Pictures from World Youth Day 2002 - Toronto





I finally scanned some of the pictures I took at World Youth Day! They came out better than expected but they may still be a little dark in some areas - you be the judge!

Click here to check them out!

Neo and the Architect

Some others asked about this, where here it is. The conversation between Neo and the Architect from Matrix: Reloaded. If you haven't yet seen the film, you may not want to read this! But in rereading it, I caught a lot of points that I missed in the film.

Unintended Call of Silence

I don't mean to bewilder you, but this is a warning to all cell phone owners. Please make sure that you turn on the auto-lock mechanism of your phone. This prevents the phone from reacting when random buttons are pressed when it's in your backpack, bag, or purse, . More specifically, it is a deterrent from what I have termed the Unintended Call of Silence, when the buttons on your cell phone are pressed in a certain way so as to dial a random person on your phone list. I have been the unfortunate recipient of several calls like this, I think because my name begins with the letter A and so I am at the top of most people's phone lists. I have overheard amazing things - beware! So this warning to all those who fail to use auto-lock, always beware that the walls really do have ears!

Godly conceptions and their meanings

I was reflecting tonight on a discussion I recall having several years ago with an agnostic aquaintance of mine concerning this question:

If God is infinite, then how is it possible for any human being, finite in nature, to know anything about this concept? Would not any attempt at discovering the infinite be doomed to failure?

My memory is faint, so I will reconstruct the conversation as cleanly as I can remember. My response was a resounding Of course it would be doomed to failure!. Satisfied yet confused, my friend could not accept my easy concession without concluding that he had been trapped. What is then the point? At best, one could live an agnostic existence, never being certain of God's existence or never having a satisfactory conception of the infinite that would have any effect over the tangible routine of daily life. Behold, I am no skilled manipulator of language, so I simply explained my response.

Left to ourselves, it is impossible for us to know about God. But this ignores the idea of divine revelation - the idea that God would reveal to us whatever He would want us to know about Him and how to live in His presence. This revelation was given in the old law and testified to by all Creation, and is brought to its fulfillment by God in the person of Jesus Christ who then established a Church to hand on this His teaching in the form of oral and written Tradition, which is thereby found in Apostolic Tradition and in the Scriptures, respectively. So, by human reason alone, we can come to a knowledge of the Infinite God in observance of His creation, yet God also revealed Himself explicitly for our benefit, as Dei Verbum expresses:

As a sacred synod has affirmed, God, the beginning and end of all things, can be known with certainty from created reality by the light of human reason (see Rom. 1:20); but teaches that it is through His revelation that those religious truths which are by their nature accessible to human reason can be known by all men with ease, with solid certitude and with no trace of error, even in this present state of the human race.

Doing it all ourselves also ignores the idea of willful creation - the idea that God would create us with an orientation toward the infinite, manifested by an ever present desire to know more than what we perceive plainly. This concept is much more elusive, but certainly real. Another thing I believe it ignores is divine grace or assistance. That God would not only willfully create us, reveal Himself to us in a way that we can conceive, but would also provide us with grace that further enables us to live according to that revelation and achieve that which He has willed for us - unity with Him. This is the difference between knowing about Him and actually having a relationship with Him.

My friend, somewhat satisfied with the response, further pressed me on the point of revelation.

How can we trust this revelation as coming from God, the Infinite, which is transmitted to us through a book written by human authors and a tradition transmitted by human teachers - human teachers who are sinful and often times perform less than godly acts?

Very good! Ay, there's the rub, I responded. My friend was attempting to catch me. How do we know without relying on ourselves? And we can't rely on ourselves alone. The final issue is then one of authority and faith. Again, left to ourselves, we are caught - but we remember that that is why we are given grace. We need grace to believe because faith is a grace. Again, Dei Verbum expresses this best:

"The obedience of faith" (Rom. 13:26; see 1:5; 2 Cor 10:5-6) "is to be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals," (4) and freely assenting to the truth revealed by Him. To make this act of faith, the grace of God and the interior help of the Holy Spirit must precede and assist, moving the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of the mind and giving "joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and believing it." (5) To bring about an ever deeper understanding of revelation the same Holy Spirit constantly brings faith to completion by His gifts.

Faith enables us to cooperate with God's grace and to understand God's revelation and the authority under which it was given and entrusted to the Church, the authority given by Christ to the Apostles, which is thus communicated to their successors and handed down to us today. That such a teaching authority, entrusted to human sinners, is free of corruption is ensured by the merits of Christ's death and resurrection, and Christ does this because He desires that all the world know of Him.

My friend responded,

I think I understand what you are saying. The agnostic assumes that the initiative belongs to human beings to know the Infinite, which they really cannot do, whereas you are saying that the initiative belongs to God. It starts with God and ends with God, not the other way around. The Infinite God chose to create us, He revealed Himself to us, and He gives us, finite as we are, what we need to know Him infinitely in time.

I explained that it is important to remember that faith is not only the passive reception of a gift from God, but the active free response to God. Some people spend their whole lives fighting against it. But alas, it is a great mystery. Do you desire faith?, I asked. He responded,

Certainly.

The desire to have it is already a sign of its work, and the continuing cooperation with grace is itself a work of grace. As the Catechism articulates,

"The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity."

As we cooperate with grace through faith, we are sanctified by grace and created anew to perform acts of charity which nourish faith. Without grace, it is impossible to please God. And that, said I, is only the beginning of an incredible journey into the Great Mystery, the heights and depths of glorious Truth.

With a deep breath, our conversation drifted on to other wondrous ideas.

Newspeak for a future taken to extremes

This article at CNN predicts a pretty gloomy future!

She says a lot of people are having fun finding new titles for Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" which presents problems with every word except "and" and "the." [Dianne] Ravitch said old is ageist, man is sexist and sea can't be used in case a student lives inland and doesn't grasp the concept of a large body of water.

Granted - some words are explicitly offensive and have no place. But this is ridiculous. It seems to me that the cure for this has more to do with educating rather than erasing every words that is, could possibly be, or might remotely be offensive.

The New York Times recently reported that National Institute of Health researchers on AIDS are not only avoiding using words like gay and homosexuals in e-mails so as not to offend conservatives in the Bush administration, they are also inventing code words. Times journalist Erica Goode reported that one researcher was told to "cleanse" the abstract of his grant proposal of words like gay, homosexual and transgender even though his research was on HIV in gay men.

Hmm. How is education helped by a standard taken to extremes? And just who is responsible for drawing the line?

"Everyone gets their pet causes incorporated in textbooks. The history texts are reluctant to criticize any dictator unless they are long dead. And even then, there are exceptions like Mao is praised in one text for modernizing China but his totalitarian rule is not mentioned," [Ravitch] said.

Voice of the Faithful

I followed the group from their beginnings. I read about them in the media. I even decided that I would see what they were about for myself, when a chapter began here in Santa Barbara, by attending a couple meetings. The question was always asked with surprise, Shouldn't there be more young adults in VOTF?. The implication here is that young adults should want to share their cause because we're young, right? We want to change the old Church, right? No - perhaps for the same reasons why there are not more young adults in groups like Call To Action which I will briefly address here.

After observing comments and presentations by a few of the members, I got a sense that for many VOTF members, the old Church was not just the Church that fostered an environment where sexual abuse could occur and be covered up, but it was also the Church that persists in antiquated modes of operating and thinking, particularly in the realm of sexuality, authority, women, and the involvement of the laity in doctrinal (not just disciplinary) matters. Certainly, this definition isn't explicity evident in the vague language often seen on the charter and the VOTF web page, but it is how I perceived many members interpret it. It is this attitude that I feel perpetuates an us versus them mentality. In misunderstanding doctrine and authority, it denies doctrinal truth, and in a spirit of rebellion, attempts to change whatever it can in the name of all lay Catholics. This, in spite of its longterm goals, is neither constructive nor healing for the Church as a whole.

It is wrong to assume that young adults will want to be part of a group such as this simply because we're young and are often judged to be anti-establishment or anti-hierarchy. We are not the hippies of the 21st century. While many of us do not oppose ensuring a lay voice in matters of Church governance, I think we have different ideas about what that means - that not only does it involve collaboration, but it also involves obedience. I have no problem with supporting pastoral and finance councils that include lay Catholics.

Generally speaking, I grow weary of those who like to think they're more catholic than the pope, and this is why the us versus them attitude really made me sick to my stomach. And just who them is often varies depending on who you are talking with. I'm not even fully convinced the individual members of VOTF are united in how to define the type of reform they seek. But such is the language of ambiguity. To one, a statement could appear perfectly orthodox, and to another, it could appear anything but orthodox. The goal for structural change is one that I find particularly vague. First, they state this:

VOTF does not seek any change in church doctrine. The problems which have come to light in the present crisis are more truly cultural than structural in nature.

They do not seek to change doctrine, but this statement is flimsy given how each person chooses to define what doctrine is and what it isn't. And how is it cultural? And not truly structural in nature? Then why the emphasis on structural change?They then go on to state this:

We respect the teaching authority of the Church and recognize the role that the hierarchy should exercise in discernment. It is essential, however, that all the people of God be involved in this process of discernment. We will, therefore, devote ourselves to advancing meaningful and active engagement of the laity in the life of the Church.

What does this mean? How does this relate to what they previously stated? Discernment in what? They also state this:

In order to move toward the vision of the Second Vatican Council, we believe it is vitally important that the faithful of each parish engage in, and enthusiastically support, the formation and actions of Pastoral and Finance Councils and Safety Committees. We must empower the laity to protect our children and all the people of God.

I do not agree that we have ignored the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. But what is this vision that they refer to? They never really explicitly define this. This is significant. Also, does this statement imply that lay Catholics will be more capable of protecting children? Last time I checked, we were all sinners, clergy and laity both. And sexual abuse is pretty widespread amongst non-ordained clergy - Approx. 90% occurs within families. No, this goal misses the point of reform.

There are other things, like in their FAQ:

Q. What does Voice of the Faithful feel will be the effect of bringing laity into the governance structure of the Church?

A. The Church hierarchy can learn much from the Catholic laity. We have intellectual, emotional and spiritual contributions to make and knowledge to impart on myriad real-life issues. These include, but are not limited to: human sexuality, women's rights, democratic processes, and the contextual roles of science and history in the healthy life of the Church.

This is just crying out for elaboration.

I feel I speak for many young adults in saying that we don't want a group that is divisive - us versus them - and has an underlying agenda that presumes to be more catholic than the local diocesan bishop or the pope. And even if it isn't said explicitly, I perceive it as an agenda which would, given the opportunity, certainly include doctrinal change. We want to be a part of something that celebrates the Catholic Faith and has a more realistic and positive message about what true reform really is. A message that addresses the spiritual roots of reform. True reform comes in the person of Jesus Christ, and this is what the Church should be preaching, and is what our Holy Father is preaching right now.

Respect the Needs of Catholics!

Global Catholic News - Russian Orthodox Urged to Respect Catholics' Spiritual Needs

The Vatican appealed to the Russian Orthodox Church to recognize the spiritual needs of the country's 500,000 Catholics, who numerically pose no threat to Orthodoxy.

Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, Vatican secretary for relations with states, made this appeal public in an interview Sunday with the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera. He was commenting on the charges of "proselytism" leveled against Rome by the Moscow Orthodox Patriarchate.

...Archbishop Tauran believes, in part, that the present situation is due to the fact that Russian Orthodox Church leaders regard the Catholic Church as a "church of foreigners."

...Catholics in Russia "are Russian citizens -- not foreigners -- and, therefore, have a right to pastoral care, like all Catholics spread throughout the world and like all Orthodox Christians in Russia and in any other place," he explained.

"This would also help to overcome that psychological attitude of 'besieged fortress' that impedes the Orthodox Church, which suffered so much during the years of Communism, to offer Europe and the world the contribution of its great spiritual riches," Archbishop Tauran concluded.

In memoriam...

Being born and raised in a solid military family, I learned early on the remarkable role that our armed forces have played in our nation's history. So this memorial day I remembered those soldiers who have willingly sacrificed their lives in every war to defend our freedom so that we can, today, celebrate that freedom that we often take for granted. I flew the flag proudly and got to spend some time with a very good friend. Thanks Joe!

Busy Sunday

Spent the day in the cozy little town of San Luis Obispo with Christina. Started it off with the Divine Liturgy at St. Anne's Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church. Occasionally when I visit family in Santa Maria, I take a short trip up to St. Anne's, though it isn't often, and it had been several months since I had last been there. But I love the ancient Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom! And being able to participate in the divine liturgy has really given me an appreciation for the Eastern heritage of our Church.


Main Altar at St. Anne's
After mass at St. Anne's, we went to lunch at the infamous Tortilla Flats in SLO followed by bookstore ransacking! We then finally went to see X-Men 2 which I did enjoy. I thought it was clever, and I really liked what they did with the character of Nightcrawler. Got home in the evening to rest! SLO is a cozy college town nestled within the foothills of the central coast of california. I applied and was strongly considering attending nearby Cal Poly, but I chose UC Santa Barbara at literally the last minute. I do not regret choosing to go to school in Santa Barbara!

Enjoy your memorial day holiday!

qui ex patre filioque procedit

Bill at Pro Deo et Patria quotes an interesting comment from John Allen in his latest Word from Rome:

Fr. Johannes Grohe, an Opus Dei priest who teaches church history at Santa Croce, spoke on the history of church councils. He offered several interesting nuggets, such as the fact that a regional council in Persia in 410 produced one of the earliest insertions of the famed "filioque" clause into the Creed, specifying that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father "and from the Son." This council, as Grohe points out, was an Eastern affair, and its adoption of the filioque came out of the rich theological reflection of early Persian Christianity. Hence the notion that the filioque is solely an imposition of the medieval Western Church upon the East, born of later controversies between Rome and Byzantium, is historically dubious.

Interesting! I agree with Bill that this could have a very positive effect on current Catholic/Orthodox dialogue. But it will be interesting. I sincerely hope that this is treated seriously. Ut Unum Sint!

Chapel, Court, and Countryside

After having a long day at work, I ended it with an evening concert at the university campus that was presented by the UCSB Musica Antiqua entitled Chapel, Court, and Countryside It was a truly sublime concert, featuring Baroque works for church, stately home, and pastoral settings. It included pieces of Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Handel, and Bach. There were also a few others with whom I was not familiar such as Heinrich Biber, Johann Rosenmuller, and Georg Telemann. I particularly liked Handel's operatic pieces, which were taken from Orlando and Alcina. Excellent!

St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church



One of the beautiful churches we have here in Santa Barbara, California is St. Barbara's Greek Orthodox Church. The first time I visited this church was back in November, 1997 when St. Barbara's hosted an Environmental Symposium featuring the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. I was pretty impressed with it. I went on the invitation of Bill Cork (back when he was pastoral associate of our university's Newman Center, St. Mark's.) Bill, maybe we're somewhere in this picture, but I don't know!


A view of the Altar from the Soleas, decorated with Easter lilies.

They also have available for veneration a holy relic of St. Barbara given to them as a gift from Pope John Paul II back in 1987.

Gibson at Loyola Marymount

Turns out all of the controversy surrounding the selection of Mel Gibson as keynote speaker at LMU's commencement was mostly wasted air, as he actually gave a pretty good keynote, even if it was fairly standard as far as keynotes go.

Following a standing ovation by the crowd, Gibson began his address "I could hit you with a dozen cliches today. Follow your dreams. Fight for what you believe in... until the cops show up."

Delivering a speech peppered with wry humor and anchored with sincerity, Gibson's address focused on society's constant search to be happy in life.

"Perfect happiness is not attainable in this imperfect world we live in," he said. "This creates a void, and people seek to fill that void with relationships, drugs, alcohol, or work... I hope you look to fill that void in an unlikely place. Treading boldly where you would rather not, and inhabiting the place that seems most likely not to fill the void is often where peace can be found."

... Closing his speech, Gibson advised, "I hope you can learn to love not only yourself and those who love you, but love those who don't love you. If you can do that, your life will be rich and full in ways the world can never make it."

I would've asked him to talk about why, in his movie Braveheart, the Battle of Sterling Bridge was missing the bridge! But then maybe his keynote would not have been as inspirational!

Becoming One Family in Christ - Reflecting on the Communion of Saints

In our Creed, we profess the notion of the Communion of Saints, which the Church describes in many ways. As a convert, it was one that I tackled with supreme caution as I grew to gradually embrace its mystery. Seemingly without words, it resonated with my spirit. One of the most touching articulations, I believe, can be found in the Catechism, paragraphs 957-959 (taken from Lumen Gentium):

957. "Communion with the saints. 'It is not merely by the title of example that we cherish the memory of those in heaven; we seek, rather, that by this devotion to the exercise of fraternal charity the union of the whole Church in the Spirit may be strengthened. Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace, and the life of the People of God itself'[LG 50; cf. Eph 4:1-6 .]:

We worship Christ as God's Son; we love the martyrs as the Lord's disciples and imitators, and rightly so because of their matchless devotion towards their king and master. May we also be their companions and fellow disciples![Martyrium Polycarpi, 17: Apostolic Fathers II/3, 396.]"

958. "Communion with the dead. 'In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; and 'because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins' she offers her suffrages for them.'[LG 50; cf. 2 Macc 12:45 .] Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective." 959. "In the one family of God. 'For if we continue to love one another and to join in praising the Most Holy Trinity - all of us who are sons of God and form one family in Christ - we will be faithful to the deepest vocation of the Church.'[LG 51; d. Heb 3:6 .]"

What strikes me about the Communion of Saints is precisely the nature of this Communion that we have in Christ. We who are Christians are inseparably linked in a spiritual communion with our brothers and sisters in Heaven because we are in Christ as they are in Christ, albeit they are in a perfect relationship with Him. But if we do have this type of spiritual relationship with them in Heaven, then certainly we have this type of spiritual relationship with all who are in Christ here on the Earth, albeit not perfectly. We are called to the fullest manifestation of this communion with the whole Church particularly when we participate in the sacraments. Hence our spiritual communion on earth is one of vocation -- the communal call to holiness. The Catechism also states in paragraph 946 and 947:

What is the Church if not the assembly of all the saints? The communion of saints is the Church. Since all the fathful form one body, the good of each is communicated to the others... We must therefore believe that there exists a communion of goods in the Church. But the most important member is Christ, since He is the head... Therefore, the riches of Christ are communicated to all the members, through the sacraments.

Certainly we intercede for one another. But if we are in communion with one another in a way that achieves its perfection in Christ, particularly as revealed by our brothers and sisters in Heaven, then this is truly a profound concept, is it not? That our relationship with the rest of the Church both on Earth and in Heaven transcends and surpasses the physicality of our human relationships. In a way, our spiritual relationship with one another redefines and transforms our physical relationship with one another. And the gifts of God, the riches of Christ, are communicated through the sacraments. At the core of all of this is prayer. So when in life you have passing thoughts about a brother or sister, don't let them fall into a void. Rather, pause and pray for them - that we might empower one another spiritually and be that family Christ calls us to be. This is our vocation.

Matrix Multiplication

My girlfriend Christina and I finally went and saw Matrix: Reloaded. Beyond the hype, I was moderately pleased. There were certainly elements that could've been left out - like a boring "night-club / sex" scene that went on for way too long. However, there were many other developments in the plot that I found interesting. I won't spoil it, but I found it interesting how the character's understandings of choice and free will evolved. That's all I will say. The whole Matrix concept interests me on many levels. Stunning visuals and action sequences aside, the films seem to reflect some of the philosophical ideas of Plato and, it seems to me, a little from empiricist George Berkeley. And the Christian symbolism reveals a sort of theology reminiscent of the ancient Gnostic heresy, which I found fairly well described in Steve Kellmeyer's article for Envoy Magazine, The New Gnostic Gospel. Strange how this idea seems to appeal to many die-hard matrix followers. :)

Oh, and if you're a big fan of the Matrix, you'll know to wait around until the credits are over to see the preview for the third film, Matrix: Revolutions, as we and about 6 other people did. :)

Healing the Culture

Fr. Robert Spitzer, S.J., Ph.D. of Gonzaga University, whom I had the priviledge of hearing at the Religious Education Congress in Los Angeles in February (see my earlier blog entry), now has his own series every wednesday this month (8pm PST) on EWTN: Healing the Culture - A Pro-Life Philosophy:

Fr. Robert Spitzer, president of Gonzaga University and deeply committed to engaging our culture in the pro-life message, unfolds a theme of developing health, happiness, and purpose within the individual and thus within society. His philosophical and theological discussions are couched in language the laity understands and appreciates, and, most importantly, will be motivated to put into practice.

The episode list is short but pretty comprehensive. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, Fr. Spitzer is co-founder for the Center For Life Principles and is a very engaging speaker. Tune him in!

How do we know?

Often times I encounter the age old argument, How else will you know _Y_ is good or bad unless you do _Y_? As though it were not possible for me to know _Y_ without doing it? And what if _Y_ is something harmful to us?

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, in his oration on Education from the TV series Life is Worth Living, had this to say about knowing:

We at times fail to distinguish between two ways of knowing anything. For example, typhoid fever can be known as we know it now, negatively; we do not have it. The evil is known by negation. There are some people who know typhoid fever experimentally; they suffer from it.. It is one thing to know intellectual errors, as the negation of truth; it is quite another thng to know evil by infection. The germ could ruin us. To know what dishonesty is one need not be a thief. To know what life is, one need not be an adulterer. Drunkenness can be known without being drunk. Education which emphasizes the necessity of living evil in order to know evil is in danger of making the mind captive to evil. Values and joys are associated with temperance, which the alcoholic does not know, and with innocence, which the sex addict can never experience. Let a drunken man become sober and he will see things as they are; let a skeptic turn to the Diety and he will begin to know truth.

So knowing evils by negation isn't necessarily a worse knowledge than knowing evils experimentally. I can see the effects of crack cocaine on the body to know that it is harmful without doing it. I can see the effects of jumping off a 10 storey building onto concrete to know that it is deadly. The same goes for spiritual evils, or sin. While I am a sinner, I know sin by the effects of it in my own life - yet I also know that by cooperating with grace and embracing the cross in faith, I can avoid sin. And because I also trust Our Lord when He tells us of how sin harms our soul, I know sin without indulging in it. Now, I don't dare boast that I have mastered this, but it is a daily walk, and were it not for God's grace, I could not do it. Hence we have the sacraments as tangible ways in which we are strengthened by His grace.

But what about the difference between knowledge by negation and knowledge by experimentation? Sometimes it is argued that to really live is to, at times, do less than moral or even harmful things. The implication is that we can never really know life without them. But is this really true? I would answer shortly that in the essence of it, it isn't true. - but perhaps there is a kernel of truth buried in there, but I think it has more to do with the reality of the human condition. Certainly one who engages in harmful activities will know them, while it is experimentally. This is because experimentation is much more concrete than knowing something by negation, which isn't as tangible to us. A young child, for example, will most realistically learn this way. The child has to touch the hot stove to know that it is hot, in spite of warnings. The child has to over indulge on sugar sweets, even if mom or dad puts the cookie jar up high. But are there degrees to which we might consider something less than moral? Has this changed in the course of time? Certainly I would hope that my child, if I had a child, wouldn't become convinced that one needs to go do crack to know what crack is all about.

But it seems to me that as one gets older, the more one realizes that one doesn't have to experiment to know the harmful effects of particular things. Therefore, I think it has more to do with the maturity of one's mind, just as the maturity of one's soul, to know and understand harmful things by negation. It is certainly true that there is considerable risk in attempting to know things experiementally, for as Sheen states,

Education which emphasizes the necessity of living evil in order to know evil is in danger of making the mind captive to evil.

We endanger our bodies to addiction and death by indulging in crack to know the effects of crack. We endanger our souls by indulging in sin to know the effects of sin.

St. Bernadette Soubirous

Though I realize that this is merely the body of Bernadette,
I am struck by its restful peace just the same.



The incorrupt body of St. Bernadette (died April, 1879)

Fear and Trembling
Timor et tremor venerunt super me,
Fear and trembling have overcome me

et caligo cecidit super me.
and the shadows fall upon me

Miserere mei Domine miserere,
have mercy on me, Lord, have mercy

quoniam in te confidit anima mea.
for my soul confides in you.

Exaudi Deus deprecationem meam
Hear my plea, oh God

quia refugium meum es tu
for you are my refuge

et adjutor fortis Domine;
and you, O Lord, are my powerful aid

invocavi te non confundar.
I have called upon you, and I will not be confounded

---

in the garden of gethsemane...
Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem:
my soul is sorrowful, even unto death

sustinete hic, et vigilate mecum:
remain here and watch with me

nunc videbitis turbam, quae circumdabit me.
soon you will see the crowd which will surround me

Vos fugam capietis, et ego vadam immolari pro vobis.
you will take flight, and I will go to be sacrificed for you

Ecce appropinquat hora et Filius hominis tradetur in manus peccatorum.
Behold the hour approaches when the Son of man will be handed over into the hand of sinners.

New Color of Money




The Department of the Treasury unveils some redesigns for American currency, with new background color!

The redesigned currency is safer, smarter and more secure: Safer because it is harder to fake and easier to check; Smarter to stay ahead of tech-savvy counterfeiters; and More Secure to protect the integrity of U.S. currency.

The most noticeable difference in the new design is the subtle introduction of background color, which makes it more burdensome for potential counterfeiters because it adds complexity to the note. The color will also make it easier to distinguish between denominations because different background colors will be used for each denomination.

However, despite the addition of color, the new note preserves the distinct size, look and feel of the traditional American “greenback” – the world’s most familiar and circulated currency.

Intercessions for Life

The Pro-Life Activities Division of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops offers its June 2003 issue of "Word of Life", giving sample intercessions and bulletin announcements for Sunday Mass in both Spanish and English.

Particularly, among the fundamental rights of man, the Catholic Church claims for every human being the right to life as the primary right. She does it in the name of the truth about man and to protect his freedom that cannot be sustained without respect for the right to life. The Church affirms the right to life of every innocent human being and at every moment of his existence.

-- Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Academy of Life (February 27, 2002)

Truth and solidarity are necessary if humanity is to succeed in building a culture of life, a civilization of love, a world of peace.

-- John Paul II, address to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, March 25, 2003, in reference to World Communications Day, June 1, 2003 Judiciary Committee

The church respects and supports scientific research when it has a genuinely humanist orientation, avoiding any form of instrumentalization or destruction of the human being and keeping itself free from the slavery of political and economic interests.

-- John Paul II, address on Biomedical Research: Benefits, Limits of Science, February 24, 2003

The Angelus and Edgar Allan Poe

Popular culture sometimes inculturates the Catholic faith in interesting ways. For example, Edgar Allan Poe, in 1835, wondered why the bells would always toll at dawn, noon, and dusk at the nearby Fordham University. Asking the Jesuit priests there about the bells, they explained to him that the bells were tolled as they prayed the Angelus three times daily. Upon learning the Angelus, Poe, a non-Catholic, was so moved and inspired by this that he penned his famous poem, Hymn:

At morn- at noon- at twilight dim-
Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!
In joy and woe- in good and ill-
Mother of God, be with me still!
When the hours flew brightly by,
And not a cloud obscured the sky,
My soul, lest it should truant be,
Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;
Now, when storms of Fate o'ercast
Darkly my Present and my Past,
Let my Future radiant shine
With sweet hopes of thee and thine!

As you may know, the Angelus is a beautiful and powerful prayer to Mary that expresses four ideas of depth:

The annoucement to Mary via the angel Gabriel (God's Initiation)
Mary's Obedience to the Lord (Obedience)
Enfleshment of the Lord (the Incarnation)
Sharing in His Passion (daily conversion to Christ)

---

The Angelus

In Latin: Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae. Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto. Ave Maria, gratia plena, dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis, peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. Ecce ancilla Domini. Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Ave Maria... Et Verbum caro factum est. Et habitavit in nobis. Ave Maria... Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. Oremus. Gratiam tuam, quaesumus, Domine, mentibus nostris infunde; ut, qui, angelo nuntiante, Christi Filii tui incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem ejus et crucem, ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

In English: The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary. And she conceived of the Holy Ghost. Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen. Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to Thy word. Hail Mary... And the Word was made flesh. And dwelt among us. Hail Mary... Pray for us, O holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us pray Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

What type of thinker are you?

You are an Intrapersonal thinker

Intrapersonal thinkers:

Spend a lot of time thinking about and trying to understand themselves
Reflect on their thoughts and moods, and work to improve them
You understand how your behaviour affects your relationships with others

Other Intrapersonal thinkers include

Sigmund Freud, Gandhi, Grahame Greene

Careers which suit Intrapersonal Thinkers include

Psychologist, Teacher, Pilot, Child care worker, Explorer, Drama therapist

What type of thinker are you?

Beautiful Ride!

This afternoon, I biked to downtown Santa Barbara and back from where I live - total approx. 25 miles, which is quite a big deal for me! I hadn't done this ride in almost 4 years, so after a few weeks of mild preparation, I figured I was ready to give it a go. The ride there was beautiful. You take a coastal route from the university down along the beach, through the prestigious Hope Ranch community, down through a secluded beach, and then down a fun hill to the Santa Barbara Harbor and Stearn's Wharf. One of the last times I did this, I saw dolphins frolicking in the nearby sea. And today, it was a beautiful, sunny day.

However, I quickly found out that I was not in as great of shape as I initially figured, but that's okay. I gave myself opportunies to rest, kept well hydrated, and enjoyed downtown while I was there.

Have a great weekend!

The Unhealed Wound

Bishop Thomas Curry has some good criticisms of Eugene Kennedy's mindless diatribe, The Unhealed Wound: The Church, the Priesthood, and the Question of Sexuality. Kennedy gave this as a talk at the University here in Santa Barbara to plug his book. Bishop Curry writes:

In his book, Eugene Kennedy writes of "a once totally passive Catholic community conditioned to receive and accept as God's will whatever the official Church bade its members do" (p. 101).

Nineteenth century anti-Catholics would have concurred with him. As Philip Hamburger documents so thoroughly in his recent "Separation of Church and State" (Harvard U.P, 2002), that was precisely the stereotype they used to advocate the exclusion of Catholics from the franchise and political life.The very people Kennedy so denigrates faced constant and malignant prejudice, and by their courage, faith and resistance, they contributed enormously to the transformation of America into a pluralistic, open and diverse nation. In the church that they built for themselves, they found a refuge from their sufferings, and they created one of the most vibrant expressions of Catholicism ever.

... The depth of his confusion and lack of understanding of contemporary Catholicism appears in his astonishing and unsupported statement: "Distracted from or forgetting it, the church misses entirely the meaning of its central teaching that God took on our flesh in Jesus, sparing Himself none of our experiences, save sin, in order to heal our wounds and make us whole" (10).

... his view of history and life is based on crass conspiracy theory and reductionism. The Catholic people are seen as mindless sheep, manipulated by conspiring "hierarchs," or just long-suffering martyrs to the same. He reduces the whole tradition of celibacy in Catholicism to the desire of the 11th century pope Gregory VII to protect church lands (IX).
...
Reality always comes off second best when measured against an idealized future. Like a modern-day Gatsby, Kennedy believes in the "orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us." However, in his determination to present such a skewed and partisan version of Catholicism, he joins himself to an old tradition of American anti-Catholicism and is himself "borne back ceaselessly into the past."

Commencement Speakers

Graduation speakers: Issues and controversies

Interesting article by Michelle Gahee in the recent Tidings:

At Loyola Marymount University, the selection of actor-director Mel Gibson and film director William Friedkin as commencement speakers has generated much talk -- Gibson for his conservative (some would say traditional) views toward the Catholic Church (he likes the Tridentine Mass), Gibson and Friedkin for some of their films that have shown explicit violence.

Funny how she qualifies Gibson's "traditionalism" by saying he likes the Tridentine Mass. Is that all it takes?

But I'm not sure I can picture Mel Gibson at LMU. At the commencement ceremony for my B.S. degree in 2000, our speaker was the CEO of Honeywell corporation. He gave an excellent talk concerning ethics in engineering and how as engineers, we should always be asking questions about the effects of our work on the world. However, the speaker at the ceremony for my M.S. degree in 2001 gave what was largely a diatribe on the liberation of radical feminism. Sometimes it's hit and miss.

So I pose the question - what makes a truly beneficial or inspirational commencement speech?

Bridge Building

I just got back from an advisory board meeting on which I serve for the "Santa Barbara Bridge Building" program. Bridge Building is a regional young adult ministry program specifically intended for young adult Catholics ages 25-35 in the Santa Barbara Pastora Region of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Young adults of this age range have a difficult time fitting into programs in this area - because most programs are either for much older Catholics, or if they are "young adult" events, they are typically for kids ages 16-24. Young adults 25+ are at a different area in life, spiritually and maturity speaking. So with the help of our regional bishop, Bishop Thomas Curry, and the Sisters of St. Joseph, Bridge Building was born.

The program proceeds in cycles. It starts with listening, then education and developing, and then service. We began the program with "conversation circles" in which we invite a bunch of young adults to come and talk about their spiritual lives, their experiences of being a young adult in the Church, and those things in their lives that prevent them from developing their spirituality as they'd like. It gives them a chance to meet one another and to gain other insights about what it means to be a young adult Catholic in Santa Barbara. Based on these things, we arrange lectures, retreats, prayer nights, and other education opportunities given by people who can speak to those needs for our age group.

Currenty, our next stage is our mission/service effort. We are arranging mission opportunities in the community to help young adults get involved, if they desire.

We then begin the cycle again. It may go an entirely different direction. Being on the advisory board to help plan these things has been a very insightful experience. It has helped me connect with other ministers in the region. What is really excellent is that I have really met a very diverse group of young adults, many of whom I number as good friends today.

The Misplaced Infinite

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a copy of a book of transcripts from Archbishop Fulton Sheen's Life is Worth Living (Second Series). Being a lover of Fulton Sheen's inspirational work, I figured it would be a good pick, and it was. So in addition to all the other things about which I would like to blog over the coming weeks, I'd like to occasionally blog about my impressions of a few chapters as they strike me.

In his oration, which is titled Misplaced Infinite, Sheen discusses the delineation between a normal human being and an abnormal one.

The normal human being is meant to have open relationships with the eternal or the infinite. Man has a body, a mind, and a relationship with things in the great world that constitutes his environment. The normal human being recognizes that his body gives him the capacity to experience sensual pleasure or carnal love. This love is to be seen as a spark from the great flame of love, which is God. Sex love was made not only to deepen the affection between husband and wife, not only to be a prolongation of God's creative power to creatures, but also to be a steppingstone to a higher love of God.

You can see how Sheen characterizes normal living. Our bodies, our minds, and those things which make up our environment are given to us to be oriented such that their purpose is to lift us up and direct us toward God. As Sheen illustrates with the example of the capacity of the body to feel, touch, and experience sensual pleasure - properly understood, such pleasure is intended not only to deepen the love between a married couple, but is, as Sheen puts it, a prolongation of God's creative power and to deepen our love of Him. When used, all of these faculties should always have an orientation toward God.

The mind by discovering the truths of science, history, and philosophy, gradually unifies them and sees them as a descent, refraction, and echo of the Great Omniscient Truth, which is God.

When we exercise the faculies of our mind with proper appreciation of their purpose, we are taken to the depths of deeper awareness of God. So even after reading this, one can already begin to see what Sheen believes to characterize the abnormal mind - a misguided sense of the orientation of our bodies, minds, and things in our environments.

[In] abnormal living, man [cuts] himself off from God and [proclaims] his own sufficiency. But man cannot live without a god, that is impossible. The infinite haunts him constantly. So he has to make his own gods. These gods are generally three. The first god is his own body. Sexual pleasure then becomes the supreme goal of life and ultimate happiness. He attempts to compensate for a want of eternal divine destiny by the intensity of his erotic experiences. Other men make a god of their minds through egotism and pride and the exaltation of the ego.

The body, made its own limit, becomes sex. The mind, made its own limit, becomes egotism. The things, denied an extraearthly relationship, become the source of greed. Civilization then becomes a conflict of individual egotisms, each one affirming his own will. From this result jealousies, bickerings, ... and war.

The third substitute god men make for the true God is the material: wealth, avarice, business, and greed. The true infinite is replaced by the false infinite of "more." Men attempt to cover their nudity by a vain display, thinking they are worth something because they have something.

I think that Sheen has a really good point here. Without a proper orientation of our bodies, minds, and relationship with the things in our environments, we are desparate to give them some purpose which falls short of God, which typically means they fall in on themselves. Thus they no longer lift us up in our relationship with God but leave us stranded on the dusty floors of life.

Sheen continues to note that there are two primary effects that flow from the abnormal living: Anxiety and Despair.

Anxiety, because man sees a disproportion between what he is and what he ought to be... Dispair, because living in a closed circle makes a man despair in that he cannot escape the desire for the infinite, and having made himself the infinite, he foresees there is nothing ahead of him but death, annihilation, and destruction

What he notes about despair is really interesting and perfectly correct. Man despairs when he is limited from the infinite. Man rejoices when he is free. The trouble is that the cause of man's limitation here is himself. Therefore I call this a self-perpetuating blindness, and a self-fulfilling prophecy in that, once in this rut, man gets what he pretty much expects to get.

But is hope lost on us? Of course not. If in normal living our faculties are properly oriented toward God, it cannot be because we have done this out of our own power! They are gifts of God to His Creation and we, as instruments, are empowered by His grace to use them. When we cooperate with God's freely given grace, we are created anew.

There are two things that are meant to go together. One is the misery of man: his worries, his trials, his difficulties, his sorrows. The other, the Mercy of God. Our modern world... has separated the misery of man from the mercy of God. As misery without mercy begets despair, so also, a sense of God's Mercy without a sense of sin can beget presumption, arrogance, and pride. Man has already one-half the condition of salvation - he is miserable. Then he has peace as he hears, coming from out of the darkness, the plea, "Come to Me, all ye who labor and are heavily burdened, and find rest for your souls."

Nuntii Latini - Recitatio Radiophonica

I want to blog briefly on a neat little resource if you are interested in hearing spoken Classical Latin. Nuntii Latini is a Finnish site where the news is broadcast each day in Classical Latin. Though Classical Latin is not what I am most familiar with simply because the Ecclesiastical Latin that I am studying tends to use some simplifications (like more use of prepositions, common to the romance languages to which classical latin gave birth), not to mention different pronunciations, I and others particularly like this site because it utilizes a rather neo-Latin vocabulary. What I mean by neo-Latin is that is a great source to hear modern terms and place names in Latin. For example, space shuttle is rendered navicula spatialis.

A transcript of the day's news is also available.

A fun time for the whole family.

Free Greek and Latin Study Aids

Download free books in PDF format at Textkit Greek and Latin Learning Tools:

Textkit is a language learning site which provides Greek and Latin grammars, reading material, classical e-books and other learning resources. Textkit is the Internet's leading source for free, fully downloadable, public domain Greek and Latin grammars. We also provide a wide range of classical e-books from Greek and Roman authors. With currently 119 free books to choose from, Greek and Latin learners have downloaded 52,972 grammars, readers and classical e-books.

Santa Barbara, CA

I managed to snap this photo in March of Santa Barbara on a Sunday Afternoon




Not bad for a disposable camera, isn't it?

The Eucharist in Poetry

THE HOLY EUCHARIST

by: Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681)

HONEY in the lion's mouth,
Emblem mystical, divine,
How the sweet and strong combine;
Cloven rock for Israel's drouth;
Treasure-house of golden grain
By our Joseph laid in store,
In his brethren's famine sore
Freely to dispense again;
Dew on Gideon's snowy fleece;
Well, from bitter turned to sweet;
Shew-bread laid in order meet,
Bread whose cost doth ne'er increase,
Though no rain in April fall;
Horeb's manna freely given
Showered in white dew from heaven,
Marvelous, angelical;
Weightiest bunch of Canaan's vine;
Cake to strengthen and sustain
Through long days of desert pain;
Salem's monarch's bread and wine;--
Thou the antidote shalt be
Of my sickness and my sin,
Consolation, medicine,
Life and Sacrament to me.

The Mass of the Second Vatican Council

The 1965 Missale Romanum in English

If you are a lover of liturgical history like me, you will find this interesting. The 1965 Roman Missal was published at the close of the Second Vatican Council and was apparently in use from 1965 until 1969/1970. It was superceded by the new missal of Pope Paul VI. According to the link, the 1965 missal reflects the intended fruit of Sacrosanctum Concilium. As I read through it, I could definitely see similarities to both the previously used 1962 Tridentine missal and the Novus Ordo. The link notes the following:

an option for use of the vernacular exists in the 1965. Furthermore, as in the Novus Ordo, it is at the discretion of the celebrant to either face the East ("ad orientem") or the people ("versus ad populum"). An option for concelebration was also introduced in the 1965 (this was formerly restricted to Ordination Masses). The required Mass vestments were also simplified (e.g., optionality of the maniple). In 1967, the cope was supressed in the Asperges (rite of aspersion at High Mass). The chasuble was worn in its stead. The Canon was still required to be read in Latin until 1967, when it was permitted in the vernacular. In the 1965 Missal, the priest, when administering Communion, says "the Body of Christ" (or "Corpus Christi") instead of "Corpus + Domini nostri Jesu Christi custodiat animam tuam ad vitam aeternam" (that is, "May the Body + of our Lord Jesus Christ bring thy soul unto life everlasting").

Options for congregational singing also exist in the 1965, exactly as they do in the Novus Ordo -- with places for processional, offertory, communion, and recessional hymns. The 1965 also allows for the Prayer of the Faithful after the Creed. The prayers at the foot of the altar, in addition to being made entirely optional, were shortened (as they would previously be prayed at Requiem Masses). The Last Gospel was suppressed. The calendar follows the Tridentine Ordo, consistent with that of the previous Missal (Missale Romanum 1962). Ironically enough, the New St. Joseph's Missal ends the Liturgical Calendar in 1970.

(Andrew, was this the missal that you were telling me you owned?)

Check it out!

Christ, the Medicine of Immortality

At the Pro Deo et Patria blog, Bill Cork blogs this about a bad editorial concerning the Holy Father's latest encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, by an ex-Catholic named Mark Marek, which aired on WLSH, a radio station in Lansford, Pennsylvania.

I have already now run into many people, many of them Catholics, who do not get the point of this encyclical. Their sole exposure to the encyclical is through secular media reports, and they always end up saying, "This isn't what the Church needs now!" as though the Church should no longer be willing to stand up for the Truth and the continuing call of the Gospel in spite of his human brokenness.

This is _exactly_ what the Church needs now! The problem of priestly sexual abuse is more than just a physical problem, it is a spiritual problem. And the effects are not just physical, they are also spiritual. In order to heal, we need to get our focus back on Christ. It must be back on living the Gospel. And for us Catholics, the Sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation are ways in which God gives us the grace to answer His daily call and enhance our relationship with Him and with each other. As Bill correctly notes, the Eucharist is the "bread of life" and the "medicine of immortality" and we should never forget this.

The Holy Father knows this. And yet he also knows the terrible state that proper catechesis concerning the Eucharist and Reconciliation is in. Giving us the proper focus, allowing us to more fully understand the depth of the power and mystery of grace, the Holy Father is doing what a true shepherd does - he leads us back to Christ, the Good Shepherd. He leads us to forgiveness, reconciliation, and nourishment offered to us in the sacraments.

I ask those who feel that the time "isn't right" for the encyclical to first read the encyclical. Then I ask them, if not this, what is it time for? To toss aside the medicine of immortality for better PR? Christ never refuses someone without offering an invitation and a challenge for conversion. Our Holy Father invites those with grave sin in their life to experience and embrace the grace of forgiveness offered in Christ through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so they can be disposed by grace to cooperate with that which Christ gives us in the gift of Himself in the Holy Eucharist.

And as members of the Body of Christ, let us not bow out at the challenge to stand up and keep running the good race, fighting the good fight, and witnessing to the world the power and beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Cycle of Nations

Some food for thought and discussion.

We Christians are living in a decidedly difficult time in the life of America. As abortion and general disrespect for human life rise, as the sense of absolute moral values declines, we are certainly in choppy waters. Some Christians, and indeed even some non-Christians, look to the state of our civilization and try to suggest that it is the beginning of the End Times, desparately trying to fit anything into an apocalyptic model, while justifying it by their own interpretation of Bible Prophecy. But if we study the halls of history, is it really true that what we are experiencing now is one-of-a-kind, never before experienced, event? Is this the beginning of an apocalyptic destruction, or is just simply part of the cycle of nations? After all, is it not true that later civilizations tend to make the same mistakes as former civilizations?

When the thirteen colonies were still a part of England, Professor Alexander Tyler wrote about the fall of the Athenian republic over two thousand years previous to that time:

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years.

Alexander Tyler came up with a sequence of 10 stages that represents the cycle of nations. Kerby Anderson, in his article The Decline of a Nation states:

Each of the great civilizations in the world passed through a series of stages from their birth to their decline to their death. Historians have listed these in ten stages.

These nations have progressed through the following sequence:

     from bondage to spiritual faith,
     from spiritual faith to great courage,
     from courage to liberty,
     from liberty to abundance,
     from abundance to selfishness,
     from selfishness to complacency,
     from complacency to apathy,
     from apathy to moral decay,
     from moral decay to dependency,
     from dependency back to bondage.

Something interesting he notes is that the move from stage to stage is largely dependent upon the value associated with the family, because families are the foundation of a nation. Carl Wilson, in his book Our Dance Has Turned to Death notes a similar set of stages representing the pattern of family decline, based on a study of the Roman Empire and Ancient Greece. This is what he says:

In the first stage, men ceased to lead their families in worship. Spiritual and moral development became secondary. Their view of God became naturalistic, mathematical, and mechanical.

In the second stage, men selfishly neglected care of their wives and children to pursue material wealth, political and military power, and cultural development. Material values began to dominate thought, and the man began to exalt his own role as an individual.

The third stage involved a change in men's sexual values. Men who were preoccupied with business or war either neglected their wives sexually or became involved with lower-class women or with homosexuality. Ultimately, a double standard of morality developed.

The fourth stage affected women. The role of women at home and with children lost value and status. Women were neglected and their roles devalued. Soon they revolted to gain access to material wealth and also freedom for sex outside marriage. Women also began to minimize having sex relations to conceive children, and the emphasis became sex for pleasure. Marriage laws were changed to make divorce easy.

In the fifth stage, husbands and wives competed against each other for money, home leadership, and the affection of their children. This resulted in hostility and frustration and possible homosexuality in the children. Many marriages ended in separation and divorce. Many children were unwanted, aborted, abandoned, molested, and undisciplined. The more undisciplined children became, the more social pressure there was not to have children. The breakdown of the home produced anarchy.

In the sixth stage, selfish individualism grew and carried over into society, fragmenting it into smaller and smaller group loyalties. The nation was thus weakened by internal conflict. The decrease in the birthrate produced an older population that had less ability to defend itself and less will to do so, making the nation more vulnerable to its enemies.

Finally, unbelief in God became more complete, parental authority diminished, and ethical and moral principles disappeared, affecting the economy and government. Thus, by internal weakness and fragmentation the societies came apart. There was no way to save them except by a dictator who arose from within or by barbarians who invaded from without.

A nation will not be strong unless the family is strong. That was true in the ancient world and it is true today.

Interesting. Personally, I think that this model may be a tad over-generalized. But I ask you what you think about this model. What is the current stage of America according to this picture? And what does this say? One thing that one could use in the initial argument, that what we are experiencing now is unparalleled in history, is the fact that the world is so much more globalized than it has been at any other point. There is no longer the same extent of isolation between nations on opposite ends of the globe. Because media is now so ubiquitous, and the advent of the Internet has joined much of the world together, there is much more interaction between nations and global civilizations. Hence, we affect each other uniquely.

And then again, the Cycle of Nations may just be another world theory of doom and gloom. It certainly isn't necessary that we follow the path of some deterministic model.