All Else Confusion

From The Wine Dark Sea

Labels: Quiz

Melanie reflects on something that has always bothered me: the determination of some parents to keep all fun and fantasy out of their children's lives. At this time of the year, the question revolves around whether or not to introduce children to the Santa Claus tradition. Some parents believe that allowing their children to believe in Santa is somehow lying to their children, and doing them a disservice by not teaching them about the real world. In reality it's the other way around. As Melanie puts it:

I feel deeply sorry for children who are deprived of fancy and wonder, who live only in the sordid here and now. There's time enough to learn about the cold harshness of this world when they are older.

Which is not to say that children who live in fancy have no sense of good and evil. Indeed, the land of fairy is populated with witches and giants and ogres and dragons. But where it differes from our "real world" of everyday is that in fancy good triumphs over evil. The witch is burned in her own oven, the giant's beanstalk is felled by a peasant boy, the dragon is slain by a knight in shining armor.

And in the final analysis which more clearly reflects the Christian understanding, the "real world" where criminals go free and evil wins, or the "fantasy world" where evil is always defeated?

Melanie also links to this article: Yes, Aquinas, There Is a Santa Claus. The author uses the Thomistic form to point out that the Santa Claus fantasy is actually good for children because it helps to develop in children a sense of wonder and an appreciation for the truth.

When I was growing up, we always went to my grandparents' house for Christmas Eve, followed by Midnight Mass. We'd return home in the small hours of the morning, half asleep, to find that Santa had visited and there were presents everywhere. With seven kids, the presents often took up half the living room! I'll never forget the sense of awe I felt that Santa had been while we were out. When I grew old enough to be let in on the secret (my mom always forgot something and had to go back to get it while my dad got us all in the car) I became a helper, putting out gifts, getting the littler ones out the door, helping them to retain their awe and wonder with the fantasy we were creating. I'll never forget how much fun it was, and how I was able to enter back into the Santa fantasy through the excitement of my younger brothers and sisters.

The St. Paul's Cathedral Choir will present Advent Lessons and Carols this Sunday, December 3 at 4 pm. The musical selections will include Adam Lay Y-bounden, Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, The Truth From Above, and of course, The Angel Gabriel.

Labels: choir

Today is the Feast of St. Andrew, the patron of fishermen, Scotland, Greece and Russia. St. Andrew was the first Apostle called by Christ to follow him. It was Andrew who brought the news to his brother Peter, "We have found the Messiah, that is to say, the Christ."

The Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Andrew is the First Sunday in Advent.

Beginning on the Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle until Christmas Day, the Christmas Anticipation Prayer should be prayed 15 times a day. This beautiful, meditative prayer focuses our attention on central event of Christmas and helps us to prepare spritually for the birth of Christ.

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment
In which the Son of God was born
Of the most pure Virgin Mary,
at midnight,
in Bethlehem,
in the piercing cold.
In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God,
to hear my prayer and grant my desires,
[hear mention your request]
through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

Labels: Feast Day

Last night in my CCD class, one of the girls asked me if Mary suffered labor pains. She often asks these great speculative questions, and I don't want to discourage her. It was a great opportunity to encourage my students to apply what they've learned to a theological question. Of course, they were annoyed that I didn't just give them an answer! But I've been trying to teach them to think through their answers. I don't want them to just be able to parrot a catechism.

The argument went like this:

One girl: "God created woman to have pains in labor so if Mary didn't have pain that wouldn't be REASONABLE" (I've been emphasizing that God is reasonable and doesn't contradict himself.)

Second girl: "But, Mary's child was special so it would make sense if she had a special labor."

Me: "Mary is the Immaculate Conception. Conception means beginning - for people it means the moment when they begin. Immaculate means spotless, pure. That means Mary's beginning was spotless, not stained by sin."

One boy: "The effects of Original Sin are suffering and death."

Second girl: "So, if Mary didn't have Original Sin, she also didn't have the effects and didn't suffer."

We never got to a decision about whether or not Mary suffered labor pains, but I'm excited about the conversation. They were really thinking!

The discussion turned out to be very timely with the recent screening of The Nativity Story. Check out this review by American Papist and this discussion at Fr. John Zuhlsdorf's blog.

Labels: CCD, Mary

Labels: holiday

St. According to popular history, Cecilia was a young woman of noble birth. Though she vowed virginity, her parents married her to a young noble named Valerian. Valerian honored Cecilia's vow and became Christian himself, along with his brother. Both Valerian and his brother were discovered to be Christians and martyred. St. Cecilia buried her husband and his brother and thus was also discovered to be a Christian. She was locked in her bathroom to be suffocated by steam. However, she emerged unharmed and so was next beheaded. The first stroke failed to sever her head from her neck and she lived three days. She is buried in the Catacomb of Callistus outside of Rome.

St. Cecilia is the patron saint of music and is often pictured playing an organ.

Collect:Lord of mercy,
be close to those who call upon you.
With St. Cecilia to help us
hear and answer our prayers.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Labels: Feast Day

According to tradition, Mary was brought by her parents to the temple at the age of three and consecrated to the service of God. This feast is celebrated in both the Western and Eastern churches.

Collect:
Eternal Father,
we honor the holiness and glory of the Virgin Mary.
May her prayers bring us
the fullness of your life and love.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who
lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Labels: Feast Day

Preston Sturges: The Filmmakers Collection is now available on DVD. Be still my beating heart! Sturges is one of my favorite directors. Screwball comedy is my favorite movie genre and Sturgest took it a a new level. His snappy, at times sarcastic, dialogue is considered by many to retain its freshness, even 60 years later. And, his movies are funny! I don't think anyone could match wits with Sturges.

The set contains 7 famous Sturges films made between 1940 and 1944. The titles include, The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story, Hail the Conquering Hero, Christmas in July, The Great McGinty, and The Great Moment. For some reason, Miracle a Morgan's Creek is missing - which will be a great loss for anyone who buys the set, though it doesn't matter to me because I already have it. In fact, amazingly, the only DVD in the collection that I already own is Hail the Conquering Hero.

This could make a great Christmas present!

Labels: movies

When I first moved back to Worcester, I organized a young adult group. We took St. Elizabeth of Hungary as our patron. The daughter of the king of Hungary, Elizabeth was married at 14 to a German prince. She was known for her charitable work with the sick and the poor. Her husband was also very religious, but worried about her contact with the poor. Therefore, he forbade her from taking bread to the poor. But, Elizabeth still tended to the poor. One day, while she was bringing bread to the poor, Elizabeth encountered her husband. He looked under her mantle to see what she was carrying, but the bread had turned to roses. Elizabeth was widowed at a young age when her husband was killed in the crusades. She cared for her three children and entered religious life as a third order Franciscan. Therefore, Elizabeth, who had embraced both the vocation of married life and the vocation of religious life was extremely suitable to be our patron. Elizabeth died at the age of 24.

Collect:
Father,
You helped Elizabeth of Hungary
to recognize and honor Christ
in the poor of this world.
Let her prayers help us to serve our brothers and sisters
in time of trouble and need.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Labels: Feast Day

Time Magazine does a decent job writing about one of my favorite topics - the phenominal growth of orthodox orders of sisters. It's nice to see this news finally getting out. I've been blessed to have first hand knowledge of many vibrant, orthodox orders through many friends who have entered religious life. Orders such as the Sisters of Life, the Nashville Dominicans, and the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist are full of young sisters and give hope to the Church. God's call is still being answered by young women, full of enthusiasm and eager to live the radical "gift of self" so often mentioned by John Paul II.

The article itself is surprisingly positive:

And although the extreme conservatism of a nun's life may seem wholly countercultural for young American women today, that is exactly what attracts many of them, say experts and the women themselves. "Religious life itself is a radical choice," says Brother Paul Vednarczyk, executive director of the National Religious Vocation Conference in Chicago. "In an age where our primary secular values are sex, power and money, for someone to choose chastity, obedience and poverty is a radical statement."

(Just a technical point - the article refers to "nuns" throughout. "Nuns" are those female religious who live in a cloister and are comtemplative. The female religious mostly refered to in the article are in fact "sisters", members of active communities.)

h/t American Papist

Labels: sisters

There's quite a ruckus at American Papist over this post from yesterday in which he criticizes Cardinal Martino for weighing in on the proposed U.S.-Mexico fence. Michael and Katrina from Evangelical Catholicism take AmP to task for his "inconsistency and conflagation of religion and politics". Their argument is that since Pope Benedict has appointed Cardinal Martino as the head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, he is within his "competence" to speak specifically about the merits of the U.S. wall. What Michael and Katrina don't seem to realize is that there is a difference between the Cardinal making a statement of principle, such as the need to be respecful of all those who have entered our country, legally or illegally, and making a value judgement about that which properly belongs to the prudential decisions of the government on how to deal with those immigrants. Michael and Katrina's posts can be read here and here.

Even the letter from the US Bishops, that Michael posts, shows that their opposition to the wall is a matter of opinion and not of absolute truth:

However, we are opposed to this legislation because we believe it could lead to the deaths of migrants attempting to enter the United States and increased smuggling-related violence along our border. We also believe it would send the wrong signal to our peaceful neighbor to the south, Mexico, as well as the international community. Finally, we do not believe it will solve the problem of illegal immigration faced by our nation. "

Thus, while the bishops "believe" that the erection of a wall on the Mexican border could lead to these offenses against the dignity of potential immigrants, and their concerns should be taken seriously, it is possible and permissible that some Catholics could view the wall in a different light.

Boethius' reply in the combox states it well:

It looks like I stumbled upon this fight too late, but I'll still make a brief defense of the American Papist.

The American Papist's criticism of Cardinal Martino should not be viewed in isolation. Cardinal Martino has shown himself to be one of the most outspoken of Vatican Curial officials and has regularly displayed an anti-American attitude. He also routinely jumps into political debates which involve the *application* of Catholic principles and where there is room for legitimate disagreement. Nevertheless, this point is usually lost on the media that reports on Cardinal Martino and the press routinely refers to Martino's political statements as though they are official Church moral teaching.

A few years ago, Martino made headlines after Hussein was captured when he defended Hussein in the media and declared that the American military appeared to be treating Hussein "like a cow." (I'm paraphrasing -- I don't remember the exact quote.)

Martino regularly offers praise for the United Nations and opposes American foreign policy. Again, there is nothing in Church social teaching that requires a sovereign nation such as the United States to defer to an international body such as the United Nations. Despite the U.N.'s political and moral corruption, Martino continues to speak out against America and in favor of the U.N. He has the right to his opinion, but it is not within his special competence (politics being the special province of the laity -- see Deus Caritas Est, para. 29) to make political decisions for all Catholics and we are certainly within our rights to publicly disagree with him.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, just last week, Cardinal Martino spoke out against the Saddam Hussein verdict of death by hanging. This time, Martino completely distorted the Catholic Church's position on the death penalty, basically stating that it is never acceptable to use the death penalty. This is NOT the Church teaching as promulgated by John Paul in Evangelium Vitae and adopted by the most recent edition of the Catechism.

I can understand why Catholics don't like to see Cardinals publicly criticized, but it is *you* (the critics of the critics) who are too quickly rushing to condemn such criticism without realizing the many reasons which exist in support of the criticism.

Also, please remember the difference between Catholic principles -- which all Catholics should adhere to -- and those issues which are political. When Cardinals and Bishops stray into the political arena, they should expect to have their ideas challenged. I would prefer not to have to publicly criticize them, but many members of the institutional Church continue in the mistaken belief that they should be directly engaged in politics. Pope Benedict explained in Deus Caritas Est that this role belongs to the laity and that the Church should instead focus on forming consciences. In my experience of his writings, the American Papist does not pick and choose Church teaching, but instead limits his criticisms and disagreements to those areas where disagreement is legitimate.

St. Albertus Magnus was one of the Church's greatest intellects. Teacher to St. Thomas Aquinas, he was renowned for an experise in biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geography, metaphysics, mathematics, biblical studies, and theology. Now that's well rounded!

Collect:
God Our Father,
you endowed St. Albert with the talent
of combining human wisdom with divine faith.
Keep us true to his teachings
that the advance of human knowledge
may deepen our knowledge and love of you.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Labels: Feast Day

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
Boston
The West
North Central
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Inland North
The South
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

If the answer you got was way, way off what it should be, well, there's probably a reason for that, but we can't figure it out now.

Labels: Quiz

This show looks really interesting! A cooking priest is starting a new PBS show called Grace Before Meals. He goes to a family's homes, helps them cooks a meal, and then shares that meal (after grace of course!) with them. What a great idea.

Check out the Pilot Sample.

H/T to Jason.

Time to start practicing Christmas music in choir. Just three weeks until Advent Lessons and Carols!

Labels: choir

Please pray for one of my friends from school this summer. She was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent an operation on the Feast of All Saints. Thanks.

Labels: prayer request

No, not to me.

I got my friend hooked on the Lord Peter Wimsey series by Dorothy Sayers and he called last night to remind me that I needed to go visit him soon - and bring more books! He still needs to read Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon, the last two books in the series, which caused me to reflect on my favorite marriage proposal in all of literature. The proposal is made by Lord Peter Wimsey to Harriet Vane in Gaudy Night. I can't fully explain how it effects me, but everytime I read it I'm still surprised with the perfectness of it. The proposal has been building for several books, and yet it always takes me somewhat by surprise.

Gaudy Night is the best of all the Lord Peter books. Melanie was commenting recently on the disappointment she feels when reading subsequent works of an author because she was introduced to the author by their best work. Fortunately, that doesn't happen with the Lord Peter Wimsey series since Gaudy Night is the second to last book in the series. Whose Body?, the first book in the series, is an entertaining murder mystery which makes delightful introductions of many of the key characters in the series, including Lord Peter's famous first utterance, "Oh, damn!" as he realizes that he forgot the catalogue to the rare books sale he's rushing to. It's not the best, but it's a necessary piece of the whole.

The Lord Peter Wimsey series reminds me of the song, Nice 'n'Easy:

We're on the road to romance - that's safe to say
But let's make all the stops along the way

Don't cheat yourself. Start at the beginning and don't miss any of the stops. It's a delightful ride and you'll end up at a perfect marriage proposal.

Courtesy of Dom, I read this excellent homily on the crisis of vocations to the priesthood in the United States. Fr. Phillip, OP was riled up and had something to say!

There is no vocations crisis in this country. None. There is a crisis of courage. God has called all the men we need to serve His Church as priests. More than enough. There is never a lack of abundant blessings from our Father. There is, however, a lack of generous acceptance of His abundance.

We need young men who will step up and offer themselves as servant-leaders. We need young men who will battle the dissenting professors in the seminaries, who will step up and take charge in the parishes as men of God, who are not embarrassed by their vocation and who will proudly proclaim themselves religious, priests, and servants. We need young men who will patiently work with faithful lay men and women to prepare them for leadership roles proper to the lay charism. In other words, gentlemen, we need you to say YES to God’s call to you. We need young men with great big hearts to stand up, come forward, and do the job that Christ has left us to do: to teach, to preach, to celebrate his sacraments, and to show us the Way as faithful men of this century.

It's short but powerful.

The glorious company of the apostles praise Thee.
The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise Thee.
The white-robed army of martyrs praise Thee.
All Thy saints and elect with one voice do acknowledge Thee,
O Blessed Trinity, one God!

-- Feast of All Saints (November 1), Antiphon at Lauds from the Te Deum

Labels: Feast Day