God Rest His Soul

I'll be heading to the Midwest tomorrow for the express purpose of saying goodbye to my father, Cecil, who died today at the age of 90.

He was married at seventeen; a father at eighteen. He went to college full-time, worked simultaneously to support his growing family, and heard the call to the ordained ministry. Ordained an Evangelical United Brethren pastor, he became an United Methodist pastor when the two denominations merged in 1968.

He dutifully and lovingly brought up my sisters and brothers as Bible-believing Christians to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and our neighbor as ourselves. We memorized the names of the books of the (Protestant) Bible and scores of scripture passages, so that our cognizant minds were littered and haunted by Sacred Scripture. All five of us strayed, but all returned to faith in Jesus as Our Lord.

His devotion to God's Kingdom was unflagging; his willingness to preach the Gospel in season and out embarrassingly steadfast; his disagreement with my conversion to Catholicism tolerating and loving, if comprehending not. If anything, the virtues became more and more evident in his life the older and feebler he became.

He took us to cool places on camping vacations, like Yellowstone's Old Faithful (cf. photo above). He never earned more than $20,000 a year in all of his years, yet we never went without, never felt we were poor. He never was in debt.

He was part of what Brokaw called "the greatest generation." We will not see the likes of them - or him - again.

My Father + Requiescat in pace

Saturday Night Devotions - Right After Bath Time

I would appreciate your prayers for the repose of my father, Cecil. He lived to see the birth of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.

Cusack - Chartres Pilgrimage

And back to the sublime. Young Andrew Cusack provides commentary and a photomontage of the 2009 Paris-Chartres pilgrimage back at Pentecost. I find it rousing to see so many young people taking part in this event. Enjoy.

Gimme That Old Time Religion

What will draw the absent males back to church and solve a host of ecclesiastical woes? A Lutheran in First Things has the solution:

Temple prostitution.

I know, I know. Outrageous and offensive. I can hear readers already dismissing the idea out of hand. And I admit that we may not be ready for it quite yet. But please hear me out on this.

First off, let’s address the common objections. Sure, there are a handful of Bible verses that might seem to condemn the practice. But all the condemnation of temple prostitution involves pagan practices or worship of false gods. The objectionable thing is the idolatry, not the physical act itself. Sanctified, faithful prostitution in service of the true God is a new thing. The Biblical writers never foresaw or contemplated sanctified, faithful, God-pleasing prostitution in the churches and thus never wrote about it. Attempts to find a Biblical injunction against the practice therefore fall short..More>>

150 Reasons

Dave Armstrong's interesting and thought-provoking piece of apologetics: One Hundred Fifty Reasons I'm Catholic - And You Should Be Too!

I would love to think it would only take, oh, 75 reasons for most persons. But from my experience, 300 wouldn't turn many to Mother Church. Sigh.

Fearfully and Wonderfully

Scruton - Need for Beauty

Four Mass'keteer friend, mentor, and popularizer of the work of René Girard, Gil Bailie, has a fine presentation of Roger Scruton's series on the philosophical and human need for beauty here.

Holy Family

The Holy Family (1506) - Michelangelo

Reflection for Feast of Holy Family Year C

By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB

TORONTO, DEC. 22, 2009 (Zenit.org).- In the afterglow of Christmas, the Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family, inviting the faithful to reflect on the gift and mystery of life, and in particular the blessing of family.

[ ... ]

The words of Pope Paul VI spoken in Nazareth on Jan. 5, 1964, are a beautiful reflection on the mystery of Nazareth and of the Holy Family. His words inspire all of us to imitate God's family in their beautiful values of silence, family life and work.

He said: "Nazareth is a kind of school where we may begin to discover what Christ's life was like and even to understand his Gospel. Here we can observe and ponder the simple appeal of the way God's Son came to be known, profound yet full of hidden meaning.

"And gradually we may even learn to imitate him. Here we can learn to realize who Christ really is. And here we can sense and take account of the conditions and circumstances that surrounded and affected his life on earth: the places, the tenor of the times, the culture, the language, religious customs, in brief everything which Jesus used to make himself known to the world. [...]

"First we learn from its silence. If only we could once again appreciate its great value. We need this wonderful state of mind, beset, as we are, by the cacophony of strident protests and conflicting claims so characteristic of these turbulent times. The silence of Nazareth should teach us how to meditate in peace and quiet, to reflect on the deeply spiritual, and to be open to the voice of God's inner wisdom and the counsel of his true teachers. Nazareth can teach us the value of study and preparation, of meditation, of a well-ordered personal spiritual life, and of silent prayer that is known only to God..More>>

2nd Day of Christmas

Though in the closet there stands a sword
And the coif and vambraces and mail are oiled
To stave the ravages of rust and time,
The chivalrous work for now is the word
When corruption reeks and honor is spoiled
And the Gospel ignored, our treasure sublime.

A blessed second day of Christmas from the 4Ms

The League of Bearded Catholics

With the apparent demise of The Blue Boar - it's been a dead stick since the catastrophic events surrounding the notorious Four Men's Feast - I lift a tankard to a new star in the night sky. Tim Jones of Old World Swine puts forth what looks to be a fine new effort. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The League of Bearded Catholics.

T(olkien)he L(ewis)eague of B(elloc)earded C(hesterton)atholics stretches the imagination somewhat since only one of the four actually grew a beard for any sustained amount of time (Belloc), but all four had beards to shave, and Lewis never was a Catholic. (NB: Fr Walter Hooper, Lewis's executive secretary is quoted in Joseph Pearce's book, C. S. Lewis and the Catholic Church, to the effect that if Lewis were still alive, in his opinion, Lewis would be a Catholic today with the suspect faith and morality in the Anglican communion.)

Check it out.

Novak - The First (and Only) Enlightenment

A real keeper and for the record: Michael Novak's The First Enlightenment:

Those of us who are of Catholic mind do not believe that the Enlightenment began with Kant (“What is Enlightenment?”), or Locke or Newton, or even with Descartes. We cherish Plato, Aristotle, Cicero. But the first Enlightenment began with Christ Our Lord.

It was only with the Christ that EQUALITY meant every human being, barring none. From then on, no one was “barbarian.” Each bore in his own soul the mark of being called to be a dwelling of the Father and the Son — being called beyond all other calls a son of God. Neither mother nor father, neither civil society nor state, can answer to this call for you or me. None has any deeper bond or precedence than the relation of Creator and human creature. It is a bond of Spirit and Truth.

Thus was revealed each human's LIBERTY primordial, and in that liberty, EQUALITY with all. No other but self can say to the the Father “No,” or “Yes.” That choice is for each single one of us inalienable. That choice brings each into the universal brotherhood and sisterhood of all who are equal in the sight of God.

And that is how universal FRATERNITY became a human principle and an object of our striving.

Moreover, a singular feature of the coming of the Christ is that all have access to him — rich pagan kings riding from the East, Roman centurions (those who would put him to death, even they), Jew and Greek, and those of every nation, station, and state of virtue or of sin. From Bethlehem went out the message of the First Globalization — the global call to become one human family. But only by the narrow path of the free choice of each.

This was the First Enlightenment. There has been no deeper nor more all-embracing since..MORE>>

Merry Christmas

A blessed, joyous and peaceful Christmas to all

from the Four Mass'keteers!

Dude's Flyin'

NORAD is tracking Santa!

To understand This Love born unto us - which goes beyond our knowledge - we must comtemplate our violence

"...we have to think of Christianity as essentially historical, ... Solomon's judgment explains everything on this score: there is the sacrifice of the other, and self-sacrifice; archaic sacrifice and Christian sacrifice. However, it is all sacrifice. We are immersed in mimetism and have to find a way around the pitfalls of our desire, which is always desire for what the other possesses. I repeat, absolute knowledge is not possible. We are forced to remain at the heart of history and to act at the heart of violence because we are always gaining a better understanding of its mechanisms." pg 35, Battling to the End by René Girad

Listen and watch below and then reread René - at the heart of Father Barron's message is the explanation of the expulsion of the Other - violence.



To begin to grasp The Love that is freely given we must tear down our defenses, our violence which is always expelling the other. Violence, our violence is what This Love comes to heal.

Read René!

George Bailey @ the Nativity

ht: Mark Shea

And then Hope

Franciscans - St. John the Baptist Province 150th Jubilee Videos




Check out the 150th Anniversary Series Archive
In 1209, POPE INNOCENT III approved a plan by Francis of Assisi for a new way of religious life. This year, Franciscans around the world are marking the Eighth Centenary of the founding of their Order. In 1859, the entity that became St. John the Baptist Province in Cincinnati was formally erected as a “custody.” This 12-part series, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the province, celebrates the lives and contributions of the friars.

Through me the way into the suffering city

On this eve of Christmas Eve, a sense of foreboding prevails among those who know what will be ram-rodded .. er, voted upon tomorrow on Capitol Hill. It is something so immense, so huge and hubris-filled, like King Herod and Caesar to the tenth power, that one can almost hear Stalin whispering, How many divisions does the Pope have?

In fact, it has a similar feeling tone as when this blunder (?) happened.

While Dante put defrauders of the commonweal in a particularly nasty circle of hell, the political elite who are accomplishing this piece of legislation are feeling a grand sense of pleasure and self-righteousness. Eternal reward or punishment by their standards of judgment are far removed from the Magisterium of the Church, even for rather higher-ups in the legislative society for mutual self-admiration.

They were elected. They enjoy the greatest power and glory afforded leaders in the free world. They are "progressive"; surely they know better than any reactionary ecclesiastical sticks-in-the-mud who flaunt Catholic truth, faith, and morals.

Right? Right?

Keillor - Don't Mess with Christmas

Well. O. Kay. Garrison Keillor, buddy, there's hope for you yet:

Unitarians listen to the Inner Voice and so they have no creed that they all stand up and recite in unison, and that's their perfect right, but it is wrong, wrong, wrong to rewrite "Silent Night." If you don't believe Jesus was God, OK, go write your own damn "Silent Night" and leave ours alone. This is spiritual piracy and cultural elitism and we Christians have stood for it long enough. And all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write "Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we'll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah"? No, we didn't.

Christmas is a Christian holiday -- if you're not in the club, then buzz off. Celebrate Yule instead or dance around in druid robes for the solstice. Go light a big log, go wassailing and falalaing until you fall down, eat figgy pudding until you puke, but don't mess with the Messiah.

Christmas does not need any improvements. It is a common ordinary experience that resists brilliant innovation. Just make some gingerbread persons and light three candles and sing softly in dim light about the poor man gathering winter fu-u-el and the radiant beams and the holly and the ivy, and you've got it. Too many people work too hard to make Christmas perfect, find the perfect gifts, get a turkey that reaches 100 percent of potential. Perfection is a goal of brilliant people and it is unnecessary where Christmas is concerned..Read all ...

Gnostic American Reformation

You've probably seen it elsewhere, but here is Robert Samuelson's "A Parody of Leadership," a scathing indictment of not only the boondoggle of "health care reform" replete with taxpayer-supported abortuarial "health services" for women, but the leadership of our commander-in-chief.

While the liberal-elite's holy grail is "universal coverage," the bill will fall short of this, by Samuelson's estimation, and a great deal more besides.

The question is: why? Why the rush, why the clandestine still-of-the-night votes, the hundreds of millions of dollars to buy votes, the reckless idiocy?

Let's stop to think a moment of where our president came from. Has he ever worked in the private sector (does the university setting count? you choose), managed a business, worked beyond politics, paid employees and allotted benefits to them?

He's a sharp fellow, brilliant mind, shrewd politician. But all he knows is hand-me-downs the likes of which he is now working pall mall to provide for every American citizen.

It's a pipe dream. (Look how well it worked in Detroit.) It is a denial of the realities of human nature and anthropology. It is an affirmation of romantic Gnosticism and every absurdity of "let's all just hold hands and get along" ideology-driven secularism known to-date.

America. It's just about too late. Wake up.

Lest Ye Become as Little Children

You can never start them too early on practicing the virtues of Marian chivalry. Join ye our merrie band and may God bless your final few days of Advent through the motherly intercession of Mary, Help of Christians.