Video Meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

As a Catholic from the Coal Regions of Pennsylvania, I'm disappointed that Mel's blood alcohol level was so low. I was hoping he'd spin the excuse that he had a flashback and thought the cop was out to get Danny Glover's family or something. - commenter on Amy's blog via Jeff

The notion that “now we know the true Mel Gibson” is the flip side of the modern religion of the self, where the dream of being true to “who you really are” tends to mean, in practice, being true to whatever desires or compulsions you happen to feel at any particular moment. This is great news for those whose desires—a new car, say, or perhaps a new spouse—happen to be considered commendable by the prevailing orthodoxies of the age. But it’s bad news for people like Gibson, whose compulsions are still counted as sinful—because if your compulsions are your “core” and “who you really are,” then how can you escape them? The good news, for Gibson, is that his own religion doesn’t approach things this way. - Ross Douthat

I believe in "Search and Rescue" by Patrick Madrid there is a line that goes something like this: You have to get used to the fact that it may not be YOU or YOUR WORDS and arguments that convert or bring back that loved one to the Faith. It seems to always to come down to prayer. And yet we want to do it ourselves, with our own words and writings. Sure God will use these-but often not for our intended purposes or audience. - Jim Curley of "Bethune Catholic"

It would be a mistake to think that St. John of the Cross [claims] as a scientific fact that cerebral memory resides in the soul. We are talking about real memory — how the soul knows itself, and that sort of thing. Obviously, the theology of the body view would be that neurological processes and the soul are intimately intertwined and were made to work together, but that ultimately the soul can remember when the body cannot (due to damage or death). Same thing with understanding and the will. Equally obviously, this is something that can be reasoned about but not scientifically tested. However, it’s true that “sin makes you stupid” because it clouds your understanding and narrows your view, and certainly the sins on your soul weaken your will and make it harder to resist further sin. The same narrowing is likely true of memory; we call things to mind based on our character, and attitudes of the moment; and we tend to forget what’s inconvenient to remember. --Maria Lectrix

Si Dios quisiera... Lectura de algunas páginas de Ana Catalina Emmerich: "¡Ah! ¡Qué hermosa, qué santa podría ser nuestra vida si Dios lo quisiera!" Una entrada del diario de León Bloy, 23/Feb/1901. La última frase es una de las varias suyas que se me han quedado prendidas en el alma (¡y hace tantos años!), como una de esas melodías pegadizas. Casi una jaculatoria. Bien veo que en cierto sentido es absurda —¡cómo Dios no va a quererlo!— pero... así es la cosa. - Hernan of "Esperando Nacer"

Could someone versed in the Mideast explain why the Christian leadership there seems to see its interest as lying in the defeat of Israel? How would Christians fare better were the Holy Land under the submission of Syria, Al Qaeda and a nuclear-armed Iran?...Problem is, looking to any Catholic or Melkite bishop in the area for an accurate reading of the situation vis a vis Israel seems like relying on the Cuban news media for information on Castro's current health. For some reason – politics; a concern for the preservation and safey of their followers; an inclination to appeasement; ingrained dhimmitude; outright anti-Semitism; or any combination thereof – the Christian hierarchy of the Mideast seems about as reliable as Reuters as a point of reference. - Mark of "Irish Elk"

There are few things that say “summer” to me the way the fair does. While there are subtle differences between, say, the county fair and the state fair, they both give me the youthful feeling of hope and time running out. They both make me recall the days when I could eat endless sno-cones and shredded chicken sandwiches on the five bucks my dad gave me when he dropped me off at the gate in the early morning cool...The fair is best remembered with funnel cakes in your nostrils and dust between your toes, sweat seeping down your back and weariness tugging at your eyes. The fair is days of intensity, summing up years of work, hours of effort. - Sarah of "Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering"

Sir Thomas More privately talked in his garden with his daughter Margaret, and amongst his other sayings, said: "Meg, I have borne a long time with thy husband; I have reasoned and argued with him in those points of religion, and still given to him my poor fatherly counsel; but I perceive none of all this able to call him home; and therefore, Meg, I will no longer argue nor dispute with him, but will clean give him over, and get me another while to God and pray for him." - Harpsfield, "The Life and Death of Sir Thomas More" via J. Curley

The Lord’s death, unlike that of other men, was not a debt paid for pleasure but rather a challenge thrown in the face of pleasure itself. --St. Maximus the Confessor

On the way home I was stopped at a traffic light where there was a woman claiming to be a homeless veteran holding up a sign asking for money....I must have been looking sheepish/guilty and/or tired/weary. (How's that--three word pairs in a row? To quote a one-time hero, "I meant to do that.") She said to me, "Honey, you got to smile--it just cain't be that bad." That did, in fact, make me smile. She continued collecting money, and I must have returned to whatever ruminations I was in because she was back and said. 'Come on, smile. What's that pink ball doing on your antenna?" (We have a pink Minnie Mouse/Cinderella's Castle ornament on the antenna--Linda's Idea--used to be stars and stripes Mickey.) And of course the silliness of the antenna bob made me smile again along with embarrassment at being offered encouragement by one who certainly had no reason to be encouraged, God love her.- Steven Riddle of "Flos Carmeli"

The essential key for the new evangelization-for practicing Catholics, as well as for slack and lapsed Catholics, and for non-Catholics-is the restoration of sacred music, especially Gregorian Chant, to sunday Mass - Francis Cardinal Arinze

Everything therefore in the modern means of social communication which arouses men's baser passions and encourages low moral standards, as well as every obscenity in the written word and every form of indecency on the stage and screen, should be condemned publicly and unanimously by all those who have at heart the advance of civilization and the safeguarding of the outstanding values of the human spirit. It is quite absurd to defend this kind of depravity in the name of art or culture or by pleading the liberty which may be allowed in this field by the public authorities. - Pope Paul VI, via Zippy

Chris is our resident pro-pacifist propagandist prone to parroting papal pronouncements to prop up his position. - Bill of "Apologia"

We take no position on Scripture or theology or morals. We are just Episcopalians. —Donna Bott, Episcopal Voices of Central Florida, via "Pontifications"