Mao!

I had kind of resolved not to comment too much on the elections, though the atmosphere at the moment is all abuzz and exciting, and this is the closest I've ever been to a general election (I've never spent more than an year in Sri Lanka where there are general elections because I grew up in Oman where there aren't), but this is too good to ignore.

On a purely oratorical level, I find Chen Show Mao of the Workers' Party and Dr Vincent Wijeysingha (Sri Lankan!) from the SDP quite excellent.

Santo Subito

Fr Z describes the events of Pope John Paul II's funeral six years ago in a very moving manner:

At the end of the funeral, the wind blew closed the cover of Book of the Gospels. Men lifted John Paul’s onto their shoulders. They stopped before the open doors of the Basilica and slowly pin-wheeled, as if to give him one last public wave. A shout went up, simultaneous because of the huge video screens along the nearby streets. That shout, which echoed across a silent and motionless Rome, may have been the single loudest purely human sound ever raised on high in that City of over 3000 years.

There began the rising chant of the people, “Santo Subito… Sainthood Soon”. It may have been a manifestation of the old adage Vox Populi Vox Dei… The Voice of the People is the Voice of God. I don’t know that, but it was unlike any chant I had ever heard before. Of course when in Rome you hear the word “subito,” especially from a waiter, you almost never expect what you’ve requested to happen quickly. And yet here we are at his beatification.

I watched it on TV and remember it vividly.

Alleluia!

Today is the last day of the Easter Octave. The Paschal feast is so glorious that the joy of Easter Sunday cannot be contained within one day - the celebration spills over into the next seven days and each Mass of the octave is reminiscent of a Sunday. 

It's a beautiful day. And a beautiful start to a long weekend: morning Mass and a pleasant breakfast with a dear friend, and some time reading and thinking about my thesis (and dozing) over iced chocolate at McCafe.

Even the weather is pleasant: it's raining, but the rain is soft and gentle and cooling.

No Greater Love

What gorgeous camera work. It really does look like the Dutch Masters come alive.

Via Insight Scoop.

Little miracles

Via Fr. Z.

Is your cat confused about the referendum?

How Great Thou Art

It's an awe-inspiring song. And this rendition is glorious!



Via CMR.

A nice cricket video

But most of the people just refuse to accept this

'The final stages and aftermath of the war in Sri Lanka were characterized by a wide range of violations by both the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, some even amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. More than 300,000 people became victims of the reckless disregard for international norms by the warring parties. Indeed, the conduct of the war by them represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law designed to protect individual dignity during both war and peace. The victory of one side has emboldened some to believe that these rules may not be disregarded in the cause of fighting terrorism.'

- Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka

Obama ignores Easter

The White House . . . did release an eight-paragraph statement heralding Earth Day. Likewise, the president’s weekend address mentioned neither Good Friday or Easter.

Read more.

His behaviour is just hateful.

Update via Dennis who left a comment:



And what Obama says is pretty good too. So I shouldn't have jumped to such a quick conclusion based on what I read.

Come let us worship

It is moving to see our 84-year old pontiff fall on his knees in profound reverence and thanks for what the Lord did for us all on the cross.

Holy Mass for the youth in Ireland (1979)

"He alone is the measure and the scale that you must use to evaluate your own life."



You can read the homily here.

The lure of pleasure, to be had whenever and wherever it can be found, will be strong and it may be presented to you as part of progress towards greater autonomy and freedom from rules. The desire to be free from external restraints may manifest itself very strongly in the sexual domain, since this is an area that is so closely tied to a human personality. The moral standards that the Church and society have held up to you for so long a time, will be presented as obsolete and a hindrance to the full development of your own personality. Mass media, entertainment, and literature will present a model for living where all too often it is every man for himself, and where the unrestrained affirmation of self leaves no room for concern for others.

You will hear people tell you that your religious practices are hopelessly out of date, that they hamper your style and your future, that with everything that social and scientific progress has to offer, you will be able to organize your own lives, and that God has played out his role. Even many religious persons will adopt such attitudes, breathing them in from the surrounding atmosphere, without attending to the practical atheism that is at their origin.

A society that, in this way, has lost its higher religious and moral principles will become an easy prey for manipulation and for domination by the forces which, under the pretext of greater freedom, will enslave it ever more.

Yes, dear young people, do not close your eyes to the moral sickness that stalks your society today, and from which your youth alone will not protect you. How many young people have already warped their consciences and have substituted the true joy of life with drugs, sex, alcohol, vandalism and the empty pursuit of mere material possessions.

Something else is needed: something that you will find only in Christ, for he alone is the measure and the scale that you must use to evaluate your own life. In Christ you will discover the true greatness of your own humanity ; he will make you understand your own dignity as human beings "created to the image and likeness of God" (Gen 1 :26). Christ has the answers to your questions and the key to history ; he has the power to uplift hearts. He keeps calling you, he keeps inviting you, he who is "the way, and the truth, and the life" (Jn 14 :16). Yes, Christ calls you, but he calls you in truth. His call is demanding, because he invites you to let yourselves be "captured" by him completely, so that your whole lives will be seen in a different light. He is the Son of God, who reveals to you the loving face of the Father. He is the Teacher, the only one whose teaching does not pass away, the only one who teaches with authority. He is the friend who said to his disciples, "No longer do I call you servants ... but I have called you friends" (Jn 15:15). And he proved his friendship by laying down his life for you.

His call is demanding, for he taught us what it means to be truly human. Without heeding the call of Jesus, it will not be possible to realize the fullness of your own humanity. You must build on the foundation which is Christ (cf. 1 Cor 3 :11) ; only with him your life will be meaningful and worthwhile.

Pope John Paul on his vocation

What a vocation it was! It's less than a week to go before the Great Pope is beatified. So I think there's going to be a surge of Pope John Paul II material on this blog.

Bob Dylan in China

Dowd took Bob Dylan sharply to task for caving in to the Communist authorities, apparently agreeing to their demands not to sing any of his best-known anti-war and counter-cultural anthems from the sixties: “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” etc. How unlike the courageous young Dylan, she opined, who walked off the Ed Sullivan Show when the censors told him he couldn’t sing “Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues,” a rather biting satire of the right-wing extremist group. Then again, she went on, didn’t Dylan himself, in his much-lauded autobiography Chronicles Vol. I, not admit that he was never much for the sixties counter-culture and that he never sought to be the voice of a generation? Wasn’t this latest episode not just one more indication that the “real” Dylan was but a conventional entertainer, willing to go along with anyone or adopt any style in order to make money?

Well, it’s never pleasant to see one of your heroes raked over the coals. My interest piqued and my dander up, I went to one of my favorite websites, BobLinks, which features set-lists of every concert as well as amateur reviews by concert-attendees, in order to see what Dylan actually played in China. Dowd was right in saying that Dylan did not play any of his classic “protest” songs, and for all I know he might have agreed with the Communist government not to play them. But the second I saw how he led off each concert, I laughed out loud, for I realized that Dowd had totally missed just how radical Bob Dylan was in China, indeed far more revolutionary than he would have been had he played his four thousandth version of “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

At each of his Chinese concerts, Dylan opened with a song from his explicitly Christian period from the late seventies and early eighties. The first night, in Shanghai, he commenced the show with “Gotta Serve Somebody,” a 1979 number that won Dylan a Grammy for best song. It is based on a passage from the 24th chapter of the book of Joshua. After the Israelites had completed their conquest of the Promised Land, Joshua assembled the people and posed to them a blunt choice: either you worship the Lord or you worship the gods of the people you have conquered. Then he says, unambiguously, “…as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24: 16). Dylan translates this into his distinctive poetry: “You might be the ambassador to England or France/ You might like to gamble, you might like to dance/ You might be the heavyweight champion of the world/ You might be a socialite with a long string of pearls/ but you’re gonna have to serve somebody/ It might be the devil or it might be the Lord/ But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” There it is, as stark as Joshua’s challenge: either the true God or the dark power that lies behind all false claimants to ultimacy. To sing those lines in a country which has been, from the time of Mao-Tse-Tung, officially atheist, which has actively persecuted the Christian churches, putting uncounted thousands of Christians to death and throwing still more into prison—well, I don’t know, Ms. Dowd, but that’s pretty revolutionary in my book.

And in Beijing the next night, Dylan opened his concert with another song from his first Christian album, a sprightly little number called “Gonna Change My Way of Thinkin’.” The next to last stanza of that blues tune is this: “Jesus said be ready, You know not the hour which I come/ Jesus said be ready, You know not the hour which I come/ He said, ‘He who is not for me is against me’/ Just so you’d know where he was comin’ from.” To sing those lines in a country where absolute authority has been claimed by an oppressive state, which has been willing to murder scores of millions of people who stood in its way: for my money, that’s about as counter-cultural, challenging, subversive, and revolutionary as you can get.

Read the rest of this excellent piece by Fr Barron. It gives hope to read of great performers who understand the radical nature of the Christian message.

What a talent! Haha

This is the night!

Happy Easter everybody! Rejoice in the Risen Christ!

Vigil Mass at the Cathedral was beautiful as useful. There were several moments that set the heart soaring with joy. It was especially good to be surrounded with my sis and my dearest friends.

Some annual posts:
The Exultet and the Gloria - two very special parts of tonight's Liturgy
The Easter Readings

Christ is risen! Death and sorrow had no hold on him - and therefore they have no hold on us too. He is Risen. And he is Lord. That's all that matters.

The High Altar of the London Oratory Stripped

What a beautiful photograph:

NLM features an excerpt from the writings of Prosper Gueranger on the Holy Thursday Rituals:

The Mass of Maundy Thursday is one of the most solemn of the Year; and although the Feast of Corpus Christi is the day for the solemn honouring the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, still, the Church would have the anniversary of the Last Supper to be celebrated with all possible splendour. The colour of the vestments is white, as it is for Chrismas Day and Easter Sunday; the decorations of the Altar and Sanctuary all bespeak joy: and yet, there are several ceremonies during this Mass, which show that the holy Spouse of Christ has not forgotten the Passion of her Jesus, and that this joy is but transient. The Priest entones the Angelic Hymn, Glory be to God in the highest! and the Bells ring forth a joyous peal, which continues during the whole singing of the heavenly Canticle: but, from that moment, they remain silent, and their long silence produces, in every heart, a sentiment of holy mournfulness. But why does the Church deprive us, for so many hours, of the grand melody of these sweet bells, whose voices cheer us during the rest of the year? It is to show us, that this world lost all its melody and joy when its Saviour suffered and was crucified. Moreover, she would hereby remind us, how the Apostles, (who were the heralds of Christ, and are figured by the Bells, whose ringing summons the Faithful to the House of God,) fled from their Divine Master and left him a prey to His enemies.

The Holy Sacrifice continues as usual; but at the solemn moment of the Elevation of the Holy Host and the Chalice of Salvation, the Bell is silent, and, outside the Church, there is not given to the neighbourhood the usual signal of the descent of Jesus upon the Altar. When the time of the Holy Communion is near, the Priest does not give the Kiss of Peace to the Deacon, who, according to the Apostolic tradition, should transmit it, by the Subdeacon, to those that are about to communicate. Our thoughts turn to the traitor Judas, who, on this very day, profaned the sign of friendship by making it an instrument of death. It is out of detestation for this crime, that the Church omits, today, the sign of fraternal charity, it would too painfully remind us of sacrilegious hypocrisy.

Another rite, peculiar to today, is the Priest's consecrating two Hosts during the Mass. One of these he receives in Communion; the other he reserves, and reverently places it in a Chalice, which he covers with a veil. The reason of this is, that, tomorrow, the Church suspends the daily Sacrifice. Such is the impression produced by the anniversary of our Saviour's Death, that the Church dares not to renew, upon her Altars, the immolation which was then offered on Calvary: or rather, her renewal of it will be by the fixing all her thoughts on the terrible scene of that Friday Noon. The Host reserved from today's Mass, will be her morrow's participation. This rite is called the Mass of the Presanctified, because, in it, the Priest does not consecrate, but only receives the Host consecrated on the previous day. Formerly, as we shall explain more fully further on, the holy Sacrifice was not offered up on Holy Saturday, and yet the Mass of the Presanctified was not celebrated, as it was on the Friday.

[...]

The Stripping of the Altars

As soon as Vespers are over, the Celebrant returns to the Sanctuary, assisted by the Deacon and Subdeacon. He goes to the altar, and takes off the cloths and ornaments. This ceremony signifies the suspension of the Holy Sacrifice. The altar should be left in this denuded state, until the daily offering can again be presented to the Divine Majesty.... He is now in the hands of his enemies.. who are about to strip him of his garments, just as we strip the Altar. He is to be exposed naked to the insults of the rabble...

It is accomplished

Funeral Blues

by W.H. Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Blue Whales in Sri Lanka

Two processions

Here's a wonderful reflection by Fr Robert Hugh Benson, an Anglican reverend who became a Catholic priest. It's his notes/outline for a sermon he gave on Palm Sunday 1913. It was featured on Why I Am Catholic.

PALM SUNDAY—GOOD FRIDAY
Mark xv. 39: Indeed this man was the Son of God.

Introduction.—Extraordinary how we miss the point in this world. With men: meet a person, label him; and find out a year later that we have misunderstood. Movements: a popular stir; see external events, miss significance (France and England for example). We are like uneducated people at a picture gallery; admire frames, are blind to pictures.

So Too With Our Lord On Earth. He came to His own . . .(John i, 11) Especially typified in last week of His Life.

I. Two Processions.

1. Two great events: one was Palm Sunday Procession. Conceive excitement of apostles. At last their Master vindicated; yields to people. Early afternoon start; strange intoxication in air; people come out and look; carried away, join. Rumor runs ahead; for road is full; crowd swells and swells. Cheering begins. Presently on turning a corner, another crowd runs into them, wheels and turns. Children, dogs; grave men crying and laughing—even great ecclesiastics are swept along: glorious sky; city of David.

At last a check . . . 'Stop them; it is not decent. Hear what they are saying: Hosanna.' For a moment disciples hesitate. 'I tell you,' rang out the grave exultant voice, 'that if these should hold their peace the very stones would cry out.' There is no doubt; He has yielded. Here is the kingdom coming with power. Scepter and crown—triumph of Jesus at last. 'Thank God, thank God!'

2. Five days later.—Another procession: streets thronged; heads thrust out; windows—roofs. Hear them: 'It is the King of the Jews,' they say, sneering. First come children marching and singing; mob; spear-heads of escort. Then, in center, a piteous spectacle. A Figure staggering along, robed in blood-stained tunic; crowned! bearing a vast scepter indeed! Before him goes the herald —placard I.N.R.I. Street full of howling and laughter; dogs bark; soldiers again; then mob, four abreast roaring out songs . . . on, on to the Enthronement of the King.

And when last shouts have died, and all is gone, friend of Jesus sinks down sobbing—Failure after all! And all that day there is blank misery. All mock and weep; all but one beneath the Cross; and from him a strange confession. Others on Palm Sunday had called Him Son of David, roused by splendor. Now one gives Him a higher title yet. Text (Mark xv. 39: Indeed this man was the Son of God).

II. Same Mistake Today.

As we look back now, we know the truth. 'For this cause,' says our Lord, 'came I into the world. I am come to save sinners ... I have a baptism to be baptized with.' (John xviii. 37; Matt. ix. 13; Luke xii. 50) We know that the real triumph was Good Friday, not Palm Sunday: not in palms and Hosanna; but spear-heads, scourge, and nails: not in strewing of their garments, but stripping of His own. Not colt but Cross was His Throne. On the colt He reigned over a few hundreds, on the Cross He is King of the World.

Yet we continue to make the same mistake.

Which after all is the glory of the Church? Ah! look close and test it by the Cross.

(1) Splendor of domination in the Middle Ages? Or the catacombs; burning of martyrs; rack; beasts. Both have their place. Our Lord sanctioned outward glory by Palm Sunday; but He did more than sanction suffering.

Not 'If any man will be My disciple, let him follow Me with palms and singing'; but...'Let him take up his cross and come after Me.'
(2) Court of France; when Church was honored? or now when against overwhelming hatred she is being stripped and scourged . . .

(3) Look at comfortable Catholics in world, well spoken of; and Poor Clare... which is the more glorious? Both are permitted.

(4) Tranquil death-bed of a good man, who has neither sinned much nor suffered much? or dying sinner—sinned beyond description, who turns and weeps for mercy?

Look at your own life too. Have you not believed you were succeeding, and that God was with you when all went well? That was your Palm Sunday—perfectly right. People praised you, rejoiced with you. But the real test comes in sorrow. It was then that the crucified Lord was near to you... when darkness was thick: rent four ways at once; become aware that no friend would reach you. Then He was manifest in you. His Hands upon yours; His Kiss on your lips; His Heart beating on your broken heart.

Blessed are they that hunger and mourn: for they shall be filled and comforted.

Conclusion.—Today we are rejoicing: giving one more gift to God's glory and the honor as well of the saints who won their crowns by suffering; all in memory of a happy event. Things are well with us; your priests happy; you are happy. There is a large congregation. This then is your Palm Sunday —Christianity does not exclude joy: our Lord has sanctioned it. But it is important to remember on days of rejoicing that they are only one half of life. The spiritual man is absorbed neither in joy nor sorrow; neither exalted nor depressed.

The real test of the soundness of our joy is found in our behaviour during sorrow and conflict. We need so much. St. Peter's warning not to be bewildered when conflict comes, as if a 'strange thing' happened to us.(1 Peter vi, 12)

God knows there is enough conflict coming: all over the world that old drama of the Passion is being re-enacted—in S. America, in Spain, in France, and not least in England, evidences of old enmity of world against God which crucified our Lord. Face this, then, bravely; be prepared to suffer. Oh! brethren; it is in this that glory shows itself.

You have magnificent churches here, evidences of old splendor; but you produced finer things than that. You have contributed saints to heaven—such as Richard Langley (Mr. Richard Langley was a Yorkshire gentleman, executed on December 1, 1586, for harboring priests.), infinitely greater. See that you continue—it is an acceptable gift that you give today; but there are even better—crucified, mortified souls.

The deeper the darkness, the clearer is His Cross; the more ecstatic the harps of Heaven, the more radiant the smile upon the Face of God.'

Majestic, untamed Oman

This beautiful video captures the spirit of Oman - the familiar rocky mountains, the desert, the wadis, the date palms, and the city of Muscat gleaming by the sea.


OMAN FROM THE SKY from CYRIL EBERLE on Vimeo.

You Lie!!

He talks with such condescension - the good, noble professor, condemning Bush and explaining to the people what a signing statement is. Hope. Change.

'This is part of a whole theory of George Bush that he can make make laws as he's going along. I disagree with that: I taught the Constitution for 10 years, I believe in the Constitution, and I will obey the Constitution of the United States: we are not going to use signing statements...'

But a few years down the road, another promise is broken:

President Barack Obama is planning to ignore language in the 2011 spending package that would ban several top White House advisory posts.

House Republicans tacked on language to the contentious spending bill to cut the salaries for four so-called czars — policy advisers appointed to assist the president on health care, climate change, autos and manufacturing, and urban affairs.

But in a signing statement issued Friday, Obama said he's not obligated to comply.

According to Obama, Bush's actions were an effort to accumulate power, it was unconstitutional - the actions of a man who either did not know the Constitution or did not believe in it. What does that say about Obama now?

What a fraud. 

Blackadder owns Dr Johnson

Battling for souls

From the Legion Handbook:

"We must understand what the warfare is. It is being fought not simply to enlarge the Church, but to bring souls into union with Christ. It is that strangest of wars which is fought for the enemy, not against him. Even the term 'enemy' must not be allowed to mislead.

Every unbeliever is, as every Catholic is, a being with an immortal spirit, made in the image of God, for whom Christ died. However violently hostile to the Church or to Christ he may be, our aim is to convert him, not simply to defeat him. We must never forget that the devil wants his soul in hell as he wants ours, and we must fight the devil for him. We may be forced to oppose a man to prevent his endangering souls; but always we want to win him for his own soul's salvation. It is in the power of the Holy Spirit (sic) that we must fight, and he is the Love of the Father and the Son; in so far as the Church's soldiers fight in hatred, they are fighting against him."

- F. J. Sheed: Theology for Beginners

We must recover the urgent concern for souls - for each individual, priceless soul - that the saints of old display.

Holy Father, Saint Augustine

HOLY Father, Saint Augustine,
Hearken to thy children's cry;
Plead for us as now thou standest
Near the throne of God on high:
Guide thy flock O loving Shepherd,
Who to us in Christ art high.

Holy poverty's true lover,
All Christ's poor ones hymn thy praise,
Truth's own champion and defender,
Loved by all who seek her ways;
Scripture's God-enlightened teacher,
All her wealth thy pen displays.

Lighting depths obscure and hidden,
Thou dost break us heavenly bread
From the doctrine of our Saviour,
From the gracious words he said;
With the Psalm's life-giving nectar
All who learn of thee are fed.

For the white-robed canon's choir
Laws of wisdom thou didst frame:
Those who love thy words and keep them,
Thy sure patronage may claim;
Safe, they treat the ways of Sion,
Calling on thy worthy name.

Glory to the King of Ages;
Praise and triumph to his reign;
Let us sound our answering strain;
E'en now, 'neath our Patron's banner,
Citizens of heaven's domain. Amen.

Lyrics source

Hanuman Langur, India

From National Geographic. Beautiful isn't it?

Pope John Paul II

You really get the sense that something glorious is taking place on the altar.

Narf

Narf
Pinky's favorite random word in the show Pinky and the Brain
Pinky: NARF! ahha what am i doing here, Brain? naaaarf

Allaganna!

(catch it!)

Vuvuzela Hero

One of my students gave a class presentation on the vuvuzela.

And I just came across this on youtube.



Haha. Brilliant.

Cute camera work at a cricket match

Oh wow! 'Have You No Shame'

This is not one of Britain's finest hours

This is a brilliant critique of academia's tendency to adopt 'a supine attitude in the face of evil.'

Evening Bells

'Evening Bells' by Isaak Levitan.

Via Crescat.

Beautiful....

Magic

This is hilarious

because Murali's is famous for his bowling. He's known to bat in a very unorthodox manner.