Video Meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

As I was working at Requiem Press yesterday, I was thinking about how the urgency of getting this order out and how I had this or that book to finish editing-along with all the other (paying) work I have to do. And I started to think about all the other companies and/or apostolates who seemed overworked, and I wondered about the solution.... then I remembered the words and examples of Blessed Mother Teresa, Fr. Lee Selzer (may his soul rest in peace), and Dorothy Day: all of whom advocated prayer before works...We are so sophisticated we think we can survive without God's constant help (or at least just giving him a nod here and there.) But we must get serious. Look around! - Jim of Bethune Catholic

At the seminary I’m at, we have Adoration all day as the nation goes to the polls. - commenter on Amy Welborn's blog today.

The remolding society through detailed government policies is fundamentally un-conservative....When running against someone whose message is essentially, "Vote for me; I can fix all your problems." This requires that one be a much better communicator and a communicate a much more attractive cultural vision than one's opponent. And right now, the opposing candidate is a very good communicator. - Darwin Catholic

The conversations about [abortion] are, for the most part, serious, although I will say that the pro-Obama Catholics fade in seriousness with each passing day as hardly any of them actually engage the totality of the issue and the reality of their candidates’ position, preferring instead to put their hands over their ears and sing “La-la-la!” in melodious, highly degreed voices when Obama’s own record and promises on the issue are raised. - Amy Welborn

The girls thought it was delightful that I hobbled around on the ball of one foot and the heel of another, and limped cheerfully around the house in imitation. "Does it hurt, mommy?" asked one, jabbing my heel. My voice rose several octaves. Clearly I had underestimated the importance of the bottom of my feet. - Mrs. Darwin on a plantar warts affliction

My favorite Hillerman novel -- one of my favorite mystery novels overall, in fact -- is Coyote Waits. I'd have to reread it before I could call it a Catholic novel -- in particular, to look for that "quality of redemption" Raymond Chandler said is present in everything that can be called Art -- but it certainly has Catholic themes. The titular Coyote is the trickster spirit who, according to Navajo lore, is always on the lookout for the chance to mess with people. In the Christian tradition, St. Peter warns us that "the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." There are, of course, many critical differences between Navajo belief in Coyote and Christian belief in the devil -- for one, the devil has been defeated by Christ and can be resisted through faith by the Christian. But there is a commonality, too: weak men are tempted to perform bad acts. And if we understand that all men are weak men, then we understand why we must always rely on Christ. - Tom of Disputations, on the death of Tony Hillerman

There is an element of emotional experience in the religious--were there not it would fail to engage the full person; however, it isn't usually the entire substance of our faith, and if it is then our house is build on sand anyway. - Steven of Flos Carmeli

At work, I’m surrounded by Obama-fans and I hate to admit that I’ve started saying things like “when he wins” or “Obama will have to deal with …” and so on. It’s pathetic because I seem to be easing myself to this possibility. I even have some sober reasons lined up: eight exhausting and incompetent years of GOP rule, a grinding war that we are finally winning, a tanking economy, a truly head-scratching campaign by a candidate who seems more dedicated to delegate like a maverick than to speak like one. But I still think McCain can pull this off. Obama will win huge in his states but McCain can win in squeakers in Virginia, Florida and Virginia and maybe even Colorado. I do think Palin will bring out the conservatives in droves while Joe Biden brings nothing, absolutely nothing to the ticket. Perhaps voters will look at Obama’s resume — as jam-packed as a fresh sheet of Saran Wrap — and wonder if The One is the right choice right now. The look of horror on the faces of the chatting heads on MSNBC’s will be priceless. - Phil Albinus of "A Musing"

The popularity of the Horror genre makes me think that the same is true for most people today. St. Therese had such saintly parents--'more worthy of Heaven than of earth'--that she didn't need Hell to scare her into sanctity. Indeed, she once longed to go to Hell so that there would no longer be a place where Jesus was not loved! She had no fear of diabolical forces. As a little girl, she dreamed that two demons were terrified at the sight of her.Modern audiences, on the other hand, seem to need Horror on some level. Not Torture Porn, of course, though we'll apparently take it, if it's all that's available. What we really want, however, is a worthy glimpse of Hell. Yes, we want to see Hell. We want a good reason not to sell our souls. - E. at "Sancta Sanctis"

On the question of why we read and write fiction, the works of ancient authors like Homer and Virgil have always struck me as interesting. Both to some extent, I think, believed in the myths they were recording. (Virgil less so than Homer, and neither in a literal sense, perhaps.) Yet both knew they were making up the details of these stories as they went along. And their readers in the ancient world both knew that the stories they were hearing or reading had been composed by human authors, and also believed that they in some sense reflected real stories about the gods and heroes. The key insight here, I think, is that worthwhile fiction describes something that is at root true -- indeed it shows reality in a more distilled fashion than actual observation -- even if the details are made up. When fiction ceases to be seen as describing something true, it ceases to be worth reading. - Darwin Catholic

It was indeed my generation that brought a strain of liberalism to its place of ruinous prominence, and which I thought had found its most publicly admirable apotheosis in the person of the philandering, perjuring, pot-smoking, draft-dodging William Jefferson Clinton. But I was wrong. Clinton was only the storm front. Obama is the whirlwind. It was my generation that made drug use (and contempt for the law) respectable. We made education universal and ideological. We made lust, not war; we made it "free" and children became an annoyance. We liberated women by encouraging them to leave the home, after first enslaving them to birth control and opening their wombs to the executioner's blade. We fulfilled the promise of free speech by rendering religion irrelevant in the "marketplace" of ideas. We loved peace almost to the point of pacifism (unless the violence was being incited by the Chicago 7), and the founding ideals of our country so much that we never tired of exercising our first amendment right to convey the degree of our hatred for it. There's an essay to be written about it all, but it's a very long one. In the meantime, I compensate by condemning in others what I most despise in my own past. You can thank me later for the diagnosis. - William Luse of "Apologia"