BE KIND

Amy Welborn at Open Book posted this piece on parenting today. The link will take you there, but I wanted to post it all here as well as I know so many of us can relate to this.

Be kind, for everyone is fighting a great battle

...it is ascribed to many writers. A brief search ascribed it to Plato, Chesterton and Philo of Alexandria.

It doesn't matter. It's true. They may hide it, they might not even know it, but it remains true.

These days, because I am one, I think a lot about the parents of babies and small children. Critiqued, scolded, belittled, shunted off the back room...

Be kind.

Perhaps you have never lived it yourself, perhaps you've forgotten what it's like: the constant attention and energy required simply to get the little ones to walk in a straight, undistracted line, much less be quiet while doing so. The battles, large and small. The isolation, particularly if you're not working outside the home, from the rest of the adult world. The sheer, utter exhaustion, in which a good night's sleep is just the faintest of memories.

And just try to remember all of that the next time you see a parents and babies and toddlers out and about, doing their business, having a good time...or not. It's hard, holy work. Oh, it has its benefits - the grins, the growing, the malapropisms, the glorious truth that part of this job is sitting in the back yard watching a little boy kick a ball and a baby stare, amazed, up into the shifting leaves on the trees, the beauty of the moment rendered almost painful because you know, sooner than you can say, that it will end.

And you will be like everyone else, watching the parents and the little ones from outside, smiling sometimes, shaking your head at others, thinking that there needs to be a little bit more control in that situation over there...

Be kind.

And perhaps - say a prayer instead of being the critic. If you can, if it's appropriate, lend a hand, even to a stranger. Making faces or striking up a conversation with a fussy toddler in the grocery line is a gift that can make a mother's day. Tell the father of the difficult baby who sat behind you in Mass that his baby is beautiful and a gift. And as you walk away, say another prayer.

Oh, and if you're not a stranger, and if you're free on Saturday afternoon...offer to babysit. For no charge, except for the privilege of seeing the grins and hearing the giggles yourself.

Be kind.

DEATHS IN KANSAS

From the LA Times:

The moment is burned forever in her mind: The small exam room, her husband's ashen face, her sobs as the doctor guided a needle into her womb to kill her son.

It's been 4 1/2 years, and still Marie Becker can feel Daniel kicking inside her, kicking and kicking as she choked back hysteria — kicking until the drug stopped his heart and she felt only stillness.

FINALLY. STAR WARS DONE RIGHT

On Saturday night, I took my son to see "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith." (Hmmm....Star Wars: ROTS? What an unfortunate anacronym.) THIS is the movie I have been waiting for from Geoerge Lucas since 1983 after seeing "Return of the Jedi." I did not see the first two installments of this current "prequel" trilogy in theaters, but on DVD and have to say that quite honestly: they stunk. However, Episode III, while a little slow in the beginning, ended with a flourish and transformed me once again into a teenager, finally watching a fitting end to the great story of his youth. Once again, I was a little boy. Thank you George.

As for the hype in the press about the movie being a dig at President Bush or having some similar agenda, I say poppycock. There was as much anti-Bush in this movie as their was anti-Semiticism in "The Passion of the Christ." If you have an agenda, or want to stir up viewers for higher ratings, I guess you say what you have to say.

I didn't read The Lord of the Rings until this year, and will begin Narnia later this summer. So for me, the Star Wars saga was the great story of my childhood. And finally Mr. Lucas made my inner-child smile. Bravo!

A few interesting notes: Driving home I mentioned to my son that I saw the first Star Wars movie in 1977 at the drive-in theater with my parents. I was nine. Nolan saw the final Star Wars movie in the theater at the age of....nine.

Speaking of Narnia, easily the best trailer that was shown prior to the movie was the trailer for "Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" due in theaters Dec. 9. Wow! I had viewed this trailer online having downloaded it, but on the big screen? Took my breath away. I cannot wait.

The others were for "War of the Worlds", "The Fantastic Four", "Cinderella Man", and "The Adventures of Shark-boy & Lava-girl in 3-D." I've read the first, loved the second as a comic while a child, am interested in seeing the third, and have NO desire to see the fourth, although I may end up going as a chaperone.

MEMORIAL WEEKEND

I will be posting very little as I'll be gone the next few days. I'm hoping to catch up on Sunday night or sometime on Monday. In the meantime I wish all of you a Happy and Blessed Memorial Weekend. Do take some time to remember those for whom this day is offered.

FROM SARAN WRAP TO RAINBOW PARTIES

Oy.

Michelle Malkin writes about a book to watch your school libraries for. I've heard of "Rainbow Parties" from their being publicized on Oprah Winfrey, no less.

LOVE AND SALVATION

Fr. John De Celles has a nice article on Catholic Exchange today regarding God's love for us as revealed in the Holy Trinity. A passage that stands out to me is the one I pasted below. I don't know how many times I've been asked "Are you saved?" by a well-meaning Evangelical, and I want to ask them back "Are you living so as to warrant the reward of Heaven?"

On the occassion that I have asked this, I get the scripted treatise on "works", but that is not what I mean. What I mean is 'are you in love with God enough to submit yourself to His love for you? By obeying His laws? By demonstrating that you are indeed living by faith?'

Those words, submit and obey, cause much discomfort for humans, especially Americans. But submitting to and obeying a loving sovereign Father is nothing short of loving Him right back. That is all He really asks of us. And the reward for doing so is eternal life. A pretty good deal if you ask me.

And so He came to us in the world, in love, and revealed Himself as love: as a communion of love, Father and Son, and Holy Spirit. And that love does not seek condemnation, but salvation: to restore us to receiving and returning God’s love, a love that is as eternal and limitless as the life of God Himself, the love that is the essence of "eternal life."

But does all this mean that salvation, or eternal life, is automatic — that God loves us so much we cannot be condemned to live without it? Some would like to think so. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do whatever we want, and still have heaven? Is this what John means when tells us: "Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned"? Some very devout and holy Christians argue that this exactly what it means: all we need to do is believe in Jesus, and we are saved.

However, to believe in Jesus ("the name of the only Son of God") also includes believing in what He actually told us. And what He told us, as St. John also reports, is: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (Jn 14:15; cf. 2 Jn 6: "this is love, that we follow His commandments").

CAMPFIRE: A SHORT STORY

One of the neatest short stories I've read lately.

By Benjamin Ludwig of WriteGuide.com

The best time the boy could remember, ever, was when his father and a few of the dads from the neighborhood got together to build a fire one summer night.

They set up a ring of stones off in a clearing, and gathered wood, and set up stumps for everyone to sit on. Then, when it was finally dark, all the kids from the neighborhood gathered together, and the dads lit the flames.

The dads stood one at a time to tell stories and jokes. And sometimes they stood up together to speak or to sing a song. When they did this they looked almost like boys themselves. The boy knew that it was the fire that revealed this, the way its light splashed on their faces, exposing boyish grins and winks, and lifting boyish laughs from old bellies, mixing them together with rising sparks and waves of heat.

As the boy’s own father stood and told about a time he and his friends went camping, the boy saw the fire reflected in his father’s eyes. And although the boy knew, right then, that this would be the best time he himself would ever remember, he couldn’t tell if his father felt the same way. He wasn’t sure if the fire in his father’s eyes was the same one he was seeing himself, or if it was only the reflection of one that had been set long ago, which only now had remembered that it could shine.

HOW TO READ THE CHRONICLES

In 1957 an American boy wrote C. S. Lewis to ask about the best order for reading The Chronicles of Narnia. The boy's mother believed the books should be read in order of their publication, beginning with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But the boy thought it would be better to read them in order of Narnian history, beginning with the creation of the enchanted world in The Magician's Nephew.

C. S. Lewis wrote back to the boy, saying, "I think I agree with your order for reading the books more than with your mother's," and soon afterward the publishers began to number them in this way. But Lewis, who had written bits and pieces of the books at different times, also noted that the order probably didn't much matter: "I'm not even sure that all the [books] were written in the same order in which they were published."

Factmonster.com has published the Narnian Timeline according to C.S. Lewis. I don't recall for sure, but I believe my decision was to read them in the original order. But I vacillate back and forth and by the time summer arrives, I'll end up flipping a coin I suppose.


Original Order
1950 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
1951 Prince Caspian
1952 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
1953 The Silver Chair
1954 The Horse and His Boy
1955 The Magician's Nephew
1956 The Last Battle

The current numbering on the books:
1. The Magician's Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

NARNIA SET FOR RELEASE

The first of the Narnia (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe) movies will be in theaters Dec. 9th. A sneak peek is available.

It looks amazing. I am curious as to whether they will be as true to the spirit of C. S. Lewis's writings and theology, or if they will water it down somewhat as Peter Jackson did in the LOTR trilogy, thereby giving short shrift to the Christian undertones. It may be more difficult for them to do, as Lewis himself, while best friends with Tolkien, chastised him a little for not making the LOTR more obviously an allegory (Tolkien detested allegory claims and sought to avoid them), but Lewis strove to do just that in his Narnia books.

I have been wanting to read the Narnia books for years, but just never seemed to get to them. I am only now finally reading the LOTR books after having absorbed and fallen in love with the movies. But the age-old question remains: Is it best to read the book before the movie, or vice-versa?

In the LOTR's case, I am glad now that I saw the movies first. The books are incredibly rich in subject matter, and there is no way that Peter Jackson could have put everything on screen. He's been somewhat unfairly vilified for this, but there is no pleasing the purists as we all know. On one hand, the movies may have made more sense for me the first time around had I read the books, but movies are only a few hours...books can go for days and weeks. The pleasure I've received from reading the books after the fact has been grand. There are still so many surprises in store as I read.

I'm going to take the opposite approach with Narnia...mostly because there are seven books instead of three. They are on order and I'm anxious to read them later this summer...after I finish "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King."

What a gift these two close friends gave to the world. Middle-Earth and Narnia. Shall we ever see their likes again?

CALL ME AN EXTREMIST...YET AGAIN

On second thought, summers still aren't so bad considering that our schools are getting worse, as Janice Shaw Crouse writes, things are getting increasingly bizarre. Planned Parenthood is now advocating the use of Saran Wrap by 8th graders as a means of protection when engaging in sex acts. And we thought the days of condoms on bananas were surreal...

How did we get to the point where it must be assumed that 8th graders are going to be “performing” oral and anal sex and we have to equip them to do it “safely”? This wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that the sex education lobby — in its supposed superior wisdom — has been pushing to strip kids as young as kindergarten age of their innocence by insisting that they be taught about every kind of deviant sexual practice long before they are emotionally ready for such information.

The Saran Wrap recommendation ought to remove any remaining doubts about Planned Parenthood’s agenda and its qualifications to have a voice in determining our school’s sex-education curriculum. Added proof, the interim president of Planned Parenthood, Karen Pearl, complained that President Bush wanted to increase funding for “dangerous abstinence-only programs by nearly 25 percent.” Without a shred of evidence and contrary to numerous studies, Pearl also asserted that these programs “don’t work” and that the President is catering to “ideological extremists.”

She claims they don't work despite so much evidence to the contrary. Evidence that repeatedly gets drowned out or ignored totally by the media.

Liars, and dangerous liars, one and all.

AN ODE TO SUMMERS LONG GONE

Orley Hood writes in the Clarion (Mississippi) Ledger today of the lazy days of summer long gone by. He captures the summers that I remember vividly. Summertime was a time of no cares, no worries, and no structure. Today, our children are barraged by all three. We have become a nation of people that has forgotten how to play, how to play together, and hence (I would argue) get along with each other.

In my childhood, we had the choice of two lots...one we designated for football, the other for baseball. Between the six or seven of us we would have baseball games that began at 9am that went for 4-6 hours. Time stood still in the summer. Until one by one we heard our mothers calling us home for supper. Then maybe we could get back out if we hurried through supper and get one or two more innings in before the sun set on our day. I wish my kids had that as well.

In a previous world, one that no longer exists in many of our communities, kids as young as 8 or 9 would wake up on summer mornings, gulp a bowl of cereal, grab bat, ball and glove, jump on their bike and pedal off into the day, not to return till suppertime.

Theirs was a civilization far removed from mothers and fathers, from adult restrictions, from glaring eyes separated far too long from their own childhoods.

In my town early on Saturday mornings the boys would meet on one corner and their dogs would meet on another corner. The day was young and the heart was full.

We'd play ball all morning, hit up somebody's mother for lunch, then swim at the city pool all afternoon, working our way home house by house, playing cards here or jumping on a trampoline there, kings of the world, masters of our universe.

NICE IDEA, BUT...

Beer mats?

The Roman Catholic church is to launch a recruitment campaign to get more young people to become priests.

It plans to use the slogan “get collared for the challenge of a lifetime”.

Posters will appear in the London Underground and the campaign will also be run on beer mats that will be handed out at youth festivals and in chaplaincies.

"YOU MIGHT BE IN A FAITH COMMUNITY IF..."

Jeff Miller, over at The Curt Jestor, had a post from yesterday that made me spew my coffee out over my keyboard. Painful as that was, it was also painful to know that he's on the mark with too many of these.

Faith community seems to be one of those annoying terms used when people are unable to say church. People with this defect will also substitute Presider for Priest. I have wondered if a progressive with Tourette Syndrome might embarrass themselves and other by having the impulse to say things like "hierarchy", "obedience", "dogma", etc. This would be quite embarrassing in progressive company. The term faith community seems to be prevalent in places not exactly faithful to the magisterium, though I am also sure that there are those who use the term that are. I wonder if anybody ever says "It's time to get up and to get ready for faith community" or "What time does faith community start today?" The following list is some of my reader's helpful suggestions.

• If you can't find the tabernacle, you might be in a faith community
• If you don't know what a pew is, you might be in a faith community
• If you are Catholic and have ever heard the term "love offering", you might be in a faith community
• If your worship center distributes America magazine, you might be in a faith community
• If among the first communicants, more than three boys take the Christian name "Brandon", you might be in a faith community
• If among the first communicants, at least one girl takes the name "Brandon", you might be in a faith community
• If the baptismal font has running or heated water, you might be in a faith community
• If "Lamb of God" is used interchangeably with "Warming Wind", you might be in a faith community
• If the giant LCD monitor falls and crushes more than three liturgists, you might be in a faith community
• If the womens' club at your worship center distributes native american dreamcatchers, you might be in a faith community.
• If "dark night of the soul" is used as a euphemism for indigestion, you might be in a faith community

To which I will add a few of my own:

• If you believe the "Source and summit of the faith is dialogue", you might be in a faith community.
• If you have a rainbow altar cloth, you might be in a faith community.
• If Father McBrien was quoted so much that you thought he was one of the Apostles, you might be in a faith community.
• If you thought Natural Family Planning meant using organic contraceptives, you might be in a faith community.
• If you heard a scream from the rectory when Josef Ratzinger was chosen as Pope, you might be in a faith community.
• If you have never heard the word "conscience" preceded by the word "informed", you might be in a faith community.
• If those not wearing rainbows sashes are denied Communion, you might be in a faith community.
• If a large part of the church's budget goes to felt for banners, you might be in a faith community.
• If the kneelers are covered with barb wire to discourage use, you might be in a faith community.
• If after your new church is built you thought that you should recommend the architect to your boss for building the company's new warehouse, you might be in a faith community.
• If Father, Son and Holy Spirit is replaced by Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, you might be in a faith community.
• If you thought that you had possibly heard the hymn sung by Barney before, you might be in a faith community.
• If there are Planned Parenthood ads in the back of the bulletin, you might be in a faith community.
• If you have heard of the Catechism, but have never actually seen one or heard it quoted, you might be in a faith community.
• If Ms. Magazine is in the literature rack, you might be in a faith community.
• If you see no anti-Catholic bias in the Boston Globe, you might be in a faith community.
• If your usher greets you saying "Hi my name is Bob and my enneagram type is the reformer", you might be in a faith community.
• If you have ever found marbles, sand, or goldfish* in your Holy Water font, you might be in a faith community.
• Your pretty sure the GIRM is on the Index librorum prohibitorum, you might be in a faith community.
• When discussing doctrine you have heard the term "Survey says!", you might be in a faith community.
• If the only Latin term you know is "Sensus Fidelium.", you might be in a faith community.

* I actually heard one caller into EWTN ask Fr. Trigilio about their pastor placing goldfish in the Holy Water font.

NEW AGE INVASION?

From an interview with a former New Ager who converted to the Catholic faith. How many of you have noticed as she says, that over the past few years especially, "spiritual" is used more and more by people when describing themselves.

Question: What do people mean when they say, "I'm not religious, but I'm very spiritual?"?

Answer: "Spiritual" seems to be one of the trendy catch words coming out of the New Age movement, because New Agers never say, "I'm of this faith" or "that faith". What they say is, "I'm spiritual" because the New Age movement came from the spiritualist movement. The spiritualist movement was a big movement in America around the turn of the century, with people like Madam Blavatsky. This all came from the time when people started believing in Darwinism. We didn't need God anymore. Now people are saying that they are "spiritual." We don't need any religious truth or religious facts, because we can make up our own gods again.

ALL-STAR TRIBUTE TO JPII

I'm not sure what to make of this, to be honest. Better late than never? But why is the cynic in me questioning their motives?

Britney Spears, Nsync and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler are among a host of stars who have teamed up to pay tribute to the late Pope John Paul II.

The stars appear in Tribute to Pope John Paul II, a celebration of the pontiff's thoughts on peace, love, harmony, prayers and poetry.

INDULGENCES EXPLAINED

I've always had a hard time explaining them as I don't understand them myself. This article helps.

A TALE OF TWO CHURCHES

Oh my. Look at Oakland's new cathedral.

Why didn't they go with this one?

"YOU MUST PRAY FOR THEM"

I originally posted the following on May 31, 2002. Our cenacle has decided to go to the Newman Center on Thursday for a Holy Hour to pray for the newly ordained, and when I found this old post of mine from my Confirmand blog, it seemed relevant once again. Indeed it never ceased to be relevant.

I've simply got to get this in before I head to bed. Two nights ago at our regular Tuesday night Cenacle (which I thought particularly Spirit-filled) we read and meditated on Mary's message of May 28, 1976. I quote:

This is the hour of error, which is succeeding in entering everywhere and especially in seducing many of my priest-sons. Do not be astonished if you see fall those who, still only yesterday, seemed the most faithful and most secure. You will see fall even those who set themselves up as teachers as others. Do not be surprised if, in this battle, those fall who did not want or did not know how to use the weapon that I myself gave you: my prayer, the simple and humble prayer of the holy rosary. It is a simple and humble prayer, and therefore it is most efficacious in combating Satan who today is leading you astray especially by ostentation and pride. (100d)

1976! I wonder...how many are watching events unfold in this world, viewing them in the eyes and from the point of view of this world, and fretting? Or, are they full of pride and thinking that'll somehow it'll all work out because it always does?

I wonder. But those of us watching events that truly are important, are hopefully doing what Mary commanded in the line previous to the passage I just quoted. She said simply: You must pray for them. (100c)

We must pray...let us pray...the most holy rosary.

TO DRINK DEATH LIKE WATER

I have been reading Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen, off and on for over three years, and find it a fantastic book. At the end of the first chapter, he writes the following paragraph...it is one I offer up for you as well. I hope to reach the point of "drinking death like water." This indeed is the Christ we need today....and the Christ that the world fears. Look for more quotes from the book to be posted by me as I've highlighted several passages within it that are extraordinary.

“If He is what He claimed to be, a Savior, a Redeemer, then we have a virile Christ and a leader worth following in these terrible times; One Who will step into the breach of death, crushing sin, gloom and despair; a leader to Whom we can make totalitarian sacrifice without losing, but gaining freedom, and Whom we can love even unto death. We need a Christ today Who will make cords and drive the buyers and sellers from our new temples; Who will blast the unfruitful fig tree; Who will talk of crosses and sacrifices and Whose voice will be like the voice of the raging sea. But He will not allow us to pick and choose among His words, discarding the hard ones, and accepting the ones that please our fancy. We need a Christ Who will restore moral indignation, Who will make us hate evil with a passionate intensity, and love goodness to a point where we can drink death like water.”

FAITH, FACT, AND FEELING

Yet another from the archives, and one of my favorites:

There is a Chinese parable about faith and feeling. Fact, Faith, and Feeling are three men walking along the top of a wall. As long as Faith keeps his eyes on Fact, ahead of him, all three keep walking. But when Faith takes his eyes off Fact and turns around to worry about how Feeling is doing, both Faith and Feeling fall off the wall. (But Fact never does.)

This ought to get the relativists in a tizzy. What is fact? What is Truth? What makes you think your Truth is the right Truth? Yadda-yadda-yadda. Sometimes I honestly think that the Patron Saint of America is Pontius Pilate.

MARY AND THE MOSLEMS

Another old posting I did was on Mary and The Moslems. It is an excellent article written by Fulton Sheen in 1952 and reprinted in the October 2001 Mindszenty Report. Especially interesting is the relationship of Fatima to both Christians and Moslems.

BE NOT PROUD

I went back and looked at my old blog, The Confirmand, and decided to pull some of the posts from there and place them here. I posted on this blog three years ago before creating this blog. It’s pretty uneven, but there were some good things there. Beginning with this:

This is a continuation of the 73 Steps to Spiritual Communion with God. The previous posts can be found throughout the archives on Michael Dubriel's site. He began listing the steps in April 2002, and I wish they were available all as one document. This is the 34th step. Pride is a continuing struggle for me......

(34) Not to be proud...

I do not think that it is a mistake that pride is mentioned right after persecution. There are tales that at the times in the early Church, when persecution was waged against the church, that some Christians actively sought to be persecuted and martyred. This was against Our Lord's command: "When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next," (Matthew 10:23), and here St. Benedict cautions us not to be proud.

This is a fundamental principle to the Spiritual Life. You can not be proud. Once you start to gloat over the spiritual gifts that you are blessed with, or how well you are doing in prayer, or how much better you are, or how high you are up on the spiritual ladder---you are right back at the bottom of the pit. Your ego has won again and God is very distant from you.

There is a prayer to pray when you feel "proud " of your spiritual accomplishments. Not surprisingly it comes from God Himself in the person of Jesus. Jesus tells his disciples, "when you have done all that is commanded you, say, `We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty,'" (Matthew 17:10).

We must avoid pride, because it is a great obstacle to be open to our great and unrelenting need for God. Pride at its root seeks to cut God out of the picture. It goes without saying then that pride is the greatest enemy to our communion with God, but it also needs to be said that it is a great temptation when we find our lives becoming so much better because of our communion with Him.

LEAVING THE LEFT

Keith Thompson, in a column on Sunday, wrote of his leaving the American cultural left after over thirty years as a “card carrying liberal.”

A turning point came at a dinner party on the day Ronald Reagan famously described the Soviet Union as the pre-eminent source of evil in the modern world. The general tenor of the evening was that Reagan's use of the word "evil" had moved the world closer to annihilation. There was a palpable sense that we might not make it to dessert.

When I casually offered that the surviving relatives of the more than 20 million people murdered on orders of Joseph Stalin might not find "evil'" too strong a word, the room took on a collective bemused smile of the sort you might expect if someone had casually mentioned taking up child molestation for sport.

My progressive companions had a point. It was rude to bring a word like "gulag" to the dinner table.

I look back on that experience as the beginning of my departure from a left already well on its way to losing its bearings. Two decades later, I watched with astonishment as leading left intellectuals launched a telethon- like body count of civilian deaths caused by American soldiers in Afghanistan. Their premise was straightforward, almost giddily so: When the number of civilian Afghani deaths surpassed the carnage of Sept. 11, the war would be unjust, irrespective of other considerations.

I had a similar experience in 1993. I had grown up in a left-of-center household, and my mind was molded as a teenager by the culture to dislike Ronald Reagan, that conservatives were ridiculous people (Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties), and college only drove it home further. But in 1993, I had my “Road to Damascus” moments. President Clinton came on TV to say that he “tried and worked as hard as he ever had, but that he would NOT be lowering taxes, thereby breaking the campaign pledge for which I had voted for him. Then a few weeks later, I listened to Rush Limbaugh for the first time, and heard the views that I had always felt deep down but was taught to bury within by the liberals around me, espoused and championed. My transformation had begun.

Today I find myself moving back towards the center however. And while reading this article, something struck me. Politics has replaced religion as the way that people view themselves and the world. It is an imperfect model for a few reasons. First, because religion is based upon God, not on man. Politics as religion is the opposite. And as any honest religious person of faith can tell you, man is the LAST entity upon which to hold up as an ideal standard. See Psalms 118:8-9.

This is a topic I’ll need to revisit sometime…interesting concept I think. Stay tuned.

ABORTION ON THE AIR

Pia de Solenni writes about a horrible moment in talk radio:

Caller number four was Theresa. She was calling to talk about her "son's father's mother" and her abortions. After explaining that the now deceased woman had had ten abortions, one of which she performed upon herself — Elliot volunteered to give her a posthumous award — Theresa asked, "Is there any way that I can get a t-shirt?" Theresa, there are easier ways to get a t-shirt...

Interestingly, of the eight callers during this segment, four were men. One asked, "Hey, um, does me givin' one count?" Naturally, Elliot's interest was perked: "Are you a doctor?" The caller laughed, "No, I'm a dude. Just an average Joe." As he
recounted the story, it had something to do with the girlfriend of a friend. Elliot replied, "Alright. Ok. No, no. There's part of me that wants to know this story but I think, I think, it's probably a bad idea." And they all laughed — a perfect setup for the next caller who identified himself as "K-dog."

K-dog: "I got all these people beat. Between my first wife and my second wife, uh, 16 [abortions]. And I got five kids."
Elliot: "Are you lying just to get on the radio?"
K-dog: "Naw. Swear to God."
Elliot: "Oh. But wait a minute. You. That's very funny. You didn't personally get 16 women pregnant."...
K-dog: "I got two women pregnant 16 times."

That's "very funny?" More and more these days I find myself shutting off the radio. Pop music is just plain awful, classic rock leaves me bored anymore (been there, done that), and talk radio is getting more shrill all the time. Air America is at best boring, and at worst an assault on my values. Other than Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio, or at times Rush Limbaugh, that’s about it. Sean Hannity used to be the best, but has degenerated into a shrill parody of himself so that he’s inane if not the most obnoxious self-promoter anywhere. Laura Ingraham and Glenn Beck have moments where I laugh so hard I have to almost pull off to the side of the road, but I rarely get to listen to them as I’m at work. If I had heard the segment aired above, and at 8:30am no less, I would have been pulling off the side of the road to loose my breakfast and to weep.

BUMPER STICKER OF THE WEEK

...was seen on the car of a teenage blonde driving in front of us Saturday night. At the stoplight I got a good look at the black sticker with white letters that said simply: "Cancer Sucks".

True enough. And then I watched little-miss-bumper-sticker take a long drag off of her cigarette, and turn left when the green arrow flashed.

Ah, irony.

FOR THE JOURNEY...

The 15-volume set on the liturgical year was composed in the mid-19th century by a monk in the Abbey of Solesmes in France. It is a profound work and one that I will cite here quite often I am sure.

From "The Liturgical Year: Vol. IX - Paschal Time Book III
by Dom Prosper Gueranger O.S.B.:

The series of mysteries, from Advent to Lent to Easter, is now completed, and the movable cycle of the liturgy has come to its close. We first passed, during Advent, the four weeks which represented the four thousand years spent by mankind in entreating the eternal Father to send His Son. Our Emmanuel at length came down; we shared in the joys of His Birth, in the dolours of His Passion, in the glory of His Resurrection, in the triumph of His Ascension. Lastly, we have witnessed the descent of the Holy Ghost upon us, and we know that He is to abide with us to the last. Holy Church has assisted us throughout the whole of this sublime drama, which contains the work of our salvation. Her heavenly canticles, her magnificent ceremonies, have instructed us day by day, enabling us to follow and understand each feast and season. Blessed be this mother for the care wherewith she has placed all these great mysteries before us, thus giving us light and love! Blessed by the sacred liturgy, which has brought us so much consolation and encouragement! We have now to pass through the immovable portion of the cycle: we shall find sublime spiritual episodes worthy of all our attention. Let us then prepare to resume our journey: let us take fresh courage in the thought that the Holy Ghost will direct our steps, and, by the sacred liturgy, of which He is the inspirer, will continue to throw open to us
treasures of precept and example.

And so Our Lord is seated at His Father's right hand. And we are left without Him here on our journey...our sojourn in exile upon the earth. But he has not left us alone. He has given us such a tremendous, and often under-appreciated gift...the Holy Spirit. Tomorrow is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. The second reading from tomorrow's Mass follows. May the Spirit be with us all as we wait in joyful hope for the Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ. May he encourage, strengthen, and lift you up during your journey.

Reading II
2 Cor 13:11-13

Brothers and sisters, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the holy ones greet you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

THE CATHOLIC RIOTS OF '89

Remember when this happened?

American Catholics lashed out in violent rampages in 1989, after photographer Andres Serrano's ''Piss Christ" -- a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine -- was included in an exhibition subsidized by the National Endowment for the Arts. Or that they rioted in 1992 when singer Sinead O'Connor, appearing on ''Saturday Night Live," ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II.

I don't either. Because they never happened. As Jeff Jacoby points out,

Christians, Jews, and Buddhists don't lash out in homicidal rage when their religion is insulted. They don't call for holy war and riot in the streets. It would be unthinkable today for a mainstream priest, rabbi, or lama to demand that a blasphemer be slain. But when Reuters reported what Mohammad Hanif, the imam of a Muslim seminary in Pakistan, said about the alleged Koran-flushers -- ''They should be hung. They should be killed in public so that no one can dare to insult Islam and its sacred symbols" -- was any reader surprised?

Yet to the secular left, America is in danger of becoming a theocracy (indeed Maureen Dowd of the NYTimes said we already reside in one in a typical fit of moonbat hystrionics). Nothing could be further than the truth. We are a nation of religious people and cultures...a mixed bag of those who worship God. A theocracy exists when everyone is forced to worship the SAME god in the SAME way. Ain't happening here folks. If they spent a week in a Muslim-dominated country observing a theocracy in action, and survived to tell the tale, they'd stop bloviating and appreciate what they have.

FLUSH HOLLYWOOD

Aside from the fact that a) it's amazingly difficult to flush an entire book down the commode; and b) the false indignation is such a blatant offensive thing that I don't even know where to begin. I'm not going to revisit the entire Newsweek fiasco, except as to say where are these defenders of books of faith whenever the bible is desecrated? Brent Bozell gives a hint as to the why behind that question in chronicling offenses committed againt the Eucharist.

The riots caused by Newsweek's story claiming American interrogators were flushing the Koran caused many Americans to be amazed by the extreme reaction in the Islamic world. Ken Woodward, the long-time religion writer of Newsweek, tried to explain to Christians just how offensive Koran-flushing is to Muslims: "Recitation of the Koran is for Muslims much like what receiving the Eucharist is for Catholics -- a very intimate ingestion of the divine itself."

There's a certain irony here. If you wanted to see the Eucharist in the toilet, you needed only to watch the NBC sitcom "Committed" in February, when NBC played for laughs the idea that two main characters thought they accidentally dropped a communion wafer in a bar toilet.

Hollywood makes lame jokes and harsh satires of Christianity all the time, figuratively and literally tossing Jesus, the Bible and church figures into the toilet. Those alleged American interrogators are pikers compared to Tinseltown. They could learn at the feet of the masters of mockery.

BACK AT THE MOVIES

Ok. Let's make the leap from The Dominion to Star Wars, shall we? PunditGuy has an interesting theory on the Hidden Message of Star Wars: Episode III.

The Anchoress chimes in beautifully here.

Chris Weinkopf first approached this debate in 2002:

Now Glazov would probably read all this as proof that celibacy makes Vaders out of men, and that's what the Jedi Council gets for its prudish disciplines. Another interpretation, though, is that it was not the rules that brought about Skywalker's downfall, but his straying from them. The Jedi Council effectively defended the galaxy for centuries until some impish mop-top from Tatooine decided he wanted a girlfriend. Discarding the wisdom of the ages in favor of the momentary impulse is dangerous business.

Interesting thoughts, all of them. I wonder why it is that we are always taking things within pop culture and attempting mold them into this or that view of the world that best suits or own. Or we do the opposite, and see the "conspiracy" behind things. While I am a conservative on most things, and a supporter of President Bush, I am embarrassed by the constant harping the past few nights on the news by those who see an "anti-Bush" message in Star Wars.

As far as I'm concerned, the only place we should be looking for messages is in Scripture, or meditation and prayer. In short, those that come from the Holy Spirit, not from George Lucas.

A YEAR LATER...

I have been gone for one year. Much has happened. Much has changed.

And my first post in coming back is about this? Well...yes. In his review of the latest Exorcist movie, John Miller asks a question that I just could not pass up. The last year for me has been full of trials as I've gone through my own spiritual hell. There were times I did NOT want to look up. Because when you do ashamedly do so, you do get a great view of God.

The Exorcist — the original — is full of Deep Thoughts. There's an awful lot going in that film, and a lot to think about afterward: the power of faith, the nature of evil, and the question of why a benevolent God would permit the demonic possession of an innocent girl. The same can't be said for Dominion, though it does include one line I still can't get out of my head: "Sometimes I think the best view of God is from hell." If I were a theology Ph.D. student, I'd walk into my next seminar of undergrads, repeat the line, and say, "Discuss."