The Four Mass'keteers

Beatific Vision

2011-06-29T10:20:00.003-04:00

“He was the face of Jesus to all of us,”

St. Charles Borromeo School principal Linda Lacot's comment about our friend Athos in an article yesterday in the Arlington Catholic Standard.

Along with “Well done, good and faithful servant" and possibly "dad", no greater, or more sincere, words could be spoken of Athos. May we all follow his beautiful example and be Jesus for everyone we meet.

He Walks in Beauty

2011-06-28T08:11:00.002-04:00

Now Athos will see beauty all around him, and join his tenor voice and his violin to the music of the stars and the communion of saints in everlasting praise of our Holy and Triune God.

Thanks be to God for the life of Jeffry Leonard Morris Hendrix, born December 14, 1954, died June 28, 2011.

Posted by God's Weaver, his wife Mochel Morris.

Shenandoah--Keith Jarrett

2011-06-28T05:56:00.002-04:00

Up a Creek with a Flying Car

2011-06-27T09:16:00.002-04:00

Breaking News: After years of closed minded mechanics and intolerant engineers labeling my car an "automobile"; the North Beach City council - soon up for re-election - have voted to have my CRV re-listed as a Flying Aquatic Supercar.

While there have been celebrations all night following the voting, I have yet to find anyone who cares to join me on my maiden voyage off Fairhaven Cliffs.

Roots of TG&B

2011-06-27T08:29:00.003-04:00

Athos had an epiphany when he heard this piece as a kid:

[Edit to add labels, or Ath will get mad.]

TG&B

2011-06-25T22:38:00.006-04:00

It was Athos that introduced me to the theology of beauty. When I find a beautiful piece of music (whatever genre) I always think of him. These days, a lot of the time it's rediscovering Thad Jones and Mel Lewis orchestra clips.

Edit for another Byzantine embed.

O Magnum Mysterium - Morten Lauridsen, sung by Pegasus

2011-06-25T17:51:00.000-04:00

Silly Wizard Live - Donald McGillavry

2011-06-25T17:47:00.000-04:00

Joshua Bell playing The Girl with the Flaxen Hair by Debussy.

2011-06-25T17:45:00.000-04:00

Mes Aïeux - Dégénération (English Subtitles)

2011-06-25T17:38:00.000-04:00

A Champion Fighting the Good Fight

2011-06-25T11:42:00.000-04:00

Drawn to Unity

2011-06-22T08:17:00.002-04:00

"It broke my heart that Christians were so divided and superficial. I stumbled onto a few things—Thomas Merton and then St. Francis of Assisi. I got into radical gospel living, mystical prayer, contemplative life, and they were all Catholic."
John Michael Talbot in the article Mass Appeal in Christianity Today

Porthos' Test Post

2011-06-22T00:39:00.006-04:00

Say that title many times really fast!

I'm not sure exactly how, but it's only through Aramis' intervention that I'm back on. (I've tried a few times over the past few years.) I've been . . . oh, never mind.

Hey, guys!

That's not much of a contribution, but since I've nothing of particular value to say, why not yield to tradition and do a Mahler clip? The selection's gotten a lot better since I was last active! (And, no, of course I don't remember how to do embedding.)

[Edit for Byzantine embed attempt]

Prayer warrior status re-energized

2011-06-17T13:32:00.002-04:00

Aramis was visited by the energizer bunny today who left a brand new generator (see link) to keep me ticking. It is hard to believe that it has been 11 years since my stroke and subsequent pace maker was installed. I have been blessed in so many ways over the years with many friends and loved ones sharing in life, live and Our Lord.

With my prayer warrior status re-charged and able to take my kneeling position once more along side all other prayer warriors, we continue ever vigilant in our prayers for Athos, the faithful, the ill and troubled or lost souls. ALL 4 1 and 1 4 ALL!

REAL - What is real? Is this a related question to Pilate's: "What is truth?"

2011-06-12T12:44:00.001-04:00

ACCORDING TO A RECENT SURVEY, close to fifty percent of Catholics in the United States do not know the Church teaching that the bread and wine used in Holy Communion do not merely symbolize but actually become the body and blood of Christ. What is the cause of such a misconception? Maybe it can be traced back to inadequate catechesis. But I think the problem is deeper than poor theology; I believe it represents a kind of crisis of “humanity.”

One has to wonder if the reason why so many fail to believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist is because they do not have a lived experience of “real presence.” Without an encounter with real presence in our daily lives, the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist becomes an idea, an abstraction. People have no frame of reference for seeing its relevance to their needs. For many, the misconstrual about the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist stems from what is lacking in the flesh and blood of their own lives.

On a human level, what constitutes “real presence”?

Commitment

One element of real presence is commitment. It begins very simply by giving the person in front of me my undivided attention. One of the virtues that defined Blessed John Paul II’s holiness is that when he looked at you, you felt as if you were the only person on the planet. The Eucharist is Christ’s commitment of his never-failing Presence: I am with you always until the end of the world.

In a TV sitcom, a character at a party is talking to a couple, and is clearly bored. But then she glances at the door and exclaims, “Oh, look! Better people!” And she dashes off. Yet, C.S. Lewis reminds us: “It is with awe that we should conduct all our dealings with one another. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”

Our Lord commits himself to us in the Eucharist because, as Pope Benedict XVI tells us, “the root of man’s wretchedness is loneliness – is the fact that my existence is not embraced by a love that makes it necessary.” Showing others charity for charity’s sake, anticipating others’ needs, giving without counting the cost – all this makes others know they are necessary.

Communication

A second key aspect of real presence is communication. One of the simplest but most powerful acts of charity we can perform nowadays is simply to listen to another person. How our isolation worsens when we have no one to talk to, no one to listen to us. It is not a coincidence that receiving the Eucharist at Mass is called “communicating.”

The goal of conversational communication and eucharistic communication is the same: the sharing of self with an other. Pope Benedict XVI says that conversation between people only comes into its own when they are no longer trying to express something, but trying to express themselves; then does dialogue become true communication. And the Catholic philosopher Louis Lavelle wrote that genuine communication takes place only when each “reveals to the other the deep, unknown desire he bears in the secret places of his heart.” This is the essence of the Eucharist.

Communion

And all real presence is marked by communion. What differentiates real presence from just being with others in a crowd is belonging: unity in charity, forgiveness, helping people, self-sacrifice, intimacy. We long for this oneness with others; united with one who loves me, I can face any fear… I am up to any challenge. In the Most Holy Eucharist, wrote John Paul II, “is the pledge of the fulfillment for which each man and woman, even unconsciously, yearns” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 59). This is why “Holy Communion” is the Eucharist’s other name.

Pope Benedict teaches us that “communion always and inseparably has both a vertical and a horizontal sense: it is communion with God and communion with our brothers and sisters” (Sacramentum Caritatis 76). Living eucharistically means I am devoted to being a friend to others – to loving others’ needs more than my own concerns.

And so, the Holy Father exhorts us: “What the world needs is God’s love; it needs to encounter Christ and to believe in him… Missionary outreach is… an essential part of the Eucharistic form of the Christian life… The wonder we experience at the gift God has made to us in Christ… commits us to becoming witnesses of his love” (Sacramentum Caritatis 84, 85). People will come to believe in the Real Presence in the Eucharist the more we offer them a human experience of real presence in our daily interactions with them.

Rev. Peter John Cameron, O.P.
Copyright Magnificat

Yielding - what a strange concept in our modern world... the implications truly run deep

2011-06-12T12:27:00.002-04:00

The Magnificat has a meditation today, as they do everyday, that one should comtemplate on for hours allowing the words to touch our hearts, our souls - to melt the ice at the center of our beings...

Yielding To The Holy Spirit

Tears are the humble, created water of my heart that corresponds to the powerful uncreated water of the Spirit’s life in me. Tears are perhaps the most rejuvenating and re-creating water of all, the evidence that I have allowed grace to melt the ice at the center of my being. As Leon Bloy says strikingly, where there are tears, there is the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit of God is always, as at the beginning, “hovering over the waters”. What areas of my life are still rigid, refusing to yield resistance and be shaped by God’s fingers? “Flecte quod est rigidum,” we pray in the Veni, sancte Spiritus. In what parts of my person do I still allow the old inflexible grouch of sin to have his way? Each one of us, according to our state in life, has different strategies for allowing the old Adam and Eve to survive in us. We may have that rascal, the decrepit old self, locked away safely, but surreptitiously we still pass him food through the slot in the dungeon door, do we not?

The Glory of God is always found in movements of love, in communication of life, never in static routine, cramped piety, thoughtless repetition of official acts, conventional observance, external religious acts that could easily become the letter that kills, the continuing tyranny of the old, sinful self. The Spirit, by contrast, is wind, fire, light and water, Glory: the unexpected, the transforming, the self-communicating, the self-outpouring Power that shapes by embracing and not letting go. The way of the disciple is necessarily a way of discipline, because discipleship is the living school in which we learn how to be like Christ by intimate association with Him.

~ Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis~

E. Leiva-Merikakis, now known as Brother Simeon, is a Cistercian monk of Saint Joseph’s Abbey, Spencer, MA. He is the author of Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word, a three volume commentary on Saint Matthew’s Gospel.

Episcopal Parish Community in Maryland to Join Catholic Church

2011-06-06T09:07:00.003-04:00

From the Archdiocese of Washington:

After a period of deep discernment, the rector and parishioners of St. Luke’s Episcopal parish in Bladensburg, Maryland have decided to seek entry into the Roman Catholic Church through a new structure approved by Pope Benedict XVI called an ordinariate. Saint Luke’s is the first church in the Washington metropolitan area to take this step.read more here

Manalive - O'Brien et al

2011-06-01T05:08:00.003-04:00

Kevin O'Brien invites his viewer-readers to absorb a portion of the dramatization of G. K. Chesterton's play, Manalive, here. How many professors do you wish this might happen to, God bless 'em? Enjoy this nine minute performance by O'Brien and Mark Shea.

Our Lady's Discipleship

2011-05-31T04:38:00.001-04:00

The Holy Father's Message of Hope for Today

The Holy Father recently spoke about the dark times through which he lived as a youth, speaking of how "Hitler had subjected one country after another, Poland, Denmark, the Benelux States and France, and in April of 1941 -- precisely in this season 70 years ago -- he had occupied Yugoslavia and Greece."

"It seemed that the Continent was in the hands of this power that, at the same time, cast doubt on the future of Christianity," the Pontiff said.

He had joined the "Sodality of Our Lady" as a young man and, although the dissolution of the seminaries hindered it, this bond continued, since "Catholicity cannot exist without a Marian expression."

"To be Catholics means to be Marian ... that in the Mother and by the Mother we find the Lord," he said.

We have great hope in following Our Lady's example of discipleship. To read the full text of his message go here.

There is something more here

2011-05-29T13:34:00.002-04:00

- Father Gerald Vann, O.P.

It is not the magnitude, or otherwise, of the work we have to do that should concern us, but the magnitude of the love with which we do it. It is a terrible mistake to suppose that if we simply carry out the commandments externally we have nothing to worry about. That can be no more than lip-service; it can be simply self-culture, the service of the self; and it can be a form of self-complacency and the kind of practical pelagianism which thinks it can get on very well without worrying too much about its radical sinfulness and need of God. Of course we have to try to keep the commandments; but the essential is to try to keep them in such a way that we learn to see more and more clearly our true Center, to keep our eyes more and more on God and less and less on ourselves, to say "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me." There are, in fact, two opposite heresies here which we have to avoid: the one says, If I am right it doesn't matter what I do. We have to try to live in God, to be right; but we learn to be right only through slowly and painfully trying to do right; and on the other hand if we were really living in God then inevitably we should, as a matter of fact, do right, for we should hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Like so many of the great meditations one finds in The Magnificat this quote opens us up to many reflections. I just want to raise up this thought: "our true Center" is not in us as much as it abides in God. It is as St Paul said, "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me." Suddenly "I" refers to something more than myself.

... the essential is to try to keep them (the commandments) in such a way that we learn to see more and more clearly our true Center, to keep our eyes more and more on God and less and less on ourselves, to say "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me." We have to try to live in God, to be right; if we were really living in God we should hunger and thirst after righteousness.

So what are we really hungering and thirsting for today, this moment?

Memorial Day 2011 & Every Year

2011-05-28T10:35:00.002-04:00

My mom is pictured in today's paper straightening out the flag at her brother's grave. As we come to another Memorial Day I can't help but reflect on the following post by my friend and mentor Gil Bailie as he reflected on this Thomas Merton poem: FOR MY BROTHER: REPORTED MISSING IN ACTION, 1943

Sweet brother, if I do not sleep
My eyes are flowers for your tomb;
And if I cannot eat my bread,
My fasts shall live like willows where you died.
If in the heat I find no water for my thirsts,
My thirst shall turn to springs for you, poor traveler.

Where, in what desolate and smokey country,
Lies your poor body, lost and dead?
And in what landscape of disaster
Has your unhappy spirit lost its road?

Come, in my labor find a resting place
And in my sorrows lay your head,
Or rather take my life and blood
And buy yourself a better bed -
Or take my breath and take my death
And buy yourself a better rest.

When all the men of war are shot
And flags have fallen into dust,
Your cross and mine shall tell men still
Christ died on each, for both of us.

For in the wreckage of your April Christ lies slain,
And Christ weeps in the ruins of my spring:
The money of Whose tears shall fall
Into your weak and friendless hand
And buy you back to your own land:

The silence of Whose tears shall fall
Like bells upon your alien tomb.
Hear them and come: they call you home.

Fr David Jones - Hermit

2011-05-28T08:17:00.002-04:00

A thank you to A Reluctant Sinner for this portrait of a modern hermit living in Wales.

Newman - Conversion and Truth

2011-05-27T18:38:00.002-04:00

If you want to hear a choice talk on Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman go here.

Apples? Oranges? Suppression?

2011-05-26T05:00:00.004-04:00

Can anyone help me understand the connection between the formal suppression of the Cistercians of Santa Croce and Our Lady of the Holy Cross Abbey, OCSO, Berryville, Virginia, my favorite sight of retreats for over thirty years? IS there a connection between the two varieties of Cistercians?

My initial reaction is not, "There has to be some kind of mistake here;" I am too much the faithful son of the Magisterium. Rather, my response is, "Are we talking about two different branches of what call themselves 'Cistercian' in our Catholic universe?"

Clarification, gentle reader, if you please. Hearty thanks!

Sunday Evening Reflections on Hell

2011-05-22T15:52:00.004-04:00

I can still recall - with an importance borne out by the seriousness with which the grown-ups seemed to consider the topic - a Sunday evening when my evangelical pastor father's church held a Revival service. We had a guest preacher and got to dine him (No wining him - we were teetotalers!) before the church service. My sister and I speculated who would "come forward" to the altar rail to either "get saved" (in some cases, again) or renew their "personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ." In any case, it was serious, and we were inculcated from a very early age on the FACTs of the Last Four Things.

Adults can't manufacture those values; there is no winking to the audience, I am thankful to say. My father and my mother were in deadly earnest when it came to them, and my sister, Linda, and I caught those values.

So, it wasn't surprising to me to find myself after the revival preacher's sermon to find myself coming forward to the altar rail to "accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior." It wasn't that I hadn't done so before in private, so to speak; but in our neck of the woods, it you didn't trudge up where everybody could watch you do it, it just didn't count to your credit. See?

Well, I still believe in those Four Last Things, but I also know that I need the fullness of the Church that Jesus our Lord founded on Saint Peter ("Rocky") in Matthew 16, including all the sacramental grace that our Lord provides us creatures made in His image, imago dei. (For more read A Little Guide for Your Last Days.)

In fact, Dale Alquist puts succinctly the words and thoughts of fellow convert, G. K. Chesterton. (I would say fellow author, but the audacity sticks in my craw with an accompanying choking sensation.) A quick and easy essay just doesn't get much better than this one all of a Sunday evening. Read, read, pilgrim, and never forget GKC's insights in A Happy Little Reflection on Hell. And, thank you, too, Dale Ahlquist.

Don't you wish more people thought about the Four Last Things. Like those who garner power with a smug grin of happy and healthy human existence; at least, for now?

Ka ... Beauty

2011-05-21T05:40:00.001-04:00

On this auspicious day, when, if the news we hear from some quarters is correct, the "world" (κόσμος) will come to an end, may I make the recommendation that we all grab a cool drink and enjoy some truth, goodness, and beauty. If you cannot find any near by, start with Daniel Mitsui's THE LION & THE CARDINAL. Then you are on your own, gentle reader ...

A Beastie Attack and Musical Praying

2011-05-18T05:18:00.004-04:00

'Had a rough day yesterday - I won't go into the gory details of the attack, but suffice it to say, my beastie had a field day with my body and I sat tight until my appointment for a shot at the Infusion Center to help boost my white blood cell count.

I found myself bouncing between the Giro d'Italia and EWTN mid-morning - both of which were, of course, fabulous. I saw my new friend and acquaintance, Marcus Grodi, interviewing an oldish looking fellow from Canada, Terry Hatty, former vocalist with The Guess Who, and stayed to watch.

His story about making his "journey home" isn't particularly theological or, probably, pertinent to many of our stories, but I found him to be a true victory; I know so many of his ilk who follow the progressivist propaganda line and flounder off into sad endings. Terry, on the other hand, has managed to keep his music alive and revert to Mother Church.

Go here if you want to see the interview with an aging rock and roll singer, and hear a sampling of his musical prayers. Great pipes for a fellow of his age!

Who is your interpreter?

2011-05-13T15:41:00.008-04:00

May 12, 2011 - Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

Reading 1

Acts 8:26-40

Do yourself a favor and click on the above heading and read about Philip. Or go to this link and read the Road to Emmaus story.

In Mass yesterday it struck me just how important it is to know who your interpreter is. We all have one but most of the times we have many acting in this role of interpreter for us. Who is your interpreter right now?

One interpreter who I hold up is Father Barron. Give a listen to his interpretation of "All Along the Watchtower" by Bob Dillon. He understands that since the cross how we interpret things has been altered.

As Jesus tells the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 12:38-42: There is something more here. I have had to admit that in looking at what life hands me there is something more here than what I am first inclined to see. And this way of going "deeper" is what Jesus is challenging us to experience. He is asking us to make the connection between the interpreter(s) of our life and of course, the Author. Who is helping you read "the something more" of your life story?

The human being is religious by nature

2011-05-11T16:38:00.001-04:00

Vatican City, May 11, 2011 / 11:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Religion is intrinsic to man, Pope Benedict XVI noted at his weekly General Audience on May 11.

“The human being is religious by nature. The image of the Creator is engraved on human beings, who feel the need to find a light to answer the questions regarding the profound meaning of reality.”

It is “an answer that we cannot find in ourselves, in progress, or in empirical science,” the Pope told pilgrims.

Hence, he continued, we find a sense of disappointment and futility among today’s radical secularists.

“Looking at recent history, the predictions of those who, from the age of Enlightenment, foretold the disappearance of religions and exalted absolute reason, separated from faith, have failed.”

This was the second in the Pope’s new series of Wednesday audiences focusing on prayer. For the past two years he had been examining the lives of the saints. That series concluded prior to Lent.

The Pope explained the source of man’s religious instincts. “(H)umanity bears within it a thirst for the infinite, a yearning for eternity, a search for beauty, a desire for love, a need for light and truth, which impel us toward the Absolute. We carry within us the desire for God. In some way, we know that we can turn to God, that we can pray to Him.

“Saint Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians of history, defined prayer as ‘the expression of humanity’s desire for God’.”

Hence the impulse to pray. “In prayer, human beings experience themselves as creatures in need of help, incapable of attaining the fulfillment of their existence or their hopes alone. In the experience of prayer we orient our very souls to that Mystery from which we look for the fulfillment of our deepest desires and help to overcome the poverty of our lives.

“In looking to the Other, in directing ourselves ‘beyond’, is found the essence of prayer, the experience of a reality that goes beyond the apparent and the contingent,” the pontiff added.

And despite living in an age that seems to be “marked by an apparent eclipse of God” the Pope observed there are also clear “signs of a renewed religious sense.” He concluded by urging those present to learn how to pray more often.

“We must learn to spend more time in front of God, before the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ; we must learn to recognize in silence, within our very selves, his voice that calls us and leads us to the depth of our existence, to the fount of life and the source of salvation, so that we might overcome the limit of our lives and open ourselves to the measure of God, the relationship with He who is Infinite Love.”

BOOKs

2011-05-10T06:07:00.001-04:00

Yet another prototypical optical reading device is about to hit the market. And, don't you know, we do (of course) need one. I will let you read about it from the sales manifesto below:

Device to Replace Electronic Media

Introducing the new Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge device, trade named BOOK. BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on. It's so easy to use, even a child can operate it. Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere - even sitting in an armchair by the fire - yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc.

Here's how it works: BOOK is constructed of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. The pages are locked together with a custom-fit device called a binder which keeps the sheets in their correct sequence. Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows manufacturers to use both sides of the sheet, doubling the information density and cutting costs. Experts are divided on the prospects for further increases in information density; for now, BOOKs with more information simply use more pages. Each sheet is scanned optically, registering information directly into your brain. A flick of the finger takes you to the next sheet.

BOOK may be taken up at any time and used merely by opening it. BOOK never crashes or requires rebooting, though like other display devices, it can become unusable if exposed to high ambient temperatures. The "browse" feature allows you to move instantly to any sheet, and move forward or backward as you wish. Many come with an "index" feature, which pinpoints the exact location of any selected information for instant retrieval.

BOOK can be stored for an almost unlimited amount of time without connecting any outside power source. Many BOOK units may be stored together as they cause no interference with one another, even when placed in close proximity. An optional "BOOKmark" accessory allows you to open BOOK to the exact place you left it in a previous session - even if the BOOK has been closed.

BOOKmarks fit universal design standards; thus, a single BOOKmark can be used in BOOKs by various manufacturers. Conversely, numerous BOOK markers can be used in a single BOOK if the user wants to store numerous views at once. The number is limited only by the number of pages in the BOOK.

You can also make personal notes next to BOOK text entries with an optional programming tool, the Portable Erasable Nib Cryptic Intercommunication Language Stylus (PENCILS). Portable, durable, and affordable,

BOOK is being hailed as a precursor of a new entertainment wave. Also, BOOK's appeal seems so certain that thousands of content creators have committed to the platform and investors are reportedly flocking. Look for a flood of new titles soon. Try it! You'll like it!

***

Okay, okay. Enough tongue-in-cheek. If you happen to need the tactile experience of not merely seeing a mock-page turn as one does on iPad; if you happen to love the smell of old (but not mildewy ) books; if you can't stand to see a shelf standing without being filled with books, BOOK is obviously the "device" of choice for you! I strongly suggest Alibris if you know the author and/or title for which you are looking, though Amazon will do in a pinch.

I completed my Ronald Arbuthnott Knox collection, picking and choosing very carefully (there are bargains to be found; another joy of BOOK buying). Go, thou; and choose wisely.

Do We Model the One Who Walks Along with Us?

2011-05-07T21:27:00.001-04:00

Amazing reflection by von Balthasar. We who follow Girard tend to also find inspiration from von Balthasar. In this short paragraph you find the model, the double-bind and scandal.

The One Who Walks Along with Us

One of the most difficult things for a believer to do is to help a doubter. Like Moses, when he spoke to the people, we must cover our face so as to dim the radiance of the evidence within us and so, according to Paul's words, mourn with those who mourn, question with those who question, and doubt with those who doubt; for these will overcome their distrust of splendor only in this muted light. At the same time, however, we must let through enough brightness so that the faint-hearted will gather courage and derive strength from the example of faith. In other words, we must be the way and at the same time the goal, which is possible only because Christ became both things for us simultaneously. For his vitality consists in this: that he always stands at the level of the person he is educating and yet always is to be found as well at [as!] the final goal of his education. He walks along with the disciples toward Emmaus; but as they walk they discover that he is already reposing in the assurance of the goal. He is the Way, yet also the Truth, and, for that very reason, the Life.

FATHER HANS URS VON BALTHASAR,

Father von Balthazar (+ 1988) was an eminent Swiss Catholic theologian who wrote prodigiously.

— Magnificat, Vol 13, No. 3, May 2011, Pp. 118-119.

Is It Time For the Elders?

2011-05-07T17:09:00.005-04:00

Her lyrics have always been raw often cutting to the core. It may not be religious and often the path is not one you would want to travel but through the lyrics she revealed a passion - yes, a passion of the lost, searching. Sadly today many have abandoned all passion. Maybe Paul Simon's new CD that Athos posted on below and Stevie's new "In Your Dreams" CD will awaken a wholehearted passion in a half-hearted age.

Cheaper than free
Stevie Nicks and Dave Stewart

What's cheaper than free? You and me
What's better then alone? Going home
What does money not buy? You and I
What's not to feel? When love is real

What's faster then a fast car? A beating heart
What's deeper then a deep well? The love into which I fell
More important then freedom? Being needed
More exciting then our fashion? High passion

What's brighter then a smile? a child, You child
What's brighter then a smile? a child, You child
A child, You child

What's warmer then a sun drenched land? Your hand
Your hand... Your hand

Fools and Pilgrims

2011-05-05T18:03:00.000-04:00

Nothing since Graceland comes near to excellence until now. Go thee, purchase his new album So Beautiful or So What. For sheer heart-rending poignancy, The Rewrite. Best call-and-response preachin' - Getting Ready for Christmas. Hands down best answer to his (long time ago now) nihilistic song, The Boxer, Questions for the Angels.

Go! Get thee hence, hear, and respond in faith to this prophetic aging voice. Hey! Aren't they the best kind, after all?

John Paul II is Beatified

2011-05-03T04:32:00.001-04:00

This isn't exactly hot news, of course. But I admire Rome Reports a great deal. It appears in my area on EWTN on Sunday mornings, and is well worth some DVR memory.

Love needs the need of another

2011-04-30T17:46:00.000-04:00

The only way I can truly help another is first come to accept my need for the Other. Otherwise my actions are just an act of projection. Love begins with poverty.

When God leads a man to a state of poverty, is this not always to bring about an increase of love? ... Prayer does more than make us aware of our limitations: it transforms that part of our life that weighs us down and crushes us, and changes the nature of this poverty...Prayer, after bringing us to accept our limitations and making us aware of our real need, it transforms that need, that deficiency, that poverty into a dependence upon someone else. Love will not rest until it achieves its goal: to share everyting in order to bring about the unity toward which it tends...Love needs the need of another. It nourishes itself and continues to exist on the awareness of this need within itself. God likewise needs our need. Thus, the poverty which before crushed us now becomes, through prayer, a source of wealth, by which we gain possession of the heart of God. To refuse to recognize one's own poverty, is not to recognize God; it means refusing to allow him to be God for us. For me, God is God only when I accept the fact that I need him...thus our poverty becomes a source of wealth, provided that we are conscious every day that I am in the night, but I am no longer in prison, I am no longer alone. ~ Father Bernard Bro, O.P.

Father Bro is a French Dominican priest, a distinguished theologian, and the author of many books.

From Magnificat

'Opportunities' in Catholic Education

2011-04-29T05:38:00.002-04:00

Each morning, right after fulfilling my chivalric duties of devotion, I spend a minimum of fifteen minutes reading. Usually the author who receives my undivided attention at this time is Monsignor Ronald A. Knox (Eton, Oxford). During World War II and the German bombings of industrial and municipal centers, Monsignor Knox had the opportunity to retire to the countryside of England to work on his translation of the Bible. Sounds idyllic, doesn't it? So it is amazing how the Holy Spirit sees things, most often, differently.

Just as Knox was settling into the lovely manor setting, it was decided that the manor would also be an extraordinary setting for Catholic school girls to continue their studies, far removed from the Blitz .

Indeed, now Knox would have the delightful daily opportunity to say Mass, hear weekly confessions, and generally serve as chaplain to gaggles of prepubescent schoolgirls while he attempted his mandated work of translation. Ah, yes. How plans change!

I thought of this as I read Monsignor Charles Pope's post, A Catholic University and Recovered Catholic Identity - A Study of Change and Possibility of Reform (a fine article, but one to which I will not allude here except as a jumping-off place).

When I was confirmed into the Catholic Church ten years ago this summer, I went looking for work and was honored to be offered a teaching position at a Catholic school in northern Virginia (St. Charles Borromeo School, pictured above as it looked when I arrived there). I remained there, a fixture in the sixth grade for nearly all of those ten years (the students, both male and female, probably looked at me as a "fixture" of sorts, also).

While working diligently to fulfill the requirements mandated by the diocesan Office of Catholic Schools, I found some of the most amazing times of learning came in planned, yet never choreographed, moments. For example, each morning students came in, hung up coats, etc., prepared for the day, sat and read the Gospel for Mass for the day, and then answered a related question on the board in their "Bellwork Journal."

Using these questions, I sought to help students move into "higher cognitive thinking" (Bloom) and also make them dig more deeply into the meaning of faith, morals, and other vital teachings of the Church. We would discuss the question and their answers before our Morning Offering and intentions.

I am grateful for the years that our Lord allowed me to teach in a Catholic school classroom. Never neglect to cherish and support your parish school (if you have one) and/or your diocesan Catholic schools. It is a unique place of growing, learning, catechesis, morality in action, and other "opportunities" for the Holy Spirit to help the young to come into a closer, richer relationship with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ... and their "neighbor as themselves" (Mark 12, 30-31).

Tornado Victims - Prayers

2011-04-28T04:59:00.001-04:00

Violent storms continue to march across the United States. I recall vividly the frantic yet familiar drill of heading to the basement as a boy in Indiana, the most damaging and murderous being the Palm Sunday Tornadoes of 1965.

Please keep in prayer the victims and their families of this week's spate of killer weather.

It Never Left

2011-04-27T05:43:00.001-04:00

It is tempting to think we are past this sort of thing. But we aren't. We have "one holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church" comprised of well over a billion people (and growing) that proclaims the truth and reality of the doctrine of Original Sin. So, when we take one last sip of coffee, fold the paper, turn the lock, and head off to work, we don't worry about the statuary at the parish. Or our priest(s). Or how well the ushers might handle the breaking-in of disruptors during either a major feast celebration or even a Saturday evening "There's-that-guy-in-his-bermuda-shorts" Vigil Mass.

What we forget in our daily functional atheism are the anthropological realities that our Lord's Church defines so well in the Catechism; specifically, the symptomology of paganism of all those outside the sphere and protection of our Lord's sacramental "containment system" (if you will allow such a crass way of describing it).

Read through Paganism, parts 1-3. Girard and Satinover give the Church's Magisterium two excellent tools for understanding what we still face; indeed, at a growing rate.

Guerilla Good News

2011-04-26T05:56:00.004-04:00

Deacon Greg Kandra offers this poignant video of a 'flash mob' proclaiming the Good News ... in Beirut. Go here and follow his instructions (once the video starts, go through the arrow, then click the 'CC' for subtitles). Too cool, and, uh, yes, alleluia!

Easter

2011-04-24T05:12:00.001-04:00

Our Holy Father proclaimed the Good News at the Easter Vigil in this homily. Had I been able to attend, I would have heard again with joy what Rocco Palmo says is the church's greatest song (if you generally don't assist at the Easter Vigil, take the time to drench yourself in its truth, goodness, and beauty). For friends who like St Thomas need a bit more evidence to believe, have them read Mark Shea's piece here.

Enjoy with gratitude this Day of days, join in splendor our Savior's praise:

Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God’s throne!
Jesus Christ, our King is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory!
The risen Savior shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God’s people!

Cantalamessa - Great High Priest

2011-04-23T04:26:00.001-04:00

Adoration of the Mystic Lamb - Jan Van Eyck

Father Cantalamessa expounds on violence and redemption in his Good Friday Homily, presided over by Benedict XVI, in We Have a Great High Priest.

This Side of Eden - Trailer

2011-04-22T11:32:00.000-04:00

A great and simple portrait of celebrating Holy Week and the Easter Triduum.

Good Friday

2011-04-22T04:38:00.004-04:00

Crucifixion (1500-08) - Grünewald

I began watching Gibson's Passion of the Christ last night. I woke with the lyrics and music of an old Paul Simon song going through my head, The Cross is in the Ballpark (The Obvious Child). May you have a blessed, peaceful, and holy Good Friday. As part of your meditations today, look through A Reluctant Sinner's entry for today here. Listen to the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. John at Daniel Mitsui's Lion and the Cardinal here.

Barron - How the Pope Reads Scripture

2011-04-20T05:39:00.004-04:00

In reading Jesus of Nazareth (volume 2), Father Robert Barron comments on Pope Benedict XVI's "theological hermeneutic," which, while not eschewing the historical critical method of studying Scripture, looks at the Bible more deeply, revealing God's intent in and for human history. Here.

Shedding blood through love

2011-04-17T13:58:00.000-04:00

The following quote is from The Magnificat in the editorial comments of Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P.

“The priest is a man anointed by tradition to shed blood, not as the soldier, through courage, not as the magistrate, through justice, but as Jesus Christ, through love. The priest is a man of sacrifice; by it, each day, reconciling heaven and earth, and by it, each day, announcing to every soul the primordial truths of life, of death, and of resurrection.” - Father Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, O.P.

Wise Men From the East

2011-04-17T04:46:00.003-04:00

While the present "leaders" of the West do their utmost to ignore and castigate its truth and reality, Chinese thinkers recognize it as true. Now, mind; some of us already knew and rejoiced in it. Have a blessed and peaceful Passion Sunday, gentle reader.

Scimitar Burns Bible, and ...

2011-04-16T04:22:00.005-04:00

To understand this, gentle reader, one needs to engage in studying the model/rival relationship in mimetic theory; what René Girard calls the "problem of the doubles." The rival - in this case, the Scimitar - can barely get the model - in this case, the Christian faith in general and Catholics in particular - even to notice their slight. This in itself it infuriating to the rival. Alas.

Christians don't always follow the high road, but the Holy Spirit makes it an inchoate part of our awareness. What, do you ask, is that? For that, go here.

Dolan - Don't Let Our Sins

2011-04-14T04:59:00.003-04:00

Archbishop Timothy Dolan slams one out of the park:

Let’s see now: we’ve got a Sunday night series on one of the most corrupt and tawdry families in Church history, the Borgias, with popes, cardinals, bishops, and priests, all part of this big, happy family; we’ve heard non-stop for a decade about abusive priests, (albeit a small minority) and lax bishops who reassigned them; we’ve got front page stories of priests who embezzled money from their parishes; and I saw one not long ago about a priest arrested for DUI.

Yes, all this is scandalous, sinful, sickening, and criminal.

But, it is not new.

Popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, deacons, nuns, brothers are human.

That means, we are sinners.

Granted, when one of us falls, it hurts and shocks more. People rightly expect their spiritual leaders to practice what we preach. When we don’t, we’re hypocrites. And we know what Jesus thought about hypocrites.

But, this is not new.

If you think it worse today than in the past, I ask you to consider the solemn days we will observe next week, Holy Week: Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

Keep reading here.

Coming Home

2011-04-13T04:39:00.003-04:00

Are you a cradle Catholic who left and never came back? A non-Catholic with a hankering to get to know more about the Catholic Church? Check out a great resource: CatholicsComeHome. If you want an Hors d'œuvre, watch:

Praying for 'This Generation'

2011-04-12T08:04:00.001-04:00

When our Lord describes his generation, what simile does He use? He says in Luke 7,32:

"To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, `We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.'"

And that was only His generation. Or, was it only His generation? Elsewhere in Matthew 12, 39b-45, He describes the plight of a man who believes he can, on his own, whisk clean his "house" of evil spirits:

"An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nin'eveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here ... "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, but he finds none. Then he says, `I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

Then he goes and brings with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. So shall it be also with this evil generation."

Gil Bailie posits that what our Lord means by "this generation" is "business as usual" in terms of how culture is always generated among fallen human beings, the taxonomy of which is most clearly spelled out by René Girard's mimetic theory, a worthy tool in the hands of the Church's Magisterium. (For example, cf. especially the work and homiletics of Father Raniero Cantalamessa, ofmcap.)

"This generation" is what Satan offers our Lord during His temptations in the wilderness (Mtt 4,8ff).

The staggering thing is to be living and moving and having our being as people who affirm Jesus Christ and His Catholic Church among leaders of nations, industry, and global policy who are plainly and willfully citizens of "this generation." They cannot begin to accept the beliefs of the Church's deposit of faith, the Magisterium, and lordship of Jesus Christ. And so, they are like the cleaner of the evil spirit; like children in the marketplace - all cleaned up and so blindly naive to the realities of Satan in their lives, their thinking, their politics and policies.

Good reason to pray during this season of Lent. Very good reason. And very good reason to join in-arms in Marian chivalry in this godless age in need of the hope and glory our Lord offers.

Rotation Lives

2011-04-12T05:13:00.001-04:00

Not saying it is this easy, but the Jive Aces depict theological hope in a nice Walker Percy Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 kind of way:

Story of a Soul - Pope Says So

2011-04-11T13:54:00.001-04:00

St.Thérèse costumed as St. Joan of Arc

Some years back, I was walking among items at the yard sale of our school's Oktoberfest. I found three (of the four) Liturgy of the Hours prayer books and a book I felt strangely drawn to: the Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. I bought them all for a pittance and took them home.

While I've delved into the Hours, generally via the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I never opened the Little Flower's autobiography. Until now.

Benedict XVI just encouraged us, you see, to read her Story of a Soul. Talk about timely. And, just in case I had any doubts about the importance of doing so, I notice that the translator of my copy happens to be ... Monsignor Ronald Knox. Hmm. Time to get started.

UPDATE: Listen or read here.

Hope and Eternity

2011-04-11T04:42:00.000-04:00

If - IF - one forgets everything else about the Christian faith, never, gentle reader, forget what our Holy Father, Benedict XVI, drives home here. The crusty old Baptist preacher, Carlyle Marney, whom I had the privilege of hearing preach at the Duke Chapel, once said, "If it don't preach in the cancer ward, it ain't the gospel."

For the entirety of Benedict's message, go here.

Knox - Belonging and Salvation

2011-04-08T15:21:00.002-04:00

If you believe in the holy Catholic Church, then it follows that you believe in all the rest of the Credo; it would be silly to believe in the Church and not believe in what the Church tells you. So we'll get right down to it ... we'll stick to the idea of the Church in general, and remind ourselves what the Church means, and how jolly it is to have a Church to belong to ...

Part of the fun of being a Christian is belonging to a Church. It gives you a sort of cozy feeling ... For Christian people, and for us Catholics especially, this feeling of comradeship forms part of the stuff of our religion. It gives us a curious lightening of the heart, difficult rather to explain, when we find out suddenly that the policeman who stands on duty at the street corner or the girl who does our hair ... is a Catholic too ... there is a bond, after all, between you and them ... But, of course, it isn't just an association ... The Church is a supernatural association, which is meant to get us to Heaven. It isn't merely something which unites us together, you and me, it is the thing which unites us to Jesus Christ. And that, I think you can say, is the main difference between Protestant and the Catholic idea of salvation.

The Protestant hopes to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ; the Catholic hopes to be saved by living and dying as a member of the Church which Jesus Christ founded. You can put it quite simply in this way. If you think of the human race as sailors, travelling over a sea, which is this sinful world, and trying to reach a harbour, which is Heaven - the Protestant thinks of getting to heaven as something like being washed up to shore as a shipwrecked man, clinging to an empty barrel. But the Catholic thinks of salvation as sailing into port on a ship, and that ship is the Church of Jesus Christ.

- Ronald A. Knox

Power Corrupts. Again

2011-04-07T14:09:00.003-04:00

If you hadn't noticed the low level of public discourse coming from Republican New Hampshire lawmakers, the Catholic League, fortunately, has.

What is more disturbing is that what goes around comes around.

Deo Gratias

2011-04-06T15:55:00.003-04:00

Over the weekend, my siblings and their spouses - minus a brother who died of a massive heart attack three years ago - came for a wonderful if brief visit. What a joy to see and spend precious time with family! Their sharing of faith, hope, and love is a gift that I will cherish for a long, long time. May you, gentle reader, be so blessed to have loved ones who love our Lord and witness to their faith so deeply and so well.

want to be totally possessed by the Author of such wonders

2011-04-04T18:03:00.001-04:00

My hat goes off to Rev. Peter John Cameron, O.P. Another great meditation from the Magnificat.

WE LIVE OUR LENT LIKE THE APOSTLES who beg Jesus, “Increase our faith” (Lk 17: 5). Christ makes clear that the amount of their faith does not matter. For with “faith the size of a mustard seed” they can carry out the most astonishing miracles. What the Lord reveals is that the “quantity” of our faith is not as important as actually living by faith.

The way faith works

So what does the request “increase our faith” really signify? It means that the apostles, through their encounter with Jesus Christ, have come to recognize there is something lacking in their lives for which Jesus is the Answer. This is the way faith works. Faith does not start inside us; it starts outside us. It starts from something that gets our attention and engages our reason, our heart, our freedom. These Twelve have been with the Lord as he cured the sick (Lk 7: 1-10), raised the dead (Lk 7: 11-17; Lk 8: 49-56), forgave sins (Lk 7: 36-50), calmed storms on the sea (Lk 8: 22-25), cast out demons (Lk 8: 26-39; Lk 9: 37-43), multiplied loaves for the multitudes (Lk 9: 10-17), and taught in powerful parables. “The essence of faith,” writes Pope Benedict XVI, “is not that I meet with something that has been thought up, but that here something meets me that is greater than anything we can think of for ourselves.”

Witnessing the countless wondrous works of Jesus Christ brings the apostles to a realization of their own powerlessness. They see in Jesus something that they do not possess in themselves. And they want to possess it. Even more, they want to be totally possessed by the Author of such wonders. Along with the apostles, we come to see that we do not simply have needs; we are need. To be human is to be boundless, expectant awaiting for the Infinite to come close to our life and to claim it. That is what the miracles of Jesus mean. That is what they promise. The need in our life does not invent this Exceptional Presence, but rather it enables us to acknowledge it. Those who do not perceive need to this degree do not feel the urge to reach faith.

Living by faith

The cry “increase our faith,” then, is really a plea that we be able to experience our need more deeply, sincerely, completely. It is a prayer that asks: When faced with my need – with the need that I am – do not let me be embarrassed by it, or make excuses for it, or deny it, or turn to self-reliance to try to deal with it. May my awareness of my neediness simply move me to confide myself to You with humility and trust. For “confidence” means “with faith.”

Our request for greater faith is an appeal to learn how to use whatever faith we have to its greatest advantage. Thus, to live by faith is to give up living by things that “we can think up for ourselves.” It means that we no longer want to live according to our own ideas, our emotions, or our preconceptions. If I am serious about living by faith, then I am resolved not to live by my anger, my whims, or my urges. I am not going to live impulsively or impetuously. I am not going to be ruled by self-assertiveness, but rather I am going to live according to the will of Another: “For me to live is Christ” (Phil 1: 21). “Faith,” Pope Benedict XVI tells us, “demands our whole existence, understanding, our will, our feelings, our love. It requires letting go of ourselves. It affects every domain of our existence, our whole self.” In this way, “faith is a perishing of the mere self and a resurrection of the true self.”

I still remember a story a seminarian told in a preaching class I taught several years ago. There was a prolonged drought in the Midwest, and the local priest asked his people to pray hard all week for rain. At the end of the week, they were to gather in a field near the church to thank God for hearing their prayers. The priest asked the people to bring with them items that represented their faith in God. The parishioners brought Bibles, statues of saints, rosaries, and crucifixes. But one little girl showed that she had the most faith of all. She brought an umbrella.

Rev. Peter John Cameron, O.P.
Copyright Magnificat

Sicut Cervus - The Spirit's Work

2011-04-04T05:05:00.005-04:00

Monsignor Charles Pope has good reflections on aging here. I would encourage you to read the following from my favorite spiritual guide these days, Monsignor Ronald Knox on the Holy Spirit, then watch the clip with the heavenly music of Palestrina that follows. God bless.

ALL THROUGH THOSE centuries before our Lord came, whenever a human heart aspired to God, it was the same old story; it was the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity carrying out in this visible, created world the same work which he carries out in the uncreated, invisible world of eternity. He was making, in us, that response of love towards the eternal Father which it is his nature to make. In spite of the Fall, there's a kind of instinct which makes man look up to God, try to get back to God, and that instinct is the silent working of the Holy Spirit, in the very heart even of unredeemed mankind.

- Ronald A. Knox

Indwelling - Vortex of Love - There is Something Greater Here

2011-04-02T17:07:00.003-04:00

Thank you Athos for THIS POST!

Father Cantalamessa showers us with so many wonderful points of light in this homily. I care to draw out a couple with the following ramblings...

Link here and please go to the complete version of Father Cantalamessa's 2nd Lenten Homily – very powerful and very deep (though we know that people do not want to venture any deeper than where they are at…) but I wanted to bring out a point on baptism that has always stayed with me and yet I have had trouble putting words to it.

"But what is this love which has been poured into our hearts in Baptism? Is it a feeling of God for us? A benevolent disposition of His towards us? An inclination? Something, that is, intentional? It is much more than that; it is something real. It is, literally, the love of God, namely the love that circulates in the Trinity between the Father and the Son and that in the Incarnation assumed a human form and in which we now participate in the form of "indwelling." "My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" (John 14:23).  

We become "participants in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), that is, participants of divine love. We find ourselves by grace, explains Saint John of the Cross, in the vortex of love that has always taken place in the Trinity between the Father and the Son, [9] better still: in the vortex of love taking place now, between the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, risen from death, of whom we are the members."

I felt all of this being baptized as an adult – being in a state of rapture - "in the vortex of love taking place now, ...” This is why, for me, baptism is as much about the role, responsibility and reverence of the church partnering with the parents and godparents as it is for the child – almost in a sense, baptism is not about the child at all – and this is why I cringe a bit with certain emphasis when wanting infants baptized. (I am not opposed to infant baptism – I just feel that we want to make sure to continue to flame the fire of His Love in the hearts of the body of Christ who are presenting the infant and not put it out with the waters of baptism.) I would venture to say that not one single infant when grown can say that they, at baptism, experienced any of this love. We so often reflect a worry over hell (from a negative sense) that we individually and collectively demonstrate what Father Cantalamessa says in this meditation, that most of us can’t or haven’t gotten our hearts (let alone our minds) around God’s love for us and the ramifications that this love (passive - by way of receiving - not reaching) for ourselves and all of humankind. And it is only in receiving this love that we can even approach the great commandments;

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.

The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 30-31).

Obviously there are movements like Cursillo (as well as AA) that have helped people with the sense of God’s love for them, however in the broad scope very few people have had that experience (or been able to give witness to their experience) and that is what Father Cantalamessa is referring to in this homily.

I also wanted to share this notion of "indwelling" as it is not about an indwelling that comes from within us but rather an indwelling in Christ. As we reside in Christ we have Christ indwelling in us. So there is a vast chasm between the secular psychological understanding of this and the reality as we know it to be from a biblical knowledge.

This bears out in this homily as well when Father Cantalamessa quotes Duns Scotus referring to the Incarnation. This indwelling comes from outside to embrace and reside in among us from the beginning.

So we must accept that our sciences such as psychology are but a “pharmakos” – they are often cures but at the same time they are often poisons.

I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live (Deuteronomy 30:19).

Reflecting on all things, just as we never forget to breathe, we should remember: Lk 11:29-32:

While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here. At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.”

There is something greater here as Father Cantalamessa draws it out for us in his meditation on God’s love for us.

Cantalamessa - A Special Faith and Love

2011-04-02T04:56:00.004-04:00

The Household Papal Preacher, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, shared with the Holy Father a special faith that fully believes in God's love for us in his second Lenten sermon here.

Close to His Heart

2011-03-30T05:51:00.003-04:00

A heartfelt thank you to Rocco Palmo. Arturo Mari, the Pope's photographer, shares his favorite photograph of John Paul II:

Third Sunday of Lent

2011-03-27T05:37:00.001-04:00

Living Water

The duties, attractions and cross of each moment

2011-03-25T16:23:00.000-04:00

ABANDONMENT TO DIVINE PROVIDENCE

THE REV. J. P. DE CAUSSADE, S.J.

Section II.—The Duties of Each Moment.

The duties of each moment are the shadows beneath which hides the divine operation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The power of the most High shall over-shadow thee” (Luke i, 35), said the angel to Mary. This shadow, beneath which is hidden the power of God for the purpose of bringing forth Jesus Christ in the soul, is the duty, the attraction, or the cross that is presented to us at each moment. These are, in fact, but shadows like those in the order of nature which, like a veil, cover sensible objects and hide them from us. Therefore in the moral and supernatural order the duties of each moment conceal, under the semblance of dark shadows, the truth of their divine character which alone should rivet the attention. It was in this light that Mary beheld them. Also these shadows diffused over her faculties, far from creating illusion, did but increase her faith in Him who is unchanging and unchangeable. The archangel may depart. He has delivered his message, and his moment has passed. Mary advances without ceasing, and is already far beyond him. The Holy Spirit, who comes to take possession of her under the shadow of the angel’s words, will never abandon her.

Annunciation of the Lord

2011-03-25T05:27:00.002-04:00

The Annunciation (1914) - John William Waterhouse

Royal Viewpoint

2011-03-22T15:13:00.001-04:00

Very interesting, acute, and incisive analysis about England from an insider if ever there was one here.

Resentment is a real danger - A Little Guide for Your Last Days

2011-03-21T18:56:00.000-04:00

From our friend:
Excerpt from Chapter Eight

Resentment is a real danger here. It can interfere with getting what you really and truly want... And, if you are not careful, it will blind you to those graces and friendships that the Holy Spirit does send your way. So let me offer a strategy, a technique, that you may accept or reject.

A prayer that I have found as a spiritual "tool" of immense help is what the Eastern Church calls the Jesus Prayer. Its origin is in the words of a man in Our Lord's parable in Luke 18:13: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" The actual Jesus Prayer is:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Short, easy to memorize... Now here is my recommendation... begin by praying the Jesus Prayer with you in the "me" place of the prayer. Then, insert each of your loved ones in turn. ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on (name), a sinner.") Then and only then, insert the name of the one who you feel has wronged you, hurt you, done damage to you, neglected you. Whatever.

You are thus fulfilling Our Lord's injunction to forgive your "enemy" and, at the same time, shielding yourself from the bitter residue of resentment that can rot your heart and soul.

I'm not joking about this. I know persons who have held grudges, literally, for decades. "Oh I can forgive him/her. But I will never forget." Haven't you heard it before? But that is precisely why Jesus gave us this spiritual "tool" extraordinaire: because we cannot forget! That is why we are to forgive "seventy times seven" (Mt 18:22). Forget this at your peril. Just pray, even when the old pain wakes you up in the middle of the night; pray for your friends, your enemies. Anyone who the Lord brings to your heart and mind.

The power of Christ, the power of sanctity

2011-03-21T18:22:00.000-04:00

Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England

It is a certain truth that if God in his providence exterminated every evil deed at once, killed every evil-doer, the final sum of goodness would be less. We have our Lord’s own words for it; there would be diminution. Goodness itself, sanctity itself, is fostered by the proximity of evil. As Saint Augustine puts it so well: it pleased God to make good come out of evil rather than to abolish all evil.

God could have abolished all evil in his omnipotence; he did not; he did the better thing; he made good come out of evil, he makes sanctity come out of it; makes martyrs through the cruelty of man, and gives his Church the most glorious traditions of fortitude and courage through the very presence of enemies in her midst and around her walls. When the great day of harvest comes sanctity will be found to be so great and so high by very reason of the wickedness that encompassed it.

Our lives are constantly bound up with those of other people in some way or another. Perhaps those people fail in many things, but they are in some way a portion of our own lives; they partake of the graces we possess. “The faithless husband,” says Saint Paul, “will be sanctified through the believing wife.” The children of believers are sanctified through the very fact of their paternity. One person in a family may be the salvation of the whole family, though it may not be given to him to see the final issues and the ultimate results.

But there is the fact – an absolute certainty, goodness inevitably produces goodness; it is unconquerable, it cannot be stifled, it has greater ramifications than evil can ever have … One saint outweighs a hundred, a thousand, perhaps a million sinners. The sanctity of one saint prevails over the sinfulness of a thousand sinners. Sin is negative; sanctity, positive. Sanctity is more powerful than sin; sanctity is, in fact, the only real power...

Begin with goodness, with sanctity, with the thought of God, and that you are the children of God. Begin with grace, not with sin and apostasy and infidelity; these things need not enter into your lives; you know that they exist, but they need not affect you. What should affect you is the power of Christ, the power of sanctity.

Dom Anscar Vonier, OSB

Dom Vonier (+1906) was the Abbot of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England

From Magnificat, "Day by Day," February 6, 2011 and "Meditation of the Day," March 21, 2011

Do this in memory of me

2011-03-19T13:30:00.001-04:00

Do you ever wonder why are we here? As we have entered this blessed time of Lent let me offer a couple reflections on memory...

The Greek word for truth, aletheia, is a negated from of the verb translated "to forget"; knowing the truth means to stop forgetting.

Robert Louis Wilken wrote: Religion does not exist without culture and culture is a carrier of religion... Without memory a people have no sense of who they are. ...if a society loses all memory of its Christian traditions, there is a real question whether those things that make western civilization unique, e.g. human rights, freedom of religion, will endure.

Mary Regina Morrell writes: “Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.” ~ Corrie ten Boom ... We live in an age that embraces the maxim, “Have it your way!” - our houses, our cars, our meals, our jobs, our clothes, and even our memories, are subject to manipulation until they are exactly as we feel they should be.

Maybe we should be more conscious of those things that steal away our memory. What steals your memory away?

A memory exercise - consider the root of things. True is derived from the same root (deru-) that gave rise to "troth," "truth," "trust," and "true" in English.

The Graces of Saint Joseph

2011-03-19T10:39:00.001-04:00

Saint Joseph and the child Jesus by John Collier

John Collier is a contemporary artist who created this very interesting and wonderful painting of Joseph and the young Jesus. I think that it really helps me to begin to get my head around the real people that they were. What elements do you see in the painting that draw your particular interest and contemplation?

Pope John Paul II: What emanates from the figure of Saint Joseph is faith. Joseph of Nazareth is a "just man" because he totally "lives by faith." He is holy because his faith is truly heroic. Sacred Scripture says little of him. It does not record even one word spoken by Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth. And yet, even without words, he shows the depth of his faith, his greatness. Saint Joseph is a man of great spirit. He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words, but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God. He listens in silence. And his heart ceaselessly perseveres in the readiness to accept the Truth contained in the word of the Living God. We see how the word of the Living God penetrates deeply into the soul of that man, that just man. And we, do we know how to listen to the word of God? Do we know how to absorb it into the depths of our human personalities? Do we open our conscience in the presence of this word?

Scroll down and read the reflection offered by my patron saint, Saint Bernadine of Siena HERE on this feast day of St Joseph.

Ideas | The Scapegoat: René Girard's Anthropology of Violence and Religion, Part 1 - 5

2011-03-18T15:58:00.000-04:00

CBC.ca Ideas The Scapegoat: René Girard's Anthropology of Violence and Religion, Part 1 - 5

This interview of René Girard aired maybe 10 years or so ago and is a good introduction of mimetic theory and the scapegoat.

René feels that religion is the heart of all societies as he draws on a mass of anthropological findings. He also helps us begin to understand our fall into violence and how we attempt to get a handle on this violence.

Tip: The 5 hour interview of René is one of the important keys to following our discussions here at The Four Mass'keteers.

Lord - Age of the Blessed Sacrament

2011-03-17T07:21:00.002-04:00

Madonna with the Host - Ingres

THROUGH THE GREAT MERCY OF GOD, we happen to live in the age of the Blessed Sacrament ...

The hatred that once reached out to fling the visible Christ into the plot of the Passion we have seen reach out once again to obliterate His priesthood, destroy the Mass, and make impossible the Eucharistic presence of the Incarnate God in His world. After all persecution is an act of perverted faith. Men cannot attack what they believe does not exist. The vicious persecution against the Catholic priesthood is the attack upon Christ and the Mass, the method by which He ordained He should enter the world. An age of persecution, like ours, is a glorious age of faith - angelic and demoniac - in the real presence ...

This is a great age, the age of the Eucharist and the age of Mary. The Eucharist and the Mother of the Savior are inseparable. The age that loves and honors one must love and honor the other. Our age gratefully and deeply loves them both, virgin Mother and virgin Son.

- Daniel A. Lord, S.J.

Afraid? Interesting that you would ask

2011-03-15T09:29:00.002-04:00

Afraid of God or Fear of God? What a great question that my dear friend Athos poised from something Ronald Knox wrote - read it in THIS post. I am not sure my friend was tracking where this quote of Knox takes one - so I felt I had to post where reading the quote led me, and that was to A Little Guide for Your Last Days!

I don't know of too many people who do not struggle with what Knox writes: we are afraid of God, which is not at all what the Bible means by "fearing God".

There are of course many different angles to approach this notion of our being afraid however Athos, in this book, leads us through all the false premises - while not mincing words but with his pastoral spirit he opens our eyes to this mystery that is a part of each and every one's life.

Amazing that in a few pages Athos helps us to recognize just how our antennae has become rusty and fallen over and he comes with a tool kit showing us how to straighten out our antennae so as to be able to receive God's unconditional Love allowing us to humbly enter into a state of grace. Reading this book made me realize the importance and our need of being in this state of grace at all times and not waiting to trip over it at death's doorstep.

Thank you Athos.

Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno

Christian Friendship - Close to Heaven

2011-03-15T04:30:00.003-04:00

What a wonderful occasion of providential faith and hope and charity. After an hour and one-half of dealing with a "home health nurse" and my apparent prime directive, who should show up at my doorstep but fellow Mass'keteer, young D'Artagnan (graphic artist of the above) and Lady Dawn Eden! Each bore not only lunch-for-one (for herself; D'Art and I had eaten) but other fine, fine gifts and delights.

And for the next two and one-half hours, old Athos was bathed and swathed in such milk of human kindness, Christian friendship, and called-out-of-the-world-of-woes extradition that he thought he had somehow missed that rending of soul from body and been taken directly to the third heaven of what our brother Saint Paul speaks:

"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell." (2 Corinthians 12:2-4)

We chatted about books (ours and others') and new projects, one of which will take one of us far afield. We walked down to a nearby park and strolled next to a meandering stream. And then - the ceremonial exchanging of gifts!

Goodness! Lady Dawn, ever a keeper of what Tolkien called in hobbit terminology, mathom, brought out from her storehouse things old and new. And let us say, gentle reader, that D'Artagnan and Lady Dawn did not leave Athos' humble dwelling empty-handed. The former received in token of the chivalry which all of the Mass'keteers share in common brotherhood, and the latter is covered, though not yet blessed, in four-ways most blessed for her continuous deeds of errantry and pitched battle against the wicked and snares of the devil.

Can heaven come down and touch earth in any way more acceptably and nobly all of a Monday afternoon? Answer: Yes. For, before D'Artagnan and Lady Dawn left, we joined in prayer under the divine sign of the Most Holy Trinity and - gasp! - blessedly in the reliquarial presence (1st order) of Saint Dominic, compliments of a religious' gift to Lady Dawn in the wee hours at Notre Dame. D'Artagnan said he felt the great saint's hand on his shoulder as we knelt and prayed ...

May you have such an encounter with the true, good, and beautiful, gentle reader. And I will recount the deeds of two great friends and their superabundance of charity for long ages to come.

P. S. - Life is sweet and good if besides hosting friends like the above, one can field a phone call of concern on a Sunday afternoon, too, from a great friend, mentor, and all round great guy who now, again, lives in California.

Knox - Audacious Friendship

2011-03-13T07:43:00.001-04:00

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends ... (Jn 15, 15)

(T)HE BEST WAY OF ALL is to serve (God) because he is our friend, because we want to protest our love for him by our actions, and are sorry, sometimes, that he gives us so little chance of proving ourselves worthy of his friendship.

That is what God made us for, his human creatures, to be his friends, his personal friends. Not that he has need of our friendship; for his infinite beatitude would have remained unaltered if no soul had ever been breathed into a human body. But his overflowing Love is constantly forming new reservoirs, as it were, which it can fill with a human love that makes a response, however poor a response, to itself. As the single orb of the sun is reflected anew, whole and complete, by every puddle on the road-side, so in each insignificant human life that all-embracing love of God shines down, as if it had no other scope or aim for its self-fulfillment, and desires as far as our human imperfections will allow it to find its won image reflected there.

- Ronald A. Knox

Update on Athos

2011-03-09T15:52:00.003-04:00

This is Athos' wife posting at his request:

During the surgery yesterday, metastatic seeds were found throughout the abdomenal area, part of the colon was removed, and an ileostomy put in place. Chemo will begin after appropriate recovery from surgery. His spirits are good; it is better to know something than to be in the dark. Already he is making good progress following the surgery. He deeply appreciates the prayers of all.

Buy, Buy American Pie

2011-03-04T14:31:00.001-04:00

This is too good not to post however I really frown on the song writer's lack of doing their homework so to get their facts straight (as the video disclaimer indicates).

My challenge to you though is, did you get the "hidden" message from the video? The words do not directly proclaim The Source but the video does. That Source is #1 because we make them our choice - it is up to us to start making better choices.

JH - Athos gives Witness

2011-03-02T19:11:00.003-04:00

Road to Holy Cross Abbey

Journey Home with Jeffry Hendrix. This must be what they mean by "must watch TV."

The Way - Sheen, Estivez

2011-03-02T06:43:00.002-04:00

Let's keep our ears to the rails and see if we can find where this film will be showing. It is, according to one reviewer, the "perfect Easter family film."

St David of Wales

2011-03-01T06:56:00.000-04:00

St. David of Wales

Monday News

2011-02-28T10:38:00.001-04:00

Two brief announcements: old Athos will be appearing this evening on EWTN's The Journey Home with Marcus Grodi (8:00 ET). Check local listings for availability. It will be archived, however, for streaming at The Journey Home website.

Too, Athos will be facing more surgery in the not too distant future. Pity unnecessary, but prayers greatly appreciated. More information will be forthcoming. Thanks!

Mud Pies & Kites

2011-02-25T14:30:00.000-04:00

My friend Gerry, back in Haiti again and asking for help to finish his documentary.

GKC - Why Be Catholic

2011-02-21T17:13:00.002-04:00

Dale Ahlquist writing of G. K. Chesterton (of course) says,

(W)hen we have our days of doubt, when we are confused by the incessant attacks and the personal disappointments, it is a good exercise to sit down and make a list of all the things that prove that the Catholic faith is true.

The Church is the only consistent defender of morality and virtue. It defends marriage and the family. It defends children and babies and the unborn. It defends the poor. It defends peace and human dignity. It defends order and it also defends freedom. It defends the body and the mind and the soul.
The Church is the only institution in history that has continually survived its own defeats. Chesterton even maintains that it has survived its own death. Several times in history the Church seemed to be done and destroyed. But it is still here. It has survived its own death, says Chesterton, "because it had a God who knew his way out of the grave."
The history of Christianity is the history of the Catholic Church. The Church has not only carried the faith through history, it has carried the whole culture. The monasteries preserved the texts of the ancient world, keeping open our only windows to the past. When iconoclasts were smashing statues, Catholics preserved the art of sculpture. Catholic artists even brought sculpture inside paintings, giving them depth and dimension. They wrote music that we can still sing. The castles built in the medieval times are now museums or ruins. The Cathedrals built at the same time are still being used for their original purpose.
All other Christian sects are a reaction against or a splitting off from the Catholic Church. They are always something less than the Catholic Church, never anything more. They lack something, whether it be a pope or a priest or a pronouncement. Whatever partial truth they cling to is something that they have received from the Catholic Church, whether it be the Bible or baptism or "bringing in the sheaves."
History's greatest people, the saints, are Catholic ... Read all.

Into the Clearing

2011-02-16T21:32:00.000-04:00

I OFTEN IMAGINE A BOY who, not unlike Prince Caspian of C. S. Lewis's book, had a love for lore, for stories and legends of romance and greatness and great sacrifice for great causes, who chanced upon a clearing and structures ruinous the origins he knew not. It is my favorite kind of story.

Imagine my immense surprise when in my advancing years I found myself the protagonist in that story. It followed years of struggle, of having that kind of Story excised right out of me in the relativist blather of a "liberal arts education" followed by a different kind of relativism - a left-leaning form of Christianity that I call New Age Zen Protestantism.

And yet, here I stood at the age of 47, newly confirmed into full communion with the Holy Catholic Church. The words of Evelyn Waugh - fellow convert - were one with my own heart and mind:

“Conversion is like stepping across the chimney piece out of a Looking-Glass world, where everything is an absurd caricature, into the real world God made; and then begins the delicious process of exploring it limitlessly.”

To this moment, I have found nothing to contradict either the words of Waugh or the wonder of coming into the clearing of the Catholic World from the dark and cruel forest of derelict, atrophy, parody, and sin. And lo - what I had taken for a structure ruinous was not so at all. Rather, it was deeply old and immensely ancient, yet as new and vibrant as a fresh day of Spring and heart's ease. And at its center a lamb as though slain ... and His Mother, our good Lady, His most faithful and first and best disciple.

With all my days - however many or few there are - the best life, the only life, is to serve our good Lord and His good Lady in fealty and service. There is nothing for it but this. For I did not find my way in the Clearing. I got pulled into this Romance, undeservedly. And for that I am grateful.

Last Lecture or First Homily

2011-02-16T08:32:00.003-04:00

Seminarian Philip Johnson from Deacon Watkins on Vimeo.

From Father Z

In the past I have asked for prayers for, Philip Johnson, a seminarian with an inoperable brain tumor.
A reader alerted me to a video of a talk that he gave at Catholic High School called St. Thomas More Academy, in Raleigh, NC.
He covers four major points:
1. His conversion story. Not being a great Catholic in High School. Looked forward to fraternities and parties in college. Ultimately went to the Naval Academy. It was there that he went to Mass again and began feeling called to the priesthood. He explains this call and talks about time he spent in France, especially at Lourdes.
2. His vocation story which is ultimately intertwined with his cancer diagnosis and being released from the Navy.
3. Being diagnosed with a terminal and inoperable brain tumor and reacting to this news.
4. Embracing this cross and talking about the value of redemptive suffering.

MSM Follies, Crowds and Power

2011-02-16T06:48:00.005-04:00

Simply astonishing. That is how anyone with even an amateur's knowledge of Girard's mimetic theory would describe the preposterous naivete of the progressivist news organizations covering the Egyptian revolution.

It is indeed fortunate that Ms. Logan, the CBS correspondent, who was assaulted survived with her life. Does anyone even cursorily understand crowds and power?

And, lest anyone think this is a case unique to the Scimitar street-mob mentality, do not forget this close to home.

Pearce - The Pub

2011-02-16T05:00:00.001-04:00

Joseph Pearce waxes poetic on the origins, joys, and necessity of the English pub here.

Athos' Excellent Adventure

2011-02-11T05:45:00.003-04:00

Happily, gentle reader, old Athos wound his way to the television studio of Marcus Grodi's The Journey Home last Monday. The interview for the television show went well, I think. I had the added pleasure of discussing the seventh chapter of St. Paul's Letter to the Romans (12-25) with Mr. Grodi for his radio program, Deep in Scripture. I did, of course, work in the vital topics of Marian chivalry and a means of avoiding distraction from the reality of our mortal life.

The television interview will air on Monday, February 28.

Wolves Circling in Winter

2011-02-09T19:14:00.003-04:00

Ah, yes. It is certainly about time for some muckraking by the NYT. It asks in its hand-wringingest-best smarmy self-righteous mode, Sex-abuse scandals involving priests have shaken Ireland to its core. The reaction has been fierce, but is that enough to break the grip of the Catholic Church?

Any guesses how the NYT would like to answer that question?

Song of the Strange Ascetic - GKC

2011-02-06T11:12:00.000-04:00

I'm heading off to Ohio to be interviewed by Marcus Grodi for his EWTN show. God bless, gentle reader, and keep me in your prayers. I'll leave you with my personal favorite poesy by dear ol' Gilbert Keith:

If I had been a Heathen,

I'd have praised the purple vine,

My slaves should dig the vineyards,

And I would drink the wine.

But Higgins is a Heathen,

And his slaves grow lean and grey,

That he may drink some tepid milk

Exactly twice a day.

If I had been a Heathen,

I'd have crowned Neaera's curls,

And filled my life with love affairs,

My house with dancing girls;

But Higgins is a Heathen,

And to lecture rooms is forced,

Where his aunts, who are not married,

Demand to be divorced.

If I had been a Heathen,

I'd have sent my armies forth,

And dragged behind my chariots

The Chieftains of the North.

But Higgins is a Heathen,

And he drives the dreary quill,

To lend the poor that funny cash

That makes them poorer still.

If I had been a Heathen,

I'd have piled my pyre on high,

And in a great red whirlwind

Gone roaring to the sky;

But Higgins is a Heathen,

And a richer man than I:

And they put him in an oven,

Just as if he were a pie.

Now who that runs can read it,

The riddle that I write,

Of why this poor old sinner,

Should sin without delight-

But I, I cannot read it

(Although I run and run),

Of them that do not have the faith,

And will not have the fun.

- Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Understanding Egypt (deuxième partie) ...Battling to the End

2011-02-02T11:12:00.003-04:00

... and as soon as you are done reading Rene Girard's "Things Hidden" go immediately to ...

Battling to the End

[Stressing the importance of Girard's work and his total reliance on the Christian revelation, Battling to the End is a must read.]

The Escalation to Extremes

"Christ took away humanity's sacrificial crutches and left us before a terrible choice: either believe in violence, or not; Christianity is non-belief."

"However, we actually have to go back several thousand years. This is the effort we have to make to discover what violence is all about. This is why there is an anthropological interpretation of original sin: original sin is vengeance, never-ending vengeance. It begins with the murder of the rival. Religion is what enables us to live with original sin, which is why a society without religion will destroy itself. Vengeance does not exist among animals; they never place themselves in such danger. Only the conjunction of intelligence and violence makes it possible to speak of original sin and it justifies the idea of a real difference between animals and humans. This constitutes the greatness of all religions, with the exception of Christianity, which abolishes the provisional function of sacrifice. Sooner or later, either humanity will renounce violence without sacrifice or it will destroy the planet. Humanity will be either in a state of grace or in mortal sin. Thus, we can say that religion may have invented sacrifice, but Christianity takes it away."

"...no one ever begins anything, except by grace. To sin means to think that one can begin something oneself. We never start anything; we always respond. The other has always decided for me and forces me to answer. The group always decides for the individual. This is the law of religion. What is "modern" exists only in the obstinate rejection of this obvious social truth, in clinging to its individualism."

"We also have to point out the other face of human relations: violent mimesis. We have to show that it is at the root of all institutions, which are based on the scapegoat mechanism... Mimesis is thus both the cause of the crisis and the means of resolving it. The victim is always made divine after the sacrifice. The myth is thus the lie that hides the founding lynching, which speaks to us about the gods, but never about the victims that the gods used to be. Rituals then repeat the initial sacrifice and repetition of rituals gives birth to institutions, which are the only means that humanity has found to postpone the apocalypse. This is why peaceful mimesis is possible only in the framework of an established institution that was founded long before. It is based on learning and maintaining cultural codes." p 21-22

Holderlin's Sorrow

"The Psalms reveal that violent people are not the ones who talk about violence, but that it is the peaceful people who make it speak. The Judeo-Christian revelation exposes what myths always tend to silence. Those who speak of "peace and security" are now their heirs: despite everything, they continue believing in myths and do not want to see their own violence."

"The positivity of history should not be eliminated, but shifted. The rationality that mimetic theory seeks to promote is based entirely on the shift. Saying that chaos is near is not incompatible with hope, quite the contrary. However, hope has to be seen in relation to an alternative that leaves only the choice between total destruction and realization of the Kingdom." p 118-119

Understanding Egypt

2011-02-02T05:28:00.000-04:00

I have heard some remarkable blather about the protests in Egypt and Tunis from a priest who should know better than to equate what is going on there with the work of our Lord in the days of His flesh.

This article is an important one. So is this. And for further reference, there is Canetti's Crowds and Power. But ultimately pull down your Things Hidden From the Foundation of the World if you would really understand the protests.

Buried

2011-02-01T21:58:00.000-04:00

The star marks where we are.

Does Richard Dawkins Exist?

2011-01-30T10:49:00.000-04:00

Antiquities, Riots & Iconoclasts

2011-01-29T17:49:00.005-04:00

It is heartening to see that residents as well as the Egyptian army are attempting to safeguard the Cairo Egyptian Museum, home of the Tutankamun treasures.

Let's not forget the iconoclasm of devout Scimitarists. Pursuant of Chesterton's parable, the reasons for the riots in Egypt are multitudinous. But destruction in the case of some of our greatest artifacts can be, sadly, one and final.

The Lamp-post, the Mob, and the Monk

2011-01-28T09:43:00.000-04:00

SUPPOSE THAT A GREAT COMMOTION arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, "Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good __ " At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmediœval practicality. But as things go on they do not work out so easily.

Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted old iron; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash municipal machinery; some because they wanted smash something. And there is war in the night, no man knowing whom he strikes. So, gradually and inevitably, to-day, tomorrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that all depends on what is the philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas-lamp, we now must discuss in the dark.

- G. K. Chesterton, Heretics

March for Life '11

2011-01-27T12:16:00.002-04:00

From pal Frank Weathers at Why I Am Catholic:

Conversion of St Paul

2011-01-25T05:44:00.000-04:00

Conversion of Saint Paul - Caravaggio

Back to the Swamp

2011-01-20T05:17:00.003-04:00

Why, do you suppose, this happened? From a mimetic theory viewpoint, it points to the expulsion of a designated and acceptable sacrificial victim - in this case the Christian faith in general and the Catholic Church in particular. Oddly, the latter alone comprises over a billion human beings, and yet the Gnostic EU overlords (so accurately depicted in C. S. Lewis's prescient book, That Hideous Strength) curiously believe that they can will out of existence belief in Jesus Christ - or, at least out of public discourse - by their hubris-filled chicanery.

It points again not only to human folly and pride; but to the deeply embedded roots of the primitive sacred in our fallen human condition.

Those EU ministers should listen, in my opinion, to a different sort of minister: Rene Girard, an Extraordinary Eucharistic Minister who also happens to be a member of the L'Académie française. His work in mimetic theory not only brings broad understanding to the cultural conflagration upon which the EU is throwing kindling, but is in full submission to the Magisterium of Mother Church.

The more "modern progressives" (sic.) try to out-distance Christian truth, the more their actions show a recrudescence and regression into the pagan swamp that our Lord and His Church succeeded in pulling us out of ... for a time.

Mammoth Hubris

2011-01-19T18:05:00.001-04:00

File this one under: "We just wondered what would happen ... "

"It's Not About the Money" Clip - Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

2011-01-15T14:56:00.003-04:00

"It's not about the money, it's about the 'game' - the 'game' between people."

In Battling to the End René Girard shares his understanding of the closeness of war and exchange. Through the eyes of Carl von Clausewitz (who introduces the notion that humanity is always moving toward an 'escalation to extremes') sees reciprocal action, which covers exchange between people, market trade and bellicose relations, as the equalivance to a duel and that it is the hidden structure of all social phenomena.

Clausewitz established an equivalence between war and monetary exchange - he saw no real difference between the two activities (trade would not be a metaphor for war, but would concern the same reality).

Girard writes: "Trade thus has all the features of war: if smooth settlement of exchanges degenerates into furious competition, a trade war can become a real war."

"We exchange goods so as not to exchange blows. Exchange, whether commercial or bellicose, is an institution, in other words, a form of protection, a simple means. If the institution is seen as an end, we fall back into violent reciprocity. Our emotional and spiritual lives have the same structure as our economic life... Exchanges must not be seen for what they are, in other words, reciprocal. This is the law that has to be complied with in order to live together. Life is livable only if reciprocity does not appear. Many anthropologists have trouble seeing this... (t)hey compete with one another to describe the complexity of the differences and social rules, without seeing that the rules are only there to prevent the return of reciprocity."