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I’ve been reading… I finished Chesterton’s St. Francis of Assisi. What a glorious little book. It has helped me to regard St. Francis in a very new way. I’ve always been rather cool toward him, probably mainly due to modern stereotypes, myths, and sentimentalities… the whole Medieval Flower Child thing, you know. I know it’s horrible, but that’s pretty much the (fake) image of St. Francis I’ve grown up with.
Chesterton gives a much more complete and realistic portrait of the Little Poor Man, especially toward the end. If St. Francis lived much of his life in a free-wheeling joy, it was the least he deserved it when it came time for the frightful seraphic vision, the stigmata, the blindness. And far from being the Christian version of a modern-day New Age neo-pagan nature-worshiper, St. Francis, in fact, reclaimed nature for Christianity, cast off the errors of the real, ancient pagans, and provided us with a glimpse of Eden or perhaps of the New Earth that is to come, in which all creation is redeemed and freed from bondage. At the same time, he never shrank from the material, fallen world… what could be greater evidence of that than his love of the lepers?
If you want to get to know St. Francis of Assisi, Chesterton’s book may be a good place to begin. Remember, it’s one of the Catholic Summer Reading selections, too!
I’ve also begun reading through this beautiful anthology I found at my church library: The Wisdom of Catholicism (ed. by Anton C. Pegis, Random House, 1949). So far, I’ve read St. Ignatius of Antioch’s To the Romans, St. Basil the Great’s On Reading Greek Literature, and St. John Chrysostom’s On Charity to the Poor. I’m always struck by how relevant these ancient writings remain. If that timeless relevancy is not a hallmark of truth and wisdom, I don’t know what is. Next up is a selection from St. Augustine’s Confessions, of which I never, ever grow tired.
I’m continuing with the Brideshead Revisited mini-series on DVD. I have to say that I have gained a sympathy for Julia that I usually lacked while reading the book. The dramatization brought it to life much more than Charles’ narration in the book. Julia’s experience of being a wealthy English Catholic girl resonated with my experiences of being a practicing Catholic in America today… experiences of privation, limited prospects, isolation, uncertainty. Not that those are the only things I experience, but sometimes… Well, it just felt good to realize that maybe I don’t have it so very bad. But my heart did ache for Julia. OH, and Rex’s catechism had me in stitches, LOL! And “Bridey’s Bombshell”–devastating.
I am not going to see the new movie version. It looks to be a very pretty film, but it does not look to be the same story. I can enjoy a pretty film, but when it comes to Brideshead Revisited, it’s the story–and how it relates to my faith and my life–that I care about.
I’ve been doing some other stuff too… but mosting reading and watching stuff. :)
Today is dedicated to my special Patroness for 2008! :D
Beautiful photograph by Flickr user Lawrence OP
As you can surely see, I’ve gotten really upset by Prof. Myers’ actions. As I see it, he has done something very wicked toward my Lord and toward my fellow Catholics. Actions of a kind he has not (to my knowledge) shown toward any other religion, despite his add-on desecrations of a Koran and an atheist book. Actions that translate in my mind to “Catholic-hating coward.” I stand by that assessment of his actions. I don’t really know what else to think.
But I stand by forgiving the man even more than I do my own opinions of his actions. Maybe I could do better than to vent my upset about the whole sordid affair, but, well… I’m not a saint yet. I do intend to make that upset an occasion of grace for myself, and hopefully for Myers. If I weren’t so upset, I would hardly have anything to forgive him for, would I? As it is, I am more than willing to forgive him, just as my Lord is willing to forgive him… or me. Having received mercy myself, how can I not give it to others?
Alas, it probably won’t come as easily to me as it does to my Lord. Forgiving is a process. A process that changes the forgiver and makes the forgiver a better person. I am open to that self-change and that self-improvement. I have no idea whether it will change or even affect Myers. I should hope it would, but that’s out of my hands. That’s between God and Myers’ free will. I know for certain that it will change me. Given that I need all the help I can get… it can only be a good thing.
Of course, I cannot possibly express this as well as Shakespeare did in The Merchant of Venice:
PORTIA: The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;…
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
…Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us…
It’s getting pretty close to it, according to this American TFP report about a “gay rights” law that will punish anybody who shows disapproval or criticism of homosexual behavior, including public acts of obscenity. From what I have heard, it sounds like under this law, gay rights will supercede all other rights and freedoms of Brazilian citizens, including religious freedoms. If this law is passed, there could be lots of Catholics spending several years in prison just for expressing and practicing their faith.
This gay agenda is not about gay people being treated with equality and dignity. This is about gay people being placed above all others, becoming “more equal” than everybody else. So I don’t think the term “gay dictatorship” is actually much of an exaggeration, although I’m sure that many of the people involved are not necessarily gay themselves… and I certainly don’t lump all homosexually-inclined people in with gay people. The fact remains, regardless of who is involved, gay people are being elevated in a very arbitrary and menacing way; elevating any group of people in such a way can only amount to tyranny in a society.
For the record, lest I be considered any kind of bigot, I have actively gay friends whom I love, respect, care for, and pray for. I don’t know all the details of their personal lives, but I think it’s understood by all that they engage in some behaviors that I, as a practicing Catholic, cannot approve of. But I don’t hate them for being gay, and they don’t hate me for being Catholic. I would never want to see them punished as criminals for being gay, and they would not want to see me punished as a criminal for being Catholic–the days of either of those being acceptable should remain in the past.
Alas, our “modern,” “civilized,” and “progressive” world never fails to astonish me in its alacrity and proficiency for digging up rotten old things and usually having the absolute gall to claim that they have discovered something really new and spectacular.
I really don’t know why I should be astonished, of course. I imagine that in most times and places, the world has been far more likely to be anti-Catholic than not. It’s that whole thing Jesus said about the servants not being greater than their Master. I shouldn’t be surprised, nor should I complain or worry. I am blessed to know that suffering unites me with my beloved Lord. I think Catholics have a special understanding and knowledge where suffering is concerned… a special relationship with Christ Crucified that even other Christians often lack. It’s not that Catholics are especially morbid or masochistic or anything… it’s just that our love for life does not deter us from death (to borrow a phrase from Rev. 12:11). You might say we love life so much that we’re willing to put ourselves on the line for the sake of life–the life of the whole world. Just like the Lord Jesus did.
Nevertheless… that the largest predominantly Catholic nation in the world should come to this horrible place is so unjust and unexpected that I can’t feel anything but sorrow and disbelief. I pray that this tyrannical law may still be overturned! And I pray for our brothers and sisters in Brazil! May the Lord bless them and be with them and sustain them no matter what happens. May those seeking to uphold this evil agenda turn back to their true Lord, repent, and flee into His open arms. And may the rest of the world pay very close attention.
This is a wonderful idea in response to Myers’ sacrilege, thought up by Jeff Vehige at the St. Peter Canisius Apostolate (I found it via Happy Catholic). Jeff writes:
I’m sure you’ve heard about the outrageous sacrilege committed by PZ Myers. If you haven’t, Jimmy Akin sums it up here. I’m not going to comment on what he did. You don’t need me to do that.
But I will encourage you to make August a month of prayer for PZ Myers. But let’s not just pray for his conversion. Let’s be a little more daring. Let’s pray that he will become our next St. Paul — not an the Apostle to the Gentiles, but an Apostle of the Eucharist.
This isn’t as odd as it might sound. One theme running throughout the lives of the saints, espeically saints that lives worldly lives before their conversion, is this: Their greatest sins became the foundation of their holiness. St. Paul persecuted the Church, and so God used him to build up the Church. St. Augustine lived a life of fleshly pleasure, so God made him the one to clarify the Christian view of conjugal love and made him the model of acesticism. St. Ignatius of Loyola longed to be a military man, and so God made him the head of, at one time, one of the most influential religious orders in the world. And little Therese Martin was extremely selfish in the smallest things of life, so God used her to teach the world how to become extraordinarily holy by giving Jesus the smallest of our acts.
So beginning next Friday, August 1, let us all join in prayer for the conversion of PZ Myers every day, until Sunday, August 31. Let us pray Rosaries for his conversion, offer up the Mass for his conversion, engage in abstinence and fasting for his conversion, and spend time in Adoration for his conversion.
In other words, let’s treat the man as Christ would have us treat him — with profound love.
So get the word out. Email your friends and relatives. Put it on your blogs and websites. Maybe one of you could made a flier that we could put in our parishes (contact me, and I’ll make it available through the Apostolate).
This could be very beneficial not only to Prof. Myers, but to all of us as well. I have already been praying for Myers, but it will be nice to know that I’m part of a great effort. I feel better already.
Remember the professor who vowed to desecrate the Eucharist?
I’m sickened and dismayed.
As a little token gesture, he also ripped pages out of a Koran and a Richard Dawkins book. As if those three things are equal. If he’d really wanted to show equal disdain toward Islam, he could have done much worse, but he’s probably too scared of what some Muslims might do to him in return. And I’m pretty sure Dawkins doesn’t give a flying fig about what someone did to his book, as long as they paid for the thing.
If I weren’t so disgusted, I’d throw back my head and laugh at such a buffoon trying to pass himself off as an even-handed, equal opportunity religion-hater. But as it is, Myers’ actions suggest he is just a Catholic-hating coward, whose antics are allowing other Catholic-hating cowards to get their kicks vicariously (though I’m sure there will be lots of copy-catters). There is nothing funny about that.
May the Lord forgive him. That’s really all I have to say. All I can do is offer prayer and other reparations for the man and hope that now that he’s done his nasty deed, he’ll let our Lord alone. And I hope that this horrid incident will make all Catholics realize just how much the Eucharist means to them. That to them it is indeed something much more than just a “cracker” as Myers alleges. If that happens, then Myers may find that the joke is on him. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right? O Lord, please bring good out of this evil!
I posted a while back about Human Life International’s Humanae Vitae Initiative that called for a “generation of assent” to that much dissented-against Church document. At the time, they were featuring a pledge of assent for clergy to sign and dedicate themselves to.
Now, there is also a pledge for the laity! The pledge states:
As an act of public reparation for the damage inflicted and scandal given by those who publicly defied the Church when it issued Humanae Vitae in 1968, I PLEDGE my complete loyalty to the Church’s teaching authority, especially in the area of morals. Further, I PLEDGE total obedience to the positions Pope Paul VI put forward in Humanae Vitae, which is the Church’s loving invitation to all mankind – but especially married couples – to embrace God’s precious gift of life.
Signing this pledge may seem like a very small, perhaps insignificant, gesture… but we should know by know that God can take small, insignificant things and make great, powerful things of them! Who knows how much good and how much grace could come from this?! And the more people who band together, the better!
So please, if it is in your conscience to do so, please go sign the pledge online or print and mail a copy. And spread the word!
And remember–this Friday, 25 July, is the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae. For better or for worse, a very important day in Church history. You can find many excellent resources on the main Humanae Vitae Priests site. (HT: Father V. of Adam’s Ale)
Let’s get behind this, brothers and sisters! The dissenters have had their 40 years. It’s our turn now!
I just saw a “Good Morning America” commercial–tomorrow, they are featuring the “pregnant man” who has recently given birth to a baby girl. If, by chance, you haven’t heard about this, I almost hate to break it to you, it’s so tragic; but you can get the story on this page about an upcoming documentary.
Now, lest we suppose that this is just the media being its sensationalistic self… according to that article, “Beatie is recognized under Oregon state law as a man.”
What gets me is not even so much the story–I feel nothing but sorrow for everyone involved in it–but the fact that the media, the state government, et al. simply play into the lie and confirm these people in their confusion and disconnection from reality, while every sane person in the world is thinking, “Um… there’s no such thing as a ‘pregnant man.’”
The above-linked article describes the person in question as: “Thomas Beatie, who … lives as a man and gave birth last month in Oregon” (my emphases). I’m sorry, but there can be no “and” there. There just can’t. You can’t be a man or even ”live as” a man and also give birth. If you’re going to live as a man, you at least have to do things that men do. Giving birth is not one of them. There have been women throughout history who, for whatever reason, have lived as men. While doing so, they’ve occupied themselves with things like fighting wars. That’s something men do. Giving birth–no, only women do that.
Furthermore, Beatie “kept his female reproductive organs” and “conceived … using donor sperm and [his] own eggs.” More absurd, meaningless phrases that cannot logically be true. A man doesn’t keep his female reproductive organs; a man doesn’t have female reproductive organs to keep. Much less does a man have his own eggs.
Am I wrong to think that these are very basic, fundamental realities? And that most people are fully in tune with these realities? Then why would anybody, government or media or what not, persistently try to tell us anything different? If somebody really believes that Thomas Beatie is both a man and a mother at the same time, they are not seeing reality as it is. That’s all there is to it.
Thomas Beatie is a woman who believes that some surgery and hormones have turned her into a man. She was a pregnant woman–not a pregnant man, and now she is a mother–not a father. Everyone needs to tell it like it is. Everyone needs to tell the truth. Everyone who is capable of sanity needs to live sanely. That includes the media, and it definitely includes governments.
Gah. I really don’t want to live in a barbaric dark age where insanity is treated as normality and lies are treated as truth. For most of my life, I never would have thought that that could be too much to ask. Now I’m pretty sure that the dark age is already upon us. The barbarians are within the gates… if there are even any gates left.
Meanwhile, I pray for the Beatie family… especially the little daughter.
I think I have to write something about St. Dominic now. I was looking for books to catalog, and happened across this beautiful little Spanish book:
La Villa de Guzmán : historia y patrimonio by María José Zaparaín Yáñez.
Of course, it mentioned St. Dominic, who is commonly known as Dominic de Guzmán; with my limited grasp of Spanish, I was able to make out that his father’s family came from that town.
The book had lots of very beautiful photographs of the town and the surrounding countryside. It looks like a beautiful, peaceful place. There were photos of the town church, which is gorgeous, and it has a Guzmán family chapel, of which the centerpiece is a lovely statue of St. Dominic.
I want to go to Spain now!
Anyway, I feel like I’ve received a writing assignment from Heaven. I’m still not sure what I want to do with it. But I probably won’t find any rest until I start something. That’s generally how heavenly inspirations work.
…So here are some photos for your viewing pleasure:
This is me last Thursday before heading off to meet up with friends at the local goth club. Well, it’s not really a goth club, it’s just a club that has a goth night on Thursdays and Sundays. As you can see, I scarcely look gothic these days. Though I might work on that, just for the fun of it (for me, being a goth has always been about fun).
Unfortunately, this photo doesn’t reveal the full spectrum of my hair. But I have come to realize that I look much better without my glasses on. I’m going to have to see if I can get contacts.
And here’s one of Sabrina being silly. She’s one of my two cats. The other one, Sheena, is very laid back. Sabrina is a total spazz. But a very sweet little thing!
Ugh… I really need to get to sleep, though! :( Who’s the Patron Saint of falling asleep?
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