March 2004 Archives

The Catholic Response to the Da Vinci Code
an online course of the CDU.

The reader mentioned in the post below did not define the term 'traditional' - but from correspondance I would like to posit what I think was meant by that term.
I think that it means a Catholic who is in agreement with and obedient to the Magisterium, both the ordinary and the extraordinary. This person, when faced with a question of faith, morals, or practice would consult the Catechism of the Catholic Church to see just what the church actually teaches on the matter. This person prefers that liturgies be conducted according to the norms of the General Instructions of the Roman Missal, and has strong opinions about the proper conduct of worship.
A traditional Catholic probably has an attachment to various traditions (and Tradition) including the Rosary, veneration of the saints (especially the BVM), the Stations of the Cross, daily prayer both formulaic and spontaneous. He or she sees being Catholic as an integral part of self, not just something frosted on the top. The precepts of the church, the works of mercy, the Sacraments, are all very important to his or her daily life.
This person also would recognize that Catholicism is incarnational, and that God gave us the things of this earth for proper use and enjoyment. This contrasts to the Puritan (Jansenist) appproach. Hence some of the blogs on cooking, drinking, cigars, poetry, healthy sexuality, etc. The stress here would be on the proper order and the natural law.
In seeming contrast to enjoyment of the gifts of God (but actually more complementary) is the reminder that 'dust we are, and to dust we shall return', with a necessary attention to mortification and alsmgiving.
I could go on for a long time here - but I would appreciate your feedback!

"One thing I'm curious about -- leaving judgements of wisdom and quality aside, why is traditional Catholicism so much better represented in the blogosphere than other varieties?"
Do any of y'all have any insights on this?

Immorality of Contraception

(Diana and I met in nursing school at Nurse's Christian Fellowship. Her son, and her sisters son, were both murdered in their car in front of their house in Los Angeles - a drive-by shooting)
These are from my sister, Linda. They all relate to her best friends, Joan and Mike.
1. Friday was the anniversary of the death of their daughter, Missy
2. Friday, Mike's niece, Joellen , gave birth to a much wanted, full term, baby girl. The baby was born at noon but by 8 PM had died. Joellen and her husband are devastated, as is the entire family. An autopsy is scheduled for today to try to find out why the baby died.
3. Joan was in Texas to help care for her grandson, Matthew. Matthew's nanny fed her son and Matthew from the same jar of baby food and her son is now in the hospital and possibly dying from a lung infection. Matthew has the same infection but is being treated at home at this time but is very ill.
4. Joan must arrange for immediate flight home to help with the baby's funeral and to be with Mike and his family in this puzzling time of grief. The entire family are wonderful Christians.
Please pray for all these special people as well as Linda and I as the 2nd anniversary of our son's deaths is next Tuesday. Thank You, Diana

The Revealer: Sunday at St. Blog's

They still haven't realized just how HUGE the parish actually is. I think they need to read through more of the blogs on the master list.

could you guys pray for my sons Marc and John? they are both in need of prayer for life decisions and so on.

Some Southerners are pretty skeptical of horoscopes and the people that read them. If we are to ever fully understand all the star signs and the people they represent, we need symbols that all true Southerners understand: See the list below...

and I thought you all might be interested.Consuming Our Children - The Culture of Life Foundation & Institute

I know, he's not even Christian. But if some of the OCP songwriters had one tenth of his talent and insight there would be a lot fewer complaints about 'modern liturgical music'.
This time, from Bird on a Wire.
Like a baby, stillborn,
like a beast with his horn
I have torn everyone who reached out for me.

The cactus has yellow flowers
Found via the comments section of Amy Welborn's blog.

National Right To Life Joins Pro-Abortion Groups

I've been listening to CDs in the car a lot lately (All 3 NPR stations that I usually listen to on the way to work are having fundraisers - Maine PR, NH PR, and WGBH). I recently pulled out my Leonard Cohen compilation after having neglected it for quite a while, and was struck by some of his phrasing. From "The Sisters of Mercy"
Yes you who must leave everything that you cannot control.
It begins with your family, but soon it comes around to your soul.
Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you've sinned
It really hit me in a strange spot. You see, I am a control freak by nature and upbringing. (I can hear the sardonic voices saying,"No Kidding! what was your first clue?") I don't cry. I was a crybaby until I was like, 8 years old, and I finally got it under control and now I just don't cry. Nope, nohow, noway. At least not for the 'normal reasons'. If I cry, it is out of rage or frustration - not sadness, not empathy. Plays havoc with grieving, as you can guess. But I digress.

Monsignor Cormac Burke Gives Tips for a Happy Union

NAIROBI, Kenya, MARCH 27, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Marriage is one of God's most intensive schools of love, where he wishes to train most of his pupils.

So says Monsignor Cormac Burke, an Opus Dei priest and former judge of the Roman Rota who teaches anthropology at Strathmore University here.

I saw the Passion of the Christ last Saturday. I am not ready to blog on it yet, but I do want to say something a little offhand.
Right now we are listening to EWTN's special on TPOTC (I say listen, because it is on my dh's computer and I am not looking at the pix). As part of the special, they are broadcasting excepts with the vocals in aramaic or whatever language it was in at the theatre. I was momentarily surprised not to understand what was being said!

writes wisely on what we can learn from some of the recent sad news. Link via Sparki and the Mommies.

I think that I have gotten more comments on Marriage Woes than on any other entry I have made. Obviously, it has touched sore spots in all our hearts. Over at Sleepy Mommies, several good comments were left. Go on over and read them.
Any one who has been married for a while knows that there are bumps in the road. Up here in New Hampshire I have been introduced to a road hazard that I had never before encountered - the frost heave. Apparently, the vegetation and so on that is under the roads absorbs moisture during the wet seasons, and then when it freezes it causes the roadway to rise up in unpredictable ways, creating a hazard to navigation. It gave me a great analogy to what can happen in a marriage, especially in a hostile climate.

We are a team of perinatal nurses currently recruiting expectant mothers
and fathers for a research study on the influence of stress on
transition to parenthood.

and a whole lot more.
very insightful observations on 'feminist wiccan nature religions' and human nature. Link via sleepy mommies.

Medical Student Being Failed at University of Manitoba for Not Providing Abortion Option
Can anything be done about this?

Defending Marriagean interesting site

01100001 01101100 01101001 01100011 01101001 01100001 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101110 01110100 01101100 01100101 01111001
Adcott's Binary Translator
what's yours?

I had heard rumours of this news but was reluctant to post anything until I could find reliable information. This seems to be reliable. Please pray for sanity to return to a man who has been a beacon for Catholic laymen in the USA.

Franciscan links (A liberal-free zone, loyal to the magisterium
Chinaflower
dedicated to the underground Catholic church in China.

There are words I do not know. 'schadenfreude', for example. I have seen it all over the place, but even in context I just don't get it. I guess I will have to bite the bullet and look it up in the dictionary.

Saint Bonaventure is praying for you! To learn more about this eloquent saint go to the Patron Saint Index at Catholic Forum

Which Saint Would You Be?
brought to you by Quizilla
(image on next page)

I've added Sister Christer to the blogroll. I do admit to some reservations, though, given that she lists the Da Vinci Code as 'brain food'. Brain rot, I would say!

(Pictures moved to extended entry so they wouldn't mess up my columns)
Via Jeanetta

read what Steven of Flos Carmeli has to say.

(image moved to extended entry)
You are St Brigid's Cross: St. Brigid is an Irish saint who hand-wove a cross,out of rushes she found by the river. She made the cross while explaining the passion of our Lord to a pagan man.


What Kind of Cross are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Written by MaryH of ever new. Link found at Flos Carmeli

over at Apologia

Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance...
I just learned that EWTN hostess and writer Johnette Benkovic has lost her son to an accident. He had just returned from Iraq....

flash movie from Catholic Exchange.

endlessly rocking is the latest incarnation of Thomas (once a misplaced protestant).

New Evangelization? We need a New Eroticism!

too true!!!

of Swimming the Tiber

I've been wanting to blog this for sometime, but haven't been able to work up the nerve until now. I was thinking of simply vanishing, but that really wouldn't be fair to those who've followed this blog for the year and half of its existence, nor to those who have been praying for me. So, here's a final update before I sign off.

To those who read this blog, thank you... I'll never understand why so many of you kept returning when I had so little of interest to say. To those who commented on this blog, thank you for your input... you made this blog far more interesting than it ever could have been on its own. To those who prayed for me during the last year, thank you... don't you dare let up on those prayers now!

Vociferous Yawpings

Musings, Rumblings And Commentary In Defense Of Catholicism, History, And Well Made Pasta

A member of the notorious al-gebra movement. Often being charged with
carrying weapons of math instruction.

I'm currently grieving a loss. It is a very small loss, but a loss none the less, and I may be a little distant or short-tempered for a while. I will try not to be so, but if I am, please except my apologies in advance.
A song that has been helping me a lot is Marie Bellet's "Thy will be done", which, reading between the lines, applies to a similar kind of loss.
Thank you all for you prayers. My friends, if you have a need to know the details, send me an email. I just don't want to post them in a public place.

The Pill made same-sex nuptials inevitable
A great article - from a Protestant minister in Tennessee.

midwives being squeezed out
It is truly sad and there are many forces at play here. All I really want to do is to be able to support women in pregnancy and childbearing - ideally wherever they choose to give birth. Instead, I am constrained by forces that do not have the best interests of women or their families at the forefront.
Something has to change - but I don't know where or what.

Mark adds Divorce to his series on marriage. It is well worth reading.
I, too, am a child of divorce, but I am also a grandchild of divorce. It really does affect one for life.
Mark thinks that the current crisis in marriage started about 40 years ago (no-fault divorce). I think it actually goes back even farther, to the same movement that lead to the Anglican church's acceptance of contraception. The 'free love' movement caught a large percentage of the 'intelligentsia' starting around 1890.
We have over a hundred years of concerted efforts by some to remove the Holy from Matrimony.

I have had several readers ask me to weigh in on the Utah case. I have been thinking it over, and have come to the conclusion that I don't have enough of the facts to offer a reasoned opinion.
That hasn't stopped a lot of others, though. There is quite a conversation going on over at the Heart, Mind, Soul blog.
My basic concerns are pretty much echoed - I am extremely concerned at the concept that a woman can be forced to undergo a potentially fatal procedure against her will, but I am also extremely concerned that a baby may have died who could have lived.

What is more important - to worship God in the way that we want to worship Him, or to worship Him the way He wants to be worshipped?

Times Against Humanity has moved to cyber-catholics. update your blogrolls

Jesus Gil of Santificarnos is safe, and has several posts about the Madrid bombings.

An interesting article from my husband's industry

Do Quality and Quantity Have a Zero-Sum Relationship?

Congratulations, you're a Seraph! A member of the
highest, or first, choir of angels, you are
purity personified- a being of radiant light
and love so powerful that even other angels
find it difficult to look at you. You stand at
the throne of God, where your primary purpose
is to love Him and express that love through
song.


What Order of Angel Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Link via Flos Carmeli

COMMONWEAL has an opinion on St. Blog's Parish. I suppose I should reply to it eventually, since I did get a brief mention. I will say that I have a big issue with those who would attempt to neatly categorize me or my compadres - for the record, I am neither liberal nor conservative as those views are commonly portrayed. I am not a progressive nor a traditionalist. I submit to the Magisterium of the Church because that is what it means to be Catholic! I will argue matters of taste as just that, but not matters of faith and morals.

Thanks to the Summa Mammas for pointing out this article.

But very funny The Exorcist in 30 seconds - cartoon enaction by bunnies.

via summa mammas

73% Of The Internet Loves Me!

Fiat Mihi

Via summa mammas
What cartoon dog are you?

Brought to you by the good folks at sacwriters.com.

I'm tired and depressed and don't have the energy to put real thoughts into electrons. I've had some great insights but haven't finished the thoughts so I am just going to put up a great meat-free recipe.
Serve this with a green salad, crusty bread, and a nice wine.

The High Crusade is a new blog that links Christianity and SF. Looks interesting so far. Thanks to Don for the link.

In the Blink of an Eye

Now. DO not pass GO, just go over there and read it.

If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
I have been mulling over this psalm (Psalm 95) for a couple of days now. It starts out with rejoicing and glee, and becomes somber. Kind of like the transition from the palms to the passion.
I actually prefer the KJV translation here - I love the phrase "A joyful noise". Children are really accomplished at that, and their joyful noise is just as important as the sounds of sacred silence. God listens to both the joyful noise and the sacred silence.
40 years - the children of Israel wandered for 2 generations because they hardened their hearts and did not trust in the Lord. Lent - Forty days.
My favorite Lenten hymn Forty Days and Forty Nights asks
"Victor in the wilderness, grant we may not faint or fall!"
Lord, help me here. Help me to hear your voice. Take my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh that is Yours.

1 Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; cry out to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us greet him with a song of praise, joyfully sing out our psalms.
3 For the LORD is the great God, the great king over all gods,
4 Whose hand holds the depths of the earth; who owns the tops of the mountains.
5 The sea and dry land belong to God, who made them, formed them by hand.
6 Enter, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
7 For this is our God, whose people we are, God's well-tended flock. Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert.
9 There your ancestors tested me; they tried me though they had seen my works.
10 Forty years I loathed that generation; I said: "This people's heart goes astray; they do not know my ways."
11 Therefore I swore in my anger: "They shall never enter my rest."

Jeanne expresses my frustrations perfectly. I am really bummed that I didn't make contact with her in enough time to see her when I was in Tampa. Bummer. I think we would have had some fun!

You're Sudan!

Every time you get a headache, you reach for some aspirin, only to realize that someone destroyed it.  
That's just how things are going for you right now... it's hard to eat, hard to sleep, hard to not have a headache.  
You try to relax, but people always jump on you about something that doesn't make sense.  
If you were a goat, you'd be a Nubian.
Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

by completing a survey on blogging. She is doing this for her Master's thesis project. Click
here to find out how.

I have added DEFENSOR FIDEI: Jimmy Akin's Blog to the blogroll. Thanks to Jeff Miller.