Video Meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

How much do these repeated acts of love–flowing out from the papacy now for over thirty years–matter? Do they make a small dent in a hardened, modernized world? Do they re-shape everything? Are they beautiful but ultimately quixotic? My opinion tends to vacillate among those three choices, but more and more lately, I’ve been tending to think they re-shape everything. - Eric Scheske of "The Daily Eudemon" on the papal visit

If you don't go through the whole bible at one time or another, you miss so much context! A Maronite priest I know refers to the scriptures as a "seamless garment". - commenter on Disputations

Many elite thinkers on the theological left have learned how to surround their beliefs in a kind of nuanced theological fog that serves as a protective barrier. Insiders know what the symbolic word clusters mean, but this strategy prevents many people in the pews — the kind of ordinary people who write checks — from understanding what is going on. There are exceptions, of course, such as the retired Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong of Newark, who never used a fly swatter when a baseball bat would do. - blogger at "Get Religion"

Knowing you'll have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations. -- Vladimir Nabokov

We labored at those kayak paddles like galley slaves. If we craved ease, why did we act so? It was not ease we sought at all, but action that we wanted. Action for it's own sake, because the idea of destination was slipping away from us...I believed completely that the wilderness heals, if only because it is one of the few places on earth that simply leaves you alone to be yourself. - David Smith in "The Healing Journey"

Rome indeed has not only preserved the original poetry of Christianity; it has also made capital additions to that poetry -- for example, the poetry of the saints, of Mary, and of the liturgy itself. A solemn high mass is a thousand times as impressive, to a man with any genuine religious sense in him, as the most powerful sermon ever roared under the big top by Presbyterian auctioneer of God. In the face of such overwhelming beauty it is not necessary to belabor the faithful with logic; they are better convinced by letting them alone. Preaching is not an essential part of the Latin ceremonial. It was very little employed in the early church, and I am convinced that good effects would flow from abandoning it today, or, at all events, reducing it to a few sentences, more or less formal. - H.L. Mencken via Rich Leonardi

Yes, in fact I am so baffled by it that I think that it might be Uncle Screwtape's cleverest trick. Lewis is very good at understanding sin, and that is the strength of The Screwtape Letters. However, he is completely lost as to what to do about it, as is evidenced by his utter bafflement as to sacramental grace and his death extra ecclesia. So, yes, if you need to glean insights on the nature of sin, Lewis is invaluable...I went from being a Stalinist dialectical materialist to the logical next step of libertarian dialectical materialist (still believe in class struggle, but figure out which class is actually going to win in that model). It was reading Thomas Aquinas (first via Umberto Eco) that I came to the conclusion that God existed. At that point it boiled down to Mohammedanism, Catholicism or Greek Orthodoxy. But it is a long story... - Erik Keilholtz commenting on Happy Catholic on C.S. Lewis' failure to convert and then his own conversion

Christmas is not the day the Son of God began to share our life. It is the day He began to share our death. From the moment of birth, we are dying, cell by cell. Most of the cells are replaced, and in childhood at least, many more are born, but it is at birth that we begin to die. If Jesus Christ was true man, as well as true God, as the Church confesses, then at His birth He began to experience physical death. On Good Friday, He would experience it to the full, and on Easter He would conquer it for us forever...On Christmas we prepare for Good Friday, and thus for Easter. That is what we will be celebrating.- Henry Dieterich of "A Plumbline in the Wind"

Tonight, I have nothing to do. After tonight? Social, service, or family obligations nine out of the next ten days... But I will prevail! By the power of Norman Vincent Peale positive thinking, a few pale ales, and–in a pinch–a chemical lobotomy, I will make it through...A reader wrote yesterday, asking if I give up beer for Lent. The answer is “no,” and the reason is pretty obvious: I can’t be hungover on Mondays. (For my non-Catholic readers: Sundays aren’t included in the traditional Lenten fast, so Lenten sacrifices are normally indulged on Sundays.) - Eric of "The Daily Eudemon"

My one and only experience with beer, or with much of any alcohol, came during a trip to Victoria British Columbia to meet with participants in the International Echinoderm Conference. - Steven Riddle, via email. This struck me as funny: those partyin' Echinodermers!

When our attention is directed toward physical illness, it is natural to think of the effects of the sacrament [of Annointing] in terms of physical healing. Sacraments, however, are celebrations of faith, expressions of who we are before God. This understanding of sacrament, together with the realization that we are more than our physical body, has led us to look again at the effects of the Sacrament of Anointing... The Second Vatican Council has reminded us: 'The purpose of the sacraments is to make people holy, to build up the Body of Christ and finally to give worship to God'. The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick accomplishes this by helping us gain insight into the religious meaning of human suffering." - Fr. Greg of "St Andrew's Q&A"

There's a Monty Python sketch that depicts the World War II-era British army using a "killer joke" against the Germans - a joke that literally destroys everyone who hears it. I think of faith as being the opposite: a joke that, when you're in on it, makes you alive, while everyone who's not in on it decays...Faith, like humor, is all about having a sense of the absurd - and feeling deep inside that the people who puff themselves up are the very people who need to come down a notch or three. Especially if that "people" is one's self. - Dawn Eden in her book "The Thrill of the Chaste"