for Our Lady)...Alicia of "Fructus Ventris"

A rowdy bunch on the whole, they were most of them so violently individualistic as to be practically interchangeable. - line from book "Dud Avocado" via Amy Welborn

I know that indulgences remit the temporal punishment for sins whose eternal penalty has been remitted. I want to get a better handle on what temporal punishment is: is it the resistance that I experience when confronted with Christ's beauty? In Spes Salvi, Pope Benedict XVI writes about the flames of purgatory: "Some recent theologians are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away... In this way the inter-relation between justice and grace also becomes clear: the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love."...If this is so, then an indulgence is an ecclesial act of begging Christ to look upon us and burn away all resistance to Him. And as this resistance is burned away, we draw not only nearer to Christ but also nearer to those to whom we are sent as emissaries of His mercy and hope. As I'm fond of saying: Christ is the one mediator between God and man - and, the one mediator between man and man. - Frederick of Deep Furrows

Of course, as was the case with the Da Vinci Code, sneering is widespread and appropriately accompanied by disdainful sniffing. Hysterical Catholic Apologists bumbling into the Culture Wars. How typically retrograde and frankly, embarrassing. It’s Art. So what you’re saying…is that this Philip Pullman is the Magisterium? The Authority we Must Not Question? Oh, I get it. Well, actually, I don’t. The irony of trying to shut down debate about a work that sees shutting down debate as a crime against humanity is almost too much. News flash: Being critical and discerning about entertainment choices is not a sin. Last I heard, it was a positive quality. If a person says, “Hmm. I read those books. They may have their good points, but they’re not high, irreplacable literature and they are built around a false, misleading, bigoted portrait of religion and God. Nah, don’t think I’ll take the kids to see the movie. Oh, and when people ask me questions about the content, I’ll answer them.”…..Or, maybe, “Hmm. This Passion of Christ movie..I don’t like the way Jews are portrayed. I don’t like the violence. Doesn’t strike me as true to the Gospels or what I understand the Passion was all about. Don’t think I’ll see it. Won’t take my kids.” Yeah. Like that. It is okay. Embrace the discernment. Philip Pullman and New Line Cinema are not The Authority. You don’t have to see their movie. You can even…criticize it. The other response I’m seeing - especially from critics who claim a spiritual bent - is that GC is so, so valuable because it will give parents and young people a great opportunity to discuss the important issues raised by Pullman about religious authority, human freedom, and so on. Of course, anything can be used as a starting point for discussions on spirituality... After we finish with The Golden Compass, shall we break out The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to open up discussion on Judaism?...The starting point for a good - really good, fruitful discussion - is not the bigoted, agenda-driven misrepresentation of others. - Amy Welborn; the perfect response to the latest controversy

My basic position on the whole matter: Bring back Gregorian Chant and the baroque, or give me AC/DC and Elvis. This conflicted tripe is junk. - Eric Scheske of "The Daily Eudemon" on modern church songs

I've been pulled over several times for small things but have always had the good fortune of having very nice police officers. It always makes me nervous though. My brothers, on the other hand, have some whoppers to tell. Like one time my brother was given a DUI after he just got out of the river white water rafting, went to his truck wet, discovered he didn't have his keys, got in, let out the parking brake, rolled the truck down the hill backwards about a block to where the other guys were coming up from the bank. (He is an auto body man so he really can do this smoothly.) A policeman sees him, and gives him a DUI. He tried to explain that he wasn't drinking - he was cold and wet - and he wasn't driving - he didn't even have his keys! - reader email regarding my recent brush with a cop

Why would [Antonio] Rosmini pull ahead of [John Henry] Newman? The Rosminians. Have you ever heard of Newmanians? - commenter Frederick on "Pertinacious Papist" in the canonization sweepstakes

If I wanted people to stay away from my movie in droves, I'd be sure to tell them it was entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching. --Tom Kreitzberg commenting on Curt Jester's site concerning New Line cinema's claim that "The Golden Compass" is "entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching"

Let's Play....'Why's My Book Bag So Heavy?'

Bad weather is the avid reader's dream, and so Sunday I hunkered down for a good gollop of (& gallop through) multiple books which is a very good thing indeed since it turns out I was in the latter stages of a syndrome called FRB - "Fatal Reading Backup".

Read a Ohio History article on the conflicted nature of Ohioan William Dean Howells, who called himself a "theoretical socialist" and "practical aristocrat". He was a literary baron during the robber baron age who felt this enormous guilt all his life over his wealth and repented of it by becoming a socialist. He and Mark Twain were the John Edwards's of their day - but without the Edwards's apparently guiltlessness. I suppose that in our mania for good mental health we no longer allow ourselves to be conflicted as Twain and Howells did, or, alternatively, perhaps politicians can't allow themselves the luxury of conscience that others can.

I finished Leon Podles' The Church Impotent. It's a well-researched and thought-proving book. I can't do justice to it in this short a space but I've been instinctively drawn to the image of Jesus as brother, but rarely (only once that I can recall, in Confession) heard that image in the Church. Podles says that males are more individualistic and less communal by nature, and I agree but I don't see how you can easily square that tendency with the gospel. The gospel is extremely communal so it's not as though one can make the Church more individualistic in order to appeal to more men. (Not that Podles is saying that; he admits that the only answer is that God raise up a modern saint who shows us how to combine holiness with masculinity since, he claims, that you can't currently be both holy and masculine.) Universalism and Purgatory are seen by Podles as feminine doctrines, presumably because women are said to have more sympathy for the Hell-bound out of their more communal feelings.

One quibble is that I was surprised that he mentioned Luther but didn't mention the root cause of his leaving the Church was not, as was somewhat implied, of the Church's femininity, but because of Luther's scrupulousness and fear of hell. I doubt he would leave the Church today simply because he wouldn't feel scrupulous nor a feel of Hell simply because the Church has so de-emphasized those teachings.

Podles points to Luther's emphasis on struggle, of the cosmic battle between Satan and God, a thing Podles sees as attractive to the masculine - but since Luther didn't believe in free will, how is there a struggle on a personal level? I suppose it's like watching pro-football. We guys like to watch the contest while not wanting to go out there and play (at least not against those guys, given their unimaginable combination of size and quickness). On the other hand there's no question of Luther's bravery and/or willingness to struggle given his break with the Pope.

In the book Podles defends those like Job or Jacob who would struggle with God, even get angry at Him, rather than be be meek (despite the Beatitude?). It reminded me of what Scott Hahn said on a recent episode of Franciscan University Presents, how complaining to God is okay and that the problem with those complainers in the desert (Exodus 16) was that they were "backstabbers who didn't confront God directly". Podles says that brothers fight and many a good male friendship starts with a fight.

I suppose in this context it would be good to quote ol' Tom of Disputations wrote in Mark Shea's comboxes a while back:

Personally, though, I don't think excessive feminization is a problem. I think it's a symptom. Men aren't staying home because church is girly; church is girly because men are staying home. And they're staying home, says I, not because they're manly, but because they're adolescent.

Read great globs of Europe Central, William Vollmann's novel (though blended with faction in the form of actual historical figures) , which has been growing on me. It's interesting to see Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich's attempt to keep his art amid Stalin's artistic purges; in fact it's amazing he didn't get killed. I wanted to read more about Shostakovich's music from an E. Michael Jones' Dionysos Rising. I believe Jones blames Shostakovich for some of the cultural ills of modernity but leider (pronounced 'lye-der', the German word for "unfortunately", which is leider one of the few words from my high school German class that still resonate) I'd given the book to Hambone to read, who has it at the bottom of his reading list. I read a bit of Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind because I thought he'd also had things to say, specifically against rock music but perhaps about atonal music too but I didn't readily find anything.

Then read some of the just-arrived January issue of First Things, including Jason Byassee's article on porn titled "Why it's not your father's pornography". Then on to the 1975 Vatican document on sexuality titled Persona Humana.

Later read much of the Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar which is a surprisingly enjoyable read given the grim subject matter. It's not in my bookbag, but watched the Polish film Faustina, rented from the library. It was nicely done, and helped painlessly fill in some of the details about her life.

Fine Product Placement



Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley delivered a talk in front of a Guinness sign. Hat tip to Kevin of Catholic Toledo who sent this on Friday, just as I was tippin' a Guinness me own self.

Breaking My Own Rule

Despite my pledge, I thought I'd mention that the remake of "Good Morning Starshine" isn't as good as the original:



In this version, with Spanish subtitles, "gliddy-glop gloopy" is still "gliddy-glop gloopy" (must be some sort of international language).

News to Me

From homily of Fr. Matthew Kelty, O.C.S.O:

In the prison in Cracow was confined Rudolf Höß, the Nazi in charge of the Auschwitz concentration camp and directly responsible for the death of three million Jews. He was tried at Nuremberg and Warsaw, confessed, and was condemned to death.

In Cracow in his solitary confinement he heard the bell of the local Carmel. That began a return to the Faith of his childhood and the whole process of healing and forgiveness.

He eventually asked for a priest and eventually a priest was found, Fr. Ladislav Lohn, S.J., provincial of the Jesuit southern province in Poland.

He went to the convent where Sister Faustina had lived and asked all the Sisters to pray earnestly while he went to the prison to hear the confession of Höß ("Hoess"). Which he did. It took two hours. Hoess was reconciled with the Church, made his confession, next day with tears in his eyes he received Holy Communion. He then wrote his wife and five children, expressed sorrow for his crimes, begged forgiveness of the people of Poland. He was executed April 16, 1947.

You have no doubt heard this remarkable story. I used to tell it frequently in the retreat house. As might be expected, the response was not universally positive. Some were not impressed. Said he should go to Hell and deserved to.

My response was not only the emphasis on the reality of God’s mercy, but also the teaching on Purgatory. I’d say, “You know he could be, and gladly so, in Purgatory, until the end of time. But in the end, he will be saved. He will be saved.”

We are sinners, all. And we are all indebted to that Mercy. We thank God that we have not done worse, are grateful for His solicitude.

Rev 21:5

"We need not be paralyzed by our past sins and failures. Every encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist is 'a New Age', every Eucharist a new beginning." - from our pastor's homily.

Indeed, in the gospel reading, John the Baptist says, "For I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones" and indeed he can raise us up from our sins, which is no less miraculous. He did raise the Gentiles up to be sons of Abraham, physically manifested by the transfusion of Christ's Abrahamic blood into ours with the Eucharist.
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I'd always thought that the good news the word gospel refers to was the fact that Christ died for us and was raised and that we have the hope of eternal life. For where's the good news in the teachings of Jesus - i.e. where's the good news in "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect"? But the good news is actually that of grace working to transform our desires:

It seems almost cruel. Knowing we're filled with lust, Jesus says, "Don't lust." Great! So what are we supposed to do? Christ holds out a standard he knows we can't meet. It seems hopeless - unless... unless it were possible to experience some kind of redemption or transformation of our desires...

The Old Testament law is good and just, but it "does not of itself give the strength, the grace of the Spirit, to fufill it" (CCC, #1963). In other words, it convicts us of 'driving with flat tires' but it doesn't re-inflate those tires. "The Law of the Gospel," however, "proceeds to reform the heart, the root of human acts, where man chooses between the pure and impure" (CCC, #1968). - Christopher West, Theology of the Body for Beginners

Busted in O-Hi-O

This is why I don’t donate to the FOP I think to myself, as I’m pulled over by a policeman with too much time on his hands: it seems I donate annually via some sort of ticky-tack foul.

“License and registration,” he says. I ask why he pulled me over and he said, “failure to come to a complete stop at an intersection.”

The “intersection” was a parking lot and a road. There was no stop sign. I was making a right-hand turn and, yes it’s true I didn’t come to a complete stop. It was news to me you had to stop. (Later I would find out that it is actually not a requirement to stop but I’m getting ahead of myself.)

I guess experience is the only way to really identify with someone. I can identify with blacks who are pulled over for “driving while black” because I was pulled over for “driving while an officer was bored”. Power corrupts, and any fiction that the police work for us is just that – fiction. I began to feel vaguely guilty that I’d been supportive of Bush’s anti-civil liberties measures.

The officer I was talking to was annoyed by my honest curiosity as to why I was pulled over. I was very calm, as I usually am after Mass. "You have to stop at every intersection!" He'd raised his voice and had “protesteth too much” and by his attitude I realized immediately he knew it was ticky-tack and that was good enough for me. He had the power and a quota to make and I didn’t. I didn’t argue, knowing that arguing with someone with a badge is even stupider than arguing with someone who buys ink by the barrel.

Then the guy’s partner comes over and begins shining a bright light all over my truck, apparently looking for something to nail me on.

“Man, you’re on me like white on rice,” I say, surprised not only by the other cop’s sudden appearance out of nowhere but also that I would say that.

It felt like a real live episode of Cops, only on that show the perps show more butt-crack and the drama comes after someone has run from them, not after someone made a right turn in front of them. It's Friday night 8pm, I’m thinking the boys must be thirsty for a DUI. But I was just coming from church, and sober as a church mouse.

So they took my license and presumably began writing out my ticket. They were back there for fifteen minutes or so, when three police cars stream down the road adjacent to us. They suddenly put on their lights and took off following them. Cop down?

Now I’m sitting there in this parking lot with no license. Theoretically I can’t drive. Ten minutes go by. I wonder if I can go, or if I’m supposed to wait here. What if the cop forgets he has my license? I call my wife and she looks up the non-emergency police number.

I dial in and get a female officer. Good, I think to myself, I like females. They’re always slightly more sympathetic than hard-ass guys. Women are the more civilized of the species and it’s always been my suspicion that more of them go to Heaven, or at least deserve to. Or maybe it's just that we all get along better with the opposite sex, since we're more indulgent of the other sex. I explain my situation fairly articulately. Her voice, hard at the beginning, softens to the point of being nearly unrecognizable from its initial sound. She puts me on hold while she calls the young officers.

After a couple minutes on hold she comes back and says that the officers had some sort of report of a person with a gun but it turned out to be a false alarm. They’re doing paperwork and will be back. I ask for their badge numbers and she gives me their car number and a number to call in order to get their badge numbers. I call my wife and she searches the Ohio BMV for this rule about having to stop at all intersections. There is no such rule. (I think: "that and a quarter will get you a cup of coffee - unless you're a lawyer of course." Lawyers, powerful also in the sense that they can sue over picayune things, are the great cop equalizers.)

So an hour after I’m pulled over our cops return to the scene of the non-crime. Both come up to the window and, remarkably, change their story. The cop who'd shined his lights in my truck announced that I wasn’t pulled over for failure to stop at an intersection after all but for failure to stop before pulling out from a private drive. (Later my wife looked this up and sure enough there’s a law that it’s at the officer’s discretion but he can pull you over for failure to come to a complete stop before exiting a private drive. News to me. And the officer pointed out that all of these shopping center parking lots were private drives.)

I figured that my having to wait would probably save me from a ticket and I was not disappointed. I was left with a warning. Waiting an hour and saving $100 (or whatever) in ticket costs is far more than I make an hour at work, so in that sense it was an hour well-spent.

It was like having a fresh $100 in my pocket. Maybe I won’t have to donate to the annual fund to support police officers this year after all.

Mitt Shoots, and Scores

Romney had a good week and I'd certainly be happy with him as the nominee. Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus came as close to an endorsement as I guess he ever gets, saying "I don’t do political endorsements but am on record as saying that I think Mitt Romney is in many ways well qualified to be president."

I was reasonably happy with George Bush in '00 as the nominee (the jury is still out on Iraq, but I think it could be said that without Iraq Bush would've had a reasonably successful presidency - which admittedly is like saying "if it wasn't for the liberal bias the MSM would be great"). I've never cared for nation-building projects, which give off a whiff of utopianism.

I note (cynically) that Sixty Minutes has suddenly become the best friend of Christians. It was perfectly in their wheelhouse, a win-win: you get to show you're a friend of Christian conservatives by portraying Christians sympathetically as victims for likely the first time ever (and we live in a victim culture), and you get the love from your lib base by playing into their Bush-hatred by showing the Iraq war was a disaster. Ah well, regardless of CBS motive, it was a good segment.

Things Literary

Soft thumps on the ironing board.
Her dimpled angled elbow
and intent stoop
as she aimed the smoothing iron

like a plane into linen,
like the resentment of women.
To work, her dumb lunge says,
is to move a certain mass

through a certain distance,
is to pull your weight and feel
exact and equal to it.
Feel dragged upon. And buoyant.

- Seamus Heaney, Old Smoothing Iron from "Open Ground"

____
In his book Classics for Pleasure, Michael Dirda has this to say of Isak Dinesen:

Certainly her stories invite such enthusiastic as well as refined appreciation, but the memoir "Out of Africa" elicits something more, a kind of holy rapture. The critic Rebecca West once wrote about this account of a decade on an African farm: "It gives me that strange sense of peace I always feel in the presence of my superior." Holden Caulfield, the hero of J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye", grants its author his very highest encomium: "I wouldn't mind calling this Isak Dinesen up."..."Out of Africa" is one of the great prose elegies of our time...

____

Eric Scheske points out Anthony Esolen's top 20 list of great underrated or underread books.

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The profusion of John Updike-related material would seem to have no end. Not only is his personal output prodigious, but who knew there were so many works about his works, like The Cambridge Companion to John Updike? Or a books about a visit, like Updike in Cincinnati? His latest collection of nonfiction writing is called Due Considerations and it is a sort of fascinating melange. Where else could you find a letter from Updike to book lover Michael Dirda (quoted above) in response to a query about what books serve as comfort, especially needed in the wake of September 11, 2001? (Updike said Shakespeare fills that need for him.)

Updike also surprised me with the following excerpt concerning his early reading. In some ways he seems the opposite of Flannery O'Connor, whose stories are so lean and undecorated and fierce:

"My reading as a child was lazy and cowardly, as it is yet. I was afraid of encountering, in a book, something I didn't want to know...Having deduced that "good" books depict a world in which horror may intrude, I read all through my adolescence for escape... I read all the books the library had by Erle Stanley Gardner, Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, in that order. Also humorists: Benchley, Thurber, Stephen Leacock, Perelman. Fifty books by P.G. Wodehouse I must have consumed.

With such books, and with streams of magazines, I dissipated my youth, while my contemporaries were feasting on classics. I could hear them gnawing joyfully all around me...My inability to read bravely as a boy had this advantage: when I went to college, I was a true tabula rasa, and received gratefully the imprint of my instructor's opinions, and got good marks.

Now I find my greatest reading luxury is a small book, between one and two hundred pages, which treats, in moderately technically language, a subject of which I was previously ignorant. I think of, with great pleasure, the Pelican book by Sir Leonard Woolley on his Sumerian excavations, and a treatise, in the same series, on the English badger."

That sounds just a tad dry.

NPR pressed him on what he believes, which he calls "so naked a topic it made me shy". He writes in part, "We are part of nature, and natural necessity compels and in the end dissolves us; yet to renounce all and any supernature, any appeal or judgment beyond the claims of matter and private appetite, leaves in the dust too much of our humanity, as through the millennia it has manifested itself in art and altruism, idealism and joie de vivre."

In Due Considerations he considers the worthiness of his craft:

His [the author's] "responsibilities to the work of art" are those of any craftsman to his product, polishing and shaping it to the point where it gives aesthetic delight. Such an endeavor is, to me, so self-evidently moral that posing the author as a preacher or his work as preachment fatally sullies something intrinsically pure...his raison d'être is religious - homage to what is and gratitude for being alive, offered up with the directness and innocence of a child's crayon drawing.

And, in a Cincinnati lecture, he said:

A central issue in this American writer's work is, of course, the question of where freedom ends. What do we owe other people? And equally, what do we owe ourselves? We're all intrinsically selfish. We're only given one ego, one life. To some extent our whole lives are just an attempt to take care of ourselves, and yet also there is a social contract out there we have unwittingly signed. So the tension, as it were, between the inner spirit, the infinitely appetitive and restless spirit, and the kind of compact we have to draw up with our circumstances continues to be a focus point of a lot of my stories. And I assume them to be part of the human condition, enough to interest other readers.

An Uplifting YouTube

Our old friend Mary (aka "Merry") Herboth of Cath Convert Billboard fame, has created an edifying video:



Hopefully there will be more, and if so they'll be here.

The Secret of the Rosary

Tuesdays & Fridays are my favorite rosary days. The sorrowful mysteries seem the most easily meditative. The Glorious second-most meditative. After the Resurrection there were no remonstrances to Peter, no "I told you so's" as far as the denials, no "where were you's?" to the other apostles. Instead: "Peace be with you." He teaches how it's supposed to be done.

In my youth I read a lot of Pelagian-type things, a lot of material that implicitly suggests we're in charge and that we can do it on our own. There's always the tendency to believe that nothing gets done without our own effort. There's a reason the statement "if you want something done then do it yourself" is well-known. I recall reading about indulgences and being scandalized not so much because of their sale, although that was obviously wrong, but because they weren't more difficult to obtain. And yet later I read that that's the whole point! If the remission of temporal punishment due to sin was of the same degree of difficulty as the accomplishing the actual purgation then why in heaven would it be called an "indulgence"?

Perhaps that's part of the reason for my nostalgic fondness of St. Louis De Montfort's "The Secret of the Rosary". There were anecdotes within that were jaw-dropping concerning the power of the rosary, a power derived by the will of God. It wasn't intuitive. I'd seen the rosary in terms of 'not accomplishing much'. You get to the end and it seems like it would've been better to have done a good work during the fifteen or twenty minutes than to waste time praying a rosary. That is the Pelagian mindset in action. Everything is earned. Only what is visible matters.

Here is an excerpt:

Whatever you do, do not be like a certain pious but self-willed lady in Rome, so often referred to by speakers on the Rosary. She was so devout and fervent that she put to shame by her holy life even the strictest religious in the church.

Having decided to ask St. Dominic's advice about her spiritual life, she made her confession to him. For penance he gave her one Rosary to say and advised her to say it every day. She excused herself, saying that she had her regular exercises, that she made the Stations of Rome every day, that she wore sackcloth as well as a hair-shirt, that she gave herself the discipline several times a week, that she often fasted and did other penances. Saint Dominic urged her over and over again to take his advice and say the Rosary, but she would not hear of it. She left the confessional, horrified at the methods of this new spiritual director who had tried so hard to persuade her to take up a devotion for which she had no taste.

Later on, when she was at prayer she fell into ecstasy and had a vision of her soul appearing before the Supreme Judge. Saint Michael put all her penances and to her prayers on one side of the scale and all her sins and imperfections on the other. The tray of her good works were greatly outweighed by that of her sins and imperfections.

Filled with alarm, she cried out for mercy, imploring the help of the Blessed Virgin, her gracious advocate, who took the one and only Rosary she had said for her penance and dropped it on the tray of her good works. This one Rosary was so heavy that it weighed more than all her sins as well as her good works. Our Lady then reproved her for having refused to follow the counsel of her servant Dominic and for not saying the Rosary every day.

As soon as she came to herself she rushed and threw herself at the feet of Saint Dominic and told him all that had happened, begged his forgiveness and promised to say the Rosary faithfully every day. By this means she rose to Christian perfection and finally to the glory of everlasting life.

Parody Blog Updated...

Parody is Therapy updated with these offerings:

Man Sues Therapist Over non-Green Dreams

Traffic Announcer Takes HR Creativity Course

Also some Clinton-inspired doggrel including:

Hil and bil went up a hill
because their egos tower,
bil fell down and broke his crown
so hil is now in power.

That's just so not helpful, 'eh?

The Latest National Review...

...has different people make the case for five of the Republican candidates. Here are the Romney & McCain recaps:

Dean Barnett on Romney:

A couple of weeks ago, I was having a casual conversation with someone who knows a great deal about the troop surge in Iraq and the decision-making process that led to its implementation. According to this individual, in late 2006 the president’s team outlined for him the concepts of counterinsurgency doctrine that David Petraeus helped formulate. When presented with this option, the president snapped, “Why didn’t someone tell me about this two years ago?”

The story may well be apocryphal. It may be the stuff of urban legend. Nevertheless, one thought struck me when I heard it: That would never happen to Mitt Romney.

I’ve known Mitt Romney since early 1994. I was one of the first volunteers for his ill-fated Senate campaign that year against Ted Kennedy. I was his occasional driver, taking him to ward-committee meetings around the commonwealth. It was my job to serve as a one-man entourage — it’s unseemly for a major candidate to enter a room of 20 voters unaccompanied by at least one enthusiastic volunteer.

For me, it was a pretty good deal. As a 27-year-old who had recently started his own business and was eager for advice, I was delighted to have one of Boston’s best businessmen as a captive audience in a Ford LTD for a few hours. I happily picked his brain. Although Romney may have preferred drivers who just shut up and drive, he was far too gentlemanly ever to let such feelings show.

One thing struck me as I wedged my nascent business venture into nearly every conversation. Romney has what is best described as a voracious intellect. He didn’t casually toss off opinions. He didn’t offer advice from his gut, nor did he rely on his years of experience and say things like, “We always did it this way.” If he was going to venture any opinions or offer any advice, he would gather all the necessary data before doing so. He was more curious about how my business functioned and should function than I was.

If Mitt Romney were presiding over a faltering war effort, he wouldn’t passively wait for his advisers to bring him alternatives. He would consider it his responsibility to go out and find them himself...

People who meet Romney are almost invariably charmed. To put it mildly, the same could not be said of Dukakis. One of the reasons that Romney’s doing so well in the early-voting states is that the people there have gotten to know the real Romney, as opposed to the national-media narrative that has arisen around his campaign.

...In the Boston business community, Mitt Romney was known as an honest and decent man. His penchant for honesty carried over into the political arena. Although his political foes will never concede as much, their silence regarding his kept campaign promises speaks volumes.

Frank Cannon on McCain:

Mayor Giuliani and Governor Romney, both strong and qualified candidates, offer management experience as a primary credential. They see our nation’s challenges as best handled by convening experts and brokering solutions. But the president is not like a prosecutor or a mayor, a CEO or a governor. He must decide, often without warning or time for lengthy analysis, how to confront crises of national importance. He must choose when to put American soldiers in harm’s way. In this person, I don’t look for a capable manager, but an inspired leader of sound judgment. For me, John McCain is the man who has earned that trust....

Some conservatives are determined to stop Rudy Giuliani in order to keep the party from putting forth its first pro-abortion nominee. Romney supporters point to their candidate as the logical alternative around whom conservatives can coalesce. The danger is that Romney matches up worse against Hillary Clinton than does any other Republican candidate.

Even more problematic is the fact that, so far, Romney has given a negative impression to the voters who have formed an opinion of him. In a Fox News poll taken November 13–14, 79 percent of the electorate had an opinion of John McCain: 48 percent favorable and 31 percent unfavorable, for a net positive of 17 points. By contrast, 59 percent of the electorate had an opinion of Mitt Romney, but only 26 percent were favorable while 33 percent were unfavorable — a negative net rating of 7 points. Some argue that this is so only because relatively few Americans know much about Governor Romney. But a comparably small portion of the electorate holds an opinion of either Senator Thompson or Governor Huckabee, who have positive net ratings of 7 and 4 points respectively.

The 100 Films Meme

It's everywhere, but found here most recently...A meme involving the movies that made the American Film Institute's Top 100, and whereupon I show I'm a cinematic philistine. (Ham you should take this up.)

Your favorite 5 films that made the list

Gone with the Wind (1939)
Schindler's List (1993)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Rocky (1976)
My Fair Lady (1964)

5 movies on the list you didn't like ("thought were overrated" might be closer to the mark)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (my review here)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Tootsie (1982)

5 movies on the list you haven't seen but want to

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
An American in Paris (1951)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

5 movies on the list you haven't seen and have no interest in seeing

Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Platoon (1986)
The Deer Hunter (1978)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Your favorite 5 movies that aren't on the list

The Secret of Roan Inish
The Passion of the Christ
My Night at Maud's
A Man for All Seasons
Three Amigos

While I'm here....My Favorite TV Shows

The Office
Friday Night Lights
30 Rock
House
Journeyman
24
Chuck

Hope and Hell

Camassia has returned, albeit only briefly, with a poignant post after a long blog absence, a sabbatical of over a year. Personal and spiritual difficulties prompt a desire to pray for her. I write this post primarily out of empathy since I assume she's likely read far more than I have about this subject.

I can well emphasize with her struggle over the doctrine of Hell, as I think most Christians would. In fact, Peter Kreeft in his book The Handbook of Christian Apologetics refers to it as the most difficult doctrine for Christians to accept.

Camassia sums it up as: "somebody’s going to be in for a big disappointment on Judgment Day. A universalist might end up going, 'Gee, God really is as monstrous as people have been saying.' A Wittgensteinian might end up going, 'Wow, I guess my life really didn’t have any meaning.'"

Of course, in Heaven everyone will be wrong and no one will be disappointed. Everyone will be wrong about something, that is. Here I will reduce it to the absurd - Aquinas presumably now realizes he was not accurate about the Immaculate Conception (my hands always want to type that last word as "Concepcion", even after all these many years that David Concepcion, the great Cincinnati Reds shortstop, has been retired) but is no less blissful for being wrong.

I realize there are degrees of 'wrongness' and being wrong about who God is of a difference in kind than a technical point concerning the Immaculate Conception. But to use a grossly carnage image, being disappointed in Heaven is like being disappointed during an orgasm. Speaking as a guy at least, that's impossible. One universal sentiment among mystics, including a mystic named St. Paul, is that Heaven makes you forget the worst pains and agonies of earth. Something we can only take on faith obviously.

This discussion seems mostly a proxy for the long-running controversy over free will and God's grace, which is impenetrable and will likely remain so. As a Catholic, I could never see life as not having meaning in the Wittgensteinian sense since we believe in Purgatory. But even for those who don't accept Purgatory, one might believe a person's potential to love in Heaven is somehow linked by what he or she does on earth (ala the St. Theresa analogy of every one's glass will be full in Heaven but some will be taller). Although I recognize for those of us lacking ambition that may not be entirely motivating.

As far as God being monstrous, that is disproven by the Incarnation. It seems the Christian faith is one of extremes isn't it? The same religion (from the Latin word religare, to bind, as Christ bound himself on the Cross and to us) that proposes the repugnant doctrine of Hell also proposes the exquisite doctrine that God Himself cares so much He became man for us. The two are linked, for as Tom of Disputations recently said, it wasn't just a thoughtful gesture on the part of God. It's said that "Without God, anything is permissible" it can also be said, "If God cares, anything is endurable." There is no way for me to hold the opposite notions in my mind that God is love, as demonstrated by the actual fact that He died for us, and that God is monstrous, as demonstrated by the hypothetical of Hell being populated (assuming, for the sake of argument, that a populated Hell demonstrates that).

So far I've only read about a third of the new papal encyclical on hope, but it seems tailor made for Camassia and me. While meditating on some recent Mass readings I came to the sudden inspiration that God so hates injustice and is so interested in reversing the earthly lack of justice that Hell is some sort of byproduct of that. Perhaps my hatred of Hell is linked to a weak sense of outrage over earthly injustice? This is unfortunately an easy trap to fall into for someone in the wealthy part of the world. (I doubt that's Camassia's issue, by the way, who strikes me as one very attuned to injustice.) I see the thought received an imprimatur of sorts, it being reflected in the latter part of the encyclical as reported by Amy Welborn:

Final Judgment. This is a powerful and important section in which Benedict acknowledges that while the spectre of a Final Judgment might prompt fear in some, it is actually a reason for hope. Why? Because in the reality of Christ’s judgment, we will find the justice that seems so terribly absent from this world.

Things get reduced, as they always do, to a radical trust in God, especially where there is a lack of understanding. I've recently become interested in St. Faustina, a mystic and "apostle of mercy". How did she reconcile justice and mercy (i.e. free will and grace)? I'd happened across a pamphlet with excerpts from her diary concerning Heaven/Hell/Purgatory. Even if someone doesn't accept her visions, she seems an exemplar of someone who loves God and man and who "gets" both God's mercy and His justice. I think part of God's relentless sense of justice is his insistence on our humility, given our creatureliness and His example. He says to St. Faustina: "I have wanted to exalt this Congregation many times, but I am unable to do so because of its pride. Know, my daughter, that I do not grant My graces to proud souls...Bring to me the meek and humble souls and the souls of little children, and immerse them in My mercy. These souls mostly closely resemble My Heart...I pour out whole torrents of grace upon them. Only the humble soul is able to receive My grace."

Article 1. Whether the Anglican Chasuble is Uglier than the Catholic clergyman's?

  

Objection 1. It seems that the Catholic's chasuble is uglier. The objects manifested are large and assault the eyes, seeming to be much more "in our face", as the kids say, than the Anglican's.

Objection 2. Further, the objects on the Catholic chasuble are arranged with less symmetry, appearing almost randomly on the Catholic prelate's robes.

Objection 3. Further, the body language of the Anglican prelate suggests the correct emotion of sheepishness, while that of the Catholic is of inexplicable triumphalism.

On the contrary, Dionysius says (Div. Nom. vi, 2) that "Ugly things appear uglier upon close inspection, unless viewed through the lens of beer goggles."

I answer that, men are governed by image and sentiment such that they will rarely consider how an image was made in determining the relative ugly-quotientness of chasubles. The visceral reaction to the image is considered, rather than taking into account the lighting on the respective chasubles, the impact of the model of the chasuble, and the camera's closeness to the respective chasuble.

Furthermore, everything in the Anglican's chasuble is ugly while there is this cool little castle in the Catholic's chasuble:

Further, the Anglican chasuble includes incorrect grammar: "Jesus is the goodest person...". Now the end is good, the message of Christ's goodness, but, as Zippy might say, you can't employ a bad means to a good end.

Finally, the Anglican's chasuble is a perfect rendering of an aquarium and as such is unrecognizable as something intended to be of a sacred nature. The Catholic's still has recognizable iconic images on it, such as the cross and symbol of Jesus.

Reply to Objection 1. The Catholic priest's chasuble is more "in our face" by virtue of the camera being closer to the offending object. The colors appear bolder and more tacky due to the greater light shed on the subject.

Reply to Objection 2. The lack of symmetry is offset by the fact that there is more white space in the Catholic chasuble, which can only be a good thing in an ugly chasuble.

Reply to Objection 3. One must scrupulously avoid taking the body language of the participants into consideration. It's true that the Catholic looks like he is saying, "PickmePickmePickme!" with his absolute lack of embarrassment. It's true the Anglican looks like he's saying, "Oh gosh, the things I wear for the children! I'll have a shorter Purgatory for this!" (if Anglicans believed in Purgatory that is). However, this is not an acceptable argument for choosing the Catholic's chasuble as uglier.

yeayeayea...but does it smell like a new book...?- Fr. Philip O.P. commenting on Jeff Miller's problems with the new amazon.com e-reader

I've long held that fake greenery is an abomination. Fake Christmas trees, for instance -- the contradiction of celebrating the birth of Christ by putting up a pseudo tree is ludicrous, which is something I tell myself every year while wrestling with our 3' wire 'n plastic abomination. - Mrs. Darwin of "Darwin Catholic"; this year she's going natural

After 35 years of agitprop, the basic cultural barometer reading on abortion is "Yeah, we should keep it legal, but everything about it is repulsive and we'd rather not look at it." - Mark Shea, via Terrence Berres

My instinctual intellectual reflex is not to offer a rejoinder, but to give the benefit of the doubt. I feel convinced by whatever I am reading or watching. Against my spiritual inclinations, I entertain the sinking suspicion that these secular stories and philosophies might be more accurate portrayals of the world than my own. At times, every other point of view—even Steinbeck’s, even Tarantino’s—seems more viable to me, like they know something I don’t know, like my Christian experience of the world has been too limited and maybe I should take their way of thinking into consideration. I think these thoughts, then pray against them. I pray without ceasing as I read books and watch movies because I feel I cannot resist the onslaught of their influence...I hope to one day be able to think through secular culture the way Schaeffer does, but for now I fear that secular culture is thinking through me. - Patton Dodd via Frederick of "Deep Furrows"

As blogger Hieromonk Maximos puts it: "The pope does not, of course, by this charism manufacture truth. He recognizes it."...Like so many truths, the teaching authority of the Church is descriptive rather than prescriptive. The emphasis is not on "You have to believe this, so get with the program." Instead, we are reassured that the Holy Spirit, who promised to be guardian and steward of Christ's body until the end, will reliably preserve that body from serious error that would send it off the rails into disaster. The teaching authority of the Church draws its nature from the promises of God, not the wisdom of men. - Roz of Exultet, on the doctrine of Papal Infallibility which is, as she said, much more nuanced than popular summaries make it

Felix typo alert: In the first reading from the Mass of Friday of the first week of Advent, the Prophet Isaiah (Is 29:17-24) says, "Out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blond shall see." Talk about old stereotypes! - Tom of Disputations

The whole duty of a writer is to please and satisfy himself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one. Let him start sniffing the air, or glancing at the Trend Machine, and he is as good as dead, although he may make a nice living. - Strunk & White, "The Elements of Style" via "Laudator Temporis Acti"

So I just turned off. All the things I like to do (primarily, reading and writing) were tossed aside. And you know what? It wasn’t bad. Someone once said it adds greatly to the leisure of life not to pick up a book every time you sit down. He’s right. My ongoing study of political philosophy? Phsaw, I have to clean the house. That book about the saints? Screw it, I have to drink beer. B16’s Jesus of Nazareth? Not when the kids are sleeping: that’s my sleeping time. Quite frankly, it was liberating. Mind damaging, yes, but liberating. I don’t know how happy I could be pursuing such a life all the time, but it makes me wonder if my time spent with books (which is seriously about 1/4th of what it used to be) is poorly spent. I suspect it’s a question of balance, but the balance is always elusive. - Eric Scheske

I covered a class that started watching Fiddler on the Roof today. One girl's reaction was almost immediate: this movie is aggressive. I answered, yes - tradition is aggressive. If you think tradition is passive and weak, this movie will make you see otherwise. - Frederick of Deep Furrows

To those of you who think religion is a self-delusion based on wish-fulfillment, all I can remark is that this religion does not fulfill my wishes. My wishes, if we are being honest, would run to polygamy, self-righteousness, vengeance and violence: a Viking religion would suit me better, or maybe something along Aztec lines. The Hall of Valhalla, where you feast all night and battle all day, or the paradise of the Mohammedans, where you have seventy-two dark-eyed virgins to abuse, fulfills more wishes of base creatures like me than any place where they neither marry nor are given in marriage. This turn-the-other cheek jazz might be based any number of psychological appeals or spiritual insights, but one thing it is not based on is wish-fulfillment. An absurd and difficult religion! If it were not true, no one would bother with it. - John C. Wright, via Julie Davis

While acknowledging that library rules forbid overt sexual conduct from patrons, the administrator insisted sexual arousal does not violate regulations: 'We offer lots of materials that patrons might use to arouse themselves; they range from romance novels to photographic works,' she writes. Even in context, this reads more like a recommendation than anything else. - Kevin Jones via Zippy

One of those things that makes me go hmmmm: When folks outside of Catholicism look at Catholics and characterize them as legalistic, pro forma spiritually dead pew slugs…...and then get their backs up when they encounter Catholics who are informed, enthusiastic and committed disciples. A similar dynamic: Secularists who condemn Christians for being all into it on Sundays and just like the rest of the world during the week….(Hypocrites…sniff.)...and then get their backs up when they encounter Christians who are informed, enthusiastic disciples who believe that faith isn’t just about Sundays. - Amy Welborn

Electability Update

Two months ago I attempted to my wild guesses as to the electability ratings for various Republican candidates and I gave Huckabee a 6.5+ rating. That he would play well in the primaries is not too surprising since he's got that Reagan-like persona: folksy, articulate, a corny joke-teller of sunny disposition. But in the general election it's a whole different ballgame.

One strike against Huckabee is something I'll call "presidential fatigue", a well-known tendency of human nature. People want something different. Reagan was the opposite of Carter: a generalist as opposed to a policy wonk, an optimist compared to a pessimist. Clinton the opposite of Reagan (at least in terms of character and politics if not affability). Bush was the opposite of Clinton in terms of character and sticking to principle instead of being poll-driven.

But isn't Huckabee way too much like Bush? Both are compassionate conservatives and frustrated preachers. You can imagine Huckabee leading by emotion just as Bush did when he boasted of "seeing into the soul" of Vladmir Putin.

Bush's perceived characteristics are: inflexibility, inarticulate, not particularly photogenic (i.e. goofy grins), bad manager, too much loyalty to incompetent members of his administration.

So the American people will be looking for someone who is: flexible, articulate, photogenic, good manager, and someone ready to jettison anyone even perceived as incompetent.

Who fits that profile? Hillary Clinton to a great extent. No one doubts her willingness to jettison anyone who gets in the way of her MacBethian ambition. She's photogenic, presumably with the help of a past plastic surgery makeover. Her flexibility is shown by having three positions in two weeks on giving illegals driver's license. Her weak point is being perceived as a good manager, but you can at least say her managing of her campaign has been brilliant.

Who fits this profile for Republicans? Probably Mitt Romney. He's flexible as the day is long (unfortunately). He's articulate, though almost robotic. He's photogenic, if too photogenic. He's a good manager - par excellence. (See 2006 Olympics among other things.) On This Week someone said that every vote for Huckabee is a vote for Giuliani since Huckabee is splitting the social conservative vote.

But, when all is said and done, I think I agree with David Broder (for the first time ever?) - that McCain/Huckabee would probably be the strongest GOP ticket. Huckabee could do the Oprah circuit, the touchy-feely events (and he wouldn't scare off fiscal conservatives and libertarians as he would if he were heading the ticket). McCain, I think, is different enough from George Bush to represent change.

Notify Blogger!

While waiting for Disputations to load, I got this rather humorous pop-up message, one I've never seen before (apparently I hoovered at a strategic location):



Objectionable content is just really, really not likely to be found on Disputations, except for the occasional Eagles or Phillies propaganda.

Random Thoughts...

I used to think that modernity had an “obedience problem” and that everything would be solved by obedience. I think I was wrong, but I wasn’t far off because obedience is a symptom of humility, and humility is everything. Yet St. Faustina said that humility is equivalent to truth, nothing more, nothing less. Which means we really have a truth problem since humility is merely a symptom of truth.
________
I've always wondered why Russians are so prone to alcoholism. I came across an explanatory quote recently from Andrey Sinyavsky:

"Drunkenness is our basic national vice - more than this, our obsession. A simple Russian doesn't drink from wretchedness or to drown his cares, but because of his everlasting need for the miraculous, the extraordinary - he drinks mystically, if you like, in order to upset the earthly balance of his soul and restore it to its blissfully incorporeal state."

That perhaps was part of the reason that pre-famine Ireland was given to the drink. The Irish always had that mystical sense about them, seeing spirits and faeries everywhere. Tis nice to let the dendrites out for a ride every now and then and write poetry while effusions of beer go off in my mind, like a splendid hops fireworks!

I recall the old days in my old house. How proud my builder was at the simple wood shelf, elbow-high, that circled the downstairs great room, elbow-high! He was a Baptist, and didn’t condone drinking, but it was built for that, in retrospect, built to hold drinks. I put the library in there, a little print-valley under the stairs. Ah bachelorhood, like war: it is well it is so terrible lest we grow too fond of it!
_________
I've been taken surprise by eczema. I’m insulted by my body’s tendency towards allergic reactions such that I have to take Allegra and now Elidel. Runners take it for granted, even barely-runners like me, that all things under the sun are preventable by a good five-miler. Such was the enduring influence of James Fixx’s The Complete Book of Running which faultily left me with the impression that running could cure everything from diabetes to jock itch. Now I find myself reliant on that little tube of Elidel, that magical Elidel! Scores of mosquito bite-like itches are tamed by its powers such that I sing “Elidel” to tune of Tom Jones’ song: “Delilah!”: “My, my, my Elidel!”

Inspired by the come-from-nowhere Delilah! tune, I you-tubed for old Tom Jones videos and happened across a 1974 version of She’s a Lady. I was a young boy in ’74 and Jones was of my parents’ generation. But the overriding sense from watching the ’74 video of Jones and his backup singers is an odd thing: they are amateurs. Which comes from the Latin amator, lover. Amare, amas, amator. They love doing what they are doing. It takes a true professional to appear to be an amateur while doing something he gets paid for. Today our professionals look so professional! Of course, given the ‘70s, the enjoyment was lkely merely drug-induced. The backup singers don’t even to be that concerned when the camera is on them; today they'd be making love to the camera in order to get noticed by a talent scout and get their own gig.

Skip twenty years later: “Sex Bomb” is an unwatchable video in which Jones is so patently obviously trying to make money off the sex appeal of himself and his video babes. “She’s a Lady” is far sexier than “Sex Bomb” despite all the respiration and perspiration and skin of the latter. I’m stunned that even at the height of the sexual revolution, the mid ‘70s, there was more purity, for want of a better word, in sex songs than in most of the non-sex songs of the ‘90s and ‘00s.

Spe Salvi Excerpt

I caught a bit of C-Span o'er the weekend and there was mention made of how many non-denominational Christians constantly move from one church to another in order to find ever more charismatic pastors. This makes an intuitive sense; we want to be inspired and good preaching can't be taken lightly (ask a Dominican!). But the Pope's recent encyclical helps explain the evangelical's need for good preaching - he or she sees faith in completely affective terms:

In the eleventh chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews (v. 1) we find a kind of definition of faith which closely links this virtue with hope. Ever since the Reformation there has been a dispute among exegetes over the central word of this phrase, but today a way towards a common interpretation seems to be opening up once more. For the time being I shall leave this central word untranslated. The sentence therefore reads as follows: “Faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen”. For the Fathers and for the theologians of the Middle Ages, it was clear that the Greek word hypostasis was to be rendered in Latin with the term substantia. The Latin translation of the text produced at the time of the early Church therefore reads: Est autem fides sperandarum substantia rerum, argumentum non apparentium—faith is the “substance” of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, using the terminology of the philosophical tradition to which he belonged, explains it as follows: faith is a habitus, that is, a stable disposition of the spirit, through which eternal life takes root in us and reason is led to consent to what it does not see. The concept of “substance” is therefore modified in the sense that through faith, in a tentative way, or as we might say “in embryo”—and thus according to the “substance”—there are already present in us the things that are hoped for: the whole, true life. And precisely because the thing itself is already present, this presence of what is to come also creates certainty: this “thing” which must come is not yet visible in the external world (it does not “appear”), but because of the fact that, as an initial and dynamic reality, we carry it within us, a certain perception of it has even now come into existence.

To Luther, who was not particularly fond of the Letter to the Hebrews, the concept of “substance”, in the context of his view of faith, meant nothing. For this reason he understood the term hypostasis/substance not in the objective sense (of a reality present within us), but in the subjective sense, as an expression of an interior attitude, and so, naturally, he also had to understand the term argumentum as a disposition of the subject.

...Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a “not yet”. The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future.

This, then, is the answer to Ps 137 in which a people in exile lament "how can we sing the songs of Zion?". Indeed, how can we, who are also in exile, sing the happy songs? Because the future has been brought to the present!