And the Chutzpah Award Goes To...

I tried to watch the Democratic debate but when I saw that the humorist Al Sharpton wasn't included I turned the channel. I never could think odious thoughts about Sharpton since a comedic sense covers a multitude of sins. I still can't decide who the Unadulterated Chutzpah award should go to:

1) Dennis Kucinich - while mayor of Cleveland, the city went bankrupt. I suppose he should offer the mutual fund disclaimer, "past performance doesn't guarantee future results."

2) Carol Mosley Braun out-grafted and out-corrupted her fellow Senators, no mean feat. If they could sell confidence like this everyone would be running for Prez.

3) Al Sharpton - no commentary really needed, but was once shown a video of himself apparently making a drug buy (cocaine). Unflustered, he asked where the rest of the tape was and suggested that the tape should be shown in its entirety, as if that would exonerate him. Owns a Ph.D. in alchemizing disaster into publicity.

Name That Blog!

Deux Sleep-Deprived Maternals
Lodging at the Terminus of the Sphere
Animated Author
Angled Structure
David's X Chromosome Provider
Universal and Relishing it
Highest Mothers
Freestylin' the Tigress
Eire Moose

Of Spam There is No End

Ellyn vonHuben asks about the "disposessed Nigerian aristocracy". My Nigerian scam spam has been reduced to nothing. Since they actually have to read replies, I try to do my part by sending something in Greek (via a cut & paste) or a fictional story. But I must be on the Nigerian Scammer's Sh-t List, because I haven't received any in ages.

I did receive an email today from a Richard Stevenson, with the title "aristotelian". Likely spam but I opened it anyway, wondering if I could guess the spam inside. I didn't although his name should've been a clue. It concerned enlargement products.

Metanoia

Lord of the Rings should get the Oscar for Best Documentary given its accurate portrayal of our spiritual geography. The film was a sequence of non-stop physical battles, which pretty much mirrors the interior life of Christians: non-stop tiring battles to follow Christ rather than self. (Btw, according to our old Dominican priest, the ring might symbolize comfort which he said Americans crave/worship.)

It seems to me that the most difficult tension in the spiritual life is realizing our weakness without falling into the sin of despair, or, contrarily, missing our weakness and falling into the sin of presumption. And what to do with weakness? Merely realizing it exists is not enough, Newman wrote, saying that self-denial is the test of religious earnestness and quoting St. James in saying that faith without works is dead.

Transformation is hard. NRO's Derbyshire mentions an English novelist who described one of her characters' attempt at self-transformation as 'walking south on a north-bound ship'. Socrates asked the disturbing question,

"When they huddle together in groups - in the theater, in court, in the camps - and express their displeasure or approval with tremendous noise, with clapping and shouting, and everything resounds with disapproval and applause - how do you think the young person will feel then? What an extraordinary education he will have had to receive in order to put up resistance and not be carried along with the current whatever it happens to be going. Ought we not to say: If he really liberates himself and thrives in healthy growth - that is owing to divine providence and is pure gift?"

Yet we are moral free agents as the Faith tells us. Newman wrote in one of his sermons:

Consider our present condition, as shown us in Scripture. Christ has not changed this, though He has died; it is as it was from the beginning, - I mean our actual state as men. We have Adam's nature in the same sense as if redemption had not come to the world. It has come to the world, but the world is not changed thereby as a whole, - that change is not a work done and over in Christ. We are changed one by one; the race of man is what ie ever was, guilty;- what it was before Christ came; with the same evil passions , the same slavish will. When this is borne in mind, how important the Jewish law becomes to us Christians! important in itself, over and above all references contained in it to that Gospel which it introduced. To this day it fulfils its orginal purpose of impressing upon man his great guilt and feebleness. Those legal sacrifices and purifications which are now all done away, are still evidence to us of a fact which the Gospel has not annulled, - our corruption. Let no one lightly pass over the Book of Leviticus, and say it only contains the ceremonial of a national law...

Newman writes that of even the smallest act of obedience, a curbing of the temper, an exhibition of patience - "such a one evinces more true faith than could be shown by the most fluent religious conversation, the most intimate knowledge of Scripture doctrine, or the most remarkable agitation and change of religious sentiments."

Four Green Fields (about the four provinces of Ireland, the fourth green field is Northern Ireland)
   song written by Tommy Makem

"What did I have," said the fine old woman.
"What did I have," this proud old woman did say.
"I had four green fields, each one was a jewel,
But strangers came and tried to take them from me.
I had fine strong sons, they fought to save my jewels;
They fought and died, and that was my grief," said she.

"Long time ago," said the fine old woman.
"Long time ago," this proud old woman did say.
"There was war and death, plundering and pillage.
My children starved, by mountain, valley, and sea.
And their wailing cries, they shook the very heavens.
My four green fields, ran red with their blood," said she.

"What have I now," said the fine old woman.
"What have I now," this proud old woman did say.
"I have four green fields. One of them's in bondage,
In strangers' hands that tried to take it from me.
But my sons have sons as brave as were their fathers.
My fourth green field shall bloom once again," said she.

Everything That Rushes Must Converge

Full brunt, this rain,
soaking skin and kin
giving reign to soppy land
and wise-acre trees whose trunks
    in their permanence
mock the trivialities we embrace--
sweat they, not with perspiration
but long-sluiced rains come early.

Creeks rush, find the low country
grass-smelt, bless-earthy
swabbed by a thousand ‘posting oak leaves;
from the peaks the tributaries seen
    the tributaries swear
and take the path of least resistance
but everything that rushes
must converge.

Oy Vey

Amy links to this Times article. NYT articles on religious issues usually manage to annoy me but I suppose annoyances are the irritations that produce pearls. In other words, no pain no gain. It was actually rather humorous to see the author so conflicted over Mr. Minns, as if only ill-educated rednecks could be against the Bishop Robinson nomination.

It induces a gag-reflex to see either side talk about being on the side of 'the future', rather than what is morally correct. I suppose St. Thomas More should've seen that his martyrdom was useless and got with the program.

For an Episcopalian bishop to be influenced by how future generations will view homosexual sex strikes a discordant note. Leaders ought to lead, and not base decisions on which way the wind is blowing.

Putting the Middle in Middle Class

Check your snob quotient, via Two Sleepy Mommies.

My result was 46% snob, 'snob limbo'.

(Btw, who ISN'T embarrassed buying the Nat'l Enquirer?)

Good triumphs over evil in the fourth installment of LOTR last nite.

Nice write-up from Christopher of Ratzinger fan club and Maine Catholic on the problem of physical evil.

Of Human Bloggage

Nancy Nall has an inspiring piece on why she likes blogs. I say inspiring because it makes me want to leap to this blogger edit page and write - write like the wind - after seeing something as well-done as this:

"The greatest seasoning of 2003 was, once again, garlic. Runner-up goes to cilantro. Cilantro's like the Larry Bird of seasoning - it's not just that it tastes great in its own right, but it makes the food around it give 110% as well."

Makes me hungry, not just for food but to turn a phrase, to get out on the ol' dance floor my own self. Not having anything to say really oughtn't be an impediment, ought it? Here goes nothin'.

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As a red-blooded American male, it was my duty to watch bowl games yesterday. Saw Purdue fall into perdition, an inspired comeback thwarted. Since they play in the Big Ten it was my sworn obligation to root for them. Similarly Michigan, who fell like dud fireworks, Chris Perry finding yards tougher to come by than coins from Bone's pockets. Tonight comes the "real" game, OSU in the Fiesta Bowl.

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Someone who promises to blog more in '04 is Lee Ann . "Expect trades, cuts, and some risky draft picks" she says regarding her library re-organization. I've had to make ruthless decisions in my own library, banning some books to the basement Siberia where the worst of the worse are actually in contact with the floor, which means they are vulnerable to once-a-year flooding. On death row, I'd throw them out but it would be too cruel. Give the books a fighting chance I say. Sort of a medieval trial-by-water.

Stephen Ray, author of a commentary on St. John's Gospel, said on an EWTN TV show that he owns fifteen thousand books. I'm not sure it's copacetic to throw around how many books you own. Is this literate equiv of lockerroom talk? It's not the number of books, it's what you do with them. But perhaps I have a case of book envy.

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Still amused by Jeff Culbreath's line, "Sometimes it's hard to be a Californian". Visions of song parodies dance in my head. Was it Maureen Dezell who said the Irish are prone to schadenfreude?

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Ham of Bone continues his vexating unemployment spree. He got sprung on May 31st and has lived happily ever after on unemployment and severance pay, although truth be told he's barely touched the latter. I say 'vexating' not because it is vexing for him, but for me. But he's gotten a great opportunity to be very close to his four young 'uns, all under the age of 7. During a recent phone call one of them vomited, which induced a hasty end to the call, but it was good that he was there for it.

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Get emails once in a while from my spiritual and intellectual betters, which has a momentary chilling effect on the blogging - a quik-freeze into utilitarianism (i.e. think I should be using this blog for more noble purposes instead of self-indulgencia). It's interesting to see where that line gets drawn. When I had six readers a day, I felt little obligation. Now that I'm getting more (though not in the same stratosphere with the Mighty Barrister or a Mark Shea) I feel a tinge. Apparently I'm not alone. Michael Dubruiel's blog use to be top-heavy with football posts and the like. It's fascinating to consider where the line between frivolity and seriousness should be drawn, not just in blogs but in life.

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Re-watched Gone With the Wind over the holiday and I kept trying to decide at what point giving someone the benefit of the doubt morphs into wilfully casting a blind eye. (I'm talking about Melanie's attitude towards Scarlett.)

Of Books - and Reform - there is no end!

Fr. Groeschel, in the tape I was listening to a couple weeks back, said that there were piercing Catholic voices in the years prior to the Protestant Reformation that went unheeded. He suggested that we are in a similar time now and recommended John Olin's The Catholic Reformation: Savonarola to Ignatius. Reading about Savonarola was fascinating, and so I went to Carrol's Glory of Christendom and read more. Still unslaked, I reserved from the library Chesterton's Twelve Types, available here, in which he devotes a chapter to Savonarola.

Biggest News Story of 2003

The local Baptist pastor's radio show polled listeners on what they thought the biggest news stories in '03 were. Tops were the 'Bama 10 Commandments controversy, the Anglican gay bishop and the Iraq War.

My two cents is that the gay bishop isn't the biggest. Bad theologies don't last; the mainline denominations lose people as they promote the unorthodox. Luther believed strongly in double predestination but you'd be pressed to find a single Lutheran who believes that now.

Besides, I think the bond between the bible and doctrine was snapped not by the gay Anglican bishop but by the separation of the bible from the Magisterium, most recently shown by the Jesus Seminar types who have hurt the faith of many by promoting the same 'ala carte' approach to the bible that cafeteria Catholics use with the Church. Some things may be true in the bible, some not, the miracle stories considered the latter. Nothing is more damaging than the those attempting to de-divinize Jesus with a discounting of the miraculous in the NT.

I think the biggest story is the war in Iraq, which potentially could have lead to a "clash of civilizations" between Muslim and Christianity. If only a tenth of 1% of all Muslims became suicide bombers, what a nightmare, since there are what, 1 billion Muslims? The Pope seems to have an almost apocalyptic sense concerning this. He may be wrong, but it's quite a story.

Land, Scah-let, Land!


You are Tara. You are well-grounded, like the North Georgian plantation.
The deep red clay of Tara flows in your blood.
You drink Jamieson whiskey and re-enact Civil War battles.

Which Character from 'Gone With The Wind' are you?
brought to you by Quizilla and summa mamas and via myself, since I made it up.
***

Mr. O'HARA: Do you mean to toll me Katie Scarlett O'Hara that Tara, that land doesn't mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth working for. Worth fighting for, worth dying for. Because it's the only thing that lasts.

SCARLETT: Oh, Paw, you talk like an Irishman.

Mr. O'HARA: It's proud I am that I'm Irish. And don't you be forgetting, Missy, that you're half-Irish too. And to anyone with a drop of Irish blood in them, why the land they live on is like their mother. Oh, but there, there, now, you're just a child. It'll come to you, this love of the land. There's no getting away from it if you're Irish.

The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, our Lady's greatest title. This feast is the octave of Christmas. In the modern Roman Calendar only Christmas and Easter enjoy the privilege of an octave. Before the Calendar was reformed this was the Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord.

Like the Churches of the East, Rome wished to honor the Virgin Mother of God during the days after Christmas. As a result the ("Anniversary of St. Mary") made its appearance on January 1 in the seventh century; it has accurately been called "the first Marian feast of the Roman liturgy." — The Church at Prayer

The old liturgy celebrated three feasts in one. The first was that which the old Roman sacramentaries called "the octave of the Lord", and indeed the greater part of the Mass was of the octave of Christmas with many extracts from the Masses of Christmas. Various portions of the Mass and Office celebrated the divine maternity of Mary. The third feast was that of the Circumcision which has been celebrated since the sixth century.

More here:

In the last part of the 5th Century, after the Council of Ephesus (431) the feast of the Mother of God, appeared in many places. Although its date varied, Rome celebrated the feast on January 1, eight days (octave) after Christmas. This feast celebrated Mary being the Mother of God. It was not until the middle of the 7th century that this feast appeared in the West.