Fighting Dragons

Learn about dragon-slaying - or at least the attempt to - here.

Rossetti - PRB

Mary in the House of St John (1859) - Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Memorial Acclamation

Lord, by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free.
You are the Savior of the World.

Birth of Freedom - Trailer

Featuring George Weigel and others: [h/t: Mercatornet]

Cantalamessa - The Ascension

Father Raniero Cantalamessa gives his as per usual extraordinary commentary on the Gospel reading for the Feast of the Ascension, Why are you staring at the sky?

Quotes of the Day - René Girard

“What is frightening is the conjunction of massive technical power and the spiritual surrender to nihilism. A panic-stricken refusal to glance, even furtively, in the only direction where meaning could still be found dominates our intellectual life.”

"Choice always involves choosing a model, and true freedom lies in the basic choice between a human or a divine model."

"Deviated transcendency is a caricature of vertical transcendency. There is not one element of this distorted mysticism which does not have its luminous counterpart in Christian truth."

"'Genuine spontaneity' is not the absence of mimetic behavior but the most naive and innocent imitation of all, that of a little child, the attitude recommended by Jesus."

-- René Girard [h/t: Gil Bailie, Cornerstone Forum]

George Neumayr - A New Pentecost

[h/t: New Advent] Speaking to the US bishops on April 16, Pope Benedict XVI made the arresting comment that an “almost complete eclipse of an eschatological sense” marks “many of our traditionally Christian societies.” America, he didn’t need to add, is one of them, but the very warmth of the welcome the Holy Father received in the US and the intensity of attention during his visit suggested a growing exhaustion with the eclipse of religion under secularism and a hunger for God’s revelation of man’s ultimate purpose.

Burdened by the yoke of an ideology that treats God as irrelevant to the ordering of society—an ideology which has at once destabilized public life, eroded the foundations of culture, and corrupted US Catholicism—Americans were ready for the Holy Father’s theme of “Christ Our Hope,” open to his arguments about the harmony of reason and revelation, and moved by his humility and piety.

Media pundits, stunned by this reaction, speculated on the papacy’s enduring significance. They offered various superficial reasons for it without arriving at the real one: it remains Christ’s way of staying present throughout history.

Into the darkness of godless voids—whether comforting the victims of priestly abuse near the beginning of the trip or kneeling in prayer at the pit of Ground Zero near the end of it—Christ’s vicar brought forth his light. In a false age, Pope Benedict offers truth; to the weary and enslaved, he represents grace. As the eye naturally turns to light, so people of good will turn toward holiness.

Often dismissed as a mere academic, the Holy Father showed characteristic honesty and courage in confronting pastorally the concrete effects of the crises he addressed intellectually. He delivered a talk one day to the bishops on the importance of fidelity to the doctrines and discipline of the Church, then the next day comforted those victims who suffered at the hands of a dissenting and lax clerical culture. He gave a speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations on the dangers of amoral power ideology, then two days later visited the “Ground Zero” site of its most extreme manifestation.

Read all of George Neumayr on the Holy Father’s inspiring visit to the United States.

Rossetti - PRB

Mary Nazarene (1857) - Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Our Lady as a gardener: awesome!

Prayers and Thanks

An update for friends and family, Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God.

Christianity's Reluctant Convert

From Athos' post Catholic Media Review on the up and coming movie Prince Caspian.

I thought this article Christianity's Reluctant Convert on CS Lewis needed a post onto itself. Ath, thank you for uncovering it.

April 30 - Memorial of St. Pius V, pope

Tip Catholic Culture

St. Pius V, who was born in 1504, joined the Dominicans at the age of fourteen; he was sixty-two when he was elected Pope. His reign, through short, was one of the most fruitful of the sixteenth century. To Protestantism, which had proclaimed the Reformation, St. Pius replied by applying the decrees of the Council of Trent for the reform of the Church. He played a great part in the return of the clergy to ecclesiastical discipline. Against Islam, which threatened the West, he succeeded in forming a coalition of Christian forces: and by public prayers, organized everywhere at his request, he was instrumental in obtaining the decisive victory of Lepanto in 1571.

His holiness and austerity of life were notable, and he succeeded in bringing simplicity even into the papal household. He refused to wear the flowing garments of previous popes and insisted upon wearing his white Dominican habit even as head of the Church. To this day, the pope wears white, a custom begun by this Dominican pontiff.

Father, you chose St. Pius V as pope of your Church to protect the faith and give you more fitting worship. By his prayers, help us to celebrate your holy mysteries with a living faith and an effective love. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, you Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Joseph the Worker

From Catholic Culture

The feast of St. Joseph the Worker was established by Pope Pius XII in 1955 in order to Christianize the concept of labor and give to all workmen a model and a protector. By the daily labor in his shop, offered to God with patience and joy, St. Joseph provided for the necessities of his holy spouse and of the Incarnate Son of God, and thus became an example to all laborers. "Workman and all those laboring in conditions of poverty will have reasons to rejoice rather than grieve, since they have in common with the Holy Family daily preoccupations and cares (Leo XIII)."

Ascension of the Lord

Also from Catholic Culture [take your pick - cheers]

Besides the hope and the joyful expectancy of heaven so characteristic of the Ascension feast there is a note of melancholy. Before the final departure of Jesus, the Apostles must have been very much disturbed: each felt the distress of one who sees his dearest friend and companion going away forever, and finds himself alone to face all the difficulties of life. The Lord realized their state of mind and consoled them once more, promising the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter: "He commanded them," we read in the Epistle (Acts 1:1-11), "that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father... you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days hence." But even this time the Apostles did not understand how much they needed to be enlightened and transformed by the Holy Spirit in order to accomplish the great mission which was to be entrusted to them! Jesus continued, "You shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you and you shall be witnesses unto Me ... even to the uttermost part of the earth." For the moment, however, they were there, around the Master, weak, timid, frightened, like little children watching their mother leave for a distant, unknown land. In fact, "while they looked on, He was raised up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." Two angels came to distract them from their great amazement and to make them realize what had happened. Then, placing their trust in the word of Jesus, which would henceforth be their only support, they returned to Jerusalem where, in the Cenacle, they awaited in prayer the fulfillment of the promise. It was the first novena in preparation for Pentecost: "All these were persevering with one mind in prayer with ... Mary, the Mother of Jesus" (ibid. 1:14).

Silence, recollection, prayer, peace with our brethren, and union with Mary: these are the characteristics of the novena we too should make in preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

-- Excerpted from Divine Intimacy, Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.

Keeping Me In Stitches

If you want a PG-rated understanding of my present medical condition in situ, take a gander at this warzone.

Catholic Media Review

An interesting interview/review of Disney's upcoming film, Prince Caspian at Catholic Media Review.

And a fine commentary from Catholic Education Resource Center is Christianity's Reluctant Convert, by Michael Coren.

For All You Do - Thank You

Home Again - A Front Room Window

After five days of expert care in one of northern Virginia's finest hospitals, I am happy to announce that I am now home. The doctors, nurses, and staff were superb and I am grateful for the way God used them as instruments of healing; I would, after all, like to keep this matter in the form of a human being, imago dei, for quite a while longer time to come.

Besides the kind and loving support of Lady Athos and our younger son (our elder son being on a tight work-log at Best Buy), it was a privilege to have a visit from Dawn Eden who took a moment out of her busy (some might say hectic) schedule to visit my room yesterday and bring some reading material along too. Thanks, Dawn!

I was doubly blessed to have both Sister Mary Jo and Father Dan Hanley from St. James Parish bring Our Lord to me on Sunday - I need all the Grace I can get -- and the Rosary blessed by Pope Benedict XVI is in use for Christendom and for the blessing of "offering up" this experience however Heaven may choose.

The prognosis looks good: no radiaton or chemotherapy needed, but a 4-6 week recovery period and keeping close tabs on things, as they say. Lady Athos says I have about fifteen inches of incision, so I won't be doing my arched-back sit-ups or other exercise regime for some time (drat). Yet I have the astonishing good luck, or providence rather, to have a fellow Mass'keteer who preceded me on this adventure in brother Aramis. And I will lean on him and his experiences to inform me of what to expect and how to proceed.

Thanks to all for your prayers and daily intentions. You are of inestimable blessing and help.

With Love and Longing to Reciprocate Such Love, to Give Him Life for Life

Hat tip to Doctors of the Catholic Church and Magnificat

Meditation of the Day

“I will send the Advocate to you.”

What heart will be so hard and stubborn as not to be moved at the sight of such infinite love and the great dignity we have been given – and not because God owed it to us, but by his grace? None of us could look at this and contemplate it without transcending all sensuality, all our hardness and foolishness dissolved. When we see and know our own non-being and God’s goodness to us in giving us being and every grace that is added onto being, we will receive the most perfect light and knowledge of ourselves. Let your heart and soul be set afire in Christ gentle Jesus, with love and longing to reciprocate such love, to give him life for life. He gave his life for you: decide now to give your life for him, blood for blood…

That very charity, the Holy Spirit, with his hands has given and continues to give us God. He is constantly serving us every grace and gift, spiritual as well as material. How foolish, then, for you or anyone else to stay away from such delight! It seems to me every one of us should go – even on all fours if we can’t walk upright – to demonstrate our love for him by giving him our lives for the love of Life, to use our bodies to expiate our sins and failings just as we have used our bodies to offend.

– Saint Catherine of Siena (+ 1380), Doctor of the Church, was a Dominican, stigmatist, and papal counselor.

The Athos Update

Here at The Four Mass'keteers blog, we don't get much of a chance to stump the VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE, who I am sure will be reporting on Athos' recovery soon, but we have it on good authority, that being Athos' lovely wife, that Athos came through surgery yesterday like a trooper. She went on to say that after surgery he was in a bit of pain, but things look good and that after his stay in the hospital of 5-7 days he will be returning home, with full recovery expected to take 4-6 weeks.

So please keep Athos and his family in your prayers as the healing process now begins.

Thanks for the Prayer - Here Goes

I want to thank profusely the innumerable folk who have promised to pray for me, put my name on prayer-lists, visit Adoration Chapels tomorrow during my surgery to take care of a wayward "transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis."

Father Dan Hanley graciously prepped me by all the ministrations afforded by Mother Church today, and for that I am and shall ever remain truly grateful.

Thing is: there is the appearance of helplessness in all of this spot of bother. And that is why I harbor a particular and ferocious antipathy for such Japanese thriller/horror flicks as The Grudge (2004) - the poor mortal humans can't do a blooming, bloody thing to stand against the onslaught of the inevitable doom. Pah! Phooh!

That is why, without doubt, I choose this of all nights to take in an altogether different flick; a piece of sub-creation (á la Tolkien) in which death is actual, but humans are real actors in this grand opera; namely, At World’s End. Here we are talking Purgatory, redemption, self-sacrifice, resurrection, and the Adventure of "offering it up."

I refuse to see this rigamarole as something other than an opportunity to practice the virtues, cardinal and theological. But I assure you, gentle reader, I will be tempted to do otherwise any number of times. So, pray for me. Here I go in the name of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Pray for us, Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

Edwin Muir

The Good Town [h/t: Gil Bailie]

Look at it well. This was the good town once,
Known everywhere, with streets of friendly neighbours,
Street friend to street and house to house. In summer
All day the doors stood open; lock and key
Were quaint antiquities fit for museums
With gyves and rusty chains. The ivy grew
From post to post across the prison door.
The yard behind was sweet with grass and flowers.
A place where grave philosophers loved to walk.
Old Time that promises and keeps his promise
Was our sole lord indulgent and severe,
Who gave and took away with gradual hand
That never hurried, never tarried, still
Adding, subtracting. These our houses had
Long fallen into decay but that we knew
Kindness and courage can repair time's faults,
And serving him breeds patience and courtesy
In us, light sojourners and passing subjects.
There is a virtue in tranquillity
That makes all fitting, childhood and youth and age,
Each in its place.

Look well. These mounds of rubble,
And shattered piers, half-windows, broken arches
And groping arms were once inwoven in walls
Covered with saints and angels, bore the roof,
Shot up the towering spire. These gaping bridges
Once spanned the quiet river which you see
Beyond that patch of raw and angry earth
Where the new concrete houses sit and stare.
Walk with me by the river. See, the poplars
Still gather quiet gazing on the stream.
The white road winds across the small green hill
And then is lost. These few things still remain.
Some of our houses too, though not what once
Lived there and drew a strength from memory.
Our prople have been scattered, or have come
As strangers back to mingle with the strangers
Who occupy our rooms where none can find
The place he knew but settles where he can.
No family now sits at the evening table;
Father and son, mother and child are out,
A quaint and obsolete fashion. In our houses
Invaders speak their foreign tongues, informers
Appear and disappear, chance whores, officials
Humble or high, frightened, obsequious,
Sit carefully in corners. My old friends
(Friends ere these great disasters) are dispersed
In parties, armies, camps, conspiracies.
We avoid each other. If you see a man
Who smiles good-day or waves a lordly greeting
Be sure he's a policeman or a spy.
We know them by their free and candid air.

It was not time that brought these things upon us,
But these two wars that trampled on us twice,
Advancing and withdrawing, like a herd
Of clumsy-footed beasts on a stupid errand
Unknown to them or us. Pure chance, pure malice,
Or so it seemed. And when, the first war over,
The armies left and our own men came back
From every point by many a turning road,
Maimed, crippled, changed in body or in mind,
It was a sight to see the cripples come
Out on the fields. The land looked all awry,
The roads ran crooked and the light fell wrong.
Our fields were like a pack of cheating cards
Dealt out at random - all we had to play
In the bad game for the good stake, our life.
We played; a little shrewdness scraped us through.
Then came the second war, passed and repassed,
And now you see our town, the fine new prison,
The house-doors shut and barred, the frightened faces
Peeping round corners, secret police, informers,
And all afraid of all.
How did it come?

From outside, so it seemed, an endless source,
Disorder inexhaustible, strange to us,
Incomprehensible. Yet sometimes now
We ask ourselves, we the old citizens:
‘Could it have come from us? Was our peace peace?
Our goodness goodness? That old life was easy
And kind and comfortable; but evil is restless
And gives no rest to the cruel or the kind.
How could our town grow wicked in a moment?
What is the answer? Perhaps no more than this,
That once the good men swayed our lives, and those
Who copied them took a while the hue of goodness,
A passing loan; while now the bad are up,
And we, poor ordinary neutral stuff,
Not good nor bad, must ape them as we can,
In sullen rage or vile obsequiousness.
Say there's a balance between good and evil
In things, and it's so mathematical,
So finely reckoned that a jot of either,
A bare preponderance will do all you need,
Make a town good, or make it what you see.
But then, you'll say, only that jot is wanting,
That grain of virtue. No: when evil comes
All things turn adverse, and we must begin
At the beginning, heave the groaning world
Back in its place again, and clamp it there.
Then all is hard and hazardous. We have seen
Good men made evil wrangling with the evil,
Straight minds grown crooked fighting crooked minds.
Our peace betrayed us; we betrayed our peace.
Look at it well. This was the good town once.’

These thoughts we have, walking among our ruins.

Edwin Muir