Precious Lord, Take My Hand

Was listening to some music by Elvis and I came across this. I really like it. We sing it at Friday evening Mass in my parish in Sri Lanka:

St. John Bosco, Priest

Today's the feast day of Don Bosco the great teacher and founder of the Salesian order and my patron St Dominic Savio's teacher:

John Bosco was born in Turin, Italy, on August 16, 1815. His parents were poor farmers. When John was two, his father died. John's mother struggled to keep the family together. As soon as he was old enough, John, too, worked as hard as he could to help his mother. He was intelligent and full of life. John started to think about becoming a priest. He didn't say anything to his mother because he knew they couldn't afford the seminary education. Besides, his mother needed help at home. So John waited and prayed and hoped. Finally, a holy priest, St. Joseph Cafasso, became aware of John's desire to be a priest. Father Cafasso helped him enter the seminary. John had to work his way through school. He learned to do all kinds of trades. He was a carpenter, a shoemaker, a cook, a pastry maker and a farmer. He did many other jobs as well. He could never have guessed how much this practical experience would help others later. John became a priest in 1841. As a priest, Don Bosco, which means Father Bosco, began his great ministry. He gathered together homeless boys and taught them trades. This way they would not have to steal or get into trouble. By 1850, there were 150 boys living at his home for boys. Don Bosco's mother was the housekeeper. At first, people did not understand what Don Bosco was trying to do. They were afraid that the boys would never really turn out well. But Don Bosco proved that they would. "Do you want to be Don Bosco's friend?" he would ask each new boy who came to him. "You do?" he would ask happily. "Then, you must help me save your soul," he would conclude. Every night he wanted his boys to say three Hail Mary's, so that the Blessed Mother would help them keep away from sin. He also recommended that they receive the sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion often and with love. One of Don Bosco's boys became a saint, St. Dominic Savio. Don Bosco started his own religious order of priests and brothers. They were called the Salesians, after St. Francis de Sales. An order of Salesian sisters was started, too, with the help of St. Mary Mazzarello. Don Bosco died on January 31, 1888. The entire city of Turin lined the streets to pay him tribute. His funeral became a joyous proclamation of thanksgiving to God for the life of this wonderful man. A young parish priest who had once met Don Bosco later became Pope Pius XI. He had the joy of declaring Don Bosco a saint in 1934. "Education is something from the heart, and God alone is its master; we cannot succeed in anything unless God gives us the key to the hearts of these children."-St. John Bosco

O glorious Saint John Bosco,
who in order to lead young people to the feet of the divine Master
and to mould them in the light of faith
and Christian morality didst heroically sacrifice thyself
to the very end of thy life
and didst set up a proper religious Institute destined to endure
and to bring to the farthest boundaries of the earth thy glorious work,
obtain also for us from Our Lord a holy love for young people
who are exposed to so many seductions
in order that we may generously spend ourselves in supporting them
against the snares of the devil,
in keeping them safe from the dangers of the world,
and in guiding them,
pure and holy,
in the path that leads to God.

Amen.

Rejoice!

From AmP

Former Maryland Lt. Gov. (and former state party chairman) Michael Steele has been elected as the new chair of the Republican National Committee.

So who is he?!

CollegeNews tells us:

"Steele is a staunch social conservative: devoutly Catholic, pro-life, anti-embryonic stem cell research, etc."

Sounds like my kind of guy!

And no Kmiec-style justifications needed to support him.

update: WaPo blog:

The Republican National Committee elected Michael Steele as its first African American chairman today in Washington, a decision that came after an excruciating series of ballots that displayed a level of drama rarely seen in national politics.

On the sixth and final ballot Steele bested South Carolina Republican party Chairman Katon Dawson 91 to 77.

"It's time for something completely different and we are going to bring it to them," Steele said after his victory. "This is our opportunity. I cannot do this by myself."

update 2: I love seeing outcomes so surprising that the media doesn't quite know how to handle it. Associated Press finally has a short breaking news update out the door.

Remember - you read it on AmP first!

update 3: FoxNews has his biography:

"He spent three years as a seminarian in the Order of St. Augustine in preparation for the priesthood, but ultimately chose a career in law instead."

I'm impressed.

Enlightened, are we?

Zenit

For many, science has become antagonistic to faith. An increasing number of people believe Galileo to be the father, Darwin (whose Origin of the Species is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year) the son, and Albert Einstein the holy spirit of a new materialistic religion. This will be a banner year for proponents of the triune god of science.

In the eyes of its worshippers, this deification of science has freed it of moral responsibility or accountability, which necessarily results in tensions with the Church. The devotees of the god of science often view Christians as superstitious simpletons at best, and, at worst, virulent heretics to be stamped out.

Even President Obama, in his inaugural speech, seemed to take up this flag. He spoke of the many errors and wrongs of the previous years and in his platform of change he vowed that “We will restore science to its rightful place.” What is this rightful place? We found out soon enough.

The next day the new U.S. president lifted the Bush administration’s ban on embryonic stem cell testing. The inevitable conclusion is that for Obama, the “rightful place” of science is above ethics, morals and life itself. While once the domain of the laboratory, today some would raise it to the altar. With this carte blanche to scientific research at the expense of human life, the prospects for the future of ethics in science look grim indeed.

Oddly enough, a 13th-century “Golden Legend” contains a similar story. Emperor Constantine, afflicted with leprosy, had tried every known remedy without success. He was assured that the only sure cure would be to bathe in the blood of newborn infants, as their pure blood would restore his withered flesh.

As 3,000 infants were gathered for his cure, the emperor shrank before the prospect of such violence. He declared that “the honor of the Roman people is born of the font of piety. Piety gave us the law by which anyone who kills a child in war shall incur the sentence of death. What cruelty it would be, therefore if we did to our own children what we are forbidden to do to our enemies!”

That night, Sts. Peter and Paul told Constantine in a dream to go to Rome and find Pope Sylvester to be cured. Pope Sylvester told him that the best way to relieve his sufferings was baptism. In accepting the sacrament of baptism, Constantine was cured.

While this is pious legend, it is interesting to note that the worst cruelty imaginable in Constantine’s world was to sacrifice infants to save the life of a man, as well as the horror expressed at the lengths one would go for a “miracle cure.” What some call progress, others might call regress.

Things are happening a bit too fast...

From Rorate Caeli

Apology Letter of Bishop Richard Williamson

To His Eminence Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos

Your Eminence

Amidst this tremendous media storm stirred up by imprudent remarks of mine on Swedish television, I beg of you to accept, only as is properly respectful, my sincere regrets for having caused to yourself and to the Holy Father so much unnecessary distress and problems.

For me, all that matters is the Truth Incarnate, and the interests of His one true Church, through which alone we can save our souls and give eternal glory, in our little way, to Almighty God. So I have only one comment, from the prophet Jonas, I, 12:

"Take me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you; for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you."

Please also accept, and convey to the Holy Father, my sincere personal thanks for the document signed last Wednesday and made public on Saturday. Most humbly I will offer a Mass for both of you.

Sincerely yours in Christ

+Richard Williamson

Written to Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos on January 28, 2009.

I thought the quote from the Prophet Jonas is highly symbolic...

And then, this rather shocking news from Fr Z

The Italian site Messa In Latino is reporting that perhaps SSPX Bp. Williamson may be suffering, even dying, from cancer.

Among other La Repubblica’s Marco Politti, not my favorite but very well-informed, recounted what Bp. Negri of San Marino said, namely, that Williamson has a tumor and is dying: "Intanto mons. Williamson è chiuso nel seminario di La Reja in Argentina. Il vescovo di San Marino mons. Luigi Negri ha dichiarato a sorpresa a Repubblica-Tv che il presule «ha un tumore e sta morendo."

Also, Card. Castrillon was reported to hav commented on Bp. Williamson’s health.

I bring this to your attention for no other motive than to urge you

a) to offer prayers and even fasting and almsgiving for the swift reconciliation of the SSPX and

b) to offer prayers and other mortifications for Bp. Williamson if, in fact, his condition is grave along these lines.

God is merciful and omniscent and no prayer or act of charity is in vain.

Should all this blow over, your charitable offerings will nevertheless be of benefit to the whole Church, militant and suffering.

Update from Rorate:
We have learned from a source in daily contact with Bishop Williamson the following information:

"His Excellency is alive and well and rumors of a tumor are not true and a very unfortunate attempt to draw Bishop Williamson out into the public arena for some sort of comment or interview."

The Cat-lover

From AmP



Pope Benedict certainly seemed at ease petting that lion cub! Very nice video!

Apologetics...

...is NOT saying "I'm sorry" :P

"The Catholic Church write the Bible folks! The Catholic Church wrote the Bible! Don't go to the author of the Book and tell the author of the book what the author meant. The Catholic Church wrote the Bible because it was written by the Holy Spirit. And before Jesus left he said to his Apostles that when I leave I will send the Holy Spirit and He will teach you all truth. You believe in the truthfulness and the holiness of the Catholic Church or you're calling Jesus Christ a liar. Now you put that in your pipe and you figure out how to smoke that!"

...

If you don't read Scripture right, in view of the faith and the the light and the understanding that the Apostles knew it - and they knew an awful lot more than what's written down on those pages - you are misreading the Scripture. The Catholic Church wrote the Bible. The Catholic Church put the Bible together. And when someone who isn't Catholic starts waving the Bible in your face and says, "Blah, blah, blah, this book, this chapter, this verse," you just turn around to them and say: "Excuse me, on whose authority do you have that Book? Well don't say that the word in that Book is true but the authority that put that word in that Book is untrue. Don't make ridiculous arguments like that. One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church: because Jesus Christ, our Blessed Lord wanted it that way and only because He wanted it that way."

- Michael Voris, "The Church, the same yesterday, today and forever"

Do listen to the rest of this podcast here!

New Illinois Governor

Disgraced Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich was impeached in a unanimous Illinois Senate vote yesterday. So he's finally out. The new Governor is Pat Quinn. Turn out that he's Catholic. Usually Catholic and Democrat ends up a disappointing combination. But lets hope that's not the case here.

From Time:
In a state so plagued by cronyism and shady self-dealing that the head of the FBI here didn't hesitate to call Illinois one of the — if not the — most corrupt states in the nation, Lieut. Governor Pat Quinn is considered something of a Goody Two-Shoes.
...

Cut from the mold of a 1970s post-Watergate maverick politician, Quinn has long been viewed as a serious-minded, if eccentric, reformer. In his 30s, after graduating from Georgetown and Northwestern, he tried to amend the state constitution to allow residents to enact laws through referendums. He once urged people to inundate former governor James Thompson's office with 40,000 tea bags to beat back postelection pay hikes. These days, he draws attention to the cause of veterans by hosting a website called Operation Homefront. (Meanwhile, he slips into the funerals of soldiers almost unnoticed.)

"He's unpretentious, thoughtful, no show," says Kevin Conlon, a political consultant here who was state chair of Howard Dean's presidential bid four years ago. "He's this Irish Catholic, zealous guy who never lost that passion from his young years as a lawyer and politician. It's a calling."

Err...Uh...Umm.

By the American Papist: Not Your Average Catholic!: Video: Pelosi stammers about STD earmarks



"Face it, Pelosi, there's no reason to have this stuff in the bill except that you want to sneak more money to your pet causes and organizations..... immoral causes and evil organizations, I might add."

Soap opera

Just because...

...I love cheese

Words...

'In the postcolonial years, most ordinary people not only could read and did read, but eagerly joined in political debate. When Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay wrote The Ferderalist Papers, they already knew that an educated citizenry wanted to read and debate them. A culture like this forms minds that can retain and weigh large amounts of conceptual information, minds able to follow arguments - even dense and abstract ones.

In an electronic culture, vast chunks of incoming information have no importance at all. They simply gum our ability to distinguish and rank issues. Politics tend to dumb down into what Christopher Lasch called "ideological gestures." A serious marketplace of ideas, a place where opposing views get fairly debated and the best course of action emerges as the winner, simply can't survive in a climate ruled by the sound bite. "The problem," Neil Postman wrote, "is not entertaining subject matter, but that all subject matter s presented as entertaining." Crime, war, public humiliation, sexual intimacy, pain and political leadership - much of our experience of these things comes from watching them on network shoes. We begin to judge their value bu how prevalent they are on television and how well they hold our attention there.'
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Render Unto Caesar, p. 142-3

The Archbishop also points to Stephen Colbert's first appearance on the Colbert Report when he launched his trademark word: truthiness:

"Now I'm sure some of the 'word police,' the 'wordinistas' over at Webster's are gonna say, 'hey, that's not a word'. Well, anyone who knows me knows I'm no fan of dictionaries or reference books. that television presents us with They're elitist. Constantly telling us what is or isn't true, or what did or didn't happen. Who's Britannica to tell me the Panama Canal was finished in 1914? If I wanna say it happened in 1941, that's my right. I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart....I don't trust books. They're all fact, no heart. And that's exactly what's pulling our country apart today. 'Cause face it, folks; we are a divided nation. Not between Democrats and Republicans, or conservatives and liberals, or tops and bottoms. No, we are divided between those who think with their head, and those who know with their heart....The truthiness is, anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news at you."

Speaking out of character about modern political debate, Colbert later ssaid:

Truthiness is tearing apart our country, and I don't mean the argument over who came up with the word…

It used to be, everyone was entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. But that's not the case anymore. Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It's certainty. People love the President because he's certain of his choices as a leader, even if the facts that back him up don't seem to exist. It's the fact that he's certain that is very appealing to a certain section of the country. I really feel a dichotomy in the American populace. What is important? What you want to be true, or what is true?…

Truthiness is 'What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true.' It's not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality.

'People laugh because Colbert is right. Once upon a time, words had weight. Now they float. Americans understood equality as something basic that we share before God and the law. Now it means that almost everyone feels anointed to have his or her views taken seriously, no matter how unfettered by fact, logic, civility, or common sense. Unfortunately, experience teaches the opposite. Some ideas are bad. Some opinions are foolish. Some feelings are vindictive. And some people lie.'

Chaput, p 139

You want tolerance?

From CMR:

The European Union’s Committee on “gay rights” has demanded that all foreign aid to Nigeria be suspended after that country’s House of Representatives voted to prohibit attempts to create legal “gay marriage.”

Mind you, Nigeria depends on foreign aid to battle high rates of "HIV/AIDS, infant mortality, infectious diseases such as typhoid fever, malaria and yellow fever, Lassa fever and meningococcal meningitis" according to Lifesite.

So, because Nigeria is holding to their religious beliefs, this "gay rights" group wants to commit millions to death.

So next time someone's arguing with you about tolerance, drop that one on them. What they mean by tolerance is that you do what they say. They cry for compassion while acting like tyrants.

Mind your own business

The Holy Father lifted the excommunications of the four SSPX bishops last week. One of them, Bishop Williamson, made some idiotic comments denying the Holocaust just a day before the lifting of the excommunications. Apparently the Vatican was not even aware of these comments when the decree was issued.

Now the Holy Father is facing uproar about the decision to life the excommunication of a Holocaust-denier.
Israel's chief rabbinate severed tied to protest the Holy Father's decision.

What kind of nonsense is this?
The two issues are not at all connected.
The Vatican has been in dialogue with the SSPX for quite a while now. The matters in question have nothing to do with the Jews: the liturgy, Vatican II, Papal authority.
Excommunication is a very severe punishment and it's a great act of mercy that the Pope has performed. Why do people (who clearly don't understand the Church very well) grudge this and create such an uncomfortable scene out of it?

Can't they just mind their own business? Stop making a mountain out of a molehill. And stop using (extremely sorrowful of course) events of the past to bully the rest of the world.

Media Bias?

It looks like President Obama hasn't gotten acquainted to his White House surroundings. On the way back to the Oval Office Tuesday, the President approached a paned window, instead of the actual door -- located a few feet to his right.

Doors didn't open automatically for Obama’s predecessor either. While making a hasty exit from a 2005 press conference in Beijing, former President George W. Bush tugged on the handles of a door, only to find it locked.

Bush laughed off the blunder, but the pictures still live on as part of Bush's lame duck legacy. However, there was little note taken of Obama's rookie mistake.

Obama, who was returning from meeting with Congressional leaders, may have been distracted by Republicans' icy reception to his $825 billion stimulus package, which is poised to pass on Wednesday even without a groundswell of Republican support.

So Bush tried to open up a locked door (which had the advantage of actually being a door) and it's emblematic of his legacy. But Obama tries to walk through a window and it's because of the Republicans icy reception.

Nah. No bias in that story. Nothing to see here. Move along.

From CMR

What's it to you?

Greg Teo has an interesting poem:

a man is drinking at a lonesome bar
his bruised knuckles are primed for more alcohol
his wife is at home, trembling, flipping through the phone book
his children lie in bed, fighting their nightmares

a phone rings at an attourney's office
his specialties are domestic abuse and divorce
his secretary is taking down notes for him
his daughter lies about homework and sleepovers

a foetus is growing in her abdomen
his father's favourite pastime is pornography
his mother, the attourney's daughter, is walking to an abortion clinic
his abortionist-to-be goes to church sometimes

a pastor is preaching about the meaning of life
his parishioners think the answer is meaningless
his cousin is staring at the water below the bridge
his brother, the attourney, is crying in his office

a soldier adjusts his rifle strap in Iran
his sergeant has just shot a bomb-strapped child
his sister, the secretary, is judging the wife-beater
his professor spends his saturdays sleeping with the attourney

a drug-pusher flicks his cigarette butt into the trash
his mortgage and debts forced him into the trade
his girlfriend, the abortionist, has liver cancer
his uncle, the soldier, hates all Muslims

a politician is calling the fire brigade
his home was set alight by the cigarette butt
his aunt is a discreet elections officer
his grandson is about to be aborted

the man drinking at the lonesome bar gets a call
his in-charge wants him to get into his fire rescue gear
his inebriated driving will run over the drug-pusher
his accident will be the topic for tonight's tabloid

a society is going through its motions
what's it to you?

Go check out his blog, it's pretty cool!

"To the earthly service of men"

"Now, the gifts of the Spirit are diverse: while He calls some to give clear witness to the desire for a heavenly home and to keep that desire green among the human family, He summons others to dedicate themselves to the earthly service of men and to make ready the material of the celestial realm by this ministry of theirs. Yet He frees all of them so that by putting aside love of self and bringing all earthly resources into the service of human life they can devote themselves to that future when humanity itself will become an offering accepted by God."

- Gaudium et Spes, para. 38

Thesis: progress report #3

2,447 words.

Don't know how good it is though.

Kim mentioned yesterday that she was "thinking about the game" in her game theory analysis of China-Vietnam relations. That sounds so cool. Really thinking about stuff...Haha. Seems different from me - am not doing much abstract thinking, at least at the moment.

Serving God

Two good articles highlighted by Amy Welborn

A Not-So-Simple Life: In a cramped Washington rowhouse, six women share one shower and a quest to serve God (Washington Post, Jan 25, 2009)

"I feel like I'm on the verge of something," Laura agrees, "but I don't know what it is. And I'm like, C'mon!" -- she waves her hands -- "Get there."

Lately, Laura says, she's been thinking a lot about her paternal grandmother, the tiny, silver-haired woman who gave her the silver rosary beads and read the illustrated Bible with her. Laura describes her as "a pillar of sanctity and virtue." She went to college back when that was rare for women and became a teacher. After retiring, she volunteered with an order of nuns, going into the public housing projects of Puerto Rico to help the poor.

"She is always kind of pouring herself out for other people," Laura says. "Most people might see her life as quite ordinary," but she has been devoted to "serving other people, and [that] has made her a very happy and serene person." Her grandmother and late grandfather were married for almost 60 years.

"I've realized," Laura says, "that having a family is beautiful," and it can be another way of honoring God. She and Dave have talked about getting married, though the conversations take place in roundabout ways. "Dave is really good at coming up with euphemisms for 'If we were married,' " Laura says. He uses words like "In a different setting" -- as in, "In a different setting, who would pay the bills?"

Yet overshadowing Laura's questions about her future is something more immediate: another expansion of Simple House. Last year, the ministry was given a house in Kansas City, Mo., offering the opportunity to work among the poor in a second city. Initially, Clark and Laura thought they would help get the new community off the ground while remaining in Washington. But, as the year comes to an end, Clark decides that he will move to Kansas City to run the new ministry himself. Laura is staying behind. She'll miss Clark, but the new ministry is a testatment to what they've accomplished together. "It's really cool to be part of something that's growing and successful," Laura says. "There's more to be done."

Nun Serves God and Army (Washington Times, Jan 25, 2009)

She's an Army captain, a Catholic sister and a doctor.

Deirdre Byrne wears many hats — quite literally: a scrub hat when she's doing surgery and a habit as part of her everyday attire.

The statuesque, graying 52-year-old recently exchanged her habit for a helmet and uniform: She spent three months in southern Afghanistan, serving as a doctor (while treating patients, though, she wears scrubs) and reservist in the U.S. Army.

"We were there to support our U.S. soldiers, coalition forces and civilians," Sister Dede says. Turned out that most of her and the other medical staffs' effort and time were devoted to mending civilian lives and limbs.

"The Taliban is out there every day trying to wreak havoc," she says. "One day, the Taliban bombed a village, and we had 17 patients — flown in by helicopter — in our 10-bed hospital."

While gruesome and heart-wrenching, she says of the experience in Afghanistan: "I was happy to be at the healing end of things."

Which is what she does whether serving as a nun and doctor for the poor in the District or Kakuma, Kenya, through Catholic Charities, or as a U.S. Army doctor in Afghanistan.

She's a healer, and in her unique position as a nun and general surgeon (she also is board certified in family medicine) she's concerned with life here on Earth — and the hereafter.

"I'm not just a pro-life doctor, I'm pro-eternal life," she says. "God makes it very clear that he is working through me. … God gave me the opportunity to be a physician, and he creates the miracles."

Wonderful!!! These dear missionaries are heroic examples to all of us. And they're a testimony to the world that Catholics are not just anti-abortion; we're pro-life: we love and care for humanity, no matter how old they are!

Here come the Irish!

The new Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia

To no one’s surprise, Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, locum tenens of the Patriarchate of Moscow since the death of Alexy II in December and head of the same Patriarchate’s powerful Department for External Relations, has been elected Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

(Rorate Caeli)

St Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church

Thomas lived in the thirteenth century. He was the son of a noble family of Italy. He was very intelligent, but he never boasted about it. He knew that his mind was a gift from God. Thomas was one of nine children. His parents hoped that he would become a Benedictine abbot some day. The family castle was in Rocca Secca, just north of Monte Cassino where the monks lived. Thomas was sent to the abbey for schooling when he was five. When he was eighteen, he went to Naples to finish his studies. There he met a new group of religious men called the Order of Preachers. Their founder, St. Dominic, was still living. Thomas knew he wanted to become a priest. He felt that he was called to join these men who would become known in popular language as "Dominicans." His parents were angry with him. When he was on his way to Paris to study, his brothers kidnapped him. They kept him a prisoner in one of their castles for over a year. During that time, they did all they could to make him change his mind. One of his sisters, too, came to persuade him to give up his vocation. But Thomas spoke so beautifully about the joy of serving God that she changed her mind. She decided to give her life to God as a nun. After fifteen months, Thomas was finally freed to follow his call. St. Thomas wrote so well about God that people all over the world have used his books for hundreds of years. His explanations about God and the faith came from Thomas' great love for God. He was effective because he wasn't trying to make an impression on anyone. He just wanted with all his heart to offer the gift of his life to Jesus and the Church. St. Thomas is one of the greatest Doctors of the Church. Around the end of 1273, Pope Gregory X asked Thomas to be part of an important Church meeting called the Council of Lyons. While traveling to the meeting, Thomas became ill. He had to stop at a monastery at Fossanova, Italy, where he died. It was March 7, 1274. He was only forty-nine. St. Thomas was declared a saint in 1323 by Pope Paul II; Pius V declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1567; Leo XIII declared him master of all scholastic doctors in 1879 and the universal patron of universities, colleges, and schools in 1880. May the message of St. Thomas "to seek the truth in charity" penetrate our heart and mind.

St. Thomas may be best known as a great intellect and Christian thinker, but his holy life was equally impressive. Although graced with such an incredibly mastery of knowledge, in his personal life he exemplified a simple, reserved, humble servant of God. He was known to rise early in the morning, with the usual practice of going to confession, saying Mass, then immediately attending another Mass. The rest of his day he normally spent reading, praying, writing, and teaching. Thomas liked to go often to a church and spent quiet time there with Jesus in the tabernacle. His heart was drawn like a magnet to prayer whenever confronted with a theological or intellectual question that challenged him. God once revealed to St. Catherine of Siena, the great fourteenth-century Dominican Doctor and mystic, that "Thomas learned more from prayer than from study." Since he had a profound devotion to Mass and the Holy Eucharist, and it was not uncommon for his Dominican brethren to find him so deeply moved and absorbed during the service that he would stop, needing to be roused to continue. The sacredness of the Mass and his corresponding love of God simply overwhelmed him.

All those who knew Thomas found him to be considerate, kind, and patient with other people. He exhibited no trace of vanity or pride, so often found in those of great intellectual ability or personal achievements. Friendship, according to Thomas, is the greatest model for understanding and learning charity. He was never known to lose his temper, even in the midst of heated disputations, and never uttered anything unkind or humiliating to those opposing his views.
- John P. McClernon

Radical Love

Do check out this beautiful photo-essay by Time on the Dominican Sisters of Summit, NJ.

"Uh Dad"

I like Matthew Archbold's posts about his family. They're hilarious. Here's his latest:

I walked into the kitchen to get the phone and saw what I first thought was a pretty impressive pile of garbage teetering above the garbage can. But as I got closer I saw that it was much more than impressive. It was miraculous. The can was full and the children, instead of just getting a new bag or even just asking me to get a new bag, had precariously perched a heap of garbage at least two feet above the rim of the can in a way that science couldn't explain. I considered calling Architectural Digest but figured they'd treat me as rudely as the Guinness people did when I called them about the purple stuff in my baby's diaper. (She really hadn't eaten anything purple)

...

It's 3:45 and I can see the buildings of the hospital over the trees. I'm congratulating myself silently for my excellent abilities to respond to a crisis when my nine year old says, "Uh, Dad."

This is the kind of "Uh Dad" that precedes something she finds funny and I'll find not so funny. I look in the rear view and she's raising her eyebrows in a comical way. And then she drops the hammer. "Uh, I just noticed there's a little snow on the ground and that's why I'm thinking it might be helpful if the boy had shoes."

(Reminder: talk to the nine year old about time and place for sarcasm)

"Uh, boy. Do you have your shoes on?"

? (Insert silence here)

"Where are your shoes?" I ask.

"I put them away," he cleverly retorted.

"Where?"

"In the closet," he says.

Now, to be clear he's looking at me as if he deserves congratulations for putting his shoes away for the first time in his life. The girls in the back seat are guffawing, clapping and asking the boy if he thinks he's Mowgli from The Jungle Book while I'm bending the steering wheel.

Read the whole adventure here

Octuplets

From AP, via the AmericanPapist

BELLFLOWER, Calif. – A woman gave birth Monday to eight babies, only the second time in history octuplets have survived more than a few hours, doctors said.

The mother gave birth to six boys and two girls weighing between 1 pound, 8 ounces, and 3 pounds, 4 ounces, doctors at Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center said. The hospital had scheduled a Caesarean section for seven babies, but doctors were surprised when an eighth came out at 10:48 a.m.

"My eyes were wide," Dr. Karen Maples said, explaining her reaction to the last birth.

However, culture today is such that even news about the birth of octuplets has to be marred by the following veiled discussion on abortion:

It's easier to control the number of births through in vitro fertilization, which involves combining egg and sperm in a lab dish and transferring the embryo into the uterus. Fertility drugs induce or enhance ovulation and couples often opt for selective reduction, in which women carrying multiple fetuses reduce the number of viable fetuses to two.

Just...

I like this photo of Eugenio Pacelli when he was papal nuncio to Germany.
He would later be elected Pope Pius XII.

Mater et Magistra

1. Mother and Teacher of all nations—such is the Catholic Church in the mind of her Founder, Jesus Christ; to hold the world in an embrace of love, that men, in every age, should find in her their own completeness in a higher order of living, and their ultimate salvation. She is "the pillar and ground of the truth." To her was entrusted by her holy Founder the twofold task of giving life to her children and of teaching them and guiding them—both as individuals and as nations—with maternal care. Great is their dignity, a dignity which she has always guarded most zealously and held in the highest esteem.

2. Christianity is the meeting-point of earth and heaven. It lays claim to the whole man, body and soul, intellect and will, inducing him to raise his mind above the changing conditions of this earthly existence and reach upwards for the eternal life of heaven, where one day he will find his unfailing happiness and peace.

- Bl. Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra

Lovely!

Time had two interesting articles on the encyclical which is probably the longest encyclical ever.

"Mater et Magister" (Jul 21, 1961) - a very good overview of the encyclical

"Teacher Yes, Mother No" (Sep 29, 1961) - the Church's social teaching from the perspective of Protestants:

Protestants may be galled by the pretensions of the Roman Catholic Church, but they can ill afford to sneer at Catholic social doctrine, because it is vastly superior to Protestant vacillation between pragmatism and perfectionism. So holds Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, whose perennial willingness to stick out his political and theological neck is one of Protestantism's glories. To make his point, he analyzes Pope John's recent encyclical, Mater et Magistra (Mother and Teacher), which broadened Catholicism's alignment on the side of the welfare state and endorsed a measure of "socialization" (TIME, July 21).

"...Some of the soberness of Catholic social theory certainly derives from its exclusion from the political realm of the yearning for the absolute." (quoting Reinhold Niebuhr)

Stupid art...

Fascist?!

Robert Kumpel at SJVB has an interesting post about the "fascists" who took part in the March for Life.

"Fascists":





and their accusers, the pro-abortion protesters:




One protester blogged about “the failure of the San Francisco police to defend and support the pro-abortion march. One cop tried to claim that it is illegal to use foul language in one's chants when speaking to the anti-abortion fascists. Another group of cops blocked one pro-abortion marcher's path who had become separated from the group.”

Awww...poo' boy.

Conscience

Certainly under the idea of conscience there can sneak in the canonization of a superego which prevents people from becoming themselves; the absolute call on the person to become responsible is then overlaid by a structure of conventions that is wrongly presented as the voice of God when in truth it is only the voice of the past, fear of which is blocking the present. Conscience can also become an alibi for the fact that one has let oneself be carried away and cannot be told anything, when one's defiant inability to correct oneself is justified by loyalty to one's inner voice. Conscience then becomes the principle of subjective obstinacy established as an absolute, just as in the other case it becomes the principle of the ego losing its autonomy by surrendering to the ideas of other people or an alien ego. To this extent the concept of conscience needs continual refining, and laying claim or appealing to conscience stands in need of a cautious honesty that is aware that one abuses something that is great when one rashly calls it into play. Someone who talks all too easily of conscience arouses suspicions similar to those aroused by the person who drags the holy name of God into anything and everything and thus serves idols rather than God.
-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

SJVB

"...the canonization of a superego". He really has a way with words

When we go about not doubting our intentions, not questioning our motives and claiming our conscience is clear, perhaps it's time to stop and examine ourselves more honestly.

Archbishop Chaput!

From the brilliant Carina...

You know you're hardcore Catholic when you sketch a foreign archbishop and think it's perfectly normal...

But [Catholics who support ‘pro-choice’ candidates] also need a compelling proportionate reason to justify it. What is a ‘proportionate’ reason when it comes to the abortion issue? It’s the kind of reason we will be able to explain, with a clean heart, to the victims of abortion when we meet them face to face in the next life–which we most certainly will. If we’re confident that these victims will accept our motives as something more than an alibi, then we can proceed.”

~ Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M.

The kind of nutters that get to run the US

From CMR:

Your favorite grandmother Nancy Pelosi defended the inclusion of millions of dollars being spent on birth control in Obama's new economic "stimulus" package by claiming "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

So that's what you are folks. You are a cost to the state and federal government. You are not a product of love, an immortal being with a soul. You are the product of a cost/benefit analysis.

Here's the exact exchange on ABC's THIS WEEK. (H/T Drudge)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?

PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?

PELOSI: No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

Now this just might explain why Obama and Pelosi are so vehemently pro-abortion. It's because they're so worried about the economy.

But here's the thing. Most people are not a drain on the economy. In fact, middle class and wealthy people put far more dollars into the federal government than they receive. So when Nancy Pelosi is talking about people who sap the Treasury she's talking about poor people.

And rich people can afford their own contraception. Poor people ostensibly can't. So what Nancy Pelosi is really saying here is the federal government must give out contraception in order to prevent poor people from reproducing because they're a drain on the economy. Margaret Sanger would be so proud.

She sounds like an idiot too:

CNY!

Had a nice day! Went for Mass with Prash, Krizia and Carina. Then stopped at Cold Storage to buy groceries. My sis and Kriz cooked lunch - rice, sausages and minestrone soup ;).

Worked on my thesis and read Machiavelli for a while.

Then joined my sis, Kriz, Carina and our special guest Cassie to cook dinner. The menu comprised rice, honey-glazed roast chicken, sayur lodeh (vegetables in coconut milk curry), and stir-fried beans. For dessert: oranges and grapes :)

It really was a nice and cosy gathering. We had lots of laughter after dinner persuading Cassie to agree to be either lay speaker or chairperson at Holy Mother of God Praesidium's next Patrician Meeting.

Thanks you all for the very nice day!

26.1.09 - CNY

Legion

Click!

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart

OH WOW! Take a look at the basilica that is located inside the campus of the University of Notre Dame, where Prof Kate studied.

It's beautiful!

And here's Sunday Mass at the Basilica. Very nice!! Great homily by Archbishop Angelo Amato, S.D.B.. Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Give us back our music!

I'm listening to The Priests. Thanks Carina for lending your CD.

WOW! They're amazing. Heavenly!

Makes me wonder, once again: Why, oh why, have we abandoned our Catholic musical heritage - a testimony to the beauty and creativity God has blessed man with and so rich in meaning - for the bland music we are exposed to at Mass these days?

It's not as if the choirs can't handle traditional Catholic music. Singaporean churches are blessed with excellent choristers and equipment.

Yet we still insist on singing songs which, for the most part, celebrate ourselves rather than God (cf "Gather us in"). Count, for example, the number of times modern hymns use the word "we" and how few times they address "You" or "Him".

Hymns like Panis Angelicus, Pie Jesu, Abide With Me, Ave Verum, Tantum Ergo, O Salutaris and Holy God, We Praise Thy Name teach us so much about our faith, remind us of our dependence on God, His benificence and direct us to offer to Him the worship that is His due. They are truly Catholic, drawing on centuries of faith and love. They are also part of the Church's gift to culture and civilization. Why then, with all this heritage, do we need to rely on non-Catholics like Marty Haugen to provide us with the music we use at the Holy Mass, the most powerful act in the universe?

On the topic of liturgical music - the Vatican announced some months ago that using the Name of God (YHWH) was inappropriate for use in Catholic Liturgy. This makes perfect sense - the Jews didn't pronounce or write the Name, why should we? We're already losing the sense of mystery and otherness of God - too often modern music treats God as our buddy...

It was therefore quite ironic that during the very Mass that the Pastoral Council of St Ignatius' Church chose to announce its "Liturgy Month" the choir sang a song which contained God's Name.

There was also applause during the Mass.

"Whenever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment"

- Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Spirit of the Liturgy

Let's hope Liturgy Month corrects these things!

And let's pray they bring back our great Catholic hymns.

There's hope after all...

This seems rather unbelievable. Look at what CMR reports:

I came across this photograph of Obama showing what he keeps in his pockets...


Did you notice the Miraculous Medal among the trinkets and charms? Pray it does him some good.

Isn't there also a medal of Mary, Help of Christians? Very odd...but very interesting.
One commenter on CMR points out that there seems also to be an icon of Shiva the Hindu deity also known as "The Destroyer"

O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have
recourse to thee.

It's the Lunar New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!



It's the year of the ox. Fr John Paul Tan, a St Mary's, mentioned that this year calls us to fortitude and hard work. I shall work on these!

By St Thomas More

(Written while imprisoned in the Tower of London, 1534)

Give me thy grace, good Lord:
To set the world at nought;
To set my mind fast upon thee,
And not to hang upon the blast of men’s mouths;
To be content to be solitary,
Not to long for worldly company;
Little and little utterly to cast off the world,
And rid my mind of all the business thereof;
Not to long to hear of any worldly things,
But that the hearing of worldly phantasies may be to me displeasant;
Gladly to be thinking of God,
Piteously to call for his help;
To lean unto the comfort of God,
Busily to labor to love him;
To know mine own vility and wretchedness,
To humble and meeken myself under the mighty hand of God;
To bewail my sins passed,
For the purging of them patiently to suffer adversity;
Gladly to bear my purgatory here,
To be joyful of tribulations;
To walk the narrow way that leadeth to life,
To bear the cross with Christ;
To have the last thing in remembrance,
To have ever afore mine eye my death that is ever at hand;
To make death no stranger to me,
To foresee and consider the everlasting fire of hell;
To pray for pardon before the judge come,
To have continually in mind the passion that Christ suffered for me;
For his benefits uncessantly to give him thanks,
To buy the time again that I before have lost;
To abstain from vain confabulations,
To eschew light foolish mirth and gladness;
Recreations not necessary — to cut off;
Of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss
at right nought for the winning of Christ;
To think my most enemies my best friends,
For the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so much good
with their love and favor as they did him with their malice and hatred.

These minds are more to be desired of every man than all the treasure
of all the princes and kings, Christian and heathen, were it
gathered and laid together all upon one heap .

Via Fr Z

The Conversion of St Paul

Paul lived at the time of Jesus but as far as we know they never met. Paul was first called Saul. As a young man, he was a very bright student of the Hebrew religion. When he grew older, he persecuted the followers of Jesus. In the Bible's Acts of the Apostles, we read about Saul's amazing conversion (chapters 9, 22, 26). What happened? One day, Paul was on his way to the city of Damascus to hunt down more Christians. Suddenly, a great light shone all around him. As he fell to the ground blind, he heard a voice say, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Saul answered, "Who are you, Sir?" And the voice said, "I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting." Saul was shocked and confused. After a few seconds, he asked, "What do you want me to do?" Jesus told him to continue on to Damascus and there he would be told what to do. At that moment, through the power of God, Saul received the gift to believe in Jesus. Weak and trembling, he reached out for help. His companions led him into Damascus. The light had blinded him temporarily. Now that he was blind he could really "see" the truth. And Jesus had come personally to meet him, to invite him to conversion. Saul became a great lover of Jesus. After his baptism, he thought only of helping everyone know and love Jesus, the Savior. We know Saul by his Roman name of Paul. He is called "the apostle." He traveled all over the world, preaching the Good News. He led countless people to Jesus. He worked and suffered. His enemies tried to kill him several times. Yet nothing could stop him. When he was old and tired, he was once again put in prison and sentenced to die. Still St. Paul was happy to suffer and even die for Christ. This great apostle wrote marvelous letters to the Christians. They are in the Bible. These letters, called epistles, are read frequently during the Liturgy of the Word at Mass. "I know whom I have believed." ( 2 Tm 1:12)

Caravaggio, Michelangelo Merisi da. The Conversion of Saint Paul 1600-1601. Oil on canvas 90 1/2 x 70 in. Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome

At the Emmy Awards

And here's what happens the following year

50 years ago...

With these words, 50 years ago, Pope Blessed John XXIII announced his intention to convene the Second Vatican Council

All of this - we mean, this progress - while distracting from the pursuit of higher gifts, weakens the energies of the spirit, leads to the softening of the structure, of the discipline, and of the good ancient order, to great detriment of that which constituted the strength of the resistance of the Church and of her sons to errors, which, in reality, always in the history of Christianity, led to fatal and pernicious divisions, to spiritual and moral decay, to the ruin of nations.

This assessment awakens in the heart of the humble priest, which the manifest choice of Divine Providence led, though most unworthy, to this highness of the Supreme Pontificate, it awakens - we say - a resolution influenced by the memory of some ancient forms of doctrinal affirmation and of wise orientations of ecclesiastical discipline which, in the history of the Church, at times of renewal, brought forth fruits of extraordinary efficacy, for the clarity of thought, for the compactness of religious unity, for the livelier fire of Christian fervor, which we continue to recognize, also in reference to the welfare of life down here, an abundant wealth «de rore caeli et de pinguedine terrae» (Gen. XXVII, 28).

Venerable Brothers and Our Dear Children! We pronounce before you, certainly trembling somewhat out of emotion, but also with humble resolve of purpose, the name and the proposal of the double celebration: of a Diocesan Synod for the City [of Rome], and that of an Ecumenical Council for the universal Church.