First he challenged me to find a black swan, and then he ruled out all my swans because they were black

I remember once arguing with an honest young atheist, who was very much shocked at my disputing some of the assumptions which were absolute sanctities to him (such as the quite unproved proposition of the independence of matter and the quite improbable proposition of its power to originate mind), and he at length fell back upon this question, which he delivered with an honourable heat of defiance and indignation: "Well, can you tell me any man of intellect, great in science or philosophy, who accepted the miraculous?" I said, "With pleasure. Descartes, Dr. Johnson, Newton, Faraday, Newman, Gladstone, Pasteur, Browning, Brunetiere - as many more as you please." To which that quite admirable and idealistic young man made this astonishing reply - "Oh, but of course they had to say that; they were Christians." First he challenged me to find a black swan, and then he ruled out all my swans because they were black. The fact that all these great intellects had come to the Christian view was somehow or other a proof either that they were not great intellects or that they had not really come to that view. The argument thus stood in a charmingly convenient form: "All men that count have come to my conclusion; for if they come to your conclusion they do not count."

- G.K. Chesterton, "The Error of Impartiality"

A friendly wager

Via Philip Gerard Johnson

"Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, and Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, have placed a friendly wager on the outcome of the 2009 World Series.

These two long-time friends spoke on Tuesday evening to settle the terms of the bet. If the Phillies win, Archbishop Dolan will ship a dozen bagels to the City of Brotherly Love; if the Yankees prevail, Cardinal Rigali will send a box of Tastykakes to the Big Apple.

Archbishop Dolan said, “Cardinal Rigali is one of my closest and dearest friends; for several years he even served as my Archbishop so I feel a particular loyalty to him. I know he has exquisite taste in most matters. I just wish he had better taste in baseball teams.”

Cardinal Rigali said, “I have great esteem for Archbishop Dolan. He is a gifted spiritual leader who has been a true friend for many years. That is why I am so sorry he will be disappointed when the Phillies successfully defend their World Championship. We have the cream cheese ready for the bagels that I know will be arriving shortly after the Repeat in the City of Brotherly and Sisterly love.”

:) :)

The longing to know

In his immensely insightful book [Life of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D], [James] Boswell recalls several observations that Johnson made on Monday September 22, 1777. "Dr. Johnson advised me to-day," Boswell begins,

to have as many books about me as I could; that I might read upon any subject upon which I had a desire for instruction at the time. "What you read then, said he, you will remember, but if you have not a book immediately ready, and the subject moulds in your mind, it is a chance if you again have a desire to study it." He added, "if a man never has an eager desire for instruction, he should prescribe a task for himself. But it is better when a man reads from immediate inclination."

I note what Johnson advises here. Do not let things "mould," that is, grow stale and inert in our minds so that we never think of them again. Johnson suggests what we keep ready about us plenty of books on many a subject matter; that is, we need our own basic library, one that we own because we have ourselves found and purchased the books in it.

But just having a lot of books is not enough. Fools can own libraries. The devil was one of the most intelligent of the angels and we know what happened to him. Knowledge alone won't save us, though we need knowledge too. The essential thing is the "inclination to know," something that cannot be purchased or borrowed or injected. Johnson suggests that we can, to some extent, prod ourselves to know; as he puts it, we can ascribe a "task for ourselves."...

I can hardly emphasize enough that, ultimately, each must discover in his own soul this longing to know. Nothing can replace it. This longing to know constitutes the very heart of what we are as rational beings, distinct in the universe precisely because we ourselves can know. In the last analysis, we have to wake up to knowledge.

- James V. Schall S.J., "Books and the Intellectual Life", The Life of the Mind: On the Joys and Travails of Thinking

Quite a welcome quote for those of us who can't resist entering a bookstore when we pass one by, and probably find it just as hard (if not harder) not to make a purchase once we're inside. :p

Fr Schall also notes: "...used bookstores, I am going to insist here, are places to be haunted by young students as almost the equivalent of Stevenson's Treasure Island, for they are indeed full of unexpected treasures, if you know what to look for."

Schall's Unlikely List of Books to Keep Sane By

Each of these books, I think, shows a certain profundity, a certain brevity, a certain charm. I have included books on play, on philosophy, on resources, on authority, on just about everything, including the seven deadly sins! Yet another book is on food, one on science, some essays, some theology, some history, some conversion.

1) Joseph Pieper - an Anthology
2) G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
3) J.M. Bockenski, Philosophy - an Introduction
4) Dorothy Sayers, The Whimsical Christian
5) E.F. Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed
6) Yves Simon, A General Theory of Authority
7) Eric Mascall, The Christian Universe
8) Flannery O'Connor, The Habit of Being: The Letters of Flannery O'Connor
9) Hilaire Belloc, Selected Essays
10) C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
11) John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope
12) Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue
13) Johann Huizinga, Homo Ludens
14) Conversations with Walker Percy
15) Henry Fairlie, The Seven Deadly Sins Today
16) Stanley Jaki, The Road of Science and the Ways to God
17) Conversations with Eric Voeglin
18) Herbert Butterfield, Christianity and History
19) Henry Veatch, Rational Man
20) Leon Kass, The Hungry Soul

James V. Schall, S.J., A Student's Guide to Liberal Learning

Two books just arrived at the CL :)

Fr James Schall is such a prolific writer. And his books look so interesting. I just wish I had more time to spend on books like these.

Things Our Lord did NOT say

Via Jean,
Go to thwart99's Flickr photostream for more.

Latest anti-Catholic drivel

What kind of idiot editor lets his newspaper carry drivel like this?

From the misfit fringe of another denomination, Rome recruits the naysayers it needs to bolster what has become its own place on the margin of Catholic life. First there was Opus Dei, with its crypto-fascist origins, then there were the Holocaust-denying lovers of Latin - and now the Anglo-fundies. Come on over, guys!
...
The story of the Vatican raid on the Anglican communion was front page news because these issues go deeper than religion. Nothing less than the survival of the human species is at stake.

HAHAH.

CMR has an analysis

Letting them know that they're loved

I realized what a jerk I was. Well, that's not true. I know what a jerk I am. But I realized what a jerk I was today. My seven year old wasn't upset because she got five wrong. She was scared of telling me she got five wrong. I hadn't even taken the time to notice that my seven year old had been circling me the entire afternoon and early evening. Looking to me...for something. And then quickly looking away. Even while cleaning the dishes I noticed her looking at me out of the corner of her eye. I noticed it but I didn't see it, if you know what I mean. She'd been waiting for me to say what I should've said the moment she walked out of school. That no matter what happened I love her. That no matter what happened I'm proud of her. And no matter what happened I think she's the most special seven year old in the world.

This little girl. My little girl. She was waiting for her dopey father to tell her he loved her all day and that it was just a math test. Instead he told her to circle subtraction signs.

I had to face it. I did a lot worse on my test than she did on hers. Sometimes you just think that children know how much we love them. But the harsh words we say I think somehow stick with them longer than many of our kindnesses. Our little cruelties are like splinters. They go in easily, cause pain, and they're very difficult to get out.

If children could know how much their parents loved them, I believe it would make them feel so much safer than they probably do. But maybe that's our main job as parents. We need to let them know they're loved. Tell them how special they are. Because we are their introduction to God. Can you believe it? I know. But we are.

As much as we see the workings of God in our tiny immortal children, they look for God in us. I am sometimes amazed at the responsibility that's fallen into my lap. These precious gifts who feel, who love, who can be hurt, who sympathize, who close their eyes when their favorite part of their song comes on, who help each other climb trees, who run to tell Dad when one of them is hurt. These precious gifts look to us to find God.

Read the entire reflection here. It's really really good - something we should remember not just regarding parenthood but also in all our interactions.

They died proclaiming the One Church

Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher, 17th-c.
Unknown artist. ©Philip Mould, Ltd.

(Picture source: The Works of Sir Thomas More)

The successors of those bishops are coming home soon, I pray.







"Forasmuch as, my Lord, this indictment is grounded upon an Act of Parliament, directly oppugnant to the laws of God and his holy Church, the supreme government of which, or of any part thereof, may no temporal prince presume by any law to take upon him as rightfully belonging to the See of Rome, a spiritual preeminence by the mouth of our Saviour himself, personally present upon the earth, to St. Peter and his successors, bishops of the same see, by special prerogative, granted, it is therefore in law amongst Christian men insufficient to charge any Christian."...

~ St Thomas More, at his trial

St Thomas More, St John Fisher, all you Holy Martyrs of England and Wales, pray for the Church!

Deepavali in Little India

Visited Little India with my sister this evening. It was sooo crowded and chaotic. Not really my cup of tea. The lights were nice, though the crowd prevented us from walking along the streets and observing more.


'Twas nice spending a bit of extra time with my sis this weekend. :)

"Chatolic"-hating on Youtube.

TROLL

1. A large, brutish creature of European myth, often lacking in intelligence. 2. A dumbass who makes idiotic posts in message boards newsgroups for the sole purpose of angering people, often lacking in intelligence.

You get a lot of such people commenting on videos on Youtube. I come across most of them on videos pertaining to the Church.

Here's one, on a AP news clip about the Vatican's gesture towards Anglicans wanting to enter the Church:

Book of Revelations says the catholic "church" is the church of satan!

This "priest" begins his speech with: The holy father...Blasfemy!!! God is the only Holy Father and his son Christ Yeshua !!!
No men can claim that name...NOBODY - EVER !!!

Have you Chatolics forgotten the Ten Commandments - given by GOD himself to Men? And there are no words such as "pope, chatolic, anglican" etc in the Holy Bible..NOT ONE WORD !!!

So when are you Christians wake up? Read the Bible - word of GOD !

Someone replied him:

you are so theologically retarded its sad. there is nothing that can back up your claims

:D

Tsk tsk. Us satan-worshiping "Chatolics" with our "Blasfemy" and our rejection of the Ten Commandments, certainly had it coming, didn't we?

End of an era at Singapore's Catholic schools

From Asia One

STUDENTS at Catholic mission schools used to address their principal as either Brother or Sister, given that the educators were also members of the religious order.

But that will stop when the year ends. The last two such principals will relinquish their jobs, leaving all 35 Catholic schools with lay people at the helm.

Catholic Junior College's (CJC) Brother Paul Rogers, 59, also a former principal of St Joseph's Institution (SJI), will be returning to Australia to head the Melbourne boys' school De La Salle College. He will be replaced by former CHIJ St Theresa's Convent principal, Mrs Christine Anne Kong.

Maris Stella High School's (MSHS) Brother Anthony Tan, 62, will be retiring after 25 years at the helm. His current vice-principal, Mr Joseph Lim, will be stepping into the role.

The moves, to take place in December, mark the end of an era in which Catholic nuns and brothers helmed the schools founded by their predecessors. Catholic schools were founded with the objective of developing the mind, body and spirit of their students.

They are also known for being inclusive, taking in students regardless of their religion or race.

A pity, I think

Having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration

And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.

...

And this food is called among us the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, "This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My body;" and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and given thanks, He said, "This is My blood;" and gave it to them alone.

...

But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration

- St Justin Martyr, First Apology,
defending the practices of the Church before the emperor Antonius Pius.
148AD.

Step into a Catholic Church on a Sunday and you will meet Christians who worship God in exactly the same manner as these first Christians did almost two thousand years ago.

Office fun

Via CMR, via Viral Footage


EMBED-Office Workers' Awesome Backstreet Boys Lipdub - Watch more free videos

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses"

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

—Emma Lazarus, 1883

The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, Edward Moran, 1886

From the Anglicans

Check out these responses to the Vatican's proposed Apostolic Constitution at the Forward in Faith National Assembly. Read about Forward in Faith at Wiki.

Some excellent speeches. It's moving to see how some people who're not fully part of our Church yearn so much to be in full communion with the Catholic Church. We cradle Catholics, we life-long Catholics take so much - especially the Pope - for granted.

Some Lay Reactions

From Outside the Communion

Ordinands and younger Clergy

One thing that is stressed is that the Holy Father's offer is so much more generous than anything the Anglicans hoped for.

John C. Wright

Jean directed me to this. It's by science fiction writer John C. Wright

After three years of prayer, thought, and debate, and an honest attempt to follow where the spirit leads me, I am joining the Roman Catholic Church this Easter.

Normally, I would keep this private, since I am not inclined to stir up sectarian debates between the two or three parts of the shattered church; but since several people on this website have said I was Catholic, and since I corrected them and said I was not Catholic, I did not want anyone who trusted me what I said that, to be surprised when that information turns out to be out of date.

For my Protestant friends, all I can do is assure you that that Church you broke away from in centuries past has been reformed of the abuses you complained of at that time. The Pope no longer sells indulgences. The theological differences are minor enough that Christly love, if you imitate His love, will cover them. I was raised Lutheran, and drank in anticatholicism with my mother's milk, so I assure you I am aware of most or all the objections, subtle and obvious, which you consciences in good faith might raise. The shock that came to me when I looked into Catholicism is that the Catholics do not teach what my teachers told me they teach. In any case, Protestant friends, I will be closer to you than I was when I was an atheist, so please consider this progress.

For my pagan friends, rejoice! My Protestant friends tell me my Catholic friends are pagans anyway! So I will be closer to you than I am now. And there is certainly some truth in the idea that Catholicism is a child of Jewish and Hellenic thought: the ancient civilization of Europe is still alive in the Catholic Church. If you worship Brigit, and I revere St. Brigit, this will be a common bond between us.

For the Atheist friends, give thanks! You may think of Catholicism as the most backward and obscurantist of the Christian sects. Not so! Not only does the Catholic Church acknowledge Darwinian evolution, the approach of at least some of the writers (St. Aquinas, for example, or St. Justin Martyr) is as rigorous and as rational as even the best of atheist writers, and darn mile more clear and rational than the worst of atheist writers (who are the only ones we hear about these days). Catholicism, in many of its branches, is not given to the religious enthusiasms of revivalism that so many atheists find disquieting. (Whether this lack of revivalism is a good thing or not, I leave for the reader to decide. Certainly more enthusiasm and crusading spirit would not be a bad thing for this Church at this hour of history.)

Read his conversion story here

"Beware the Litanies of the Dominicans."

Today there was announced -- at press conferences in Rome and London -- the forthcoming publication of an apostolic constitution in which the Holy Father allows for the creation of personal ordinariates for groups of Anglicans in different parts of the world who are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church. The canonical structure of the personal ordinariate will permit this corporate reunion while at the same time providing for retention of elements of Anglican liturgy and spirituality.

When I asked the friars (and other OP's --Ed.) to pray the Dominican litany from 22 February to 25 March earlier this year, the intention was that this proposal would receive the approval of the cardinal members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which was necessary if the proposal of some structure allowing for corporate reunion was to go forward. Our prayers at that time were answered, and now that the proposal has become a reality we can tell everyone what we were praying for then.

Fraternally,

+Abp. J Augustine Di Noia, OP




Archbishop Di Noia is in Dominican white (next to him is Antonio Cardinal Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments). Archbishop Di Noia succeeded Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith as Secretary of the CDW.





I was curious about the Dominican Litany that the Archbishop mentions.
So I Googled.

It's very cool :D

The use of the Dominican Rite Litany of the Saints is explained by the following historical episode: Innocent IV (born around 1200 and Pope from June 25, 1243) became a foe of the Order when the Dominican community in Genoa, the Pope's home town, would not give him their Priory and its land for a castle he wanted to build there to protect his relatives from his enemies. Angered by what he considered to be Dominican ingratitude in the face of favors he had granted the Order, Innocent now acceded to the long standing demands of some of the secular clergy who were upset by the Friars' popularity in the pastoral ministry, in preaching, and in university teaching.

Thus on May 10, 1254, the Pope placed some restrictions on the apostolate of the Dominicans in the French town of Saint-Quentin, and then began limiting the activities of the Other French Priories. On June 4 he in effect expelled the Dominican professors from the University of Paris. This new animosity on the part of the Supreme Pontiff frightened the Friars, who began to say the Litany of the Saints for a deliverance from what they saw as the impending suppression of the whole Order.

On Nov. 21, 1254, Innocent IV signed a decree rescinding all the privileges of the Order of Preachers, and instead forbidding all Dominicans to receive any lay person in their churches on Sundays and Holidays, to preach in their churches on other days before the Solemn Mass in the local diocesan parish church, to preach in an episcopal town if the bishop was to preach there that day, and to hear anyone's confession without the permission of the penitent's pastor. A Cardinal who supported the Pope in this affair had even further restriction to suggest to Innocent.

On the day the latter signed the aforementioned decree, the said Cardinal tumbled down some stairs and shortly thereafter died of the injuries. The Pope himself, on that very same day, Nov. 21, 1254, after signing the decree, suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed. Sixteen days later, On Dec. 7, 1254, Pope Innocent IV died. The new Pope, Alexander IV, restored all its privileges to the Order on Dec. 22, 1254, thirty-one days after their suppression and on the 38th anniversary of the Order's approval by Honorius III on Dec. 22, 1216.

As a result of the foregoing, the saying arose, "Beware the Litanies of the Dominicans."

This Litany is therefore recommended as a Novena in especially critical circumstances.

Woah. Scary!

Go here to access the Litany

Legion photos

Some overdue photos:

Legion meeting at Fr Frans' house:

12.10.09 - Legion meeting at Fr Frans'

And here are some photos from our trip to Macritchie Reservoir last Saturday.

17.10.09

Our Sun

Isn't this photograph just amazing?

From Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)

A Solar Prominence Erupts in STEREO
Credit: STEREO Project, NASA

Explanation: What does a solar prominence look like in three dimensions? To help find out, NASA launched the STEREO satellites to keep a steady eye on the Sun from two different vantage points. The STEREO satellites orbit the Sun nearly along Earth's orbit, but one (dubbed Ahead) currently leads the Earth, while the other (dubbed Behind) currently trails. Three weeks ago, a powerful prominence erupted and remained above the Sun for about 30 hours, allowing the STEREO satellites to get numerous views of the prominence from different angles. Pictured above is a high-resolution image of the event from the STEREO Ahead satellite. A video of the prominence erupting as seen from both spacecraft can be found here. The unusually quiet nature of the Sun over the past two years has made large prominences like this relatively rare. The combined perspective of STEREO will help astronomers better understand the mechanisms for the creation and evolution of prominences, coronal mass ejections, and flares.

Check out this video.

Wow. That's our sun...

Moon and Planets in the Morning

Moon and Planets in the Morning
Credit & Copyright: Stefan Seip (TWAN) Explanation: Last Friday, a gathering of three bright planets and the Moon graced the morning sky. With Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and a narrow lunar crescent close to the eastern horizon in the dawn twilight, this picture of the beautiful conjunction was recorded near Noerdlingen, Germany. These planets are wandering apart now and Mercury is sinking closer toward the rising Sun. But if you also scan the rest of the sky this week you should be able to add Jupiter and Mars to your planet spotting list, as Mars rises around midnight and Jupiter shines brightly after sunset.

More at APOD

Romeward Bound

Romeward bound,
I wish I was,
Romeward bound,
Rome where TAC's escaping,
Rome where fear's allaying,
Rome where my Lord lies waiting
Patiently for me.

Tonight I'll sing my songs again,
I'll play the game and pretend.
But all my words fall short to Thee, Who desires visible unity.
No more disharmony, I need a Church to stand by me.

Read CMR's entire song/poem here

The Desire of Eternal Life; the Great Rewards Promised to Those Who Struggle

The Voice of Christ

MY CHILD, when you feel the desire for everlasting happiness poured out upon you from above, and when you long to depart out of the tabernacle of the body that you may contemplate My glory without threat of change, open wide your heart and receive this holy inspiration with all eagerness. Give deepest thanks to the heavenly Goodness which deals with you so understandingly, visits you so mercifully, stirs you so fervently, and sustains you so powerfully lest under your own weight you sink down to earthly things. For you obtain this not by your own thought or effort, but simply by the condescension of heavenly grace and divine regard. And the purpose of it is that you may advance in virtue and in greater humility, that you may prepare yourself for future trials, that you may strive to cling to Me with all the affection of your heart, and may serve Me with a fervent will.

My child, often, when the fire is burning the flame does not ascend without smoke. Likewise, the desires of some burn toward heavenly things, and yet they are not free from temptations of carnal affection. Therefore, it is not altogether for the pure honor of God that they act when they petition Him so earnestly. Such, too, is often your desire which you profess to be so strong. For that which is alloyed with self-interest is not pure and perfect.

Ask, therefore, not for what is pleasing and convenient to yourself, but for what is acceptable to Me and is for My honor, because if you judge rightly, you ought to prefer and follow My will, not your own desire or whatever things you wish.

I know your longings and I have heard your frequent sighs. Already you wish to be in the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. Already you desire the delights of the eternal home, the heavenly land that is full of joy. But that hour is not yet come. There remains yet another hour, a time of war, of labor, and of trial. You long to be filled with the highest good, but you cannot attain it now. I am that sovereign Good. Await Me, until the kingdom of God shall come.

You must still be tried on earth, and exercised in many things. Consolation will sometimes be given you, but the complete fullness of it is not granted. Take courage, therefore, and be strong both to do and to suffer what is contrary to nature.

You must put on the new man. You must be changed into another man. You must often do the things you do not wish to do and forego those you do wish. What pleases others will succeed; what pleases you will not. The words of others will be heard; what you say will be accounted as nothing. Others will ask and receive; you will ask and not receive. Others will gain great fame among men; about you nothing will be said. To others the doing of this or that will be entrusted; you will be judged useless. At all this nature will sometimes be sad, and it will be a great thing if you bear this sadness in silence. For in these and many similar ways the faithful servant of the Lord is wont to be tried, to see how far he can deny himself and break himself in all things.

There is scarcely anything in which you so need to die to self as in seeing and suffering things that are against your will, especially when things that are commanded seem inconvenient or useless. Then, because you are under authority, and dare not resist the higher power, it seems hard to submit to the will of another and give up your own opinion entirely.

But consider, my child, the fruit of these labors, how soon they will end and how greatly they will be rewarded, and you will not be saddened by them, but your patience will receive the strongest consolation. For instead of the little will that you now readily give up, you shall always have your will in heaven. There, indeed, you shall find all that you could desire. There you shall have possession of every good without fear of losing it. There shall your will be forever one with Mine. It shall desire nothing outside of Me and nothing for itself. There no one shall oppose you, no one shall complain of you, no one hinder you, and nothing stand in your way. All that you desire will be present there, replenishing your affection and satisfying it to the full. There I shall render you glory for the reproach you have suffered here; for your sorrow I shall give you a garment of praise, and for the lowest place a seat of power forever. There the fruit of glory will appear, the labor of penance rejoice, and humble subjection be gloriously crowned.

Bow humbly, therefore, under the will of all, and do not heed who said this or commanded that. But let it be your special care when something is commanded, or even hinted at, whether by a superior or an inferior or an equal, that you take it in good part and try honestly to perform it. Let one person seek one thing and another something else. Let one glory in this, another in that, and both be praised a thousand times over. But as for you, rejoice neither in one or the other, but only in contempt of yourself and in My pleasure and honor. Let this be your wish: That whether in life or in death God may be glorified in you.

Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, Chapter 49

The Age of Unreason

My usual noodling around in re medieval science led me to an astonishing web-essay by someone calling himself Jim Walker on a religious belief site called NoBeliefs.com for Freethinkers.

Now my first reaction to "freethinker" is "well, you get what you pay for," and nothing in the essay caused me to alter that opinion. Like everyone in the herd of independent minds, the author simply repeats myths and legends, cites no sources, makes vague appeals to authority, falls into confirmation bias, appeals to ignorance, and sundry other errors. Based on some articles posted on the home page, it is apparently part and parcel of atheism to oppose the war in Afghanistan; i.e., to be de facto pro-Taliban and/or isolationist. All this to the side, let's take a look as Master Walker's essay.
...

Here is the primary thesis of this counter-essay. Whether or not you believe in someone's God has nothing to do with whether they accomplished anything you consider worthwhile. They may have been perfectly mistaken about God and still kicked off science. But there is a certain kind of "free" thinker who seems bound to the notion that if you disbelieve in a religion then nothing that religion ever did could possibly be any good. History is never quite this cardboard stereotype of White Hats and Black Hats.

1. Walker writes, "When Constantine established orthodox Christianity in 325 CE (at the Council of Nicaea), scientific investigation virtually stopped."

It is curious how many fundamentalist tropes show up in atheist writings. In this case, the "Constantine founded Christianity" trope, which was originally proposed by fundamentalists of the "secret church" persuasion. Their animus was directed against the Roman Catholic church, which was terribly unfair to the Eastern Orthodox. At the time of Constantine, there was not yet any distinction. Further, as Walker ought to know, the Constantinid dynasty tried to establish Arianism, not orthodoxy and famously included Julian the Apostate, who tried to gin up a pagan church in imitation of the Christians. (We have many of his letters, so we know this was his purpose.)

What evidence is there that "scientific investigation" stopped? What evidence is there that it had ever started? As Brian Stock commented in "Science, Technology, and Economic Progress in the Early Middle Ages," the Roman thought that nature could be imitated (via engineering), placated (via prayers and sacrifices), but not understood (via science). Very little of Greek mathematics, for example, had been translated into Latin, beyond what was needed for accounting (of loot), surveying (of conquered lands), and architecture; and almost nothing of Archimedes or of Aristotle's natural philosophy. Indeed, Roman technology in the late days of the Empire is not notably different from Roman technology in the late days of the Republic.

"The failure of Greece and Rome to increase productivity through innovation is as notorious as the inability of historians from Gibbon to the present to account for it."
-- Brian Stock, "Science, Technology, and Progress in the Early Middle Ages," in Science in the Middle Ages (Lindberg, ed.)

2. Walker writes, "the Christians tried to destroy every pagan and scientific literature including the great libraries of the world."
On the contrary, everything we know about the natural philosophy of the ancients comes from writings copied and preserved by the Christians. After all, these folks were the Greeks and Romans. They just got sprinkled, is all. And we read again and again in the writings of the Christians about the importance of such learnings. Granted, they had little use for Greek comedies and tragedies (they wrote their own, and had their own notions of what was tragic and comic) and they saw no need to imitate Greco-Roman architecture (again, they did their own thing), but they preserved and copied an enormous amount of Greek mathematics, technical writings, and natural philosophy. For example, of the estimated ten million words of classical Greek that have come down to us, about two million comprise the medical works of Galen -- a full fifth of the entire surviving classical Greek corpus. Throw in Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy and the mathematical works and we realize that the Christians focused on preserving the scientific and medical writings. We know from epigraphical evidence (references in other fragments of writing) and from original papyruses found in Egypt, that these were not the best sellers in the Greek world itself. IOW, we tend to think the Greeks were Very Rational because the Christians were most interested in their rational thoughts. The large percentage of Greek science in the surviving writings tells us that the Christians who copied them were interested in science, not that the Greeks were.

This was not true of the suriving Latin writings. The Romans just weren't interested in science and math, and wrote almost nothing. A third of the million or so words of preserved classical Latin consist of Cicero's wrtiings (and comprise 75% of what we know Cicero wrote). However, there were several Roman encyclopediasts who wrote digest summaries of what was known. Macrobius and Pliny were the two best-known. These were used as school text books in the West in the early middle ages and provided a curriculum for the "Seven Liberal Arts." The thing to remember is:

a) The Greek East never lost its heritage. It was preserved unbroken; and Byzantium deserves its proud title of "The World's Librarian."
b) The Latin West never lost its Latin heritage. Catalogs of private and monastic libraries that have come down to us list all the best known Roman writers.
c) The Latin West never lost its Greek heritage because it never had it to begin with. Most of it was never translated until the Christians, hearing that it was available in Toledo, swarmed there from every nation once the jihad had ebbed, eager to translate the Greek works. (These had been earlier translated by Syriac Christians in Syria and Iraq from Greek to Syriac to Arabic.)

"Free" thinkers also seem to subscribe to the Intelligent Design theory of history. If certain writings were lost, why then it must have been "the aimed destruction," that is, intelligently designed. But there are perfectly natural processes like mold, mice, fire, barbarian invasions, and so forth that account for the normal wear and tear. In the age before printing, there were not many copies of many books to begin with.

Read the rest here

Fifty years of space exploration

image by: books.nationalgeographic.com/map/map-day/index

via: www.stevey.com/2009/01/21/50-years-of-space-exploration/

You can see a very large version of this here

Peace, Peace (Jeremiah 6:13)

I, for my part, strongly object to his being awarded the Peace prize because of his policies to spread violence to the most peaceful places on earth.
...
Not only does he support the killing of children in the womb but also the use of their bodies for research.

In a normal world, the womb is one of the most peaceful places on earth. The child within the womb is not hungry, thirsty, or in need of any other shelter. Life exists without conflicts and an amazing unfolding of incredibly complex growth and development takes place. The only conflict comes from outside that safe haven, as when an abortionist wields a knife to dismember the otherwise peaceful and defenseless child.

As far as I am concerned, the last award I would bestow on someone who signs orders to spread an inevitable deadly violence against content, safe, and defenseless children in wombs throughout the world is a peace award. I cannot help but take to heart the words of Jeremiah the Prophet: "For from the least to the greatest of them, every one is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, every one deals falsely. They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, `Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown," says the Lord. (Jer. 6:13-15)

Read the entirety of Fr Miitch Pacwa's article here

"The switch version"

From Orbis Catholicus:



The centre portion can apparently be replaced as the pontiff changes!

Jake Tapper

How condescending Obama is :S

Helen Thomas seems to be enjoying the action here:





From Wiki:

Jacob Paul "Jake" Tapper (born March 12, 1969) is an American print and television journalist, currently the Senior White House Correspondent for ABC News in Washington, DC. He was named to that position the day after Election Day, 2008, having covered then-Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

He last interviewed President Obama in July in Moscow, in an interview where the President expressed confidence that his foreign policy approach was starting to work and said regarding the stimulus package "there's nothing that we would have done differently." In January, Tapper broke the story of the tax troubles of then-Health and Human Services Secretary nominee and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-SD, troubles that ultimately derailed Daschle's nomination.

A bridge across the Tiber

Pope Benedict has pulled off another surprise.

In a press release from the Vatican the announcement came:

“In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony.”

CMR is following the news and so has lots of updates :)

NOTE OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

ABOUT PERSONAL ORDINARIATES FOR ANGLICANS

ENTERING THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

With the preparation of an Apostolic Constitution, the Catholic Church is responding to the many requests that have been submitted to the Holy See from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful in different parts of the world who wish to enter into full visible communion.

In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates, which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church while preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony. Under the terms of the Apostolic Constitution, pastoral oversight and guidance will be provided for groups of former Anglicans through a Personal Ordinariate, whose Ordinary will usually be appointed from among former Anglican clergy.

The forthcoming Apostolic Constitution provides a reasonable and even necessary response to a world-wide phenomenon, by offering a single canonical model for the universal Church which is adaptable to various local situations and equitable to former Anglicans in its universal application. It provides for the ordination as Catholic priests of married former Anglican clergy. Historical and ecumenical reasons preclude the ordination of married men as bishops in both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Constitution therefore stipulates that the Ordinary can be either a priest or an unmarried bishop. The seminarians in the Ordinariate are to be prepared alongside other Catholic seminarians, though the Ordinariate may establish a house of formation to address the particular needs of formation in the Anglican patrimony. In this way, the Apostolic Constitution seeks to balance on the one hand the concern to preserve the worthy Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony and, on the other hand, the concern that these groups and their clergy will be integrated into the Catholic Church.

Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which has prepared this provision, said: "We have been trying to meet the requests for full communion that have come to us from Anglicans in different parts of the world in recent years in a uniform and equitable way. With this proposal the Church wants to respond to the legitimate aspirations of these Anglican groups for full and visible unity with the Bishop of Rome, successor of St. Peter."

These Personal Ordinariates will be formed, as needed, in consultation with local Conferences of Bishops, and their structure will be similar in some ways to that of the Military Ordinariates which have been established in most countries to provide pastoral care for the members of the armed forces and their dependents throughout the world. "Those Anglicans who have approached the Holy See have made clear their desire for full, visible unity in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. At the same time, they have told us of the importance of their Anglican traditions of spirituality and worship for their faith journey," Cardinal Levada said.

The provision of this new structure is consistent with the commitment to ecumenical dialogue, which continues to be a priority for the Catholic Church, particularly through the efforts of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. "The initiative has come from a number of different groups of Anglicans," Cardinal Levada went on to say: "They have declared that they share the common Catholic faith as it is expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and accept the Petrine ministry as something Christ willed for the Church. For them, the time has come to express this implicit unity in the visible form of full communion."

According to Levada: "It is the hope of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, that the Anglican clergy and faithful who desire union with the Catholic Church will find in this canonical structure the opportunity to preserve those Anglican traditions precious to them and consistent with the Catholic faith. Insofar as these traditions express in a distinctive way the faith that is held in common, they are a gift to be shared in the wider Church. The unity of the Church does not require a uniformity that ignores cultural diversity, as the history of Christianity shows. Moreover, the many diverse traditions present in the Catholic Church today are all rooted in the principle articulated by St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians: ‘There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism’ (4:5). Our communion is therefore strengthened by such legitimate diversity, and so we are happy that these men and women bring with them their particular contributions to our common life of faith."

Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams seems to have been caught off guard.

Fr Rutler comments (Via Deacon's Bench):

It is dramatic put down of liberal Anglicanism and a total repudiation of the ordination of women, homosexual marriage and the general neglect of doctrine in Anglicanism. It basically interprets Anglicanism as a spiritual parimony based on ethnic tradition rather than substantial doctrine and makes clear that it is not an historic "church" but rather an "ecclesial community"' that strayed and now is invited to return to communion with the Pope as Successor of Peter.

The response from the Traditional Anglican primate is beautiful:

I have spent this evening speaking to bishops, priests and lay people of the Traditional Anglican Communion in England, Africa, Australia, India, Canada, the United States and South America.

We are profoundly moved by the generosity of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. He offers in this Apostolic Constitution the means for "former Anglicans to enter into the fullness of communion with the Catholic Church". He hopes that we can "find in this canonical structure the opportunity to preserve those Anglican traditions precious to us and consistent with the Catholic faith". He then warmly states "we are happy that these men and women bring with them their particular contributions to our common life of faith".

May I firstly state that this is an act of great goodness on the part of the Holy Father. He has dedicated his pontificate to the cause of unity. It more than matches the dreams we dared to include in our petition of two years ago. It more than matches our prayers. In those two years, we have become very conscious of the prayers of our friends in the Catholic Church. Perhaps their prayers dared to ask even more than ours.

While we await the full text of the Apostolic Constitution, we are also moved by the pastoral nature of the Notes issued today by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. My fellow bishops have indeed signed the Catechism of the Catholic Church and made a statement about the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, reflecting the words of Pope John Paul II in his letter "Ut Unum Sint".

Other Anglican groups have indicated to the Holy See a similar desire and a similar acceptance of Catholic faith. As Cardinal Levada has indicated, this response to Anglican petitions is to be of a global character. It will now be for these groups to forge a close cooperation, even where they transcend the existing boundaries of the Anglican Communion.

Fortunately, the Statement issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury reflects the understanding that we have gained from him that he does not stand in our way, and understands the decisions that we have reached. Both his reaction and our petition are fruits of a century of prayer for Christian unity, a cause that many times must have seemed forlorn. We now express our gratitude to Archbishop Williams, and have regularly assured him of our prayers. The See of Augustine remains a focus of our pilgrim way, as it was in ages of faith in the past.

I have made a commitment to the Traditional Anglican Communion that the response of the Holy See will be taken to each of our National Synods. They have already endorsed our pathway. Now the Holy See challenges us to seek in the specific structures that are now available the "full, visible unity, especially Eucharistic communion", for which we have long prayed and about which we have long dreamed. That process will begin at once.

In the Anglican Office of Morning Prayer, the great Hymn of Thanksgiving, the Te Deum, is part of the daily Order. It is with heartfelt thanks to Almighty God, the Lord and Source of all peace and unity, that the hymn is on our lips today. This is a moment of grace, perhaps even a moment of history, not because the past is undone, but because the past is transformed.


----Archbishop John Hepworth, Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion

Not everyone's happy. Oh well...whiners :p

Indeed we should join the Traditional Anglicans in thanking God. We certainly are living in interesting times.

We must also thank God for the Holy Father. Archbishop Hepworth is right in saying that "He has dedicated his pontificate to the cause of unity."

God bless our Pope, the great, the good

"We can't help being priests. People come and tell us these things" - Father Brown

"Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil?"

- Father Brown

I love Chesterton's Father Brown stories.

From Wikipedia:

Father Brown is a fictional character created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton, who stars in 52 short stories later compiled in five books. Chesterton based the character on Father John O'Connor (1870 - 1952), a parish priest in Bradford who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922. The relationship was recorded by O'Connor in his 1937 book Father Brown on Chesterton.

Father Brown is a short, stumpy Catholic priest, "formerly of Cobhole in Essex, and now working in London," with shapeless clothes and a large umbrella, and uncanny insight into human evil.

Father Brown was the perfect vehicle for conveying Chesterton's view of the world and, of all of his characters, is perhaps closest to Chesterton's own point of view, or at least the effect of his point of view. Father Brown solves his crimes through a strict reasoning process more concerned with spiritual and philosophic truths rather than scientific details, making him an almost equal counterbalance with Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, whose stories Chesterton read and admired. However, the Father Brown series commenced before Chesterton's own conversion to Catholicism.

In The Blue Cross, where he makes his first appearance, Fr Brown has ingeniously outwitted Flambeau, a world-renowned criminal who had impersonated a priest in order to steal a relic from Fr Brown.

'How in the blazes do you know all these horrors?' cried Flambeau.

The shadow of a smile crossed the round, simple face of his clerical opponent.

'Oh, by being a celibate simpleton, I suppose,' he said. 'Has it never struck you that a man who does next to nothing but hear men's real sins is not likely to be wholly unaware of human evil? But as a matter of fact, another part of my trade, too, made me sure you weren't a priest.'

'What?' asked the thief, almost gaping.

'You attacked reason,' said Father Brown. 'It's bad theology.'

Nuns and such

Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine	California Institute: California Immaculate Heart of Mary	Missionaries of Charity	Daughter of Charity
Sisters of St .Jospeh	Poor Hand Maids of Jesus Christ	Carmelite Sister	Sisters of Divine Providence
Pink Sisters	Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy	Sisters of Providence	Sisters of the Presentation

More here

Also from the same site:

LEST WE FORGET

“Lest We Forget is a written and pictorial history of religious habits and updates information on current standings in convents. While some religious communities have worn basically the same garb since their founding, others have gone through many changes during their history. Some orders still wear traditional habits while others have modified their attire and some have dropped the religious habit all together.

It is the author’s hope that all who read this book will admire the religious-doll attire that have been created through the artistic talent and attention to detail of Josie Lemming. Josie is an expert seamstress whose dolls are historically correct in every way. In the process of admiring the pictures, perhaps it will inspire the reader to remember a favorite teacher or nun in their life. Certainly, these remarkable and dedicated women deserve our thanks and prayers.”

-from Lest We Forget by Patrick Lemming

Let us pray for our dear religious sisters and brothers.

I wonder whether there are monk dolls...