Video Meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

  Spanning the Globe to Bring You the Constant Variety of Posts

I am probably the only person in the history of the old CNN/SI message boards to bring up G K Chesterton and St. Thomas Aquinas on one of their discussion forums. (And for the most part it did not go over well unfortunately.) - I. Shawn McElhinney of Rerum Novarum

I get the impression a lot of feminists have been disappointed with the sort of women who've attained positions of leadership. They didn't expect the first female prime minister of Britain to be Margaret Thatcher, or the top female CEO to be Martha Stewart. But I suspect that many of what they identified as male problems are really power problems. It takes certain types of behavior to get to those top positions in our society, and a lot of them aren't very nice. It takes a certain type of person to be put in charge of a prison, and to work in one. And once that power is in your hands, the temptations will be the same. - Camassia of Camassia

It may be that one of the issues that a beginning blogger must confront is that of what to blog and what not to blog. Some blogs stick to issues while others are more inclined to record the minutiae of their owners' daily lives. Oddly enough, although I greatly enjoy reading about others' minutiae, I am reluctant to write about my own, feeling that no one could possibly be interested, and that anything I blog should "amaze the whole room, and be handed down to posterity with all the eclat of a proverb." This is, no doubt, vanity; so, to mortify my vanity, I shall write at length about myself....The girls and I went to the 11 AM Mass, at which the Storm Queen, who on Friday finally grasped the concept of the potty, demonstrated her mastery by six times requesting to be taken there. - Bob of Trousered Ape

A while back, I mentioned the friendly staff member at my local Curves fitness center. She got evangelized by me, more to my surprise than hers. Since then, I've run into her a few times, most recently last night, and now she has "I'm talking to a nun" disease. Remember that affliction? It's when you talk to a religious and the only subjects you feel able to bring up are churchly ones. You just can't figure out what else you both might have in common. A life lived more and more within the Church family cures that disease pretty thoroughly, but right now this lovely person has it. She has to tell me only about religious issues in her life (child's First Communion, church picnic). I find myself deliberately changing the subject to non-religious issues, just to bring the conversations back into balance. I don't want her to feel uncomfortable thinking we can only have a one-track conversation, since we started without that topic. - Therese Z. of Santificarnos

....Senor Rodriguez,the last great /Cuban cigar roller,who kept the revelers /of Duval Street,Key West in divine / smolderings,will be eighty this year,and Ps 90:10 claims that humans / only get eighty years of high rolling. /The ear-Horowitz,is dead.The tongue- /Richard Burton,is dead.The voice-Roy Orbison,is dead.The eye-Picoso(everyone / knows that womens' breasts are / divine,plain artists gave us larger and / smaller,Pab gave us more),is dead. - the enigmatic 'crossquad' on St. Blog's Parish Hall

Luke 1:28 "Hail, Nice Person, the Lord is relatively fond of you. Well-respected are you, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus." - commenter on Dave Armstrong of "Cor ad cor loquitur" on a post imagining a "Revised Fundamentalist Baptist Version (RFBV)" New Testament

Luke 18:18-25 (RFBV): “And a ruler asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I believe to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ And he said, ‘All these I have observed from my youth.’ And when Jesus heard it, he said to him, ‘One thing you still lack. Know that the commandments have nothing to do with your salvation because they concern works. Have faith alone in Me alone, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’ But when he heard this he became sad, for he lacked faith alone. Jesus looking at him said, ‘How hard it is for those who lack faith alone in Me alone to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a man who lacks faith alone in Me alone to enter the kingdom of God.’” - Dave Armstrong of "Cor ad cor loquitor", Revised Fundamentalist Baptist Version of the New Testament

When was the last time you stopped to consider that you were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be God's own possession? It's a vertiginous thought, one might even say that it is an amazing thought. - Thomas of Endlessly Rocking

Every household, like every religious order, must be primarily a place of prayer if it is to be genuinely Catholic. And this prayer must be regular. The genius of St. Benedict's Rule and its amazing success have largely to do with the element of regularity he introduced into monastic life. Before Benedict, monasticism was either the pursuit of solitary hermits, often given to grotesque excesses of asceticism, or of communities with practices too severe to be borne for long by ordinary men. St. Benedict devised a way of life by which any man of good intention whom God had called might exercise his vocation in a sane, safe and effective manner. Regularity was the key. And so must it be for us. A reasonable schedule of some sort must be made and adhered to, especially by the head of the household who stands in the position of abbot and must lead more by example than by word, as St. Benedict tells us. - Edwin Faust, via Jeff of El Camino Real

It's getting to the point.....at which representatives of the Catholic Church won't be able to send a steak back to the kitchen without having to answer for abuse. - Amy Welborn

I am now officially sick and tired of the sanctimoniousness of so many Christians who have to let all the rest of us know that they haven't seen The Passion. I am sick of the foreboding tones with which they hint that the film contains some dark, cancerous infection from which they are keeping themselves safe and pure. I was at a party last night and had yet another exchange with "Another Holier Than Mel Christian." I got mad when he had to interrupt a group of us talking about the beauty of the film by shaking his head piously and looking at some gnostic horizon, saying, "I haven't seen the film yet. I don't think I will." BRN: Oh? Why is that?...GATG: Well, I don't want Gibson's images to replace the ones I have in my head. BRN: Interesting. Are you afraid of other kinds of art too? GATG: What?! BRN: Do you avoid Medieval and Renaissance Churches, old prayerbooks, and pretty much any museum with an art collection worth showing? GATG: I am not against art. BRN: No. I don't think you are....Just so we're clear.-Barbara Nicolosi of "Church of the Masses"

St. Thomas clearly articulate the need, and indeed the duty, to love what is above the soul (as the highest good) and to understand what is beneath is (as another aspect of this highest good). In each case the best is done with a given faculty--the intellect or the will. In articulating this understanding St. Thomas set the groundwork for all of western science. By declaring it both good and almost a duty, the search for understanding of the world received yet another boost from the Church. By setting this agenda St. Thomas and the Church fueled the revival of arts and knowledge that we call the renaissance.Unfortunately as time passed, the understanding of St. Thomas's teaching became distorted and unclear, as Tom points out. There is a modern tendency to love what is beneath and to dimiss or analyze in a pseudo-scientific way what is above. - Steven of Flos Carmeli

My Mom is fond of telling me the story that when I was waiting to be adopted my Foster Mother called me "Smiley", because I was always smiling and was in general a happy baby. I like to think that I smiled so much because of you, and what you did for me. Thanks Mother, and Happy Belated Mothers Day.I love you....because. - Steve of November Song, offering a nice tribute to his mom.