Snow in Houston

Got some snow this afternoon and evening. It started with flurries and eventually got a little more substantial. First time we've seen snow since we've been in Texas.

R.I.P. Erica Murray

I recently found out that someone I once knew from my high school died last week after a lengthy battle with Leukemia. Erica's sister Jaci has posted a goodbye note at Erica's blog. Please join me in praying for the peaceful repose of Erica's soul and for consolation for her family and friends.

Mary, Mother of the re-created world

From a sermon by St. Anselm, bishop of Canterbury (d. 1109 AD), from the Office of Readings for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night – everything that is subject to the power or use of man – rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. All creatures were dead, as it were, useless for men or for the praise of God, who made them. The world, contrary to its true destiny, was corrupted and tainted by the acts of men who served idols. Now all creation has been restored to life and rejoices that it is controlled and given splendor by men who believe in God.

The universe rejoices with new and indefinable loveliness. Not only does it feel the unseen presence of God himself, its Creator, it sees him openly, working and making it holy. These great blessings spring from the blessed fruit of Mary’s womb.

Through the fullness of the grace that was given you, dead things rejoice in their freedom, and those in heaven are glad to be made new. Through the Son who was the glorious fruit of your virgin womb, just souls who died before his life-giving death rejoice as they are freed from captivity, and the angels are glad at the restoration of their shattered domain.

Lady, full and overflowing with grace, all creation receives new life from your abundance. Virgin, blessed above all creatures, through your blessing all creation is blessed, not only creation from its Creator, but the Creator himself has been blessed by creation.

To Mary God gave his only-begotten Son, whom he loved as himself. Through Mary God made himself a Son, not different but the same, by nature Son of God and Son of Mary. The whole universe was created by God, and God was born of Mary. God created all things, and Mary gave birth to God. The God who made all things gave himself form through Mary, and thus he made his own creation. He who could create all things from nothing would not remake his ruined creation without Mary.

God, then, is the Father of the created world and Mary the mother of the re-created world. God is the Father by whom all things were given life, and Mary the mother through whom all things were given new life. For God begot the Son, through whom all things were made, and Mary gave birth to him as the Savior of the world. Without God’s Son, nothing could exist; without Mary’s Son, nothing could be redeemed.

Truly the Lord is with you, to whom the Lord granted that all nature should owe as much to you as to himself.

Father, the image of the Virgin is found in the Church. Mary had a faith that your Spirit prepared and a love that never knew sin, for you kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception. Trace in our actions the lines of her love, in our hearts her readiness of faith. Prepare once again a world for your Son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Obama is not the messiah, people

Why does this still need to be said? From the Obama Messiah blog:

EAST POINT, Ga.—The day after Barack Obama was elected president, Larry Younginer knelt in front of the congregants at his suburban Atlanta church and offered a prayer of thanks.

"Lord, we have again come to you in prayer, and you have heard our cries from heaven, and you have sent us again from the state called Illinois, a man called Barack to heal our land," said Younginer, a 62-year-old retired information systems worker at Coca Cola in Atlanta. "We pray that you will build a hedge around him that will protect him from those who would do him harm."

Younginer, like many others, is convinced that Obama was destined to be president. The mere fact that he won the presidency against the odds has caused some Christians, particularly African-Americans, to see the hand of God in his victory after so many years of struggle.

[...]
[Lawrence Carter, dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel] said many people look for a sign from God when times are turbulent. And, he said, there are many elements to Obama's win in which Christians can find spiritual significance.

"It is powerful and significant on a spiritual level that there is the emergence of Barack Obama 40 years after the passing of Dr. King," said Carter. "No one saw him coming, and Christians believe God comes at us from strange angles and places we don't expect, like Jesus being born in a manger."

Historic win? Sure. Bush Administration over? Sure. But Obama is just a politician, people! I've been watching this type of thing for over a year now (see IOTM blog), and it has me scared, really scared, about the future of this country. A country so completely blown over by the promises of a smooth politician with a silver tongue. Sure, I want things to get better. But even if Obama had a hand in it, he's only one part of the government and cannot possibly live up to all of his promises. One friend told me not too long ago that he has an unshakable faith in Obama. Unshakable faith! I warned this friend, who ordinarily condemns religion and religious folks as ignorant and sheep-like, about the folly of putting your faith in a mere man and politician, only to be rebuffed. "Obama!" he cried, maniacally.

Fr. Robert Barron on the "YouTube Heresies"

Courtesy of the Creative Minority Report blog.



I suspect that many of you, my readers, have encountered these particular heresies and misunderstandings in your engagement with the secular world -- particularly at universities. I know I have.

Pope Benedict on Faith and Works

In this year of St. Paul, Pope Benedict recently used the opportunity of his General Audience to explaining the connection between faith and works.

Dear brothers and sisters,

In last Wednesday’s catechesis, I spoke of the question of how man is justified before God. Following St. Paul, we have seen that man is not capable of making himself “just” with his own actions, but rather that he can truly become “just” before God only because God confers on him his “justice,” uniting him to Christ, his Son. And man obtains this union with Christ through faith.

In this sense, St. Paul tells us: It is not our works, but our faith that makes us “just.” This faith, nevertheless, is not a thought, opinion or idea. This faith is communion with Christ, which the Lord entrusts to us and that because of this, becomes life in conformity with him. Or in other words, faith, if it is true and real, becomes love, charity — is expressed in charity. Faith without charity, without this fruit, would not be true faith. It would be a dead faith.

We have therefore discovered two levels in the last catechesis: that of the insufficiency of our works for achieving salvation, and that of “justification” through faith that produces the fruit of the Spirit. The confusion between these two levels down through the centuries has caused not a few misunderstandings in Christianity.

In this context it is important that St. Paul, in the Letter to the Galatians, puts emphasis on one hand, and in a radical way, on the gratuitousness of justification not by our efforts, and, at the same time, he emphasizes as well the relationship between faith and charity, between faith and works. “For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). Consequently, there are on one hand the “works of the flesh,” which are fornication, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, etc. (Galatians 5:19-21), all of which are contrary to the faith. On the other hand is the action of the Holy Spirit, which nourishes Christian life stirring up “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22): These are the fruits of the Spirit that arise from faith.

At the beginning of this list of virtues is cited ágape, love, and at the end, self-control. In reality, the Spirit, who is the Love of the Father and the Son, infuses his first gift, ágape, into our hearts (cf. Romans 5:5); and ágape, love, to be fully expressed, demands self-control. Regarding the love of the Father and the Son, which comes to us and profoundly transforms our existence, I dedicated my first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est.” Believers know that in mutual love the love of God and of Christ is incarnated by means of the Spirit.

Let us return to the Letter of the Galatians. Here, St. Paul says that believers complete the command of love by bearing each other’s burdens (cf. Galatians 6:2). Justified by the gift of faith in Christ, we are called to live in the love of Christ toward others, because it is by this criterion that we will be judged at the end of our existence. In reality, Paul does nothing more than repeat what Jesus himself had said, and which we recalled in the Gospel of last Sunday, in the parable of the Final Judgment.

In the First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul becomes expansive with his famous praise of love. It is the so-called hymn to charity: “If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. … Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests …” (1 Corinthians 13:1,4-5).

Christian love is so demanding because it springs from the total love of Christ for us: this love that demands from us, welcomes us, embraces us, sustains us, even torments us, because it obliges us to live no longer for ourselves, closed in on our egotism, but for “him who has died and risen for us” (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:15). The love of Christ makes us be in him this new creature (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17), who enters to form part of his mystical body that is the Church.

From this perspective, the centrality of justification without works, primary object of Paul’s preaching, is not in contradiction with the faith that operates in love. On the contrary, it demands that our very faith is expressed in a life according to the Spirit. Often, an unfounded contraposition has been seen between the theology of Paul and James, who says in his letter: “For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (2:26).

In reality, while Paul concerns himself above all with demonstrating that faith in Christ is necessary and sufficient, James highlights the consequent relationship between faith and works (cf. James 2:2-4). Therefore, for Paul and for James, faith operative in love witnesses to the gratuitous gift of justification in Christ. Salvation, received in Christ, needs to be protected and witnessed “with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work. Do everything without grumbling or questioning … as you hold on to the word of life,” even St. Paul would say to the Christians of Philippi (cf. Philippians 2:12-14,16).

Often we tend to fall into the same misunderstandings that have characterized the community of Corinth: Those Christians thought that, having been gratuitously justified in Christ by faith, “everything was licit.” And they thought, and often it seems that the Christians of today think, that it is licit to create divisions in the Church, the body of Christ, to celebrate the Eucharist without concerning oneself with the brothers who are most needy, to aspire to the best charisms without realizing that they are members of each other, etc.

The consequences of a faith that is not incarnated in love are disastrous, because it is reduced to a most dangerous abuse and subjectivism for us and for our brothers. On the contrary, following St. Paul, we should renew our awareness of the fact that, precisely because we have been justified in Christ, we don’t belong to ourselves, but have been made into the temple of the Spirit and are called, therefore, to glorify God in our bodies and with the whole of our existence (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19). It would be to scorn the inestimable value of justification if, having been bought at the high price of the blood of Christ, we didn’t glorify him with our body. In reality, this is precisely our “reasonable” and at the same time “spiritual” worship, for which Paul exhorts us to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” (Romans 12:1).

To what would be reduced a liturgy directed only to the Lord but that doesn’t become, at the same time, service of the brethren, a faith that is not expressed in charity? And the Apostle often puts his communities before the Final Judgment, on which occasion “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10; and cf. Romans 2:16).

If the ethics that St. Paul proposes to believers does not lapse into forms of moralism, and if it shows itself to be current for us, it is because, each time, it always recommences from the personal and communitarian relationship with Christ, to verify itself in life according to the Spirit. This is essential: Christian ethics is not born from a system of commandments, but rather is the consequence of our friendship with Christ. This friendship influences life: If it is true, it incarnates and fulfills itself in love for neighbor. Hence, any ethical decline is not limited to the individual sphere, but at the same time, devalues personal and communitarian faith: From this it is derived and on this, it has a determinant effect.

Let us, therefore, be overtaken by the reconciliation that God has given us in Christ, by God’s “crazy” love for us: No one and nothing could ever separate us from his love (cf. Romans 8:39). With this certainty we live. And this certainty gives us the strength to live concretely the faith that works in love.

Fr. Aquinas' comments at the CSVF blog are apropos:

By showing how the Church’s teaching regarding faith, justification, and salvation emerges from her deep reading of St. Paul, Pope Benedict is demonstrating that traditional Protestantism does not hold a monopoly on Pauline interpretation. In fact, it never has. The Church was reading St. Paul long before Luther, and unlike the Reformer she has always done so within the context provided by the other apostles, including Peter (and his successors!). If during the Reformation Luther and Calvin separated Paul from Peter, Pope Benedict sees the need to finally reunite them as the two “Princes of the Apostles.”

What a good meme...

From the Shrine. Zadok likes it too:

Just click each link and put the results together:
1. Band Name: Random Wikipeda Link
2. Album Title: Random quote generator (take the last four words from the first quote on the page)
3. Album Art: Flickr Interesting Photo (pick one)

Here goes...

Band Name: IL-13
Album Title: To feed your sickness
Album Art: Here...

Let's try it again...

Band Name: Inside Boston
Album Title: you stopped telling them
Album Art: Here...

Dominican Altar Cards



When Fr. Augustine Thompson O.P. discussed the Dominican Rite Missa Cantata he celebrated at the beautiful chapel of St. Albert the Great Priory in Oakland on the occasion of his receiving the distinction of Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.), I was quite captured by the beautiful Dominican Altar Cards placed on the altar. Fr. Thompson writes that "the cards were calligraphed and the miniatures painted by two cloistered nuns of the Dominican Monastery in Menlo Park California for the dedication Mass of the chapel in 1948."

To my delight, Fr. Thompson has a nice post today at the Dominican Liturgy blog (mirrored at the New Liturgical Movement blog) reflecting on the cards:



For the main card, Fr. Thompson writes:

Two Fra Angelico angels grace the sides; in the bottom center is the old Coat of Arms of the Province of the Holy Name, the Western Province. In the top roundels, from left to right, we see St. Albert the Great, patron of the House and of natural philosophy; an angel; St. Thomas Aquinas, patron of theology; St. John and Our Lord at the Last Supper; St. Raymond of Penafort, the patron of Canon law, contemplating the Cross; another angel; and, finally, and St. John of Gorkam, who was martyred by the Calvinists in the Low Countries for bringing the Eucharist to Catholics in prison for their faith. The selection is very suitable for the House of Studies as it includes the patrons of theology, philosophy, and canon law, the major disciplines studied there. The other images are chosen because of their links to the Eucharist.

Modern Physics and Ancient Faith

Dr. Stephen Barr, professor of physics at the University of Delaware, delivers the 2008 St. Albert’s Day Lecture at the Dominican Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, New York City. His talk is entitled “Modern Physics and Ancient Faith.” (delivered November 13)

Check it out!

Catholic Teaching, Homosexuality, and American Life

Eric Brown has written a fine essay about this difficult issue over at the American Catholic blog, from the perspective of one who struggles with same-sex attraction yet desires, as we all should, to live a life of virtue and grace:

Many facets of American secular culture is contrary to basic Christian ethics, which as a consequence, requires a response on the part of the faithful. One of these issues is “tolerance” and homosexuality. The Christian committment to protecting marital dignity and the family is absolute. The profound temptation in politics, given the “us” versus “them” mentality, is to lose a sense charity that is due to our neighbor, even those with whom we disagree. It happens all the time...

The fundamental question I’m concerned about is this: how can Catholics be faithful to the constant and clear teaching of the Church on the issue of human sexuality and still be inclusive and sensitive to the plight of homosexuals, both in the Church and American life? Let’s move past the basics. No, homosexuals cannot marry. No, homosexuals should not adopt children. No, same-sex sexual activity is not equal or comparable to marital love. Despite these moral truths, most Americans have a profoundly different view of human sexuality than the Catholic Church. There must be dialogue with those who disagree with us and we have to educate our Catholic brothers and sisters, as well as everyone else with the authentic Catholic view.

Read the whole thing. I appreciate Eric's thoughtful and challenging insights. Most of us have absolutely no idea what it is like to walk in his shoes.

Thank you, Cardinal George

From the Plenary Session Address of Cardinal George

In working for the common good of our society, racial justice is one pillar of our social doctrine. Economic justice, especially for the poor both here and abroad, is another. But the Church comes also and always and everywhere with the memory, the conviction, that the Eternal Word of God became man, took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, nine months before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This truth is celebrated in our liturgy because it is branded into our spirit. The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice. If the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision that African Americans were other people’s property and somehow less than persons were still settled constitutional law, Mr. Obama would not be president of the United States. Today, as was the case a hundred and fifty years ago, common ground cannot be found by destroying the common good.

I pray that our new President-Elect takes some note.

A Little Timeless Satire, Apropos of the Times

Lemuel Gulliver in Lilliput, and the Diversions of the Court of Lilliput described. A.D. 1727

The Emperor had a mind one day to entertain me with several of the Country Shows, wherein they exceeded all Nations I have known, both for Dexterity and Magnificence. I was diverted with none so much as that of the Rope-Dancers, performed upon a slender white Thread, extended about two Foot and twelve Inches from the Ground. Upon which I shall desire liberty, with the Reader's Patience, to enlarge a little.

This Diversion is only practiced by those Persons who are Candidates for great Employments, and high Favour, at Court. They are trained in this Art from their Youth, and are not always of noble Birth, or liberal Education. When a great Office is vacant either by Death or disgrace (which often happens) five or six of those Candidates petition the Emperor to entertain his Majesty and the Court with a Dance on the Rope, and whoever jumps the highest without falling, succeeds in the Office. Very often the Chief Ministers themselves are commanded to show their Skill, and to convince the Emperor that they have not lost their Faculty. Flimnap, the Treasurer, is allowed to cut a Caper on the strait Rope, at least an Inch higher than any other Lord in the whole Empire. I have seen him do the Summerset several times together upon a Trencher fixed on the Rope, which is no thicker than a common packthread in England. My friend Reldresal, principal Secretary for private Affairs, is, in my Opinion, if I am not partial, the second after the Treasurer; the rest of the great Officers are much upon a par.

These Diversions are often attended with fatal Accidents, whereof great Numbers are on Record. I my self have seen two or three Candidates break a Limb. But the Danger is much greater when the Ministers themselves are commanded to shew their Dexterity; for by contending to excel themselves and their Fellows, they strain so far, that there is hardly one of them who has not received a Fall, and some of them two or three. I was assured that a Year or two before my Arrival, Flimnap would have infallibly broken his Neck, if one of the King's Cushions, that accidentally lay on the Ground, had not weakened the Force of his Fall.

There is likewise another Diversion, which is only shewn before the Emperor and Empress, and first Minister, upon particular Occasions. The Emperor lays on the Table three fine silken Threads of six Inches long. One is Blue, the other Red, and the third Green. These Threads are proposed as Prizes for those Persons whom the Emperor has a mind to distinguish by a peculiar Mark of his Favor. The Ceremony is performed in his Majesty's great Chamber of State, where the Candidates are to undergo a Trial of Dexterity very different from the former, and such as I have not observed the least Resemblance of in any other Country of the old or the new World. The Emperor holds a Stick in his Hands, both ends parallel to the Horizon, while the Candidates, advancing one by one, sometimes leap over the Stick, sometimes creep under it backwards and forwards several times, according as the Stick is advanced or depressed. Sometimes the Emperor holds one end of the Stick, and his first Minister the other; sometimes the Minister has it entirely to himself. Whoever performs his Part with most Agility, and holds out the longest in leaping and creeping, is rewarded with the Blue-colored Silk; the Red is given to the next, and the Green to the third, which they all wear girt twice round about the middle; and you see few great Persons about this Court who are not adorned with one of these Girdles.

Resurrection and Early Christian Apologetics

From Minucius Felix, “Letter to Octavius”, Ch. 34:

Notice how all nature hints at a future resurrection for our consolation.

The sun sets and rises again;

the stars sink below the horizon and return;

the flowers die and come to life again;

the shrubs spend themselves and then put forth buds;

seeds must decompose in order to sprout forth new life.

The body in the grave is thus like the tree in the winter, which conceals its live sap under an apparent dryness.

Why do you, then, urge that in the depths of winter it should revive and return to life?

We must also wait for the spring-time of the body.

Courtesy of Josh Miller.

Lay Dominican: Notes on the Rule

In two and a half months, I will be admitted to the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) as a lay candidate (aka novice), and I am anticipating this very much! This period of candidacy precedes temporary profession and lasts approximately one year. At the heart of this undertaking is the fact that I am discerning a vocation, which means, of course, that if I am called to profession as a Lay Dominican, I am called to be lay, to be Dominican, and to exist in today's world -- first and foremost within my family, and then my community, my career, my country, etc. It is a vocation that concerns itself with engaging the culture with that thing we call veritas or truth, being attentive to the scientia signorum temporum or signs of the times, and understanding the world's parameters through the study of current issues, witnessing to it through preaching by word and deed.

From Tom over at Disputations:

This point is key to understanding Lay Dominicans: We are both lay and Dominican. If we fail to be both, then we fail to live according to our Rule.

There are many ways we can fail. We can fail to be lay by thinking of ourselves as mini-monks, as members of a quasi-secret religious sect whose ways are not those of mere mortal laity. We can fail to be lay by believing that paying our dues and attending our meetings meets our duties as lay members of Christ's Church.

We can also fail to be Dominican by getting hopped up on the externals -- the culture and history and customs of the Order -- and never quite get around to sanctifying ourselves or preaching to others. We can fail to be Dominican by neglecting to form ourselves according to the vivifying spirit of St. Dominic.

We can, I bet, fail in many different ways all at once.

But there are also many different ways to succeed. If you've met one Dominican, you've met one Dominican, and the lay state doesn't impose much in the way of uniformity either. The key to success, written into the very structure of the Fundamental Constitution, is to maintain both aspects, to simply be what you say you are: a Lay Dominican.

Fundamentally, are we in this merely for ourselves and the warm fuzzies of being a part of the greatest religious order in the world? Or are we interested in being sanctified, made holy, and tasked to confront the world with the Gospel?

On Dominican Study

Courtesy of Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP, PhD's Faith + Science blog, suppl(e)mental:

I offer these portions of the Dominican Book of Constitutions and Ordinations (LCO) on the ministry of study as a way to come to some understanding of how a faithful Christian might approach the study of the complementary interactions of philosophy, science, and theology. The following paragraphs show that it is possible for a faithful Christian, without subordinating one field to another, to be both scientifically astute and philosophically coherent. This uniquely Dominican element presents study (along with prayer, ministry, and community) as a means to the end of preaching and teaching the gospel. In other words, for OP's, study, our intellectual life today as a ministry, can never be separated from the fundamental charge and goal of our founder to preach Christ Jesus and him alone.

Study of God's self-revelation:

78. The light and source of our study is God, who spoke in former times and in different ways, and last of all speaks in Christ, through whom the mystery of the Father's will, after the sending of the Spirit, is fully revealed in the Church and enlightens the minds of all people. [If God is the "light and source of our study," then it follows that everything we study will be illuminated by God's light and found originating from God; therefore, biology, physics, math, music, literature, etc. are all limited manifestations of God's Self-revelation to His creation.]

Study as asceticism:

83. Continuous study nourishes contemplation, encourages fulfillment of the counsels with shining fidelity, constitutes a form of asceticism by its own perseverance and difficulty, and, as an essential element of our whole life, it is an excellent religious observance. [Understanding study as a form of asceticism--"virtue in daily practice"--OP's pray when they study; that is, contemplative study in the service of preaching and teaching the gospel with the Church is prayer.]

Free-thought can never be progressive

One of my favorite bits from G.K. Chesterton (and which I've blogged about many times). From Ch. 8 of his work, The Ball and the Cross:



In the book, MacIan continues:

Christianity is always out of fashion because it is always sane; and all fashions are mild insanities. When Italy is mad on art the Church seems too Puritanical; when England is mad on Puritanism the Church seems too artistic. When you quarrel with us now you class us with kingship and despotism; but when you quarrelled with us first it was because we would not accept the divine despotism of Henry VIII. The Church always seems to be behind the times, when it is really beyond the times; it is waiting till the last fad shall have seen its last summer. It keeps the key of a permanent virtue.

What does it take to pass the most common sense proposition in CA?

As of right now, Proposition 4, the parental notification law for minors seeking abortions, is failing with 47%, with 92% precincts in. This is the 2nd or 3rd time a parental notification law was struck down in California. It is by far the most common sense law you could have; most states voted in this restriction years ago. Minors need permission to be given aspirin at school, but an abortion, sure, why not. And Prop4 wasn't even asking for parental consent, just notification. Amazing. With all due respect for my California friends and family (especially those called to remain in the state to fight for life issues), for all the problems Texas has (e.g. a rabid death penalty), I have no regrets about leaving California. I look forward to raising my children anywhere but there.

In an awkward twist, it looks like California is approving Proposition 8, which will amend the state constitution to define and recognize marriage as between a man and a woman. But it boggles my mind how 8 could pass and yet 4 could fail.

In other news, Texans in my congressional district have given Tom Delay's former seat back to the Republicans after 2 years of occupation by a Democrat.

President Obama

Well, congratulations to President-Elect Obama on his historic win. The disaster left in the wake of the Bush Administration taught us a few lessons. And the McCain campaign certainly made some serious missteps during its campaign. I personally don't believe that choosing Sarah Palin was one of those missteps, but the campaign certainly mishandled her. I suspect we'll be seeing more of her. Nonetheless, while Obama may have taken a large swath of the electoral college, the popular vote reveals that the country is still very divided (52% vs 48%). And so he is faced with governing this divided nation, and he won't be able to do it with smooth rhetoric, messianic language, and radically liberal policies.

That said, my hope is in Christ, not in politicians. It is Christ who is the Lord of history, and He is the Victor. As JPII loved to remind us, "Be not afraid!" So let us pray for President Obama; Pray that he will have the strength to govern and to lead us abroad. Pray that he will have a change of heart when it comes to justice for the unborn; in particular, that he will abandon support for the hideous Freedom of Choice Act. And pray that he really can unite the country as he says he can. Lastly, pray that the Church in America be strengthened and emboldened to stand up for important issues, including life and marriage.

Mmmm... Mulled Claret

John Farrell posts this scene from Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), one of my favorite flicks, in his series, "Great Scenes from Otherwise Appalling Films". It is indeed a great scene:



But I disagree with John about the movie. It isn't appalling! Together with Horror of Dracula and Brides of Dracula, this is the best of Hammer Horror! The priest is here portrayed as a strong man and hunter, sure in his convictions; and the characters are educated and yet adventurous (okay so they were stupid for being led into Dracula's Castle in the most improbable fashion, but still).

All Souls Day in Texas

At my parish, we had a very fine liturgy for All Souls Day, commemorated on a Sunday this year, complete with black and gold vestments (including the maniple)! Here are a couple photos (posted with permission):





The homily was also a very good exposition on the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory and the importance of praying for the dead, a practice that is both apostolic and ancient. One of my favorite articulations of the teaching is from Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life by Cardinal Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI), book nine of the series on Dogmatic Theology. In it, our present pope describes purgatory as a process of purification that is fundamentally Christological:

Purgatory is not, as Tertullian thought, some kind of supra-worldly concentration camp where one is forced to undergo punishments in a more or less arbitrary fashion. Rather it is the inwardly necessary process of transformation in which a person becomes capable of Christ, capable of God, and thus capable of unity with the whole communion of saints. Simply to look at people with any degree of realism at all is to grasp the necessity of such a process. It does not replace grace by works, but allows the former to achieve its full victory precisely as grace. What actually saves is the full assent of faith. But in most of us, that basic option is buried under a great deal of wood, hay and straw. Only with difficulty can it peer out from behind the latticework of an egoism we are powerless to pull down with our own hands. Man is the recipient of the divine mercy, yet this does not exonerate him from the need to be transformed. Encounter with the Lord is this transformation. It is the fire that burns away our dross and re-forms us to be vessels of eternal joy.

And, of course, one of the best medieval and highly devotional articulations of purgatory, and my personal favorite, is St. Catherine of Genoa's Treatise on Purgatory. Here is an excerpt:

When with its inner sight the soul sees itself drawn by God with such loving fire, then it is melted by the heat of the glowing love for God, its most dear Lord, which it feels overflowing it. And it sees by the divine light that God does not cease from drawing it, nor from leading it, lovingly and with much care and unfailing foresight, to its full perfection, doing this of His pure love. But the soul, being hindered by sin, cannot go whither God draws it; it cannot follow the uniting look with which He would draw it to Himself. Again the soul perceives the grievousness of being held back from seeing the divine light; the soul's instinct too, being drawn by that uniting look, craves to be unhindered. I say that it is the sight of these things which begets in the souls the pain they feel in Purgatory. Not that they make account of their pain; most great though it be, they deem it a far less evil than to find themselves going against the will of God, whom they clearly see to be on fire with extreme and pure love for them.

The point, of course, is that God is both just and merciful. As with our works, our purification is first and foremost a work of God's grace in us. I struggled with this intensely before I entered the Catechumenate. And then, as I reflected on all I had been taught about the Church as Christ's Body, and our unity in Him through baptism, and His conquering of death, it hit me. We exist in a spiritual communion with those who have preceded us in death into new life, which includes not only those who now adore God in Heaven, but those who, having died in God's grace, are being prepared in God's Holy Fire for that awesome experience.

It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead... (2 Maccabees 12:46)

The Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences



Pope Benedict XVI traces the sign of the cross onto Stephen Hawking’s forehead last Friday (10/31/2008) at the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He also addressed its members gathered there. I am very grateful for our pope and for his brilliant expositions on the interplay between faith and science. Here is his address:

I am happy to greet you, the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, on the occasion of your Plenary Assembly, and I thank Professor Nicola Cabibbo for the words he has kindly addressed to me on your behalf.

In choosing the topic Scientific Insight into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life, you seek to focus on an area of enquiry which elicits much interest. In fact, many of our contemporaries today wish to reflect upon the ultimate origin of beings, their cause and their end, and the meaning of human history and the universe.

In this context, questions concerning the relationship between science’s reading of the world and the reading offered by Christian Revelation naturally arise. My predecessors Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II noted that there is no opposition between faith’s understanding of creation and the evidence of the empirical sciences. Philosophy in its early stages had proposed images to explain the origin of the cosmos on the basis of one or more elements of the material world. This genesis was not seen as a creation, but rather a mutation or transformation; it involved a somewhat horizontal interpretation of the origin of the world. A decisive advance in understanding the origin of the cosmos was the consideration of being qua being and the concern of metaphysics with the most basic question of the first or transcendent origin of participated being. In order to develop and evolve, the world must first be, and thus have come from nothing into being. It must be created, in other words, by the first Being who is such by essence.

To state that the foundation of the cosmos and its developments is the provident wisdom of the Creator is not to say that creation has only to do with the beginning of the history of the world and of life. It implies, rather, that the Creator founds these developments and supports them, underpins them and sustains them continuously. Thomas Aquinas taught that the notion of creation must transcend the horizontal origin of the unfolding of events, which is history, and consequently all our purely naturalistic ways of thinking and speaking about the evolution of the world. Thomas observed that creation is neither a movement nor a mutation. It is instead the foundational and continuing relationship that links the creature to the Creator, for he is the cause of every being and all becoming (cf. Summa Theologiae, I, q.45, a. 3).

To “evolve” literally means “to unroll a scroll”, that is, to read a book. The imagery of nature as a book has its roots in Christianity and has been held dear by many scientists. Galileo saw nature as a book whose author is God in the same way that Scripture has God as its author. It is a book whose history, whose evolution, whose “writing” and meaning, we “read” according to the different approaches of the sciences, while all the time presupposing the foundational presence of the author who has wished to reveal himself therein. This image also helps us to understand that the world, far from originating out of chaos, resembles an ordered book; it is a cosmos. Notwithstanding elements of the irrational, chaotic and the destructive in the long processes of change in the cosmos, matter as such is “legible”. It has an inbuilt “mathematics”. The human mind therefore can engage not only in a “cosmography” studying measurable phenomena but also in a “cosmology” discerning the visible inner logic of the cosmos. We may not at first be able to see the harmony both of the whole and of the relations of the individual parts, or their relationship to the whole. Yet, there always remains a broad range of intelligible events, and the process is rational in that it reveals an order of evident correspondences and undeniable finalities: in the inorganic world, between microstructure and macrostructure; in the organic and animal world, between structure and function; and in the spiritual world, between knowledge of the truth and the aspiration to freedom. Experimental and philosophical inquiry gradually discovers these orders; it perceives them working to maintain themselves in being, defending themselves against imbalances, and overcoming obstacles. And thanks to the natural sciences we have greatly increased our understanding of the uniqueness of humanity’s place in the cosmos.

The distinction between a simple living being and a spiritual being that is capax Dei, points to the existence of the intellective soul of a free transcendent subject. Thus the Magisterium of the Church has constantly affirmed that “every spiritual soul is created immediately by God – it is not ‘produced’ by the parents – and also that it is immortal” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 366). This points to the distinctiveness of anthropology, and invites exploration of it by modern thought.

Distinguished Academicians, I wish to conclude by recalling the words addressed to you by my predecessor Pope John Paul II in November 2003: “scientific truth, which is itself a participation in divine Truth, can help philosophy and theology to understand ever more fully the human person and God’s Revelation about man, a Revelation that is completed and perfected in Jesus Christ. For this important mutual enrichment in the search for the truth and the benefit of mankind, I am, with the whole Church, profoundly grateful”.

Laudetur Iesus Christus!

Saturday, the Solemnity of All Saints TLM

Note to all who are interested:

My pastor will be celebrating Holy Mass according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (aka Traditional Latin Mass) for the Solemnity of All Saints this Saturday, November 1st, at 10:00am at St. Theresa's in Sugar Land.

Mass will be celebrated in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite at 8:30am.

Thought this was good, from MSNBC of all places



Some studies suggest that more than 90% of all babies diagnosed with Down's Syndrome are aborted.

The Swift-Boating of Joe the Plumber

Watching what the media has done to Joe Wurzelbacher is sickening. From Mark Shea:

So poor old Joe the Plumber is minding his own business when Obama walks past and they end up having a too-candid-for-the-candidate moment. As is only possible in our media-soaked culture of insta-fame, the guy suddenly become The Face of the Common Man, McCain's Last Best Hope and the Fear of the Dems.

So, overnight you get:

- Andrew Sullivan at the "Atlantic Monthly" insisting he's not really a plumber, because he doesn't have a license, followed by post after post aiming to destroy the guy (sandwich in between post after post demanding to know who Trig Palin's mother *really* is).

- A news report from Bloomberg saying Joe has a $1,200 tax lien against him.

- KOS searching the tax records to find the tax lien, and going a step further by publishing Joe's home address.

- "Democratic Underground" publishing any rumor they can get and soliciting more: "Feel free to post your own JOE THE PLUMBER facts, links and trivia. I have a good nose for bull shit and man my bull shit detector is off the dial right now with this guy."

This is the punishment meted out to a guy for speaking his mind to the Son of God. Coming soon to an Obama critic near you.

I am surprised that the mainstream media felt so threatened by this guy -- a guy who is not running for President! So, you have to have all of your finances in perfect order before you can ask a candidate a "real" question? Or perhaps the lesson is you can't ask a question for which you think the candidate might shoot himself in the foot on camera. Maybe the lesson is that it is wrong to question Dear Leader period.

*throwing hands up in air*

Precious Venus

Homer has it right:



... because aside from the Glorious Feast of All Saints (Nov. 1), Halloween is really just about the candy.

Theology of the Body with Brian Mullady, O.P.

Seminar on "Theology of the Body"
... in the thought of Pope John Paul II.
with Fr. Brian Mullady, O.P.

Saturday, October 25th
9:30 A.M.—3:00 P.M.

St. Theresa Catholic Church
115 Seventh Street
Sugar Land, TX

The Adult Education Committee presents a seminar on "The Theology of the Body," reflections based on the teachings of Pope John Paul II on the human person. Fr. Brian Mullady, O.P., a renowned professor and preacher will clarify the teaching of Pope John Paul II and help us to apply it in our own lives. There will be three presentations during the course of the day:

• The Original Unity of Man and Woman
• Blessed are the Pure of Heart
• Marriage and Celibacy for the Kingdom

Fr. Brian Thomas Becket Mullady is the son of an Air Force officer and was raised throughout the United States. He entered the Dominican Order in 1966 and was ordained in Oakland, California in 1972. He has been a parish priest, high school teacher, retreat master, mission preacher and university professor. He received his Doctorate in Sacred Theology (STD) from the Angelicum University in Rome, Italy and was professor there for six years. He has taught at several colleges and seminaries in the United States. He is an academician of the Catholic Academy of Science. He most recently was a Professor of Theology at Campion College in San Francisco and now preaches parish missions and retreats. He has had five series on Mother Angelica's EWTN television network. He is the author of two books and numerous articles. He is the author of the Question and Answer column in Homiletic and Pastoral Review. He is the Theological Consultant to the Institute on Religious Life.

Did you miss the 2008 Federal Election...

... in Canada?

Last month, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked that the former Canadian Parliament be dissolved, and a new election was scheduled for October 14th, which was last Tuesday. In this election, Harper was able to pick up 19 more seats in the Canadian House of Commons for his Conservative Party (up from 124 seats), but it was still shy of a full majority (155 out of 308 seats). Harper's Conservative Party was brought into power in 2006 after twelve years of government by the Liberal Party of Canada.

Prior to the election, the "top" federal party leaders got together in debates in both English and French. The party leaders include current Prime Minister Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party, Stéphane Dion of the Liberal Party, Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Québécois, Jack Layton of the New Democratic Party, and Elizabeth May of the Green Party.

Here is a clip from the English-language debate. Sound familiar?



Here is a clip from the French-language debate. Can you tell who isn't a native speaker in the group?



Honestly, I followed the Canadian election more out of sheer curiosity, a welcome distraction from American politics. And about the debates - I prefer this debate format. Sit the party leaders around the table. Video cameras, no audience. Of course, they all went after Harper. But notice how real things were discussed. It makes our system of debates seem primitive by comparison.

Melissa Ohden, Abortion Survivor

Courtesy of Feminists for Life:



Melissa Ohden speaks about being aborted at five months gestation. Melissa survived a saline abortion and was placed in a neonatal unit, where her parents found her and adopted her. Today Melissa works in a social welfare agency in the Midwest.

This spring Melissa gave birth to a baby girl in the same hospital, the same maternity ward, where she had been aborted

Mike Wallace and Margaret Sanger

Carl Olson points us to this 1957 Mike Wallace interview with racist eugenicist Margaret Sanger, who founded the American Birth Control League, which, of course, was later renamed to Planned Parenthood. In the interview, she takes on a number of things, including the Catholic Church, who opposed her efforts for government legislation for birth control in a big way (and still does). Back then, she claimed that increased birth control would eliminate the need for abortion. Of course, because of the effect birth control had on the overall value of sex (and sex within marriage), and because people like Bernard Nathanson and Larry Lader managed to convince the feminist movement that abortion was an issue of women's rights, the opposite became true.

Sanger was a proponent of negative eugenics, outbreeding of ethnic minorities, the poor, and those with disabilities. I don't know if you've noticed, but most Planned Parenthood clinics are in the poorer areas of most communities, and it isn't because the real estate is better in those places.

Prayers for America and Her Leaders

Lay Dominican The Practicing Catholic takes the right approach.

I prayed this [prayer] especially on behalf of our civil leaders and those running for office:

Wisdom 9:1-6,9-11

God of my fathers, Lord of Mercy,
You who have made all things by Your word
and in Your wisdom have established man
to rule the creatures produced by You,
to govern the world in holiness and justice,
and to render judgment in integrity of heart:

Give me Wisdom, the attendant at Your throne,
and reject me not from among Your children;
for I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid,
a man weak and short-lived
and lacking in comprehension of judgment and of laws.

Indeed, though one be perfect among the sons of men,
if Wisdom, who comes from You, be not with him,
he shall be held in no esteem.

Now with You is Wisdom, who knows Your works
and was present when You made the world;
who understands what is pleasing in Your eyes
and what is conformable with Your commands.

Send her forth from Your holy heavens
and from Your glorious throne dispatch her
that she may be with me and work with me,
that I may know what is Your pleasure.

For she knows and understands all things,
and will guide me discreetly in my affairs
and safeguard me by her glory.

No matter who becomes president, he will need wisdom from above… I just hope he is open to receiving it.

No Way, No How, Nobama!

I posted on this back in March.

Barack Obama spoke to Planned Parenthood on 7/17/07.



"broader struggle for women's equality"?

During the Q&A session, which is not shown in this video, Obama declares:

"The first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act."

Support the work of Democrats for Life to fight the suppression of the pro-life voice in the Democratic party. Promote viable Democratic candidates to provide Americans with solid options!

To use a well worn cliche, it's time to turn the page on Barack Obama.

The Rule of the Dominican Laity

I had been contemplating all week about writing about my reflections on the Rule employed by the Dominican Laity (Latin: Regula Fraternitatum Laicalium Sancti Dominici), but Tom beat me to it! So I'll just refer to him, at least for now:

The current Rule of the Lay Fraternities of Saint Dominic was definitively approved by the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes on January 15, 1987. This is the fifth Rule for Lay Dominicans, with the others being approved in 1972 (on an experimental basis), 1964 (in response to Vatican II), 1923 (in response to the 1917 Code of Canon Law), and 1405 (the year formal papal approval was first obtained). The 1405 Rule is essentially the one by Munio de Zamora, OP, written in 1285 to supersede the many Rules written by and for the individual fraternities that sprang up around Dominican houses in different cities.

The official Rule is, of course, written in Latin. The story of translating this Rule into English is long and dull -- unlike the Rule itself, which is short and (in its way) surprising. The Latin text, along with some introductory material and an English translation made by "a team of Latinists of the English Province of Dominican friars," can be found here.

Since my Lay Dominican Chapter is reviewing the Rule according to a new translation (not yet on-line) -- more accurate than the one I'd promised to live according to for life several years back, less Latinate than the one the English friars produced -- I thought I'd post some comments on the Rule on my blog.

As mentioned above, the Rule itself is short, less than five pages leisurely formatted. This is consistent with the let's-get-on-with-it spirit of St. Dominic, who adopted the relatively brief Rule of St. Augustine for his new Order of Friars Preachers. In fact, without the animating spirit of St. Dominic, the Rule of his Lay Fraternities has no real life of its own. Those who promise to live according to this Rule, then, must take care that they don't substitute some other spirit -- or worse, inform their accord with no spirit at all and let it remain a dead thing.

I'm glad he brought up the issue regarding the translation of the Rule. The Dominican Laity Inter-Provincial Council met recently to review a uniform English translation of the Rule. Up until this point, the translation we had been referring to in the Southern Province was actually slightly different than the one used by the Eastern Province, and so on. The more I study the Rule, the more I appreciate its spirit. Tom is fundamentally correct: The Rule is short, flexible, and to-the-point, animated by Dominic's own spirit.

Cardinal DiNardo in Galveston

Rocco reports on this article from the Houston Chronicle on Cardinal DiNardo's mass in Galveston this past Sunday. I was downtown in Houston on Saturday morning for our work with the homeless community; while things appear to be coming back to life (power restored to much of the city, high-rise windows very obviously boarded up, a few streets blocked off), there is still much work to be done. But Galveston obviously fared much worse.

The archdiocese has set up a recovery fund for donations, but there are still many avenues to help.

Dilbert!

Understanding Verner's Law

Prof. Richard Nokes of Troy University takes us on an odyssey that is Verner's Law, revealing, of course, that language change is more regular than chaotic. Prof. Nokes links to three simple videos that explain it for us:

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3: