Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor           

   I see the right way, approve it and do the opposite - Ovid  

      

 

 

SNL, Consumerism & Walker Percy

 

 

I've been reading with interest and amusement the ongoing dialogue between two St. Bloggers (let's call them "T" & "S"). It is probably uncharitable for me to enjoy it so; their volleys sometimes approach the tenor of the old those old Aykroyd-Curtin sketches on SNL. (Rule of thumb: The good posts begin by declaring their undying respect of the other.) But regardless, just look at the quality of comments Disputations gets! Chris Burgwald writes: "I think Congar and de Lubac are better Thomists than G-L, in that they have appropriated both the letter and the spirit. Take G-L's Predestination, for example... while he is exact in his replication of Thomas' letter, I'm not sure if Thomas' overall intention is as exactly reproduced." Marvelous. Way above my pay grade. (By the way, Particulae is joining the fray with a post nuancing Steven's nuance concerning the uniqueness of the human).

 

 

But I digress. Steven recently blogged, "And there is a 'knowing about God' that serves the human purpose that all knowing can serve, namely, "'Look at me! Look at me! Look how very, very clever I am!'"

 

 

His comment reminded me of a what Walker Percy wrote in The Message in a Bottle. He explains how moderns have been so enveloped in consumerism that they can't really see things, they must consume them and be applauded for the wisdom of their consumption.

 

 

Excerpts:

 

 

The highest satisfaction of the sightseer (not merely the tourist but any layman seer of sights) is that his sight should be certified as genuine.... The worst of this impoverishment is that there is no sense of impoverishment...

 

 

On tourists experiencing the natives:

 

 

"This is it" and "now we are really living" do not necessarily refer to the sovereign encounter of the person with the sight that enlivens the mind and gladdens the heart. It means that now at least we are having the acceptable experience.

 

 

On the layman's relation to natural objects:

 

 

The highest role he can conceive himself as playing is to be able to recognize the title of the object, to return it to the appropriate expert and have it certified as a genuine find....This loss of sovereignty extends even to oneself. There is the neurotic who asks nothing more of his doctor than that his symptom should prove interesting. When all else fails, the poor fellow has nothing to offer but his own neurosis. But even this is sufficient if only the doctor willl show interest when he says, "Last night I had a curious sort of dream; perhaps it will be significant to one who knows about such things. It seems I was standing in a sort of alley--" (I have nothing else to offer you buy my own unhappiness. Please say that it, at least, measures up, that it is a proper sort of unhappiness). Now that is neurotic.

 

 

Card-Collecting as a Subspecies of Sovereignty-alienation

I used to collect baseball cards as a kid. Had thousands. And some of my favorite cards were those of scrubs, like a 1971 card of some catcher for the Braves who had his mitt out and it looked, I swear, like he was holding a pie of some sort. (The photography not being what it is now). Another was a 1972 card of some pitcher for the Rangers who looked exactly like one of my teachers. I became more and more enamoured of star cards. Then, by the 80s, my interest became commoditized. I wanted some obscure rookie card because he might be a big star. The value I placed on an individual card was what a baseball card magazine said it was worth. How sad.

 

 

So don't give up your sovereignty to the experts. Follow your bliss. Collect the baseball cards YOU want, regardless of market value. Collect the paintings and poems YOU like, not what experts say. And when you walk in the woods don't try to name that wildflower - instead see it.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:33 PM

 

April 24, 2003  

 

 

 

Resisting the Urge... to Pun this Title

 

 

One of the benefits of the semi-anonymity of this blog is that I can address subjects like lust, strictly for the benefit of the reader of course. (This post may end up PG-13, so don't wake the neighbors or phone the kids.)

 

 

Two anecdotes, which I hope to tie up at the end:

 

 

The first anecdote involves the time I received a gift certificate for a free massage from a licensed massage therapist. As is my wont, I googled "massage therapy" and read about the benefits that might be conferred. Of some interest was a FAQ about what to do about....unwanted arousal. (Whew, I avoided the e-word). The massage therapist jocularly answered that "those things happen" and that they "don't last".

 

 

The second anecdote involves the story of our Dominican priest told about two monks. They were walking out in the desert (this is probably apocryphal), a very old one and a very young one. They came to a rather large mud puddle, before which stood a lady-of-the evening / painted lady / member of the world's oldest profession, etc. She apparently had no way to cross without getting knee-deep in mud. The elder monk picked her up, carried her over the mud puddle and then set her back down. The monks continued on their way. The young monk couldn't believe he had touched a woman like that, but he couldn't find a way to bring up the subject. Finally it got to be too much and many hours later he said, "Do you know who you carried over that puddle? Did you see the way she was dressed?". And the old monk replied, "I carried her over a mud puddle. You've carried her all afternoon."

 

 

I think the point of these anecdotes is that these types of thoughts do go away. They are best brushed off and given as short a shelf-life as one can manage. Our Dominican priest acknowledged that if you are told not to think about a white elephant, you will, of course, think about a white elephant. So he suggested that the best thing to do is to look back after the carnage has been wrought (if there is any carnage) and consider, truthfully, how much consent you gave to the thoughts. Sin cannot occur outside of the will, and the body will react as the body is wont, without conscious control. (Thank God! Can you imagine what a pain it would be to remind ourselves constantly to breathe?).

 

 

Good advice. I think the experience of fasting from food is also a help. Why? Because in fasting one recognizes hunger pains and practices ignoring them instead of serving them. They, too, "go away".

 

 

Finally, Bishop Sheen once said that his struggles with his celibacy were least intense during periods he was closest to Christ.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 6:38 PM

 

 

 

 

 

For $2, a Bottle of Wine & Change

 

 

Kairos guy will surely cringe.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:48 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Quote I recall, though not its source

 

 

Love is a sort of seventh day, so thinking can rest.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 2:16 PM

 

April 23, 2003  

 

 

 

What's in a Name?

 

 

Happy Administrative Assistant's Day! They used to be called secretaries but that became imbued with negativity and the solution was, as is typically the case, to change the name.

 

 

And in this case I think it works. Why? Because it is has a lot of syllables in it! The way to throw off the critics from heaping scorn your way is to make sure your tag is polysyllabic. For example, how many people are going to take the time to say, "Damn Administrative Assistant forgot to make that call!". Much easier to mutter, "damn secretary forgot to make that call". The "-ary" ending is also less impressive than the "-ant" ending. (Cary without the Grant would've been far less successful).

 

 

Perhaps this was part of the thinking behind the term "African-Americans". The word "colored" was perfectly fine until bigots began to tinge it with negativity. "Blacks" apparently suffered a similar fate, although its symmetry with "whites" would imply equality. It's too easy to curse blacks but takes too much time and energy for the bigot to say, "African-Americans are blah-blah-blah".

 

 

I'm not sure my theory is correct though. "Flight attendents" has the same number of syllables as "stewardesses". Perhaps that change was made because "stewardesses" sounds too feminine.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:28 AM

 

 

 

 

 

A woman, Pia de Solenni, writes in National Review:

 

 

[Women] can choose their universities, careers, houses, and so on -- but they have no good men from whom to choose because they've set the moral bar so low that men don't need to rise to the challenge of being good men. They don't have to because women don't demand it. Perhaps women no longer even know how to begin; but until we recover our old advantage of moral strength, women's advancement will continue to spin, digging itself deeper and deeper into the muck.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:20 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpt from Barbara Carmen article in the Columbus Dispatch:

 

 

Strickland's devotion to St. Patrick is personal.

 

 

'My grandparents were married seven years and were childless. So they made the pilgrimage back to Ireland to pray at Craugh Patrick,' she said.

 

 

The prayers --atop the rocky peak where St. Patrick is said to have fasted and chased the dragons, demons and snakes from Ireland -- worked.

 

 

'My father was conceived on the boat home," Strickland said.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:29 PM

 

April 22, 2003  

 

 

 

It's All About Evolution...

 

 

...says John Derbyshire in this NRO article on leftism & snobbery.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:12 PM

 

 

 

 

 

OJEND*...they just get replanted. This from 1/20/01

 

 

It seems unfair to be denied knowledge of the fate of my great-grandfather James Smith, to have no grave to visit or memory to perpetuate. The local library is vast and the internet more so, and they provide answers to nearly any non-metaphysical query I have will to summon. Yet neither the library or the internet ameliorates the great question of James Smith. I feel the infantile right to answers, like a child who demands to know why the sky is blue.

 

 

I sometimes treat knowledge different from other forms of endeavor, as if it required neither exertion or Inspiration, as if it were something competely different from physical fitness or wealth or goodness – as if knowledge in this internet age was somehow exempt from our ruthless dependence on God and effort. James Smith, like Ahab’s whale, haunts like the key to an unsolved puzzle.

 

 

Just as I cannot know the date of my death or the end of the world so it seems I will never know the fate of the father of papa. That seems unlikely to the extreme – I remember Papa like it was just yesterday – a figure nearly as close to me in my childhood as my own father - bigger than life, bringing Sports Illustrated and the glow of universal popularity within the family. He was a celebrity before the cult of Celebrity, a godfather figure of respect and affection. So how strange that his own father, flesh of his flesh, be as obscure to me as Cain and Abel! We are all a hundred and fifty years from complete obscurity.

 

 

The absence of family history creates a want for it; nature abhors a vacuum. Smith is a name without meaning; I imagine James Smith could give it the meaning. In 1913 there was a flood. Did he perish in it? James Smith, is not only without history but without nationality. He could be Irish, English, Welsh, Scottish …..

 

 

Neuroscientists, two decades later, have at last answered the question I posed in my high school research paper, “Intelligence – Heredity or Environment?”. We are victims/victors of heredity to a degree scarcely imagined twenty years ago. They tell us our brain is undeveloped film with an IQ pre-determined which can only be “developed badly” by a poor environment. But the limit is there. A neuroscientist can measure our brain waves and tell within thirty seconds our IQ – no need for a test. However, no one is rushing to get this done since it is antithetical to everything we hold dear – that we are products of our own hard work and effort.

 

 

Given this knowledge our relatives loom larger in our consciousness knowing that if but… for…. this one thing…we could be them. I imagine my uncle Bob, praised by my grandmother as a sweet and charitable person, but who was an alcoholic and was left at the altar because of it. I could be him, but for a lot more alcohol and charity! There is my uncle Dan, charismatic, athletic, smart, scratch golfer, I could….nevermind. But the idea is that though we be different as snowflakes, we also have certain characteristics that could be directly gifted from our parents or ancestors, and so we seek the symmetry and to find them…because we need, above all, a reason.

 

 

* = Old Journal Entries Never Die

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Love songs ain't what they used to be

 

 

"The ascendancy of rock has occurred simultaneously with the decline of the love song. As most observers can attest, love songs over the last fifty years have become less about the beloved and more about the lover: that is, the emphasis has shifted from the "other" to the "self". A study titled "Individualism and Alienation in Popular Love Songs" also makes the case that modern love songs reflect an increasing social alienation:

 

 

'Most romance lyrics, on the other hand involve only one side of the relationship, the lovers, their pain, impairment, and constriction of vision. The finding of fewer instances of lyrics that imply a mutual love relationship in the last forty years than in 1930-1960 suggests that alienation is increasing in romance lyrics.'"

 

 

Via El Camino Real scroll to post Love Songs and Popular Culture

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Belloc's Epitaph

 

 

I challenged and I kept the Faith,

The bleeding path alone I trod;

It darkens. Stand about my wraith,

And harbour me, almighty God.

 

 

"Verse is the only form of activity outside religion which I feel to be of real importance; certainly it is the only form of literary activity worth considering." -H. Belloc

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:54 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Readings

 

 

Dylan has a cool post entitled Ars Poetica in Prose. There is an artsy bar on the OSU campus (frequented by leather-clad lesbians) that has open mic poetry night. Most of it is pretty bad and pretty liberal. (I'm not inferring they are the same thing.) Three of us go once a year and Hambone graciously reads my stuff. I still recall one of the poems beginning, "Bad poetry / ain't kilt no one yet /...". as if to numb them for what was to follow. I take modest satisfaction in knowing that that sequence of words had never been spoken in the long august history of the poetry readings there. Then, on another occasion, my friend read a pro-life poem that started out seemingly pro-choice but emphatically made the pro-life point at the end. It was met, surprisingly, by not just jeers but also cheers. One guy even came over and said he voted for Alan Keyes. Go figure!

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:09 AM

 

 

 

 

 

No Surburban Stereotype Here

 

 

Ran into ye olde Brit today. She's a local used bookstore owner, eccentric as the day is long. A Baptist who flew in the British lady air force back in the 50s, she found herself (mis)planted here and longs to save enough money to retire to Washington state. (She says she took a hit in the stock market, like everybody else).

 

 

Her prose has a sort of "English as a second language" quality that I find fascinating. It is a collection of non-sequitors, haikus and Orwellian overtones that require diligent study to unearth the meaning. She's intelligent and well-read so it is all very puzzling. Speaking with her does not result in this sort of confusion.

 

 

Truth be told, I most enjoy the large placards on her front lawn. Today's offering: "City Flooded my basement! Neither response or call. Peace, Harmony and Productivity!" The other side disparaged a local mayoral candidate, at least I think that was the intent.

 

 

She sounds crazy but she really isn't. She is perfectly lucid in normal conversation. I've not yet worked up to how to say, "where did you learn to write?"

 

 

But vive le difference. She makes the lives of commuters a little more interesting, and for that she deserves a shorter Purgatory.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:55 PM

 

April 21, 2003  

 

 

 

Where did my detachment go?

Note to self: elation is not the proper feeling for the ending of Lenten restrictions & proscriptions.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:09 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter

 

 

Our pastor read the Easter sermon of St. John Chrysostom today...a consoling one!

 

 

Let no one grieve at his poverty,

for the universal kingdom has been revealed.

Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;

for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.

He has destroyed it by enduring it.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:19 PM

 

April 20, 2003  

 

 

 

Death of a Good Priest

 

 

Msgr Colby Grimes, the priest who officiated at my wedding died on Good Friday. He was 50 years old. I'll never forget the reverence with which he said Mass. He bowed low during the words of consecration and paused a few seconds between each word: "This.....Is.....My....Body". It was arresting and unique and audacious. Flannery O'Connor once said that she had to write stories of grostesqueness because that's the thing the modern reader can grasp. Perhaps Msgr. Grimes felt that he had to say the words with such long pauses in order to allow the reality of the Real Presence to sink in to a congregation who easily loses their way.

 

 

One of his dreams was to meet the Pope. It's not easy for a parish priest to meet the pope, but he put his name on the list at the first possible chance and something like seven years later it happened.

 

 

When he was in the hospital the first time I sent a get well card and expressed my appreciation for the reverence with which he said Mass. He was not somebody I really wanted to run into for fear of ruining things. First, in the unlikely event he not live up to my image of him. (Heroes are fragile things). Second, and far more likely, that I not live up to mine. Still, I went back once to the old parish after we were married and I ran into him before Mass. He gave me a huge smile, handshake and we chatted.

 

 

Journal entry dated June 2000:

....First there was the sad news that Msgr. Grimes, a personal hero (i.e. the person I’d most like to be like) has leukemia. He was not only a bridge to Steph & my wedding, but he promised to ever be there in case of difficulty. One finds comfort to have a personal fire extinguisher behind the glass & the “break glass in case of emergency”. Now he may be on his way to a far better place – heaven.

 

 

The Dispatch article:

 

 

Grimes was known for his straightforward style and his compassion and selflessness. Even as his body reeled from chemotherapy, he visited sick youngsters at Children's Hospital.

 

 

***

Even when he was sick, or on vacation, Grimes celebrated Mass, she said. Once, she stopped to see him at his home when he was ill and he had set up an altar on his dining-room table.

 

 

Earlier Dispatch article.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:14 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Samstag

Spent Saturday in the nascent sun drinking Warsteiners with my brother and helping him put together the parts of a rather elaborate swing-set set. Then we had an aperitif and cursed Montaigne, blaming the world's skeptism on him. We sat trading witicisms just as our ancestors did in County Sligo, engulfed in the smoke of a turf fire equivalent (a couple fine hand-rolleds).

 

 

But I shamelessly embellish. Actually we talked about our jobs and watched in disbelief as our little four year old nephew began dismantling the neighbor's stone fence. We sat dumb - "is he really doing what I think he's doing" - before calling down from the high deck upon which we were seated and telling him to stop, like voices from heaven correcting a miscreant. And he stopped.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:44 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Online Way of the Cross.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:48 PM

 

April 17, 2003  

 

 

 

Books

I blogged my current reads here (post entitled "Reading).

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:37 PM

 

 

 

 

 

It's a Physical Universe After All

Fr. William Most on the distinction between physical evil & moral evil:

 

 

A world without physical evils, if a material world, would have to be comprised of one miracle after another, simply because material things can go to pieces, can come apart, can slip, as common sense testifies. Now it is not really rational for God to work miracles routinely, for a miracle is extraordinary, and the extraordinary cannot become ordinary.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry

The Irish have a fatalistic, morbid streak to which I occasionally succumb to...

 

 

Tis not ours to know beyond

 

 

“Es regnet!” we called

our bellies full of German laughter,

“It is raining!” we called

like impish stewards.

Bare we knew the trouble ahead,

the horizon fixed at twenty blessed miles.

 

 

***

 

 

Survey of Stones

 

 

the sunny hill brought forth

a bitter fruit –

a hailstone of tombstones

grey with eager miens and jaunty minders

from thick tree roots gestated.

 

 

I looked upon the sober dates they cried

‘what have you to show! I lived far less than you!”

 

 

'Are you like me?' asked the Federalist

gowned in Resurrection palms

and atrophied script.

 

 

'Are you like me?' asked the Victorian

draped in frank and maudlin prose:

"as you are now, I was once."

 

 

'Are you like me?' asked the Modern

impersonal as marbled ice

giving nothing but emptiness.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 2:35 PM

 

April 16, 2003  

 

 

 

Kairos guy struggles with his conscience concerning Lenten regulations. Our Dominican father has spoken about this before; I believe it was to allow exceptions such as the situation he described but I can't recall. I remember going to a rehersal dinner at an area Dutch kitchen (run by the local Mennonites, a subspecies of Amish) during a Lenten Friday. Not having the broasted chicken at the Dutch Kitchen is like going to an Irish pub and skipping the stout.

 

Personally, I wrestle with items like this occasionally, which I imagine always gets big guffaws in heaven. Why? Because I could see them saying, "you sure are awfully concerned about this potential very venial sin...we wish you'd just treat your [boss, stepson, etc..] with more charity". In that sense, my preoccupation with having the right position on the Iraq war is disingenuous given that whatever degree of sin that might be imputed to me would be significantly less than what I inflict on myself by my failure to radically love others.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:46 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Quote Corner

"...one of the most powerful examples of that is the Christian belief (spelled out in St. Anselm's terrific treatise Cur Deus Homo) that the Incarnation and Crucifixion were God's way of marrying justice and mercy, being both fully just and fully merciful. In the words of the Psalmist, "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 85:10).

 

 

--Eve Tushnet, via Hernan Gonzalez, via Camassia

 

 

***

 

 

Even in this age, in which moral precepts are widely undervalued, great importance is attached to 'self-improvement'...We seem to take it for granted that there are steps that we can take to enhance our lives. In such a culture, the idea of being saved by another is likely to be unpopular...Yet we cannot cure ourselves; we need to look to another for that service. There is a simple workd that summarizes the whole earthly career of Jesus. It is the Greek preposition hyper, usually translated "for the sake of."

 

 

The condemnation of Jesus was not an accident, but happened for our sake. Perhaps we cannot understand how it is that the life of Jesus was a remedy for our sins, but this is what we believe. Jesus lived and died and rose again so that we might have life more abundantly.

 

 

--Fr. Michael Casey, O.C.S.O.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:19 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus, the Pharisees & Muslims

 

 

Good review of Bernard Lewis & his book "What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response".

 

Throughout the Middle Ages, the Islamic Near East was the mightiest military, economic, political, scientific, and cultural power in the world. The majesty of the Islamic empire seemed to confirm the Prophet’s claim to have completed and surpassed the messages of Judaism and Christianity. The infidels of Europe, it was thought, could have nothing of significance to teach Muslims. How much less could they represent a threat?

 

 

The early signs of Europe’s rise were therefore ignored. Secure in their assumption of superiority, Muslim diplomats never bothered either to learn European languages or to post permanent ambassadors in European countries.

 

 

The mindset that "I can't learn anything from them" is the same one the Pharisees might've had towards Jesus. "I can't learn anything from him," they probably thought, because they were the chief priests and the leaders and he was from Galilee (of all places!) and he should be coming to them. Perhaps if it were more widely known that he was born in Bethlehem the chief priests would've been more humble. Interesting that God doesn't like to provide a "smoking gun" - one must come by faith. It would perhaps not require much faith from the Pharisees if Jesus had been known to have been born in the city of David, from whence the Messiah would come. Coupled with the miracles, his role would've been perhaps too clear for a proper environment of faith.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:54 PM

 

April 15, 2003  

 

 

 

When Do You Win a War But Have Nothing To Show For It?

...when the reason you went to war was simply carted across the border into Syria. Which is probably where the WMDs are now.

 

 

I think I'm going to be sick.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 2:45 PM

 

 

 

 

 

The Narrow Path to Our Hearts

Nice meditation on the strategy of Jesus at Disputations with regards to the Jewish leaders.

 

 

He also touches on whether part of Jesus's agony was that more Jews didn't follow him. It has been said that if there is a strong enough reason for suffering, you can endure anything. To the extent it seems meaningless it is much less bearable. Someone told that they can save their child by suffering some trial will suffer it more easily than a trial that has lower stakes. In this way, the Passion works against the notion of Universalism - if it is true that some will not be saved, then Christ must've been thinking of them too. As the Good Shepherd, he would forsake the 99 for the lost one. Was the "I thirst" on the Cross also a thirst for souls?

 

 

Fulton Sheen once said he thought maybe the agony in the garden was a sort of "making holy" all mental suffering and mental illness, while Good Friday represented the making holy of all physical suffering & illness.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:13 AM

 

 

 

 

 

In Search of Balance

...I was also disturbed by some of my ultramontane friends (particularly converts) who put down any attempt to think through the nature of just war in the present day because the pope said no. They're in danger of what someone called "creeping infallibilism." The Catholic Church is a more subtle and complex organism than that.

 

 

Theologically creative ideas tend to come from below, to be tested by those high and low, who may or may not get the answer exactly right, and eventually to be approved or not by the high. The Catholic is committed to the belief that the final judgment is correct, but not to the belief that every judgment before that is.

—David Mills(via Amy)

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:07 PM

 

April 14, 2003  

 

 

 

They Ain't Heavy, They're Our Bishops

 

 

Excellent, excellent point from the Contrarian, via Disputations:

 

 

I am no leftist and I usually disagree with most pronouncements and press releases on social justice issues that emanate from diocesan chanceries and bishops' conferences. Yet, I am not particularly perplexed or angered by those pronouncements with which I disagree so long as they flow directly from a belief that ... "if God took flesh, then this has social implications" and not out of allegiance to purely secular ideologies as a substitute for lapsed faith.

 

 

Bishops are not exempt from the powerful undertow of culture, the relentless pull of the Zeitgeist. That is precisely the dilemma we face, in trying to discern whether their statements flow from the lapsed faith of the elites (they are know to hobnob with the Georgetown set and acquire some of their politics that way), or whether their statements reflect a greater understanding and development of the social implications of the gospel. Tricky business indeed.

 

 

Here is an eye-opening read concerning the American bishops. But, as the mutual funds say, past performance does not predict future results. In other words, even if the bishops (as the book argues) have been unduly influenced by American culture in the past, that does not predict whether a given statement made now, or in the future, is of lasting worth. In that sense you have to look at every statement as if there were no past, which isn't easy given the validity of the old saying: "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me". I actually have much sympathy for the bishops, seeing in their weakness (i.e. a lack of faith & courage) a reflection of myself.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:10 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Syria Next?

I'm not sure why we are rattlin' the saber against Syria unless we really intend to use it. Making a public demand of an Arab country like Syria seems counterproductive, doesn't it? Reverse psychology would surely work better - say to Syria, "do the wrong thing! Hide Saddam and his weapons!" That may actually get them to come clean. Israeli intelligence reports that the weapons of mass destruction were carted to Syria before the war, much as his planes were moved to Iran to avoid their destruction.

 

 

All of this, of course, presumes we are not serious about going into Syria. If we are, then it is understandable to make our greviance public first....

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:58 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Beware the 'Rebound Effect'

If each action has an equal and opposite reaction, beware the tendency that I sometimes experience. After periods like Lent, when I more closely guard my thoughts, rebuffing feelings of anger, there seems to be a period of "negativity rebound" where the spiritual blessings acquired are squandered. One tends to become acclimatized to a certain amount of prayer; when it decreases there is a 'withdrawal' period as there would in whenever you experience a loss of time with your loved one.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 5:43 PM

 

April 13, 2003  

 

 

 

CCC 2847

The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin and death. We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment unmasks the lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a "delight to the eyes" and desirable, when in reality its fruit is death.

 

 

God does not want to impose the good, but wants free beings. . . . There is a certain usefulness to temptation. No one but God knows what our soul has received from him, not even we ourselves. But temptation reveals it in order to teach us to know ourselves, and in this way we discover our evil inclinations and are obliged to give thanks for the goods that temptation has revealed to us."

-Origen quoted in CCC 2847

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:36 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Particulae

Minute Particulars has a particularly (couldn't resist) interesting piece entitled "The Union of Wills...Not Opinion":

 

 

The modern conflation of consensus of opinion with concord, the union of wills in the love of a common object, has, ironically, spawned both breezy relativisms that cannot consistently object to any affront to human dignity and rigid objectivisms that often exclude different approaches to the same truth.

 

 

Great thought. St. Blog's has been a real eye-opener for me, as far as manifesting the variety of opinion out there. I thought, naively I suppose, that orthodox Catholics thought pretty much the same. Au contraire! We've seen the splits in St. Blog's over the war and the "Situation" to name just two, but also over a variety of more or less academic matters.

 

 

Part of this I think may be a case of natural contarianism; everyone wants to be thought an "independent thinker". The very fact that we are practicing Catholics in a post-Christian age suggests a native contrariness in us. But even without that characteristic there is always a drive towards division, if not over the major things than over the peripherals. We could see this happening writ large in the Protestant world. Thirty years ago the Baptists would not speak to the Methodists, and their differences would surely seem small to a Catholic. The fact that there are now non-denominational churches is an understanding that there are bigger challenges out there than the Protestant next door - like secularism and atheism.

 

 

I sometimes imagine an even greater unity with my spouse & stepson if they converted to Catholicism but I shouldn't look at it in that light but in terms of the benefits they would accrue in entering Christ's Church. Charity is something one can never, it seems, relax in practicing. Not even among fellow Catlickers!

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:30 PM

 

April 12, 2003  

 

 

 

Old Journal Entries Never Die... circa '99

Ahhh….on the road at last. I am passing thru the metropolis of Shade, Ohio, which thoughtfully erected a sign announcing themselves but I look in vain for a town, or a sign saying "Leaving Shade" until I realize that maybe the other side of the sign said "Leaving Shade".

 

 

Country folk have the capacity to surprise. One apparently sane person planted a road sign in his front flower bed, just between the tulips and pansies. It is a big Route 33 sign. Whatever works... At the local McDonald's there is an old guy dressed…for what I'm not sure, but he sure is dressed for a Monday morning. He is wearing a western suit, light beige in color, with matching white-piped pants and an expensive looking white cowboy hat. Does boredom lead people to these things? I go by houses with the Ohio River literally in their backyard, and on the other side of the bank a big nuclear power plant. These folks must be compartmentalizers on the scale of Clinton. I guess they can say, "I just look at the river, don't pay no mind to those Chernobyl towers".

 

 

I like the signs of small towns - saw one outside a restaurant that said, "Welcome. God food." Probably good too. Along the same lines in Racine, Ohio one said, "Free!!! Heart transplants from Jesus." Another announced, "We now have soft-serve ice cream." What's next, whipped cream? Save that for the new millenium.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:49 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Movie

Yesterday I watched the movie “Monster’s Ball” starring Halley Berry & Billy Bob Thorton. I try to stick to Westerns or “Black & Whites” - i.e. 40s/50s movies, so this was rather a shock. There was gratuitous & sudden violence (like an electrocution) and gratuitous & sudden displays of flesh. But around those craters there was a heckuva a good story. The loneliness of going to an old folk’s home was dramatized perfectly; I can think of few things more terrifying than that vision of autonomy stripped, of banality imposed. Thorton was dead-on: I’ve met a few blue collar, straight shooters like him in my life and he portrayed it pitch-perfect. The plot was about love overcoming prejudice, and I could cynically say that it was lust overcoming prejudice. Halley Berry overcoming male prejudice is sort of like a 7-footer succeeding on a high school basketball team.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:50 PM

 

April 11, 2003  

 

 

 

Today at Vespers my heart almost broke. It was 7:15pm, the sun streamed in the unbearably beautiful church and it touched memories barely extant. There were eight or nine souls already tending the beautiful liturgy and I felt a longing for all the saints that surrounded me to pray for me – St. Dominic, St. Ephraim, St. John, St. Judas Thaddeus, St. James…

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:49 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks go out to Hernan Gonzalez who provided me with a modified comment feature, a vehicle to effortlessly send email. I've resisted having the usual Haloscan comments because a) they screw up 9 out of 10 times b) promise to more completely addict me to blogging (I'd be checking for comments every ten minutes) and c) have a chilling effect on the more self-indulgent posts such as those titled "Old Journal Entries Never Die...", "Fictional Forays" and, of course, the poems. Self-consciousness, after all, is the ruination of blogging.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Friday five

via Fructus Ventris & Dylan

 

 

1. What was the first band you saw in concert?

The band "Yes" at Miami's Millet Hall, 1983.

 

 

2. Who is your favorite artist/band now?

Gaelic Storm

 

 

3. What's your favorite song?

Adeste Fideles

 

 

4. If you could play any instrument, what would it be?

Fiddle.

 

 

5. If you could meet any musical icon (past or present), who would it be and why?

Musicians, like painters, are most interesting for their art. I guess David the harpist. But he was famous for other things too.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Restraint, RIP

I've been lately pondering the increasing political polarization of the news biz. We see left slant (like NPR) or right slant (Fox News). The three networks undeniably lean left and have for years. I wonder if it has always been so, or if it is more a product of the 60s when restraint, in all its forms, went out the window?

 

 

Because it does take restraint to write for a television news show and not slant it. Blogdom is a "celebration" of lack of restraint, a venting of things you can't say in polite company. And you also notice the lack of restraint extends to never letting the other guy get the last word. (Bill O'Reilly cracks me up on this score - he's always saying, "I'll let you have the last word" but half the time he will sneak in a couple words thereafter).

 

 

I embrace the emergence of Fox News and conservative talk radio because I am a conservative and because it provides another point of view. But the shame of it is that so few even try to be objective. The notion of an "honor code" that used to define more chivalric wars (i.e. don't kill civilians) also used to define the journalist profession - they were bound to describe, with equal enthusiasm, both sides of an issue. But now that code appears more and more moribund.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:50 AM

 

 

 

 

 

I'm adrenally tired due to the war, the 24-7 news cycle, the constant notion that I may be "missing something". Call it data smog or information overload, but I'm ready for some bible reading. And to listen to the birds sing in the morning.

 

 

Two quotes; I don't recall who said them:

 

 

There's more to life than increasing its speed.

 

 

The problem with instant gratification is that it's never quick enough.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:17 AM

 

 

 

 

 

This just in...

Congrats to two bloggers getting married, announced here. May all their posts be happy ones!

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:39 PM

 

April 10, 2003  

 

 

 

Helloooo!

Disordered Affections is inducing house envy.

 

 

Not that I'm not proud of my castle.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:31 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Anybody know what happened to Raed?

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:57 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting/scary quote from The Challenge of Peace by the U.S. Conference of Bishops

 

 

"Pope Paul VI called the United Nations the last hope for peace.The loss of this hope cannot be allowed to happen."

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:12 PM

 

April 9, 2003  

 

 

 

Neo-cons versus Realists

The debate in the US over the nature of a post-Saddam Iraq pits democratisers (most often those of "neoconservative" views) against pragmatists (usually "realist" by school). Many realists, like Henry Kissinger, support the removal of Saddam's regime but oppose a protracted high-profile US-led occupation of an Arab capital and an attempt to impose democracy on peoples who do not know or want it.

 

 

The biographies of contemporary Islamist terrorists show the majority to be well-educated, semi-westernised young men on the periphery of traditional societies. Force rapid change on such societies with revolutionary ideas like liberal democracy and globe-spanning market economics, and the result will be an accelerated dislocation that will produce more terrorists, not fewer.

--More here

 

 

The coming experiment is going to be fascinating. Scholar Bernard Lewis is optimistic. I think Belloc might've been less so. Paraphrasing Daniel Patrick Moynihan: the great conservative truth is that culture swamps politics. The great liberal truth is that politics changes culture.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:11 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Books & Presidential Candidates

Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey....readily offered that his favorite book was Walker Percy's The Moviegoer, a novel that depicted the aimless existence of a soldier-turned-stockbroker named Binx Bolling. His answer may have revealed too much. The New York Times' Maureen Dowd pounced, claiming Kerrey's confession would worry voters, given that Percy's work was an "anthem of alienation" about a war veteran "out of touch with the rest of America." As The New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert later put it, with 20/20 hindsight, "Here was a man proposing himself as the next leader of the free world while apparently identifying with a character who, to all outward appearances, seems to have completely lost his sense of direction." Ouch.

 

 

Kerrey holds no grudge against the press for engaging in such psychoanalysis. In fact, he says, there was some truth to it.

 

 

--Brent Kendall

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:02 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Updike Quote

There should always be something gratuitous about art, just as there seems to be, according to the new-wave cosmologists, something gratuitous about the universe. Art, out of its own freedom, should excite and flatter our sense of our own. Professionalism in art has this difficulty: To be professional is to be dependable, to be dependable is to be predictable, and predictability is esthetically boring - an anti-virtue in a field where we hope to be astonished and startled and at some deep level refreshed.

--John Updike

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:46 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Matthew 18:33

 

 

self-pity

the easiest of emotions,

"it’s their fault"

fits like a glove

Into your wound you fly.

 

 

pity for others

the most difficult of emotions,

"it’s their fault"

may fit like a glove

but into their wound you fly.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:46 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Quote Wednesday

Does your mind desire the strength to gain the mastery over your passions? Let it submit to a greater power, and it will conquer all beneath it. And peace will be in you—true, sure, most ordered peace. What is that order? God as ruler of the mind; the mind as ruler of the body. Nothing could be more orderly.

--St. Augustine

 

 

We would remind [such] people that it is the law of nature that all things must be of gradual growth...

--Pope John 23rd

 

 

The law of correspondence with Dr. Coulton is the survival of the rudest. (aka blogdom?)

--H. Belloc, from Pearce's "Old Thunder"

 

 

God Bless Our Troops

--sign outside a Columbus strip club

 

 

If you want a committed man, visit the mental hospital

--sign seen outside cheap motel on drive to work

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:46 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Targeting Journalists?

It was early. I was still squinting from the light and from disconnection from the dream state. But I believe I heard a BBC reporter, indignant over the bombing of the Palestine Hotel which left at least one reporter dead, asking:

Is the U.S. military targeting journalists?

 

 

If accurate, this sort of cynicism is this side of surreal. I get the same feeling when I hear people say dismissively, "any chemical weapons found will have simply been planted by the U.S.".

 

 

The spokesman calmly denied the allegation. It would've been funny to hear him flippantly say:

 

 

Thank you for your question. President Bush yesterday signed an executive order eliminating journalists, especially those hostile to the Bush Administration. Given our "smart bombing" technology, we hope to be able to strike London's BBC with a minimum of civilian casualties.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 2:14 PM

 

April 8, 2003  

 

 

 

All You Need Is Love

In college I was disappointed when I got higher than a 95% on an exam. It meant I had over-studied. Time was a precious commodity, not to be wasted. My goal was to do enough to get the "A", not to surpass that out of any love for the subject matter.

 

 

How different this is from the spiritual life! Admittedly, there is and always has been a "test" aspect to it. Our first parents were tested in their obedience to God concerning the forbidden fruit. But that aspect was changed in some fundamental way with the New Covenant. It became a cooperation with God, Emmanuel or 'God with us'. Ideally, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit means doing the right thing is a byproduct of love for Him, rather than surviving the test... I have no ambition for a higher place in heaven, but I should have a desire to love Him more nearly.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Shellynna comments on the Pope on Disordered Affections:

 

 

He's got a more universal view. We don't understand what he sees, or how he sees it, but for the most part we can trust it. If it were a different, obviously less holy, less God-centered man than John Paul II, I'd probably be criticizing him, too. As it is, I'm willing to trust.

 

 

Makes sense to me.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:20 AM

 

 

 

 

 

How does the Christian's life of prayer depend on the Holy Spirit?

1. St. Paul teaches that Christians need and receive the special help of the Holy Spirit to pray as they ought: "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom 8.26-27).

 

 

2. This passage is frequently taken to mean simply that the Spirit causes us to ask as we should and stirs right desires in us. There seems no reason, however, for excluding a more straightforward meaning of the Spirit "himself intercedes for us."

 

 

3. We have good grounds for thinking of ourselves as having distinct personal relationships with each of the three divine persons (24-C). The Holy Spirit is the gift given by the Father to those who ask (see Lk 11.13). The General Instruction to the Liturgy of the Hours teaches: "The unity of the Church at prayer is brought about by the Holy Spirit, who is the same in Christ (See Lk 10.21), in the whole Church, and in every baptized person."

 

 

According to the promise of Jesus, the Spirit comes and remains (see Jn14.16-18). He is not only with us as a principle, but present in person. The children of God are not left in loneliness like orphans. The Spirit instructs (see Jn 14.26). He defends and guides (see Jn 16.7-14; Gal 5.25). Because of the presence of the Spirit, we have a concrete realization that we are children of God (see Rom 8.16). We cry out to God: "Father!" (see Rom 8.15). The Spirit makes up for our infantile condition by helping us in our weakness (see Rom 8.26-27). He takes a personal interest in our growth in the Christian life (see Eph 4.30).

 

 

4. The work of the Spirit in the Christian's life of prayer might be explained as follows. Prayer is the basic act of Christian life. It is normally a work of living faith--in other words, a work of charity. In praying, God's children act toward him according to the divine nature which he has begotten in them through the gift of the Spirit, as St. Paul also teaches: "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom 8.14-16). However, as undeveloped, embryonic children of God (see 1 Jn 3.2), we are not yet capable of acting fully by ourselves according to the nature we have from the Father; we do not yet "see him as he is," that is, experience the fullness of divine life.

 

 

5. The Spirit, who "is the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son," therefore somehow mediates our relationship with them, supplying what we simply cannot supply ourselves, as a pregnant mother mediates her unborn child's relationships with its human father, with other people, and with the world at large, doing for it what it cannot yet do for itself.

 

 

6. Prayer is the fundamental category of Christian life, and the Christian's life of prayer depends on the Holy Spirit in the way explained. Therefore, the Christian's entire life is supplemented by the work of the Spirit.

 

 

7. Hence, the fact that the whole of Christian life is lived in the Spirit in no way means that the Holy Spirit fulfills any of the Christian's human responsibilities. Rather, just as Jesus' communion as Word with the Spirit is no substitute for his faithful fulfillment as man of his personal vocation, so Christians' life in the Spirit leaves them with undiminished moral responsibility.

 

 

Christian Moral Principles --Germain Grisez

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:52 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Best Excuse I've Found Lately to Drink Before Noon

We plopped down in the living room, and I asked him why he hadn't brought his gas mask, chem suit, and Kevlar. "I wore Kevlar in the Balkans once," he said, "but it made me feel like a counterfeit, so I ditched it." Despite this cavalier disregard for safety, I was so grateful for the company that I offered him a Welcome-To-Kuwait shot of "Listerine" (as it is known by Kuwaiti customs officials). "I don't usually start this early," said Hitchens with feigned reluctance, "but holding yourself to a drinking schedule is always the first sign of alcoholism."

-Christopher Hitchens quoted here via Amy Welborn

 

 

On the other hand, if you follow a schedule slavishly in every other area of your life, why should drinking be exempt?

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 5:07 PM

 

April 7, 2003  

 

 

 

Prayers

I'd appreciate your prayers for my friend Bone who is suffering through numerous trials (recently laid off, wife has thyroid tumor - the doctor thinks it's benign but now's a good time for Heisenprayer). I've written about him here in the past, here and here. He is a colorful guy, a devout Christian, has four small children.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:03 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry to Order via the UK Guardian

At Books Unlimited we're so smart we can tell what mood you're in and what would make you feel better. Simply do our test and we'll find you some poetry to soothe your mood.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:19 AM

 

 

 

 

 

I love caption contests! Via Disordered Affections

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:19 PM

 

April 6, 2003  

 

 

 

Playing Devil's Advocate...an apologia for pacifism

 

 

Another way to look at the war is in a "Pascal's Wager" sort of way. Worst case, if we would've followed the Vatican's approach, we would not have fought the first Gulf War. Saddam would rake in the oil revenues of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and be able to buy nuclear weapons. He would own the Middle East. Millions are killed. (Again, this is the worst case scenerio).

 

 

We know the soul is infinitely more valuable than the body. And so Judgment Day comes and the accounting. Any fault imputed to you for your failure to act (i.e. to advocate war) would be mitigated by the following of the Holy Father's counsel. Whereas if you had taken the opposite approach and acted, you would be under even greater judgment for having spurned his counsel. For the Christian, there seems to be no cost, in strictly spiritual terms, of failing to go to war while there is a great cost if you are wrong. Were the early Christian martyrs wrong for leaving their children orphaned? I think not.

 

 

If one really and truly believes this life is merely a short stay at a bad motel and that heaven awaits, then one sees the soul as of infinite worth, the body little. All Christians were pacifists for the first couple hundred years. It might've been when they realized that the Second Coming was not going to be tomorrow exactly, that Christians became more "practical" in accomodating ourselves to the "real" world. Or perhaps it was a realization that every era is different, and that there is a time for war and a time for pacifism.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 6:07 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Byzantine Catholic prayers.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 5:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of Interesting Reads

Review of new book on the King James translation.

 

 

Adam Nicolson has a great deal of fun with the absurdities of subsequent translations, all of which is quite deserved; the 18th-century translator who replaced Peter’s ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here’ with ‘Oh, sir! What a delectable residence we might establish here!’, or the insanity of the New English Bible, improving the simple and beautiful ‘Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and yee shall finde’ into ‘Shoot the net to starboard, and you will make a catch.’ These bathetic and inadequate updatings are very funny, but it is important to understand why they are so hopeless. The King James Bible came to demonstrate and embody the principles of expressive English, and any deviation from it can never hope to rival its beauty and perfection.

***

NY Times review of book on early Christian thinkers, aka the Fathers.

***

WSJ opines on the Pope.

****

Eye-opening piece from Bernard Lewis.

[It was] often expressed by Osama bin Laden, among others, that America was a paper tiger. Muslim terrorists had been driven by such beliefs before. One of the most surprising revelations in the memoirs of those who held the American Embassy in Teheran from 1979 to 1981 was that their original intention had been to hold the building and the hostages for only a few days. They changed their minds when statements from Washington made it clear that there was no danger of serious action against them. They finally released the hostages, they explained, only because they feared that the new President, Ronald Reagan, might approach the problem "like a cowboy."

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:00 PM

 

April 5, 2003  

 

 

 

Muggeridge Conference

This looks very interesting. The difficulty will be enthusing my wife about it. Perhaps a gathering of St. Bloggers?

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:04 PM

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

      Opening Day, Cincinnati Style

 

 

      Pageantry tossed from the skies passed

      Down from Abner to present she holds

      the ancient lineage long the strands

      of confetti that reign down on this

      her feast and followers of the world's eldest

      know that Tradition is darned in our socks

      Inbred in our ground balls.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:13 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Reading Huizinga's Waning of the MIddle Ages and it's somewhat disabusing me of my benign view of that period. Especially given art like this.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:19 PM

 

April 4, 2003  

 

 

 

Sitemeter sez....

 

 

It seems gauche to monitor sitemeter, narcissistic even, but* it's hard to overlook the increase in traffic created from a recent link from Ad Orientem, not seen since a year ago link from the queen, Amy Welborn. (I can see the epitaph on my blogstone: Was once linked by Amy Welborn).

 

 

Seems Mark's a heavyweight contenda', based on the number of referrals. Dorothy Day can't be too happy about that. :) Sorry, couldn't resist. I must say there is something charismatic about certainty of opinion, be it wrong or right. Day's politics and economic sense are opaque to me, but I'm too awed by her holiness to object. It's sort of like an eccentric family member, you love them despite their eccentricities. (Disclaimer: I'm sure Mark loves Dorothy Day too but just objects to her politics & economics).

 

 

Part of the reason I so like Hilaire Belloc is that he was a prophet about so many things. He abhored communism and untrammelled capitalism, which seems to me gets it just about right (and he saw capitalism at its worse, when monopolies and oligarchies ruled).

 

 

* -see title of this blog

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

"Recovering a sense of the dignity of the human person is a prerequisite for Christianity. Recovering a sense of the natural is a prerequisite of the supernatural....Aristotle said that it was lunar and solar eclipses that most spurred wonder and led on to that quest for God called philosophy."

 

 

-excerpts from essay from Ralph McInerny in Crisis

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

A little life with dried tubers.

Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee

With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,

And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,

And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.

Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.

And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,

My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,

And I was frightened. He said, Marie,

Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.

In the mountains, there you feel free.

I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

 

 

--TS Eliot excerpt from The Waste Land

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:33 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Accepted Suffering

"One has to accept sorrow for it to be of any healing power, and that is the most difficult thing in the world...A priest once said to me, 'When you understand what accepted sorrow means, you will understand everything. It is the secret of life.'"

-- Maurice Baring, via Pearce's Old Thunder

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

No Blarney?

The following was obtained from an article in a scrapbook at the local historical society. It concerns my great-great grandfather who died in 1914 and who, after first emigrating, had no nearby church:

 

 

Rev. James P. Ward, who preached the funeral sermon, said: "Mr. Cogan was known to walk from Glynnwood to Piqua to be present at the divine Sacrifice of the Mass." It was his earnest zeal that prompted him to have a church close at hand, and he with others of the same sturdy faith united their efforts and established a pastorate at Glynnwood..

 

 

I checked a map and even as the crow flies the distance between Glynnwood and Piqua is thirty miles!

 

 

I went to the Ohio Historical Society a year or so ago and they have a village, like Greenfield Village in Michigan, that is a recreation of life a century ago. The church (of course) is a politically correct one. No cross adorns the chapel lest a non-believer in Christ be offended. (It's a bit difficult to suspend disbelief and think you are back in the 1850s when the chapel has a beautiful stained glass window - of the symbol for Ohio!). The "pastor", or the one who played one in this gig, related how services were often three hours long but that we should not suppose they to be more pious than us - no, this was simply their only social outlet and they milked it for all it was worth. I've noticed this increasingly tendency to believe that there are no real differences between eras or even people within an era - (i.e. George Bush is the same, more or less, as Saddam Hussein.) It is part of our culture of anti-haiography to tear saints down; even Mother Teresa had a dectractor in Christopher Hitchens.

 

 

But I ask...if you look around at the great variations in nature, the fact that there are imbeciles and geniuses, there are Tiger Woods' and T O'Rama's...shouldn't that suggest that there are degrees in holiness? Why should saintliness be exempt from the normal pattern of great variation within a species, and why should not cultures, as collections of peoples, not be similar?

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:45 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

A friend wants to move to Yuma, AZ, where it is said that over 300 days a year are sunny and where we would "not have to feel so uptight" about a day like today, with its accompanying vague sense of unease for not having extracted from it all its profligate goodness. A freakishly warm, sunny day in Central Ohio in early April induces a giddiness such that folks from down south might say, "act like you've experienced a sunny day before!".

 

 

Nancy Nall writes: It's spring, honest and truly. NN.C Central is now updating with an open window inches from my right elbow, a glass of Cote du Rhone a few inches closer, and a nice mushroom risotto digesting somewhere else on the triangulation plane. Plus, I rode my bike for nearly an hour after work. I'm SuperBlogger again, my euphoria tempered somewhat by the certain knowledge that my Australian equivalent is slipping into seasonal depression as we speak. To her I say, chin up, sheila! Life is one big wheel.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:06 PM

 

April 3, 2003  

 

 

 

Someone translated my blog into German here. Ye olde blog looks a heckuva lot smarter auf Deutsch. Maybe I'll throw in an occasional mißdeutet or enthält just for the spice.

 

 

German was the language of my youth, at least for three years in high school. Third-year German consisted mostly of kreidekriegs, or chalk-wars, because our teacher (sadly) could not maintain discipline and John, Eric and I were the Husseins of the classroom. I'll never forget John heaving a water balloon and watching it splatter against the chalk board, an affront both audacious and mendacious. The dear Fraulein soon fled the teaching profession. But perhaps I digress...

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:20 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Quote Thursday

Faith begins at a naive level, with a lot of self-interest mixed in. With time, our act of trust is purified as the barriers between us and God are dismantled. No matter how mixed our motives for approaching Jesus, once we place ourselves in his hands, we can be sure that whatever imperfections are there will be gradually leached out.

 

 

When St. John presents his series of 'signs', he is at pains to portray the hopelessness of the situation. The man by the pool at Bethesda had been infirm for 38 years - any prospect of a cure was out of the question. This should encourage us greatly. Even when we consider that our situation is so tangled that no resolution is possible, there is ground for hope. God alone knows how to 'write straight on crooked lines' to bring forth from chaos a world of order and beauty.

--Fr. Michael Casey, O.C.S.O. Return to the Heart

 

 

But he knows hardly anything yet wants to think that he knows all that there is to know. This seems to be a common defect in those who have been bred up on physical science. And I think the reason is that physical science tells one a lot of facts, but nothing else.. He can explain quite clearly something which he has been dogmatically taught - such as a third rate materialism of modern English physical science, but he can't explain the problem let alone the solution of the religious appetite in mankind.

--H. Belloc

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:16 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Scamming the Nigerian scammers...so I don't have to.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 5:15 PM

 

April 2, 2003  

 

 

 

          Sun o' matic*

 

 

      Two o'clock escapee

      released from the fluorescence

      Exultantly she holds the sky

      Singing hymns of jubilo!

      Palms abut the jutting cirrus'

      marvels, turns she to companions:

      "Resiliancy, thy name is Spring!"

 

 

* - written after witnessing a young woman spontaneously break into joy at the sight of the sun upon leaving her place of work.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:09 PM

 

 

 

 

 

David Mills on Islam

Pelagianism is said to be the English heresy (Pelagius was British) and the English dislike theology, or at least metaphysics, and so Islam in its modern form might well appeal to them. It's all very practical and directive, makes your salvation a matter of works it spells out for you, works you can do and know you have done them (none of this Christian concern about whether you've hated your brother in your heart, as long as you've done your duty to him), and doesn't worry about your heart at all, and not much about your mind. It's very English, in some ways.

 

 

And I think that in Western European societies, in which Christianity seems so played out and what is "Christian" not much different from what is "secular" (in having high divorce rates, for example), Islam can offer the same blessings or benefits (a vision of stable marriage, for example) as Christianity but seem like a fresh thing and a new deal. And as an identifiable and only partly enculturated community, it will seem to be more successful than Christianity at those things (in having low divorce rates, for example). I have heard people speak in a hazy, wistful way of the wonderful life of Muslim families, when they themselves wouldn't tolerate the life for a second.

 

 

Above all, the Islamic life seems to offer order and the resulting benefits of tranquility, stability, and secure status in societies in which most people live disordered lives, who are therefore untranquil, unstable, and insecure. I am told this is the great appeal of the Black Muslims in prisons and slums. Prince Charles may love the ghastly Parker-Bowles, but given the life he has lived so far he must wish at some level for order. His writings on architecture and liturgy suggest this. At least he must wish (I hope he does, for his soul's sake) for a life without adultery.

 

 

My friend also noted that... "In Amsterdam last year, the No. 1 male name for babies was Mohammed."

 

 

This is what happens when societies stop having children, which is to say, when they give up on life.

—David Mills

 

 

George Will has said that "what the government subsidizes, you'll have more of". A corollary might be: What a society values you'll have more of. I've been told that back in the 1940s priests were extremely well-respected. Perhaps too much - they drove the best cars, ate the best food. They were portrayed favorably in Hollywood (ala "Going My Way"). And this "value" placed on priests meant there would be more of them. And there were. But now many not even don't respect priests but look at them as if there were something wrong with them. Result: less priests.

 

 

Similarly with children. I heard a talk show host recently say the cut-off is three children. When he had his fourth he became almost a pariah - people looked at him like he was wierd and gave him disapproving looks. How sad! Those folks should be our heroes, those who buck societal trends and have the strong faith that accompanies it. May we value children so that we have more of them. As I tell my Protestant friend (who has four children) - "you're more Catholic than I!"

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Missing the Mark

I began reading Tom of Disputation's post and was ready to object but he anticipated me. He wrote that "everything has a catch".

 

Tom refers to the convicting passage in 1 John 3: "No one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him." St. Paul, with a stunning matter-of-factness, writes in Romans 6 that we are dead to sin, definitionally: For sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace.

 

 

I recall listening to a Baptist minister on the radio who asked a large crowd to raise their hands if they've gone the last month without sinning. No one raised their hand. Then he asked, "the last week?". Maybe two people raised their hand. "The last day?". Again, hardly anyone. He preached against this notion of sin, this notion that it is impossible to even go through a single day without sinning. This notion that Christ didn't sin because He was God, and we really can't follow his model. The minister said that he sometimes goes a month or so w/out sinning, a clarity that I found worthy of envy. Especially when sinning in one's thoughts is often a very difficult judgment call.

 

 

Sin can be hard to grasp for me, especially the aforementioned but also the "sins of omission" category. How much charity is enough? In strictly monetary terms, the OT had an answer: 10%. Given the limitlessness of the NT, that answer must now be made according to one's conscience. And, if you are a rich American (which is pretty much redundant), then one's conscience may be afflicted. But if God afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted, then how is anyone comfortable? Ultimately I recognize the impossibility of my salvation, while nurturing hope since with God all things are possible.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:39 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Belloc on the Islamic Threat

...excerpts written in 1938

Islam has survived, and vigorously survived. Missionary effort has had no appreciable effect upon it. It still converts pagain savages wholesale. It even attracts from time to time some European eccentric, who joins its body. But the Mohammedan never becomes Christian. No fragment of Islam ever abandons its sacred book, its code of morals, its organized system of prayer...

 

 

In view of this, anyone with a knowledge of history is bound to ask himself whether we shall not see in the future a revival of Mohammedan political power, and the renewal of the old pressure of Islam upon Christendom....

 

 

These things being so ([the military impotence of Islam]), the recrudescence of Islam, the possibility of that terror under which we lived for centuries reappearing, and of our civilization again fighting for its life against what was its chief enemy for a thousand years, seems fantastic. Who in the Mohammedan world today can manufacture and maintain the complicated instruments of modern war?

 

 

Cultures spring from religions; ultimately the vital force which maintains any culture is its philosophy, its attitude towards the universe; the decay of a religion involves the decay of the culture corresponding to it - we see that most clearly in the breakdown of Christendom today.

 

 

That culture [Islamic] happens to have fallen back in material applications; there is no reason whatever why it should not learn its new lesson and become our equal in temporal things which now alone give us our superiority over it - whereas in Faith we have fallen inferior to it.

 

 

-- Hilaire Belloc, 1938, The Great Heresies

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 6:45 AM

 

 

 

 

 

It's Islam, Stupid

The old saw goes, "the rich are different from us - they have more money". Well unlike the rich, Muslims really are different from us.

 

 

This article, via Disordered Affections, underscores the root issue that I've been starting to gain a clue on - what if they don't want freedom, democracy, etc?

 

 

Muslim countries mostly fall into two groups: those whose populations hate the U.S. & freedom (freedom meaning the opposite of a theocracy) and those whose leaders hate the U.S. & freedom. This "damned if you do, damned if you don't scenerio" means we'll undoubtedly be left with either a puppet regime that the people will loathe and eventually overthrow (ala Iran) or an evil regime which is what we're trying to get rid of. We could hope for a less evil regime; Iran's leaders look like saints compared to Saddam & his thugs. On the bright side, anyone is better than Saddam and less likely to acquire & use WMDs. But messy business all around.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:04 PM

 

April 1, 2003  

 

 

 

 

Ex-Pres filling in for current Pres

 

 

Back from a day at the ol' ball orchard. The 10-1 loss was not pleasant, although I go to baseball games for aesthetics, like a ballet dance. No one goes to the ballet for the plot do they?

 

 

Actually, I go for the same reasons Mike McConnell (WLW radio talk show host) goes:

1) Sun

2) Beer

3) the Game

 

 

I usually keep score, mostly because I like being able to report what Larkin did earlier in the game and as an excuse to draw diamonds. Paul Dickson writes, "The world is divided into two kinds of baseball fans: those who keep score at the ballgame... and those who have never made the leap." Something tells me Paul has too much time on his hands.

 

 

Yesterday's game was a nice relief from war news anyway.

 

 

Stadium Beefs

Okay the park is a baseball park, real grass, etc. But what bothers me are two things:

1) Size of seats. I'm 5'11'', 210 (but reportedly look 170) and my father is bigger. We are collectively way too big for these seats.

2) Advertising uber alles. It spoils the rural ambiance of the game to see every unmarked space urging me to "run like a Deere" or "buy Pepsi". There was an olde-fashioned clock that was a copy of the one at old Crosley Field (1914-1970, RIP), only this one had the name "Subway" on it. Give me a break.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

This Just In...

 

 

Tom needs a shave.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:11 PM

 

March 30, 2003  

 

 

 

Percy Quote...from the verweile doch

He reminded the engineer of the graduates of Horace Mann, their faces quick and puddingish and acned, whose gift was the smart boy's knack of catching on, of hearkening: yes, I see. If Jamie could live, it was easy to imagine him for the next forty years engrossed and therefore dispensed and so at the end of the forty years still quick and puddingish and childlike. They were the lucky ones.

-- Walker Percy, The Last Gentleman

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 6:48 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Well it’s spring and it must be time again for the annual shortenin' of the skirts. The magazine rack at Walden’s alone was enough to induce double-take. For someone who occasionally has eye custodial issues, it’s always something of a surprise. If blame can be assigned, I choose to blame part of it on increased sensitivity due to increased religious observance and fasting (the latter minimal but effective). These tend to make one more alive, more aware of sensations rather than jaded and sluggish. Okay, you're not buying that. Maybe it's simply the anachronistic fruits of an unchaste past.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 6:39 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Racing to Extremes

 

 

It seems as though polarization occurs in part because of our inability to detail with ambiguity. When faced with ambiguity, such as this war, there is a time of sorting out, of shifting, and if you lean to one side and are attacked for it (even called 'immoral') then you tend to not only continue to lean to that side but to race to the fringe of that side - to embrace it as a moral good though before you merely saw it as a necessary evil. I've felt this tendency in myself by moving from the idea of self-defense to Iraqi liberation & back again (revolutions must be internal, at least in the beginning).

 

 

I'm making no moral equivalency, but remember the issue w/r/to the Southern states? By the 1830s, the morality of slavery was ambiguous at best. The Virginia legislature met to decide if slavery should be abolished in that state, and the vote was close. But that ambiguity did not last; abolitionists demonized Southerns and by the 1850s slavery was no longer seen as ambiguous morally, but as an actual moral good as described by John Calhoun & others.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Comments from the NY Times

 

 

Kagan serves up an especially provocative image when he compares the United States and Europe to two men confronting a dangerous bear, one armed only with a knife and the other with a rifle. It is psychologically inevitable, he declares, that the one with the knife will choose to lie low, while the one with the gun will find greater security in trying to shoot the bear. ''This perfectly normal human psychology has driven a wedge between the United States and Europe,'' he asserts.

 

 

-Serge Schmenmann on Robert Kagan's "Of Paradise & Power"

 

 

''In the end,'' he writes, ''peoples cannot take responsibility for each other; but they serve each other when they take responsibility for themselves.'' Given the dangers we now face from international terrorism and nuclear proliferation, Purdy's stress on tending our own garden seems at least a little beside the point, and some of his readers may see in this a faint family resemblance to the ''blame America first'' mentality identified years ago by Jeane Kirkpatrick. But a closer relative is the strain of American Protestantism that in the face of external threats emphasizes personal purity and redemption from sin. When the towers fell, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson looked inward for the cause. Purdy's impulse takes the same form; it's the content that differs. Where Falwell and Robertson worry about school prayer and sex, Purdy worries about poverty and trees.

 

 

--Barry Gewen, on Jedeiah Purdy's book "BEING AMERICA: Liberty, Commerce, and Violence in an American World"

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:09 AM

 

 

 

 

 

The Wee Lass on the Brae

As I was a-walkin' one fine summer's day

Oh, the fields they were in blossom and the meadows were gay

I met a wee lassie trippin' over the green

I took her for Helen, the Grecian queen

The Grecian queen, the Grecian queen

I took her for Helen, the Grecian queen

 

 

        

Oh, me parents dote on me, and it's all for their sake

And its ofttimes it causes my poor heart to break

But the more I think on them, the more I'm inclined to say

There's no one will be mine but the wee lass on the brae

The wee lass on the brae, the wee lass on the brae

There's no one will be mine but the wee lass on the brae

 

 

--Irish folk song

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:03 AM

 

March 29, 2003  

 

 

 

  

 

 

Perpetua’s Felicity

The day of the martyr’s victory dawned

Marched from cell to theater

With cheerful look and graceful bearing

'To heav'n the deathblow sent

In silence received.

 

 

Taken from the Second Reading from the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours for March 7, the Commemoration of Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs, via Bill White

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:33 PM

 

March 28, 2003  

 

 

 

Books

I’m greedy for the newly printed books that lay thick on my nightstand. They sit plump and erudite – Paul Elie’s “The Life You Save”, a biography of Walker Percy, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton & Flannery O’Connor, and TC Boyle’s “Drop City”. The riches of the reading table do runneth over. I hesitate to start them, wanting to just revel in this era of good feeling. I also have a new found library book: Lorenzo Albacete’s “God at the Ritz”. I’m tanned, rested and ready for the long Sunday read.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:49 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Mainlinin’ Beauty

Been draggin’ my tired flesh to the Friday night Pre-Sanctified Gifts (aka Vespers) at St. John’s Byzantine Catholic Church during Lent, yet always come away with a renewed peace and sense of making a real connection with Christ as my Liberator. It is an ineffable sweetness to worship with our 76-year old warrior-priest, a liturgical “maximalist” who hasn’t lost his enthusiasm in lo these many years. In a world of cutting corners, he is a throwback. We recently had a visit from the bishop who attested to the latter.

 

 

The good Father carries on for nearly 2-hour Sunday divine liturgies, heroic Eastern Christian Lenten fasts, weekday liturgies that oft have 3 participants, and a hundred other things like the hassle of driving to homes for the annual blessing. The church itself is astonishingly beautiful; the Theotokos cradles her first born to her cheek and I tell myself I have the same privilege by adoption.

 

 

 

(The Virgin at St. John's is similar to this, although there is a less possessive and wary look on Mary's face.)

 

 

The encircling dome contains icons of the twelve apostles looking down with a certain expectancy. There is a glorious mosaic of Christ holding the letters Alpha and Omega, letters that communicate both reproach and goal.

 

 

The tranquility fostered at St. John’s is such that I wonder if I could do without it, which almost makes me wonder if I should.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:03 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Dylan ist back! I didn't know there was an option to call him but apparently a couple St. Blogger's did. I do admit an increasing curiousity about what my fellow blogland toilers look and sound like. But not enough to drive the 2 hours to Toledo on a work night to meet & greet Amy Welborn and her husband and some of the other Catlicker authors. I did read about Tom & Kathy's meeting with great interest, as well as little tidbits like Steven Riddle's voice is not as deep as the Kairos guy expected it.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:01 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Overheard

"A mother's womb used to be the safest place in the world for a child; now it's the least."

-Fr. Apostoli on EWTN

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:14 AM

 

March 27, 2003  

 

 

 

Whew! But How Do You Really Feel?

 

 

Mark Shea writes passionately and very persuasively in a comment on Amy's blog:

 

 

I *hope* that a post-Saddam Iraq will be a better place (though judging from Afghanistan's progress that's not a guarantee by any stretch). My point is simply that the rhetoric employed by some pro-war Catholics is grotesque in its implication that the Pope is a wicked fool, that the Catholic Church is "morally bankrupt" because of Catholic opposition to the war and that America's extremely sudden compassion for Iraqi suffering makes America morally superior to our "clueless" (as Mark Sullivan calls him) Pope. I would have more ease following Mark Sullivan's script of America's Messianic Moral Role in the world if Salam Pax and lots of other Iraqis did. As it is, I think the bishop of Baghdad is cutting a much more noble figure than these suburban Pope bashers who seem so certain God is on Their Side. It may be that the Catholic Church in Iraq which has bled along with the Iraqis for two decades has just a slightly higher claim on moral superiority than some embittered sports writer in California who is medicating his rage at the Pope in a comments box, a guy who claims to be a "Real Christian" and a gaggle of people with keyboards who are ready to call the Pope an idiot on hair-trigger notice when he fails to endorse their jingoism.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:05 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Just Another Day in Paradise

 

 

My wife called me at work and asked:

 

 

"I'm ordering from Amazon. I need $1 more for free shipping - is there anything you want?"

 

 

I felt like my book manhood was being challenged.

 

 

"Uh...yeah...just a sec," though I knew I'd ordered from amazon less than a week ago and the book cart was empty. I looked through the old "Save For Later's", a motley crew of passed overs and close-but-unworthies.

 

 

"Well I don't see anything. I could order Scott Hahn's RSV commentary on St. John, but I'm not happy with the idea of buying these books separately at $9.95 a pop instead of waiting until they come out with a single volume, even though it'll be 2020."

 

 

"But don't you already have Matt, Mark & Luke?"

 

 

"Yeah I should have the full gospels shouldn't I?" (Talking me into buying a book is like talking Michael Moore into railing against white American males).

 

 

When I got home I told her that the next time she looks askance at one of my book purchases I'm going to tell her that I'm a "branch librarian for the Body of Christ"*. She laughed and said, "you know I don't give you any trouble about your books!", which is quite true. At least until the upstairs book room collapses into the living room.

 

 

No, we disagree about who does the dishes more. We both think we do it about 65% of the time, meaning that those dishes are 130% clean. Clean dishes, clean. As a Lenten "mortification", which insults the root from which that word was taken, I decided to do the dishes all the time without telling her. It's half-way through Lent and she hasn't noticed, strongly suggesting my 65% number might've been a bit low. :)

 

 

* - title borrowed from Tom of Disputations

 

 

Breaking News: Came downstairs this a.m. and the dishes were done.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:00 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Something I'd wondered is why the temple of Jerusalem was never rebuilt. This month's Magnificat mentions one attempt:

 

 

Emperor Julian 'the Apostate', who embraced paganism and felt he was destined to restore the old gods of Greco-Roman civilization, attempted to defy Christians by rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem in 365 AD. St. Cyril is said to have prophesied that nothing would come of it. And it would seem that heaven itself backed him up. Just as work began, a series of earthquakes occurred. As workers cleared the site, gasses trapped in the subterranean passages below the ruins of the old Temple ignited. It caused balls of fire to emerge from crevices in the earth, scorching and killing some of the laborers. The plans were finally abandoned when the emperor himself died shortly afterward.

 

 

--Michael Morris, O.P.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:56 PM

 

March 26, 2003  

 

 

 

Post from David Mills

 

 

Once you realize what an abortion really is, it is hard not to see it as Molochian. And the society in which it flourishes as it does in our society as equally Molochian.

 

 

I suppose this explains why, at the end of the day, Christians like me feel so ambiguous about our country. I despise the leftists and rightists who talk in hysterical terms about America as if it were actively malign and who seem to live fundamentally alienated from the nation, while enjoying all its benefits, such as the freedom to live in such alienation and encourage it in others.

 

 

They are at best simple-minded and ungrateful, and at worst blinded by their alienation and what seems in many cases to be hatred. I speak, I must admit, from experience, having felt this in my youth, but having eventually realized how childish and self-indulgent and, to the extent I cultivated the feelings of hatred (which one much enjoys), wicked.

 

 

But on the other hand, I cannot look at the number of abortions in this country and its legal protection, and feel unalienated myself. Patriotism is a good thing, and indeed as Chesterton argues elsewhere a godly thing, but not an easy thing for the Christian who loves his country not only because she is his country but for what she is and aspires to be, but must judge her by a higher standard and knows how badly she fails. And knows, in fact, how much she repudiates that standard.

 

 

What keeps me from feeling the alienation that others do is the knowledge that the religion of Moloch may be at least partly defeated, even after thirty years of legal establishment. No country can be considered lost to Moloch that has such a large pro-life movement, and that finds his religion defeated even in Congress and perhaps, someday, in the Supreme Court. I would not bet on it, but it may happen.

 

 

Concerning the Jesuit magazine America (May 15, 1999), an article on Peacemaking and "The Use of Force: Behind the Pope's Stringent Just-War Teaching"

 

 

A Catholic must wrestle with the teaching, and any other Christian should, but I think it suffers from a degree of abstraction, particularly in the repeated assertion that force solves nothing. This practical judgment turns a subtle understanding of war and just war thinking too far toward effective pacifism.

-- Read the whole thing here

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:52 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Chesterton snippet...from Ad Orientem

"G. K. Chesterton, who deserves to be sainted, was a vigorous enemy of pacifism, the American Chesterton Society notes.

 

 

What he did believe in was the right, or the duty rather, of self-defense and the defense of others.

 

 

Chesterton was also a vigorous enemy of militarism. Both ideas, he argued, were really a single idea – that the strong must not be resisted. The militarist, he said, uses this idea aggressively as a conqueror, as a bully. The pacifist uses the idea passively by acquiescing to the conqueror and permitting himself and others around him to be bullied…

 

 

"The horror of war," Chesterton wrote, "is the sentiment of a Christian and even of a saint." But in refusing to strike any blow, pacifists announce their readiness to surrender the higher ideals of "liberty, self-government, justice, and religion."

 

 

More Chesterton

In chapter 6 of "The Everlasting Man" he mentions the "queer habit among the English of always siding against the Europeans, and representing the rival civilisation, in Swinburne's phrase, as sinless; when its sins were obviously crying or rather screaming to heaven."

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:22 AM

 

 

 

 

 

But Occcifer...

He is calmly driving down the sidewalk at a reasonable speed while drinking an intoxicating beverage. Suddenly a police cruiser drives up along side on the road. He begins to panic, knowing he's had too much to drink and that he is now being watched. He begins to move more erratically across the sidewalk. The cop pulls him over while he attempts to hide "the evidence".

 

 

"Do you know why I pulled you over?"

 

 

"Because I was weaving?" (wondering if he could see the intoxicating beverage).

 

 

"You were driving on the sidewalk!"

 

 

He is shocked, wondering why this should be an injustice.

 

 

This analogy suggests that we will not be held accountable for our misjudgments as such - but for the wilful blindness which leads to our misjudgments. If I quit the intoxicating beverage of selfishness and pride, my judgment and vision will be restored. Instead of focusing on hiding beverages or worrying about weaving, I should aim at abstaining from the aforementioned liquors.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 6:43 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Miscellaneous Musing

Enjoyed the "dueling banjos" over at Tom & Steven's blogs concerning love versus and knowledge of God. I'm reminded of a conversation I once had with Al*. He thought religion was for old people who needed something to relieve the terror of impending death. I was taken aback, asking him "but doesn't it matter if it is true?"

 

 

But God has a way of wooing (I adore the "Hound of Heaven" imagery). He met a girl, fell in love, and she's a devout Christian. Her love and peacefulness brought something to the table that interested him even in his relative youth. He was attracted by love, others by truth. Viva l' difference.

 

 

* - fictitious name

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:07 PM

 

March 25, 2003  

 

 

 

William F. Buckley Quote

"But then we have always known, have we not?, that the day has never been when the sum total of man's available resources was insufficient to cope with skepticism, one of those resources, in the earliest days of our faith, having been an obligingly ubiquitous God. In respect of apologetics we are better off in the twentieth century than we were in the first. St. Peter would have had a more difficult time engaging a sophist than, say, John Courtney Murray would have today, replying to Bishop Pike. Even so, notwithstanding our intellectual resources, notwithstanding our moral and spiritual resources, we [Catholics] are on the defensive. And it is the excruciating irony that the more highly educated we are, the more keenly we tend to feel the pangs of exclusion from the dominant intellectual hustle and bustle of the age. Our faith is more severely buffeted, now that we move easily in the world of knowledge, than it was when we were illiterate.

 

 

One obvious cause is the interminable war between the self-justifying flesh and the forlorn spirit, a war in which all baptized human beings are eternally conscript as double agents. Another cause is the lure of rationalism: If we can perfectly understand how to split the atom, why can't we know how to fuse the Trinity?

 

 

Surely another cause is the friction between fundamentalist and transcendent understandings of scripture....The appeal of literalism has done much to shake the faith of the literate."

--William F. Buckley, "Let Us Talk Of Many Things"

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 5:38 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Take me from war arguments...but not yet

Hall-of-famer Satchel Paige once said words to the effect of "avoid fried foods, which angry up the blood". I'm finding I have to avoid war commentary sites to avoid "angryin' up my blood". (My heart and mind tell me to be for the war, my pope something else; the disconnect is unpleasant). The old Soviet Union had almost no terrorist acts perpetrated against them because they reacted ruthlessly the few times it did occur. The terrorists understood - you don't mess with the USSR. Since we are much more sensitive to questions of right and wrong, we cannot, nor should, be as ruthless. Which means that we will necessarily be taken advantage of by terrorists at a higher rate. So it becomes - what is an acceptable rate of terrorism? What is proportional? Very difficult question. It's like mosquitos biting at an elephant - the elephant can let a certain percentage gnaw at him but given some point the loss of blood will cause him to begin taking measures that appear unreasonable because he causes collateral damage to the surrounding forest.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:37 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Deal Hudson's Conversion Story...

...is in this week's "This Rock". His confirmation name became "Thomas". He explains:

"In the spring of the year I felt the need to start studying something entirely different. I perused my bookshelves for a title as yet unread and came across a paperback book containing the first question of the Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas. I took it out in the backyard along with a chair and sat under a tree and began reading....

 

 

I came to the article posing the question whether everything that exists is good. This question particularly intrigued me, in part because it bears upon the personal matter of my own moral status before God. To put it simply, if a person is sinful and evil is he in some way still good? As I read Aquinas's reply to the effect that everything that exists is good because God who is supremely good created it, I stopped reading and looked up. At that moment a redbird sitting in a birdfeeder above my head began to sing, and the words 'everything that exists is good' seemed to unite themselves with the bird's song. The song seemed to represent both the fact of God's creative act and its import, namely that nothing can be so damaged that its goodness can be completely removed from it."

--Deal Hudson

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:47 PM

 

 

 

 

 

History & the Body

Could it be that the Church, as the Body of Christ, is re-creating Christ's life on earth? That just as in the beginning He could not find a home, having to settle for a manger, so too did the early Church struggle against persecution to find a home? And did not the killing of the Holy Innocents mirror the killing of the early saints, the virgins and martyrs? Is this the "Good Friday" of history, the time during which our society, our world cries out, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani..."?

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:56 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Tortuous Indeed

 

 

More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it? I, the Lord, alone probe the mind and test the heart. - Jeremiah 17:7-10

 

 

I've often thought that God effecting a single conversion is more impressive than His curing of an illness. An illness is purely material and is subject completely to Him, while in a conversion God moves around the obstacle of our free will.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:54 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Tuesday*

Half-moon shines sybilesque

against the pallorous night

Steals through a screen door at the foot of the bed

Into the night it beckons.

Birds sound in their idylls

beating the breath-beat of childhood,

Time stands at the window, past, passed by,

“Grow or die” built-in,

Natural as grace.

 

 

***

 

 

The screen door slams

Mary's dress waves

Like a vision she dances across the porch

As the radio plays...

 

 

-- Bruce Springsteen "Thunder Road" - one of the most evocative and moving of all Springsteen's songs.

 

 

* - There is no "Poetry Tuesday", there is simply "Poetry ---------", where --------- is the day of the week I happen to post some poetry. Just so you'll know. :)

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:47 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Moore

How bad do you have to be, to be a lefttist and get booed in Hollywood? I didn't think such a thing possible in the present universe. It's sort of like Kruschev being booed at the Politburo.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 5:28 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Read

Must read in today's NY Times - on the roots of Al Qaeda philosphy.

 

 

Interesting perspective. The article sort of implies that the Muslim heresy would not "have been necessary" if early Christianity had not dumped Jewish ritual, and that the current Muslim rage would've been lessened if the split in the Western mind between science and religion were not so profound, one that was arguably accelerated and deepened by the Reformation.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:24 PM

 

March 23, 2003  

 

 

 

Pray for our soliders

"We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would do us harm."

--George Orwell

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:58 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Flashback

How enjoyable to think back at the long night of the 15th! A good St. Patrick’s Day celebration is an art and requires a bit of luck o' the Irish. It was a stroke of genius on my friend Bone's part to gravitate to the spot we did at AOH. We stood and could survey the band and the dancers and the crowd and we felt a part of it, standing more than half-way up, not loitering in back nor imprisoned in a seat. Location, location, location - so they cry that in the real-estate market and so it is at AOH where the fiddler player holds court. Oh Tireless Youth!

 

 

AOH has about it a flavor that is unrecreatable even compared to the Irish Festival in August. I can’t quite put my finger on it, though it has to do with Bone being there and the more intimate atmosphere that AOH inevitably supplies compared to the sterility of Dublin and its Coors sell-out. In the friendly confines of AOH we felt the longing of outsiders wishing to be insiders while getting “lost in the loop” of the repetitive Irish jigs and reels. The restroom was but a stone’s throw away and an agreeable segue between songs.

 

 

In my mind's eye I fade to old St. Patrick's at Tara Hall. We're all sitting awkwardly around a large round table eating fried fish in the Aquinas room - Victoria is there, with a child. We sit like knights of the round table with the unlikely accompaniment of women and children. Cal, I think, is there too, and Kindle. We wonder if the wives will leave or if they would follow us to the bar. They don't. We sit in the large heavy oaken barstools and caress a Guinness in front of a barkeep wearing a plastic green bowler hat. He furnishes stout for us at his convenience. A small window reveals Naghten street and in the middle distance the lit-up instrument of our collective torture appears - our workplace. Bu it looks impotent, impotent before our drinking. Not after a Jameson & Guinness! And not on the precious weekend. The sterile place loomed in the distance like a bully without recourse.

 

 

I recall the first time we saw the Irish dancers; there was the shock of the impromptu – thru the haze of my Guinness’d eyes there suddenly appeared waves of the most colorfully dressed girls all kicking at tempos I couldn’t keep up with. As I recall it, we were sitting in the front, on the floor, at old Tara Hall and legs kicked only a few feet from our disbelieving eyes. And here it is all these years later and the girls are as young as they were then and kicked just as high and my slo-ginned eye still couldn’t keep up…

 

 

Waves of Ireland’s finest

High-stepping weavers of the past

Black-hosed maidens of rural dowries

Garish in your Celtic shields

Holy in your innocence.

 

 

The potent opening shot of Jamieson was like Concord’s “shot heard round the world”! We’d walked up to the bar, Bone saying, “you get the Guinness and I’ll get the shots?” and we were suddenly holding the fruits of our labor. My ancestors spent a week's wages for such as these.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:26 AM

 

March 22, 2003  

 

 

 

Losing Alternatives

The sad thing is that I think war is more likely in the future because we've lost one of the ways to prevent it - economic sanctions. Sanctions are heartless and immoral because most dictators simply don't care if people starve. There was a good article in the Wash. Post arguing that sanctions are simply war by another name, one that instead of affecting soldiers and dictators, kills children.

 

 

I think the answer, sadly, lies in the book of Genesis. Original sin. Just as thru one man, Adam, death can come into the world so too does this get replayed constantly. Thru the absolute intransigence and hatred of one man (Hitler or Saddam as examples), death rains down. An evil man has great power, unfortunately, and I don't know how we'll ever get around that in this world.

 

 

As far as this war, we see the great evil of the last 12 years - evil WE perpetrated in the form of sanctions and two wars. What we DON'T see is the millions of deaths we prevented in the form Saddam having Kuwaiti oil and WPM's and taking over Saudi Arabia and all the Middle East and having untold wealth, land and WPM. There's no reason he couldn't have been an Alexander the Great. We see the cost, but not the opportunity cost.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:19 AM

 

 

 

 

 

I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.

-Mother Teresa

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 6:11 PM

 

March 21, 2003  

 

 

 

Ratzinger Quote

"Heroic virtue does not mean that the saint performs a type of "gymnastics" of holiness, something that normal people do not dare to do. It means rather that in the life of a person God's presence is revealed -- something man could not do by himself and through himself. Perhaps in the final analysis we are rather dealing with a question of terminology, because the adjective "heroic" has been badly interpreted. Heroic virtue properly speaking does not mean that one has done great things by oneself, but rather that in one's life there appear realities which the person has not done himself, because he has been transparent and ready for the work of God. Or, in other words, to be a saint is nothing other than to speak with God as a friend speaks with a friend. This is holiness.

 

 

To be holy does not mean being superior to others; the saint can be very weak, with many mistakes in his life. Holiness is this profound contact with God, becoming a friend of God: it is letting the Other work, the Only One who can really make the world both good and happy."

-- From Letting God work, by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

O blest unfabled Incense Tree

That burns in glorious Araby,

With red scent chalicing the air,

Till earth-life grow Elysian there!

--George Darley

 

 

I sat by Ballyshannon in the summer,

And saw the salmon leap;

And I said, as I beheld the gallant creatures

Spring glittering from the deep,

Thro' the spray, and throu' the prone heaps striving onward

To the clam clear streams above,

'So seekest thou thy native founts of freedom, Thomas Davis,

In thy brightness of strength and love!"

-Samuel Ferguson

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:18 AM

 

 

 

 

 

"Respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or act differently than we do in social, political and even religious matters. In fact, the more deeply we come to understand their ways of thinking through such courtesy and love, the more easily will we be able to enter into dialogue with them.

 

 

This love and good will, to be sure, must in no way render us indifferent to truth and goodness. Indeed love itself impels the disciples of Christ to speak the saving truth to all men. But it is necessary to distinguish between error, which always merits repudiation, and the person in error, who never loses the dignity of being a person even when he is flawed by false or inadequate religious notions. God alone is the judge and searcher of hearts; for that reason He forbids us to make judgments about the internal guilt of anyone.

 

 

Since all men possess a rational soul and are created in God's likeness, since they have the same nature and origin, have been redeemed by Christ and enjoy the same divine calling and destiny, the basic equality of all must receive increasingly greater recognition."

-from The Documents of Vatican II

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 5:09 PM

 

March 20, 2003  

 

 

 

Today's gospel (Luke 16:19-31) should give anyone with universalist tendencies pause. I remember as a child reading some of these harder-edged parables and much prefering the "after the Resurrection" Jesus, who seemed mellower and said "Peace" and "Do not be afraid" a lot.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 2:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Hmm....

I can't expect the Iraqis to welcome war even if it be in their own best interest. No one should expect another to be a martyr, which is basically what an Iraqi civilian is in the position of being (i.e. risking their life for a better future). If the U.S. is a physician, wishing to heal the body of their country via the purging of their cancer (Saddam), we still need the permission of the patient. This war truly must be about U.S. self-defense, not humanitarian reasons.

 

 

It is a shame that through one sinful man (a Hitler, Saddam, or Stalin) so many people must die. It is, in a sense, a re-enactment of Adam's sin. Since so much of what we experience has an equal and opposite counterpart, it should come as no surprise that life is given via one man, Jesus.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:42 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Uncanny, I Tell Ya

Amy's latest read is TC Boyle's "Drop City", one that I've been dying to read. It really is uncanny how similar my taste in books is to hers - her love of David Lodge for example. Plus her recent interest in Pope John XXIII is appropriate given the seeming abrupt turn toward pacifism the Church has made during his pontificate. Her recent read by Ruth Harris entitled "Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age" is yet another book I've always wanted to read.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:52 AM

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

via Jeff Miller

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:34 AM

 

 

 

 

 

There's a kind of hush....

Steven Riddle writes about the phenomenon of St. Blog's as ghost town. I think he is correct that numbers are way down during Lent and I certainly don't think that's a bad thing. In fact I think it's healthy, and I probably should do the same ('I see the good, I approve it, and I do the opposite' - although hopefully this tendency is being thwarted, especially during Lent). I emailed Amy when she decided to go into semi-retirement and said that in the long run she would never regret not posting something, while she would very much regret not writing that book she always wanted to write.

 

 

I have mixed emotions about it to be honest. Should you be reading this blog - or any of our blogs - when such manifest beauty exists in the pages of a Walker Percy novel or, spritually-speaking, in the words of Aquinas or Augustine? I realize it is not an either/or, but I can understand the need to make more space for the best. Blogging is also addictive, and addictions tends to offer less than they require. On the other hand, I think we risk becoming killjoys if we don't indulge in silliness now and then. Killjoys don't make the best witnesses for the faith, imho.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

The Noive..or the sweetness of a warm March weekend

He appeared with the wings of Nike on a weekend no less. Sun and mid-70s, with the insouciance of a swaggering drunk. The breath of summer encamped, all hosanna’s and “glad to see ya’s” as if he'd not gone AWOL and left us to the ravages of a winter Verdun. Yea, I say, you drank with Falstaff in foreign climes and now return and expect our embrace?

 

 

Yes and yes.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:16 PM

 

March 19, 2003  

 

 

 

Understanding Styles

The Europeans adored Bill Clinton. They abhore George Bush. Bush is the anti-Clinton in almost every measure, including diplomacy. Bill Clinton is a people-pleaser; he just wants to be loved. It's as if he doesn't feel God's love as powerfully as some and wants that human equivalent. As Shakespeare wrote:

 

 

My love is as a fever, longing still / For that which longer nurseth the disease, /Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, /The uncertain sickly appetite to please.

 

 

Right and wrong can be negotiated; he cares (deeply) what others think of him. In that way the Europeans had some power over him - power they lack over Bush and it is infuriating since power lost is power desperately sought. Interestingly, St. Thomas once said something along the lines that those who care what others think about them are still far from the Kingdom spiritually-speaking. When Clinton wanted to help in Bosnia, the U.N. was not enthused and so he waited two years (while thousands died) and went the NATO route and gained that fig leaf. He did not want to urinate the U.N. off, or show up the leaders of Europe, and they liked him for it.

 

 

George W. Bush, more devout and purposeful, is less a people-pleaser and more focused simply on what he feels is right. Compromise on moral issues, therefore, is more difficult and he is less able to "fudge" just for someone's approval. He feels God's love fully and firmly and knows that millions are praying for him and he feeds off that knowledge, rather than the knowledge that he is approved of by the world community. By allowing God to be the main spring of his approval, he naturally lessens the power of foreign leaders. He is more likely to do the right thing and be unpopular for it (at least for a politician - a big caveat) than Clinton was. Bush is capable of compromise on lesser issues - like the education bill. But on war and peace he is firm as rock.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 5:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Critique of the Just War theory as it is being applied today.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

But how do you really feel, Hilaire?

 

 

The industrial civilization, which, thank God, oppresses only the small part of the world in which we are most inextricably bound up, will break down and therefore end from its monstrous wickedness, folly, ineptitude, leading to a restoration of sane, ordinary human affairs, complicated but based as a whole upon the freedom of its citizens. Or it will break down and lead to nothing but desert. Or it will lead the mass of men to become contented slaves, with a few rich men controlling them. Take your choice. - H. Belloc in the 1920s

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:09 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Good Point

Tom of Disputations asked a Dominican spirituality lecturer which fruit of the Spirit the American Church needed most. The friar answered, "Joy."

 

 

I think the Dominican hit the bull's eye. Orthodox Catholics in other countries frequently remark on the joyless, severe, constantly outraged attitude of so many orthodox American Catholics, like so many grinches with shoes that are always too tight, or people with way too much cheese in their diets.

--Fr. Jim of Dappled Things

 

 

My pizza-every-night thing is so over now. Whoda thunk that was it?!

 

 

Seriously, Kathy reports that one of the Dominicans said, "The first gift of the Holy Spirit we must seek is God Himself; He then provides the rest of the gifts." So instead of seeking after the spiritual gift of joy, I shall hope for it as a byproduct of seeking after God Himself.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:56 PM

 

 

 

 

 

In France I distrust...

What amazes me more than anything is not the Pope's stance on Iraq but Europe's. For them to allow Saddam Hussein....Saddam Hussein! ..to damage our relationship is simply astonishing. The Kyoto Treaty? Maybe. A trade imbalance? Ok. But Saddam Hussein? The U.S. is actually doing them a favor (since he is a threat not just to the U.S. but to everyone). It is an amazing fact that the world is apparently more afraid of the U.S. than Iraq. If you're the pope, can't you ask, "if you are saving the world from terrorism, why isn't there a greater consensus?".

 

 

Just War Blackmail

Okay since proportionality is an ingredient, let's say Country A knows that Country B adheres to Just War Theory. Country A can announce "we will kill 100,000 of our own citizens if you cross the border." Now Country B cannot go to war because it knows that the number of saved lives may only be, say, 40,000. Does this mean that Country A can kill up to 40,000 of its own citizens and we can't prevent it? Since Saddam is grooming his sons to take over when he's gone, then I assume you can cumulate all the deaths that they would cause. I wonder if St. Thomas & St. Augustine thought there would be evil on the scale of Saddam - an evil willing to kill its own citizenry. And it's not hypothetical.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:26 AM

 

 

 

 

 

The Fragility of the Flesh

Kathy the cheerful Carmelite has offered a collection point for well wishes for Dylan, who is in the hospital. Ms. Knapp just returned from there and is healing.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:54 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Link from Amy on American arrogance.

 

 

The fact that an infinitely strong God would become infinitely weak (i.e. dead) should give us pause. There is no excuse for rude diplomacy. There is no cost to politeness, no cost to sparing another country from humiliation. Where we should be firm we must be, but where we can afford to be weak it seems we should be that.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:15 PM

 

March 18, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

(via Hernan Gonzalez)

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:57 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Rome vs Washington

The Thomist definition of the necessary conditions for a just war is, like all his writing, admirably straightforward. War must be declared by a competent authority; the US president and Congress fulfil this requirement constitutionally in terms of self-defence, but not to cast America in the role of international policeman. There must be just cause, i.e. attack by an aggressor or a need to restore rights lost under aggression; this validated the 1991 Gulf war, provoked by the invasion of Kuwait. There must also be proportionality — the likely suffering and destruction caused by war must be outweighed by the just cause. Most of the world disputes this in the context of Iraq. The remaining stipulation is the right intention, meaning that the belligerent must intend to re-establish justice and a lasting peace. America clearly has the intention of affording Iraqis an opportunity to live under a more just regime; but the acute hazard of destabilising the Middle East, with the possibility of other governments falling to militant Islam and a massive resurgence of terrorism, could be held to cancel that out.

 

 

The descendants of Puritan settlers devised the Declaration of Independence, a document in conflict with Catholic doctrine, which was also the inspiration for the French Revolution. The high-water mark of hostility came in 1899 when Pope Leo XIII, in the Apostolic letter Testem Benevolentiae, formally condemned Americanism — the socially progressive errors espoused by such prominent American Catholics as Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, who had gone native in the pluralist atmosphere of the United States.

 

 

The Vatican’s true American allies are the cultural conservatives (to whom Dubya is ideologically closer than his father was) whose doyen the late Russell Kirk, an eminent Catholic, opposed even the 1991 Gulf war.

 

 

- Entire article here. Via Touchstone blog

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 2:26 PM

 

March 17, 2003  

 

 

 

Consoling thoughts from Kathy the Carmelite:

"Certain blogbuddies wonder if their blogs are getting too frivolous. I doubt it. I think we all go through cycles: holiness and backsliding; consolation and dryness; depth and shallowness; zeal and apathy.

 

 

Big deal."

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:43 AM

 

 

 

 

 

"I bind to myself today

The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,

The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,

The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,

The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.

 

I bind to myself today

The virtue of the love of seraphim,

In the obedience of angels,

In the hope of resurrection unto reward,

In prayers of Patriarchs,

In predictions of Prophets,

In preaching of Apostles,

In faith of Confessors,

In purity of holy Virgins,

In deeds of righteous men." --St. Patrick

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:58 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Journal du jour

It’s appropriate, perhaps, that on a night that moved at warp speed I type the date of this journal entry as “03/15/01”. Perhaps my muscle memory has only caught up to 2001. Time moves at a much faster rate than I can absorb; my internal clock must be two years behind. Certainly today’s St. Patrick’s party, which was some seven hours, lasted only two hours internally.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at Dublin’s “Blarney Bash” by 4:30ish. After a beer & a quick trip to McDonald’s we were ready for the “main event’ as they say in boxing and wrestling circles. I was ill-prepared for quite the effect the Hooligans would have on me this day; in that sense it is like religious faith – you trust and then you receive. I trusted that I would have a good time, and went thru the requisite motions, but then I found the most marvelous thing! By the 3rd song I was utterly hooked, utterly convinced - their set was heaven-sent! That it was buffered by a beer and preceded by a bad band were perhaps helpful props, but still the Hooligans hit like a hurricane.

 

 

One surprise during the set was the Hooligan’s surprise. They were doing Finnigan’s Wake, and the line “Mrs. Finnigan called for lunch” is always echoed by the crowd saying “lunch!”. We did so and the Hooligan’s broke out in huge grins, as if this were in some way revelatory. I was delighted by their delightment. Apparently we had stepped on the line of the younger Keane singer, who had some sort of bon mot to deliver in that musical pause.

 

Their set was over in about 100 minutes, (20 minutes my time), and my only regret was being unable to convey the requests “Risin’ of the Moon” and “John Paul Polka” (we mis-yelled “John Paul Shuffle” at one point). They did sing “Four Green Fields” and “The Unicorn Song”, the latter twice.

 

 

We left by 8:00 and headed for the AOH (Ancient Order of Hibernians) celebration at St. Joseph Montessori. AOH fit us like a warm glove on a cold night! We walked into the more intimate gathering and they had Guinness, which was nectar after that horrible Coors & Killian Red.

 

 

The main act, Vinegar Hill, was okay. Though the singer had a rather high-pitched voice, he was tolerable, especially on songs I already knew. Goosebumps flourished during the last five minutes, all of us standing and singing at the top of our lungs:

 

 

Give Ireland Back To The Irish

Don't Make Them Have To Take It Away

Give Ireland Back To The Irish

Make Ireland Irish Today

 

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:39 AM

 

March 16, 2003  

 

 

 

Understanding the Pope

JPII said nice things about (and was very respectful towards) Islam in "Crossing the Threshold of Hope". He famously kissed the Koran. Couple that with the fact that due to declining birthrates, the future of the Church is in Africa and Asia, and voila we have:

 

 

"[The Pope] is looking ahead for the rest of this century where Christian-Muslim relations are key to peace and religious freedom in African and many parts of Asia." - Rev. Thomas Reese

 

 

The US-Iraq war will hurt Christian-Muslim relations for decades and derail the freedom to practice Christianity in Africa and Asia. I'm not sure that appeasement, however, is healthy in any relationship. A good end (good relations with Muslims) doesn't justify a bad means (giving Saddam room), but I better understand now why the Pope wants to distance himself from Bush.

 

 

Here's another reason for the Pope's solidarity with Muslims (email from a smarrt friend):

"Over the past twenty years, the Vatican has fought tirelessly at the UN and its conferences over abortion and family planning. Sometimes the US has been on its side (like now) and sometimes not (like with Clinton). Through that time, Muslim countries have been been (along with Ireland, I guess) the only nations that have stood with the Vatican on this. In fact, someone told me that if it weren't for the opposition of Muslim nations to abortion and state-mandated family planning (aka coercion), the results of all those meetings - Cairo, etc...would have been VERY different than they were."

 

 

Finally, here's a link on how the Pope views Islam. Interesting...via the wise Tom of Disputations

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 2:33 PM

 

March 14, 2003  

 

 

 

His enthusiasm is catching

Outside my friend's office there is a large whiteboard. In the southeast corner there is a shamrock drawn in green magic marker and below that 'the countdown'. Dave has been keeping track since somewhere north of 300 days. As the father of four children under 7, he rarely gets out of the house. In fact his wife allows it a couple times a year, and for no time longer than for the St. Patrick's Day celebration, which will begin for us at 4pm Saturday. God willing.

 

 

Of Irish interest - the USCCB has helpfully provided this Irish movie list.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:49 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Oxymorons

 

 

As an appreciator of oxymorons, especially biblical ones (such as 'Virgin Mother'), I glance around the Catlicker bloggers for inspiration:

 

 

Tenebrae et Lux: the sublime one from Dylan. The name has since been changed, natch.

 

 

Gospel Minefield: when I see the phrase "mine field" I think of landmines and the possibility of being blown up, which is not "good news" or gospel except in the sense of "dying to self". But if you take it as a gold mine that's a different story. Kathy gets extra credit for having her blog mean two different things at the same time.

 

 

Perpetual Ephemera - by Louder Fenn

 

 

Disordered Affections - as a fellow sufferer, I can relate. But in Reality (i.e. heaven) all affections are ordered.

 

 

Minute Particulae - Mark rarely if ever deals in minute particulars.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:54 AM

 

March 13, 2003  

 

 

 

Interesting

"I've been wanting to write a piece directly on the subject of how containment -- as a moral argument -- is morally offensive for quite a while. Walter Russel Meade does precisely that today in the Washington Post, and brilliantly so. If you want to argue that containment is preferable to war as a national security argument, that's intellectually acceptable. But if you want to make the moral argument that containment is better, you have to demonstrate why more pain and death over a long period is preferable to less pain and death over a short period. And that's a hard argument to make in moral terms."

- J. Goldberg

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:51 PM

 

March 12, 2003  

 

 

 

Times article describing the universe as a "doughnut". Homer Simpson would be pleased.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:34 AM

 

 

 

 

 

"[Bush] has more information than anyone else, he has people skilled in evaluating intelligence, he has the authority (granted by Congress) and the responsibility to make decisions. Can he err? Yes, alas. No one in the world is infallible, and American intelligence has had grievous failures.

 

 

Since he cannot be 100% certain, should he therefore do nothing until an attack occurs? But such an attack might leads hundreds of thousands, or even tens of millions, of Americans dead. How would the Untied Sates respond to a massive biological attack if it felt it had been betrayed by its allies and persuaded to do nothing while Hussein used terrorists to poison the United States? Do the Europeans really want the world’s most powerful nation wounded with millions of its citizens dying, and feeling betrayed by its allies and almost the whole world?

 

 

The United States has behaved with enormous restraint, but war brutalizes. We destroyed German and Japanese cities in our fury at being dragged into the war, even though our own civilian population was untouched. How would we respond with 20 million Americans dead? The rest of the world should contemplate that, and decide whether it wants to leave Hussein in power." -- L. Podles

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:29 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Old Journal Entries Never Die.... (you know the rest)

I fondly recall the time spent on a cruise ship on the package Carribean tour, for the purpose (according to the brochure) of “demythologizing the Carribean for people who still have the mistaken notion that there is something exotic about a few sea islands a hop, skip & jump south of Florida”.

 

 

When I was younger I had a dream – I always wanted to go to a place that could be pronounced (correctly) two different ways (“Carry-be-in” and “Carib-ian”). True, Ohio was “O-HI-O” and “O-Hi-ya” but that didn’t count. I would practice prounouncing it both ways, trying to decide which was more sophisticated. As a child locked in land-locked Ohio, the notion of islands anywhere held a paradiscal quality that gave off imaginings of adventurers like Robinson Curoso, Lewis & Clark, the Professor & Skipper. I’d become intoxicated by “The Light in the Forest”, the story of a white boy raised by Indians who was convinced he was Indian. I always thought I was an Indian at heart, trapped in white skin and raised in this stiff-collared “civilization”.

 

 

But by ’87 I was traveling to debunk the idea that there is purity anywhere – I sought foreign climes where I might test my theory. My first cruise was two years out of college, upon a huge Carnival boat where we drank Bud Lights as St. Kitts floated by; we attempted to identify her as if by labeling her we could somehow brag that we’d seen (owned?) her. If it's Thursday it must be Dominica….

 

 

I stared morosely as the wake streamed away from the island of Dominica on the last day of the cruise. If ever there were an island where I could be the red man, it was there. Auden’s poem came to mind: we were that generation “neither happy nor good”. My friends and fellow disillusioners were grabbing cold pizza and stale cookies up on the promenade deck while I watched the generation of ceaseless white surf from the starboard side. I let myself into the cold salt water quietly, with nary a splash or a saynora; I swam in the bracing waters with my sneakers like tow-weights towards my green destination – friendly Dominica. I swam, swam like the wind, till I hit the muddy shores and ascended the hill where cannibals used to hold court and order white meat at a makeshift deli counter. How sweet it was! I would become the “noble savage”, the Mogli in Disney’s adaptation!

 

 

My first days on the island were idyllic; I read “Adrift”, the story of a survivor of a shipwreck who lived on a raft for 1,128 days. I noted that time held a quality it hadn’t since pre-college; it was as if the quality of time was directly proportional to the amount of time you could afford to waste.

Portions of the above, of course, are pure blarney.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:00 PM

 

March 11, 2003  

 

 

 

“A flood of words is never without fault; whoever controls the lips is wise” --Prov 10:19

 

 

Weariness

What if

words fail

mute

mime

my allotment of breath

spent

falling quiet as my grandfather,

only the sound of scissors talking

to the beat of falling hair?

 

 

Worse, what if

the words turn cursive

biting at curds

and bitter herbs?

 

 

***

Antidote to Dullness

Down Naughten Street a stranger walks

the former “Irish Broadway”,

Now warehouses and non-descripts

Prosaic as the day.

 

 

What interest would he sure provoke

if this be eighteen-eight!

Fueled by Finney's "Time and Again"

I'd follow to know his fate.

 

 

Fast he walks to young St. Patrick's

Worshipping in Latin

Swimming in the dear old Faith

Chin above the patin.

 

 

The answer be if we could just

move faster than light's speed,

or see the world through eyes less blind

re-awakened by the Creed.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 5:06 PM

 

 

 

 

 

The Two Secrets of Dominican Contemplation

 

 

Pray.

Keep at it.

 

 

-- via Disputations

 

 

Reminds me of the ol' shampoo bottle instructions: "Wash. Rinse. Repeat." An antidote to needless complexity.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Bad Catlickers?

One of the reasons Catholicism has survived for so long is because of its ability to bend without breaking, to encompass many different groups and sensibilities. The Pope, of course, has a free will, and infallibility is a negative charism, one that only prevents heresy, not bad judgments. Our very orthodox Dominican priest stresses the great freedom of belief – how wide the pasture of what one can believe is. The Church’s doctrine are fences on the far edges of the landscape pointing to the cliffs that have already been discovered. There are many theologies but one doctrine. Catholics can disagree on the war with Iraq and not be bad Catholics.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:38 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Free-fall...

     from the Catholic World Report

 

 

Percentage of College Students Answering "Yes" to These Questions

Abortion should be legal: 1997=61.1%, 2001=71.6%

 

 

If two people really like each other, it's all right for them to have sex even if they've known each other for only a very short time: 1997=40.2%, 2001=58.8%

 

 

Wow. I'm not so much surprised by the numbers as by the trend - four years is an amazingly short time to see the numbers change on that sort of scale. I'm beginning to wonder if the so-called trend towards greater orthodoxy of the young is just smoke & mirrors.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:02 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Ooops...

Saddam's soldiers attempt the soldierly equivalent of premature ejaculation - embarrassing for everyone involved.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:30 PM

 

March 10, 2003  

 

 

 

Interesting commentary from Camilia Paglia:

Cults multiply when institutional religion has lost fervor and become distracted by empty ritual. Early Christianity, for example, began as a rural rebellion against the fossilized Temple bureaucracy in Jerusalem. In 1950s America, the political and professional elite were still heavily WASP. Prosperous congregations were overly concerned with social status at church or at its annex, the country club. Roman Catholicism, searching for social credibility, was steadily purging itself of immigrant working-class ethnicity, a process of genteel self-Protestantization in music, ceremony, and decor that in middle-class parishes is now virtually complete. Many of those attracted to cults in the sixties and early seventies were escaping mainline denominations where bland propriety was coupled with sexual repression. It is a striking fact that few young African-Americans joined cults: surely the reason was that the gospel tradition, rooted in the South, invited emotional and physical expressiveness, stimulated by strongly rhythmic music.

 

 

--via another controversialist, Rod Dreher

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:36 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Winter, We Hardly Knew Ye

Old Man Winter sputtered & spat after the warmth of a 60 degree Saturday. But the ol' curmugeon must sense his time is nigh; he protests too much. I laughed at the 20s on Sunday, took the dog a walk and said to the ol' man, "you're just a paper tiger, a lame duck!". Courage is easy when the light at the end of the tunnel has been spotted.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:11 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Verweile Doch

...is still in progress. "Verweile doch" is German for "linger awhile" which is the name I've given to long Sunday reads (truncated from: Verweile doch, du bist so schon meaning "linger awhile, you are so beautiful"). My stepson wanted his copy of CS Lewis' The Screwtape Letters back so I was able to fulfill my Lenten obligation early by finishing it this afternoon. It was excellent, as anyone who's read it knows. His insight into human nature is keen.

 

 

This got me to reading a Lewis biography by George Sayers called "Jack" which, in turn led me to the 'net to read about a particularly interesting tidbit about his take on Catholicism via a book by someone named Derrick, which led me to this, which I haven't read yet but plan to.

 

 

In George Sayer's biography he comments, "I agree with Derrick that Lewis was nearest to becoming a Catholic in about 1950, but I do not regret that he did not. I think that it would have limited his influence, especially among evangelical Christians." Perhaps God can work in the mysterious way such that the less good - my wife's nondenominationalism - be a positive, in the sense that it might have helped incline my (previously) agnostic stepson towards Christianity (given that his take on Catholicism is apparently it be too heavy on ritual and too light on biblical exposition).

 

 

Note to self: Now quit blogging & go back to reading!!

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:40 PM

 

March 9, 2003  

 

 

 

This Just In....

Guess I may as well jump in on this (minutiae) bandwagon:

 

 

1. What was the last song you heard?

Boulavogue off Tommy Makem's "Irish Revolutionary Songs".

 

 

2. What were the last two movies you saw?

"Heist" with Gene Hackman, "Rachel And the Stranger" - western from the 40s with Bill Holden & Loretta Young.

 

 

3. What were the last three things you purchased?

Shoelaces. Reds tickets to a game in June. Huizinga's "Waning of the Middle Ages".

 

 

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend?

Hike at least an hour at Darby Park. Pay bills. Go to Mass. Keep the Sabbath rest (I'm really good at that one). Complete my translation of the bible. (Just kidding).

 

 

5. Who are the last five people you talked to?

- Wife, stepson, stepson's girlfriend, friend Dave (aka "Hambone"), boss

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:32 PM

 

 

 

 

 

The Daddy Country?

MSNBC's Chris Matthews (a Democrat) calls the Republican party the "daddy party" - i.e. the party more likely to make unpopular decisions and impose necessary discipline (not necessarily fiscal as we've seen of late, although one could argue that since a deficit is the only thing that constrains government tumescence it may be a necessary contrivance).

 

 

It seems America was thrust by the events of 9/11 into the role of "daddy country" - i.e. making unpopular decisions and imposing necessary discipline. An example? This Week reported today that many countries want the U.S. to unilaterally deal with the North Korea situation - the same countries attempting to block U.S. action w/r/t Iraq! This is the sort of thing a child wants - to have his cake and eat it too - and it is exhibited in spades by France, which signed a resolution (1441) it obviously never intended to honor.

 

 

The Pope has earned the moral authority and can call in his chits as he apparently is doing now. That I can respect. But France and the other comfortably numb "allies" seem to be simply shirking their responsibility.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:43 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Peggy Noonan brought up an interesting point on an interview show. She basically said why in the world should we have expected anything different from the U.N. than we've seen given that it was a huge struggle to get the coalition together for the first Gulf War? For then France couldn't argue that Iraq hadn't invaded Kuwait (as they argued that Iraq had no WMDs)...There is a certain clarity about a country marching over a border. And yet Sec of State Baker had to do a lot of cajoling then.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:07 AM

 

March 8, 2003  

 

 

 

Such a woman indeed...

Nice article on fasting in the Washington Times via Dappled Things. After reading that, I fear I'm not doing enough. Rich meditation on the book of Wisdom at Old Oligarch.

 

 

Today is the feast of Saints Perpetua and Felicity (wonderful names!):

 

 

The day of the martyrs' victory dawned. They marched from their cells into the amphitheater, as if into heaven, with cheerful looks and graceful bearing. If they trembled it was for joy and not for fear....The others stood motionless and received the deathblow in silence, especially Saturus, who had gone up first and was first to die; he was helping Perpetua. But Perpetua, that she might experience the pain more deeply, rejoiced over her broken body and guided the shaking hand of the inexperienced gladiator to her throat. Such a woman--one before whom the unclean spirit trembled..

--via Bill at Summa Minutiae.

 

 

Okay now that really makes my Lenten sacrifices seem small. There is a sense in which I can bear anything if someone next to me is bearing something worse, which is sad in a way. There is an amazing relativity in these things. I was complaining about someone the other day and realized that the gulf between myself and your average saint is infinitely greater than the gulf between myself and that person. And there is an infinite gulf between the saint and the holiness of God. It sort of reminds me of that "Powers of 10" link that Disordered Affections posted that showed showed the grand scope of the universe by showing pictures at millions of light years out and until the sun is faintly visible, then earth, then a tree on earth, then a leaf, a cell, a nucleus...

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:30 AM

 

March 7, 2003  

 

 

 

Thomas Hibbs has the winter blues:

We have discovered a type of despair that escaped the notice of Kierkegaard and Freud: an existential crisis prompted by geographical despair.

 

 

Walker Percy wisely noted that the hardest part of life is passing time with no diversion. For one of his characters, Lancelot, the worst time was between dinner and sleep. For us, during winter break, it was midafternoon.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:36 PM

 

March 6, 2003  

 

 

 

I've gotten a couple more emails from Nigerian scammers and I'm not quite sure it's covered by the Geneva Conventions, but I've decided to respond with to them with my fictional forays! Yes, instead of inflicting them on you, my loyal if tiny reading public, I will inflict them on Nigerian scammers! Ingenious I'd say.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:01 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmmmm....

Steinbeck addresses a question that has been on my mind. Is it possible to let your beneficence blind you to certain realities?

 

 

I think your father has in him, magnified, the things his wife lacks. I think in him kindness and conscience are so large that they are almost faults. They trip him up and hinder him.

 

 

-- Steinbeck, East of Eden

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 4:40 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Catholics Debating: Back President or Pope on Iraq?

Article in NY Times...

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:45 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Oy vey...!

I misread Disordered Affections post about wanting to strangle people yesterday. Must. blog. while. fully. awake. I had an equal and opposite reaction. I distrust feelings, so feelings of holiness triggered by fasting I'm inclined to ignore. (In the past I've felt holy while being in the state of mortal sin; Gen'l Stonewall Jackson felt holy while fighting for slavery - but that's another issue. Besides he was probably invincibly ignorant). The result of the fast was undeniably a greater patience, coupled with a greater appreciation for those who are poor. Part of it was that I was just too damn tired to be tense with anyone. I had nothing but mellowness to give. (Reminds me of the old story about how someone goes out for an hour run after a fight with his wife and after 15 minutes he forgets what he was arguing about and after 30 minutes he forgot he had a wife). Finally, I woke up Wednesday knowing the day could be grim and so my expectations were lowered. I was unaccountably cheerful because the day would not disappoint me. And knowing that all the bloggers and other Catlickers were out there fasting gave me a sense of solidarity that was thrilling. Prayer is also much more intense during fasting, don't you think?

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 11:07 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Death

I was listening to the Teaching Company on the commute today and Prof. Peter Saccio made the point that you can tell a lot about a culture by its self-help books. The Victorians, having made a lot of money from the Industrial Revolution, were obsessed with class and so bought books dealing with etiquette and how to write letters...His [Saccio's] generation was into sex, so that begat a spate of books on achieving orgasm and the joy of sex. Our generation might be considered about money, how to make money in the stock market, how to get rich...Shakespeare's generation read books about death - how to die well. To them the most important moment of life was the moment of your death, for your eternity hinged upon it. Deaths in Shakespeare's time were public, not hidden in the hospital but at home with friends and family and neighbors. I fear that most self-help books concerning death for our generation deal with how to kill yourself.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:02 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Who Am I?

- brutal dictator

- violated the treaty of the previous war by re-arming

- was given the latitude to continue re-arming

- caused a holocaust, both figurative and literal

 

 

Answer: Adolf Hitler

 

 

Sound familiar? There are sins of comission and sins of omission; I wonder if Pres. Bush wouldn't be committing a sin of omission by not enforcing the Gulf War treaty. We know that little sins lead to bigger ones - Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point explains that the reason crime in NYC dramatically fell during Mayor Guiliani's administration was that he "sweated the small stuff" - he no longer looked the other way for things like scrawling graffitti. It worked.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:56 AM

 

 

 

 

 

The Snow Will Continue until Morale Improves

Another beating of snow this morning, reaching the point of parody. It reminds me of a book I read as a teen - Harold Hill's How to Live Like a King's Kid, which said that God will give us a live-in mother-in-law until we stop 'needing her' - i.e. that until you are at peace with her. This analogy was lost to me then, since I didn't have a mother-in-law nor could I imagine my grandma being a burden to my dad...

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:14 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Fascinating exchange of views last night on Bill O'Reilly's show. O'Reilly says the Pope is being naive and idealistic on the war. The guest says O'Reilly is being naive if he thinks violence will not beget more violence. He brings up the Israeli situation - is their situation any more secure after 40 years of giving tit for tat? O'Reilly shoots back that at least they're there, saying that if they didn't resort to violence they would be wiped off the face of the map, which is what their neighbors want. Compelling arguments on both sides.

 

 

George Weigel was on Pat Buchanan's show, still wearing the ashes he'd received. He argued that we are defending ourselves from an act of aggression if one defines aggression a bit more subtly, i.e. the nature of Saddam coupled with the gathering of weapons of mass destruction IS an act of aggression. I found it somewhat unconvincing. I never thought that the pre-emption argument was that good - I'm surprised that was the best Weigel could come up with. Saddam's weapon program is ultimately why we are going to war, but it's not the rationale - just as the feds got Al Capone on tax evasion.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:06 AM

 

 

 

 

 

The Blog-in News

Hernan Gonzalez is back from a month-long hiatus...

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 5:01 PM

 

March 5, 2003  

 

 

 

Lenten Reading

I'm starting with C.S. Lewis and The Screwtape Letters but hope to read Death on a Friday Afternoon later in Lent. But most of all I hope to follow Gerard Serafin's suggestion and simply read the bible.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:13 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Sampling Seamus

I'm sick, you're sick, we're all sick of....war talk. So let's cleanse the palate with a little Seamus Heaney:

 

 

 

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap

Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge

Through living roots awaken in my head

But I've no spade to follow men like them.

___

 

 

All year the flex-dam festered in the heart

Of the townland; green and heavy-headed

Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.

___

 

 

As a child, they could not keep me from the wells

And old pumps with buckets and windlasses,

I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells

Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.

 

 

Now to pry into roots, to finger slime,

To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring

Is beneath all human dignity. I rhyme

To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

 

 

-excerpts from poems by Irish poet Seamus Heaney

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:47 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Lent!

As Yogi Berra might say, "90% of fasting is 75% mental". I recall that after a marathon most runners say they will never run another. Eventually that attitude wears off and they're enthusiastic again. So here's to another Lent! I am cheered by the notion that not only it is what I need but what our fractious, beleaguered world needs.

 

 

Also - here's an Ash Wednesday poem I posted a couple weeks ago.

 

 

Hymns in English & Gaelic! Via Dylan!

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:43 AM

 

 

 

 

 

It's not about pre-emption

I've never thought the war could be validated by pre-emption. If that's what it's about, then my misgivings about the war will turn to anti-war protest (but I will skip the nude rallies). No, what I see is something similar to what U.S. marshalls faced back during the 30's - Al Capone robbed and killed until they got him - on a technicality. Income tax evasion. Now you can say that Pres. Bush has Saddam Hussein on a technicality - that he violated the Gulf War treaty and failed to disarm. But a technicality is still legal, and the fact that much suffering and death was prevented by locking up Al Capone (or Saddam Hussein) is icing on the cake.

 

 

I'm leaning towards John Paul on this one. I would not vote for the war in part because I'm too conservative (small 'c'), meaning that I don't relish a "big bet" - which this war certainly is. I also don't know what Iraqi civilian casualties would be, which seems to me a big unknown that would effect the justness of the war.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 3:59 PM

 

March 4, 2003  

 

 

 

Witnessed the disturbing image of a protest in downtown Santiago featuring naked middle-aged men, proof-positive that the "I'm anti-war, so I'm taking off my clothes" movement has definitely jumped the shark.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:49 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Lunacy

Still struck by this Khalid Shaikh Mohammed guy who apparently was rudely awakened from sleep, not quite ready for prime-time what with his swarthy unshaven shoulders and bleary eyes, his t-shirt hangin' low ala Jennifer Beals in Flashdance...I'm just blown away by the fact that he got up every day thinking of ways to terrorize and kill Americans, that it was his job. Like a businessman he's got his laptop computer, cell phone, and his job is sit around and "think outside the box" on how to kill people. I don't get it. I guess part of it is that that picture was taken without his sheik-wear and thus he looks less alien and more "guy next door". It's just so calculated and corporate. You get the idea he's written up one of those ubiquitious mission statements and is reading Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. (Or was).

 

 

His hatred of America and disregard for life seems of an impersonal variety, like that old cartoon where there's this sheep dog, Sam, and his job is to protect the sheep from wolves and at 5pm the whistle blows and then Wile E. Coyote calmly says to the dog "See you tomorrow Ralph" or words to that effect. Nothin' personal, I just have to kill your charges. Of course the coyote is killing for food and this wolf is killing for ? Anyway I can relate to Kathy's comment "I find it easier to pray fervently for Osama's soul than for the souls of people who irritate me!".

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 1:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting NY Times article on the perils of ignorning the Sabbath:

 

 

And not even our group leisure activities can do for us what Sabbath rituals could once be counted on to do. Religious rituals do not exist simply to promote togetherness. They're theater. They are designed to convey to us a certain story about who we are without our even quite noticing that they are doing so. (One defining feature of religious rituals, in fact, is that we often perform them for years before we come to understand what they mean; this is why ministers and rabbis are famously unsympathetic when congregants complain that worship services or holiday rites feel meaningless.)

 

 

--Judith Shulevitz

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 8:55 AM

 

 

 

 

 

War commentary

Note to self: Read this this...via fructus ventris and this via Disordered Affections.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:26 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Riveting exchange between Disputations & Camassia on the opaque topic of who shall be saved.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 2:15 PM

 

March 3, 2003  

 

 

 

Exercising Spiritual Muscle

One truism in the world of fitness is to "surprise" your muscles. Don't go through the same routine and allow your body to get too comfortable which will, at best, merely maintain current levels of fitness.

 

 

Our Byzantine priest had a surprise at Vespers yesterday, something to awaken us from our comfortable numbness. Nearing the end of the service, he said we should all come up (there were perhaps 20 of us), form a line and hug each other and offer the 'kiss of peace' which was of the European sort - a peck on each cheek. My immediate reaction was to gauge the distance between myself and the back door and to calculate the odds of being noticed leaving. But that was so patently outside the spirit of Lent that I couldn't pull the trigger. So the first person went up and gave the kiss of peace and then stood to the left of the priest. The next person offered the gesture to both the priest and that person and then stood to the left of them, and so on...It was all very sweet. Most of us seemed a little more enthusiasm when greeting the opposite sex, which I suppose is only natural.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 10:07 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Came across this on the web by Scott Steinkerchner OP:

 

 

William James' essay The Will to Believe brings this mindset to bear on the seminal religious question, "How is it that one can rightly have religious faith?" His answer is intriguing. First he puts forward a certain category of truth which can only be acknowledged if it is first believed provisionally in faith. For example, personal friendships cannot be established without first trusting a potential friend, a trust that as yet has no basis in absolute proof. If one trusts, proof can come and a friendship can be established. If one refuses to trust, no friendship is possible. James then suggests that religious affirmations are exactly of this sort. They cannot be decided beforehand, they can only be believed and then subsequently verified. Of course, an individual is free to not believe, but this is just as self-ratifying as believing and thus no more objective. As he says, "Skepticism, then, is no avoidance of option; it is option of a certain particular kind of risk. Better risk loss of truth than chance of error."

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 9:54 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Thin Tuesday

I like Disputation's Lenten preparations. Coming off a sickness, I've not had a beer for almost two weeks and food has been very problematical due to a slight nausea. Drats! If not for this I coulda been a contenda'!

 

 

More seriously, on the way to church yesterday I pondered the fact that if you are obvious about your fasting and wear a scowl then you've already had your reward. But what if you are proud about keeping it to yourself? Snares everywhere! The devil makes me paranoid.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:49 AM

 

 

 

 

 

On the writer Tony Hillerman:

Hillerman learned to shun material wealth and to follow his dreams from his older brother, Barney. 'I was lucky in having a brother who is unusually wise," says Hillerman. "He asked what good is money when you've got your rent paid and you've got food and clothing. Beyond that, he said, what can you buy with it?"

 

 

Barney's point was that the only good about having money is 'that you can ransom yourself back from the system,' continues Hillerman. "What you've got to do, he said, is find a way to get your basic needs met doing something you like to do, so you don't have to buy your time back and thus don't have to have a lot of money." --Catherine Walsh

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 7:40 AM

 

 

 

 

 

Quote

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius are customarily, and I think rightly, said to have contributed to the realistic quality of Baroque religious art... A particularly striking feature - and one that surely fired the imagination of artists - is what Ignatius calls 'compostion, seeing the place, the aim of which is 'to see with the eye of the imagination the corporeal place where the object one wishes to contemplate is found'. The 'secularization of the transcendental' (to use Friedlaender's term) was not long in manifesting itself in Spain, where painters and sculptors seized upon realism as a means of bringing the beholder into a state of mystical communion with the divine.

-- John Rupert Martin, If it ain't Baroque, don't fix Baroque

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:23 PM

 

March 2, 2003  

 

 

 

Blonde Moment

Stopping at a 7/11, I saw situated by the door a height chart. I thought, "how nice - they put that up for kids to measure themselves with." The cashier got quite a chuckle from that one. Obviously it was there so that when robbed they could provide a better description.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

Lent

Very good homily from a visiting priest this weekend. He started the sermon by approvingly quoting Ben Franklin's line, "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." That got my attention! And then he described the phenomenon of "comfort" food and how odd a notion that is. He asked why we eat when we are not hungry, suggesting that we are looking for something from food that cannot be had.

 

 

The purpose of fasting, he says, to focus us on what it is we are really hungry for. He reminded how one cannot simply apply fasting over our old wineskin - how we have to be willing to be remade and be flexible enough to expand. The hope for our hopelessness is supplied by the First Reading today from the book Hosea, where God promises us to "lead us to the desert" and forgive and remake us.

 

 

Prayer, alms and fasting - the cure for what ails for twenty centuries.

 

 posted by TS O'Rama @ Comment @ 12:16 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Friday

 

 

 

 

 

Ascetic

 

That in the end

 

I may find

 

Something not sold for a penny

 

In the slums of Mind.

 

 

 

 

 

That I may break

 

With these hands

 

The bread that wisdom grows

 

In the other lands.

 

 

 

 

 

For this, for this

 

I do wear

 

The rags of hunger and climb

 

The unending stair.

 

 

 

 

 

To a Blackbird

 

O pagan poet you

 

And I are one

 

In this we lose our god

 

-at the set of the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

We dream while earth's sad children

 

Go slowly by

 

Pleading for our conversion

 

With the Most High.

 

 

 

 

 

-- Patrick Kavanagh

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:48 PM

 

 

 

February 28, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mohandas Gandhi, who was a Hindu, called 'worship without sacrifice' an absurdity of the modern age.

 

--Scott Hahn, The Lamb's Supper

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:01 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Nigerian scammer email got bounced because his inbox was too full. Perhaps others are trying to scam the scammers.

 

 

 

 

 

Old Oligarch sez:

 

Apparently, 16 dolts lost $345,000 last year, and a few have even been whacked in Nigeria, according to this Wired article.

 

  --via a sharp-eyed Kathy at Gospel Minefield

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:02 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A reading list for every young woman. But applicable to everyone. Scroll down a ways for comments on Augustine.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:08 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More possibilities on the Pope's perspective:

 

 

 

 

 

- Given the spotty record of Catholic monarchies and theocracies, why would he bet the farm (long-term) that the thoroughly secularized U.S. would be a benevolent power? Indeed, don't we capitalists loathe unregulated monopolies? What is the U.S. military but an unregulated monopoly?

 

 

 

 

 

- Perhaps the Pope believes we are in the end times and that there may only be a couple successors to the chair of Peter left. If the war goes awry, does he really want to meet the Lord having blessed what led to the final conflagration?

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:28 PM

 

 

 

February 27, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy Welborn ruminates about the war and asks the reasonable questions "Why Iraq? Why now?". My guesses:

 

 

 

 

 

1) Saddam's impotent militarily. China? North Korea? Gain a clue, we're not suicidal.

 

 

 

 

 

2) He is, or should be, a viable target from a United Nations perspective (if, perhaps, not from a 'Just War' perspective). Saddam's constantly violated U.N. resolutions for 12 years. For the U.N. to resist the war is nonsensical and most likely naked anti-Americanism. It's like asking someone who is pounding you on the head to keep on pounding.

 

 

 

 

 

3) To fight terrorism. If you win the war, you now have a base right in the middle of that putrid nest of terrorism, the Middle East. You can set up an intelligence operation. You have a place to land planes and troops without getting Turkey's or Saudi Arabia's permission. In the best case scenerio, you have a democracy that might lead to other democracies.

 

 

 

 

 

4) Partially personal. Someone trying to kill your father isn't something easily forgotten.

 

 

 

 

 

So, this matrix means you get a lot of bang for your buck if you're President Bush. I'm not justifying the war, I'm just saying that I think I understand why he's doing it.

 

 

 

 

 

One thing is for sure - I can certainly understand why the Pope doesn't approve. If he didn't approve of the Gulf War with the whole U.N. behind us and clearer justification, he certainly isn't going to approve of this war. On the bright side, at least the Church isn't alienating hundreds of millions of non-Americans by coming out for it.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:03 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kudos to St. Blog's

 

It's really amazing to me how good the writing is around the parish. I just read a piece from the Pew Lady on hell (via Disordered Affections) and it was impressive.

 

 

 

 

 

What is it about this connection between literacy and orthodox Catholicism? I realize there is self-selecting going on and that you don't have a blog unless you care about writing, but gee whiz....When I saw some of the scores from that vocabulary test I was a little stunned. Y'all shouldn't be getting over 170 so easily, should you?

 

 

 

 

 

The pew lady is not alone. Professional writers like Karen Hall are, of course, the real thing, but look at how some of the amateurs write! I'd rather not mention favorites since my tour of St. Blog's isn't comprehensive.

 

 

 

 

 

My point is that it is very consoling to be ensconced in my day job when I see the talent of my fellow amateurs have. My dream job would be the buyer at a publishing house, but tis odd that in writing (not just reading) I find out things. Sometimes I begin writing in my journal or blog and I think, "I didn't know I thought that.."

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:24 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Byzantine Bowlin' Fun!

 

 

 

 

 

Jeff Miller adds:

 

It also depends if they are Byzantine in union with Rome. The Byzantine Orthodox bowling league is a little different.

 

 

 

* They believe that the bowling ball proceeds from the chute only and reject any modification made to the bowling creed.

 

* They believe that all bowling leagues are equal and that the bowling league from Rome does not have authority over the other leagues.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:06 AM

 

 

 

February 26, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Musings on Peale

 

The Thomas a Kempis quote reminded me of a time, years ago, when I was perusing Norman V. Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking. I was struck by how mechanistic it was; the mind a computer to be programmed with Pauline verses like, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthen me". At the time I thought: wouldn't it be better if we let God inspire us with those thoughts? Peale's approach, perversely, seemed to be taking God out of the picture - we shall simply program ourselves for love and confidence in God.

 

 

 

 

 

Now I see that what is needed is not "either/or" but "and/both". It's a microcosm of the endless mystery of cooperation between man and God - a symbiosis where one never quite can tell where man ends and God begins, where the natural is left behind and grace is added. This reprogramming might be a purely human activity, but the richness of the Word has within itself the seeds of divine activity. The successful Pealite might be successful partially due to the programming and partially due to the grace of the God, which does accomplish all things which strengthen us. One could say that it is merely programming reality into oneself, like constantly repeating, "the grass is green...the earth is round..."

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 6:26 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What if U.S. Grant were fighting the Civil War today…

 

...& imagine that before the war Grant was the head of a shoelace manufacturing company:

 

 

 

 

 

Dan Rather live from somewhere just outside the Wilderness:

 

"Day 1072 of this terrible civil war, and I am live outside the tented headquarters of U.S. Grant where a group of protestors have gathered." (Cut to montage of seven protestors, one with sign "GRANT us Peace!", another with "Save the Horses - End this War").

 

 

 

 

 

"The White House today denied any connection between the war and the revived shoelace manufacturing industry, an industry which contributed heavily to Lincoln's election coffers and which, I don't need to remind you, was Grant's source of income prior to the war."

 

 

 

"Let's go to Mike outside Spotslvania. Mike?"

 

 

 

 

 

"Yes Dan. There is no known link so far - and again I want to emphasize that the link could be there but we just haven't found it yet - between the Big Shoelace campaign contributers and the way this war is being prosecuted. There are confirmed reports that shoes left on the battlefield often have perfectly fine shoelaces, presumably requiring new government contracts for the shoelace concerns. One must ask if this is a payback for the Big Shoelace companies. Dan?"

 

 

 

 

 

"Thank you Mike for that fine report. Now we go to Sherrie Rice in Atlanta, Sherrie?"

 

 

 

 

 

"Yes Dan, there are reports that the Sherman's army is heading this way. I'm standing outside the southeast's biggest shoelace company, a company becoming rich due to this war by supplying--

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 6:26 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one thing that the God beats us with a megaphone with, over and over, is that he is to be found in unlikely places, like a manger, a burning bush, a piece of bread, a stranger. How elusive is God! How could the innkeepers who rejected Mary & Joseph know who they were rejecting? Or the high priests of Jerusalem when they found a suffering Messiah not a good fit for that role? David’s father, who presumably knew him best, couldn’t see David as annointed. “Couldn’t see” – that’s the point isn’t it? That is the blindness Jesus mentions over and over.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 6:25 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas a Kempis:

 

The wise lover regards not so much the gift of Him Who loves as the love of Him Who gives. He regards the affection of the Giver rather than the value of the gift, and sets his Beloved above all gifts. The noble lover does not rest in the gift but in Me Who am above every gift.

 

 

 

 

 

To fight against evil thoughts which attack you is a sign of virtue and great merit. It is not an illusion that you are sometimes rapt in ecstasy and then quickly returned to the usual follies of your heart. For these are evils which you suffer rather than commit;and so long as they displease you and you struggle against them, it is a matter of merit and not a loss.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:13 PM

 

 

 

February 25, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bowling For Pirohi

 

You can imagine my surprise when an insert in the church bulliten read:

 

 

 

 

 

"WANTED! - Byzantine Bowlers for the 48th National Byzantine Bowling Tournament"

 

 

 

 

 

I'm wondering how a Byzantine bowler differs from a regular bowler...some possibilities (with affection):

 

 

 

 

 

* Bowling balls, shoes, gloves, lane, pins blessed

 

* Sign of the Cross (three times) before every roll

 

* Pirohi with beer between games

 

* Reverend Father has an icon on his bowling ball

 

* Instead of 10 frames, there are 12 (for the apostles - plus they are maximalists, allergic to Jesuitical minimums - if the Latins do ten, we shall do more!)

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:00 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Journal Entries Never Die...they just get replanted.

 

 

 

 

 

Saw this while going thru my journal, from three years ago this week. The occasion was my niece's baptism. My evangelical wife was present, hence the cringe-factor was higher than it otherwise would have been. (Since, of course, I would that she convert and would prefer the style of the liturgy not be an obstacle).

 

 

 

 

 

I do seem extremely "holier-than-thou" in this entry.

 

 

 

 

 

Church at St. Jude’s seemed almost like a spiritual vacuum, sucking the salt from me in the vapid liturgy. I cringed at the priest referring to the martyr-soaked privilege of offering Holy Eucharist as “work”, as in “I had to work all morning because the other priest is sick”, and then preceeding to offer a “sermon” that, as near as I could tell, was a recap of his moving and living arrangements. I suppose for the parish who had him as a priest for awhile would feel sufficient shock and curiousity to warrant some of the talk, but the spiritual sustenance given was woefully low. One got the impression that the priesthood was just another job. Leave us our illusions! Even if be that way, need they strive to prove to every non-Catholic in the audience that Catholicism is just another Moosehead Lodge club? The musicians tried to cover up the embarrassing lack of fervor by long musical selections, but it was to little avail. It was all a bit disspiriting. At least Dad was singing, dependable as a Tiger Woods’ drive, bringing some life to the old joint.

 

 

 

 

 

But the worst was yet to come. Arguably the most important sacrament of all, the one that must come before all the others, was embarrassing to the point of parody. Baptism, that noble sacrament that Jesus took pains to start and end his ministry with – beginning with John in the Jordan and ending in his final words before the Ascension – was turned into some kind of side-show. I suddenly longed to be a Southern Baptist. The jocular deacon would be fine as the color man at a sporting event, but here the sports reports just seemed jarring. I cringed right from the very beginning, and cringed right to the very end. As we were walking out the door he said, "twelve babies baptized in one hour! Call the Guinness book of World Records!". As if! As if this were a contest or a game! Did he not for a minute pause and consider the significance of what he was doing? Has he not read the portion on Baptism in the Catechism of the Catholic Church? Has he not any consideration of the emptiness of ritual without the underlying love and meaning? A body without a soul is dead. God made us, gave us bodies, for which we don't have to be embarrassed about using literally as prayer, number one because Jesus had a body and exercised it in a prayerful way by receiving water in the Jordan. Why should we be sheepish about doing His will, are we afraid to look foolish in the eyes of the world for believing that what we do in concert with Him has eternal consequences? Would that self-same deacon be disturbed if his wife were fooling around on him and told him, "well I'm just cheating on you with my body, I am still pledged to you in my heart and spirit". I think he might not take that so well. Did the deacon treat these Baptisms with more care and reverence than a waiter brings food in a fine restaurant? The great consolation, of course, is that God is not limited by our weakness or lack of awareness and that He gave each infant's soul a mark that cannot be erased today. That He can work through us, such flawed instruments, is truly a wonder and my appreciation for Him grows.

 

 

 

 

 

Whew! Reading this reminds me of an anecdote from Frank McCourt's life. It's been a long time since I've read his books, but either him or his brother made fun of their mother for going to great lengths to self-baptize her grandchildren against her son's wishes. Maybe it was that she baptized them multiple times in case one of the times didn't "take"; memory fails. I guess she was at one extreme - i.e. baptize the child and they're bound for heaven. The old school mechanical Catholic where the sacraments work like levers. But today there is an almost opposite zeitgeist - the outward sacraments don't much matter, you don't have to go to church or go to confession - it's what's in your heart.

 

 

 

 

 

Balance, where art thou?

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:40 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Never Gets Old

 

I've been offered an urgent business arrangement with a Dr. Yetunde Bassey. Apparently he's a bank manager at the Diamond Bank of Nigeria, Lagos branch. I've been offered an opportunity to make some money by helping him out of some sort of bureaucratic difficulty. I replied with an email of pilfered Greek - Iô ouk oid' hopôs humin apistêsai me chrê, saphei de muthôi pan hoper proschrêizete peusesthe: kaitoi kai legous!' (exclamation point mine).

 

 

 

 

 

What's the similarity between a Nigerian scammer and Saddam Hussein? Both have lost the benefit of the doubt.

 

 

 

 

 

So....will the last person scammed by a Nigerian scammer please stand up? Can there really be someone out there left? Sure people are always getting computers for the first time, but isn't the market for these guys is dwindling? If everyone replied to every Nigerian scammer, wouldn't it be less profitable for them since they'd be inundated by emails?

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:52 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been reading the Pope's opinion of the original Gulf War in Weigel's biography Witness to Hope. The Holy Father's thoughts about the war were almost "apocalyptic" according to Weigel, quoting him as saying, "the imminence of an armed confrontation with unforeseeable but certainly disastrous consequences."

 

 

 

 

 

In the flush of success the Gulf War seemed, at least in the early 90s, an unqualified success. But the lasting effect feels sinister and vaguely disastrous. Perhaps the developments would've happened anyway, but Bin Laden might not have started his jihad. (Everything points to his enragement beginning the minute U.S. troops landed in his holy land, Saudi Arabia). The World Trade Center bombing might not have happened. Millions of Iraqis suffered from sanctions. Many of our veterans suffer from exposure to chemical weapons, aka the Gulf War syndrome. A second war looms with apocalyptically. At least some of these disasters could've been prevented by finishing the first Gulf War. Best to cut off the king's head rather than wound him.

 

 

 

 

 

It ultimately shows the power of one evil individual to wreck sheer unadulterated havoc. If you saw the "60 Minutes" piece Sunday night, you'll know what I'm talking about. A very respected and credible Iraqi defector said that Hussein wants to re-make the map of the Middle East. From the attack on Iran to the attack on Kuwait, it is war that he lives for. I suppose it is war he shall have.

 

 

 

 

 

The author Robert Kagan says that you can live in a Kantian, peaceful world and not a brutal Hobbesian one if....a big if...all the other players agree to it. That has been achieved in Western Europe, where they live in this protected sphere of peace because none of the nations of Europe are Hobbesian. But it all it takes is one rogue leader...

 

 

 

 

 

From Weigel's bio:

 

John Paul did not believe that the Pope's role in such a crisis was to conduct a public review of the classic criteria legitimating a just war; and then give a pontifical blessing to the use of armed force if those criteria had been met. The Church's mission in world politics was to teach the relevant moral principles that ought to guide international statecraft. Beyond that, it was the responsibility of the statesman to make prudential judgements on the question of when nonviolent means of resolving a conflict and restoring order had been exhausted.

 

 

 

 

 

Just-war reasoning involves rigorous empirical analysis, which was sometimes lacking in the Holy See's approach to the Gulf crisis.The assumption that more dialogue could coax Saddam Hussein into withdrawing from Kuwait and making restitution for the wreckage he had caused was never very persuasive, given what was already known...Nor did Holy See proposals for negotiation seem to take sufficient account of the likelihood that delays in military action heightened the chance that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:45 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Long Loneliness of Tony Blair

 

Riveting read on Tony Blair's conundrum. How lonesome it must be to be where he is, having access to the highest religious authority on earth and finding no solace. It can only come from his own conscience.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:17 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At last it can be told - Nihil's identity. Nice going Gregg the Obscure! Everyone loves a good mystery solved.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:40 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill O'Reilly Opines on Religion

 

 

 

 

 

People say, “Why do you go to church?” I say, “Why not? What is a better use of my time? For an hour a week, I can think about things of a spiritual nature in a nice church with beautiful sculptures and stained-glass windows and a 2,000-year-old tradition that makes sense. Why would I not go?”

 

 

 

 

 

What’s the downside of going? What if there is no God? Well, so what? If there is no God, I’m dead. It doesn’t matter, OK? I’m looking at it like, “What’s to lose? What’s the problem here?”

 

 

 

 

 

This sounds like a version of Pascal's Wager, which always sounded to me a bit cold and calculating. (But then I could be ridiculous or a hypocrite; heaven is not earned and I'm not above hedging my bets). I just feels like he's minimizing what we must give to God - which is more than just going to church. Going to church for moi is the fun part, the less easy is fasting from sin or food, becoming charitable to the point of a cost to self, etc...But my wife points out that he is reaching the unsaved in this way, trying to get them not to be so viciously anti-religion. A spoonful of sugar... Full article is here

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:06 PM

 

 

 

February 24, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Wish I Was In Dixie...

 

Disputations is a bit peppery today with many piquant posts. He writes about the fascinating contradiction about some of the Confederate generals, holy men fighting for an unholy cause:

 

 

 

 

 

"People are complex," as they say, and complexity makes for both good story-telling and fruitful meditation. How can honor and nobility co-exist with a willingness to kill to preserve slavery? That's an important question without a simple answer.

 

 

 

 

 

One way to come to terms with the likes of Lee and Jackson is to remember that they were not members of the one holy Catholic Church. Thus they really didn't believe in the development of doctrine. Thus because slavery is condoned by St. Paul ('slaves, obey your masters') then Lee might seem able to justify it. Still that doesn't explain the fact that the Spirit blows where it will and that the guidance of the Holy Spirit in these prayerful men would seemingly have given the sufficient light to understand the evil of slavery. And thus the mystery. (I understand that the issue might be framed as state's rights and not slavery, but I also understand that slavery typically was considered a moral evil after it became economically unviable. How con-veeen-ient. This somewhat undermines Northern 'righteousness' but also, in my mind, undermines some of the Southerner's 'state's rights' claims).

 

 

 

 

 

I read a great biography of Stonewall Jackson, a very fervent, devout Christian. He had not the slightest doubt about the rightness of his cause, but this in a way makes him more interesting. They say that evil is banal and that goodness is the opposite, but the admixture, at least in this life, often seems most interesting given that our minds like complexity. One of Russell Kirk's six "principles that have endured" was an "affection for variety and mystery over uniformity." Still, heaven will be infinitely interesting I'm sure, so the lack is on this side.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ponderable

 

Adrienne von Speyr is excerpted today in Magnificat concerning a monk (perhaps Anthony) who went through a period of time during which he did not pray well. He was an experienced Christian who was in an active ministry. He eventually went to the desert to pray in solitude, recognizing that his desire to give up praying was a temptation from the devil, and in the desert spent years praying well off and on, depending on the circumstances (i.e. distractions) like the weather, or his hunger, etc...

 

 

 

 

 

Finally he realized that there lurked in him a self-love that made him seek desperately after any attraction, just to be freed from prayer.

 

 

 

 

 

From the moment he cut his own self out, he received an understanding of God's Trinity. For the truth is, he said, that as long as in prayer man experiences his own personality, he cannot come to know the threefold personal being of God. As long as the ego lives...God cannot then be more differentiated in relation to man than man is himself.

 

 

 

 

 

I am way too American in my thinking - I want instant success. I want to "fix something". I loathe, most of all, inefficiency. And so I think, "wow that was inefficient for that monk to spend twenty years to discover the problem in his prayer...I wonder what I shortcut I can find." But it doesn't work that way for at least a couple reasons. One is that the 'pearl of great price' is worth everything whatever the inconveniences, whatever the pain, however seeming inefficient. Secondly, man cooperates with God. It is a partnership, and it certainly isn't a sole proprietorship. I can no more build a tower to God than those poor unfortunates at Babel. Third, we simply don't appreciate what is not attained with difficulty. I would that I be more happy for that person rather than focusing on my lack.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psalm-aid

 

Lord, your mercy is my hope, my heart rejoices in your saving power. I will sing to the Lord for his goodness to me."

 

--Ps 12:6

 

 

 

 

 

The beauty of the above psalm reminded me of what Kathleen Norris wrote in one of her books concerning her mild-to-moderate depression. She found that the two things that made the most difference for her was daily exercise (in the form of a walk), and a daily reading of some of the Psalms. Medicine for body and soul.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:11 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear checker-work of woods, the Sussex Weald!

 

If a name thrills me yet of things of earth,

 

That name is thine. How often have I fled

 

To thy deep hedgerows and embraced each field,

 

Each lag, each pasture - fields which gave me birth

 

And saw my youth, and which most hold me dead.]

 

 

 

 

 

--Wilfrid Blunt

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:22 PM

 

 

 

February 23, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may want to say a prayer for Natalie, who is going through a trial of illness.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:21 AM

 

 

 

February 21, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reminder to Self

 

Caption to man being given medical attention:

 

More common is the tendency to mentally exaggerate the consequences of keeping the fast, but with time and experience, this too will come under control of the will. - Disputations

 

 

 

 

 

One aspect of fasting is that it is not an even playing field and should be individually-gauged or tuned. My 92-year old grandmother, God bless her - her only joy in life is food. She is house-bound, can't travel, can't do many of the things I have the luxury of doing (I shan't name them but you get the drift). So for her to give up food is necessarily a greater trial than for me to give up food because it is a sacrifice of a greater percentage of what makes her happy, at least in an earthly sense. I understand that pleasure does not equal happiness, but sometimes the perception of lack, of dearth, contributes to a sense of unhappiness when the lack is not joined properly with God.

 

 

 

 

 

I remember one time a friend asking me why selfishness was so hard to eradicate in oneself and I said unselfishness typically involves a sacrifice of temporal personal happiness. If it were easy, everyone would do it. It's the delaying of personal gratification towards the laying up of treasure in heaven. It's the same reason the savings rate for Americans is so abysmal. Unselfishness on the order of Mother Teresa is an astonishing example of delayed gratification.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:55 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dependence

 

I know I'm beating a dead post here, but I was watching C-Span's Booknotes (yeah, I was the one) and the guest was Robert Kagan, author of the book Europeans are from Mars, Americans from Venus, (actually The Paradise and the Power), and he made the comment that "dependency usually leads to resentment." There it was again, the third time I'd heard that in a week.

 

 

 

 

 

I've been mulling this over as it relates to God. I don't consciously feel any resentment towards my dependence on Him, in fact I feel a sense of relief when awareness of my dependence on Him is realized (coupled, of course, with the fact of his love). I suppose that part of the reason dependence breeds resentment is that the dependent country feels a loss of autonomy; perhaps that is why God gives us this gift of free will, a will so free that it has resulted in outrages like my mediocrity. But this free will enables us to never feel resentment because of His lack of coercion.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:03 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me Being Nosy

 

My Dominican parish has recently finished a major parish annex, including a nice library. I've been checking the perenially locked door and finally today was rewarded and able to check out the goodies. Most of the boxes haven't been unpacked yet, but I did notice two marked "Rahner" and "Kung" (excuse me for not having an umlaut handy). It'll be interesting how much from the TAN set will make it. Maybe an Incorruptibles or two? Or perhaps a better radical equivalent would be something by Lefebvre? (Pardon all you Rahner fans, I realize he's no Lefebvre. Supply your own equivalent).

 

 

 

 

 

It is amazing how much your library says about you, be it parish or an individual. It's a small thing, but I remember one of my aunt's favorite books was Trinity by Leon Uris which I understand isn't very friendly to the faith. I've only read a smidgeon of it, but perhaps it simply reflects the faith as was lived which is not always pretty (i.e. 'the Situation'). Anyway, she was a 'liberal' Catholic if we can use those coarse labels and I always thought that maybe book reflected that, just as the 'conservative' Catholic might be a fan of J.F. Powers or Flannery O'.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:25 PM

 

 

 

February 20, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Belloc Quote

 

He is a thoroughly good man...he has something like Holiness in his expression and an intense anxious sincerity. He spoke of individual conversion as opposed to political Catholicism in a way which - with my termperament all for the Collective Church - profoundly impressed me....

 

 

 

 

 

--H. Belloc, on his audience with Pope Benedict XV

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:09 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unmerited Grace

 

Thanks go to Karen at Disordered Affections for our recent after-ad existence! And for her willingness to dispense free advice here.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey Tim Drake's back (via Kat). His final missive back a half-year or more ago was a shot across the blogging bow, making the case that blogging was clique-ish and a vanity press. I'm not so sure he's not right. I recall that St. Thérèse of Lisieux had to be forced to write her "Story of a Soul" under the pain of obedience. Something tells me she'd not be a blogger. I think the saint most likely to be a blogger would be St. Augustine who poignantly wrote about his spiritual journey.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:15 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where's the justice in that?

 

Nihil Obstat is ad-free.

 

 

 

 

 

*grin*

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:11 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Further sleuthing

 

My guess is that the next time Disputations posts, it will remove said ad. It appears to be a St. Blog's phenomenon - I checked Tightly Wound (no salvation outside the church, or St. Blog's apparently) and his ad is still tightly attached.

 

 

 

 

 

I feel very sheepish if someone spent their hard-earned money on keeping this lame site ad-free. I'm still not sure it's not a Blogger glitch though...

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did I miss something? Blogger isn't putting at an ad at the top of my site, at least at this particular moment in time. I checked Dylan and he doesn't have an ad but Disputations does. No time now to further explore this improbability.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:58 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man Protected by the Shield of Faith

 

Maarten van Heemskerck (Netherlandish, 1498–1574)

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:50 PM

 

 

 

February 19, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kirk could flat out write

 

Some years ago, I was in Europe participating in two international conferences... Between sessions, I tramped about England and Scotland with an American friend, an executive in a great industrial corporation. Being something of a classical scholar, my friend collects sixteenth- and seventeenth-century editions of Latin works -- particularly Cicero and Seneca -- and pokes happily about Roman remains.

 

 

 

 

 

We found for his library, in the dusty caverns of Scottish secondhand bookshops, a number of admirable things at trifling prices. There lay the noble elephant folio of Strabo, in two immense volumes, at a mere thirty-five shillings; and the Strawberry Hill edition of Lucan, beautifully bound, at five guineas; and a twelve-volume set of Cicero for a pound. In an age of progressive inflation, one commodity alone remains stable, or increases little in price: classical works. At the devil's booth in Vanity Fair, every cup of dross may find its ounce of gold; but the one thing which Lucifer can't sell nowadays is classical learning. Who wants Latin texts? No twentieth-century Faustus disposes of his immortal soul for mere abstract knowledge. The copies of Strabo and Lucan and Cicero for which a Schoolman might have risked his life ten times over are now a drug on the market. As my friend remarked to me, "These things are cultural debris. It's as if a great ship had sunk, but a few trifles of flotsam had bubbled up from the hulk and were drifting on the surface of the great deep. Who wants this sea drift? Not the sharks. You and I are rowing about in a small boat, collecting the bits of debris."

 

 

 

 

 

-Russell Kirk, excerpt via Summa minutiae

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 6:57 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpts from Letter 1

 

of Letters to a Soul by Dom Hubert van Zeller, OSB

 

 

 

 

 

You mention your discouragement and the sense of failure. You say you are trying to resist the obvious temptation to be discontented and bitter, and that everything you attempt only increases your feeling of inadequacy. But isn't this because you expected a certain kind of success and have not found it? Wouldn't it be better to accept your limitations and be content within them? It is an art in life to put up with being second best. I don't mean that we must make compromises with our weaknesses, but I do think that we have to admit we are mediocrities. To accept the role we have to play, even if it's a small part when we have the talent to play the more important and successful one, is not to invite failure or frustration. It is to submit to the condition of life that God has planned for us. Once we have made this submission -- which is not a lowering of an ideal but on the contrary, because it essentially involves humility, is a raising of the ideal of serving God in truth -- we are less disappointed at the evidence of our inadequacy. Accepting our mediocrity, while all the time trying to make the most of our opportunity, not only brings a certain peace but is what the parable of the talents is all about. So long as we don't bury the insignificant talent, and put the blame on God for its insignificance, we can go on trading with it as effectively as the more talented.

 

 

 

 

 

This via Dylan. I'm sure you've all seen it already but I keep my blog also as a repository of impactful quotes for reference purposes. Good gracious, did I just say "impactful"? Even worse, did I just say "good gracious"?

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:25 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Innies & Outies

 

The outer-directed blog is communistic in spirit - nothing is privately owned, all is public domain. This blog links to news of the day that the blogger thinks will be of interest to the reader. It is often a series of links to depressing church news, and it sometimes has the grimness about it that Eastern Germany did before the curtain came down. This is a necessary service though, so the communist analogy breaks down somewhat.

 

 

 

 

 

The inner-directed blog is capitalistic in spirit. The blogger is writing mostly for himself or herself and may have a small or non-existent audience, but in the sharing of private things they may find greater solidarity with those who can relate than the outer-directed blog. Thus as in the capitalist system where everyone works toward their self-interest which often (not always of course) results in the greatest good to the greatest number of people, so too in blogging. Enlightened selfishness, you might call it. Like capitalism, it can be carried too far.

 

 

 

 

 

Some blogs are hybrids of both categories and others fit neither category. Some blogs address the big issues of the day while trying to think with the mind of the Church. Or provide spiritual encouragement of one sort or another. These are perhaps the most valuable services blogs can provide.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:13 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used to view British Prime Minister Tony Blair with suspicion, as if he were a Anglo Bill Clinton. But he is no Bill Clinton. Whatever you think about the war, you've got to admire the guy's convictions.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:32 PM

 

 

 

February 18, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top 5 Fav Male Saints

 

 

 

 

 

(1) St. Thomas Aquinas - not for his writing, but his humility. I can't get the image out of my head of his perfect acceptance at being called the "Dumb Ox".

 

 

 

 

 

(2) St. Pio of Petrelcina - a saint of the confessional, his ability to diagnose spiritual faults was unparalleled in modern times.

 

 

 

 

 

(3) St. Paul - for sheer impact on daily life, few have had as much effect as the chief writer of the New Testament.

 

 

 

 

 

(4) St. Patrick - converter of fair Eire.

 

 

 

 

 

(5) St. Anthony - a favorite childhood saint, he saved my arse many a time when I was young and lost something valuable.

 

 

 

 

 

Honorable Mention: St. Joseph, foster father extraordinaire whose star seems to pale beside the Blessed Mother's and yet who showed tremendous obedience to God's will.

 

 

 

 

 

Ultimately, my favorite saint is any who would claim the likes of me. Saints? Any out there listening?

 

 

 

 

 

I was fortunate to have received the name "Thomas", given the plethora of possible patron saints. (I'm sure Tom of Disputations can relate).

 

 

 

 

 

I can easily identify with Thomas the Apostle, the pragmatist who wanted to see our Lord post-Resurrection before saying "My Lord and My God". I was delighted when I discovered that St. Thomas More's feast day happens to coincide with my birthday so he's another patron saint of special order. And of course the great St. Thomas Aquinas, whose Summa the Fathers of Trent made it part of the order of the conclave to lay upon the altar, and whose combination of sweetness of disposition with scholarly intelligence are an otherworldly mix.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:27 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Precisely

 

Through the efforts of post-Marxists, radical Islamists, anti-Semites, and an array of old-fashioned authoritarians in the General Assembly and the Security Council, the U.N. now unfortunately reflects the aggregate amorality of so many of it members.

 

 

 

 

 

We built the arena, the players came — and, for many Americans, it now seems almost time to leave: Syria on the Security Council; Iran and Iraq overseeing the spread of dangerous weapons; Libya a caretaker of human rights. How about a simple law to preserve a once hallowed institution: To join the U.N.'s democratic assembly, a country must first be democratic? Why should a U.N. diplomat be allowed to demand from foreigners the very privileges that his government denies to its own people?

 

--Victor D. Hanson

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:30 PM

 

 

 

February 17, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I worry about this country breaking the thin strand of international law....If this country decides to go it alone and basically make Resolution 1441 meaningless, then what will prevent other countries from breaking similar agreements? If this country is unable to (in the fashion of Clinton's "it depends on what 'is' is") stand by the clear meaning of words then they are a threat to international peace.

 

 

 

 

 

This country I'm speaking of? France.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:30 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He can flat-out write

 

Just began The Path to Rome by Belloc and in the preface alone there are riches!

 

 

 

 

 

* And was it not his loneliness that enabled him to see it?

 

 

 

 

 

* Let us suffer absurdities, for that is only to suffer one another.

 

 

 

 

 

* Rabelais! Master of all happy men! Are you sleeping there pressed into desecrated earth under the doss-house of the Rue St. Paul, or do you not rather drink cool wine in some elysian Chinon looking on the Vienne where it rises in Paradise? Are you sleeping or drinking that you will not lend us the staff of Friar John wherewith he slaughtered and bashed the invaders of the vineyards, who are but a parable for the mincing pendants and blood-less thin-faced rogues of the world?

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to the poems of Hilaire Belloc

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:31 PM

 

 

 

February 16, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Historical Perspective

 

Britain and France united to oppose the American approach of 'lift and strike' - i.e. lift the U.N. arms embargo that effectively favored the Serb aggressors over the Bosnian victims, and strike by assisting the outgunned Bosnian forces with U.S. air sorties. Their opposition was based originally on a crude but understandable calculation that since the Serbs were bound to win anyway, we should not prolong the war by giving false hope to the Bosnians that the West would come to their aid.

 

 

 

 

 

London and Paris did all they could to prevent the Americans from assisting Bosnia - until their calculations were devastatingly rebuked by the course of the war itself, in which the modest U.S. and NATO intervention reversed Bosnian losses and forced the Serbs to negotiate.

 

 

 

 

 

The Bosnian crisis teaches a number of lessons. It casts a harsh light on the argument that the Europeans have adopted an enlightened international ethic of rules over military force. As the bloody corpse of Bosnia circa 1994 demonstrated, pacific multilateralism can be at least as brutal as intervention - without being as likely to attain its objective. Furthermore, the fact that Anglo-French opposition deterred Washington from its successful intervention for more than two years shows the degree to which U.S. policy can be distorted by a failure to play alliance politics effectively.

 

 

 

 

 

Iraq is now a crisis because Bush decide to remove Saddam Hussein before the dictator could acquire and perhaps use weapons of mass destruction. Bush's boldness may be justified - I think it is - but it is also bound to be questioned by those who prefer peace at any price, by those who think arms-control procedures superior to military force, and by the broad Left.

 

 

 

 

 

--J. O'Sullivan, National Review

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:41 AM

 

 

 

February 15, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haven't read this yet but it looks interesting: the pious and the war

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:28 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good morrow, Benedick. Why, what's the matter,

 

That you have such a February face,

 

So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?

 

 

 

 

 

--Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:03 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Gaeilge

 

 

 

 

 

A quarto of drawn-Guinness

 

gentle with a barber’s care-

 

the clanking of the glasses, the craick

 

of cloistered hospitality

 

    in an inhospital clime

 

muddied they trundle accented paths

 

    the essence of the particular.

 

 

 

 

 

He drank till he remembered himself--

 

in the bogland his trouser cuffs dirty,

 

collecting peat for fires lit by progeny

 

the rousing of the fiddle the flurry of feet

 

shamans and charlatans and shape-shifters all;

 

a fleet of Children of Lir

 

 

 

 

 

Ar Dheis Dé go raibh a anam

 

 

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:00 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vanilla Sky

 

One of my friend's favorite movies is Vanilla Sky, starring Tom Cruise. He gave me the VHS tape last night and while it's not my favorite I can say that it was a very Christian movie (despite the nudity, but that's what a fast-forward button is for). It is the pluperfect antidote to the thinking that actions don't have consequences. For me, the exceedingly haunting scene (this led to reflection on some of the wrong paths I took in the late 80s) was the palpable sense of regret when they both realize how things would be different if he had just not gotten into his ex-girlfriend's car (presumably for one last 'ride', sexually speaking, for which he got more than he bargained for). The hope though that 'good can come of bad' was expressed by her saying they will be together again (though it be delayed) which seems to me a supremely Christian message.

 

 

 

 

 

The movie reminds me of a bit Dicken's "Christmas Carol" in its effect, in its warning that bad behavior has eternal consequences and in its prodding to leave behind selfishness. I also liked how even though Cruise's character imagined the worst of his friend though it turned out his friend had stood by him...Cruise thought he didn't have friends but both his Sophia and his writer friend and the family friend at work showed his suspicions were unfounded, much as any suspicions of God's love are unfounded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The flick sent an electric shock to the heart like Scrooge & Marley did. The character played by Cruise had his face and manner eventually match the ugliness of his heart; you saw his hidden inner repulsiveness on full sacramental display, a crooked smile of half-humanity - what our souls must look like to God.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:56 AM

 

 

 

February 14, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Desperately Seeking the Meaning of Nugatory

 

I got a 169 on the vocabulary quiz. I blame the sad score on my misspent youth.

 

 

 

 

 

That baby was tailor-made for Dylan. Can't say I'm surprised by his 189.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:26 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Humorous Mark Shea post

 

Jesus said unto them, "Who do you say I am?"

 

 

 

 

 

And Peter answered him, saying, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the kerygma in which we find the ultimate meaning of our interpersonal relationships."

 

 

 

 

 

And Jesus said, "Huh?"

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:23 PM

 

 

 

February 13, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cyril of Jerusalem

 

Reading Kathy the Carmelite's post on Cyril of Jerusalem makes me feel severely under-catechized (regular readers probably already assumed that). But that is in some sense is a blessing because of the ocean of riches still awaitin'. I don't like the idea of the sea being exhaustable.

 

 

 

 

 

In an un-put-downable Christianity Today article the author says:

 

*

 

Yes, those four [Merton, O'Connor, Day & Percy] were great. Yet for the Catholic writer their greatness is cold comfort, even a reproach. It compounds your isolation. It suggests what you are not. If you try to identify with them, claim them, write the way they did, it just doesn't work.

 

 

 

 

 

Why? One reason, of course, is that the times were different. When you read their books you confront this again and again. Merton's autobiography implied that there was no salvation outside the church. O'Connor asked a priest for permission to read Madame Bovary. And here is Dorothy Day, in the confession scene at the beginning of The Long Loneliness:

 

 

 

 

 

'"Bless me father, for I have sinned," is the way you begin. "I made my last confession a week ago, and since then…." Properly, one should say the Confiteor, but the priest has no time for that, what with the long lines of penitents on a Saturday night, so you are supposed to say it outside the confessional as you kneel in a pew, or as you stand in line with others.'

 

 

 

 

 

That might as well be the week after Trent. Times have changed. So has the church.

 

 

 

 

 

We don't like to acknowledge it, but what we admire in them is not their books alone but the whole package—the books and the lives all together. We'd like to have them as companions. We'd like to be like them. We'd like to efface ourselves in them, to bury our unbelief in their belief, and in fact many of their readers have lost themselves in this sort of veneration.

 

*

 

When Paul Elie says "times have changed, so has the church" and quotes Day on confession and how Merton's autobiography implied a belief in no salvation outside the Church, he is expressing a subterranean longing for Catholic fundamentalism. Elie writes about Catholicism in an elegiac, romantic "Lost Cause" sort of way... But I wonder how much that lack of faith is due to the Church changing (i.e. extra ecclesiam nulla salus) versus a general lack of proper catechization. Are we "depraved because we are deprived" as the line from West Side Story's "Gee, Officer Krupke" goes? That alienation he writes about is real though. Many of us live far from the Catholic ghettos are parents lived in, ghettos in which faith was already given in the sacrament of Baptism and watered and fed with the Baltimore Catechism. You were Catholic in the same way you were Irish or Italian. It was merely how, not whether, to live it.

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps that is all nostalgic hooey though. Anyway David Mills writes in Touchstone about a bishop in England: "Self-identification equals faith, he thinks. Gosh. I would have thought Jesus' warnings to the Pharisees and others would have taught the man that this is not true, but apparently not. Surely he's known men who thought they were the life of the party when they were really drunken boors.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, on catechizing Cyril of Jerusalem comes to the rescue:

 

 

 

 

 

He is the all-time King of Catechesis. In his day (347), he delivered his "Catechetical Lectures", about which I'll post more in the future. These are the prototype for today's RCIA programs. If more RCIA presentations were as interesting and meaty as Cyril's, and more presenters as knowledgeable about the faith, our new converts might help us grow into something that looks a lot more like the Church Militant. Cyril was witty, succinct, and able to think on his feet. He could illuminate six or seven different aspects of one doctrine without confusing or boring a listener (or, in my case, a reader). Every other sentence in his lectures seems to be an allusion to Scripture.

 

 

 

 

 

(Incidentally, some of the Old Testament references astound me, especially the ones to books like Judges and Ezekiel. From the context, it appears that he expected his catechumens to understand exactly what and whom he was referring to! And there were no printed Bibles back then--there was not yet even one set Canon agreed upon, and probably not many copies of Old and New Testaments in one place. Not like today, when catechumens are mechanically issued red paperback NABs from the RE office. These people must've scrounged far and wide, and maybe even hand-copied their own Bibles.) -- Kathy Swistock

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:09 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ten Great Magazines via Fructus Ventris. I can certainly vouch for numbers 2, 5, 6 and 7, which I either read or subscribe to.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ash Wednesday in a Hard Winter

 

Milkwhite in his alb and still as this temple,

 

The priest waits with the stone patience of a heron.

 

I approach in the deadfall of midafternoon,

 

Flotsam blown in out of the snow-harrowed day.

 

He stabs once, twice, raking my cold brow

 

With the stiff bill of his ash-black thumb.

 

"Remember, man, thou art dust . . ."

 

His cello voice, half altar, half mountain,

 

Groans more than speaks my name and blame.

 

Stabbed and marked, I make my way to a back pew.

 

Here, the act seems mere calligraphy-

 

Cross and death and their one-day shadow.

 

Meanwhile I relax, regarding the solemnities

 

Of stained glass and enjoying the hearth-fire warmth.

 

Oh yes, a fierce winter for us and worse for the beasts.

 

Where is the mercy, I ask, in this season

 

Of bird-killing ice and tree-snapping wind,

 

This bitter winter made by the Maker of All Things?

 

But the heron priest has pressed the answer

 

Onto and into my everyman brow.

 

Murmur as I may, I know that this bitter time,

 

As all bitter things, was made by me

 

When I walked, winter innocent, in the old garden

 

And plucked in summer joy the ash-bearing fruit.

 

 

 

 

 

--John Martin

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:25 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite scenes in the bible is where Martha and Jesus exchange words after Lazarus' death. Martha shows tremendous faith by saying "I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask." When Jesus says "Your brother will rise again", Martha knows the plan and is docile to it. "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." But then comes the shattering reply, "I am the resurrection and the life..."

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:43 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is something very beautiful about orthodox icons. At the Byzantine church I frequent there is a gigantic one of the Theotokos behind the altar. No matter what side of church I sit on it's as if she is looking at me and it is comforting.

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the figures on icons have a stern look about them, like the one below. When you walk into a Byzantine church you realize that your own sinfulness and unworthiness just by looking at the icons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:59 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greatest Hits

 

 

 

 

 

Moreover - and this is less often noticed - "as a very frequent historical phenomenon, through a fresh application, a new verification, of the very ancient law of antinomies," the very conflict between two doctrines nearly always implies certain presuppositions common to both. Whence arises another danger for the theologian who makes too many concessions to the demands of controversy. In his struggle against heresy he always sees the question, more or less, willingly or unwillingly, from the heretic's point of view. He often accepts questions in the form in which the heretic propounds them, so that without sharing the error he may make implicit concessions to his opponent, which are the more serious the more explicit are his refutations... - Kevin Miller

 

 

 

 

 

On The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity...By Philip Jenkins

 

One issue that Jenkins fails to address in depth is the future of Christianity in Europe and North America. A reader might easily conclude that Christianity is strongest among people who have experienced poverty and persecution. The Gospel is, indeed, “good news for the poor.” Does this mean that Christianity has no future in the peaceful and prosperous West? Although he does not go that far, Jenkins suggests that it does become harder for the faith to prosper in such settings—“as hard as passing through the eye of a needle.” --J. Peter Nixon

 

 

 

 

 

I think the problem lies in radically disconnecting this life with the next life, as if they were two acts of a play. But life eternal has already begun in us. That's what baptism is, that's the meaning of Easter, that's the good news. Baptism isn't something we get now to use later, like a pair of skis during a summer sale. It is a participation, right now, in eternity. Jesus came in the flesh and died on the Cross to "free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life," as the Letter to the Hebrews says. I don't know how many evangelical pacifist Catholics think death is the worst thing that can happen to us, but if any do, I hope they will realize that death has already happened to us, and that we won. -Disputations

 

 

 

 

 

What is interesting about Kathy's initial point is that it only became in some degree true with the Reformation. At that point and almost Manichean element entered certain branches of the Protestant Reformation. The metaphysical poets are remarkable for their retention of the Catholic intergration of physical/mental/spiritual. But in Bunyan, and even to a certain degree Milton, you begin to see the separation of heart and head, physical/spiritual/ and mental. - Steven Riddle

 

 

 

 

 

I read recently (in the book of Kreeft on Pascal): "It is necessary to love our soul, but to despise oursekves; the modern world pushes us the opposite: to love ourselves and to be not worried us by our soul "... - Hernan Gonzalez

 

 

 

 

 

Do not despair, child. Lawd gonna gitcha. Caint hide from the Lawd. Sneak right up on yo sorry butt and BAM! Th' Lawd done gotcha! - father of the Barrister

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:32 AM

 

 

 

February 12, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Nall's Blissful over "Joe Millionaire"

 

I've never been keen on watching car chases, explosions or train wrecks on the glass teat. Why, then, this itchy curiosity to see "Joe Millionaire"? I've watched only part of one episode, but this human-train-wreck-waiting-to-happen would be must-see TV if I could in any way rationalize my viewing. Perhaps I'm being needlessly puritanical, but to watch it would only reward the network for putting it on. Not only does if fail the test of "good use of time" but also of good taste... and it's exploitive and ..(help me here).

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, I've talked myself into not watching it again.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:37 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disputations discusses the United Nations....a few questions:

 

 

 

 

 

How do we reconcile our democracy - the notion of representational gov't - with that of a non-representational gov't (the U.N.)? Can our elected leaders cede their authority without our permission? Reminds me of the ol' Protestant issue with St. Peter. Some say "the Lord gave Peter authority, but Peter did not have the right to cede that authority to the next pope."

 

 

 

 

 

Can the U.S. be "Cafeteria Catholics" when it comes to the U.N., i.e. pick and choose when we will submit to it, or will that cost the U.N. too much in terms of credibility?

 

 

 

 

 

Just as a democracies are only as good as the people they are composed of, international bodies are only as good as the represented national bodies. Most of the nations in the U.N. are either non-Christian, anti-Christian, or post-Christian. Thus I wonder at how that model can hold up.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:14 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now That is Old

 

...the universe according to WMAP is 13.7 billion years old, plus or minus one percent.

 

--NY Times article

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:32 PM

 

 

 

February 11, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why They Hate Us - Part 2

 

Astonishing 60 Minutes piece this past weekend on South Korea, bastion of anti-American sentiment. Despite three billion a year in the form of military protection, the South Korean gov't had to send out troops to protect the U.S. Embassy from its citizens. They routinely burn the American flag. The correspondent asked an expert there why they hate us - they are not Islamic extremists. He said, "we've had a relationship of dependency for 50 years now and dependency leads to resentment." Maybe Pat Buchanan was right. Is it proper to help someone who doesn't want your help?

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 6:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dust Carrying Precious Cargo

 

One of the reasons I so like Cardinal Ratzinger is his honesty, even when it's not something I'd prefer to hear. If the Irish are dreamers, then the Germans live much closer to the ground and are a necessary antidote to excess.

 

 

 

 

 

I was thinking this while reading about his view of the Eucharist in God and the World. My view has always been a John 6 sort of view, that the Eucharist is life giving, that after receiving I am dust carrying precious cargo. My view tends toward a medicinal one, like the woman seeking to touch the hem of His garment. Or as the spiritual equivalent of liquorous spirits, giving you the courage to do what you wouldn't normally do.

 

 

 

 

 

But this is unsatisfying; it doesn't explain why I am not better, or why priests and religious often aren't much better people.

 

 

 

 

 

But Ratzinger, who is allergic to sentiment and superstition, writes:

 

 

 

 

 

In any case, if we look at the sacraments too much from the viewpoint of efficiency and regard them as a means to impart miraculous powers to man and fundamentally change him, then, as it were, they fail the test. Here we are concerned with something different. Faith is not something that exists in a vacuum; rather, it enters into the material world. And it is through signs from the material world that we are, in turn, brought into contact with God.

 

 

 

 

 

The Risen One, who is now present [in the Eucharist] is not a thing. I don't receive a piece of Christ. That would indeed be an absurdity, but this is a personal process. He himself is giving himself to me and wants to assimilate me into himself....Once, in a sort of vision, Augustine thought he heard these words: 'Eat me; I am the bread of the strong." Jesus is saying here that it is the opposite to how it is with ordinary food that your body assimilates. That food is lesser than you, so that it becomes part of your body. And in my case, it is the other way around: I assimilate you into me. I am the stronger; you will be assimilated into me. This is, as we said, a personal process. Man, if he abadons himself in receiving this, is in his turn received.

 

 

 

 

 

The Cardinal On Mary:

 

The figure of Mary has touched the hearts of men in a special way. On one hand, the hearts of women, who see themselves in this and feel very close to Mary, but also the hearts of those men who have not lost their appreciation for mother and maiden...through the Mother they find God so close that religion is no longer a burden, but a matter of trust and a help in coping with life.

 

 

 

 

 

There is, on the other side, a kind of purist Christianity, a rationalizing, that can seem a bit cold. Of course the feelings - and we must allow this to be the task of the professors- have to be scrutinized and purified, again and again. This must not deteriorate into mere sentimentality, which no longer keeps in touch with reality, which can no longer acknowledge the greatness of God. But since the time of the Enlightenment- and we are now involved in another enlightenment- we have experienced such an enormous trend toward rationalizing and puritanism, if I may so express it, that the heart of man sets itself against this development and holds tight to Mariology.

 

--Cardinal Ratzinger, God and the World

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:03 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What if Great Writers Were Infected with Corporate Buzzword-Speak?

 

(Definition of stovepipe)

 

Homer: The rosy fingers of dawn did appear beyond the horizon, as the Sirens, thinking out of the box, gave Odysseus some real "opportunities" when trying to ramp up his synergy after his descent into the maelstrom...

 

 

 

Lewis Carroll: 'Twas brillig, and the stuffy suits did gyre and gimbol in the wabe all drilled down were the stovey pipes as the mome raths outgrabe...

 

 

 

 

 

James Whitcomb Riley: When the frost is on the punkin and yer rampin' up yer synergy an' the stovepipe refrences has drained you of all energy, 'Bout the time you hear tell of a new verb what's called "lev'rage", Then's the time to slam a jug o' some white lightnin' beverage.

 

 

 

 

 

Dashiel Hammet: "The jig is up, dollface. We found the joker who pumped your old man full a' hot lead, and it looks like you were the only one in the solarium during the timebox of his death" "Well, with our new paperless environment you got nothin' to pin on me" "I've curtailed your scope creep through iterative processing, sugar, and by matrixing with the state cops we got all exit routes surrounded" "Does this mean I'll be deployed via a fast-track methodology to the state pen?" "You know I can't crystal ball what the judge will say when you're transitioning from citizen to criminal to inmate, sweetcakes. I hope for your sake he leverages some time off for good behavior."

 

 

 

 

 

Anonymous: On the first day God put a hard stake in the ground and said, "Let us take a buy vs. build strategy, with an out of the box, vanilla implementation, and after we get our arms around it we will drill down from the 50,000 foot view to where the rubber meets the road." And then there were "some opportunities".

 

 

 

 

 

--friend & colleague & raconteur, J. Dyer

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:26 PM

 

 

 

February 10, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Novak claims the war is just.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:37 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man Bites Dog

 

The glass teat actually offered something interesting last week - a show called Miracles on ABC. At least the pilot was good; can't vouch for upcoming episodes.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday's Reading:

 

Cardinal Ratzinger's, "God and the World"

 

Paul Theroux's "Hotel Honolulu"

 

John Updike's "Seek My Face"

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still pondering Golda Mier's comment about how "Israel is the only country who still likes America despite having received her aid". In the Russell Kirk book, there was an anecdote (which I'll paraphrase badly), about a potential employee who went to interview and said self-righteously that he would never take a loan because he did not want to be beholden to anyone. The man didn't hire him because he did not want somebody who would never allow himself to be beholden. The point is that mindset of self-reliance seems to be totally opposed to the gospel. We are the welfare recipients in the spiritual sense.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:41 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to Ellyn vonHuben, who knew that the Pogues took their name from the Gaelic phrase "Pogue Mahone" which means "kiss my ass". My what an edifying blog this is.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:11 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes on EWTN's Show

 

Franciscan University's latest show had Dr. Ralph McInerny as guest on the topic, "A Catholic View of the Arts". Much food for thought. McInerny, interestingly, compared the Holy Father's Letter to Artists to his earlier Fides et Ratio. He said that just as philosophy and faith need to co-exist despite a certain tension, so does humanistic art and sacred art. Both philosophy and art can "go off the rail" but that both are necessary; reason and beauty being divine attributes. Scott Hahn even went a step further in suggesting that Rudolf Otto hijacked a notion of holiness in portraying it as 'absolutely other', as if the Holy Spirit was wholly other than God - and then went on to praise beauty as a reflection of holiness. Christ, in the incarnation, became the mediator between the sacred and secular, human and divine.

 

 

 

 

 

Lots of good bon mots - Regis Martin quoted somebody as saying, "what would the devil have to do without God?" in suggesting that nihilistic art in its efforts to be profane is paying an indirect homage to the sacred. It has to have something to "bounce off of".

 

 

 

 

 

Another: Hemingway said, "if you want a message, call Western Union" in emphasizing his desire not to write tracts of any sort, only the truth (which McInerny said he did successfully for the first 2/3rds of his career).

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Martin also mentioned that beauty is the "forgotten transcendental" and that Dostoyevsky said that the world would be saved by it. Beauty, Hahn said, is like morality not relativistic, something Flannery O'Connor learned from Art & Scholasticism.

 

 

 

 

 

They touched briefly on the paradox of how horrible people can write brilliant books and vice versa and McInery argued that no one completely decadent ever produced great art - good art, but not great. Hahn spiritualized it by comparing it to those who do great spiritual works - like curing people or prophesizing - and yet will have God say to them "I do not know you" because of the lack of interior holiness.

 

 

 

 

 

As for what is art? McInerny quoted C.S. Lewis as saying literature is that which is read more than once. He also said that art is a continuum and said positive things about even popular fiction, remarking on the puzzling fact that that we should be interested in what fictional characters say or do - there is something inherent within us that wants to ascribe in a linear fashion meaning in events of fictional characters that will help us in our own search.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:31 PM

 

 

 

February 9, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kudos to Dylan for catching the Pogue miscue. Extra credit: Why are the Pogues so-named?

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Penance

 

"Some may ask, 'What is the fruit of penance?' The answer to this is quite simple - the fruit is the changing of the heart, the turning back with our whole mind and heart to the true meaning of life..God Himself. In order for penance to bear good fruit in the soul, though, it can't just be a half turn away from self (just an insistent NO), it must be a full turn away from self and toward God (an insistent NO to self and insistent YES to God). It is only a half turn then we will feel the void of our denial and the end will more than likely be discouragement or pride."

 

--Deacon Bill Steltemeier of EWTN

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:11 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Point

 

"The first time I visited San Marco an art critic pointed out to me the plan of Fra Giovanni's work: scenes from the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary in the cells of the young Dominicans.; the Sorrowful Mysteries in the cells of middle aged, and for the old, the Glorious Mysteries. My friend laughed when I asked how they coaxed the young ones to move into the cells with the sorrowful mysteries and the middle aged to admit they were old enough for the Glorious!"

 

--Sister Juliana D'Amato, O.P., pastoral associate at St. Margaret's in Columbus

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:10 PM

 

 

 

February 8, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rare Old Mountain Dew

 

Let grasses grow and waters flow

 

in a free and easy way

 

But give me enough of the rare old stuff

 

that is made near Galway bay

 

Come gangers all from Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim too

 

Oh well give them the slip and well take a sip

 

Of the rare old Mountain dew

 

 

 

 

 

There's a neat little still at the foot of the hill,

 

Where the smoke curls up to the sky;

 

By a whiff of the smell you can plainly tell

 

That there's poitin, boys, close by.

 

For it fills the air with a perfume rare,

 

And betwixt both me and you,

 

As home we roll, we can drink a bowl,

 

Or a bucketful of mountain dew.

 

 

 

 

 

Now learned men as use the pen,

 

Have writ the praises high

 

Of the rare poitin from Ireland green,

 

Distilled from wheat and rye...

 

 

 

 

 

--Traditional

 

**

 

 

 

 

 

The Pogues - Celtic Rock

 

It was Christmas Eve babe

 

In the drunk tank

 

An old man said to me, won't see another one

 

And then he sang a song

 

The Rare Old Mountain Dew

 

And I turned my face away

 

And dreamed about you

 

 

 

 

 

Got on a lucky one

 

Came in eighteen to one

 

I've got a feeling

 

This year's for me and you

 

So happy Christmas

 

I love you baby

 

I can see a better time

 

When all our dreams come true...

 

 

 

- Shane McGowan, "The Pogues"

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:33 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vacational Flashbacks

 

Mirage-like it floats into my consciousness; there I am endorphined on Bowman’s beach with a houseboat sitting big as life just offshore, some fellow alone with the golden sunlight split between the rudders. Life as a solitude, he fishes in the reflected glory of God’s creation, putting out in the great 75% of the earth. Worries there dissolve like selzers, cast like dead mollusks on the shoreline, gleaming gleams of embarrassed delight, embarrassed that worries ever saw the light of day. Oh sailorman, in your life less traveled, what did you catch today? What briny fish of unblinking eye hath caught your eye?

 

 

 

 

 

       

 

          ain't it purty?

 

 

 

 

 

Along this coast I cast a cold eye on life, on death; only the fish heads remain from the work of seabirds. Before lay the reality of sand, of chilled water and generous horizon, the broad tame bank of water. Numbness falls, another week I stand with the net over the side catching water. Hoist ye anchor! Brim up to the hull of life, seek ye what can't be grasped.

 

 

 

 

 

The ocean’s saline personality extrudes on my Midwestern life. I recall the little Sanibel bookstore and her eagerly provincial myopism filled with shell-collecting books and Travis McGee fiction. On a wall of used books, all ten dollars, I found a Camilia Paglia volume and watched her crack the whip on progressive Presbyterianism. A lesbian agnostic defending orthodox Christianity from Presbyterians – surely the end is nigh!

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:01 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fictional Foray on Sisters

 

Ah, the grand experiment! Start out with siblings, one or two or three or more and grow up with similar genetics and environments. Nature and nuture, exploring different paths as if to better the chances of finding the right one.

 

 

 

 

 

“You go that way, and I’ll go this!”

 

 

 

 

 

And so one impregnates with movies, with pop tunes and popular culture. Another finds books and runs down alleys blind and otherwise. Another goes family, finds the answers within her own womb. Each imagine their sibling's version of faith to be fragile or flawed; they don’t ask nor tell thinking the topic taboo.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:59 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Real World

 

It's hard to keep up with the blogs I frequent, but I thought I'd pluck the magic twanger and choose one at random from the huge cacophony of Blogroll. I assumed I would get something light; Catlicker blogs tend to be weightier. Instead I got something I didn't bargain for. A blog of a guy who lost his wife at the age of 25, after six years of marriage. How sad.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:25 PM

 

 

 

February 7, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rod Dreher weighs in on the war, pretty even handedly (more fairly than I would've suspected):

 

Does anybody want ordained men and women uncritically baptizing war? The pope was right to call war, even just war, a "defeat for humanity".

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:34 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are a Dubliner.

 

 

 

What's your Inner European? brought to you by Quizilla (via Flos Carmeli)

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:38 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Exchange On Crossfire Last Night

 

 

 

 

 

CARLSON: Tariq Aziz knows what he's doing for Valentine's Day. On February 14 the deputy prime minister of Iraq will meet with Pope John Paul II....Aziz is hoping for a useful photo-op. As a top aide to Saddam Hussein for 40 years, Aziz is an architect of modern Iraq and it's police state. And he's complicit in its many crimes. Will the pope publicly scold him for enslaving millions of people and murdering tens of thousands more? Probably not.

 

 

 

 

 

On the other hand the pope had no trouble scolding the United States recently for being mean to Iraq. "War against Iraq," he said last month, would like all wars, be, quote, "a defeat for humanity."

 

 

 

 

 

Really? Is humanity worse off now that the Nazis are gone, that the Soviet Union has collapsed and Baby Doc, Pol Pot and Idi Amin have been swept away by all force? Of course not. Their defeats were victories for humanity and Saddam's will be as well.

 

 

 

 

 

BEGALA: Oh now where do I begin on this? First, let me correct your history. The Soviet Union fell without a war. It fell because of containment. Now let me correct you...

 

 

 

 

 

CARLSON: Actually there were dozens of little wars all around the world during the Cold War.

 

 

 

 

 

BEGALA: We never marched on Moscow. Now let me correct your reporting. The Holy Father gave a speech on January 1 of 2000 where he called for world day of prayer for peace. And he did say that a war is a defeat for humanity. You know what else he said? An I'm quoting...

 

 

 

 

 

CARLSON: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

 

 

 

 

 

BEGALA: And I'm quoting from the Holy Father. He said, "At times brutal and systemic violence has to be countered by armed resistance." He said, "There is a duty in some cases of humanitarian intervention," and he listed when, Just War Doctrine of the Catholic Church goes back to St. Thomas Aquinas. War has to be a last resort and many people wonder if...

 

 

 

 

 

CARLSON: Yes, no, I am familiar with this.

 

 

 

 

 

BEGALA: ... you should address a wrong, not be preemptive. It should be proportional. We don't know if it will be in the violence. And we should protect non-combatants, which I know the American military will do to the best of our ability. But you ought to be fair to the Holy Father, Tucker. This is not just a political speech.

 

 

 

 

 

CARLSON: Actually, I think I am being fair...

 

 

 

 

 

BEGALA: You were massively unfair.

 

 

 

 

 

CARLSON: I think it's quite unfair of the Pope to be used as a propaganda tool by Tariq Aziz is on the very day that that report goes to the U.N. It's a shame.

 

 

 

 

 

BEGALA: Tucker, with all due respect, I don't think the Pope needs to take lessons from you on standing for human rights. He's one of the great men.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:33 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I couldn't agree mo' with this post from Minute Particulae on the reaction to the Columbia.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:52 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breaking Points

 

I've had a disagreement with someone who flatly disbelieves that God never gives us more than we can handle. She points to suicides and insanity as examples. I point out the verse where St. Paul says that God never gives us more than we can take but that is not persuasive, she apparently thinks it an overly enthusiastic embellishment.

 

 

 

 

 

One thing to think about is this: if you accept that God came to earth in the person of Jesus, then how can you possibly accept that He would go back to the Father without giving us everything that we need? In other words, would someone die on the Cross for you and then calmly ascend to heaven without giving you the grace needed? It would make no sense. He would stay on the earth forever if that is what was required.

 

 

 

 

 

And in one sense he has. In the Eucharist. Here is commentary on John chapter 6:

 

 

 

 

 

In verse 10, Jesus tells the people to sit down (literally 'recline') on the green grass before distributing the bread. What is signified by the posture of reclining? Does one work to earn God's grace or is it freely given? (Eph 2:8-9) How could this be described as the real Sabbath rest (CCC 624)? How is this different from Numbers 11, where the Jews had to get up early and go out to gather the manna from the ground (EX 16:14-18)? Under the New Covenant, how is the eating and gathering different from the gathering and eating of the Old Covenant (notice the different sequence of actions)?

 

 

 

 

 

In the Old Testament, men worked for six days, then rested on the seventh. In the New Testament, we start the week with rest and then work for six days (CCC 2175, 2190). Regarding salvation, this change in the work week is an example of 'work' versus 'grace' (Jn 1:17;CCC 2025). We must first receive the free gift of God, by resting in Christ by faith, and then go out to serve him and do the good works of charity and sanctification required of us (Eph 2:8-10,; Tit 2:14, 3-8). In the OT, the people of Isreal worked -gathering with their hands; by contrast in the NT, Christ does the work and then gives bountifully into our hands with basketfuls left over.

 

 

 

 

 

How might it be significant that there was no surplus with the manna in the wilderness (Ex 16:16-21), yet there is an abundant surplus with Jesus' provision? How does the Eucharist help us understand the great generosity of God?

 

 

 

 

 

--Stephen Ray, St. John's Gospel

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:18 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blogging from the Other Side

 

Amy terminated her blog, but thankfully still can say meaningful things via a link on Mark Shea's blog. Her html on the Vatican and New Age statement was fine reading.

 

 

 

 

 

This was especially interesting, first a quote from the document, then her commentary:

 

"The techniques and methods offered in this immanentist religious system, which has no concept of God as person, proceed 'from below'. Although they involve a descent into the depths of one's own heart or soul, they constitute an essentially human enterprise on the part of a person who seeks to rise towards divinity by his or her own efforts. It is often an “ascent” on the level of consciousness to what is understood to be a liberating awareness of “the god within”. Not everyone has access to these techniques, whose benefits are restricted to a privileged spiritual 'aristocracy'.

 

 

 

 

 

The essential element in Christian faith, however, is God's descent towards his creatures, particularly towards the humblest, those who are weakest and least gifted according to the values of the “world”. There are spiritual techniques which it is useful to learn, but God is able to by-pass them or do without them. A Christian's “method of getting closer to God is not based on any technique in the strict sense of the word. That would contradict the spirit of childhood called for by the Gospel. The heart of genuine Christian mysticism is not technique: it is always a gift of God; and the one who benefits from it knows himself to be unworthy”

 

 

 

 

 

…..All meditation techniques need to be purged of presumption and pretentiousness. Christian prayer is not an exercise in self-contemplation, stillness and self-emptying, but a dialogue of love, one which “implies an attitude of conversion, a flight from 'self' to the 'You' of God”. It leads to an increasingly complete surrender to God's will, whereby we are invited to a deep, genuine solidarity with our brothers and sisters. (3.4)

 

 

 

 

 

An invitation to meet Jesus Christ, the bearer of the water of life, will carry more weight if it is made by someone who has clearly been profoundly affected by his or her own encounter with Jesus, because it is made not by someone who has simply heard about him, but by someone who can be sure “that he really is the saviour of the world” (verse 42). It is a matter of letting people react in their own way, at their own pace, and letting God do the rest. (5)"

 

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Now, those who have no real engagement with the world and with the faith of others but through the pages of books and internet websites won’t like this. But those who actually live and minister in a world populated by real human beings on real journeys know how true it is.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:08 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've been invited to hear Medjugorje visionary Ivan speak who is coming to a city near me - Cleveland. I'm not a big fan of Medjugorje (see Garabandal comment below), especially after reading E. Michael Jones's book "Medjugorje Deception". Also my hero Cardinal Ratzinger dissed it as I recall. But I suppose I am curious enough to dirve a couple hours and witness this talk. If anyone has already been to see him, I would appreciate an email on whether it is worthwhile.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:07 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So That's Why They Hate Us

 

"Israel is the only country that still likes the US despite having received aid from them." - Golda Meir

 

 

 

 

 

I guess it is a burden to be beholden to another country.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:03 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ambrose of Milan taught that it has not pleased God to save men through logic. Richard Weaver assented to this, knowing as he did the nature of the average sensual man and the limits of pure rationality. Yet with a high logical power, Weaver undertook an intellectual defense of inherited culture, and of order and justice and freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

-Russell Kirk, "The Sword of Imagination"

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:58 PM

 

 

 

February 6, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miracles

 

Nothing minute at Minute Particulae - his latest discussion on miracles with this quote from Stanley Jaki is interesting:

 

 

 

 

 

They [miracles] represent the challenge of external reality, not of axioms of logic. That true miracles are never coercive, whatever their occasional impact on skeptics and scoffers, is their chief recommendation. A dispensation would never be truly divine that would take man's freedom away because such a dispensation would not also be fully human...

 

 

 

 

 

Jaki appears to imply that the impact of miracles on skeptics and scoffers is a secondary effect, but I thought it was the effect in the Old & New Testaments. Miracles in the bible were accepted as proof of authority. The test of prophets in the OT was, well, prophecy and miracles. Jesus said, "believe because of the signs and wonders" if you must. And more to the point, St. Paul certainly would seem to have had his freedom impinged upon, as did Jonah, and numerous others. I'm okay with saying that "human freedom will NORMALLY not be compromised". Of course the way around it is that Jaki could mean it as an "all or none" - either we have no freedom or all freedom, which is not the way I thought it worked. (Not that I'm arguing with Jaki; he's brilliant and I'm not. I'm just trying to understand that statement).

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:19 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I concur with Dylan's sentiments the ultimate sin is to be boring, but almost immediately realized, alas, that my foray into the blogging equivalent of vacation slides forfeited that high moral ground...

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:03 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick follow-up to the Irish/German post...I'll never forget Peggy Noonan's spin on the fact that the Irish attention to housecleaning is..shall we say...light, such that spiderwebs are referred to as "Irish lace". Peggy opined that this was merely a rational choice - when faced with whether to read Joyce or Pearse or dust, the Irish understood priorities.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:40 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Washington Post's best fiction of 2002 list. I've read some Murakami when I was younger and liked his off-beat style. Much of the rest appears to be Flotsam and Jetsam...

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:32 PM

 

 

 

February 5, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Difficulties of being Half-Irish, Half-German

 

Perpetually at war with self, the German's love of order, discipline and punctuality married with the Irish love for drink, laziness and chaos results in, at the very least, a punctual drinker...I'm never late for happy hour.

 

 

 

 

 

The so-called "English" frequently played a key role in mediating between the Scotch-Irish and the Germans, who often did not mix together in backwoods society. The Scotch-Irish had a reputation for impulsiveness, were very politically active, and were fierce Indian fighters. The Germans, on the other hand, were sober and perhaps the best farmers in colonial America, but they were generally politically apathetic. -- Richard Drake, A History of Appalachia

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garabandal

 

The history of all approved apparitions shows that the Church requires unequivocal evidence of supernaturality. This can be cures, as at Lourdes and Beauraing, or a supernatural prodigy, as at Fátima. The reason from the Church's mystical theology is that most mysticism (as both St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John of the Cross teach) is mediated by the angels (who have a created angelic nature). What the good angels can do the bad angels can imitate, so that many so-called "supernatural" phenomena are merely preternatural (above human nature, but not above the angelic nature). - EWTN - C. Donovan

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:40 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Powell Post-Mortem

 

It appears as though France and the other security council members boxed themselves into a corner by agreeing to a resolution last November that invoked 'serious consequences' if Iraq failed. Apparently this is a case of words having no meaning to the French, who consider the word 'serious' to mean 'let's allow the inspection team more time'. Why couldn't the French have been more honest and simply said they didn't want war?

 

 

 

 

 

France and Germany should've had the cahoonies to stand up from the beginning and simply say, "we can live with the risk Saddam affords, we lived with it for 40 years with the Soviet Union, we can live with it now." That would be far more persuasive than playing the inspections charade and expecting different results from the same actions.

 

 

 

 

 

You can say that they didn't want to telegraph that sentiment and thus give Saddam comfort in the unlikely event he would have a sudden conversion and comply, but it just seems like now they are in a position of breaking their word by not respecting the November resolution.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 6:29 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The world seen, as it were, flat, with no associations, none of the subtle hints of other things, no correspondence with ideas and experiences that link us to the first great history of mankind, would be dull and meaningless, hardly sensuous at all.

 

--George Scott-Moncrieff

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:43 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Lines on the loss of the "Titanic")

 

 

 

 

 

And as the smart ship grew

 

In stature, grace, and hue,

 

In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.

 

 

 

 

 

Alien they seemed to be;

 

No mortal eye could see

 

The intimate welding of their later history,

 

 

 

 

 

Or sign that they were bent

 

By paths coincident

 

On being anon twin halves of one august event,

 

 

 

 

 

Till the Spinner of the Years

 

Said "Now!" And each one hears,

 

And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.

 

 

 

 

 

-- Thomas Hardy, excerpts of Convergence of the Twain

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exactly

 

He's not always right; it only seems so. Very convincing post. I wonder what Mr. Dreher would say.

 

 

 

 

 

Not to imply that this period is nearly as bad as the time just before the Reformation, but I do wonder what could've been done in the Church to prevent the splitting of Christendom. If there were more like St. Thomas More, medievals who employed prayers, fasting, and maybe writing letters and sit-in's, would it have been enough to reform the Church from within instead of having it reformed by necessity? Faith says 'yes'.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:52 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm in awe of anyone who makes a living writing, so you can imagine my immediate affection for Disordered Affections, whose blogmistress is a screenwriter. My best friend is among Thoreau's mass of desperate men and is attempting to escape the corporation by writing a screenplay. I am surprised at his dilligence; he's read five books on screenplays, he's read at least four or five actual screen plays and he is now on his second revision (he says he will give it to me after this revision, for help in making the third). It is a sequel to a well-known comedy - I had originally blogged the title of only to receive a panicked visit asking that I remove it:

 

 

 

 

 

"Remember Shawshank Redemption? If anyone had said anything--" (He compares his eventual escape with the prisoner in Shawshank Redemption)

 

 

 

 

 

"Shawshank Redemption is (say it with me) ff-ff-ffiction".

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, the hilarious thing is that after the first revision he said,

 

 

 

 

 

"It's pretty good, although it's not funny."

 

 

 

 

 

"Let me get this straight. You wrote a comedy that's not funny?"

 

 

 

 

 

"Yeah, that'll come with the second revision."

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:20 PM

 

 

 

February 4, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Nall gives Amy a proper send-off, and in doing so says:

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, journalism generally does a fairly piss-poor job covering religion in general, for reasons that don't bear much resemblance to the ones usually trotted out by pissed-off religious people -- mostly ignorance, and also because we're perhaps a little uncomfortable quoting people who claim prayer cured their cancer, and the chemotherapy had nothing to do with it.

 

 

 

 

 

There's often a backlash to sentiments attributing everything to God, even though everything is ultimately attributable to God. Protestants are especially prone to it. I've cringed at hearing my mother-in-law express sentiments that rain is literally angel's tears, or something to that effect. I fall prey to it at times. When I took food too late before Mass, I attributed my being able to receive due to God having arranged it - i.e. the priest starting Mass late and the homilist going long. That was no doubt narcissistic and probably false in attributing supernatural agencies to that which perhaps was purely coincidental or natural. It certainly drives non-believer Bill Mahrer crazy; he slams football players for thanking God for catching a pass. But it seems better to error on the side of attributing too much to God than too little.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slightly irreverent...

 

 

 

 

 

I have found when I am sodden

 

All my sins are fast forgodden,

 

But when I put the gin away

 

My sinful thoughts they stick and stay.

 

So to a man of sinful thinking

 

I say there is no sin in drinking.

 

For such a man the only sin

 

Is to hide away the fifth of gin.

 

—Max Sparber

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:25 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today's Irish Lesson

 

St. Patrick did his job - the Irish were a holy folk. Where else do you say hello by saying "God to you?". There is no word for "hello" in the Irish language - "dia duit" meant "God to you". The reply would be "Dia is Muire duit" meaning "God and Mary to you.". The reply to that (if starved for conversation) was "God and Mary and Joseph to you". I'm not sure who the next saint in line would be should it be carried farther. Hear it here.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:58 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fat, drunk & stupid no way to go thru life*

 

Interesting anecdote in Kirk's Sword of Imagination. At this time Kirk is living in suburbia, the intellectual tundra of Central Michigan, and William F. Buckley visits him and his first question is, "What do you do for friendship here?" (Implying that hobnobbing with the proles would be a non-starter). Kirk merely swung his arms around his vast library of books and said, "here are my friends!".

 

 

 

 

 

* -although you may have more company

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:49 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God be with Jeff Miller, who is also ending his blog. I love that picture of the Holy Father he has in the upper left corner, I've been meaning to steal it.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:59 PM

 

 

 

February 3, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posts, we've got posts, we've got lots and lots of...

 

I must be going thru the manic blogging phase, but I was struck earlier today by the anamoly of praying for our spiritual betters. From the earliest times it was understood that some pray-ers have more "success" than other pray-ers. Perhaps for reasons of closeness to God, greater fervency, greater faith, greater willingness to sacrifice, I don't know.

 

 

 

 

 

So intercessory prayer for my betters has been problematic. My praying for the Pope is like someone on a respirator praying for an Olympic marathon runner. Feels sort of presumptuous at the least. But now I'm beginning to understand it - and this will probably be obvious to you spiritual gurus - that it is Jesus praying in me. If I can accept (no easy task given my sinfulness) the presence of God within me, then I can accept His presence praying for and through me.

 

 

 

 

 

This still does not quite answer the greater efficacy great saints have. I read the inspiring story of Maria Goretti the other day; she prayed for her assassin and eventually he became a monk. I hope this isn't too facetious but it just goes to show if you're going to kill someone, make it a saint.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:45 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post-vacation Euphoria

 

My mood is inversely proportional to:

 

 

 

 

 

(length of time since my last vacation) + (time since last quality prayer session*)

 

 

 

 

 

* - perhaps ill-defined as prayer leaving me faithfilled rather than faithless

 

 

 

 

 

It is proportional to the number of beers I've had.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm reminded of a cartoon I once came across:

 

Brandy co-worker Bill to another co-worker: "What's up with Brandy?" (Brandy looks pained).

 

Co-worker: "Her post-vacation euphoria just dried up."

 

Bill: "How long did it take this time?"

 

Co-worker: "About 15 minutes."

 

Bill: "Wow, that has to be a new record."

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:10 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Pondering

 

Kathy the spirited Carmelite suspects on Disputations that some of the vehemence that denies the possiblity of a just war is actually a function of unbelief in life eternal.

 

 

 

 

 

I've often thought that this is how the Church could defend its persections of heresy. I'm no Church history expert, and I know that persecutions have been greatly exaggerated and/or have been state-sponsored and not Church-sanctioned, but if the Church did okay persecutions of the Albigensians you could see why if you consider the soul to be immortal and that hell is a worse result than death. Is there a greater causa belli than this? To save others from hell? Killing to prevent greater casualties (as Truman did with the A-bomb in WWII to prevent the loss of tens of thousand of additional casualties) seems morally small potatoes by comparison. The documents of Vatican II on Religious Freedom and others have spelled out the development that those in the state of invincible ignorance can be saved, and thus now it is a moot point. But if in the past they believed that the killing of some heretics was justified, by the souls they were saving of countless others who would have been damned.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But Tom, how do you REALLY feel?

 

Speaking of war, I was surprised by how vehemently NY Times' Tom Friedman dismisses the Europeans. Certainly here is a guy who is extremely well-traveled and knowlegeable and he says that the Europeans are of no help in determining the morality of the Iraq war. This is something I've suspected; objectivity is so difficult to come by either in this country or in Europe...America is starting to resemble what Cardinal Ratzinger wrote concerning the historic Jesus - there is no one who doesn't bring bias to the table.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ponderings

 

Walker Percy always wondered why we are "happiest" when tragedy strikes. Our attention is riveted, we feel fully alive. I'm struggling to understand...Perhaps it is simply that we can focus on others, and this is a relief from selfishness. Perhaps I've become jaded.

 

 

 

 

 

My mom and wife don't like to read novels much. They like true stories. I've never heard of her but apparently Ann Rule has written many novelistic offerings that portray true life crimes, murders. The line between fiction and fact weakens. People look for entertainment from real life (hence 'reality' tv). There is a media temptation to thus package real-world tragedies as made-for-TV Lifetime movies.

 

 

 

 

 

I think as Christians we can use this to our advantage. Let's show graphic Center for Bio-Ethical Reform images if it will cause us to care more about unborn babies. If war is treated too cavalierly, let's show the suffering it wreaks...There is the risk of becoming jaded, but it might help the cause.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:01 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Blog-In News...

 

As you probably already know, Amy is shutting down her blog. I think she's making the right decision - most of us exhaust what we have to say about really important issues and then sort of hang-on (although I am still learning from some of the blogs out there; you know who you are - don't you shut down :).

 

 

 

 

 

As the old saying goes, when she looks back on her life will she wish she spent more time blogging? Or more time on a project or book that could potentially have a more lasting impact?

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:42 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lots o' interesting reading...

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

St. Thomas More okays Reality TV?

 

Imagine my surprise at reading this in Barzun's Dawn to Decadence:

 

 

 

 

 

[Thomas] More suggests that if fools, that is, lunatics, are treated kindly there is no harm in their being used to entertain the people by 'their foolish sayings and ridiculous actions.' It will ensure their being valued and well taken care of.

 

 

 

 

 

Anybody know what night Joe Millionaire's on? (Just kidding).

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

Religious fanaticism?

 

Q: Does not over-concentration on religion tend to insanity?

 

 

 

 

 

A: To overdo anything is a mistake, and this applies even to religion. A well-balanced man avoids extremes in all departments of life, whether by excess, or by defect. And just as one can damage his health by eating too much, or by not eating at all, so one can injure his mind and soul by religious over-indulgence or by neglect of religion...I admit that over-concentration in religious directions is likely to be more dangerous than in other matters. For religion is so much a part of man's very being, and of his complete nature, gripping mind and heart and wil, and embracing man's imaginative and emotional tendencies, and reaching deep down into the subconscious recesses of the soul...That is why religion needs a rational and common-sense approach as few things else.

 

--Catholic priests Rev. Rumble & Rev. Carty, Radio Replies

 

 

 

 

 

Now, how to define "over-concentration"... the difficulty is how not to succumb to spiritual mediocrity while not over-concentrating on it.

 

 

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Lionel Trilling lamented in 1950: Our liberal ideology has produced a large literature of social and political protest, but not, for several decades, a single writer who commands our real literary imagination. We all resopnd to the flattery of agreement; but perhaps even the simplest reader among us knows in his heart the difference between the emotion and the real emotions of literature.'

 

 

 

 

 

To the monumental literary figures of the 20th century, Trilling went on, 'the liberal ideology has been at best a matter of indifference.' Proust, Joyce, Lawrence, Eliot, Yeats and other writers had 'no love of the ideas and emotions which liberal democracy, as known by our educated class, has declared respectable. So that we can say that no connection exists between our liberal educated class and the best of the literary minds of our time. And this is to say that there is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination.'

 

 

 

 

 

--Russell Kirk, The Sword of Imagination

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:19 PM

 

 

 

February 2, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Blog-in News

 

It appears foto del apolcalypse is taking a break for awhile...

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:28 PM

 

 

 

February 1, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

apparation

 

white the yearning statue; all neck and stretch

 

   longs she upward; set guard before the gathering hedge

 

of myth-leaves green and waxy

 

   gathering the birth-right sun.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:55 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

chair on the beach

 

Set it at a jaunty angle

 

set seaface to foam

 

ale for what ails, so pale

 

be fat-billed birds and cirrus clouds.

 

 

 

 

 

Banks of sand and birds of mien

 

mystic fish fly up at strange intervals

 

seaweed gesticulates in the Gulf waves

 

sand-dollars spend their ancient inscriptions

 

in the vanishing between sea and sky

 

and ineluctably drawn-eye.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:37 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scene: bland corporate fitness center. The usual suspects: young, muscled men lifting weights; old men doing stair machines or treadmills. Young women walking around in outfits that accentuate already obvious gender differences.

 

 

 

 

 

Amid the usual suspects was a tall, long-haired man in his mid-to-late 20s who wore a sleeveless t-shirt that revealed a large tattoo of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, complete with thorns. Vive le difference. As I circled the running track I was greeted each time by edifying visages.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:05 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drowning drams of the daily pulp;

 

war news, liberals, conservatives

 

cross-talk on Crossfire

 

like Manichean caricatures

 

plastic army men wholly good or evil.

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:55 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walker Percy Quotes

 

”Here they would sit, in my ‘enclosed patio’, on their broad potato-fed English asses, and speak of the higher things.”

 

 

 

 

 

“The bricks smell of old wax. After all these years particles of Pledge wax still adhere to the cindery pits that pock the glaze.”

 

 

 

  posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:43 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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   Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor           

 

   I see the right way, approve it and do the opposite - Ovid 

 

       

 

 

 

  Still only 25 cents

 

 

 

Archives

 

02/01/2003 - 02/28/2003

 

03/01/2003 - 03/31/2003

 

current enchilada, whole

 

 

 

 

 

  photo via Tenebrae

 

Other Blog O'Rhythms 

 

the Mother Blog, from whose womb many blogs have sprung... 

 

Michael Dubruiel 

 

Disputations 

 

Eve Tushnet

 

Mark Shea

 

 

 

Keen Links 

 

The Corner

 

the inimitable Peter Kreeft

 

Theology of the Body

 

Arts & Lit

 

Bible search

 

Catechism

 

Summa

 

OED Word o' the Day

 

 

 

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! / Even though the sound of it Is something quite atrocious / If you say it loud enough You'll always sound precocious

 

 

 

my email

 

 

 

More Fine Young Blogs 

 

Ad Orientem

 

All But Dissertations

 

Atheist to a Theist

 

Auf Deutsch

 

Church Fathers

 

Christopher Cuddy

 

Daily Meds

 

Disordered Affections

 

Davey's Mommy

 

Flos Carmeli

 

Fotos Del Apolocalipsis

 

From the Anchor Hold

 

Gregg the Obscure

 

Ibidem

 

Lively Writer

 

Mirari

 

Minute Particulae

 

Oblique House

 

ye Olde Oligarch

 

Praise & Glory List of Catlicker Blogs

 

Quenta Narwen

 

Rosa Mystica

 

Summa Contra

 

Summa Minutiae (B. White)

 

Tenebrae et Lux 

 

View from the Core

 

Xaiver+

 

 

 

Reference

 

 Faith & Reason I (Particulae)

 

 Faith & Reason II (Particulae)

 

 06/01/02 - 06/30/02

 

05/01/02 - 05/31/02

 

04/01/02 - 04/30/02

 

03/01/02 - 03/31/02  *** 

 

_____

 

O'Rama Productions; copyright pending. Taking self too seriously since 1963.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy has a thought-provoking post in which she states, It's been said elsewhere that the easiest way to lose your faith is to work for the Church - and that applies to any denomination - it's not peculiar to Catholics.

 

 

 

 

 

There are things I'd just rather not know, like how sausage is made. I've more or less gotten my head around it; I tell my mom that there is nothing inherently wrong with politics. It is a God-given means, though sometimes as inelegant as a bathroom visit. When she argues about how calculating the Pope is in making huge numbers of "conservative" cardinals that will vote in the next papal election, I say, hopefully honestly, that if the situation were reversed and the Pope were "liberal" and was using political means to achieve liberal ends then it must be the will of the HS, at least as far as who the next Pontiff will be. Perhaps a more nuanced view is that the right man might not get the job, but that he will not teach false doctrine. More nuanced and more nuanced we become, gradually widening the circle of human error, until we allow for the greatest possible lattitude for human error, which gets it just about right. God is respectful of our freedom, and very economical when it comes to wielding power. Forty million U.S. abortions is proof of that.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:26 PM

 

 

 

January 31, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I Did On My Winter Vacation

 

I always write what I call a "trip log", with the mistaken notion that I will actually one day go back and read it. At the very least it affixes the details in my mind one last time. Since I wrote it anyway, I will post it in the fine tradition of "let no writing go unposted". You are under no obligation to read it, of course. Triplogs prior to my reversion at least proffered erotic poetry (note to self: destroy erotic poetry soon!); I can promise no sex or violence in the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here lieth the sun deck, where I laid sprawled befriended by Kirk and a cold one.

 

 

 

 

 

The advertising on the rental car was right, at least right now. "Florida - the Sunshine State" proved to be all of that as we loaded our weary bodies into a rental which still held the aroma of "new car". From Ft. Myers we took the causeway into sunny Sanibel where we blinked like uncovered slugs.

 

 

 

 

 

The condo had a small screened-in back porch overlooking the pool, where a fat cigar and a couple ales on repeating days tended to invoke nostalgia. I had a terribly strong sense of deja vu, and of remembrance of things past. The large green shade tree was much like the one at our house growing up, the one near which we dug a large hole with the hope of reaching China (our knowledge of the hot earthen core being incomplete). The sun deck and pool had 60s style accoutrements that reminded me of my best friend's grandma's swimming pool and her maddeningly strict rules of no swimming for an hour after eating; I recall being out of the pool more than in it. The sun deck ascended in whitely glory, a mad pad to which I would carry a ridiculous number of books despite always choosing to read Kirk's Sword of Imagination.

 

 

 

 

 

The leafy courtyard had antebellum lamps and reminded me of my alma mater, which reminded of what Burke wrote concerning the man who hangs about college after having graduated - "he is like a man who, having built and rigged and victualled a ship, should lock her up in dry dock." Ah but what a gloriously unbattered ship she would be!

 

 

 

 

 

The complex had the aura of a retirement villa about it; the average resident age in the 70s. The beach scenes looked like retirement or insurance advertisements - loving grey-haired couples walking hand-in-hand. This was a nice feature since I would be able to avoid eye custodial issues which inevitably arise when bikini-clad young women happen by. Instead I was reading Russell Kirk sans distraction, as the sun made her inevitable trek...

 

 

 

    When daffodils begin to peer,

 

    With heigh! the doxy over the dale,

 

    Why, then comes in the sweet o' the year;

 

    For the red blood reigns in the winter's pale.

 

 

 

 

 

    The white sheet bleaching on the hedge,

 

    With heigh! the sweet birds, O, how they sing!

 

    Doth set my pugging tooth on edge;

 

    For a quart of ale is a dish for a king.

 

 

 

 

 

--Shakespeare

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:04 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disputations has an attention-grabbing science experiment.

 

 

 

 

 

My first thought was that economics is a science too, although if you ask four economists what will happen you'll get five opinions.

 

 

 

 

 

I recall that the committee formed on the question of birth control came out in favor of artificial methods. Pope Paul VI wrote Humane Vitae instead. That sort of put theologians in the proper perspective. Ideally, we should be content with the teachings we have been given.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:01 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A belated Happy St. Thomas Aquinas day to you and yours. It was excrutiating being out of town during one of my favorite feast days. Not only am I curious what the fine Dominican friars at my St. Patrick parish would've said during the homily, but the local Dominican college always has a wonderful lecture program that day. Providentially, Tuesday was the one day I was able to make it to Mass and the priest there gave a wonderful talk on the great one. I had unthinkingly drank coffee beforehand, but the Mass started late and the enthusiastic homilist made reception possible for which I am thankful.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:52 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serving All Your Knightly Needs

 

For the man who has everything: $2,450!?! Oy vey.

 

 

 

 

 

More affordably, the the scowling knight. (Any resemblance to your correspondent purely coincidental).

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, the handy knight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:25 PM

 

 

 

January 30, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crypto-Catholic on Ash Wednesday

 

Hides he Wedesday's ashes

 

protecting his Mother's reputation

 

lest she be seen undesireable

 

by association.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Déjà vu

 

Watched Bill Murray in Groundhog Day and was struck by how his experience in the movie mirrors our lives. First Murray reacted to the repeating days with the childish glee of lawbreaking: venial things like inconsideration for others, eating everything off the dessert tray, smoking cigarettes. Then he upped the ante in the way some adolescents favor - he drank heavily, smashed his car into mailboxes, tried to evade police and was arrested. The next day he took it a step further by manipulating a stranger into having sex with him. It was plainly unsatisfying because what he really wanted was the character played by Andie MacDowell, and she would not be manipulated. He slid into nihilism, killed himself several times, until finally he abjectly admitted that it was he who was the problem. Because he could not have who he wanted most (Andie), he no longer concerned himself with her as a goal; he became altruistic out of desperation - the grain of wheat and fell to the ground and died. The byproduct of his altruism was Andie's falling in love with him.

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

Read much of John Hershey's depressing Hiroshima on the plane ride back from Florida. One of the survivors was a German Catholic priest who spent the next 30 years in almost constant pain from side effects of the radiation but who unfailing thought of others and never gave into self-pity. Just as it would be almost impossible for the early, selfish Bill Murray to imagine the later, altruistic Murray with anything but white-knuckle distaste, so it is for we who are not where that priest was spiritually to appreciate the beauty, rather than the horror, of his sacrifice. The priest at one point calmly remarked that he was glad to suffer his purgatory here.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back from a week idyll; my folks spend two weeks every year in the land of flos carmeli (i.e. Florida) and we spent five glorious days visiting, regaining our sanity and avoiding the worst the winter has to offer (it felt a form of cheating, as if the winter is an exam and I looked off someone else's paper)...

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:55 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two by Seamus

 

We have no prairies

 

To slice a big sun at evening--

 

Everywhere the eye concedes to

 

Encrouching horizon,

 

 

 

 

 

Is wooed into the cyclops' eye

 

Of a tarn. Our unfenced country

 

Is bog that keeps crusting

 

Between the sights of the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

Every layer they strip

 

Seems camped on before.

 

The bogholes might be Atlantic seepage.

 

The wet centre is bottomless.

 

 

 

 

 

--Seamus Heaney, excerpt of Bogland

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

And if I spy into its golden loops

 

I see us walk between the railway slopes

 

Into an evening of long grass and midges,

 

Blue smoke straight up, old beds and ploughs in hedges,

 

An auction notice on an outhouse wall--

 

You with a harvest bow in your lapel,

 

 

 

 

 

Me with the fishing rod, already homesick

 

For the big lift of these evenings, as your stick

 

Whacking the tips off weeds and bushes

 

Beats out of time, and beats, but flushes

 

Nothing: that original townland

 

Still tongue-tied in the straw tied by your hand.

 

 

 

 

 

The end of art is peace

 

Could be the motto of this frail device

 

That I have pinned up on our deal dresser--

 

Like a drawn snare

 

Slipped lately by the spirit of the corn

 

Yet burnished by its passage, and still warm.

 

 

 

 

 

--Seamus Heaney, excerpt of The Harvest Bow

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:16 PM

 

 

 

January 24, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Herein will I imitate the sun,

 

Who doth permit the base contagious clouds

 

To smother up his beauty from the world,

 

That, when he please again to be himself,

 

Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,

 

By breaking through the foul and ugly mists

 

Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.

 

 

 

 

 

--Shakespeare Henry IV

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:50 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

breath-castles in the near-distance

 

sing, Statehouse, sing a pro-life song!

 

 

 

 

 

Scraggely band of hooded sweatshirts

 

and mittened applause;

 

of evangelical sensibilities singing

 

Our God is an Awesome God

 

while unfeeling toes remind of

 

toes that scarcely felt.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:49 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's something alarming about listening to the Old Dogs and realizing Waylon Jennings, who sang the following, is dead:

 

 

 

Drink ginseng tonics, you're still gonna die.

 

Try high colonics, you're still gonna die.

 

You can have yourself frozen and suspended in time,

 

But when they do thaw you out, you're still gonna die.

 

You can have safe sex, you're still gonna die.

 

You can switch to Crest, you're still gonna die.

 

You can get rid of stress, get a lot of rest,

 

Get an AIDS test, enroll in EST,

 

Move out west where it's sunny and dry

 

And you'll live to be a hundred

 

But you're still gonna die.

 

 

 

 

 

I suppose it is a Christian message in the sense of "remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return." It's actually a cheery song, if you can believe that.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:14 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Different Perspective

 

Fotos Del Apocalypse has a promising post on the war, promising because thru the eyes of Babelfish I can only make out so much. Hernan has the advantage of being farther removed from the war than we are while (hopefully) lacking the anti-American bias that many Europeans have.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:21 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll be out o' town next week; blogging will resume upon return, God-willing.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, a keeper from Deal Hudson:

 

"...it's true, we're bound to follow our conscience. However -- and this is essential -- our conscience MUST be properly formed. People who disagree with the Church's teachings tend to do so out of hand without first trying to understand those teachings. That's not following your conscience, that's following your will."

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Near parody  --via Minute Particulae

 

I can't quite believe how blatantly Mr. Weddington showed his hand, or more vulgarly, his ass. Shades of Dicken's Scrooge who when told many would die in poverty said they had better so as to "decrease the surplus population". Yikes.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:47 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting tidbit for you fellow Bob Novak afficiandos:

 

 

 

 

 

Amazon.com: How did you get your nickname, "The Prince of Darkness"?

 

 

 

 

 

Novak: It's not as interesting a story as you might think. In the late '50s, I covered the Senate for The Wall Street Journal along with a reporter for The Washington Post, and aside from the wire service reporters, we were the only two who had to stay in the Senate until the last dog died. So we'd sit there and watch the Senate and have these long discussions. I was in my late 20s and I was very pessimistic about the state of the world. I thought it was going right down into depravity, and he started calling me the Prince of Darkness because I was so gloomy. Long before I had any particular prominence, people called me the Prince of Darkness because I had a kind of a grim visage. And then when I became a columnist and a TV commentator, the whole thing fit, and it sounded like I was given the name because I was so conservative.

 

 

 

 

 

Amazon.com: Do you mind that nickname?

 

 

 

 

 

Novak: Nah, I don't care.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:55 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Denver's Letter

 

My father rarely gave me advice, so when he did it took on a Mount Sinai importance. And one piece of advice was to never, ever use drugs. I believed him; drugs were bad. So you might have an inkling of the dismay I felt when I read that another hero of mine, the singer John Denver, was accused of using drugs. At the tender age of ten, I had to reconcile the advice my father gave with the example my favorite singer gave. So I decided to write John Denver. I said that I'd read that he used hashish and marijuana, and that perhaps the song "Rocky Mountain High" and "Poems, Prayers and Promises" were not as innocent as they seemed. They had both seemed tainted to me now, especially the lyric "and pass the pipe around" in "Poems, Prayers and Promises"...

 

 

 

 

 

He wrote back about a year later. I still have the letter; it's on beautiful "John Denver stationary" with a little Rocky Mountain vista on the background of the letterheard. He neither confirmed or denied the reports I had heard but one sentence forever lingers in my mind:

 

 

 

 

 

Don't let your perceptions of me get in the way of the value the music has for you.

 

 

 

 

 

You can call it what you like, a cop-out, a dodge. But he was saying "look to the music. Don't look at me." So perhaps this is a lesson to us all - when bishops or priests or we ourselves disappoint us don't let the behavior affect our faith - look at God.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:27 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I would have given any number of neo-classical pediments for one poor battered gargoyle." - Russell Kirk

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:08 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An issue must be complicated if Bob Novak and Kate O'Beirne don't see eye-to-eye on it. The fellow Capital Gang conservative Catholics have been divided over whether war with Iraq is necessary; Bob taking a negative view and Kate a positive view.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:04 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun with Protestants: We ran into a group from the Oligarch's area of Virginia, and one of the marchers asked us, "And where do you fellowship at?" Slight pause, Oligarch correctly translates this as "What church do you belong to?" and answers, but later notes wryly, "Yeah, I 'fellowship at' [St. X], except I go there alone, and I don't talk to anyone!" Eve via Mark

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:21 PM

 

 

 

January 23, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting New Yorker fiction piece by George Saunders that I much enjoyed, although, as they say, your mileage may vary. (That will seem funnier after you have read it). I'm not sure it is entirely appropriate for a Catholic blog so the easily offended should steer clear.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:03 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting article about Russel Kirk's stories..

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:28 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proof again, as if we needed it, that those who are weak are usually the ones who defend the weak - in this case a nearly aborted baby:

 

 

 

 

 

The actor Jack Nicholson, who discovered as an adult that the woman he was raised to believe was his sister was actually his mother, who had conceived him when she was a teenager. She was advised to get an abortion, but chose life. Her son became a pro-lifer. He once said, "I'm very contra my constituency in terms of abortion because I'm positively against it. I don't have the right to any other view. My only emotion is gratitude, literally, for my life." - from The Corner

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The official Geek hierarchy courtesy NRO

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's not his feast day but St. Anthony has always been one of my favorite saints.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:02 PM

 

 

 

January 22, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Journal Entries Never Die...

 

There is nothing more prosaic than nostalgia, but can it possibly have been so long since I was there at King Library at Miami, sitting completely appalled at the graffitti scripted on the bathroom carol? Can it have been that long ago, really? The fog of mysticism was murderously dense that senior year, dense with past loves and manured by meditative time superfluously supplied. The very air in Oxford hung wet with intrigue; the senior class knew it was about to go through labor – to labor – and would be cast out like mewling youths into the working world. We were people who knew their own death dates – we walked around with heavy hearts and carrying burdensome bags of nostalgia. We of deep tans would look longingly during Linear Programming and sigh as if….as if we only had more time….Winsome lads and lasses would pass phone numbers that would soon expire. We were heavy-laden with so many memories of splendour; the head-rush of so many dreams simultaneous with so many memories. We were breathing beneath the water, that senior year, we were dead men walking. The ivory tower was turning ebony. We were no longer part of the majesty, the four-year paegeant, the four-year spectacle of potential and grace.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:41 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mosaics of the saints

 

pointillistic artworks of God

 

full of discrete points of goodness

 

while God is the dots

 

   connected.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:32 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anatomy of a Fast

 

First 25%: Mixed emotions; half-hearted enthusiasm haunted by the knowledge that there is significantly less to look forward to today. Prayer helps.

 

 

 

 

 

Second 25%: Vague sense of un-ease settles in...must resolve not to become resentful. Tell self: the fast includes a fast from irritability. Wonder if I'm as grumpy as usual if that counts since at least the fast isn't making me worse than usual. Think to self that perhaps I should've fasted from irritability alone and not worry about food.

 

 

 

 

 

Third 25%: Keep on keeping on, momentum has swung, hunger pangs remind me of His. I wonder: 'does drinking coffee break a bread and water fast?'. I rationalize drinking coffee for greater alertness - i.e. it's for my job.

 

 

 

 

 

Final 10%: That wasn't so bad... want to stretch it out some. Why was I such a wuss about it? And why did I have to drink that coffee?

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mahatma Ghandi

 

 

 

 

 

"It seems to me as clear as daylight that abortion would be a crime."

 

 

 

 

 

All Men Are Brothers: The Life and Thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi, Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 1958

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:04 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rising feminist movement was against abortion. Not even the most radical considered abortion to be an instrument of freedom for women; on the contrary, abortion was understood to be an aspect of male domination, whereby (outside marriage) men tried to conceal the results of their seduction, or (inside marriage) women behaved tragically because of the terrible conditions of a home governed by a tyrannical husband.

 

--Tim Stafford, on the women's movement circa 1870

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

The Deadly Dozen

 

****

 

 

 

 

 

a sad 1973 NY Times front page

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my guardian dear

 

I was in charge of eucharistic adoration at my parish. One day I asked one of my fellow parishioners if she knew how to find out the name of one's guardian angel. She said to pray in adoration, and God would let me know my angel's name. I prayed each Saturday for several weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

One Saturday before benediction a man entered the chapel. He was at least six feet tall and had clear blue-green eyes and long, wavy blonde hair. He knelt down in front of the Blessed Sacrament with his long arms outstretched toward heaven and started to pray the most beautiful prayers to our Lord. Everyone at adoration always prayed in silence, and we were in awe of this stranger.

 

 

 

 

 

After benediction, everyone started to leave and, as I always did, I greeted our guests. I walked up to the blonde man, introduced myself, and gave him the schedule of our weekly visits with Jesus. When I was finished, he bent down to look into my eyes, and as he shook my hand he said, 'My name is Edward. Isn't it nice to finally meet your angel?' I stood watching him walk away down behind the side of the church. I turned away for a second, and when I looked back he was gone. I have not seen him again.

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus answers even the smallest of prayers.

 

 

 

 

 

-Lisa Ladrido, in This Rock

 

 

 

 

 

I liked this on several levels...one that the prayer was answered so extravagantly - instead of coming to knowledge of the name in an impersonal, subtle experience she met him and was shown by him how to adore Christ properly. I also liked the fact that she was unafraid of taking up God's time with something the worldly would consider minutiae if they believe it at all. I shy from these type of prayers because I have a utilitarian streak a mile long, and assume it would be a presumption to ask for something like that instead of something like 'spiritual growth' or 'the conversion of Bill Mahrer'. Like eating ice cream instead asparagus. And yet...love is....lovely. It's not master-slave, but father-son.

 

 

 

 

 

If sometimes I seem bumptious to my guardian angel, I remind him or her that at least they get to go to Mass more often than the average GA.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:17 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"There was no great truth of which the medieval mind was more certain than those words from the Corinthians, 'For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face.' They never forgot that everything would be absurd if it exhausted its meaning in its immediate function and form of manifestation, and that all things extend in an important way to the world beyond."

 

--Johan Huizinga, Autumn of the Middle Ages

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:04 PM

 

 

 

January 21, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bellocian article here..

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing thru the war glass darkly...

 

At the barber stand there was talk of war. It twould seem Saddam did not lived up to treaty he signed in 1991. In fact, he did not live up to that on day one when inspectors showed up to witness the mass conflagration of his weapons and instead were greeted with an elaborate "Where's Waldo?" game. So shouldn't we have gone to war on day one? The barber said, "but that was so long ago - we didn't do anything about it then." And that's true. But is that a bad thing? Shouldn't we delay, delay, delay war as long as possible?

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:01 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Ratzinger

 

Augustine experienced this in the case of his mother: while, he with his friends, all of whom came from the academic world, stuggled helplessly with the basic problems of humanity, he was struck again and again by the interior certainty of this simple woman. With astonishment and emotion, he wrote of her: 'She stands at the pinnacle of philosophy.' -- J. Cardinal Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology, pp. 340-342.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:45 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concerning Goldhagen's Book

 

"As Lucy Dawidowicz saw in 1946, the Holocaust was the product not of Christendom, but of Christendom's collapse. The destruction of Christendom effected (1) the rejection of Catholic natural law and (2) the rise of the absolute nation-state, previously impossible because popes could depose and counterbalance kings...."

 

--Mark Riebling in National Review

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:12 PM

 

 

 

January 20, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning my ABCs...

 

You mean "OCDS" doesn't stand for "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Syndrome"? I recently learned it means "Order of Carmelites Discalced Secular", for any fellow rubes out there.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:33 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Belloc

 

For the first time, Belloc wrote to Maurice Baring on 13 April 1908, he had given up drinking beer or wine in Holy Week:

 

 

 

 

 

  ...'partly to see what it is like, partly in memory of the Passion, and partly to strengthen my will which has lately had bulgy spots on it.

 

 

 

 

 

I have now gone through thirty-six hours of this ordeal, and very interesting and curious it is...The mind and body sink to a lower plane and become fit for contemplation rather than for action: the sense of humour is also singularly weakened.'

 

 

 

 

 

In later years Belloc extended his abstinence to the whole of Lent. 'I have become a Protestant and am drinking no wine during Lent, with the most terrible results to my soul which is in permanent despair', he wrote to Chesterton in 1912. 'I now see what a fool everybody is, a truth which, until now the fumes of fermented liquor had hidden from me.'

 

 

 

 

 

-- Joseph Pearce, Old Thunder

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:45 PM

 

 

 

January 19, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flos Carmeli has a thoughtful and interesting review of Hitler's Niece, a book I've come close to acquiring on numerous occasions. Since my reversion, I've attempted to limit what I read to only what I consider "healthy", i.e. that which doesn't get in the way of God. But I don't want to be a Puritan either. (Belloc's friend Maurice Baring once wrote "..then the damned Puritans cast their stinking tarpaulin of respectability over their filthy vices and pretended to be virtuous"). I'm not sure my curtailment of certain books has borne any fruit, at least as far as spiritual improvement, but see Flos's Red Queen comment. Besides Updike, I'm also unsure of Paul Theroux, whose novel "Hotel Honolulu" looks interesting.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 6:11 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bellocian Comments

 

"Faith goes and comes, not (as the decayed world about us pretends) with certain waves of the intelligence, but as our ardour in the service of God, our chastity, our love of God and his creation, our fighting of our special sins, goes and comes. Faith goes and comes. You think it gone forever (you go to Mass, but you think it gone for ever), then in a miraculous moment it returns. In early manhood one wonders at this, in maturity one laughs at such vicissitudes...But the Church is permanent. You know what our Lord said: He said 'I have conquered the world'...With every necessity, with every apparition of tangible human and positive truth the Faith returns triumphant. By that, believe me, the world has been saved. All that great scheme is not mist or a growth, but a thing outside ourselves and time."

 

- H. Belloc, in Pearce's Old Thunder

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 6:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

 

Above the uplands drenched with dew

 

The sky hangs soft and pearly,

 

An emerald world is listening to

 

The wind that shakes the barley.

 

 

 

 

 

Above the bluest mountain crest

 

The lark is singing rarely,

 

It rocks the singer into rest,

 

The wind that shakes the barley.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, still through summers and through springs

 

It calls me late and early.

 

Come home, come home, come home, it sings,

 

The wind that shakes the barley.

 

 

 

--Katharine Tynan

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:44 AM

 

 

 

January 18, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Dilbertization of the Workplace

 

...or thoughts during a meeting

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Nall is convinced that the "next Big Novel -- OK, the next Big Comic Novel -- we all read and discuss will be about work. There's just too much material. On the other hand, it's the sort of material that takes the wind out of satire's sails, because it transcends it in every way."

 

 

 

 

 

We recently had a second pre-meeting before an upcoming overview session. Lard upon lard. These meetings have a sort of out-of-body experience to them; I could take them more seriously if everyone else took them less seriously. We all know what has to be done and could do it w/out the pageantry and project charters. The meeting made me feel old or cynical or both.

 

 

 

 

 

I think to self, “she is too old to be so enthusiastic”; I try to recall that her job depends on enthusiasm, on rallying the troops, on making management see that she is valuable player. But it still feels like farce. I feel like I’m watching a bad play. The meeting is interrupted by someone leaping up. His phone is space-age cool, like something George Jetson would have. A little blue light fired on as he flipped it up. It looked like a toy.

 

 

 

 

 

It wouldn't have felt this way years ago. I still recall those halcyon days; I projected all the sophistication and importance of the world upon my job. I showed my parents my desk and bragged, only half-joking, that this is where the important decisions are made.

 

 

 

 

 

The truth is that most work outside the home seems unutterably small, with the exception of ministry work, the professions, and art. Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief. Priest, prophet, poet. And yet all work is meaningful, by definition, because work is done by humans and humans are of inestimable value. A shoe-maker’s work is as valuable to God as a CEOs. But I have trouble getting this construct into my head though. I make the linkage intellectually but… Perhaps I’m bastardizing the corporate experience – without ambition to advance it becomes a farce. They can become exercised over minutiae because they are hungry – they want to get to the next level. Strip “the game” from the corporate rat race and you’re left with…what?

 

 

 

 

 

And yet these are surely just the musings of the terribly spoiled. What about the Mexican migrant worker who sends every dime back to Mexico so that his wife can join him? What about the starving in Africa? They would love a farcical job.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:36 PM

 

 

 

January 17, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE FACE: DOORWAY TO THE SOUL

 

Catholic–minded Christians favor rituals and set prayers; Evangelical-minded Christians think these are insincere, that a prayer or action must come from the heart, and that set prayers and rites are dead. Samuel Johnson, good Anglican that he was, disapproved of the Presbyterian version of this attitude in his Journey to the Western Isles.

 

 

 

 

 

"The Naked Face" by Malcolm Gladwell in the August 5 New Yorker explores the meaning of facial expressions. They are universal and largely involuntary. A trained or naturally intuitive person can detect a liar, and much else, by facial expressions.

 

 

 

 

 

When I worked as a federal investigator, we were trained to pick up verbal and facial clues of liars - nothing as subtle as the article discusses, but useful anyway. To practice we had a film and transcript of Ted Kennedy explaining what he did at Chappaquiddick. We were told to look for signs that he was lying. Most of us stopped at 100.

 

A current researcher (who was pro-Clinton) noticed that Clinton had characteristic facial expressions. The researcher contacted Clinton’s communications director and said, “Look, Clinton’s got this way of rolling his eyes along with a certain expression, and what it means is ‘I am a bad boy.’ I don’t think it is a good thing. I could teach him how not to do that in two or three hours.” Clinton refused. In any case the expression was revelatory.

 

 

 

 

 

I am always getting into trouble because of my facial expressions, I don’t suffer fools gladly, and even when I keep my mouth shut, my expression must give me away, because people get angry with me after they have said something stupid. They suspect it is stupid, and see by my face that I think it is extremely stupid.

 

However, returning to the Catholic-Evangelical disagreement, researchers have also discovered that facial expressions can create the corresponding emotions.

 

A researcher asked one group to remember a distressing situation, and monitored their heart beat, etc. They showed signs of stress. He then asked another group to make a facial expression of distress without thinking of anything. They showed the same physiological signs of distress as the first group. One group held a pen tightly between their lips, which made it impossible to smile. They were shown cartoons. They were not amused. Another group held a pen in their mouths in such a way that they were forced to smile. They found the cartoons hilarious.

 

 

 

 

 

Pascal (I believe) advised someone who said he had trouble believing in Christianity to take holy water on entering a church, and that belief would follow. Our external actions tend to create the corresponding internal attitudes.

 

 

 

 

 

Catholics: You are right, actions create the emotions.

 

 

 

 

 

Protestants: You are right, the heart will out no matter how hard we try to conceal it.

 

 

 

 

 

However, if a person has decided something is right – that he should venerate God or love his wife - but for some reason doesn’t feel the emotions he ought to feel, he can perform the actions, bowing and kneeling, or kissing and bringing flowers. These actions tend to create the emotions, and are not insincere, because the will has made a decision based on the truth, and wants to bring the heart into conformity with realty. This is the definition of truth and truthfulness. So High Chuchmen are a little more right than Low Churchmen (who in any case often have their own unacknowledged rituals). --Leon Podles

 

 

 

 

 

Postcript: Minute Particulae blogged about The Naked Face back in August.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:54 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ratzinger Quote via Olde Oligarch

 

On the other hand, a society and a humanity will not long endure in which persons in service careers -- in hosptials, for instance -- no longer find meaning in their service [because it is not intellectual], and universal irritation, mutual suspicion, destroy life in common. God's revelation was to the simple -- not out of resentment against the great, as Nietzsche would have it -- but because they possess that precious naivete that is open to truth and not subject to the temptations of nihilism. This should be the foundation of the great respect the Christian should feel to those who are simple of heart. - Cardinal Ratzinger

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:24 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll always be your beast of burden

 

Overheard at a restaurant, table of eight next to us, one grey-haired couple and two young couples. Older gent gives older lady a peck on the cheek, after which she appears pained and then warns, "Oh, men always want sex - no matter how old they are!".

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:39 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting post from Minute Particulars. Read the whole thing, but if not read this:

 

The "credibility of others" is woven so tightly within the human act of faith that practically speaking it's inextricable from any notion of faith in God alone. Our faith is in God alone, but the manner in which we become disposed to such an assent very much involves the dynamic of believing in the testimony of other human beings so that we can, as Pieper puts it, "participate in the knowledge of a knower."

 

 

 

 

 

Here's where the shoe pinches a bit for me in the issue of how we might respond to those who have "lost faith" because of the actions of others. Of course faith has God as its object. And indeed faith is ultimately a gift. And yes our genuine assent requires the grace of the Holy Spirit. But all of this is sort of highlighting the end of a very long and nuanced theological argument. It's a response to a denial that God is the Source and End of all that is, was, or will be, including the assent of faith in each of us when it occurs; but I'm not sure it's a response to the despair many find themselves in when they are betrayed by priests and bishops.

 

 

 

 

 

I think, deep down, everyone wants to be a saint since that's what we were created for. The restlessness that St. Augustine wrote about is a restlessness for sanctity because sanctity is a greater oneness with God. But we want to be saints without the work, or, if work is necessary, then it be done with the surety that the goal (sanctity) will be achieved. Thus when my mother says that in the 1950s Catholics were not any holier than Protestants, she was also saying, "not eating meat on Friday and making every go to Mass on Sunday or they will go to hell" did not work, i.e. did not make them saintly. This is sort of what Nietsche said when he said, "if Christians are redeemed, why don't they look redeemed?".

 

 

 

 

 

Similarly, if priests, bishops, and monks are not any holier than the average Joe (despite their access to the sacraments and the arduous journey that includes celibacy requirements and extensive biblical/spiritual learning), then some wash their hands of it because they see that the arduousness of the journey does not even guarantee the destination - holiness. But ...as St. Peter bluntly said, "Oh Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life." It is folly to ignore the paths the saints since you cannot get there without those steps, even if there is no guarantee you will arrive if you do take them.

 

 

 

 

 

A Paradox from Minute Particulars:

 

In theory God can reveal Himself to anyone without our efforts to evangelize. But a corollary to this would seem to be that in theory we can't come between God and another human being. I think these both have to be true lest we distort Creator and creature or limit the power of God. Yet, and I admit this is a strange thing to say, we can't live as if these theoretical notions are true. If we do I think we commit the sin of presumption. We can't presume that God doesn't require our efforts to spread the Good News, even though somehow we know that He doesn't. And we can't presume that our sinfulness won't affect another human being's ability to know God, even though somehow we know that nothing we do could ever finally hinder God.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:26 PM

 

 

 

January 16, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More from the Irish Page

 

An Ghaeilge

 

Is mise an Ghaeilge

 

Is mise do theanga

 

Is mise do chultúr

 

D'Úsáid na Filí mé

 

D'Úsáid na huaisle

 

D'Úsáid na daoine mé

 

is d'Úsáid na lenaí

 

Go bródúil a bhí siad

 

Agus mise faoi réim.

 

 

 

Ach tháinig an strainséir

 

Chuir sé faoi chois mé

 

Is rud ní ba mheasa

 

Nior mhaith le mo chlann mé

 

Anois táim lag

 

Anois táim tréith

 

Ach fós táim libh

 

Is beidh mé go beo.

 

Tóg suas mo cheann

 

Cuir áthas ar mo chroí

 

Labhraígí mé

 

Ó labhraígí mé!

 

 

 

 The Irish Language

 

I am Irish

 

I am your language

 

I am your culture

 

The poets used me

 

The nobles used me

 

The people used me

 

and the children used me

 

Proud they were

 

And I flourished

 

 

 

But the stranger came

 

He suppressed me

 

Something worse than that was

 

my own people rejected me

 

Now I am weak

 

Now I am feeble

 

But still I am with you

 

and I will be forever.

 

Raise up my head

 

Put joy in my heart

 

Speak me

 

Oh speak me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:29 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun spills despite the clouds

 

into my winter hovel

 

agilely missing pregnant chads

 

radiant excesses at random intervals

 

keeps me at the bay.

 

 

 

 

 

grey-stoke stick-trees

 

look upended, leaves planted;

 

only the roots show.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:24 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minimalist poem about College Life

 

 

 

 

 

Vivarin®,

 

beer.

 

Repeat.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:22 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...And Poetry

 

 

 

 

 

excerpts from Nine Little Goats

 

It's a cock's foot of a night:

 

If I go on hanging my lightheartedness

 

Like a lavender coat on a sunbeam's nail,

 

It will curdle into frogspawn.

 

The clock itself has it in for me,

 

Forever brandishing the splinters of its hands,

 

Choking on its middle-aged fixations.

 

 

 

 

 

Darkness will be dropping in

 

In the afternoons without an appointment,

 

A wolf's bite at the windowpane,

 

And wolves too the clouds

 

In the sheepish sky.

 

 

 

 

 

---Núala Ní Dhomhnaill, translated from the Irish by Medbh McGuckian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Núala Ní Dhomhnaill (NOO-la Nee GO-nal), Ireland's foremost present-day poet writing in Irish, was born in 1952 in Lancashire. In 1957, her parents returned to Ireland -- to the Dingle Gaeltacht in Kerry, where she grew up. She writes all her poetry in Irish because she believes that Irish is a language of enormous elasticity and emotional sensitivity; of quick and hilarious banter. Many international scholars have commented that this language of ragged peasants "seems always on the point of bursting into poetry." (Dhomhnaill, 2)- via the Irish Page

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:14 PM

 

 

 

January 15, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Irish Song Wednesday

 

 

 

 

 

A Man You Don't Meet Every Day

 

I have acres of land I have men at command

 

I have always a shilling to spare

 

So be easy and free when you're drinking with me

 

I'm a man you don't meet every day

 

 

 

 

 

So come fill up your glasses with brandy and wine

 

Whatever it costs I will pay

 

So be easy and free when you're drinking with me

 

I'm a man you don't meet every day...

 

 

 

 

 

--Traditional

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:03 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wherefore Mosquitoes?

 

Came across this quotation...

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps the real question is not why does God allow for physical evil, but why did God create us in a material world? Some suggest that God created us in an imperfect material world so that we would not rely on ourselves but come to love and rely on the perfect God (2 Cor 1:8-9). St. Irenaeus of Lyons (190 A.D.) wrote:

 

 

 

 

 

"...where there is no exertion, there is no appreciation. Sight would not be so desirable if we did not know what a great evil blindness is. Health, too, is made more precious by the experience of sickness; light by comparison with darkness; life with death. In the same way, the heavenly kingdom is more precious to those who have known the earthly one. But the more precious it is, the more we love it; and the more we love it, the more glorious shall we be in the presence of God. God, therefore, permitted all these things, so that we, instructed by them all, might in future be prudent in all things, and, wisely taught to love God, might abide in that perfect love." [Against Heresies IV,37,7] -- from A Catholic Response

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:58 PM

 

 

 

January 14, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can certainly see the appeal of Tan Publishers. Their newsletter arrive/brochure arrived in the mail today and though I rarely buy anything I find the mere reading of it enriching and oddly comforting. I wouldn't mind being a Catholic fundamentalist - we'll all be fundamentalists in the next life - i.e. everything will be black and white and much clearer. Tan has a lot of edifying books that are not Fundie books, don't get me wrong. There are summaries of the Summa and lives of saints and others. But what prompted this post was this nugget from the letter:

 

 

 

If you are going to read the Bible, get a copy of the Douay-Rheims Bible and read the real Bible. In my opinion, it is the only really accurate English translation of the Bible there is. Every verse evokes the authorship of Almighty God, and many times just a sentence or a clause from the Douay-Rheims will bring the answer to a question that has been bothering you for a long time.

 

 

 

 

 

That's a pretty effective sell. Never mind the great break-throughs in biblical research and manuscripts that have occurred since the Douay-Rheims. It's our KJV.

 

 

 

 

 

Moreover, the publisher tackles the question: Why read the spiritual classics?

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things we certainly need to engage in is spiritual reading, for excellent spiritual reading-- such as found in the powerful books from TAN - gives us 1) the adult knowledge of the Faith that we need in order to practice it well, plus 2) the motivation to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds reasonable.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:21 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting post from Doxos (via Dylan) on the infinite distance between the Irish and the Irish-American. Alas, perhaps only landscape and songs like Kevin Barry remain. If I went back to the olde sod, I would never go to Dublin. I would go to Belfast and Northern Ireland where perhaps vestiges of yesterday can be found. At best, touring can be like time travel; at worst the homogenizing of culture and self-consciousness that the tourist trade induces makes it unpalatable. Truly foreign cultures become more attractive, albeit more deadly. A visit to say Damascus or Baghdad would be a real treat because it is there we can find a difference (at the cost of many of them hating your guts, a small price to pay). Certainly my yen to travel has decreased steadily as I've approached middle-age.

 

 

 

 

 

A WASPish English professor at school raved about how strange it is that whites want to go to England or Ireland and blacks to Africa and Asians to Asia. He was a connoisuer of Japanese culture and constantly preached the gospel of learning about and traveling to truly "other" countries.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:12 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

excerpt from Étude Réaliste

 

A baby's eyes, ere speech begin,

 

Ere lips learn words or sighs,

 

Bless all things bright enough to win

 

A baby's eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

Their glance might cast out pain and sin,

 

Their speech make dumb the wise,

 

By mute glad godhead felt within

 

A baby's eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

--Algernon Charles Swinburne

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:17 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hokie Pundit laments the fact that some branches of Christianity do not have open Communion and that some get unduly hung up on the use or non-use of alcohol for Communion. An ex-priest I know (as well as a very close loved one) also think the RCC's Communion policy distasteful. Hence this question interested me.

 

 

 

 

 

I think CS Lewis would beg to differ. He urged no one to stand in the hallway of Christianity, but to pick a room (i.e. denomination or branch) and live its tenets and particularities. To have an open Communion, it seems you'd have to have it in the hallway, metaphorically-speaking.

 

 

 

 

 

There are some things even the Pope has no power to change - such as the use of wine in Communion. What is special about wine? Or what is special about water, when used in Baptism? Besides that Jesus used both, there's a sense in which water, for example, is not merely a symbol of cleansing but was created firstly for Baptism and only secondarily for thirst-quenching and cleansing. In other words, instead of thinking that God appropriated water as a symbol since it had cleansing and thirst-quenching properties, consider that He imagined primarily for the sacrament and that secondary uses were applied so that its real use in Baptism might be better understood.

 

 

 

 

 

For those who think, "who cares? it's just a material substance", think about the universe. That an invisible God created a material universe leaves us wondering why, but the fact that he did makes it, by default, important. The fact that God-made-man decided to attach an importance to common everyday objects is determinative, because God alone determines whether something is important.

 

 

 

***

 

The thing not too many people like to bring up is that Catholics believe, or are supposed to believe, that Communion is something entirely different from what an evangelical would believe it to be. Thus I'm not sure how you can have an "open Communion" when the very thing itself is the object of dispute.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:40 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jaded by Beauty

 

A professor friend of mine who used to teach college in Appalachia wrote to me recently: "When I moved to the Tennessee mountains, I was always stunned at how much kids raised there could not see the beauty that was all around them, and all of the amazing kid stuff there was to do in mountains and lakes and waterfalls and music and everything. A small place, but a wonderful place. But the students from there said they never, ever thought of that. They were comparing their lives with MTV, and advertising, and HBO, and the products of New York and Los Angeles."

 

--R. Dreher, NRO

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:26 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ode to Libraries

 

"Those buildings were oases, elegant, cathedral-like spaces where you could sit for hours and hours. You could go to the bathroom and find a fresh roll of toilet paper in the dispenser, and you could go scavenging for the latest novel by Toni Morrison or Robert Stone, and it would actually be there, waiting for you to come and claim it. I loved libraries fiercely. They were gratifying, inviting, intellectual, clean: everything that the rest of the world all too often was not...

 

 

 

 

 

...a few years ago I became a member of the New York Society Library, where they actually know my name and whose elegant rooms make me feel as though I'm living out a scene in a Henry James novel."

 

----Meg Wolitzer, via bookslut

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:28 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation."

 

--2 Peter 3:3-4

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:50 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News you can use

 

My friend has four children under the age of six, and seems to often be the recipient of vomit from sick kids. This happened to him over the weekend, but then he remembered his reading on serial killers. He is a movie buff who wanted to know how close to reality Hannibal Lector was and so he came across a serial killers website and found that some of them put Vicks Vaporub under their nose in order to deal with unpleasant odors. My friend remembered this, quickly grabbed the Vicks, and was spared from wretching himself (and was able to clean up the voluminous vomit w/out incident). Pick Vicks - the choice of serial killers everywhere.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:33 PM

 

 

 

January 13, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Two-Sided Equation

 

Where John baptized with plain water, Jesus added the Holy Spirit.

 

When He was given plain water, He made fine wine.

 

When He was given five loaves and two fish, He multiplied them.

 

When He is given bread and wine, he makes his Body and Blood.

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

Minute Particulae has a particularly bracing post reminding us that things are different with us, post-Pentecost. St. Paul makes this point over and over and the Church teaches it as well - that we are fundamentally different, living in the new Dispensation. Not only that many of the old rules don't apply - meaning some of the rites of the Old Law such as dietary disciplines and circumcision - but that we are given a gift that they did not have. This is easy for the pessimist to forget. Whether we feel it, or see it in history, is quite irrelevant. As MP says, "Our baptism has freed us from such things. Our task as a people of God baptized in the Holy Spirit is radically different from John the Baptist; we are to proclaim the Good News of the Risen Lord as his friends, and as sons and daughters of the Father."

 

 

 

 

 

My mother and I once had the discussion abou this - she said the world seems not to have changed, human nature is such as it always is (a different point!) and that the Post-Pentecost world is not much better than pre-Pentecost. I argued contra, and also sent this rather blunt query to EWTN's online guru for more. Here is his passionate reply, which I sent to mom:

 

 

 

Q: Why does the world post-Pentecost look just as bad as the world pre-Pentecost? The Bible said that the Holy Spirit would usher in a new age but it looks much the same.

 

 

 

 

 

Answer by Fr. John Echert: Do not Imagine for a moment that the world redeemed by Christ is no better than the world apart from Christ. We have inherited a world in which the Gospel spread rapidly from one end to the other, as is evident from the early writings which comprise the New Testament. In a matter of a couple decades the Good News of Jesus Christ and the knowledge of the one true God began at its center in Jerusalem and had reached the center of the Empire of the time at Rome. What would the world look like without Jesus Christ? Think for a moment the visible indications of the breaking in of God's Kingdom. Jesus cast out demons, restored sight to the blind, gave hearing to the deaf, raised the dead to life. The physical miracle were authentic and signs of a deeper reality: Jesus had power over sin and death. Imagine the difference had Jesus Christ not risen from the dead. You would have no hope for eternal life and would see only darkness in the world. By now the darkness may have overtaken any natural hope for life and destroyed any natural goodness. Given modern methods of warfare, the world might by now have destroyed itself or be barely habitable. Yes, Thomas doubted and Saul persecuted the Church. But they were won over by the grace of God experienced in a visible manifestation of the Risen Christ. For the rest of us, we depend upon faith and the witness of those who personally experienced the Lord in the Gospel period and the Apostolic Church.

 

 

 

 

 

What a blessing for us, undeserved by accepted in faith. Finally, let me give you an example of a difference between pre-Pentecost and post-Pentecost times: 14:66 And as Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the maids of the high priest came; 14:67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him, and said, "You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus." 14:68 But he denied it, saying, "I neither know nor understand what you mean." And he went out into the gateway. 14:69 And the maid saw him, and began again to say to the bystanders, "This man is one of them." 14:70 But again he denied it. And after a little while again the bystanders said to Peter, "Certainly you are one of them; for you are a Galilean." 14:71 But he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, "I do not know this man of whom you speak." 14:72 And immediately the cock crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had said to him, "Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." And he broke down and wept. 5:26 Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people. 5:27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, 5:28 saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us." 5:29 But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. 5:30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 5:31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 5:32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." Believe me, you cannot imagine the darkness and hopelessness that would by now envelope the world, had not the Son of God taken upon Himself our humanity and redeemed us from sin and death. Yes, human freedom remains and so does sin, since each person has the ability to choose sin. But grace has made an incredible difference; a grace which does not compel but works to wear down our resistance and find a place in our hearts and minds.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:31 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I like to know what people are reading so I will share the earth-shaking news that verweile doch was very, very good to me last night. Enjoyed large, languid quantities of Walker Percy's "The Last Gentleman", read the latest issue of Crisis, which included an edifying article on Evelyn Waugh (which led me to pick up the old $2 Brideshead Revisited copy I had found at a library sale last year and plow into it). Also read Bud MacFarlane's "Conceived Without Sin", which I had bought at the Cathedral Shrine shop in Washington ostensibily for my sister, wondering if it were a bit too apologetic in nature. She enjoys mass market fiction and sometimes wavers in her commitment to the Church, so it seemed a kinda/sorta good fit but I don't want to come off as some sort of huckster since that can have an equal and opposite reaction...

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memories of a Breakfast Drink

 

Tang, sprang plain-sung against the tongue

 

orange pistoles blasting orange twang.

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Whine

 

Nature dieth

 

we acclimate,

 

accustom our arses to the

 

furniture of our minds;

 

live there awhile

 

eschew the outdoors

 

till numbness ensues;

 

till the summer sun seems sudden-garish;

 

like a drunk at the symphony.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:58 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting item from dead tree National Review

 

[L.Brent] Bozell faulted the West for having accepted too thoroughly Aristotle's declaration that the intellect is what truly distinguishes man from other creatures: 'The most exquisitely equipped 'rational animal' could not, in virtue of that equipment, believe, or hope, or love supernaturally. Reason does none of this things, nor can it explain them.'

 

--Michael Potemra

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:45 AM

 

 

 

January 11, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got this from Davey's mommy, who got it from others...

 

"Nothing gives one a more spuriously good conscience than keeping rules, even if there has been a total absence of all real charity and faith."

 

 

 

 

 

And from Thomas Merton, via Dylan:

 

The pleasure of a good act is something to be remembered -- not in order to feed our complacency but in order to remind us that virtuous actions are not only possible and valuable, but that they can become easier and more delightful and more fruitful than the acts of vice which oppose and frustrate them.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:32 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cow's Heads in Formaldehyde   ...Peggy Noonan's Latest

 

I have a theory that liberals and leftists prefer their leaders complicated, and conservatives prefer their leaders uncomplicated. I think the left expects a good leader to have an exotic or intricate personality or character. (A whole generation of liberal journalists grew up reading Jack Newfield and Pete Hamill on Bobby Kennedy's sense of tragedy, Murray Kempton on the bizarreness that was LBJ, and a host of books with names like "Nixon Agonistes" and "RFK at Forty," and went into journalism waiting for the complicated politicians of their era to emerge. They are, that is, pro-complication because their ambition to do great work like the great journalists of the 1960s seems to demand the presence of complicated political figures.)

 

 

 

 

 

Liberals like their leaders interesting. I always think this may be because some of them have not been able to fully engage the idea of a God, and tend to fill that hole in themselves with politics and its concerns. If the world of government and politics becomes your god, and yields a supergod called a president, you want that god to be interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

Conservatives, on the other hand, don't look for god in government, for part of being a conservative is holding the conviction that there is no god in government. They like complicated personalities in their TV shows and from actors and opera singers, but they want steadiness and a vision they can agree with from their presidents. Actually I think conservatives want their presidents the way they want their art: somewhere in the normal range. They don't like cow's heads suspended in formaldehyde and don't understand that as high art; by 1998 they thought Bill Clinton was the political version of a cow's head in formaldehyde, and they didn't like that either.

 

 

 

 

 

And so my liberal friends say: Why do people like Mr. Bush? And they want an interesting answer. But I do think part of the answer is: Because he's not complicated and perhaps not even especially interesting as a person. We just love that.

 

-- Peggy Noonan

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:46 PM

 

 

 

January 10, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mining for Gold in a Sea of Chaff *

 

Bruce Springsteen is out-of-date. His song, "Fifty-seven Channels But Nothin's On" should be "Two-hundred Channels But Nothin's On". But amid this tsunami of dross, this tornado of torpitude, I've found one show I like to watch - CBS's "The Guardian". And this season they have really cool theme song, Empire In My Mind by the Wallflowers.

 

 

 

 

 

One internet reviewer opined:

 

...But the song is another good one, with Jakob [the song writer] taking a long, hard look at himself, and finding good and bad, but sounding surprised by exactly how much bad there really is.

 

 

 

 

 

I cannot deny/There's a darkness that's inside/I am guilty by design/And now I realize that temptation's made me blind/To the empire in my mind.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm assuming that this empire represents all that he aspires to be, all that he's convinced himself he's already close to being. But upon closer inspection, he realizes where he thought there was order, there is chaos, and even crime, and his biggest fear is this: I'm afraid someday I'll find/There's no empire in my mind. No good at all inside him. And while this may not be autobiographical, it's certainly a theme we can all relate, including Jakob, obviously.

 

 

 

 

 

* - entrant for 2003 "Mixed Metaphor" in a Catlicker Blog Award (MMCBA)

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:25 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kairos and Disputations have had good posts on the all-important but infrequently asked question: 'Is it true?'. It is understandable how few ask that question, because the answer simply may not, in their view, be "survivable". In other words, to take an example off the shelf, the gay person cannot really ask, 'is it true that God does not approve of homosexual acts?' because that would require a scenerio of life (i.e. one without sex) that is simply unsurvivable. (The obligatory disclaimer is of course that this "unsurvivability" is a perception, not reality). Christians are accused by atheists of this (see Gov. Ventura's "weakminded" comments). Many Protestants want the assurance of "once saved, always saved", because not having that is unsurvivable (Luther, for example, is said to have had a problem with scrupulosity). Thus we have to try to force God into our pre-conceived notions, mostly because the stakes are so high. I remember in my licentitious days thinking, "I can't believe God would send me to hell for this. I simply refuse to believe it, because then everyone I know is going to hell...". Now I think more along the lines of, "hey I better improve, before I 'get improved'" - i.e. if I don't develop the virtue of patience, it will perhaps be given to me by virtue of something catastrophic.

 

 

 

 

 

We see even scientific "truth" bent for our purposes. E. Michael Jones in "Degenerate Moderns" provided an eye-opening look at the hidden motivations of many of the leading figures of modernity. Most of those profiled were/are revered for their seeming objectivity, but Mr. Jones shows the faulty moral framework that caused them to have huge ulterior motives in bending truth to their own particular problem.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:39 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To share another's affliction is the pluperfect way to care about them. In other words, if I have a heart condition, I cannot help but be extremely sympathetic to those who have a heart condition. There is little merit in that, it being a purely human phenomenon, but it seems we should take advantage of whatever natural advantages we have. This is a preface to saying how moved I was by this post from the Kairos guy. Thank God for Confession, where hope is renewed. I was reading the second chapter of Acts the other day and it was marvelously consoling. Reading about Christ's power is something that gives one hope, in a world where oft times God whispers. To know that you are not alone is helpful, close to the point that 'to be understood is to be cured'.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:28 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recall that one of the blogs suggested the practice of designating their daily rosary for someone. I've found it useful that if I was angry at someone that day, they automatically become the designatee for that day. This has the salutary effect of providing even more incentive not to become angry.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Tidbit from the Cath Convert Billboard

 

Q: Surely, as Catholics, we have access to much more grace than the average Israelite had under the Old Covenant, so why aren't we much better morally?

 

 

 

 

 

A: One guess would be that we live in an age that is much more conducive to sin. Think about it, it's just as easy to type "www.redhotporn.com" as to type "www.catholic-convert.com." The internet gives easy access to all kinds of sin. Indeed, seemingly everything about our popular culture encourages materialism and sin. The very idea of sin is down-played and laughed at. Those who try to practice self-denial are looked on as bizarre and fanatical.

 

 

 

 

 

Our modern technology might also play a part. The more climate-controlled and comfortable our lives become, the less we feel the need for God. I believe one of the saints said that weather was the best penance because it comes to us directly from the hand of God. But we live in an age where it's possible never to see the weather if we so choose. We are insulated and isolated from life itself to a much greater degree than an Israelite in a tent who lives or dies depending upon when God sends rain.

 

I would also guess - though I don't know - that where grace abounds, demonic attack and temptation abounds as well. When God steps up His activity, I suspect that Satan steps up his, too.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, I don't think our free will is much different than that of the ancient Israelites. Indeed, the human condition never really changes, which is why the Bible is as relevant to us today as it was when it was written.

 

--www.catholic-convert.com

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:31 PM

 

 

 

January 9, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Truth & Hubris

 

I was struck by this comment on Amy's blog concerning Anne Lamott:

 

A sinner on a radiant trajectory toward Jesus is in better shape than a "solid on all the disputed questions" type who's come to a dead stop. Watch this girl.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm fascinated by the connection between knowledge of the truth and hubris. There is a tendency to feel smug or proud of the truth one believes, be it the Catholic who feels he/she is better because they have "the truth" or the Protestant who believes likewise, or Christians over Muslims and vice-versa. Perhaps the reason the truth at times seems muddled is intentional on God's part - to prevent us from becoming insufferable.

 

 

 

 

 

Matt 13: "He replied, 'The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "`You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear."

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:17 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sad Death of Jack Kerouac

 

In 1969, the last year of his life, Jack and Gabrielle, and Jack's third wife, Stella, lived in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was a retirement town, and Jack seemed retired, spending most of his time indoors, drinking Johnny Walker Red and reading National Review, the Bible, Pascal, and Voltaire. He was watching television the morning of October 20, eating tuna fish out of the can, sipping whiskey, and scribbling a note. There was a pain in his stomach. He made it to the bathroom in time to vomit a waterfall of blood. His liver, long cirrhotic, had finally hemorrhaged. The blood filled Jack's chest and welled up into his throat.

 

 

 

 

 

He was rushed to St. Anthony's hospital. He remained unconscious while doctors operated on him and pumped thirty pints of blood into his body. He died an alcoholic's death, drowning in his own blood, at 5:30 a.m. the next morning.

 

--E. Micheal Smith

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:12 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him. - Acts 2 38:39

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:30 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lamonttisms

 

Then Lamott is back to what she does best: proclaiming the grace of God. "But there wasn't a single thing that I'd do that Jesus would say, 'Forget it, you're out, I've had it with you, try Buddha!' - Christianity Today article

 

 

 

 

 

Now, even if you have problems with Lamott for whatever reason you might, you really have to admit that this last statement is one to sort of stop you in your tracks and force you to re-evaluate your sense of what faith is all about and how tempting it is for religiously-minded folk to decree that other sinners (whose sins are, somehow, worse than the religious folks' sins) must be, have to be, cut off from God's grace. - Amy Welborn

 

 

 

 

 

I recall reading Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear it Away and, truth be told, not enjoying the ride too much. But the ending! Wow...what a powerful ending...

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:15 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness

 

May toss him to My breast.

 

--G. Herbert

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:09 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cardinal Newman thoughts...

 

Another must-read post at Disputations here. Makes sense to look at history first in attempting to determine if something is true. Certainly, in the examples he gives, papal documents are not going to be convincing to outsiders...I googled for these interesting Cardinal Newman comments:

 

 

 

 

 

'The more one examines the Councils, the less satisfactory they are.....[but] the less satisfactory they, the more majestic and trust-winning, and the more imperatively necessary, is the action of the Holy See.'.......

 

 

 

 

 

Newman also wrote to the Guardian sharply denying the allegation of J.M. Capes that he did not really believe in papal infallibility, and citing a number of passages in his writings, beginning with the Essay on Development, for more or less explicit avowals of the doctrine...... "As regards the relation between history and theology, Newman is unequivocal in his criticism of Dollinger and his followers......'I think them utterly wrong in what they have done and are doing; and, moreover, I agree as little in their view of history as in their acts.' It is not a matter of questioning the accuracy of their historical knowledge, but 'their use of the facts they report' and 'that special stand-point from which they view the relations existing between the records of History and the communications of Popes and Councils.' Newman sums up the essence of the problem: 'They seem to me to expect from History more than History can furnish.' The opposite was true of the Ultramontanes, who simply found history an embarrassing inconvenience....

 

 

 

 

 

But he wondered why 'private judgment' should 'be unlawful in interpreting Scripture against the voice of authority, and yet be lawful in the interpretation of history?'....No Catholic doctrine could be fully proved (or, for that matter, disproved) by historical evidence - 'in all cases there is a margin left for the exercise of faith in the word of the Church.' Indeed, anyone 'who believes the dogmas of the Church only because he has reasoned them out of History, is scarcely a Catholic.'

 

--from Ian Ker's John Henry Newman: A Biography via Dave Armstrong's site.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:11 PM

 

 

 

January 8, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At last...I understand why Bill Buckner missed that ground ball. Kudos to Dylan.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:12 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"You know what I love about the Irish? The way they don't seem to be after your money. Everyone else in the world is."

 

--P. McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, the Irish are merely behind the times. But one can hope they will not be assimilated too.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:12 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adams quote

 

The appeal of young women was exceedingly strong; an elderly John Adams wrote that he was of an 'amorous disposition from as early as ten or 11' but kept himself in rein. 'No virgin or matron ever had cause to blush at the sight of me...My children may be assured that no illegitimate brother or sister exists or ever existed'.

 

--D. McCullough's John Adams

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fictional Wednesday

 

The local pawn shop was having a President’s Day sale. All items 50% off, stolen items 75% off. I went because I had been recently retired, right-sized or otherwise been acted upon instead of acting on. My services would not be required. I lugged a sousaphone carefully through a door decorated with bars.

 

 

 

 

 

I’d had the tuba since high school but hadn’t played it since. My lips were out of shape and my lung power suspect, the result of a pack-a-day habit that had begun in my 20s until by 40 I was shivering outside my workplace, experiencing the odd sensation of feeling both good and bad simultaneously. Like when you cut yourself shaving in a nice, hot shower.

 

 

 

 

 

The tuba had been in cold storage for over 30 years, but with its sale imminent, nostalgia overcame me and I began making loud, flatulent notes. Soon I was playing the melody line of every John Phillip Sousa song I could recall. The next day I was at it again attempting Vivaldi's "Four Seasons”. It sounded like a German grocer on speed.

 

 

 

 

 

LaTonya Baumgartner was the proprietor. I’d expected someone seedier, like Adrian’s brother Pauli in Rocky. She grimaced when she saw the tuba.

 

 

 

 

 

“How much for this?” I said.

 

 

 

 

 

“You know, this shop is kinda small. That would take up a lot of room. Do you want to find something in trade, something equally big?”

 

 

 

 

 

I looked around numbly. The sad collection of misfit toys looked morosely back at me, like one large Evil Eye. Guns and jewelry filled the shop, much of it traded for drug or booze money. Trading the permanent for the temporary.

 

 

 

 

 

“Well, I could use some cash…”

 

 

 

 

 

“How about that foosball table?”

 

 

 

 

 

She eventually agreed to take the tuba for $20.

 

 

 

 

 

I spent the sundown on Mallory Square where the best entertainment was the sunset but where the people-watching was good too. There was the tight-rope walking dog named Mo, and his shaggier owner. Later at a karokee bar called “Two Friends” I discovered the etymology of the word "Karokee": it's the Japanese word meaning “those who lack the embarassment gene”.

 

 

 

 

 

There was the ice princess in the short skirt singing irenic, ironic songs like “Black Velvet” and “Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz”. She accepted applause as her birthright. There was Bunny, the scared little girl who gripped the microphone like a lifeline and your heart went out to her as she stood rigid as a statuette. There was the tall and angular-faced Ric Ricardo, still possessing boy-next-door-looks despite grazing the north pastures of the 40s. He sang standards so old they’re coming back in style, and he also sang “Song, Sung Blue” straight-up, irony-free.

 

 

 

 

 

The emcee for the evening was friendly and wore his poker face even during the worse song fractures, which apparently must be part of the job description.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:09 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Various & sundry

 

It seems to me that as notions of God become more specific and more loving, they become harder to believe but more consoling. It would seem to be an act of faith to believe that all this is an accident. To believe that a billion-billion stars exist and that we naturally perceive the beauty in those stars and the trees and seas purely by evolutionary means is hard to believe. To believe that the level of complexity in the earth started with an ameoba takes, well, an act of faith. Thus it is a miracle that God created the world, but it would also be a miracle if it happened by accident - either way is a leap. But to believe in a loving God is different from believing in a creating God, and it seems to me that believing in the Jewish notion of God is easier than believing in divinity of Jesus because it is harder to believe that God would take human form. An omnipotent God is more in line with our expectations. God went from being nameless ("I am who am") to taking human form to taking the form of bread, each requiring a greater seeming humility of God and each requiring greater faith on our part but offering the consolation of greater closeness.

 

 

 

 

 

We have things backwards - we want mysticism so as to love God more fully, whereas mysticism grows out of a love for God and the willingness to suffer. I wish I spent as much time exploring Christ's wounds as I do my own ("suffering and sorrow are proportional to love" wrote St. Catherine of Siena).

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:38 PM

 

 

 

January 7, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

George Herbert (1593-1633)

 

All may of Thee partake:

 

Nothing can be so mean,

 

Which with his tincture--"for Thy sake"--

 

Will not grow bright and clean.

 

 

 

 

 

A servant with this clause

 

Makes drudgery divine:

 

Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws,

 

Makes that and th' action fine.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hilarious!

 

Chuckled at this clever comment from Edward Trumbo on Mark Shea's blog concerning the "blame the Vatican first" mindset:

 

 

 

 

 

We must have married lesbian priestesses liturgically dancing down the aisle with their cloned babies on the feast day of St. Margaret Sanger, or the terrorists will have already won.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:48 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pope Praised in Pravda

 

Who knew that Pravda is still extant? And is on the web in English? It includes this snippet:

 

Here is Pravda's interesting take on the Pope:

 

 

 

 

 

The spiritual leader of all Catholics, Pope John Paul II, is, of course, an extraordinary person. With the Pope, the Catholic church recovered its authority and power. Many articles and books have been written about the pope, and now even a film is being shot about the pontiff's childhood and youth. The pope is an anti-communist, and they say the socialist camp would not have been ruined without his assistance.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:32 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disputations has had some excellent posts lately. He aims at quality, not quantity, whereas I employ the "broadcast" method. He speaks humorously of the viral theory of heresy, which I have been prone to (his dig at those avoiding Merton because of something he wrote in his journal in '67 especially hit home).

 

 

 

 

 

My (very) limited theological reading suggests to me that much of it is speculation, an issue perhaps peculiar to my cast of mind. For example, here is a quote from Hans Van Baltahasar:

 

 

 

 

 

"Consider the abysmal problem of the relation between God's Kingdom and earthly power (into the ultimate depths of which probably only Reinhold Schneider has the courage to descend today): whether, for example, a call to arms by the Church, a blessing of weapons, or taking up the sword of this world is an expression of the courage of the Christian faith or, on the contrary, the symptom of an unchristian and faithless anxiety; whether something that can be defended and justified in a hundred ways with penultimate reasons drawn from faith (quite apart from the lessons of Church history - but then what does Church history teach?) will collapse miserably before the throne of judgment of the ultimate reason - because what of course appeared to be God's weapon in the hands of God's warrior against God's enemies is now suddenly exposed as Peter's desperate sword-waving against the high priest's servant, whose side Jesus takes in order to expose such brandishing of weapons for what it was: anxious betrayal."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was great, I loved reading it, thinking about it, but in the end it fell flat, too speculative. The short answer is that he doesn't know what the connection between God's Kingdom and earthly power should be. And that's fine and I appreciate the honesty, but so much of theological writing is like this - pure speculation on this side of life. Similarly, how many are saved - wither many or few - has been debated ad nauseum with no clearer picture. Theologians have been all over the map, and rightly so since it is only for God to know. These "criticisms" if you can even call it that, may be the by-product of my math-oriented mind, concerned with being able to look in the back of the book for the answer - i.e. that a = (b + c)/ d. But clarity is overrated. Neither Zechariah nor Mary were given much clarity by the angel Gabriel, but one chose the better path.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:06 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of movies...

 

Here are some aging emails I exchanged with a Christian movie reviewer concerning Speilberg's "A.I." - written when it first came out:

 

 

 

 

 

my email

 

....I thought the movie not very friendly to Christianity. Surely it wasn't a coincidence that little Haley prayed 2,000 yrs (Christ's death to now) before getting a mechanistic, unsatisfying answer to his prayer in the form of his Mom-for-a-day. How reflective of our times to have his prayers answered by science and not by God! It seemed a mocking of religion to me, not something unusual for Hollywood but unusual from Spielberg.

 

 

 

 

 

excerpt of his reply:

 

"not something unusual for Hollywood but unusual from Spielberg."

 

Indeed. Still, all of those final events were in Kubrick's story treatment. Spielberg just changed them from being "chilling" to a rather forced sentimental warmth, which just didn't make any sense. So I wouldn't say Spielberg is suggesting science will be our savior...I think the only thing he cared about was giving the boy a merciful sendoff. And Kubrick, well, he would never say science will be our savior, unless he's suggesting it as a nightmare that we had better try and avoid... That's my current notion, anyway (it keeps changing with this movie.)

 

 

 

 

 

my reply:

 

"And Kubrick, well, he would never say science will be our savior..."

 

Very true, but Haley's quest was that someone make him "real" - something other than mechanical parts. Today it is fashionable to believe that we are nothing more than moving parts, that there is no soul or free will (my stepson believes this). So I understood the movie as setting up the proposition that only God can make us real and that the ending was the moviemaker's statement that just as there was no Blue Ferry to make Haley real, there is no God that gives us a soul.

 

 

 

 

 

His reply:

 

It's amazing to me to think that so many people can live day to day believing they have no freewill. Why would God bother to create us if we could not have relationship? If we could not surprise him? I've been reading First Samuel... and was fascinated to see that God "regretted" making Saul king. That implies disappointment, which implies surprise. (And there are so many other evidences in the Scripture.) But I guess you need to believe the Bible in the first place to find any convincing arguments about life there.

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

I was a little disappointed in his last reply, given that whether God is capable of being surprised is something debateable, given that his foreknowledge is perfect....

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:43 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are all John Nash

 

Under the favorite movie category of a blog questionnaire I briefly considered A Beautiful Mind. The movie portrays the John Nash's recovery from paranoid schizophrenia, partially through pure force of will - the discipline of daily disregarding paranoidal thoughts. This could be seen as a metaphor for all of us. Certainly sin is a sickness, a form of insanity (Frank Sheed emphasizes this with the title of his book: Theology and Sanity). We see things in a false light, through colored glasses (see Matt 16:23). Thus we need to constantly discipline our thoughts with respect to what is real.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:38 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Journal Entries never die.....they just get posted:

 

 

 

 

 

Gruff, older middle-aged man, not completely assimilated, walks over to friend's cube (aka known by my stepson as a 'veal fattening pen'). He is of that exquisitely rare type, that hot-house flower, the never-been married 50ish man. He maintains a sort of razor-sharpness (perhaps due to having never had a poor night's sleep). He is rough edges all extant, eccentricities allowed to flourish, his world untrammelled by the paths oft taken, he lives eagle-eyed for trespass and finds in my friend the troubled youth he never had:

 

 

 

 

 

   "What are you doing sending notes like that? I don't know anything about the LAD database project!".

 

 

 

 

 

My friend had sent a note out to the whole dep't, on orders from his boss & boss's boss, with a helpful EOM ('end of message') at the end. The note applied to the older man, whether he cared or not, albeit no action was required. He reminded me faintly of a drunken neighbor we once had when I was a kid, a man whose world view was such that anything out of the ordinary was eyed suspiciously: "What you readin' a book fer, son?" My buddy (aka "Bone") had sent out a note that smelled suspicious.

 

 

 

 

 

That this guy would take the time to walk over instead of call or write over a matter of such triviality left me awed. I put off going to the bathroom when I need to, just to avoid the inconvenience of rising, and here this guy rushes to my friend's desk like it's a 4-alarm fire. All over a no-line note.

 

 

 

My buddy, blindsided & unaware of his trespass on the other's Lotus kingdom, suppresses the instinct to lash or laugh.

 

 

 

 

 

"Just delete it....You know..."

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:14 PM

 

 

 

January 6, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Motion pictures can standardize the ideas and habits of a nation. Because they are made to meet market demands, they reflect popular tendencies, rather than stimulate new ideas and opinions. Film is a medium rife with ambivalence: to purvey is not to analyze. That means film is ripe for horror, because horror is the expression of ambivalence: we do not know the cause of what is going wrong, for we are the cause of what is going wrong. .....

 

Horror thrives only when the distinction between good and evil has been lost - indeed, the presence of horror is the sign that the distinction has been repressed and forgotten...."

 

--E. Michael Jones

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:58 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Via Amy's Blog

 

"What I think of as Christian novels are those that point out man's need for redemption. Crime and Punishment, Robinson Crusoe, Les Miserables, that wonderful one by Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory, all those books declare that man is incapable of saving himself, of delivering his own redemption. Yet we don't call those Christian novels, we call them classics."

 

--Leif Enger, author of Peace Like a River

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:48 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oblique House led me to this bon mot from Catholic Light: Most blogs are self-indulgent, masturbatory junk, emanations from people who couldn't get published anywhere else.

 

 

 

 

 

And the point is? Most people are self-indulgent masturbators (uh, metaphorically-speaking of course) in their daily life; why should it be any more egregious written down rather than spoken or otherwise expressed? Especially given that reading a blog is optional, while in real life putting up with insufferable people (including ourselves) is often not.

 

 

 

 

 

The policy of this blog is, in the fine Jesuitical tradition, to come as close to the line of self-indulgent masturbation as possible without crossing over. Only you can judge if I am successful.

 

 

 

 

 

Walker Percy once said that Americans are newspaper readers and fornicators, and for many bloggers (not the Catlickers of course), the blog is the form of entertainment that combines their two loves - porn and news.

 

*

 

For me, one interesting part of the blogsperience is watching the "politics of linking", as well as dealing with the rejection of not being linked on blogs where your buddies are linked. That rejection is beneficial of course - no pain, no gain. As St. John of the Cross put it (I'm paraphrasing): "those who seek the praise of others are like the 5 foolish virgins who have no oil for their lamps and go in search of it".

 

 

 

 

 

Another fascinating part is watching the spiritual growth of others. The young are particularly fluid - Lord knows my stepson lurches from atheism to theism on a quarterly basis (prayers always thankfully received!). There's a 21-yr religion major whose blog I watch for similar reasons...

 

 

 

 

 

The Politics of Linking ....to tune of the "Politics of Dancing"

 

This is not as clear as one would imagine. There are many possible policies or combinations of policies:

 

1) Link to only those you read

 

2) Link to those who you wish you would read (i.e. I wish I would read "Daily Meds" more, but link to it as reparation for that)

 

3) Link to those who link you

 

4) Link to everyone (a daunting task in the Catlicker blog world)

 

5) Link to no one, giving only the "Praise & Glory" link

 

6) Link to the "big name bloggers" (i.e. Amy & Mark, et al)

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:44 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Shea makes the good point by asking:

 

 

 

 

 

Am I the only one who thinks it's rather suicidal...

 

 

 

 

 

for Christians in a rapidly de-Christianizing and increasing anti-Christian culture to urge Caesar to kill as many citizen as he can? It's not my main reason for thinking the Pope is basically right to want to limit (not "abolish") capital punishment. But I think it deserves consideration.

 

 

 

 

 

Our learned Dominican associate pastor thinks it's conceivable that we again be outright persecuted for our faith...in this country...in our lifetime. I don't need that reason to oppose the death penalty since, well, I'm slavishly devoted to our Pope and I'm ok with whatever he says. If he told us to say a Rosary three times every day while hopping on one leg, I'd start exercising and grab a 15-decader.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:13 PM

 

 

 

January 5, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cardinal Ratzinger tackles a tough one

 

In his new book with Peter Seewald, the Cardinal is asked:

 

 

 

 

 

Q: The question is whether faith really makes us so much better, more merciful, more caring toward our neighbor...Let's take those people whom God has called to faith...Why is it that among monks and nuns we see so much bearing of grudges, so much envy and jealousy and such a lack of willingness to help?

 

 

 

 

 

A: This is indeed a most pressing question. There we can see once again that faith is not just there, but that it either withers or grows, that it either rises or falls on the graph. It is not just a ready-made guarantee, something one can regard as accumulated capital that can only grow. Faith is always given only in the context of a fragile freedom. We may wish it were otherwise. But just therein lies God's great gamble, which we find so hard to understand, that he has not given us stronger medicine.

 

 

 

 

 

Even if we are bound to notice inadequate patterns of behavior (behind which, of course, there is always a weakening of faith) within the world of those who believe, we cannot ignore the positive side of the account.

 

(He goes on to describe the many faith-filled people whose actions more closely follow their Christianity.)

 

 

 

 

 

--Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, God and the World

 

 

 

 

 

Makes sense to me. It's been said that God is a "just in time" God; he gives us our daily Bread, rather than a longer-term supply. A daily recommitment is necessary. I'd never heard faith compared to a graph but it comports to reality and would also help explain the "Situation" concerning wayward priests.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:52 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buckeyes as Metaphor

 

With Ohio State, all is prologue till the final play. There is no assurance; one must persevere to the end. Watching them reminds me of a line from Rosanne Cash's "Seven Year Ache" - see how much your old heart can take.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is the agonizing fact that a resurrection requires a death, and during the national championship game the Buckeyes would lose before they would win. Rigor mortis began after a failed 4th down play in overtime; there they lay, slumped on the field full of recriminations that they had taken it too far this time, that lady luck was on sabbatical. For an ebbing few heartbeats it was finito, until a yellow flag appeared, appropos of nothing, like a folded burial cloth in an empty tomb, and the jubilant, devilish Miami mascot was shooed off the field. Interference had been called against Miami, and the Buckeye body sprang to life, like the besotted whiskey drinker in the Irish drinking chune "Finnegan's Wake" (as they say on Thistle and Shamrock):

 

 

 

 

 

Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street

 

A gentleman Irish, mighty odd

 

He had a tongue both rich and sweet

 

And to rise in the world he carried a hod

 

Now Tim had a sort of a tippling way

 

With a love of the liquor poor Tim was born

 

And to help him on his way each day

 

He'd a drop of the cratur every morn

 

 

 

 

 

CHORUS

 

Whack fol de do now dance to your partner

 

Round the floor your trotters shake

 

Wasn't it the truth I told you

 

Lots of fun at Finnegan's wake

 

 

 

 

 

One morning Tim was rather full

 

His head felt heavy which made him shake

 

He fell from the ladder and broke his skull

 

So they carried him home, his corpse to wake

 

They wrapped him up in a nice clean sheet

 

And laid him out upon the bed

 

With a gallon of whiskey at his feet

 

And a barrel of porter at his head

 

Chorus

 

 

 

 

 

His friends assembled at the wake

 

And Mrs. Finnegan called for lunch

 

First, the brought in tea and cakes

 

Then pipes with tabacco and whiskey punch

 

Miss Biddy O'Brien began to cry

 

'Such a neat clean corpse did you ever see

 

Yerrah Tim, avourneen, why did you die?'

 

'Ah hold your toungue,' says Paddy Magee

 

Chorus

 

 

 

 

 

Then Biddy O'Connor took up the moan

 

'Biddy,' says she, 'you're wrong I'm sure,'

 

But Biddy gave her a belt in the gob

 

And left her sprawling on the floor.

 

Oh then a mighty war did rage

 

'Twas woman to woman and man to man

 

Shillelagh law did all engage

 

And a row and ruction soon began.

 

Chorus

 

 

 

 

 

Then Mickey Maloney ducked his head

 

When a naggin of whiskey flew at him

 

It missed him, falling on the bed

 

The liquor splattered over Tim

 

Bedad, he revives and see how he rises

 

And Timothy rising from the bed

 

Says 'Fling your whiskey round like blazes

 

Thunderin' Jaysus, do you think I'm dead ?'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:27 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ode to the Weekend

 

A weekend besotted is grounds for a waylaid week, the weekend perches with careful synchronicities; one cannot not much fool with its perfect measure. Time, tradition and study has given a blueprint: the Friday night drink, music and healing writing. Friday night is the purgation of the week’s (perceived) trials and tribulations, though both be laughable. Saturday dawns with the promise of hope; the dragons slayed, the cart emptied, here is a time for celebration, renewal, nature, a lingering coffee at the breakfast table. Often there is a movie, preferably a Western, most preferably a Western filmed recently with all its glorious cinematology, the stark landscape of the West such that I can feel the plains beneath my feet. Always a hike in the forest, to incarnate the landscape just seen. Sunday a.m. be the defining moment, the foundational stone. The divine liturgy at our Byzantine parish, followed by the half a Mass at a Latin rite parish so that I can hear the readings and sermon. Later Sunday there is the "long Sunday read", aka verweile doch.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:19 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice meditation from Daily Meds on today's remarkable gospel. She points out that John the Baptist, monk (maybe an Essene?), holy one filled with the Holy Spirit while still in the womb, did not recognize Christ until gifted with that knowledge. What a nice reverse "tower of Babel".

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:57 PM

 

 

 

January 3, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An apologia of Belloc.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:26 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Oetry Friday

 

 

 

Sang Solomon to Sheba,

 

And kissed her Arab eyes,

 

'There's not a man or woman

 

Born under the skies

 

Dare match in learning with us two,

 

And all day long we have found

 

There's not a thing but love can make

 

The world a narrow pound.'

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

The Realists

 

Hope that you may understand!

 

What can books of men that wive

 

In a dragon-guarded land,

 

Paintings of the dolphin-drawn

 

Sea-nymphs in their pearly wagons

 

Do, but awake a hope to live

 

That had gone

 

With the dragons?

 

 

 

 

 

--WB Yeats

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:14 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus, the Eucharist and Our Prayers

 

Prayer sometimes can become so internally directed and so self-affirming that we can legitimately ask if it really is directed toward someone else or if it might not really be talking to ourselves. How do we understand and practice an awareness of Jesus as a real "other person"? How do we come to an inter-personal relationship with him? He knew this would be a problem for us and so offered to remain among us in some sort of real personal presence. There is a material dimension to his presence; it is not only spiritual. He is with us at Mass and Eucharistic Devotion and there relates to our own physical qualities as well as our spiritual qualities. He is with us as the "other" so that our relationship with him can have a deper dimension of reality.

 

--our pastor, Msgr. Frank Lane

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:35 PM

 

 

 

January 2, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toast to the NY Times:

 

A drink or two a day provides the equivalent of a potent cholesterol medicine and a weak blood thinner, as well as a variety of other substances that may keep the body's metabolism tuned and its cells in good repair. Alcohol raises the blood levels of H.D.L., the "good" cholesterol, thought to scour blood vessels free of the fatty plaques that can cause heart attacks, strokes and other problems. Moderate drinking can raise the levels more than 10 percent. By comparison, running a few miles a week increases H.D.L. a fraction of that, while the B vitamin niacin, probably the most effective medication for raising H.D.L. levels, has to be taken at high doses that entail many side effects for similar results. --NY Times

 

 

 

 

 

Zee problem is dat 1 or 2 drinks, unless they be 40-ouncers, are not too appealing (like having one potato chip). Four would be a more appropriate number. But if one is drinking with a meal, it is quite easy and natural to have 1 or 2 drinks...whereas at 9pm I would be tempted to over-indulge, at 6pm, with food, it is easy to be temperate. Of course they need to prorate these drinks based on weight. For a healthy 210-lb'r like myself it would seem that 1.5 drinks is an anathemna.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:23 PM

 

 

 

January 1, 2003  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. John of the Cross

 

Given its subject matter, it feels a bit disconcerting to derive such pleasure and succor from a book entitled Dark Night of the Soul. Yet John of the Cross seems to understand human nature and the pitfalls of spiritual progress to a "T". One senses there are more spiritual pitfalls after conversion than before! (Is that why many folks like the unsaved more than the saved?).

 

 

 

 

 

Obligatory disclaimer: I have not read very far. This is based only on the very beginning, where he diagnoses sins of the self-righteous, the spiritually gluttonous, etc..

 

 

 

 

 

Many can never have enough of listening to counsels and learning spiritual precepts, and of possessing and reading many books which treat this matter, and they spend their time on all these things rather than on works of mortification. Guilty as charged.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ever Elusive Moderation

 

"There are others who are vexed with themselves when they observe their own imperfectness, and display an impatience that is not humility; so impatient are they about this that they would fain be saints in a day...Some souls, on the other hand, are so patient as regards the progress which they desire that God would gladly see them less so."

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:29 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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   Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor           

 

   I see the right way, approve it and do the opposite - Ovid 

 

       

 

 

 

Blogging like it's 1399

 

 

 

Archives

 

02/01/2003 - 02/28/2003

 

03/01/2003 - 03/31/2003

 

current enchilada, whole

 

 

 

 

 

Other Blog O'Rhythms 

 

the Mother Blog, from whose womb many blogs have sprung... 

 

Michael Dubruiel 

 

Disputations 

 

Eve Tushnet

 

Mark Shea

 

 

 

Keen Links 

 

The Corner

 

the inimitable Peter Kreeft

 

Theology of the Body

 

Arts & Lit

 

Bible search

 

Catechism

 

Summa

 

OED Word o' the Day

 

 

 

my email

 

 

 

More Fine Young Blogs 

 

Ad Orientem

 

All But Dissertations

 

Atheist to a Theist

 

Auf Deutsch

 

Church Fathers

 

Daily Meds

 

Flos Carmeli

 

Fotos Del Apolocalipsis

 

From the Anchor Hold

 

Gregg the Obscure

 

Ibid

 

Lively Writer

 

Mirari

 

Minute Particulae

 

Oblique House

 

Praise & Glory List of Catlicker Blogs

 

Rosa Mystica

 

Summa Conta

 

Summa Minutiae (B. White)

 

Tenebrae et Lux

 

View from the Core

 

Xaiver+

 

 

 

Reference

 

 Faith & Reason I (Particulae)

 

 Faith & Reason II (Particulae)

 

 06/01/02 - 06/30/02

 

05/01/02 - 05/31/02

 

04/01/02 - 04/30/02

 

03/01/02 - 03/31/02  *** 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

an Andy Rooney Moment

 

I see the self-esteem movement has reached college football bowls. Give me a break - 28 bowls? It is easy to be a curmugeon on this topic but I remember a day when you didn't have bowls leaking out of New Year's Day. Now the two bowls I really want to watch are on Jan. 2nd and Jan. 3rd, workdays both. And remember when bowls were euphoniously named "Peach", "Cotton" and "Rose"? Now they have the discordantly-named "Motor City Bowl" and bowls named after potato chip brands.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:28 PM

 

 

 

December 31, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

G. Will-ikers*

 

Found this snippet on a hero of mine and yon Dylan's here. Mr. Will just strikes me as a plu-perfect Anglophillic Anglican!

 

 

 

 

 

Will is an Episcopalian who has written extensively in support of the Church and in opposition to decisions by the government and the courts to dilute the Christian influence in the public arena. He also has taken on religious institutions, including his own.

 

 

 

 

 

In a 1979 column, Will lamented his denomination’s revision of its 16th-century Book of Common Prayer, and prophetically suggested: “Perhaps Christianity’s many revisers are, as a matter of fact, bringing Christianity into conformity with the spirit of the age. But I thought it was supposed to work the other way.”

 

 

 

 

 

Will, whose theology is orthodox, is an avid reader and quoter of C.S. Lewis, also an Anglican.

 

* -shamelessly stolen, though attributed at least, from sir Dylan!

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Armchair Travel

 

"With vacations," he continued, "there are two strands of desire. On the one hand, there is the desire for relaxation, which is almost a Zen type of emptying your mind, a freedom from anxiety and stress, etc. And then there's the idea of stimulation. Most of the time, people run those two things together, and they're completely incompatible." For him everything seems better in anticipation and in memory.

 

 

 

 

 

At one point, the author suggests that the hunger for travel might be better served by staying home and reading about foreign places or by looking at paintings or photographs. In passing, he says that he began to appreciate Provence only after he had studied paintings by van Gogh.

 

--Mel Gussow on Alain de Botton's recent book in the NY Times

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:59 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chesterton on Aquinas

 

He had from the first that full and final test of truly orthodox Catholicity; the impetuous, impatient, intolerant passion for the poor; and even that readiness to be rather a nuisance to the rich, out of a hunger to feed the hungry....a man's love of himself is Sincere and Constant and Indulgent; and this should be transferred intact (if possible) to his love of his neighbour. At this early age he did not understand all of this. He only did it.

 

*

 

 

 

 He was very far from being a Puritan, in the true sense; he made a provision for a holiday and banquet for his young friends, which has quite a convival sound. The trend of his writing, especially for his time, is reasonable in its recognition of physical life; and he goes out of his way to say that men must vary their lives with jokes and even with pranks. But for all that, we cannot somehow see his personality as a sort of magnent for mobs..I think he rather disliked noise; there is a legend that he disliked thunderstorms; but it is contradicted by the fact that in an actual shipwreck he was supremely calm. However that may be, and it probably concerned his health, in some ways sensitive, he certainly was very calm.

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

Being himself resolved to argue, to argue honestly, to answer everybody, to deal with everything, he produced books enough to sink a ship or stock a library; though he died in comparatively early middle age. Probably he could not have done it at all, if he had not been thinking even when he was not writing; but above all thinking combatively. This, in his case, certainly did not mean bitterly or spitefully or uncharitably; but it did mean combatively. As a matter of fact, it is generally the man who is not read to argue, who is ready to sneer. That is why, in recent literature, there has been so little argument and so much sneering....He was interested in the souls of all his fellow creatures, but not in classifying the minds of any of them; in a sense it was too personal and in another sense too arrogant for his particular mind and temper.

 

--GK Chesterton's St. Thomas Aquinas

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:40 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the "There's nothing new under the sun" dep't:

 

Google tells me that twelve other bloggers have referred to Abe Vigoda. Including this eyebrow-raising bon mot:

 

 

 

 

 

Kissinger, Abe Vigoda, Jennifer Connelly....who needs their eyebrows tweezed more?

 

--via Hairy Toes & Lemonade Rhino

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:04 PM

 

 

 

December 30, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Verweile Doch

 

Last night's long Sunday read was a scattershot affair. Fiction....long live fiction! I've a surfeit of journalism and longed to lose myself in glorious prose.

 

 

 

 

 

John Updike's Seek My Face ...due back at the library this week and hence I had to make a stab. I read maybe the first 40 pages and I'm not sure it's his best.

 

Liam O'Flaherty's Famine: A Novel

 

Charles Dicken's Bleak House...my favorite novel of his is Great Expectations and I wonder if I shouldn't just re-read that one.

 

Also picked up some non-fiction - Jay Winik's April 1865: The Month That Saved America . It looks pretty interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday I spent some time with Chesterton's Saint Thomas Aquinas and Richard Drake's A History of Appalachia

 

 

 

 

 

Also spent some of Sunday researching the disappearance of my great-grandfather James Smith. Did he die in the 1913 flood or leave and start a family in St. Louis? I would post my speculations, but even I recognize the utter minutiae and self-indulgence that would represent to you small band of readers.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:38 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beating this horse dead...

 

As a sort of postscript to the whole St. Thomas controversy, I should mention that the two writers of recent vintage I admire most were both great devotees of the Summa: Flannery O'Connor and Walker Percy. Flannery read St. Thomas every night before retiring. Walker read the complete Summa twice. (Certainly Walker cannot be accused of not having a scientific cast of mind since he studied medicine in school.)

 

 

 

 

 

This is not to say that they were saints or that they shouldn't/weren't reading more contemplative stuff, but it is intriguing that two modern Catholic artists would find such sustenance in Aquinas.

 

 

 

 

 

Minute Particulae has a good post on the subject with links to those discussing/recussing it.

 

 

 

 

 

Archbishop Sheen was an agnostic on the subject, recognizing that some are "Augustine" types and others "Aquinas" folk but that both are good. This complements Steven Riddle's comment about how Augustine is more "love, then know" while Aquinas, "know, then love". (I do admire Mr. Riddle's courage in making those comments in the first place; while he was careful to say that he was not denigrating Aquinas, it is not easy in the blogosphere to communicate that notion effectively.)

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:50 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tight-lipped, bloodless arguments

 

circle; encircle

 

the mind (while)

 

Abe Vigoda visages wander

 

skies of unmade beds

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:15 PM

 

 

 

December 29, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Old Debate

 

I post this only that you smart folks might have some advice for a situation that I probably should avoid engaging in...

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

We slipped, almost by accident, onto those grounds where we profoundly disagree. My mother said that Catholicism should get back to the bible, the way it was in the beginning. Her salient point was questioning the notion that not eating meat on Friday could put you in hell. Or that a 2nd-grader who had drank water could not receive Communion if said water was drank within three hours of receiving. She says that I'm an orthodox Catholic because I did not live through "those days." (i.e. pre Vatican II). Perhaps, perhaps not. I replied that the fruits of the Church in the 50s were such that those rules did not do any harm and perhaps much good. She said she didn't buy that - Protestants were just as holy in the 50s without the "crazy rules". I said that some Protestants had crazy rules - like no dancing, no alcohol, no gambling...the argument held no sway, and I was left afterward remembering Bishop Sheen's words that to "win the argument is to lose the soul" or words to that effect.

 

 

 

 

 

I guess my pet peeve is the argument that the Church is not biblical, although it shouldn't because in my ignorance I once thought similarly. I should understand that sentiment instead of reacting to it in less than composed manner. How would you sound-byte such a question? Since she and many Protestants are simply allergic or otherwise resistant to Matt 16 I am avoiding Peter directly by thinking thusly:

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

The New Testament would seem to be a grand poem in a foreign language that has been translated, very broadly, in two different ways - one more Catholic and another more Fundamentalist. We cannot be sure in this world which is the more accurate translation, but it is unfair to call one more "biblical" than the other. They are both heartfelt interpretations of Scripture. (I obviously feel the Catholic interpretation is more accurate.)

 

 

 

 

 

First, I think it's important to notice who Jesus speaks to when he says things, rather than just to assume He is always speaking to everyone. Why would he speak in parables before the crowds while offering more to his apostles? And why would he tell things to Peter individually that he would not tell the rest of the apostles? Isn't this implicitly hierarchical?

 

 

 

 

 

Secondly, I have never understood salvation as being assured or that "faith alone" is necessary when reading the whole of the gospels or the whole of the bible. I get a sense that Christ is constantly telling us to, if not worry, then to be watchful concerning our salvation. The parables of the sower and the seed and the ten virgins and numerous others simply don't support the "once saved, always saved" interpretation in my view.

 

 

 

 

 

Have you noticed the Protestant view is often simply the easiest way? No need for sacraments or confessing your sins or good works? If I were making a "man-made" religion wouldn't that be what we would most want - give authority to self and strip out things in the bible that are inconvenient or incomprehensible?

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:56 PM

 

 

 

December 28, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can't help but take a deep breath at the end of the holidays (ours just ended today). Only around Christmastime is it possible to be blessed with tons of vacation time while at the same time coming to the almost metaphysically impossible conclusion that work would be preferable. I kept up as well as I could but to be honest I felt very empty going into the 25th. I gave what I could at Mass but was surprised at how ordinary it seemed - a sparse, sleepy crowd and weak musically. (I didn't go to midnight service at the Byzantine parish because of icy roads). I reminded myself that God is present at all Masses regardless of the pageantry or the other’s enthusiasm and that the manger itself was a very humble place. It's nice to have "smells & bells" on the birthday of birthdays though.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Point

 

"Most people would not even cross the street to witness an unobtrusive act of patience being put into practice, but they will cross an ocean to visit the locale of an alleged apparaition." An authentic vision counts for less than a simple act of charity, says Thomas Dubay, S.M., Fire Within: St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel -- on Prayer (Ignatius Press, 1989), p. 247. Both Teresa and John said so, and so did St. Paul (I Corintihans 12:30-13:3).

 

-- the reader

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:49 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The old talk of school as a preparation for life-what a bad joke. There was no relation at all. School made matters worse. The elegance and order of school had disarmed him for what came later.

 

--Walker Percy, "The Last Gentleman"

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:20 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One longs for the drawn arterial blood of life, the scarlet blood of richness; the deep oxygenated marrow of life that Thoreau wrote of...What is super about the superficial anyway? The trick is to impregnate the ordinary with meaning - or to realize that it's already so.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:48 AM

 

 

 

December 27, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory over the holiday. I remember that scaring the bleep out of me when I was a kid. The little girl inflating into blueberry fastness was an image I could scarce let go. Watching it now is more interesting because of its obvious Judeo-Christian parallels.

 

 

 

 

 

I also found this to be interesting:

 

 

 

 

 

The only catch: to be one of the five children you have to find a golden ticket inside the wrapper of a Wonka Bar. Eventually five children get their hands on these golden tickets – including Charlie. That storyline… that idea of having a golden ticket and a spirit of entitlement somehow has a familiar ring to it, doesn’t it? Don’t we tend to think that way about our faith and our religion? Haven’t you heard the language of entitlement in our midst at times? Its as if we think we’ve got some kind of golden ticket – and we’ve got a binding contract with God that states we get certain things, we’ve earned certain rights…

 

 

 

 

 

This isn’t a new problem among the religious; it’s a pretty old one. Old enough that Jesus addressed it himself. He does so in Luke 18:9-14...

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:19 PM

 

 

 

December 26, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One feels a stab of pain at the notion that winter hath officially begun just 4 days ago. It is as if you were half-way thru a college course and the instructor says, "okay, that was all preliminary. Everything from here forward counts." I remind myself of what Jesse Ventura says about the Minnesotan winters: it keeps the riff-raff out.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:14 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Vomitory

 

Our dog is not a reader of Aquinas, and especially eschews the virtue of moderation. We found a couple stray pieces of paper that had once made up the cover of four (4) sticks of butter, one pound in all. Said doggie ate said butter. The proof came a few hours later, in an epic vomitalia that in sheer volume was something I had never witnessed by man or beast or the Minotaurus college student. A few hours and one steam-cleaning later, the carpet still stank. Carpet was summarily dismissed from service.

 

 

 

 

 

One pound of butter = lingering offensive smell to our guests = a new rug needed. The price of gluttony is steep indeed. Said dog was proffered butter a few hours later. He just said no.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uh...gosh...I feel a little sheepish after reading Disputations' convincing post on the timelessness of Aquinas. I feel like a juror nodding my head 'yes, yes' after the last slick attorney has spoken - whether it be for the defense or the prosecution. Guess I should just shut up and read the posts and not comment, lest I prove to be a fool instead of just thought one.

 

 

 

 

 

As far as the Summa goes, I'm both wildly attracted to it and somewhat repelled by it. I echo Mr. Riddle's, "Myself, I cannot separate one intellectual error from another and I toss literary works aside for much less than is wrong in the cosmology of St. Thomas and I expect far, far less of them."

 

 

 

 

 

A sort of "time prejudice" can even be extended to the Old Testament, which can be seen as necessarily less precise vision of God given that divine revelation was still being in the process of being revealed and developed. My mother has tried to read it with much trouble, finding the myths ("there was not a worldwide flood!", she cries) side-by-side with truths an unpalatable mix. Tangentially related, I'll never forget Malcolm Muggeridge's rather amazing ability to separate historical fact from "truth", saying that it is necessary to the story that Jesus be born to a virgin, though it probably not be fact. He said the highest truths are artistic ones, though I suspect the Resurrection, and its implication for us, is one that interested him in more than just the artistic sense.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blogging Conditions

 

Bloggodocia will continue to be light and sporadic. A scattering of posts is expected, maybe 1-3 before weekend. A front is expected to move in this weekend, providing additional fodder for posts, but blog weathermen are wrong more often than right. The Old Blogger's Almanac says to expect posts in drifts this time of year.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steven Riddle of flos carmeli wrote an interesting piece on the Summa. I commented that he hit the nail on the head - I thought I was the only one to think that about the great St. Thomas. I am often put off and somewhat disappointed that he was so of his time with respect to nature & the sciences, although asking otherwise is to seek infallibility & omniscence. (A small example - not really an example because it could still be true though I think it somehow less than satisfying - is his belief in a literal hellfire). John Updike made a comment that Christianity has been amazingly shrewd w/r to human nature, while having a faulty cosmology. In that sense, a spiritual guide who answers questions that depend on the natural world would seem to lock himself or herself into her time. I concur with Aquinas' greatness w/r to commentaries and hymns. There is rarely a time I don't pray after Communion his prayer: 'Soul of Christ, sanctify me, Body of Christ, be my salvation...'.

 

 

 

 

 

And of the Summa, I recognize the lack is in me since there are so many who see it differently. I also take some comfort in the mere fact that the questions I have asked have been asked before, and been addressed by so great an intellectual as St. Thomas.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:13 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You've probably seen this but...

 

...whether true or not I liked this 12 days of Christmas story.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:47 PM

 

 

 

December 23, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hilaire Belloc, You're No JFK

 

When running for office, Belloc had a slightly different view than JFK on the effect of his religion on his politics:

 

 

 

 

 

HB: My religion is of course of greater moment to me by far than my politics, or than any other interest could be, and if I had to choose between two policies, one of which would certainly injure my religion and the other as certainly advance it, I would not for a moment hesitate between the two.

 

 

 

 

 

JFK: Whatever issue may come before me as President--on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject--I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise.

 

 

 

 

 

Ahhhhhh...Mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover Hilaire Belloc again...

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:50 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting NY Times article titled The Boy Who Saw the Virgin

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:07 PM

 

 

 

December 22, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We expected a judge, and it was a Savior who was born. We expected an executioner, and it was a Child who was born. We were preparing for a rendering of accounts, we were going to "put ourselves right with God", and a Baby was stretching out His arms to us, asking for our love, protection and tenderness. All the confidence we never dared to have in God, He had in us!"

 

 

 

 

 

-- from church bulliten of St. John Chrysostom

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:21 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Mary’s day, to have a child outside wedlock was nearly a capital offense. At the very least she would be greatly shamed. I wonder if I would I have judged Mary. I’m sure I would’ve thought, “Hmm…I thought she was holy…and here she is pregnant.” How perfectly economical is it that God should brings us his Son this way? In one fell swoop he illustrates the folly of judging others while also displaying Mary’s lack of spiritual pride in becoming a scandal in the eyes of the world. How like the Cross! St. Francis said that we share in this Annuciation every day in determining, to the extent of our freedom, if we will care, comfort and love Him.

 

 

 

 

 

The grand theory of Everything is humility. Humility is the solution to all spiritual problems – both the “supernaturalists” who demand a sign and clarity (or else!) and the moralists, who think through grim determination they can do it all themselves. These extremes lurch from overreliance on self to an arrogant “come down off that Cross, let me see first”. Humility is the solvent for both.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe it’s a lesson for all of us. Churchy types of all stripes spend their hours and spill their ink and waste their bytes arguing over semantics, the niceties of ritual and the precise interpretation of papal bulls, encyclicals and footnotes.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, the Hollywood Guy, who probably feels as strongly about those intricacies as any other who shares his ideology, has decided, instead of going inward, to bring the story of Jesus to a world that needs it, badly, instead.

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe Hollywood Guy has a lesson for the rest of us.

 

--Amy Welborn, concerning Mel Gibson & his Jesus project

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:30 PM

 

 

 

December 21, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fr. Murphy

 

At Boolavogue, as the sun was setting

 

O'er the bright May meadows of Shelmalier,

 

A rebel hand set the heather blazing

 

And brought the neighbours from far and near.

 

Then Father Murphy, from old Kilcormack,

 

Spurred up the rocks with a warning cry;

 

"Arm! Arm!" he cried, "for I've come to lead you,

 

For Ireland's freedom we fight or die."

 

 

 

 

 

At Vinegar Hill, o'er the pleasant Slaney,

 

Our heroes vainly stood back to back,

 

And the Yeos at Tullow took Father Murphy

 

And burned his body upon the rack.

 

God grant you glory, brave Father Murphy

 

And open heaven to all your men;

 

The cause that called you may call tomorrow

 

In another fight for the Green again. --PJ McCall, 1861-1919

 

 

 

 

 

Father John Murphy of Bollavogue (in Wexford) led his parishioners in routing the Camolin Cavalry on May 26, 1798. The Wexford insurgents were eventually defeated at Vinegar Hill on June 21. Father Murphy and the other rebel leaders were hanged.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:45 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wearin' of the Green

 

Elegiac songs of Eire

 

lay ‘neath sprigs of green

 

where the Fenians sleep

 

and sallow-hued descendents

 

sing of fair-haired boys,

 

lives to resolution swift-brought,

 

brigades of indiscretions

 

burnt on pyres of bravery!

 

 

 

 

 

Escape of the fire

 

of musket and fraught-peril

 

waxen faces waiting to be formed

 

far flung-souls of wildest repute

 

sing they the harpist’s bravest:

 

“with a pike upon your shoulder

 

by the risin’ of the moon!”

 

 

 

 

 

Weep to Kevin Barry while

 

full-throated they wonder if

 

war be invented for whiskey

 

or whiskey for war?

 

Sing-burn they with the energy of youth:

 

- “another martyr for ol’ Ireland

 

another murther for the Crown”

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:05 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Provocative and interesting post on Steven Ray's billboard:

 

"Christianity has always proclaimed itself superior to the state. When Christ said "render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar's, and to God that which is God's" He proclaimed an authority superior to government. (If He had not, then what right did the early Christians have to refuse sacrifices to pagan gods in violation of Roman law?). By creating a Church, he gave that authority visible form.

 

 

 

 

 

As civilization developed, men took their Christianity with them into the halls of state. If Christ and faith in Him is the highest reality, which penetrates into every action of men, would a state be foolish to proclaim itself independent of Him? No. Quite the contrary. So the Emperor Theodosius thought when he made Christianity the official religion of the Empire.

 

 

 

 

 

Throughout that time and in the millenia to follow, it was inconceivable to men that the state would have any basis of its authority that was not religious, and therefore Christian, and therefore linked with the Church. Charlemagne had himself crowned by the Pope for the same reason the French kings to follow were told by the bishops performing the coronation "By this crown you become a sharer in our ministry." This consciousness was called Christendom.

 

 

 

As a natural extension of these ideas, it was also natural to conclude that departure from the Christian faith was contrary to the common good of society. Fundamentalist preachers say as much, and maintain as much, whenever they hand out voter guides and 'demand' (since we're into pejorative terms) that good Christians should exercise their authority in government by voting for candidates who accept Christian teaching. As it is now, so it was then -- departure from Christianity was a blow struck at the health of the entire society, and therefore punishable. The Albigensians were seen, in this light, as being as great a threat to civil society as Shays rebellion or the Confederacy was seen to the United States. No one blames the United States for 'exterminating' confederates, or 'persecuting' farmers, or making the country 'explicitly' what Abraham Lincoln said it was. So do we, I wonder, consider religion and Christianity less important to our well being than our forebears in the first thousand years of Christian history?

 

 

 

I am about to greatly condense things. But with the Reformation, and the devastating wars between Catholics and Protestants that followed, it became clear that doctrinally-specific Christianity could no longer serve as the basis for a stable civil or international order. Men began to look for new theologies on which to found their states, culminating in the present Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment ideas of democratic consent and religious tolerance. But this was originally a grudging accomodation made in stages and over time by Catholics and Protestants. You may have heard, for example, of the "divine right of kings." This was not a Catholic idea, but a post-Reformation attempt to found the civil order on a direct grant of authority from God to whoever held power, trying to rest civil authority again on a stable footing. Kings being what they are, and the rising middle and merchant classes being what they were, the theory was bound to perish, as it did under Cromwell and again in the Glorious Revolution.

 

 

 

 

 

To a great extent, the ideas of Vatican II (and earlier Church teaching, reaching back more than a century) are an understanding of the position of Christ's Church in a world devoid of Christendom, learning as well from the instructive errors of the past which proved that heresy and division may not always be eradicated by force, but in a way that is startlingly consistent with the Church's understanding of the origin and role of the civil power from medieval days."

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:47 PM

 

 

 

December 20, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Snippet on traditional naming patterns

 

Irish Naming Patterns for Children:

 

The 1st son was usually named after the father's father

 

The 2nd son was usually named after the mother's father

 

The 3rd son was usually named after the father

 

The 4th son was usually named after the father's eldest brother

 

The 5th son was usually named after the mother's eldest brother

 

The 1st daughter was usually named after the mother's mother

 

The 2nd daughter was usually named after the father's mother

 

The 3rd daughter was usually named after the mother

 

The 4th daughter was usually named after the mother's eldest sister The 5th daughter

 

was usually named after the father's eldest sister

 

 

 

 

 

The 11th son was named after the father's mother's uncle's cousin, twice-removed.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:45 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter's, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own. --Herman Melville Moby-Dick

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:37 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More journal entries from long ago....aka Stories from the Land of Broken Toys...

 

Fictional Friday

 

   It was early '63 and I was traveling the 'government approved' road about 20 miles outside Moscow. Party officials stressed ad nauseum that I was not to stop, that I was to average 50 miles per hour, and under no circumstances was I to talk to anybody. My knowledge of Russian was only passing anyway; I was much more fluent in Moldovian. I felt for the huge pack of rubles in my pocket, and examined the pale and wan visages of the evil empire, the red sycthe against a blood-red field which signified the determination of the Russian empire to harvest her own people. The long road to Siberia was not paved with many good intentions - the struggling peasants looked bovine and desperate, a combination I'd scarce imagined. Every cow I'd ever seen looked satisfied and not in the least desperate.

 

 

 

 

 

   My assignment was simple, albeit fraught with complications. I was to marry a young Russian woman, an 18-year old with hairy armpits and vodka-spiked breath. She was a vocal critic of Kruschev, even to the point of organizing rallys at the local grocery mart complaining about the fact that they only had one choice of peanut butter. She said she would die to choose Jif, but officials chose a third option - Siberia. However, before her re-education could begin at the gulag, a defense minister was passed a note in between saunas that explained he had a illegitimate daughter from an indiscretion many years ago...just over eighteen to be exact..

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on hearing the Columbus Holiday Strings*

 

It seems somehow odd to see grown men and women in suits playing instruments, working so hard towards the questionable utility of pleasing us - we twenty or thirty in the small auditorium. But what a treat - an audio massage! I felt similarly when I received a "therapeutic" massage, via a gift certificate. Here was someone whose job it was to provide something of no greater utility than pleasure. Ditto about baseball players - all that time, effort and energy rolled into doing something no more important than hitting a round object with a 30-odd ounce stick. Amazing. And yet these are good things. The constant temptation is to imagine that everything must be for utility - even books! Some will not read fiction or poetry unless there be something self-improving in it; some fact or knowledge imparted. Jansenism be dead!

 

* - a free concert provided yearly; an audio Christmas card for us.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was an impressionable youngster, a mere child of 13 or so when I first saw Natalie Wood in "West Side Story". The story held me in thrall all the way to its "Somewhere" climax - no surprise given that the 'Romeo & Juliet' formula does that to nearly everyone. But the scene in "West Side Story" that first stung my heart was when Maria fell to her knees to pray to Mary before a lit blue candle after she heard Tony had killed her cousin. There was nothing more appealing to my early teenishness than a holy girl, for they seemed so rare. The girls I knew were unctious and supercillious. (Not that we boys were any prize).

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update

 

Unbidden, my stepson expressed the sentiment that a strong marital relationship is "impossible without religion". He has also started going to church with my wife to the evangelical service (the Vineyard). Thanks to those who've said a prayer for him.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:59 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never liked O Come, O Come Emmanuel as a kid; I didn't understand the discordance between the lyrics, "Rejoice, rejoice!" and the somber, plaintive music. Now I can't imagine Advent without it.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:52 PM

 

 

 

December 18, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw this interesting flick. Here's the USCCB review.

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

"I had no intention of making love to her: I had no particular intention of even looking her up again. She was too beautiful to excite me with the idea of accessibility."

 

   --Graham Greene's End of the Affair

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:04 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minute Particulae has a nice essay here. The following short excerpt can't do it justice, so read the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

 

"The shortcuts require writers to take long strides to get to their point quickly, strides that lurch over subtleties and shades of meaning, oversimplifying or even obscuring the argument. The result is that issues get watered down and you end up with lukewarm, left-handed swashbuckling.

 

 

 

 

 

Or perhaps, more interestingly, these same smart, passionate, informed people simply won't bring out their finest points or most compelling arguments. It's a rather strange thing to claim, but I think it's true and I'm not sure why this happens. I don't mean some subsurface bias or prejudice that will undermine a person's credibility if it surfaces (e.g. Lott?). I mean hesitating to bring to bear the aspects of an issue that touch you most deeply and compel you privately."

 

 

 

 

 

Two things come to mind: first, many Catlicker bloggers are writing, basically, to other Catlicker bloggers. Thus they can take shortcuts, because they are "preaching to the converted"; they don't have to fully flesh out arguments because a serious Catholic is imbued with Catholic sensibilities. If I am in favor of something unusual in the Catholic blogging community, I realize I must defend it much more vigorously and completely. That said, in a multicultural land we live in, one can fully understand the splintering into groups and the increasing "huh?" that folks greet each other with. The dropping of the classics in college and the growth of the elective system, for example, has given everyone educations that vary wildly. So how can anyone really write to a large audience about anything other than base subjects? Even history is written no longer not by the victor, but by the aggrieved. If I believed everything in the black history curriculum, I might long for reparations too, despite their blatant unfairness. (This is not to suggest that history is unknowable, but that one should scrupulously attempt to remove slant from the writing of it - that we cannot achieve perfection in this area is no reason to give up. Fatalism seems rampant - biographers give in to their bias because they believe the subject and biographer to be wearers of masks, and thus the two-fold error means nothing can be known. So they add fictional characters, ala Edmund Morris's weak Dutch. But perhaps I digress...)

 

 

 

 

 

How interesting that Particulae's author detects a hesitancy in "bringing to bear the aspects of an issue that touch you most deeply and compel you privately."

 

 

 

 

 

Very true. We all like that ace up the sleeve. Break in case of emergency. I think that hesitancy might have two fathers. One is the fear that that part of the issue that touches you most deeply and with which you identify so deeply that it is you in some way, will be opened up to criticism or abuse that is tantamount to abuse of, well, you. A second father might be the fear that what you feel passionately about could be refuted, which begs a lack of faith.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, as Particulae points out, there is that enigmatic scriptural warning about the casting of pearls before swine, which I assume can only be discerned under the guidance of the Spirit since there is also a call to "go out into the world and tell all nations" of the gospel. Perhaps it is mostly a warning in the tradition of St. Paul, in not giving those meat who still are drinking the breast milk.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a Collision Course

 

The third rail, in subway-ese, is the rail that is electrified; you touch it, you die. In the political sphere it is often considered to be the social security. Cut benefits and senior citizens, nearly all practicing voters, will swiftly effect your transition to the private sector. But the real third rail seems to be children. The desire of parents to ferociously attack anybody who causes them pain is inbred, like a mother bear protecting their cubs.

 

 

 

 

 

On the other side, we have a childless hierarchy, composed of bishops who consider their priests to be their charges, their children as it were.

 

 

 

 

 

So what do you get when an irresistable force meets an immoveable object? The "Situation". The right outcome occurred - i.e. the new sexual abuse policy. Now we can say:

 

 

 

 

 

Mercy on both their houses!

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:30 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quote Wednesday

 

    ...a miscellaneous hodge-podge of saved quotes

 

 

 

 

 

"In the essay Christian Reunion C.S. Lewis states that the real disagreement between Catholics and Protestants is not about any particular belief, but about the source and nature of doctrine and authority:

 

"The real reason I cannot be in communion with you is ... that to accept your Church means not to accept a given body of doctrine but to accept in advance any doctrine that your Church hereafter produces."

 

 

 

 

 

I've heard this interpreted as Lewis saying that he could assent to all Catholic doctrine, but not sign on to the belief that all future doctrine would be free from error. And yet - to have survived 2,000 years of heresies with intact doctrine would seem to suggest a pattern. Past performance might not guarantee future results, but it would surprise me that Lewis would not think the protection of that doctrine for that many years not to be in some way miraculous.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:16 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greene

 

"He said 'One of the Fathers has told us that joy always depends on pain. Pain is part of joy. We are hungry and then think how we enjoy our food at last. We are thirsty ... ' He stopped suddenly, with his eyes glancing away into the shadows, expecting the cruel laugh that did not come. He said, 'We deny ourselves so that we can enjoy. You have heard of rich men in the north who eat salted foods, so that they can be thirsty -- for what they call the cocktail. Before the marriage, too, there is the long betrothal ...' Again he stopped. He felt his own unworthiness like a weight at the back of the tongue. There was a smell of hot wax from where a candle drooped in the nocturnal heat; people shifted on the hard floor in the shadows....That is all part of heaven -- the preparation. Perhaps without them, who can tell, you wouldn't enjoy heaven so much. Heaven would not be complete."

 

--Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:01 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Melville excerpt:

 

"Very often do the captains of ships take absent-minded young philosophers to task, upbraiding them with not feeling sufficient 'interest' in the voyage; half-hinting that they are so hopelessly lost to all honorable ambition.

 

 

 

 

 

Lulled in such an opium-like listlessness of vacate, unconscious reverie is the absent-minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thoughts, that at last he loses his identity; takes the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature...In this enchanted mood, thy spirit ebbs away to whence it came, like Wickliff's sprinkled Pantheistic ashes.

 

 

 

 

 

There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life imparted by a gently rolling ship; by her, borrowed from the sea; by the sea, from the inscrutable tides of God. But while this sleep, this dream is on ye, move your foot or hand an inch, slip your hold at all; and your identity comes back in horror. Over Descartian vortices you hover. Heed it well, ye Pantheists!" --H. Melville, Moby Dick

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:55 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Likewise the Eucharist

 

"In our world, a star is huge ball of flaming gas," said Eustace. "Even in your world," said Ramandu, "that is not what a star is, but only what it is made of."

 

-- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:52 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"True spirituality MUST have some organizing principal. It's like any other language -- this one being the language we use to communicate with God (two way, we hope). Language needs organization. It is essential to its use. Good poetry, for example, comes from a clear understanding of the function of language, including grammar and rhetoric. Good poetry 'violates' the rule with intent - not by accident or ignorance."

 

--quote saw on billboard

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:43 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He could always try blogging

 

Daniel Patrick Moynihan once mentioned how grateful he was for the Congressional Record, calling it the "publisher of last resort".

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 6:24 PM

 

 

 

December 17, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oy vey...he married her for her BCS bowl game ticket. Another sign of the Apocalpyse.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:14 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ye Olde Medicine Shoppe

 

Marvelous link via flos carmeli's medicine shop. Aquinas has told me constantly about the will but it sinks in with difficulty.

 

 

 

 

 

First, let me say, as I said about frequent confession, it is a law of nature that use and wont should make us feel things less keenly. We need not be surprised at this, nor distressed at it. We must not measure the value of our Communions, any more than the value of our Confessions and Absolutions, by the feelings that we have. We may be making our Communions just as fervently and as profitably without the feeling of sensible devotion as with it. Fervour does not reside in the feelings, but in the will--· in the will moved and strengthened by grace. Sensible devotion may be a gift of God, and when it is we ought to be very thankful for it. If it comes from God and is His gift, it is a very great help on our way. And so, no doubt, God gives it from time to time to those who are earnestly trying to give themselves to Him. But the times of dryness, are as needful for our spiritual growth. It is then that there is room for a truer exercise of faith, and a more generous devotion of ourselves to God.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:47 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Ultimate Feebleness

 

Our spectacular physical denouement - the collapse of death with its rank dissolution of blood, tissue and eventually bone - should remind us of our utter dependence on God. From belief that he will be active then, it is an infintesimally small jump to imagine Him active now, just as He was active at our ensoulment. Similarly, if Jesus rose, what small matter are the other miracle stories? To admit one is to admit all.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:41 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been pondering the infinitesimal increment in effectiveness between apology number five and apology number four for Lott. One senses the law of diminishing returns at work. The senator must too, because now he's a full convert to reverse racism. Actions do speak louder than words, but...

 

 

 

 

 

A rough SWAG:

 

Apology 1 = +20%*, apology 2 = +5%, apology 3 = +1%, apology 4 = .0035%, apology 5 = -3% (just as the Clinton apology tour eventually began to weary, so might there be a backlash from too many Lottian apologies).

 

 

 

 

 

*-percent of people positively influenced (i.e. in favor of the perpetrator) by the apology.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:46 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Belloc on Academics

 

All of this began, recall, when Belloc met the lady with the clear gaze in the Great Bear Inn. Suddenly, we are confronted in this unlikely spot with intellectual pride, surely the sin of the fallen angels. Who are these prideful ones? They are the ones who do not notice all the wonder to be found about them. A human being is more than a mind. Unless he is more, his mind is quite a dangerous thing. The angels are pure spirits; we are the rational animals, body and soul.

 

 

 

 

 

Belloc describes the situation of the mind-only-gentleman in this fashion:

 

 

 

 

 

What! here are we with the jolly world of God all round us, able to sing, to draw, to paint, to hammer and build, to sail, to ride horses, to run, to leap; having for our splendid inheritance love in youth and memory in old age, and we are to take one miserable little faculty, our one-legged, knock-kneed, gimcrack, grumpy intellect, or analytical curiosity rather (a diseased appetite), and let it swell till it eats up every other function?

 

 

 

 

 

What does the sane man do when this happens? He yells, "Away with such foolery."

 

 

 

 

 

Who is it, we might ask, that thinks the world of God to be jolly, who sings, draws, paints, hammers, sails, rides horses, runs, leaps? Who has love in youth and memory in old age? Who tells us it is a "splendid inheritance"? Why, it is Belloc himself, of course, perhaps still a bit annoyed that he did not himself end up as a very pedant, though this is hard to imagine. He knew the dangers of his own "grumpy intellect," for it could lead him to this very pride from which he was perhaps saved when he could not stay at Oxford.

 

 

 

 

 

The "Lector" wants to get on with the walk and quit these dreary philosophical musings. But the "Auctor" has a few more things to say. He repeats, "Away with such foolery." He decides to explain the problems we have with the pedants. They "lose all proportion." Worse, "they can never keep sane in a discussion." Belloc gives us an amusing example. The pedants "go wild on matters they are wholly unable to judge, such as Armenian Religion or the Politics of Paris or what not."

 

 

 

 

 

A man with a steady and balanced mind, with a clear gaze, on the other hand, has three questions to ask that keep him sane. These are 1) "After all it is not my business." 2) "Tut! tut! You don't say so!". And 3) "Credo in Unum Deum Patrem Omnipotentem Factorem omnium visibilium et invisibilium." In these last lines from the Creed, Belloc thinks, all the analytical powers of the pedants, the professors, are jammed "into dustheaps," by comparison.

 

-James V. Schall, S.J.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:29 PM

 

 

 

December 16, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Difference btwn NYC & D.C.

 

ED Crandall, the former president of American Airlines, once told me the difference between New York and Washington. He said that New York was "tough but not mean" and that Washington was "mean but not tough."

 

   "In New York," he elaborated, "they'll fight you for every last dime and then, afterwards, you'll go to dinner together and become friends." But in Washington, "They'll give you everything you want to your face - and then, as you walk away, they'll shoot you in the back because it's fun to watch you die."

 

- Dick Morris in the New York Post

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:21 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspired by a post on Obhouse, Dylan asks is it coming to this?

 

 

 

 

 

I received the following work email:

 

Young Asian American Professional Network Winter Celebration

 

The Young Asian American Professional Network is hosting a Winter Celebration - a family gathering to celebrate Asian culture with food, fun and entertainment on Sunday, December 15.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm looking forward to, but not holding my breath for, the complementary:

 

Young Irish American Drunkard Network Unabashedly Christmas Celebration

 

The Young Irish American Drunkard Network is hosting a Christmas (with a nod to our Druidic past) celebration that will celebrate Irish culture with Guinness, Jameson, and Harp. On Friday, Dec. 13 extending to Saturday Dec. 14.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:39 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursdays with Belloc. Nice ring to it. Like Breakfast at Tiffany's or Tuesdays with Morrie. I'll keep an eye on this one.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:27 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Blouzelinda is the blithest lass,

 

Than primrose sweeter, or the clover-grass.

 

Fair is the king-cup that in meadow blows,

 

Fair is the daisy that beside her grows,

 

Fair is the gillyflow'r, of gardens sweet,

 

Fair is the marigold, for pottage meet.

 

But Blouzelind's than gillyflow'r more fair,

 

Than daisy, marigold, or king-cup rare.   -John Gay, The Shepherd's Week

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:02 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thinking about the TSCs

 

I asked Bill White in what sense the traditional spiritual classics (TSC for brevity's sake) are opaque for him. He says that the TSCs, "talk past me; we seem to speak different languages....Some writing allows me to enter into it, carries me with it and teaches me to understand everything in it; then there is other language that keeps me outside...think it's as much a matter of God-given taste and aptitude. Some are Carmelites, some are Dominicans, and some (God help their souls) are Jesuits."

 

 

 

 

 

As an aside, his conversion shows a sobering side of Protestantism I was not familiar with - neglect of the gospels:

 

Sermons, such as they were, were mere exercises in concordance-jumping, and usually focused on some obscure passage in one of Saint Paul's letters, with lots of concordance-based jumping from one word in an isolated verse to another throughout the bible. A "word study". I don't remember *ever* hearing extended passages read from the gospels, nor a single sermon on the gospels. (The obligatory disclaimer applies - I realize Protestant churches vary greatly.)

 

 

 

 

 

It seems the TSCs are good as eating spinach is; rather than subsist on the sugary diet of works that allow my eyes to be widened in a way such as Belloc or Chesterton wrote, books that build faith - rather one should also read books that provoke the desire to, say, start fasting. We see these differences in the bible - the thrill of historical connection when reading Isaiah, for instance, compared to reading the self-improvement of the Book of Proverbs. Bill mentioned Isaiah, pointing out some of his favorite books in the bible:

 

 

 

 

 

For me it's the stories of the gospels. Peter's letters are favorites, too; perhaps for me it's the historical connection again. And Isaiah! A passage from him can be like a mystery of the Rosary - I stop and wander up and down through all of salvation history making connections, seeing prophecies fulfilled, the Passion foreshadowed, Christ and the Church all through it.

 

 

 

 

 

Started reading St. John of the Cross (who knew his feast day was Saturday!?):

 

Often [beginners] will beseech God, with great yearnings, that He will take from them their imperfections and faults, but they do this that they may find themselves at peace, and may not be troubled by them, rather than for God's sake; not realizing that, if He should take their imperfections from them, they would probably become prouder still.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:51 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Selections from Verweile Doch:

 

 

 

 

 

Bartender says: 'I don't like to judge people from what I see of them from back here. They're either better or worse than normal when they have a drink.'

 

- R. McInerny, "Lack of the Irish"

 

 

 

 

 

So if they're better than normal does that mean they should drink up?

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:30 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He agreed with C.S. Lewis that Christians got along best when each expressed undiluted what he or she believed. The search for a least common denominator to bind the Christian sects together led to blandness at best.

 

 

 

 

 

  'Is baptism a least common denominator?' Roger asked.

 

 

 

 

 

  A Baptist was unlikely to think of baptism as optional so far as Christianity was concerned. The difficulty was to think of it as a sacrament.

 

 

 

 

 

  'Do that you will soon be on the path of Lumen Gentium.'

 

 

 

 

 

  Todd of course understood that the reference was to the dogmatic constitution on the Church that had come out of Vatican II. Reading it had played a major role in Roger's conversion. Admit one sacrament and the other six would soon follow and with them the priesthood, bishops and the apostolic succession...

 

 

 

 

 

-Ralph McInerny, Lack of the Irish

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:22 PM

 

 

 

December 14, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ha! Our Argentinian friend takes us to task for our vulgar tastes (although the Babel translator definitely requires one to "look thru the glass darkly").

 

 

 

 

 

I'm actually not a whiskey fan at all, having a once-a-year shot of Jameson's on St. Patrick's Day to properly jump start the day.

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Adult Beverages*  ..in no particular order

 

St. Pauli Girl Dark

 

Guinness Stout

 

Warsteiner

 

 

 

 

 

* - please blog responsibly. Only one drink per post.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:13 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. - Luke 1:45

 

***

 

     -Blessed are you who believed: Luke portrays Mary as a believer whose faith stands in contrast to the disbelief of Zechariah (Luke 1:20). Mary's role as believer in the infancy narrative should be seen in connection with the explicit mention of her presence among "those who believed" after the resurrection at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:14). - NAB notes

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:42 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Walk

 

dye light

 

in the nodding hours

 

dank wind Merlot chill’d,

 

brave lights curl pines

 

and whispering oaks--

 

a neighborhood aurora borealis.

 

 

 

 

 

Ranch houses wear the jewelry

 

of the ebulliently bulbous,

 

gems of blue and red raiments

 

recreating the plaintiveness

 

of youth’s last call.

 

 

 

 

 

Standing athwart the land of cold & dark

 

defiantly bright, incandescent strivers

 

strike the heart like carolers

 

of Whoville cheer.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:38 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olde Travelogue, circa '99

 

I am passing thru the metropolis of Shade, Ohio, which thoughtfully erected a sign announcing themselves but I look in vain for a semblance of a town. I surmise that the other side of the sign said "Leaving Shade". I'll have to check on that on the way back. I kid the small towns. Country folk still have the capacity to surprise; at the local McDonald's there is an old guy dressed…for what I'm not sure, but he sure is dressed for a Monday morning. He is wearing a western suit, light beige in color, with matching piped pants and an expensive looking white cowboy hat. Does boredom lead people to these things? I pass Darwin, Ohio and then enter Minersville & spy a yard with fake deer. I go by houses with the Ohio River literally in their backyard, and on the other side of the bank a big nuclear power plant. These folks must be compartmentalizers on the scale of Clinton. I guess they can say, "I just look at the river, don't pay no mind to the Chernobyl towers". I enjoy the signs of small towns - saw one outside a restaurant that said, "Welcome. God food." Probably good too. In Racine, Ohio one said, "Free!!! Heart transplants from Jesus." Saw another small town announce "We now have soft-serve ice cream." Hey, congratulations! I also saw the occasional drive-by oxymoron, like, "West Virginia University". (Only kidding WVU!)

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:16 PM

 

 

 

December 13, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"He'll never be a lawyer 'cuz he can't pass a bar." - a country song lyric

 

 

 

 

 

"Blogging with a glass of whisky on hand is neither unheard of in these parts" - Disputations

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, I resemble that remark!

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:10 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Comment:

 

"Having lived through the fifties, and having read the other thoughtful comments, allow me a personal postscript. The Church was changing in the fifties, because the position of Catholics in society was changing rapidly. Until then, Catholics were a mental minority. A remark by FDR - as reported in Michael Beschloss's "The Conquerors' is revealing:

 

 

 

 

 

Just after Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt lunched with Margenthau and Leo Crowley, a Catholic who was Custodian of Alien Property. As Morgenthau later recorded, the President told them, "You know this is a Protestant country, and the Catholics and Jews are here under sufferance." Roosevelt went on to say that it was therefore "up to you" to "go along with anything I want".

 

 

 

 

 

This was the attitude and atmosphere of the times. Perhaps it's the reason that the Church WAS close-knit and defensive. A sea-change occured in the fifties: the JFK phenomenon was just a result of this change in American attitudes.

 

 

 

 

 

In any event, the Church - and its members - were effectively given first class citizenship. And so loyalties began to shift from religion to society. And the shift continues today."

 

-Charles on Amy's blog

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Soul

 

No longer need we say, with Tertullian, credo quia absurdum est. For the science of quantum mechanics has undone nineteenth-century concepts of matter, and it becomes conceiveable that whatever power has assembled the negative and positive charges composing us may reassemble those electrical particles, if it chooses. What survives (if stained) this present existence is the anima, the animating soul transcending mind and body. -Russell Kirk

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:55 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Corrections

 

I may have to start a permanent corrections column. (We joke about our small home newspaper that runs a correction page. It was funny until they misspelled my wife's name in the marriage announcement.)

 

 

 

 

 

Reader James informs that it was Evelyn Waugh who suggested he would be worse if not a Christian. Mr. Greene could probably make a similar statement though, given his reputation.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:57 PM

 

 

 

December 12, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Shea applies a hand to Mr. Hand's Backside

 

Right here

 

 

 

 

 

Sure, I've grown weary of the constant focus on the scandal on her blog and I was particularly upset by the comments made about my hero Cardinal Ratzinger, but Mr. Hand's comments were over the top and uncharitable, as is well-stated in the post above. I greatly value Amy's honesty and intellectual abilities. She unflinchingly asks the hard questions and addresses issues on a very practical level, which seems a valuable service.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:42 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking thru the Glass Darkly

 

P.S. As a post-script to the vast post on the "Spiritual Classics" below...one can surely say the greater danger lies in too little scrupulosity than too much, especially in today's world. (Aquinas didn't agree, saying that one should error on the side of presumption rather than acedia. Of course tis better not to error at all.)

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concerning Pat Buchanan's article blaming everything on Vatican II...

 

We will never know, but it is possible the Church would now be in serious schism had it not had a Vat II. We might've split into Reform, Conservative and Orthodox wings like Judiasm did. If the Vatican had hard-lined it throughout the 60s & 70s it would've been completely irrelevant to the modern world, much as the Amish.

 

 

 

 

 

As it is the Church has bent, but did not break. That is a sign of strength. To have survived the 60s & 70s with all her doctrine intact, including Humane Vitae and the seamless moral dogmas is a good thing, one we can celebrate.

 

 

 

 

 

Can one even imagine, in this day of militant Islam, how ugly it would be for the Church if she had maintained her "error has no rights" pre-Vatican II stance on religious freedom? Is there any doubt how the Catholic Church would be compared to Islam, in their intolerance and desire to force their views on people? The Church moved sharply away from favoring theocracies during Vat II, a move that turned out to be prescient.

 

 

 

 

 

In short, the numbers might look even worse without Vatican II. When the writer Evelyn Waugh was asked why his being a Christian seemed not to make him one bit nicer, he said something like "you can't imagine how much worse I would be without Christianity".

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:26 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Cafeteria Recognizing Today's Feast?

 

Should I read anything into the fact that the main entree today is "Mexican Sizzlin' Salad"? *grin*

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charismatically challenged

 

Not being especially demonstrative (except after imbibing), I find the prostrations of the Byzantine rite and the hand raising aspects of charismatic services off-putting. (I occasionally go to the latter for my wife's, and ecumenicism's, sake). But the discomfort is salutary: if I can't be embarrassed for Christ's sake, what good am I? Everything indeed is grace.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:47 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disputations makes the interesting point that, "this is true, of course, yet though in a sense St. Francis of Assisi rebuilt the Church, the gilt of Thirteenth Century Christendom comes off pretty quickly once you start examining it. It's not the personal holiness of one or even several saints that revives the Church -- nor, for that matter is a revived Church free of crisis."

 

 

 

 

 

Amy recently questioned the strength of 50s Catholicism, given its swift collapse in the 60s, but if St. Francis couldn't hold the 13th century one can scarcely expect the leading lights of Catholicism in the 50s to hold the fort for long. Holiness is personal, and appears in some ways non-transferable. I think it was Chesterton who said that a new barbarian invasion occurs every generation - in the form of children.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:58 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regarding the Spiritual Classics

 

It perhaps wouldn't surprise y'all to say that Bill White's words resonate with me: the traditional spiritual works opaque to me; these "lower" works often help me to place building blocks on which to build a better spiritual life. Boy, he said that well didn't he?

 

 

 

 

 

By "traditional spiritual classics" I'm thinking along the lines of Francis de Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life, Dom Chautard's Soul of the Apostolate, Teresa of Avila's Way of Perfection. I've not read enough of St. John of the Cross to say, but I suspect he would be in the same group. The lack is within me I'm sure. I'm not speaking, by way of example, of Thérèse of Lisieux's marvelous The Story of a Soul. Although classics are by definition timeless, the relative popularity of St. Thérèse compared to, say, a St. John of the Cross, suggests that God providentially provides saints that speak to our times. St. Thérèse speaks to us moderns.

 

 

 

 

 

A Baptist pastor continually preaches the following thing on the radio (I don't have a specifically Catholic radio station in tuning distance so I listen to the local Christian one):

 

 

 

 

 

"Christians have to spend more time remembering their position in Christ, not their condition."

 

 

 

 

 

In other words, focus on who you are - God's - and not your condition, which is often disconcertingly poor. It is interesting to this cradle Catholic that even Protestants have problems with legalism and "position vs. condition". This is stereotyped as a Catholic "works" problem. I've sometimes wondered if the best way to go about becoming a Christian is to start out as an evangelical and really nail the "grace uber alles" into your heart and then become Catholic and experience the fullness of it. For the gratuitousness of grace is the bedrock upon which everything draws. It was enlightening to me that even a Protestant minister must remind people to remember their position and not condition. Most of the Christian music I hear actually defines the word "schlock", but the thing that the evangelicals do well is to pound the simple message home that one is given a gift and that one should be grateful for that. All sense of duty must flow out of gratefulness, it seems to me. Or as is found in Cantalamessa's Reflections for Advent:

 

The gift comes before the commandment. It is the gift that gives rise to duty and not vice versa. The law does not generate grace, but grace generates the law. This is such a simple and clear truth that we tend to forget it. - Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm quite allergic to sentiment in religion. The idea of creating our own religion is an anathemna as is using religion as a crutch, or as a way of dealing with death. I trust not my feelings and I recoil at the thought of presuming on God. And yet...one must internalize the great gift. And one must error on the side of presumption, rather than discouragement.

 

 

 

By the way, that ol' hard-ass'd curmugeon Derbyshire discussed sentiment relative to animals in NRO yesterday:

 

I myself am more philosophical, with a quiet faith that the large natural order of things is reasonable at some level inaccessible to mere human minds. I am also temperamentally opposed to sentimentality about animals, and in fact to sentimentality in general. It was Dostoyevsky, I think, who described one of his characters as "evil and sentimental." Just so.

 

 

 

 

 

This is all a long-winded way of saying that I find most of the classic spiritual works tend to make me focus on my condition, rather than position, although that is an unfair generalization. (This is not to infer that this in any way is Bill White's issue with the spiritual works, I am speaking only for myself.) But after reading parts of some of them, I'm not sure they have the benefit of improving my behavior... Try constantly not thinking about a pink elephant and my guess is that it'll be something you think about.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:12 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ever-Interesting Barzun...

 

By way of preface, Barzun describes the myth of the American Indian as the "noble savage" and then relates it to how Roman historian Tactitus portrayed the Germanic tribes of the first century in such a way to shame the people of Rome...

 

 

 

 

 

The fine barbarians in Tacitus were used as models in Luther's Germany to stimulate resentment against the foreign authority of Rome, and these two attitudes, favoring the Indian and the German, combined to change the western peoples' notion of their origins. For a thousand years they had been the sons and daughters of the ancient Romans. Now the idea of different "races" replaced that of a single, common lineage. The bearing of this shift is clear: it parallels the end of empire and the rise of nations. Race unites and separates; We and They. Thus the English in the 16th century began to nurse the fetish of Anglo-Saxonism, which unites them with the Germanic and separates them from the Roman past. We shall see how a similar notion influenced politics in France up to and beyond the 1789 Revolution...

 

 

 

 

 

The conviction moreover grew that the character of a people is inborn and unchangeable. If their traits appear odd or hateful, the theory of race justifies perpetual enmity. We thus arrive at some of the familiar prejudices and hostilities of our time. "Race" added the secular idea of inborn difference to the theological one of infidel and Christian. -Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:54 PM

 

 

 

December 11, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Wednesday

 

Farewell, green fields and happy groves,

 

Where flocks have took delight;

 

Where lambs have nibbled, silent moves

 

The feet of angels bright;    - William Blake

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:51 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sound sleep by night; study and ease

 

Together mix'd; sweet recreation,

 

And innocence, which most does please,

 

      With meditation.

 

 

 

 

 

Thus let me live, unheard, unknown;

 

Thus unlamented let me dye;

 

Steal from the world, and not a stone

 

     Tell where I lye.   - Alexander Pope

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:43 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He ate and drank the precious Words --

 

His Spirit grew robust --

 

He knew no more that he was poor,

 

Nor that his frame was Dust --

 

 

 

 

 

He danced along the dingy Days

 

And this Bequest of Wings

 

Was but a Book -- What Liberty

 

A loosened spirit brings --     --Emily Dickinson via Tenebrae

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:37 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been pondering the unseemly CIA killing, the one in Yemen where a vehicle containing six suspected terrorists was blown up. Our Dominican priest was upset by it, and said so in a sermon, intimating that this was no different from assassination. The problem is that it is police work, but what if the country in question does not welcome you with open arms and doesn't provide the opportunity of arresting them?

 

 

 

 

 

Terrorists play by a different set of rules and we are left either playing by their or...or what? WWII saw the targeting of civilian populations - certainly something way outside the "gentleman" rules of war. And now again with respect to armies doing "police work". I have no answers, but I say this by way of a preface to another transition, as told in Barzun's Dawn to Decadence. In 1525, Charles V defeated Francis I in a great battle at Pavia, in Italy, and by accident Francis was taken prisoner. The fuedal notion was war as a tournament, a contest between two knights. It was expected that a ransom be paid for Francis, so that his honor lay intact:

 

 

 

 

 

But Francis, as his behavior soon showed, seems to have had inklings of a more modern, more national conception of war...

 

 

 

 

 

Francis, although he had given his word to stay put, decided to escape... He was caught, Charles was shocked, unbelieving. How could a Christian gentleman who had given his word act like a varlet? The transition from princely conduct to raison d'eetat, from knight to head of state, from medieval to modern was painful. - Barzun

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:05 PM

 

 

 

December 10, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.--William Butler Yeats

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:36 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweeps?

 

Perhaps it is a ratings week and I missed the news, but Flos Carmeli has a post on one of my favorite subjects. Sex. In lieu of having it, I'll read about it.

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously, he was reacting to an article by a Jesuit and his essay is well-written and convincing. My initial reaction was to take issue with a comment such as, "Victorian society for all its renowned repression, was in fact every bit as sexually charged as modern day society". One difference is that we have the birth control pill and an accompanying lack of shame, both of which contribute to a new sort of sexual license. But then I read on and Mr. Riddle brought up the valid point that Islamic societies have gone to ridiculous measures to stem the impulse. Besides which, Jesus said to lust in your heart is to commit adultery, which, of course, is not affected by a pill.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:22 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Shawn McInerny's review of Paul VI's biography. Am looking forward to Amy's take on the John XXIII books she's reading.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm currently reading Barzun's wonderful Dawn to Decadence. He has a wonderfully idiosyncratic style. Also want to continue with Flannery O'Connor's letters - Habit of Being. Preversely, I tend to hoard my best books in the sense of not wanting to read them because a) they may not be as good as I anticipate and b) the very act of consuming them diminishes them in the sense that they'll be over that much sooner!

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:45 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still excavating remains from the journal. 500+ pages - remember what you paid...

 

 

 

 

 

   Twas 1844 and I was a simple Irishman with children taught the landowner's language at the "hedge school", so-named because education was forbidden and they had to hie thee to the hedges. I learned some too, and with my youngest Bridget’s help, with whose help I do write this now. My wife Bridget has been gone most of a decade, lost giving birth to the one who took her name.

 

   I was born two miles from the Irish Sea, where oft I would go to catch perch and clams. We’d smoke aged seawood in leeward winds and run-sail in our grand papa's crude dingys. I’d stare at the agate sea until my mind was blank and the waves became as music. We would go to Mass at the church built in stones ten centuries old and dream of the Hill of Tara and hero Patrick’s burning the Druid altars. Sometimes the Sheridan girl would come with us, named like every other Eirean girl for the Blessed Mother. So fair she was that the Blessed Mother herself might be jealous, such be the beauty of this blackhaired Iberian.

 

   In the daily toil we found the work man was meant to do – we free’d our mind from mental hardships and strife by dint of sheer effort. Work all day with your body and your mind is oddly satisfied, like a child’s by a mother’s lullaby.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:52 PM

 

 

 

December 9, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Et macula non est in te -Cant. 4:7 via Old Oligarch

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:03 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was with eight thousand Christian music fans at the Michael W. Smith concert, singing in Latin.

 

 

 

 

 

Well, okay, a line from Angels We Have Heard on High:

 

 

 

 

 

Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:14 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...a moment of nostalgia

 

Jennifer Juniper vit sur la colline

 

Jennifer Juniper assise tres tranquile

 

Dort-elle? Je ne crois pas

 

Respire t'elle? Oui mais tout bas

 

Qu'est ce que tu fais, Jenny mon amour   -Donovan

 

 

 

 

 

My seventh grade science (!?) teacher played this many times for us in lieu of examining slides under a microscope.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:32 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

skeins of snow litter the dark field

 

ruts and mounds of muldering leaves

 

a moonscape landscape

 

the sky a cryptic shade

 

imprinted with doubt.

 

 

 

 

 

scourged trees sway in penitential bows

 

silverbacks coated with silver

 

croak, groan in the bending wind.

 

 

 

 

 

cold that demands Normandy invasion planning

 

gloves, ski-masks

 

smooth-soled shoes a mistake;

 

errant lurches from a pent-up dog

 

close-calls on ice

 

unpleasantness squared.

 

 

 

 

 

windy & nineteen degrees

 

thirty-seven in Galway.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:28 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On taking the dog for a walk

 

Obi trips the land fantastic

 

knows not fear of dark or cold

 

skitters from post to post

 

bladder at the ready

 

firing urine at the usual suspects:

 

small trees, wayward leaves, and urban landmarks.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:02 PM

 

 

 

December 8, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To Journal or Not To Journal* - John Adams on Keeping a Diary

 

"Have you kept a regular journal?" John wrote John Quincy in 1783. "...We think, and improve our judgments, by committing our thoughts to paper." "Without a minute diary, " John wrote his grandsons in 1815, "your travels will be no better than the flight of birds through the air; they will have no time behind them."

 

 

 

 

 

The family project [of keeping journals] continued into the fourth generation, although by then the family grew sick of it. Charles Francis, Jr., thought introspection had been 'morbidly developed by the journalizing habit.' When he reread his own youthful diary, he was embarrassed by "its conceit, its weakness and its cant". He burned it all...

 

-Richard Brookhiser's America's First Dynasty

 

 

 

 

 

* - gag. I succumbed to making a noun a verb.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:50 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All is Relative...except for things that aren't

 

Enjoyed flos carmeli's take on the weather:

 

It amazes me that anyone likes cold weather. I get slow, stupid, relucant to do anything, and terribly anxious. Oh wait. . . I'm describing my base state of being. I have long considered that I would like to move back to Virginia in (as they say) the fullness of time. On his trip, I have decided otherwise.

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds like my base state of being. What is ironic is that I've often felt like a good move would be from Ohio to Virginia, and to thus shorten and de-sting the winter and also to enjoy the surreal beauty that covers much of that state. Steven Riddle wants none of the cold of Virginia. But if you are used to Florida I can see how Virginia looks chilly, just as the Minnesotans must grin at my Ohio complaints. It does wear off eventually - my Maine friend, after eight Ohio winters, is no longer laughing at the mild winters. He's now as convinced as the rest of us that the weather sucks.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:32 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progressively Abled

 

Caveman, thru circumstances of time and geography, lived short, brutish lives in chronic hunger, cold, etc. And the poverty of their lives was matched by the poverty of their spiritual existence - by a dearth of Revelation, knowing not the consolations of grace, the Spirit, Jesus and not even having been given the Law, which, imperfect as it was, was an improvement over the pagan notion of religions which imagined the deities cruel and heartless. The idea of "God is love" was still foreign. The progressive nature of revelation is comparable to the evolution of a seed developing into a young plant developing into an oak. The tiny plant has the worst time of it – it is subject to degrees of cold and is vulnerable to an extent the mature oak is not. That is nature. So why should God not show us, through the physical laws, his plan for the spiritual? Is it because we think we are better than the oak, that human life is more precious and that humans should be coddled? The problem therein is that we are told that we were coddled and that we, via Adam, spoiled it. We were born to a greater dignity. But we chose the harder way - the progressive revelation path.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:23 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Minstrel-Boy  

 

 

 

 

 

The Minstrel-boy to the war is gone

 

In the ranks of death you will find him

 

His father's sword he has girded on

 

And his wild harp slung behind him.

 

"Land of Song!", said the warrior bard,

 

“Though all the world betray thee,

 

One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard

 

One faithful harp shall praise thee."

 

 

 

 

 

The Minstrel fell! But the foeman's steel

 

Could not bring that proud soul under;

 

The harp he lov'd ne'er spoke again,

 

For he tore its chords asunder;

 

And said "No chains shall sully thee,

 

Thou soul of love and brav'ry!

 

Thy songs were made for the pure and free

 

They shall never sound in slavery! "

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

An emotionally stirring and inspirational song, "The Minstrel Boy" was written by Thomas Moore (1779-1852) who set it to the melody of "The Moreen", and old Irish aire. It is believed by many that Moore composed the song as a memorial to several of his friends he had met while a student at Trinity College and who had participated in the 1798 rebellion of the United Irishmen. Due to its popularity, the song was a favorite of the many Irishmen who fought during the U.S. Civil War, primarily on the Union side.

 

  - Lesley Nelson's Folk Music Site

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:49 AM

 

 

 

December 7, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Big Question

 

CNN's Evans and Novak used to preface the last question for their guest with: "Next, we will ask the Big Question", said with proper ominousness. Amy asked that today:

 

 

 

Columnist David Carlin has a good column concerning Nancy Pelosi, a piece that also gathers in former Judiciary Committee chair Patrick Leahy, and could have, but didn't throw in Tom Daschle as well, all Catholics of A Certain Age, given their Catholic educations in the supposedly Golden Age of the 1950's, when all was well, and solid and everyone knew what Catholic meant - and it certainly didn't mean supporting abortion. Carlin quite reasonably asks - was this Golden Age really so Golden, if it could produce a generation thick with Catholic pro-abortion politicos? He writes:

 

 

 

 

 

"It certainly looked healthy on the outside, but inside a cancer was eating away. What was this cancer? If we could identify it, we would go a long way toward understanding how to restore American Catholicism to real health."

 

 

 

 

 

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this, because it really is an intriguing question.

 

 

 

 

 

I know when and why my mother left the Church...Whether she is representative, I don't know. And I'm also unsure of the extent of her knowledge of theology & the catechism. I suspect weak. As one Prot put it, "you Catholics have 20 minute answers for every question". That is both our blessing and curse. It's a blessing given that there is an ocean to play in, for those who have the intellectual stamina to play in it. It's a curse to those who, like my mother, want soundbyte answers to our knotty issues - the sexual issues. Should it be surprise that the Church's difficulty in coming up with convincing answers in the sexual arena, combined with a sexual revolution of the '60s would damage the Church? Look at Nancy Nall - isn't most of her anger directed at Church policy on gays, birth control, -i.e. sex? The pope understands this and in Love and Responsibility tries to take a more "personalist" approach rather than just relying on natural law arguments.

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps the weakness is that American Catholics find an undemocratic Church a scandal in of and itself. Democracy is in our blood; dissent as natural as breathing. Tocqueville wrote about us in 'Democracy in America': "Two things must here be accurately distinguished: equality makes men want to form their own opinions; but, on the other hand, it imbues them with the taste and the idea of unity, simplicity, and impartiality in the power that governs society. Men living in democratic times are therefore very prone to shake off all religious authority; but if they consent to subject themselves to any authority of this kind, they choose at least that it should be single and uniform."

 

 

 

 

 

My mother dates her break with the Church to 1968, and the confusion born mostly because authority became fractured and no longer uniform. She went to a priest after Humane Vitae about the use of birth control and the priest told her, "it's okay, that's not really a sin". Tocqueville continues, "Religious powers not radiating from a common center are naturally repugnant to their minds."

 

 

 

 

 

The tendency in a democracy is to hold one's opinion as gospel, unless there is a single, uniform authority. Once the strong unity of doctrine of belief and dogma broke in the mid '60s, the centre could not hold. Once that authority was fractured in '68, by dissenting priests and even bishops, we began down a path Alexis de Tocqueville presciently predicted.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:15 PM

 

 

 

December 6, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is this a good message to send?

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

Too funny...from www.oldlutheran.com via Amy. Not sure a beer label is the best place to put the words "sin boldly".

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:52 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peggy Noonan's latest

 

"Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plane, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves." So wrote James Joyce at the end of his great short story "The Dead." They are famous words; it's a famous passage. Joyce's snow didn't fall over the house, or the city, or over his sensitive characters in a neighborhood in Dublin. Snow was falling all over Ireland, and touching everyone, as if they were together.

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

Bad weather, bad news makes you part of something: a community of catastrophe. You see your neighbor, and this time you don't just nod or keep walking. You call over, "Wow--you believe this?" And you laugh. You make phone calls. Weather makes you outward.

 

 

 

 

 

And then when the storm passes or the earthquake is old news, people retreat back into their aloneness with their own thoughts. They get quiet again. It will take another snowstorm or a hurricane before the ad hoc community of catastrophe springs up, and makes them a member of something.

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

On a totally unrelated matter, it looks like ol' Emerson is firmly in Shelby Foote's camp of art uber alles as far as one's priorities.

 

 

 

 

 

Artists must be sacrificed to their art. Like bees, they must put their lives into the sting they give.

 

--Ralph Waldo Emerson, via Mirari

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:44 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although silence is golden, in lieu of polishing that medal I'll post this thing, written back in '99 (as was the Brenner piece). It is proof positive that ye olde journal is nearly completely mined:

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering imaginary Uncle Coot

 

We were sitting in a duck blind, drinking sour mash and cheap wine. As a kid I pondered the rope-like sags in his neck; it looked like some sort of corrugated cardboard. He had hands with skin soft and pink on one side and brown, reptilian on the other. I stared as his hands wondering how they got the way.

 

 

 

 

 

There was something in Uncle Coot I longed to emulate although I wasn’t quite sure what it was. It wasn’t the drinking, although I’d done that in quantities and eventually found that I’d get too far behind in my reading if it continued. It wasn’t the perennial bachleorhood - Coot hadn’t had sex since the Ford Administration. It wasn’t the duck hunting, because the inertia it took to get up at 6 am and stand in the middle of a Tennessee bog was hard to overcome. I couldn’t quite put a finger on it, try as I may. It might’ve been that care free attitude or that rebel streak. He smoked Camel cigarettes and never once worried about lung cancer or lip cancer or cancer of the esophagus or cancer of the lining of the throat. He didn’t much care for the Surgeon General, saying that “that sum-bitch prolly's afraid to go outside.” Ol' Uncle Coot was an earthy sort and I miss ‘im.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:48 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been pondering Amy's claim that the teaching on religious freedom changed and on the debate going on over at Catholic Convert questioning the continuity on "no salvation outside the church". Perhaps the continuity or non-continuity is not ultimately important. Certainly to non-Christians, the bible has many contradictions. They see the God of the OT as wrathful and stern, while the NT as merciful and loving. And even if we limit ourselves to Jesus' words alone, there are paradoxical messages concerning the issue of salvation. It certainly isn't surprising that the Church would reflect that over the ages. Jesus's purpose was surely to "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted" by forcing us not to either be too comfortable with our own salvation nor with losing heart. This is the delicate balance that every Christian faces.

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus appealed to us with both a carrot and a stick. The Church, thinking with the heart of Christ, attempts everything she can to help us reach salvation and will emphasize one or the other to the extent that she feels it will be effective. To that end, she tailors her message, much as the Gospel writers did with their respective audiences.

 

 

 

 

 

See this interesting article on the subject:

 

During World War II a certain nun had a reputation for being very honest. Her convent in occupied German territory had secretly offered asylum to a number of Jews. If found out, it would mean death for both the Jews and all the sisters. When asked by a German officer, outside the convent, whether there were any Jews inside, she answered that there were not, and the officer left. I have not met anyone willing to say that she erred in her action, though what she said was not literally true. Some have argued it was true in the sense that she had no certain knowledge of all the ancestry of each person, or their inmost beliefs, but she did know that, to the government that the officer represented, a Jew was a person who deserved to be torn from his home and family, worked as a slave, and then killed, so she could honestly say there were no persons like that there. So she made an inerrant statement that was not true in the common literal sense.

 

 

 

 

 

It should not be thought that the sister in question sinned venially or acted against the moral teaching of the Church in making such a judgment. Paragraph 2488 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

 

 

 

 

 

“The right to the communication of the truth is not unconditional. Everyone must conform his life to the Gospel precept of fraternal love. This requires us in concrete situations to judge whether or not it is appropriate to reveal the truth to someone who asks for it.”

 

 

 

 

 

And is followed by:

 

 

 

 

 

“Charity and respect for the truth should dictate the response to every request for information or communication. The good and safety of others, respect for privacy, and the common good are sufficient reasons for being silent about what ought not be known or for making use of a discreet language. The duty to avoid scandal often commands strict discretion. No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it.”

 

 

 

 

 

The truth is eternal, but error may be time and circumstance dependent. So to say that someone was protected from error when they said something, does not necessarily guarantee that it was true in the sense that most people might interpret it at that time.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:16 PM

 

 

 

December 5, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A two-fer

 

It is a sign of my natural preversity that a handicapped lot prohibited by red traffic cones seemed an irresistable parking target. (I didn't.)

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:59 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reminder to self

 

Respect and love ought to be extended also to those who think or act differently than we do in social, political and even religious matters. In fact, the more deeply we come to understand their ways of thinking through such courtesy and love, the more easily will we be able to enter into dialogue with them.

 

 

 

 

 

This love and good will, to be sure, must in no way render us indifferent to truth and goodness. Indeed love itself impels the disciples of Christ to speak the saving truth to all men. But it is necessary to distinguish between error, which always merits repudiation, and the person in error, who never loses the dignity of being a person even when he is flawed by false or inadequate religious notions. God alone is the judge and searcher of hearts; for that reason He forbids us to make judgments about the internal guilt of anyone.

 

 

 

 

 

Since all men possess a rational soul and are created in God's likeness, since they have the same nature and origin, have been redeemed by Christ and enjoy the same divine calling and destiny, the basic equality of all must receive increasingly greater recognition. - from The Documents of Vatican II

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:36 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luminous people chanced our lives, people who seemed to live richer, and not just materially. Two that come to mind are as different as the sun from the moon - the Brenner's & Aunt Mary. The Brenner's were ethnic and I loved ethnic because we were as plain and ordinary Americans as there ever could be. I hungered for myth, for family histories and old graves, for stories of the old country or Civil War veterans. We had none, zero, our family tree evaporated inside three generations like a slither of ice in the sun. Grandpa’s dad died in the flood of 1913. Our ancestors came over from Ireland due to the famine. One line stories, no faces, no names. The great myth of Irish storytelling seemed lost on my relatives. We were now utterly Americans, invisibly middle-class, everyman’s man. We ate hamburgers and hotdogs, belonged to the majority religion, spoke without accent, went bowling, read the local newspaper, watched the local news.

 

 

 

The Flood of 1913 was the only history anyone cared about, and it riveted me. Every time I passed the river into Hamilton I would imagine the waters turned surly, nasty, angry. These boringly benign waters were once Killing waters! I noted the high watermark and then tried to conjure it higher, nearly wishing another flood.

 

 

 

 

 

The Brenner's may’ve been as American as we were but they pretended otherwise, & I lived it too. Their parents were German immigrants, they had been to Germany, had living relatives there. They sent mail to the Communist East, and the thought of officials censoring it thrilled. They told of “Checkpoint Charlie” and the horrible Wall where people tried tunneling, ballooning, anything to get over it and usually failed, shot in cold blood. I imagined ways I would try to escape. I dreamt of going there, visting West Berlin and trying to escape into East Berlin, and wandering into the East German countryside, hiding there because I was good at hiding. I was small and thin and thought myself clever.

 

 

 

 

 

The Brenner's lived like Europeans - they went to the opera, to plays, to the symphony. They traveled, made and drank wine out of dusty ancient bottles, and rattled off words in German. Mary Ann taught me the song Give My Regards to Broadway with a Brooklyn accent. I thought it was the coolest thing and never forgot it.

 

 

 

 

 

Aunt Mary was the opposite. She never traveled, never drank, and though she read I couldn’t remember a thing except a spiritual book or two. She lived in an old part of town. Everything about her life was different from ours. Her house was old and deathly quiet, with quaint furniture and books behind class cages as if they were too dangerous to let out. She had a basement - something we never had - and the creepy downstairs fed the imagination. She served different foods from us - like hot cereal. That was exotic to us. She served strange dishes on old plates. Mary made even spinach taste good. But nothing, at no time before or since, tasted like city chicken. Served on a kabob it woke me up to food as something more than just something to do before going back out to play. Food as the main entertainment. Poor aunt Mary was always hobbled and one would think would have little to offer a child. She lived a simple lifestyle, and it going to her house was like going on a retreat. Like a monastery, her house was spare of words, spare of ornament, and the morning chants were sang by whipporwills which I listened to in rapt atttention. Aunt Mary and the Brenner's showed two sides of life. Life lived restrained, disciplined and bereft of ornament or one rich, baroque, full of travel and wine and art. Simple vs complex, nature vs city, active vs contemplative.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:24 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Rites

 

Charles Baudelaire inhaled the scent of fleurs de mal

 

   ignoring, it seems, divine decrees,

 

and yet he lay beneath his funeral pall

 

   muni des sacrements d'eglise.

 

 

 

 

 

Belief must baffle minds which think

 

   assent should show itself in deeds,

 

that logic of the lucid sort must link

 

   the mind and will of thinking reeds.

 

 

 

 

 

Not so, God's mercy disobeys our laws

 

and we, thank God, are shriven without cause.

 

  - Ralph McInerny in Crisis

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:47 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vater unser im Himmel,

 

Geheiligt werde Dein Name.

 

Dein Reich komme.

 

Dein Wille geschehe, wie im Himmel

 

so auf Erden.

 

Unser tägliches Brot gib uns heute.

 

Und vergib uns unsere Schuld,

 

wie auch wir vergeben unseren Schuldigern.

 

Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung,

 

sondern erlöse uns von dem Bösen.- in German

 

  - the Lord's Prayer in 1221 languages

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:49 PM

 

 

 

December 4, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In fairness...

 

I do think that the penalty "driving while black" exists while "driving while Irish" does not exist. I think that black drivers are more likely to be pulled over and harrassed by police officers. But I think that the criminal justice system is on the whole fair to minorities, with the possible exception of death penalty cases. The criminal justice system is more unfair to the poor than to be blacks- to be rich is to afford good legal help. But then to be rich is also to afford better medical care. Utopia does not exist, otherwise we'd all move there. Liberals should cogitate awhile on why it is that so many want to move here.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:28 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Misc

 

On EWTN (Franciscan University Round Table), heard a screenwriter describe art as the closest thing we have to God since it expresses mystery. God is not the catechism, she points out, to which I heard Scott Hahn say to her, "that's in the Catechism!" - i.e. that God cannot be contained in a book.

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

That darn Richter show has me mentally substituting "Irish" for "black" now whenever I read something about bias. For example, saw this on another blog:

 

I am dismayed at the dearth of black characters in many of the current TV shows and movies.

 

Come to think of it, I am dismayed at the dearth of Irish characters in many of the current TV shows. And I don't get to watch "Ballykissangel" anymore. It's no longer on BBC America.

 

***

 

Flos Carmeli maintains radio silence. Is this a pentential act? At Mass today, the priest's purple robes reminded me this is a pentential season. That I needed to be reminded is not good.

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

Found this compelling:

 

From 1946 until her death, Mother Teresa resolutely refused to give any details about the inspiration to begin the Missionaries of Charity or about the process of discernment that led to the official establishment of the new institute on 7 October 1950. Mother Teresa's silence reflected her reverence for the sacredness of the gift she received in the depths of her soul. As she wrote to her Sisters in 1993, "For me Jesus' thirst is something so intimate so I have felt shy until now to speak to you of September 10th. I wanted to do as Our Lady who 'kept all these things in her heart.'" - via Rosa Mystica

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:51 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's cleanse the palate, shall we, after that bit of unfortunateness with an excerpt of a poem from Thomas Hardy (via Tenebrae):

 

 

 

 

 

  Wintertime nights;

 

But my bereavement-pain

 

It cannot bring again:

 

   Twice no one dies.

 

 

 

 

 

   Flower-petals flee;

 

But, since it once hath been,

 

No more that severing scene

 

   Can harrow me.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:55 PM

 

 

 

December 3, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing the Great American Novel

 

OK I'm tanned, rested and ready. I'm hungry like the wolf. 50 words a day to freedom, just a knife in the jailhouse wall till pretty soon there be a hole the size of Gibraltar. Here's my start... It looks to be an autobiography, a send-up of the whole confessional/memoirist thing. I'm going to lampoon the old Hollywood story - guy makes good, guy does booze & 'phets (slang for aphetamines, if it isn't it should), nearly loses his life, goes to Betty Ford Clinic and writes the memoir. This is going to be: guy makes okay (that's all I got so far).

 

 

 

 

 

The Great American Novel

 

        …by TS O'Rama

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page 1, Paragraph 1:

 

 

 

 

 

The great American novel should start out with a catchy phrase or, in lieu of that, the phrase “catchy phrase”.

 

 

 

 

 

**

 

Tis a very American thing, isn't it, to attempt the great American novel?

 

 

 

 

 

**

 

I was born height-disadvantaged. At 19 inches, the other children in the natal armory were 20, some 21 inches. Fortunately I had the vertical leap of ten babies and soon was dunking basketballs in the newly formed “Pediatric Basketball League”.

 

 

 

 

 

(Is that 50 yet? You don't think it's serious enough do you?)

 

 

 

 

 

One of three children born to aristocratic parents, I was trundled off with the other youths of scions to Eton, a British boarding school of some reknown, where we learned that it was bad form to brag about where we went to school. My hand flew up.

 

 

 

 

 

"But then how will others know we went to Eton?"

 

 

 

 

 

"You will write about it in your memoir."

 

 

 

 

 

(When do I get into Kantian philosophy? This thing is going nowhere fast. I'm embarrassed by it. Can I get a NaMO refund?)

 

 

 

 

 

By the fifth grade, as the Americans vulgarly refer to it, I was studying Kant and Hegel and

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***** DO OVER ****

 

 

 

 

 

I've got writer's block. I wrote myself in the corner there, the 5th grader studying Kant & Hegel - what the heck can I do with that?

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

 

Page 1, Paragraph 1, Word 1:

 

 

 

 

 

My greatest fear (is that I will always write in the first person!! Why can't I plausibly use "he" and not imagine that by using "he" everyone will think I mean me? Well, I could write it from a "she" perspective, though they tell you to write what you know and I'm not a woman, although some of my best friends are (strike that) my best friend is a woman)...

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

 

Page 1, Paragraph 1, Word 1:

 

 

 

 

 

Her greatest fear was that someday she would be alone in a euphemistically named rest home and the thoughts that would come unbidden would not be the poetry of Auden or even the pet names her husband, dead some twenty years, called her. No, it would be thoughts of Jenny McCarthy, J-Lo, or Serena Williams. Some sort of eternal People Magazine taking control of her synapses. This was even worse than her other fear - that she would lose control and begin yelling obscenties. And it would be just her luck not to scream the obligatory "f--K" or "d*amn", which every rest home attendant had heard for years, but given her blasted creativity there would be horrid combinations that made the attendant call the other attendants over to listen. And then they'd call her daughter and have her witness this amazing streak of expletive excess, this superlative shit.

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

well that's enough for day 1. Obviously I'm not happy that already in the first paragraph I've sunk to cheap profanity. Writing is hard, hard work indeed.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:33 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can't Dispute That...

 

"We celebrate winter when it first arrives -- a thoroughly human response in the face of the inexorable -- but within a week begin to treat it like an out-of-work uncle who has overstayed his welcome." - Disputations

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Mark Shea:

 

One of Mother Teresa's basic ways of approaching the culture she was in was to urge people toward conformity to Christ in the ways that they understood best. In short, if a person was a Muslim, she tried to urge them to be the best Muslim they could be, confident that this too was a form of pre-evangelization since all that is best in what is authentically human (and Islam is a human tradition, not a divine revelation) could also point to Christ. She got this dangerous and loony notion from Paul on the Areopagus (Acts 17). She did the same with Hindus. I don't know what her "conversion rate" was among her clientele (most of them were, after all, dying). But this was her basic approach. Certainly she did not turn away those who sought baptism, but she was not a "turn or burn" kinda gal.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:16 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Didn't mean to imply in that last post that St. Pio (that still sounds odd!) had it easy. The mind reels at the amount of work he did, work for souls. Confession lines queued for seeming ever. And it was done while he was in more or less constant pain. There is a sense in which our Achilles Heel must be exploited for our own gain - i.e. perfection. If one were guessing at C.S. Lewis's Achilles Heel it might be the death of a loved one since he lost his mother as a young child. And so consider the reverberation of losing his young wife - surely the hardest thing he could give up. And what greater loss for a former actor would be to lose the expressiveness of his face? Our pope carries his cross. There are many examples. I think of the ambition of Bishop Sheen. He longed for the television lights and the red hat. He lost the former and never gained the latter. But they all perservered and that is another saintly witness.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still pondering the Mother Teresa link via All But Dissertations. Interesting that some take cheer from it; I had a different reaction. I felt sympathy for her, sad for her, that she lived with it for so long. It prompted renewed rumination on the variety of saints...They are "witnesses" that God exists.... The Holy Father said in Fides Et Ratio:

 

 

 

"In believing, we entrust ourselves to the knowledge acquired by other people. This suggests an important tension. On the one hand, the knowledge acquired through belief can seem an imperfect form of knowledge, to be perfected gradually through personal accumulation of evidence; on the other had, belief is often humanly richer than mere evidence, because it involves an interpersonal relationship and brings into play not only a person's capacity to know but also the deeper capacity to entrust oneself to others..." - Pope JPII

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps this is partly why I like St. Pio so much. First, he was curmugeonly at times. Secondly, the superabundance of supernatural phenomena surrounding him tends to banish doubt. (It must be difficult to disbelieve when you're bleeding from the wrists every day, let alone bi-locating. Of couse some explain it away with science or myth - every party has a pooper.) Perhaps it is easier to entrust oneself to the knowledge acquired by St. Padre Pio, though ease is not the purpose of life. And that some our helped by saints who doubt is something that one can't doubt!

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:36 PM

 

 

 

December 2, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrating and Ignoring Our Differences

 

Watched Andy Richter Controls the Universe, taped from last night. Funny stuff. His firm hires a black guy, in front of whom Andy makes disparaging racist remarks - about the Irish. Well, turns out the black guy is Irish. The camera pans his desk and sure enough there is enough Irish kitsch to statisfy the Home Shopping Network on St. Patrick's Day. There's a picture of JFK, a "Kiss Me I'm Irish" button, the Irish Blessing, a boatload of bumper stickers...simply hilarious. The new guy is greatly offended, tells Andy's boss, who starts to chew Andy out until the black guy says "it's not about being African-American, it's about my being Irish". The gal says, "what? Get out of here." They take it to her boss, a black women, who says, "and your point is?". They take it to her boss who happens to be Irish. They are all sent to sensitivity training. Marvelous fun. In the end Andy concludes that we have to "celebrate and ignore our differences at the same time" which is pretty much where we are today - a society who thinks it can attain color-blindness by being obsessed with race. Hi-laire.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:32 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to a kind reader, Lisa, who pointed out that Dostoevsky and not Nietsche said "without God, everything is permitted". I've corrected it below. Here's a link from the compulsively readable Tom Wolfe via her.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This story (via All But Dissertations) drives home the possibility that one can be plagued by doubts and still be devout. It's interesting because I always thought that there was a proportionate relationship between faith and behavior - i.e. if I am sure there is a God, I will deny myself pleasure. If I am not so sure, I will be less inclined to deny pleasure. If I am convinced there is no God, then I have a free license (Dostoyevski had one of his characters say "If there is no God, everything is permitted"). Yet Mother Teresa not only avoided sins of omission but also comission by actively loving despite (perhaps) not feeling loved. They say you can't give what you don't have, but with God all things are possible. Old Oligarch surprised me with this: When you feel truly gloomy about the world and almost everything in it -- as I have for the past few weeks -- these kind of articles cheer me up like nothing else can.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:56 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fascinating Movement of Salvation Ideas

 

The Jews were the Chosen Ones. Religious exclusivity in the form of "only we are saved" was biblical, was sanctioned. In the New Testament, things became more uncertain. The path went from "only those are saved who are (fill in your denomination)" to "only those are saved who believe in Christ" to "everyone is pretty much saved as long as you don't consciously reject Christ".

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:41 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If a man cannot forget, he will never amount to much.  -Soren Kierkegaard

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:34 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discontinued Items...

 

Been going thru ol' writings...like the "Elegy for June". Here's something I wrote in '98. Not sure if I feel any differently now.

 

 

 

 

 

Religion is surely the most relentless of the head-banging pursuits, especially when you ruthlessly root out any sentimentality in it. I’m not interested in feel-good religion. I can do that with a 12-pack.

 

 

 

 

 

It'd only take a 6-pack now. I've cut back.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:25 PM

 

 

 

December 1, 2002  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elegy for June

 

ephemeral mistress of my heart

 

one-twelve of the annum

 

a nightcap on the verandah of the year

 

a lilting melodic breath

 

on a moonful night.

 

 

 

 

 

June,

 

you nostalgic one,

 

spinning webs I can scarce recall

 

you remind me of a 40s musical

 

glamorous and leggy

 

fresh and naive

 

month of my birth

 

day of the summer equinox

 

you vernal infernal month

 

pregnant with possibility

 

setting hopes impossibly high

 

with hormone-fed memories

 

of lockers and school hallways

 

strewn with paper like confetti

 

the last day of class papers old homeworks and jaundiced notebooks

 

suddenly wonderfully useless

 

icons reduced to simpering strawmen

 

they crinkle and burn in the summer sun

 

in the June sun so potent

 

in whose heat

 

responsibilities melt away

 

shrinking like tumors without blood

 

and time expands like a balloon

 

or the rising of the circus tents.

 

 

 

 

 

Sliding on our backs down the paper highway

 

firing the contents of our lockers

 

down the hall like bullets

 

screaming out hot bus windows

 

screaming to the feckless masses

 

in transit

 

singing to them-

 

“schools out for summer....”

 

“school’s out forever”

 

till our eyes want to bust

 

and the veins pop from our necks.

 

 

 

 

 

June, you were meant for kids.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:13 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood and youth are nostalgic because they are the purveyors of firsts. First love, first car, first house... I remember my first house...Space that I could change, after ten years of apartments with rules against ...everything. Now I could be as unconventional as I wanna be, and I imagined framed black & white pictures of old writers surrounded by eccentric wallpaper and a dolly of pipes on an antique writing table. And a sunroom that would be a tropical rainforest - a wall of pure color - a lime green or stunning red - with a million plants and ferns and rocks and things. There would be a map room, with a mural of East Mongolia (picked quite at random), at a scale one inch = 20 yards, with old National Geographics framed and hung with care. And of course, the baseball card room, with its green turf rug and a huge stadium mural that made you think you were walking into a stadium. Most of the ideas were never executed due to time, money, money & time mixed with laziness. Some of the stuff I wanted was unavailable at Walmart or Kmart, and so were, metaphysically if not in fact, unavailable.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:06 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

fictional foray

 

Daryl thought of prayer as a window, a small opening in the wall of his life. Not that his life was a prison, no it was a gracious, well-appointed space, but one a wee bit shy of air. And freedom. And so prayer was a window which he could open and he always hoped the small opening would present some kind of unexpected grace, maybe a vision, or simply the knowledge of what to do about a certain situation. However, he knew God was not fond of signs, finding them a bit distasteful. God wasn’t ostentatious, he didn’t run up and knock you about the head on things. The devil was all Vegas, he appealed crassly, urgently in need and spectacular feelings like with drugs or sex. So Daryl merely prayed, content with whatever would be provided. But he was never quite sure of where he ended and God began.

 

 

 

So, seated on his bed, he willed his thoughts to the window, and lifted them to God on an imaginary gold chalice and asked the angels bring it to Him. And then something remarkable happened. The window physically opened. The window, which he’d been accustomed to thinking a symbol (as described above), actually opened without any apparent assistance. His senses now told him something that plainly conflicted with science! A mass was moved, which requires energy, and that energy was not seen. He moved closer to the window and breathed the scent of roses - it must’ve been thousands, for it soon overcame his power to smell. He didn’t know what to do but pray. A sign he’d requested, and instantly felt small for having required it. How many holy saints had longed, secretly, for a sign. How many had spent their lives in monasteries, praying unceasingly, while beating down any desire for a sign. And how blest are those that do not see and yet believe. Daryl stayed by the window all day and into the night, and fell asleep, in a heap on the floor, till the next morning when he awoke to a window firmly closed and no lingering scent of roses. Panicked, he wondered - ‘did that really happen? Could I have been dreaming?’ He immediately longed for another sign, a confirming sign, just one more sign....

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Democrat Election Reaction in Our Sunday Visitor

 

As a Democrat, I admit to feeling guilty - a teeny-weeny bit guilty - about rejoicing at my party's defeat in the Novemeber elections. As a good Democrat, I should have been wailing and gnashing my teeth. Instead I had a smile on my face. Why is this? Am I political masochist?

 

 

 

 

 

No. Rather, I hope Democrats learn a lesson from their great defeat: Adopting a platform of moral liberalism is proving to be political suicide...

 

 

 

 

 

I contend that it is politically stupid to adopt an anti-Christian moral agenda in a predominantly Christian country. It may work for a short time; but only as long as Christians are inattentive. Sooner or later they'll catch on, and when they do, the party with this agenda - the Democratic Party - will begin to seem abnormal (that is to say, un-American) and will begin to pay a heavy price at the polls.

 

 

 

 

 

The 'abnormal', anti-Christian moralists started playing a big role in the Democratic Party in the 1972 election. That's when the gradual downhill slide of the party began. It will continue until one of two things happens: either we will cease to be a predominatntly Christian nation and moral liberalism will therefore cease to seem abnormal; or the Democratic Party will tell the anti-Christian liberals that they can no longer dictate the party's moral agenda.

 

- David Carlin

 

 

 

 

 

My natural pessimism wonders if the Democrat Party, in betting on the continued abatement of Christianity in the U.S., is not on the side of victory at least in the medium term. We know how it turns out in the long run.

 

 

 

  posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

 

 

 

I see the right way, approve it and do the opposite - Ovid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ár n-athair, atá ar neamh: go naofar d'ainm.

 

 

 

Go dtaga do riocht.

 

 

 

Go ndéantar do thoil ar an talamh, mar dhéantar ar neamh.

 

 

 

Ár n-arán laethiúl tabhair dúinn inniu, agus maith dúinn ár bhfiacha, mar mhaithimid dár bhféichiúnaithe féin.

 

 

 

Agus ná lig sinn i gcathú, ach saor sinn ó olc.

 

 

 

Óir is leatsa an Ríocht agus an Chumhacht agus an Ghl/oir,

 

 

 

tré shaol na saol. - in Irish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vater unser im Himmel,

 

 

 

Geheiligt werde Dein Name.

 

 

 

Dein Reich komme.

 

 

 

Dein Wille geschehe, wie im Himmel

 

 

 

so auf Erden.

 

 

 

Unser tägliches Brot gib uns heute.

 

 

 

Und vergib uns unsere Schuld,

 

 

 

wie auch wir vergeben unseren Schuldigern.

 

 

 

Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung,

 

 

 

sondern erlöse uns von dem Bösen.- in German

 

 

 

- the Lord's Prayer in 1221 languages

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:49 PM

 

 

 

 

 

December 4, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In fairness...

 

 

 

I do think that the penalty "driving while black" exists while "driving while Irish" does not exist. I think that black drivers are more likely to be pulled over and harrassed by police officers. But I think that the criminal justice system is on the whole fair to minorities, with the possible exception of death penalty cases. The criminal justice system is more unfair to the poor than to be blacks- to be rich is to afford good legal help. But then to be rich is also to afford better medical care. Utopia does not exist, otherwise we'd all move there. Liberals should cogitate awhile on why it is that so many want to move here.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:28 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Misc

 

 

 

On EWTN (Franciscan University Round Table), heard a screenwriter describe art as the closest thing we have to God since it expresses mystery. God is not the catechism, she points out, to which I heard Scott Hahn say to her, "that's in the Catechism!", that God cannot be contained in a book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

That darn Richter show has me mentally substituting "Irish" for "black" now whenever I read something about bias. For example, saw this on another blog:

 

 

 

I am dismayed at the dearth of black characters in many of the current TV shows and movies.

 

 

 

Come to think of it, I am dismayed at the dearth of Irish characters in many of the current TV shows. And I don't get to watch "Ballykissangel" anymore. It's no longer on BBC America.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Flos Carmeli maintains radio silence. Is this a pentential act? At Mass today, the priest's purple robes reminded me this is a pentential season. That I needed to be reminded is not good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Found this compelling:

 

 

 

From 1946 until her death, Mother Teresa resolutely refused to give any details about the inspiration to begin the Missionaries of Charity or about the process of discernment that led to the official establishment of the new institute on 7 October 1950. Mother Teresa's silence reflected her reverence for the sacredness of the gift she received in the depths of her soul. As she wrote to her Sisters in 1993, "For me Jesus' thirst is something so intimate so I have felt shy until now to speak to you of September 10th. I wanted to do as Our Lady who 'kept all these things in her heart.'" - via Rosa Mystica

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:51 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Derbyshire comments on the Andy Richter show:

 

 

 

I happened to catch the season premiere of Andy Richter's office-worker sitcom on Fox. It was a send-up of the whole "diversity" racket, culminating with Andy trying to figure out how to "celebrate our differences" while, at the same time of course, conscientiously ignoring them. It managed to be breathtakingly non-PC (by TV standards, at any rate, which I agree is not saying a heck of a lot) while remaining good-natured. This seemed to me to be a glimmer of light on the eastern horizon, possibly — one must never be too optimistic in these matters — heralding a new dawn of common sense. When a TV sitcom can be built around the idea that the exquisitely over-cultivated sensitivities of the diversocrats are just plain ridiculous, there may yet be hope that one day out collective sanity in the matter of human differences will be restored to us.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:01 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my desk has stuff on it...i.e. I'm having an Andy Rooney moment

 

 

 

- a ‘68 Mickey Mantle baseball card

 

 

 

- a dented mug labeled I Got Smashed in Texas

 

 

 

- The Book of Guys by Garrison Keillor

 

 

 

- postcard of a bust of Shakespeare from the Folger Shakespeare library, Washington D.C.

 

 

 

- signed copy of PrairyErth by William Least-Heat Moon

 

 

 

- a green candle

 

 

 

- a Lexmark z53

 

 

 

- a plaque commemerating my first Holy Communion

 

 

 

- a Schumann Piano concerto CD

 

 

 

- a Mike Schmidt ‘73 rookie card encased in glass

 

 

 

- a German-English dictionary

 

 

 

- a Coca-Cola stock certificate

 

 

 

- Ride for Vengeance by JR Roberts

 

 

 

- a soccer trophy from 1987

 

 

 

- a folk art painting of a sheep

 

 

 

- a totem pole pencil holder from the Kahiki, a Polynesian restaurant in town

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:22 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's cleanse the palate, shall we, after that bit of unfortunateness with an excerpt of a poem from Thomas Hardy (via Tenebrae):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wintertime nights;

 

 

 

But my bereavement-pain

 

 

 

It cannot bring again:

 

 

 

Twice no one dies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flower-petals flee;

 

 

 

But, since it once hath been,

 

 

 

No more that severing scene

 

 

 

Can harrow me.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:55 PM

 

 

 

 

 

December 3, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing the Great American Novel

 

 

 

OK I'm tanned, rested and ready. I'm hungry like the wolf. 50 words a day to freedom, just a knife in the jailhouse wall till pretty soon there be a hole the size of Gibraltar. Here's my start... It looks to be an autobiography, a send-up of the whole confessional/memoirist thing. I'm going to lampoon the old Hollywood story - guy makes good, guy does booze & 'phets (slang for aphetamines, if it isn't it should), nearly loses his life, goes to Betty Ford Clinic and writes the memoir. This is going to be: guy makes okay (that's all I got so far).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Great American Novel

 

 

 

…by TS O'Rama

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page 1, Paragraph 1:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The great American novel should start out with a catchy phrase or, in lieu of that, the phrase "catchy phrase".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Tis a very American thing, isn't it, to attempt the great American novel?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

I was born height-disadvantaged. At 19 inches, the other children in the natal armory were 20, some 21 inches. Fortunately I had the vertical leap of ten babies and soon was dunking basketballs in the newly formed "Pediatric Basketball League".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Is that 50 yet? You don't think it's serious enough do you?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of three children born to aristocratic parents, I was trundled off with the other youths of scions to Eton, a British boarding school of some reknown, where we learned that it was bad form to brag about where we went to school. My hand flew up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"But then how will others know we went to Eton?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"You will write about it in your memoir."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(When do I get into Kantian philosophy? This thing is going nowhere fast. I'm embarrassed by it. Can I get a NaMO refund?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the fifth grade, as the Americans vulgarly refer to it, I was studying Kant and Hegel and

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***** DO OVER ****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've got writer's block. I wrote myself in the corner there, the 5th grader studying Kant & Hegel - what the heck can I do with that?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page 1, Paragraph 1, Word 1:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My greatest fear (is that I will always write in the first person!! Why can't I plausibly use "he" and not imagine that by using "he" everyone will think I mean me? Well, I could write it from a "she" perspective, though they tell you to write what you know and I'm not a woman, although some of my best friends are (strike that) my best friend is a woman)...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page 1, Paragraph 1, Word 1:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her greatest fear was that someday she would be alone in a euphemistically named rest home and the thoughts that would come unbidden would not be the poetry of Auden or even the pet names her husband, dead some twenty years, called her. No, it would be thoughts of Jenny McCarthy, J-Lo, or Serena Williams. Some sort of eternal People Magazine taking control of her synapses. This was even worse than her other fear - that she would lose control and begin yelling obscenties. And it would be just her luck not to scream the obligatory "f--K" or "d*amn", which every rest home attendant had heard for years, but given her blasted creativity there would be horrid combinations that made the attendant call the other attendants over to listen. And then they'd call her daughter and have her witness this amazing streak of expletive excess, this superlative shit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

well that's enough for day 1. Obviously I'm not happy that already in the first paragraph I've sunk to cheap profanity. Writing is hard, hard work indeed.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:33 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can't Dispute That...

 

 

 

"We celebrate winter when it first arrives -- a thoroughly human response in the face of the inexorable -- but within a week begin to treat it like an out-of-work uncle who has overstayed his welcome." - Disputations

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Mark Shea:

 

 

 

One of Mother Teresa's basic ways of approaching the culture she was in was to urge people toward conformity to Christ in the ways that they understood best. In short, if a person was a Muslim, she tried to urge them to be the best Muslim they could be, confident that this too was a form of pre-evangelization since all that is best in what is authentically human (and Islam is a human tradition, not a divine revelation) could also point to Christ. She got this dangerous and loony notion from Paul on the Areopagus (Acts 17). She did the same with Hindus. I don't know what her "conversion rate" was among her clientele (most of them were, after all, dying). But this was her basic approach. Certainly she did not turn away those who sought baptism, but she was not a "turn or burn" kinda gal.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:16 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Didn't mean to imply in that last post that St. Pio (that still sounds odd!) had it easy. The mind reels at the amount of work he did, work for souls. Confession lines queued for seeming ever. And it was done while he was in more or less constant pain. There is a sense in which our Achilles Heel must be exploited for our own gain - i.e. perfection. If one were guessing at C.S. Lewis's Achilles Heel it might be the death of a loved one since he lost his mother as a young child. And so consider the reverberation of losing his young wife - surely the hardest thing he could give up. And what greater loss for a former actor would be to lose the expressiveness of his face? Our pope carries his cross. There are many examples. I think of the ambition of Bishop Sheen. He longed for the television lights and the red hat. He lost the former and never gained the latter. But they all perservered and that is another saintly witness.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still pondering the Mother Teresa link via All But Dissertations. Interesting that some take cheer from it; I had a different reaction. I felt sympathy for her, sad for her, that she lived with it for so long. It prompted renewed rumination on the variety of saints...They are "witnesses" that God exists.... The Holy Father said in Fides Et Ratio:

 

 

 

"In believing, we entrust ourselves to the knowledge acquired by other people. This suggests an important tension. On the one hand, the knowledge acquired through belief can seem an imperfect form of knowledge, to be perfected gradually through personal accumulation of evidence; on the other had, belief is often humanly richer than mere evidence, because it involves an interpersonal relationship and brings into play not only a person's capacity to know but also the deeper capacity to entrust oneself to others..." - Pope JPII

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps this is partly why I like St. Pio so much. First, he was curmugeonly at times. Secondly, the superabundance of supernatural phenomena surrounding him tends to banish doubt. (It must be difficult to disbelieve when you're bleeding from the wrists every day, let alone bi-locating. Of couse some explain it away with science or myth - every party has a pooper.) Perhaps it is easier to entrust oneself to the knowledge acquired by St. Padre Pio, though ease is not the purpose of life. And that some our helped by saints who doubt is something that one can't doubt!

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:36 PM

 

 

 

 

 

December 2, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My life is like a broken bowl,

 

 

 

A broken bowl that cannot hold

 

 

 

One drop of water for my soul

 

 

 

Or cordial in the searching cold;

 

 

 

Cast in the fire the perish'd thing;

 

 

 

Melt and remould it, till it be

 

 

 

A royal cup for Him, my King:

 

 

 

O Jesus, drink of me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh why is heaven built so far,

 

 

 

Oh why is earth set so remote?

 

 

 

I cannot reach the nearest star

 

 

 

That hangs afloat.

 

 

 

I would not care to reach the moon,

 

 

 

One round monotonous of change;

 

 

 

Yet even she repeats her tune

 

 

 

Beyond my range.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never watch the scatter'd fire

 

 

 

Of stars, or sun's far-trailing train,

 

 

 

But all my heart is one desire,

 

 

 

And all in vain:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For I am bound with fleshly bands,

 

 

 

Joy, beauty, lie beyond my scope;

 

 

 

I strain my heart, I stretch my hands,

 

 

 

And catch at hope.

 

 

 

- Christina Rossetti (kudos go out to Dylan for the aid)

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrating and Ignoring Our Differences

 

 

 

Watched Andy Richter Controls the Universe, taped from last night. Funny stuff. His firm hires a black guy, in front of whom Andy makes disparaging racist remarks - about the Irish. Well, turns out the black guy is Irish. The camera pans his desk and sure enough there is enough Irish kitsch to statisfy the Home Shopping Network on St. Patrick's Day. There's a picture of JFK, a "Kiss Me I'm Irish" button, the Irish Blessing, a boatload of bumper stickers...simply hilarious. The new guy is greatly offended, tells Andy's boss, who starts to chew Andy out until the black guy says "it's not about being African-American, it's about my being Irish". The gal says, "what? Get out of here." They take it to her boss, a black women, who says, "and your point is?". They take it to her boss who happens to be Irish. They are all sent to sensitivity training. Marvelous fun. In the end Andy concludes that we have to "celebrate and ignore our differences at the same time" which is pretty much where we are today - a society who thinks it can attain color-blindness by being obsessed with race. Hi-laire.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:32 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to a kind reader, Lisa, who pointed out that Dostoevsky and not Nietsche said "without God, everything is permitted". I've corrected it below. Here's a link from the compulsively readable Tom Wolfe via her.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This story (via All But Dissertations) drives home the possibility that one can be plagued by doubts and still be devout. It's interesting because I always thought that there was a proportionate relationship between faith and behavior - i.e. if I am sure there is a God, I will deny myself pleasure. If I am not so sure, I will be less inclined to deny pleasure. If I am convinced there is no God, then I have a free license (Dostoyevski had one of his characters say "If there is no God, everything is permitted"). Yet Mother Teresa not only avoided sins of omission but also comission by actively loving despite (perhaps) not feeling loved. They say you can't give what you don't have, but with God all things are possible. Old Oligarch surprised me with this: When you feel truly gloomy about the world and almost everything in it -- as I have for the past few weeks -- these kind of articles cheer me up like nothing else can.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:56 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fascinating Movement of Salvation Ideas

 

 

 

The Jews were the Chosen Ones. Religious exclusivity in the form of "only we are saved" was biblical, was sanctioned. In the New Testament, things became more uncertain. The path went from "only those are saved who are (fill in your denomination)" to "only those are saved who believe in Christ" to "everyone is pretty much saved as long as you don't consciously reject Christ".

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:41 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If a man cannot forget, he will never amount to much. -Soren Kierkegaard

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:34 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discontinued Items...

 

 

 

Been going thru ol' writings...like the "Elegy for June". Here's something I wrote in '98. Not sure if I feel any differently now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Religion is surely the most relentless of the head-banging pursuits, especially when you ruthlessly root out any sentimentality in it. I’m not interested in feel-good religion. I can do that with a 12-pack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It'd only take a 6-pack now. I've cut back.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:25 PM

 

 

 

 

 

December 1, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elegy for June

 

 

 

ephemeral mistress of my heart

 

 

 

one-twelve of the annum

 

 

 

a nightcap on the verandah of the year

 

 

 

a lilting melodic breath

 

 

 

on a moonful night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June,

 

 

 

you nostalgic one,

 

 

 

spinning webs I can scarce recall

 

 

 

you remind me of a 40s musical

 

 

 

glamorous and leggy

 

 

 

fresh and naive

 

 

 

month of my birth

 

 

 

day of the summer equinox

 

 

 

you vernal infernal month

 

 

 

pregnant with possibility

 

 

 

setting hopes impossibly high

 

 

 

with hormone-fed memories

 

 

 

of lockers and school hallways

 

 

 

strewn with paper like confetti

 

 

 

the last day of class papers old homeworks and jaundiced notebooks

 

 

 

suddenly wonderfully useless

 

 

 

icons reduced to simpering strawmen

 

 

 

they crinkle and burn in the summer sun

 

 

 

in the June sun so potent

 

 

 

in whose heat

 

 

 

responsibilities melt away

 

 

 

shrinking like tumors without blood

 

 

 

and time expands like a balloon

 

 

 

or the rising of the circus tents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sliding on our backs down the paper highway

 

 

 

firing the contents of our lockers

 

 

 

down the hall like bullets

 

 

 

screaming out hot bus windows

 

 

 

screaming to the feckless masses

 

 

 

in transit

 

 

 

singing to them-

 

 

 

"schools out for summer...."

 

 

 

"school’s out forever"

 

 

 

till our eyes want to bust

 

 

 

and the veins pop from our necks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June, you were meant for kids.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:13 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Childhood and youth are nostalgic because they are the purveyors of firsts. First love, first car, first house... I remember my first house...Space that I could change, after ten years of apartments with rules against ...everything. Now I could be as unconventional as I wanna be, and I imagined framed black & white pictures of old writers surrounded by eccentric wallpaper and a dolly of pipes on an antique writing table. And a sunroom that would be a tropical rainforest - a wall of pure color - a lime green or stunning red - with a million plants and ferns and rocks and things. There would be a map room, with a mural of East Mongolia (picked quite at random), at a scale one inch = 20 yards, with old National Geographics framed and hung with care. And of course, the baseball card room, with its green turf rug and a huge stadium mural that made you think you were walking into a stadium. Most of the ideas were never executed due to time, money, money & time mixed with laziness. Some of the stuff I wanted was unavailable at Walmart or Kmart, and so were, metaphysically if not in fact, unavailable.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:06 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

fictional foray

 

 

 

Daryl thought of prayer as a window, a small opening in the wall of his life. Not that his life was a prison, no it was a gracious, well-appointed space, but one a wee bit shy of air. And freedom. And so prayer was a window which he could open and he always hoped the small opening would present some kind of unexpected grace, maybe a vision, or simply the knowledge of what to do about a certain situation. However, he knew God was not fond of signs, finding them a bit distasteful. God wasn’t ostentatious, he didn’t run up and knock you about the head on things. The devil was all Vegas, he appealed crassly, urgently in need and spectacular feelings like with drugs or sex. So Daryl merely prayed, content with whatever would be provided. But he was never quite sure of where he ended and God began.

 

 

 

So, seated on his bed, he willed his thoughts to the window, and lifted them to God on an imaginary gold chalice and asked the angels bring it to Him. And then something remarkable happened. The window physically opened. The window, which he’d been accustomed to thinking a symbol (as described above), actually opened without any apparent assistance. His senses now told him something that plainly conflicted with science! A mass was moved, which requires energy, and that energy was not seen. He moved closer to the window and breathed the scent of roses - it must’ve been thousands, for it soon overcame his power to smell. He didn’t know what to do but pray. A sign he’d requested, and instantly felt small for having required it. How many holy saints had longed, secretly, for a sign. How many had spent their lives in monasteries, praying unceasingly, while beating down any desire for a sign. And how blest are those that do not see and yet believe. Daryl stayed by the window all day and into the night, and fell asleep, in a heap on the floor, till the next morning when he awoke to a window firmly closed and no lingering scent of roses. Panicked, he wondered - ‘did that really happen? Could I have been dreaming?’ He immediately longed for another sign, a confirming sign, just one more sign....

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Democrat Election Reaction in Our Sunday Visitor

 

 

 

As a Democrat, I admit to feeling guilty - a teeny-weeny bit guilty - about rejoicing at my party's defeat in the Novemeber elections. As a good Democrat, I should have been wailing and gnashing my teeth. Instead I had a smile on my face. Why is this? Am I political masochist?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No. Rather, I hope Democrats learn a lesson from their great defeat: Adopting a platform of moral liberalism is proving to be political suicide...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I contend that it is politically stupid to adopt an anti-Christian moral agenda in a predominantly Christian country. It may work for a short time; but only as long as Christians are inattentive. Sooner or later they'll catch on, and when they do, the party with this agenda - the Democratic Party - will begin to seem abnormal (that is to say, un-American) and will begin to pay a heavy price at the polls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 'abnormal', anti-Christian moralists started playing a big role in the Democratic Party in the 1972 election. That's when the gradual downhill slide of the party began. It will continue until one of two things happens: either we will cease to be a predominatntly Christian nation and moral liberalism will therefore cease to seem abnormal; or the Democratic Party will tell the anti-Christian liberals that they can no longer dictate the party's moral agenda.

 

 

 

- David Carlin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My natural pessimism wonders if the Democrat Party, in betting on the continued abatement of Christianity in the U.S., is not on the side of victory at least in the medium term. We know how it turns out in the long run.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was stunned to see Eve Tushnet's quotation of Daffy Duck: "I'm not like other people. I can't stand pain. It hurts me."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is there nothing new under the sun? In 8th grade a friend and I had come up with a line we thought startingly original: "I don't like pain. It hurts!".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which reminds me...back when I was on AOL and was prompted for my "favorite quote" for my profile I noticed there was somebody else with my fav oxymoronic phrase, "Credo quia absurdum". Go figure.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:26 AM

 

 

 

 

 

November 30, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter’s rude embrace

 

 

 

a marriage of dark and cold

 

 

 

a shrewish bride and brutish groom

 

 

 

principle of double-effect negated:

 

 

 

she smacks with one hand

 

 

 

he smites with the other.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:56 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 29, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Hastings and Rivers, take each other's hand;

 

 

 

Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love." - Shakespeare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True Story

 

 

 

The sign of peace was a sign of war. The pair were slapping each other silly. The elder brother had attempted to offer the sign of peace and the younger said, "Hey, you won’t catch me raising my hands or shaking hands or any of that shit." The elder said, "well at my parish we’re all a lot older and we hug and kiss cuz you know we’re a lot closer to the end."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end times, especially our own, tends to concentrate one's mind wonderfully.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:33 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warring Cats Sleeping

 

 

 

fallow felines

 

 

 

slaybacked slackers

 

 

 

cast caution to the four winds

 

 

 

paws askew, unguarded bellies

 

 

 

vulnerable in slumberous oblivity

 

 

 

a truce in the War of the Poses

 

 

 

an unconscious amour

 

 

 

born of mutual fatigue

 

 

 

and the trust of closed eyes.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:17 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Long and Winding Post...

 

 

 

A tip o' the cap to two fecund posters in the blog world - Flos Carmeli & Tenebrae. Steven's latest post about the slavery-uber-alles situation at Mount Vernon felt inexorably Christian, though reading it was a penitential act for which I hope to receive some sort of indulgence. But he hath the high moral ground. My inclination is that our society has gone from a glaring omission of attention to minorities to a catering to them that borders on the unhealthy, given that this sort of catering ups the ante and lead to a selfishness and an insatiability on the part of the aggrieved. (How much do we read about "No Irish Need Apply" signs that were posted on business across the U.S. in the late 19th century? Every group in the history of the world can point to some unbelievable atrocity committed against them. Some just know history better than others, and generally the more you know about the atrocity committed against your group, the madder you get. Knowledge of history can be a negative, since forgiveness is exercised with so much difficulty.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, I recognize that that attitude is not the better angel of my nature. I'm thinking that Christians have to enjoin political correctness, for example, to the fullest extent we can in order to please our brothers and sisters sisters and brothers. It seems a small price to pay to refer to someone as the "chair" or as "chairperson" instead of the "chairman" if it honestly makes someone happy (see Stevenson quote below). William F. Buckley may scream foul, but it seems like we should what we can, even if it be hopelessly inadequate. A woman I know is against the Catholic Church because of the issue of woman's ordination. Would that be enough? We ordinate a woman. The next step would be do we have enough women priests? How come there are only 10% women priests after 20 years of women's ordination? Or....how come the Church won't give women the right to choose?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I'm digressing royally and perhaps am being unfair in making assumptions. I'm apparently squandering what spiritual benefit I got from reading Flos's post. I must run in the direction contrary to my nature. My nature is to be selfish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Providentially?), I just read Stevenson's comment today (quoted and approved by no less an authority than the future saint Dorothy Day) that "my duty to my neighbor is more nearly expressed by saying that I have to make him happy". Thus we need to please, include, love and make happy everyone including those who are the least among us in numerical terms as individuals and collectively - the handicapped, minorities, the poor, et al, to the point we can. And to do so as gleefully as grace will provide. In giving in to demands by aggrieved groups in matters that may not seem important to us, we are presumably making individuals within those categories happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The yin and the yang...

 

 

 

Dylan's posts fascinate me, especially the "serenity prayer ain't for me" one. It seems to me he is right on the mark concerning our Lord and the Blessed Mother having moments of non-serenity. Yeats, in one of his poems (I believe "The Second Coming") refers to Christians as stony and sleepy, as somehow not fully alive. This is false, obviously, though we certainly are asleep compared to the beautific vision to be enjoyed in the next world, but I wonder if Yeats saw this as an aspect of Christians of his day who not only dared not to risk, but to also castrate all negative emotions. To borrow from "Desperado": "you're losin' all your highs and lows, ain't it funny how the feeling goes...". What loss or disintegration to my personality would occur if I be stripped of all my tenebrae? I must trust that it be not loss, but gain. The paradox is that the saints are more perfectly themselves than sinners! There is more diversity among the saints than among the damned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honesty is a good thing, though there is a tension, a dissonance between what I feel and what I should feel - like giving God thanksgiving. Am I being dishonest in thanking God when I don't feel thankful? Perhaps I should pray "Please give me the gift of appreciation." or "Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Better at 20?

 

 

 

Tis in some ways easier to be a better person at age 20 than today, because I knew less (and knew it) and needed more. I was needier in terms of money, in terms of the need for friendship, in terms of knowledge. Goethe says "Christianity gave us a reverence for what is below", but it's easier to have reverence for everybody if you're already in the below category looking up. In knowing less, I judged less. In not being able to discern between right and wrong, I was more blind to my flaws and to others' flaws. I was more respectful of authority, because I had not yet seen it abused.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:11 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy the men whose strength you are!

 

 

 

They go from strength to strength - Psalm 84

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:16 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quotes

 

 

 

There is an idea abroad among moral people that they should make their neighbors good. One person I have to make good: myself. But my duty to my neighbor is much more nearly expressed by saying that I have to make him happy - if I may.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True realism always and everywhere is to find out where joy resides, and give it voice... For to miss the joy is to miss all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Robert Louis Stevenson

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:12 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, Amy's not fooling around here. A long dissertation on the bishops, S.U.V.s and distinctions between fallible and infallible teaching. It's a messy business...See Disputations' typically cool-headed response. Here is Avery Dulles' attempt to reconcile changes on the issue of religious freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy sez: What some – Catholic and non-Catholic – don’t understand is that when Catholic religious leaders and teachers speak they are supposed to be interpreting Tradition for the present day, bringing it to bear on new situations. Now, granted, this is a difficult area, and one that is not infallible. Got it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On one level, it makes little sense: when bishops teach on contemporary issues, they teach authoritatively, but not infallibly. Even – I dare say it – much papal teaching falls in this category. I’m still reading those bios of J23 (yes…) and am currently slogging through accounts of how radical Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris were in the context of previous centuries of papal pronouncements –especially on freedom of conscience and freedom of religious practice. Apologists can try all they want to say "Well, they weren’t really a change.." but they’re just grasping at straws. Yes, they were.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the hard part is the fact that there is no dearth of misapplications and misstatements of tradition, even by bishops, and even by popes – especially the more specific the issue. Which brings us back to the knotty issue that got me started: Faith extends to all areas of life, including, for example, how I spend my money and how I treat the environment....But somehow, something goes screwy – something doesn’t seem quite right when religious leaders try to pin down that specificity and make pronouncements on economic policy, for example.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here’s the question – how can religious leaders and teachers walk the line, balancing the commitment to help the flock understand the totality of the faith commitment, yet avoid making statements on the minutiae of life that make them look at best silly and at worst, like frantic little totalitarians?

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 27, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is there a place where our vanished days secretly gather?

 

 

 

- John O'Donohue, Anam Cara

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 26, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting article in the New York Times:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the ironies of Christianity in China is that in the first half of the 20th century, thousands of missionaries proselytized freely and yet left a negligible imprint. Yet now, with foreign missionaries banned and the underground church persecuted, Christianity is flourishing in China with tens of millions of believers.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:31 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There it lay, in the very beginning pages of my bible! The treasure of Sierre Madre, before my very eyes – the answer to a difficulty that gnawed, as a descendent of Cain. What solace to know I am not unique in this, and that already in Gen. 4. Cain is given the choice with how to deal with God’s greater acceptance of his brother’s gift. Here is the key in how to glory in the Immaculate Conception, or St. Paul’s road to Damascus experience! Cain teaches, by his bad example, not to be envious of the spiritual gifts given to others and in respecting God’s perogative. A limited predestination view, in the Aquinas tradition (i.e. not wretched double- predestination) seems salutary in a proper understanding of scriptures.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:08 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpts from Richard Brookhiser's The Adamses: America's First Dynasty

 

 

 

Interesting excerpts about Henry Adams, especially given his proudly Puritan heritage and struggles with faith. It is also interesting in light of the fact that some want to minimize or de-emphasize Marian devotion with an eye toward ecumenicalism. Mary is perhaps needed more than we think. Adams seemed to think the Middle Ages an apex of some sort, and that they were united by art, Aquinas and love of the Virgin.

 

 

 

...[Henry Adams] and the Lodges took a tour of Gothic cathedrals, mostly in Normandy...Seeing these buildings made him feel reborn. They seemed to make all later art 'vulgar.' ...Lives, thoughts, and art were all shaped by the age's religious beliefs. So is Adams's account of them; throughout most of his book, he is himself a Roman Catholic of the period.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He presents it to the Virgin Mary. Around her, he argues, the hearts and minds of the Middle Ages revolved....[To Adams] Mary is necessary to the scheme of the universe, for she represents the principle of love and mercy. Without her, the justice of God, and even of Christ, would be too severely regular (Adams recounts numerous tales of favors done by Mary, even to - especially to - undeserving ones). 'This is heaven!' writes Adams. 'And Mary looks down from it, into her church, where she sees us on our knees, and knows each one of us by name.'

 

 

 

- Richard Brookhiser

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:21 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under the level winter sky

 

 

 

I saw a thousand Christs go by.

 

 

 

They sang an idle song and free

 

 

 

As they went up to calvary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Careless of eye and coarse of lip,

 

 

 

They marched in holiest fellowship.

 

 

 

That heaven might heal the world, they gave

 

 

 

Their earth-born dreams to deck the grave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With souls unpurged and steadfast breath

 

 

 

They supped the sacrament of death.

 

 

 

And for each one, far off, apart,

 

 

 

Seven swords have rent a woman's heart.

 

 

 

-Marjorie Pickthall, Marching Men

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:06 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of us know dysfunctional couples who constantly fight and then make up spectacularly. It's as if they don't appreciate the person until they fight, after which they are so miserable that in coming back together their relief is multiplied. While I (thank God!) don't have that relationship with my wife, I sometimes sense a mild version of that in my relationship with God, for I feel much closer to him after I have sinned than if I've just muddled along in typically mediocre fashion....Thus in the immediacy of post-conversion struggles during which I at times "sinned boldly" (to borrow Luther's phrase) I also felt a closeness. All this of course uses the devilish word "feel" which is of course illusory, as God is closer to us than we are to ourselves.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leftovers

 

 

 

from verwheile doch...ruminations and factoids from the long Sunday read:

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

John Updike's favorite theologians are Karl Barth and Soren Kierkegaard.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm intrigued by the fact that religion is often considered by atheists as "wishful thinking" - something that people subscribe to make their death palatable. And perhaps that is true for some elderly. But for those of us whose death appears to loom in the far future, and given Christianity's difficult moral commands, it doesn't seem a very good explanation. Most people hardly save or think about retirement - why should we assume they are religiously motivated for something even farther away in time? Perhaps the motivation is that the believer thinks it is the best explanation for reality?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

I like "hey I'm onto something!" moments, even when lived vicariously. I got that feeling reading of Scott Hahn's discovery of an obscure book written fifty years ago by a Harvard professor. It wasn't listed on Amazon.com and they have a decent selection of out-of-print books. Mr. Hahn found Zimmerman's "Family and Civilizations" to contain an excellent descripiton of the devolution of families in great civilizations:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- "Trustee" family where the family obligations are considered sacred and extend through time (adultery is considered a crime and a sin)

 

 

 

- Nuclear family where family obligations are considered morally correct (adultery a sin)

 

 

 

- Atomistic family where obligations are considered something to escape (adultery as lifestyle choice).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zimmerman wrote that no great civilization began without a trustee family situation and all great civilizations ended in an atomistic family situation. No civilization was ever able to reverse the trend, i.e. go from atomistic to nuclear or nuclear to Trustee. A one way throughfare.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:58 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TV sitcom Friends new model of happiness?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw this NY Times story , on the best-selling computer game (Sims):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interestingly, the stories generally don't seem to regard marriage as the happily-ever-after ideal. Instead, cliques are the key to paradise. In story after story, the happy denouement comes when the main character settles into her new home, furnishes it to her taste and then invites 5 or 10 people over, and they surround her with companionship and celebrate her triumphs.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:11 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 25, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What to do

 

 

 

with our unutterable smallness

 

 

 

victims of our own success;

 

 

 

we mete out meager portions of courage;

 

 

 

fighting tiny battles like Saint Therese.

 

 

 

To eat the untoward critique,

 

 

 

to clean the dishes unbidden,

 

 

 

to declench from the stray erotic dream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But who defines tinyness?

 

 

 

Creation was

 

 

 

an act of dizzying

 

 

 

smallness for Him;

 

 

 

that He delights in it

 

 

 

is the message.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:55 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Card Dreams

 

 

 

Looked up an old friend – Mickey Mantle, 1961. Perenially young, the Mick was my favorite player growing up even though he'd retired when I was an infant. The Mick was it, the Oklahoma boy who filled Dimaggio’s shoes. Wearing the holy pinstripes of the Yankees, he epitomized grace, beauty and a godly above-it-all-ness. The 1961 card was my favorite, my source of solace. He looks out with that praternaturally calm visage, bat on his shoulder, eyes fixed with a look of slight amusement as if the game were merely that – a game. He has an aristocratic air; the narrowed eyes, Roman nose and thin lips. It isn’t a baseball card as much as a work of art.

 

 

 

My other hero was Roberto Clemente, 1971 card. Quiet, even taciturn, he let his playing do the talking. He was constantly on humanitarian missions to his home country when one went awry and a plane accident took his life – a week after he’d finished the season with exactly 3,000 career hits. It was the kind of symbolism that appealed to me, as if it an act of God. 3,000 hits exactly – neat and clean, like the way John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day: the 4th of July.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:18 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A wonderous Friday morning – a gulp of lectio divinio under the unlikely guise of John Steinbeck. Chapter 25 of "East of Eden" soothed a spiritual nerve. It was a long discussion of Gen 4:1-16 and the nature of free will, and it led me by the nose to the wonderful resources I’ve been blessed with. I looked up Cain in the New American Bible Dictionary, then Gen 4:1-16 in both Haydock’s Bible Commentary and "A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture". I bathed in the light of verses I had never examined so closely before, prompted by a secular source.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:14 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wise Man

 

 

 

If I were conjuring up a wise man, I would give him a deep understanding of Scripture and an intense relationship with God. Add a generous heaping of philosophy, from Aquinas through the moderns. Test him in the fire of adversity. Give him the soul of a poet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God, I love our pope.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:25 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 24, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fallible Consciences

 

 

 

It was spring of '78 and I was reading May Sarton’s "Journal of a Solitude" between newspaper deliveries and fights with my sister over her infuriating lack of allowing me to get the last word (which Bill O’Reilly so generously provides his guests).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one thing we could agree on was that anyone who wanted a newspaper before 9am was in serious need of a life. Those people should be enjoying their rest. Nine a.m. on a Saturday morning was the middle of the night and heck, they just plain didn’t need a newspaper before then. Sometimes I felt a little guilty about it but when I examined my conscience I asked "would I want a newspaper before 9 on a Saturday morning?". I said "heck no!" and this eased my conscience greatly. I was doing unto others as I would others do to me.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:21 AM

 

 

 

 

 

November 23, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nature dies,

 

 

 

the annual capitulation

 

 

 

insulated by our furnaces

 

 

 

we ignore the message.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:52 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My brother-in-law, God bless him, sent the family an email entitled "Must read- this is a tear-jerker". The e-mail was a meandering "Open Letter to Buckeye Fans" from an Iowa fan who, in it, struggles to come to terms with his conflicted feelings concerning the great issue of our day: whether to support OSU tomorrow. The verdict? A resounding "Beat Michigan". Days later, I'm still attempting to work up some tears. Apparently I'm an unfeeling bastard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Example of a tear-jerker:

 

 

 

For a Female:

 

 

 

-a child is kidnapped, a tornado levels a neighborhood, man cheats on wife, anything on Lifetime network

 

 

 

For a Male:

 

 

 

-an Iowa fan tells a Buckeye fan: "Beat Michigan"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh....I almost forgot: GO BUCKS!

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:57 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 22, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steinbeck's Biblical Exegesis

 

 

 

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD." And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.

 

 

 

- Gen 4:1-15...RSV version

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

character from East of Eden:

 

 

 

The more I thought about the story, the more profound it became to me. Then I compared the translations we have - and they were fairly close. There was only one place that bothered me. The King James version says this - it is when Jehovah has asked Cain why he is angry. Jehovah says, 'If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.' It was the 'thou shalt' that struck me, because it was a promise that Cain would conquer sin."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Samuel nodded. "And his children didn't do it entirely," he said.

 

 

 

Lee sipped his coffee. "Then I got a copy of the American Standard Bible. It was very new then. And it was different in this passage. It says, 'Do thou rule over him.' Now this is very different. This is not a promise, it is an order.

 

 

 

...

 

 

 

After two years [of learning Hebrew] we felt that we could approach your sixteen verses of the fourth chapter of Genesis. My old gentlemen felt that these words were very important too-'Thou shalt' and 'Do thou.' And this was the gold from our mining: 'Thou mayest.' 'Thou mayest rule over sin.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Don't you see?" he cried. "The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in 'Thou shalt,' meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel-'Thou mayest'- that gives a choice. It might be the most important word inthe world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if 'Thou mayest'- it is also true that 'Thou mayest not.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now there are many millions in their sects and churches who feel the order, 'Do thou', and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel predestination in 'Thou shalt'. Nothing they may do can interfere with what will be...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is easy out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself into the lap of deity, saying, 'I couldn't help it; the way was set.' But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice, a bee must make honey...It is true that we are weak and sick and quarrelsome, but if that is all we ever were, we would, millenniums ago, have disappeared from the face of the earth." - John Steinbeck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note that God retains his choice, in favoring Abel's gift, as He favored the Blessed Virgin in the Immaculate Conception. God often favored the youngest instead of the oldest, the weak against the strong in Scripture, contrary to earthly thinking (especially in OT times when the eldest was the most respected).

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:36 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All I ask is to be onto something.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 21, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"When college was over and Adams had to get a real job he had this to say: 'Total and complete misery has followed so suddenly to total and complete happiness, that all the philosophy I can muster can scarce support me under the amazing shock'."

 

 

 

-McCullough's John Adams

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:52 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Never ... despair of the Mercy of God!"

 

 

 

-final line of the Rule of Saint Benedict

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:47 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NRO's Benny Nirenstein has an interesting article:

 

 

 

I don't know whether the gap between Europe and America has ever been so great. No one I know identifies himself as pro-American. Despite recent waves of anti-Semitic and racist violence, and Le Pen's strong showing in the French elections, Europeans believe Americans to be racist, while they themselves are culturally tolerant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The inability of Europe to truly separate religion from state compounds the problem. No Italian politician can afford to ignore the Catholic Church. British politicians still look toward the Church of England for their moral guidance. When religion and politics mix, it can breed two extremist outcomes: One of fundamentalism as afflicts the Islamic world, and the other of irresponsible pacifism that now afflicts Europe, with an effect equally dangerous.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:52 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knee-jerk No Mo'

 

 

 

When I look at the political parties I see differences that sometimes appear arbitrary. For example, there is no good reason the Democratic party should be so anti-life given its history of sympathy for the defenseless and given the Catholic influence (Catholics were just about all Democrats 50 years ago).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But parties have to draw clear lines, clear differences. And so one party starts flirting with pro-life or a pro-abortion stand, find it draws people and begin solidifying it in stone. The parties lurch leftward or rightward to preserve the distinction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I make this in order to warn of the danger of viewing denominations in political terms, although they do share certain similarities in that positions are staked out. Thus, I think part of the anger I hear from Protestant circles concerning Mary seems to betray an anger well beyond what a reading of scripture would indicate (i.e. "all generations will call me blessed"). Similarly, when I hear of older Catholics who think bible reading is for Protestants, well, it makes your hair curl. As if Protestants had cornered the market on bible reading. Or on a personal relationship with Jesus (what can be more personal than eating his Body and drinking his Blood?). So to both sides I pray, let us eschew knee-jerk responses to foreign stimuli.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Fotos del Apolcalypsis:

 

 

 

A like of spirits is usually seen in catholic atmospheres, wine mainly.... It comes from a defense (conscientious leading to militant) of the simple pleasures of life, a Christian attitude that took root in the Middle Ages (with types like St Francis... and Chaucer...) and which the Latin, southern catholicism would try to maintain against a puritan Anglo-Saxon Protestantism. Yes, this is harshly delinated, but the reader will know to mollify.... Such Anglo-Saxon converts are suspicious of this vision of the things - and it does not seem to me bad. Chesterton has, in his typical vision of the things, poetries like this one: "And Noah I have often said to his wife when they sat down to dine, ' I don't care where the water goes it it doesn't get into the wine.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a case of role reversal, I once played devil's advocate to a Protestant friend (who drinks). I said something like, "why shouldn't we error on the side of not imbibing since no one is saved by drinking but some have perhaps been damned?". He bristled, having grown up in a Fundamentalist household. Evidentally he'd heard that line before. Having lived with prohibitions of gambling, of dancing, of watching movies with the nudity skipped he didn't like that argument. (He once told his minister dad - who didn't have a problem with movie violence but did with sex - "You'd sooner see a breast chopped off than fondled"). Anyhow, the idea is that by making prohibitions on oneself one eventually could end up prohibiting enjoyment in general. There is a Christian book titled, "When I Relax I Feel Guilty".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so we risk being charged with looking askance at some of the good things God has given us. What child looks at something his father gave him and says, "I'm going to error on the side of pleasing you by not enjoying what you have given me"? Obviously none of this is a license for immoderate behavior. No father gives his son a video game and then wants him to play it all day and night to the exclusion of everything.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:29 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is it Politicians, or us?

 

 

 

I think part of the reason that politicians are so negatively viewed is that they serve a spoiled electorate and thus have to contort themselves in ways often not becoming. I don't agree with Michael Kinsley on much, but his book "Big Babies" seems truthful. His premise is that people want big government and low taxes, which is impossible. Politicians, in order to be elected, must then walk this tortured path of promising as much as possible while not raising taxes. It invites, though doesn't excuse, dishonesty.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:13 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The question of whether God exists is less important than whether he is love".

 

 

 

- from an Advent meditation book

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:06 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 20, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey now, that ain't nice...

 

 

 

"A man who is converted from Protestantism to Popery, may be sincere: he parts with nothing: he is only superadding to what he already had. But a convert from Popery to Protestantism, gives up so much of what he held as sacred as anything that he retains: there is so much laceration of mind in such a conversion, that it can hardly be sincere and lasting."

 

 

 

-(Anglican) Samuel Johnson

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which causes

 

 

 

cause affect so deep

 

 

 

they scale my cold, rational heart

 

 

 

and cross its ramparts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the banks of the Savannah

 

 

 

I caught sight of a bronze statue

 

 

 

of a woman signalling ships

 

 

 

waving blankets

 

 

 

with a dog, ears-up at her side.

 

 

 

For forty years

 

 

 

so legend goes

 

 

 

she waited for her missing fiancee

 

 

 

to come down that river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or in a darkened theatre

 

 

 

watching Speilberg-Kubric's conglomeration

 

 

 

a winsome lad sits

 

 

 

in prayer at the bottom of the New York sea

 

 

 

waiting…

 

 

 

for his savior to make him real.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting

 

 

 

is love.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written about a co-worker I respect

 

 

 

Bigger than life, there once was a nearly mythical centaur named "Dute" Holland who managed to hold together the paradox of a pluperfectly banal work life at a hokey company with a highly charged intellectual life. He refused to be a simple automaton living life in binary terms and lusting for the next issue of PC Monthly. He shuffled a job, a wife and a daughter with the feat of having read most of the Western canon. Ruthlessly logical, he was allergic to patriotism and faith for he was a realist and pessimist and could see or imagine the flaws of both. He would not be suckered. His only compromise with society was the trading of the best part of every day for a paycheck that provided everything but financial independence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He is, of course, perfectly of his time. There is nothing in the least anachronistic about him either in his job skills or his worldview. His rebelliousness is limited to complaining about company and government, easy targets indeed. There was no sense that he was rebellious in any serious sense; he would fit the mold of any post-Enlightenment individual, subscribing to the god of rationality and the tenets of the average Upper West Side pseudo-intellectual. His sense of adventure was limited to knocking down already crumbling institutions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He seemed to have eyes in back of his head. You would provide an obscure, unattributed excerpt from a magazine and he would refer to the author's name in the rebuttal. Or he would correctly spell the name of the book that you were currently reading and have the grace not to point out that you'd misspelled it in your note. It was as though he could see right through you. Your lame, sometimes hypocritical replies were exposed as either non-sequitors or ideological falsities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I like Dute.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:37 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9/11

 

 

 

the unbearable

 

 

 

are the phone calls, of course,

 

 

 

demystifying last moments

 

 

 

a horror Poe

 

 

 

couldn't conceive -

 

 

 

notifying a 31-year old

 

 

 

of her impending widowhood

 

 

 

inflight

 

 

 

as death's valley almost bridged

 

 

 

husbands tell their wives

 

 

 

they have not six months

 

 

 

but six minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

what power those last words

 

 

 

- "i love you" -

 

 

 

must have in their new-found rarity

 

 

 

in their new-found scarcity

 

 

 

three words to sum a life

 

 

 

and carry the other forward.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:08 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd like to take a minute to thank our sponsor - Google.com. Serving all your search needs.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 6:26 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News to Me

 

 

 

Pope John XXIII's last words on his deathbed, as reported by Jean Guitton, the only Catholic layman to serve as a peritus at the Council, were: "Stop the Council; stop the Council."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found this on the internet, I wonder if it is true.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Modest Proposal

 

 

 

The mission in life for teens - their raison d'être - is to shock parents. Particularly with music. So I propose we get ahead of the curve, since all is lost anyway (Eminem without his shock value is like Mr. T sans muscle and gold chain). The key to this particular problem is in what we find outrageous. Let us find outrageous the strains of Bach and Beethoven. Let us arrange for Mahler's 9th to be heard and let us react viscerally, saying, "I never want you to listen to that crap!".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Failing that, we will see that what passes for music will continue to freefall. Soon the clashing of garbage can lids will symbolize what youth wish to say. Eventually there might be a "Variations on Nails on a Chalkboard". Or "Fugue for Solo Organ" (insert your own joke here). Er, hope I'm not providing ideas for any record company execs.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:04 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watched a C-Span 2 Roundtable concerning religion...

 

 

 

One author said that countries with an established Church are the least religious. Britain, Sweden, Denmark are clear examples of this. The European example has been that to establish a church is to kill it. (Though what about Spain during Ferdinand? Or Ireland in the 50s? Perhaps he was only referring to modern examples. Ireland is probably not a good example since they are Catholic in the face of opposition by the Prots in Northern Ireland...did the presence of the Orangemen make the Irish more loyal and devoted Catholics?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Another commented that Protestants are moving towards thinking themselves as Protestant or non-denominational - in the 1950s, if asked their religion, they would say Baptist or Methodist, never Protestant. Now they are more likely to use that term and he said the reason is because of evangelical mega-churches and the fact that US culture is so "multi-religioned" now. Is this Protestant bonding because the external threat - once perceived as the Methodists or Episcopalians down the road in the 1950s -now the Muslim or atheist in 2002?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Another said that while Protestants are moving closer together, Jews are splitting ferociously apart. He said the Jewish religion is imploding, what with the Orthodox versus the Reformed, etc..with great anger directed inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, he said that Catholicism in America is nothing like, for example, Poland since America tends to Disney-fy religion. I would've liked to have heard more of the program and gotten lengthier explanations of some of the above points, but I proffer them for what they're worth, with due apologies for not even remembering the author's names.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:00 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 19, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simple in their Ordinariness

 

 

 

What farmer-poets

 

 

 

cast doggrell upon a

 

 

 

wizened paper-scroll

 

 

 

by seal of candlewax and tears?

 

 

 

Who’ve left their leavenings

 

 

 

unread, unsaid, unfound

 

 

 

in that plain potato-loving soil

 

 

 

with faces long and fatalistic

 

 

 

and wit mordant, biting, slaked

 

 

 

by fishy ales?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So let's to Byrne’s pass

 

 

 

and take a stand

 

 

 

though we fall like heroes

 

 

 

our blood split like a tabby’s milk

 

 

 

lapped by our enemies

 

 

 

the brave music be our

 

 

 

surcease and comfort

 

 

 

the British musketries

 

 

 

be none but jigs and reels

 

 

 

and sing we to our deaths

 

 

 

till bow stands on end

 

 

 

and the fiddles arch to piercing no recall

 

 

 

no retreat.

 

 

 

Let the beat of the bodhran

 

 

 

be heard even to the English hills.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:40 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pro-Lifers on campus

 

 

 

A year ago, the Pro-Life Cougars sought permission to put up their display in a public space previously used by groups like the National Organization of Women and Planned Parenthood. The university prohibited the exhibit, and, to obtain equal access, the group had to file a lawsuit in January.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"It’s about time the university stopped treating pro-life speech as if it were pornography." - comment from the lead attorney in the case.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:09 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting story in the NY Times on the www.blackpeopleloveus.com phenomenon:

 

 

 

...But blackpeopleloveus.com is by far the Perettis' most ambitious project. "When you talk about race, it touches off a lot of people's individual issues," Ms. Peretti said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though much of the site's humor isn't that original — comedians like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock have all lampooned white people's flubbed attempts at relating to blacks — the fact that the dialogue is transpiring on the Internet allows for user participation and a more honest exchange of views than is often afforded in daily life.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Misc Quotes

 

 

 

"My treasure is to be found in prodigality, and only he possesses me who gives me away. For I am indeed the Word, and how can one possess a word other than by speaking it?" - Fr. Balthasar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"If many souls fail to find God because they want a religion that will remake society without remaking themselves...a soul passes from a state of speculation to submission. It is no longer troubled with the why of religion, but with the ought. It wishes to please, not merely to parse Divinity." - Archbishop Sheen

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:09 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpts from Beppe Severgnini in "Ciao, America":

 

 

 

It would be an exaggeration to say that the Roman Catholic religion had to turn into a kind of Protestantism to survive, as Mario Soldati wrote in America Primo Amore. It is true, however, that Mass in America is not for spectators, as it is in some Italian churches where actually singing or saying the responses is considered a lack of respect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He then goes on to describe, in excrutiating detail, the sign of peace, the holding hands during the Our Father, and then...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During Communion, in the States, everything is beautifully choreographed. The communicants in the front pews get up, form a line in the center aisle, and go back to their places by filtering down the side aisles. When one row sits down, the next makes its move. Have you ever seen what happens in Italy? Everyone stands up at the same time, forming a dozen separate lines that engulf the pews like milk boiling over from a pan. Those returning to their seats - apparently aborbed in silent contemplation - bump into those who are still waiting in a spectacular reenactment of the traffic jams that enliven the working week....In Italy, the announcement that Mass is over produces an effect similar to that of a gunshot in a cattery. - Beppe Severgnini Ciao, America!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At last I have an explanation why we were nearly stampeded by Italian nuns in St. Peter's. It seemed unseemly to have bodily contact with a nun, so we waited till they made their way through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Severgnini's theme throughout the book is the preternatural friendliness of Americans. I'm starting to understand why I like curmugeon-bastards so much:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friendliest Countries of the World

 

 

 

1) Australia

 

 

 

2) United States

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friendliest Regions of the U.S.

 

 

 

1) Midwest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No wonder I liked Italy so much. The friendliness of a region or nation is generally inversely proportional to their attraction to ideas, not practical ideas like "How to build a better mousetrap" but more esoteric. Those who traffic in ideas generally are kind to people in the abstract, but nasty in person. The intellectual and the melancholic go together like cake and ice cream. Beppe goes on:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanking people is even more challenging. The straightforward British exchange "Thank you" - "Not at all" is strictly for beginners. Say a passerby asks you to change a dollar. You hand over four quarters.

 

 

 

Passerby: Thanks.

 

 

 

You: Not at all.

 

 

 

Passerby: You're welcome

 

 

 

You: You're more than welcome

 

 

 

Passerby: Sure.

 

 

 

You: Don't mention it.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:21 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parallel Universe

 

 

 

Concerning "hypothetical forms of matter."

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:03 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ein Prosit!

 

 

 

I should read the Old Oligarch more oft...

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:48 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reminder to Self

 

 

 

What makes defending the unborn so easy is their total and complete innocence. Giving money to the poor overseas or in Latin America is also relatively easy since most of the poor there are innocent victims of despotic leaders or overpopulation or bad economic policies. But many charitable acts, especially in this rich country, require that we cast a blind eye to the fact that the receiver was in some way responsible for their own mess. Of course that is no excuse not to give, since we ourselves are constantly being helped out of our own messes by Christ.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:08 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 18, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advice from a Homeless guy

 

 

 

I thought this was solid information. Via the well-named Daily Meds.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

via a broken music...

 

 

 

Political Party/affiliation: Republican.

 

 

 

Favorite Political, er, Person: Alan Keyes

 

 

 

Favorite Political Quote: WFB's "I'd rather be ruled by the first 500 names in the Boston Metropolitan phone book than by the faculty of Harvard"

 

 

 

Pet Issues: Adherence to the text of the Constitution. A recognition that human nature does not change. The ascendency of logical thinking. Since a line has to be drawn, why not at conception and thus error on the side of life?

 

 

 

Ideal Presidential Ticket 2004: W & Dick Cheney

 

 

 

Ideal Presidential Candidate 2008: Hmm...haven't given it much thought but maybe Jeb? Gov. Bill Owens? or Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson?

 

 

 

Who will the Democrats run in 2004? Gore

 

 

 

Favorite Gun: the ones in the "Three Amigos"

 

 

 

Least Favorite Politico: Albert Gore, whose view of abortion conveniently changed when his party began marching to the tune of NARAL.

 

 

 

Favorite Political Periodical: National Review

 

 

 

Favorite Columnist(s): the ususal suspects - WFB, Noonan, Will, and Jonah Goldberg.

 

 

 

Favorite President: recently, Ronald Reagan. historically, John Adams.

 

 

 

Least Favorite President: Clinton.

 

 

 

Favorite Supreme: Obviously Thomas and Scalia.

 

 

 

Favorite Senator: Phil Graham, Jesse Helms. From the udder side, where they suck the teat of the public fund, I love Robert C. Byrd. He's like watching Dan Rather, you wait for him to do something crazy. We need more eccentrics.

 

 

 

Favorite Governor: Colorado's is the real deal. Bill Owens deserves the nomination in '08 if he continues what he's doing. While other states flounder with huge deficits due to spending like drunken sailors during the 90s, Owens kept his powder dry.

 

 

 

Favorite Political Book: David Frum's, "How We Got Here", anything by Bill Buckley, "Closed Chambers" - Lazurus, "Right from the Beginning" - Buchanan

 

 

 

Favorite Conservative Polemicist: Bob Novak

 

 

 

Have you ever been assaulted by a former Weatherman or Black Panther member? Not that I know of, although one rarely bothers with affiliations during an assualt.

 

 

 

Favorite Experience Being Oppressed By a Liberal Teacher/Professor: I was too naive to notice. My antennae weren't up yet.

 

 

 

Favorite out of the closet conservative/Republican celebrity? I suppose Charlton Heston. The pickings are slim - Tom Selleck and Bo Derek & Chuck Heston? Maybe that Ray Romano guy? That's about all I know of.

 

 

 

Were you ever a member of the Communist Party? Nope.

 

 

 

Secret Political Shame: Voted for the crazy man in the attic - Ross Perot. Bush 41 gave us Souter and higher taxes. Of course, if the polls were close I would've voted Bush.

 

 

 

How Satanic is John McCain? He's a gamer, I'll give him that.

 

 

 

Political Organization(s) that Scares You More than Death, Spiders, and Death by Spiders: of course, the Disunited Nations. Also NARAL.

 

 

 

Things that made me Republican

 

 

 

Tis the banal story that so many conservative can point to. A serendipitous day at the college library led to the find of "National Review". An instant hit. "Rebellious conservatism"

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dylan has an interesting post on drink mathematics. Job / % Heavy Alcohol Users

 

 

 

Construction Workers = 20.2%

 

 

 

Nurse= 2.4%

 

 

 

Computer Programmers = 2.7%

 

 

 

Food Preparers = 16.2%

 

 

 

Janitors = 10%

 

 

 

Waiters = 12.1%

 

 

 

Grocery Stores = 5.8%

 

 

 

Truck Drivers =14%

 

 

 

Dep't Stores = 3.5%

 

 

 

More here

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 17, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a Hodge-podge of Discontinued Items

 

 

 

tomato vines decay in lumpen lumps

 

 

 

the fenian bastards gave up

 

 

 

before the aspergill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

songs of porter and Finnegan’s Wake:

 

 

 

Stout full enough to stand

 

 

 

a night laden with tea and cakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

flanneled before the fire

 

 

 

beholding books with serrate edges and

 

 

 

flourished Danish typefaces;

 

 

 

entranced, he sits, engorged on lyrics like:

 

 

 

"this type was first set in 1642 by …".

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have recently been pondering the looming crisis in health care (and, perhaps, higher education). As both become relentlessly more expensive, one sees no end game other than either a return to the barter system (i.e. you do my double bypass and I'll fill out your taxes, which, by 2011, should be considered equivalent in terms of complexity), or a disorderly decline in quality and timeliness of health care (translated: higher rates of mortality). Health care costs are exacerbated by a host of monsters: malpractice suits run amuck, and bad behavior run amuck (resulting in 'crack-cocaine' babies and the need for AIDS cocktails)...but also by a host of neutral factors: like the increasingly high relative cost of human capital and the tremendous cost of new medical technologies like artifical hearts and the like. The usual thing to do in situations like this is to debate where the pleasure/pain point is - i.e. where additional taxes or costs do not lead to significantly higher benefits. What is unique to the health care field is that it is impossible to put a value on a human life. Whereas higher taxes may provide an afterschool venue for troubled youths and one could debate the merits of that, greater health care costs may provide saved lives, which is a very different debate. Complicating it is the boomer's obsessive desire to live forever (due in part to a lessened belief in an afterlife) and the very expensive life-extending measures that result...I believe the Church teaches that we don't have to go to unnatural lengths to extend life, but that devil is very much in the details. It seems it will be very difficult to arrive at a consensus in our society as to what extends life unnecessarily and what doesn't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concerning the human capital cost, Daniel P. Moynihan wrote years ago that the problem with health care and education is that new technology does not help make either profession more efficient. So while most jobs can be constantly made cheaper and productivity will rise, it does not happen with human-intensive jobs like teachers and doctors because computers and robotics don't help (in fact, the need for schools to have computers and health care to have expensive lasers adds to the price rather than subtracting).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, how willing are we to become partial serfs to health care? And the general rule is that everything we give to the gov't to do becomes not less but more expensive. Thus to universalize health care should eventually make the current social security tax look like as harmless as a summer day (in the 1950s 1% was paid to social security 'trust' fund, today you and your employer pay 15% and it's in lousy shape). But I'm not sure there is an answer since the private sector has failed, and continues to fail.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:38 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Friday

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Huge vapours brood above the clifted shore,

 

 

 

Night o'er the ocean settles, dark and mute,

 

 

 

Save where is heard the repercussive roar

 

 

 

Of drowsy billows, on the rugged foot

 

 

 

Of rocks remote; or still more distant tone

 

 

 

Of seamen, in the anchored bark, that tell

 

 

 

The watch relieved; or one deep voice alone,

 

 

 

Singing the hour, and bidding "strike the bell."

 

 

 

All is black shadow, but the lucid line

 

 

 

Marked by the light surf on the level sand,

 

 

 

Or where afar, the ship-lights faintly shine

 

 

 

Like wandering fairy fires, that oft on land

 

 

 

Mislead the pilgrim; such the dubious ray

 

 

 

That wavering reason lends, in life's long darkling way.

 

 

 

- Charlotte Smith

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:14 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 15, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, we shoot off

 

 

 

every day to new horizons,

 

 

 

coffee shops and bars,

 

 

 

natural tonsorial parlors,

 

 

 

days, streets,

 

 

 

pamphlets, days, sun,

 

 

 

heat, love, anger,

 

 

 

politics, days, and sun. - Jay Wright

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If our faith in God is weak and slow to rise to God on account of the multitude and magnitude of our sins, we should remember this, that everything is possible with God, and that what he wishes is bound to take place, while what he does not wish cannot possibly happen, and that it is as easy for him to forgive and cancel countless sins, however enormous, as to do it with a single sin..." - St. Albert the Great

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:52 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shakespeare's Measure for Measure

 

 

 

... title inspired by the book of Matthew (i.e. as you measure, so will it be measured to you).

 

 

 

The tempter or the tempted, who sins most? Ha!

 

 

 

Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I

 

 

 

That, lying by the violet in the sun,

 

 

 

Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,

 

 

 

Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be

 

 

 

That modesty may more betray our sense

 

 

 

Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,

 

 

 

Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary

 

 

 

And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!

 

 

 

What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?

 

 

 

Dost thou desire her foully for those things

 

 

 

That make her good? O, let her brother live!

 

 

 

Thieves for their robbery have authority

 

 

 

When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her,

 

 

 

That I desire to hear her speak again,

 

 

 

And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on?

 

 

 

O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,

 

 

 

With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous

 

 

 

Is that temptation that doth goad us on

 

 

 

To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet,

 

 

 

With all her double vigour, art and nature,

 

 

 

Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid

 

 

 

Subdues me quite. Even till now,

 

 

 

When men were fond, I smiled and wonder'd how.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note how when Angelo realizes he, and not she, is at fault, Shakespeare emphasizes the "I" with "lying" and "violet" in the same phrase "but it is I / That, lying by the violet in the sun". Angelo realizes in the last couple lines that he not only is the same as other men but worse given that while whores tempt other men, the virtuous tempt Angelo. It is also interesting that Angelo struggles with his identity in asking "am I what I do?" by asking What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Steinbeck

 

 

 

Steinbeck wrote books in a variety of styles, so if one doesn't appeal to you surely another will. His prose is translucent and a necessary anodyne to a surfeit of the thick, jungle prose of another John (Updike).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is perhaps unfair to take these passages out of context since that cumulative effect of his sentences should not be underestimated...But here goes:

 

 

 

"Two stories have haunted us and followed us from our beginning," Samuel said. 'We carry them along with us like invisible tails -the story of original sin and the story of Cain and Abel....No story has power, nor will it last, unless we feel in ourselves that it is true and true of us. What a great burden of guilt men have!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...I found some of the old things as fresh and clear as this morning. And I wondered why. And, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And I here make a rule - a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting- only the deeply personal and familiar.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Give me a used Bible and I will, I think, be able to tell you about a man by the places that are edged with the dirt of seeking fingers.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Of all the children Una had the least humor. She met and married an intense dark man-a man whose fingers were stained with chemicals, mostly silver nitrate. He was one of those men who live in poverty so that their lines of questioning may continue.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

[Tom] could life and run and hike and ride with anyone, but he had no sense of competition whatever. Will and George were gamblers and often tried to entice their brother into the joys and sorrows of ventue.

 

 

 

Tom said, "I've tried and it just seems tiresome. I've thought why this must be. I get no great triumph when I win and no tragedy when I lose. Without these it is meaningless. It is not a way to make money, that we know, unless it can simulate birth and death, joy and sorrow, it seems, at least to me - it feels - it doesn't feel at all. I would do it if I felt anything - good or bad." - John Steinbeck East of Eden

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:18 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Augustine for me

 

 

 

What theologian are you?

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:42 AM

 

 

 

 

 

November 14, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As an oxymoron gourmand, I am fascinated by attempted reconciliations of seeming contradictions. Perhaps this is part of why I like this dylan's "I am large, I contain multitudes" site so much, although he protests of more contradictions than I see. But I'm especially interested in how grand old Christians like Victorian Prime Minister Gladstone and current artiste extraordinaire Updike manage to marry an unseemly devotion to, well, perhaps lustfulness (some can look and not lust) and Christianity. Call it envy on my part (trading one of the seven deadly for a different I suppose).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, I happened upon this bon mot from blogesse Natalie, with a story of contradiction linked below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile here is her (correct) view of the male psyche:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I encounter a variety of customers working at the comic book store. The majority of them are men, the comic industry plays into the male psyche beautifully. The common hero is the underdog male, mundane in existence by day, cape wearing vigilante by night. A classic reflection of one's secret self, the longing to be something other than what one is. The second aspect played is that of approachable female. Comics are entertainment, fantasy. And given to pen, women in the comic world can perform impossible contortions while wearing the least amount of clothing and still have a personality. Even feminist Wonder Woman skips around in a near bikini. Obviously, your "real life" woman isn't going to fight crime and the forces of evil in high heels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is the story of contradiction.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:39 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OED Update

 

 

 

Accept no substitute! Twenty volumes or bust! (answer: bust). The new Shorter is an illegitmate, pusillanimous version of the real thing. The value-added to my already fine dictionary does not to a sale compute. Besides, look at the sort of stellar resources online. You can have your computer pronounce a word for you.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 13, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wise One

 

 

 

"It is charity, not creed, that creates the conditions for Christian unity." - our Dominican friar, pointing out that as necessary as the Creed is, it is not sufficient for unity. He also points out that apologetics should not be used to "prove" Catholicism but merely to show that it is reasonable (Charity does the rest). If we all focus on Christ, we will necessarily be draw to the same point, the same Body, the same Church.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:31 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OED update

 

 

 

Have not bought it yet. Stalling for time by waiting to look at it at a bookstore.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For purposes of clarification...

 

 

 

I certainly do not assume that everyone who holds a view point other than my own does so from ill will. I do believe there is Truth, I reject moral relativism, and I do not consider the moral views I hold as "mine"; they are merely given to us by the Church, who stands on the shoulders of giants like Paul, Augustine, Aquinas and Newman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The original post was prompted by wondering what I would do in Nazi Germany. Would I have helped the Jews, been indifferent or actually wished them ill? Perhaps others have more faith in their innate goodness than I have in mine. I could see myself in a role of indifference - a shrug of my shoulders and "what can I do?" or the venal "at least it's nobody I know". We are conditioned, now, to recognize the Holocaust as the horror of horrors, but there were far too few Germans who recognized it at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What bothers me is the preversity of things like this: the controversialness of the partial birth abortion ban. It seems gratuitiously preverse to deny a baby - one that looks, feels, thinks and acts like one - a full birth when it is geographically indisposed (i.e. not completely out of the mother). This suggests an evil, or a level of culpability, that is more profound than those in favor of stem cell research. (It's the "they should know better" issue).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Certainly ignorance is, to some extent, protective. If you don't know something, you can't be held responsible for it. So the many pro-choicers out there who are pro-choice through invincible ignorance are not (thank God!) going to be held accountable. Ultimately where "invincible ignorance" ends and responsibility begins who can know but God?

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:40 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rank of my favorite founding fathers at age 12:

 

 

 

Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Hamilton

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rank of my my favorite founding fathers circa 2002:

 

 

 

Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:33 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 12, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She stands like Patience on a monument. - Shakespeare

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know why but that just resonates with me.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:22 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gestational Bloggings

 

 

 

* the bible and the scarcity principle

 

 

 

* knee-jerk oppositionism as illustrated in the Miss America and the issue regarding abstinence

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:22 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Latest Google Search

 

 

 

"mexcian creation stories"

 

 

 

I wunder if I shuld start intintionally misspelling words sinc apperently one of mine led to this visit. Nihil Obstat note bene.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Perils of Blogging

 

 

 

By way of All But Dissertations I've learned of the new Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. It's a two-volume set that comprises 1/3rd of the master 20 volume set. Since I will never (ok, never say never) buy the 20-vol set, this is sorely tempting. I've found it for $90 out-the-door price (regularly $150). One third of the whole OED for $90 is pretty amazing. The full OED is $995 for purposes of rationalization.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:52 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From The Observer on the popularity of young writers:

 

 

 

The mark of this new literature is that it’s accessible without being dumb. Literary, but also pop...In the book world, David Foster Wallace may have perfected that kind of sensibility a decade ago, but the kids have taken the ball and run with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writers like Ms. Smith don’t feel they have to give up on a mass audience in order to say serious things. We’re reaching the end of an era in which obscurity plays as intelligence; date its demise from the publication of Jonathan Franzen’s takedown of super-convoluted postmodern novelist William Gaddis last month in The New Yorker. And yet it’s not that the new literary stars are rejecting the ethos of high-toned literary deconstruction they learned in their college English classes—they’ve already assimilated it...

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opus Dei and Flagellation?

 

 

 

CS Lewis quote:

 

 

 

The problem about avoiding our own pain admits a similar solution. Some ascetics have used self-torture. As a layman, I offer no opinion on the prudence of such a regimen; but I insist that, whatever its merits, self-torture is quite a different thing from tribulation sent by God. Everyone knows that fasting is a different experience from missing your dinner by accident or through poverty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fasting asserts the will against the appetite - the reward being self-mastery and the danger pride...The redemptive effect of suffering lies chiefly in its tendency to reduce the rebel will. Ascetic practices, which in themselves strength the will, are only useful in so far as they enable the will to put its own house (the passions) in order, as a preparation for offering the whole man to God. They are necessary as a means; as an end, they would be abominable...In order to submit the will to GOd, we must have a wil and that will must have objects...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doubtless we all spend too much care in the avoidance of our own pain: but a duly subordinated intention to avoid it, using lawful means, is in accordance with "nature" - that is, with the whole working system of creaturely life for which the redemptive work of tribulation is calculated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Christian doctrine of suffering explains, I believe, a very curious fact about the world we live in. The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: buy joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast....The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and oppose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bath or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.

 

 

 

-CS Lewis, Problem of Pain

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:27 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 11, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painting, like spirituality, is liberating. Both are expressions of one's distinct and deeper relationships with the world - and with God.

 

 

 

-artist Fr. Jerome Tupa, OSB

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 6:44 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,

 

 

 

Feed on her damask cheek: she pined in thought,

 

 

 

And with a green and yellow melancholy

 

 

 

She sat like Patience on a monument,

 

 

 

Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?

 

 

 

We men may say more, swear more: but indeed

 

 

 

Our shows are more than will; for still we prove

 

 

 

Much in our vows, but little in our love. - Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:08 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quiz mania

 

 

 

The quizzes are edging towards parody. I'm waiting for "Which pop-up ad are you?". But hey I loved "Which Founding Father Are You?". Maybe I'll try to think up one of my own: "Which Papal Legate are you?"

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:54 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excerpt on Evangelical Theology

 

 

 

Precisely because modernization has created an external world in which unbelief seems normal, it has at the same time created a world in which Christian faith is alien. It is the inability to resist this oddness that is now working its havoc on the Christian mind. The Christian mind in the midst of modernity is like the proverbial frog in the pot beneath which a fire has been kindled. Because the water temperature rises slowly, the frog remains unaware of the danger until it is too late. In the same way, the Church often seems to be blithely unaware of the peril that now surrounds it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What makes the disappearance of confession in academic circles almost inevitable, barring an occasional episode of rebellion such as that mounted by Karl Barth and his allies, is that there is now an insurmountable coalition between the Enlightenment idea that it is the subject who defines reality and the universities that are now structured not only to make this idea normative but also to make its orthodox alternative unacceptable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The disappearance of theology, in both Church and academy, is itself one of the fruits of modernization and . . . it has little to do with the way that theology is being constructed per se. Furthermore, the unraveling of the ties between contemporary Christianity and historic orthodoxy is not the result of a deliberate strategy but is rather one of the effects of modernity that Christians have unconsciously accepted.

 

 

 

- David F. Wells

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Shea Pulls No Punches

 

 

 

On the religious nature of abortion to the Democratic party:

 

 

 

...one principle remains: the inviolable sacrament of abortion. It's the only real core belief of American liberalism. They have made a covenant with Death and the grave. Republican whores dally with it. But the Democratic party is married to it, a succubus that is draining the life out of the party with vampiric gripping strength.- M. Shea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does Shea's polemic serve the public debate? In one sense, yes in another no. In one sense it asserts a truth that people want to forget or soften. By being so clear, he offers an implicit rebuttle to moral relativism. He also "fires up his base". One reads that and wants to go out and pray outside an abortion clinic, or contribute to a pro-life charity. The American Revolution would not have been fought if not for firebrands like Thomas Paine. Their contribution is undervalued; few will be moved to action on an issue seriously if it is couched in academic language or is in some way softened. People respect strong opinions - Paul Wellstone had many conservatives who spoke well of him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the other hand...it could alienate those who are on the fence. I'm not sure how many fence-sitters there are on the subject; Bill O'Reilly said he knew a few and said pro-lifers should be aware of this and tone down the "rhetoric". I'm unconvinced. One can catch more flies with sugar, but it seems like the flies aren't taking it. That's why I contribute to the Center for Bioethical Reform and their rather radical attempt to communicate the truth about abortion on the most visceral level - by trucks panelled with billboards of aborted children. America tends to care about only what it can see (i.e. we would've have gone into Somalia except for CNN's pictures).

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:10 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shakespeare Trivia

 

 

 

Five references in his plays to St. Peter, four to St. Paul....I knew Shakespeare was a papist! (Just a joke).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Others include: one to Patrick, two to Anne, one to Michael. St. George and his day actually beats all with eighteen references.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:56 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Coming War

 

 

 

Nope, not Iraq. An internal one. I don't mean to sound incendiary, but there is something happening in America that is not too well reported - black prejudice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Given the sordid history of race in our country it is perhaps our just dessert in some ways. It is typical that oppression corrected still rankles generations later - often in ways more hate-filled than the actual recipients of the outrage. There can be a sort of a delayed-reaction. And so innocent Northern Irish die because of their ancestors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

African-Americans have endured generations of white prejudice and the irony is this: just when white America has more or less gotten over prejudice (it can, of course, never be completely erradicated; prejudice is like unemployment numbers - you can get down to a certain level but never go below that) - black prejudice against whites has grown and will continue to grow. There is a New York City councilman who said that he wanted to go out in the street and find any white person and just slug them. A councilman!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The proximate cause of race riots might be reparations. Whatever you feel about the merits or demerits of the idea, there is an implacable stonewall of disagreement on both sides. There is no way reparations will happen. Politically it is dead. But, if you watch the C-Span and see members of the black caucus discuss it, you see that they feel this is an issue to go to the mat on. One senses that their base will not be satisfied with anything less and will perhaps take matters in their own hands if the black caucus can't. They are serious as the proverbial heart attack about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe I'm all wet. I pray so and hope that riots won't happen. But I think there is a growing disaffection of whites by blacks, fueled by left-wing politics and chip-inducing (as in chip on your shoulder) Black Studies programs at universities. That growth can only have negative results.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:04 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baaa....Baaa...

 

 

 

One can take much humility in the fact that Jesus called us sheep. It should tend to dampen our pride for our positions, be they political or religious, although they don't much - myself especially. I've too much of that cussed John Adams in me. Besides, in this day of moral relativism, it is helpful to remember that some policies are right. For those in those in antebellum times, there was a correct view of slavery (i.e. its evilness) that was arrived at either by circumstance of birth (i.e. the North mainly) or by conversion or ultimately war.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a white male with a middle-class income, I perfectly fit the Republican demographic. My credibility is slim with those like Ono, whose heartfelt discomfiture at the rejoicing in conservative quarters over the election illustrates what I said in my DC triplog - the tyranny of tradition and culture. I haven't yet "stepped outside the box" of my culture much. Sure, the arguments of the conservatives sound utterly convincing to me, but is this a result of true open-mindedness or am I a product of my background? How can I ascribe the latter to those who are liberals but not to myself? You can't tell me that it's a coincidence that 80% (or so) of Protestants never become Catholics and vice-versa. If the claims of Catholicism were equally compelling with Protestantism then one would expect approximately 50% of Catholics becoming Prots & vice-versa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wrote about the African-American lady on the tour bus who loves Clinton and is furious at the "crucifixion" he received at the hands of Republicans. She is as surely in her demographic as I am in mine. Real credit goes to converts for they are the brave ones who go against the wind. I don't mean to sound too deterministic, or too close to denying free will, but cradle Catholics should certainly ascribe no pride to the fact of their being Catholic, nor white 39-yr old men to their conservativism. I guess that is why converts like Scott Hahn electrify - it cost them something. And that is why someone like a Justice Thomas oozes credibility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously, being a Republican has nothing to do with being a Catholic. If the Democratic Party were tomorrow to become the party of life and the Republicans pro-abort, I would become an instant Democrat. And there would be something purifying in that independence, which now I can exercise only in limited areas (like the death penalty).

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:08 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 10, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Viewing of Icons

 

 

 

Dove of the first Pentecost

 

 

 

falls on us too;

 

 

 

our affirmation

 

 

 

be our Confirmation.

 

 

 

Note the iconography:

 

 

 

the torches above their heads

 

 

 

look like the torches of blood upon His wrists.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:57 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writings about Nothings.*

 

 

 

We came to the gates of the parking garage at nearly the same instant. My gate opened a half-second or so before hers, but I was in the merge lane and she had the right-of-way given an equal playing field. I waved her on. She waved me on. I waved her on again and she went. In the elapsed second we had become aware of the complexities of the situation.. She waved me on because she was playing by the rule of "whichever gate opened first got to go first". I waved her on due to the dual weight of my being in the merge lane and that she was female, with its attending chivalric requirements.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The leaves now surrender in the French fashion; they fall in great waves, subject to a moderate wind. The forest floor is bathed in the yellow litter and I come up on a 12-point buck just off the path. He stares, immobile. I walk by and watch as he eventually becomes comfortable enough to cross the path, not twenty feet from me. I momentarily indulge a delusion of grandeur, like I’m St. Francis and the animals love me. It is, by the way, uncanny how our German Shepherd will come up to bedroom to lie quietly when I begin to pray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* - the new, upscale mall that opened recently puts a period behind titles, like they did back in the 19th century. Hence the period.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:13 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dylan started a new form of blogger comedy...possible titles for your autobiography. I liked Stand Up Tragedian and Misanthrope's Concerto. Tom Arnold has a good one: How I Lost Five Pounds in Six Years which is reminiscient of my spiritual story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Possible titles for my autobiography

 

 

 

Eleven Thousand Miles Run, But Not All at One Time

 

 

 

My Other Book is a Classic

 

 

 

Desperately Seeking Unemployment So I Can Catch Up On My Reading

 

 

 

My Heroes Have Always Been Misanthropes

 

 

 

Too Much Falstaff, Too Much Hamlet

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:31 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 9, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Choice? I'm For It.

 

 

 

I am pro-choice - before conception. I think people should be allowed to choose whether or not they want to have sex.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:15 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[It] is something of a faith vs. reason paradox, in that it is utterly unreasonable to think Sen. Mikulski will abandon her objectively evil vote magnet of a position, yet our faith insists on the efficacy of prayer. Reason can only watch when faith operates in that region between improbable and impossible.

 

 

 

- via Disputations

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:55 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 8, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apologetically Speaking

 

 

 

..But it is also certain that always there is people "of good will". There are times to speak and to be quiet, and those times to speak are "to give reason of our faith". And it is certain that one knows something of those rare cases in that the discussions are not crossings of words with guts tightened, but souls that learn to communicate, to know themselves and to be considered; and that, as the same G. B. Shaw in a letter to Chesterton: "the intellectual passion to him is after all the most entrancing passion of all." -via fotos del apocalipsis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I liked the phrase "crossings of words with guts tightened". What a beautiful phraseology, and so aptly descriptive (much of the time) unfortunately.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:27 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nobody does it better....the eminently readable Peggy Noonan on the Dem's search for a mission statement.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:07 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pondering Percy

 

 

 

"After the lunch conference I run into my cousin Nell Lovell on the steps of the library - where I go occasionally to read liberal and conservative periodicals. Whenever I feel bad, I go to the library and read controversial periodicals. Though I do not know whether I am a liberal or a conservative, I am nevertheless enlivened by the hatred which one bears the other. In fact, this hatred strikes me as one of the few signs of life remaining in the world. This is another thing about the world which is upsidedown: all the friendly and likable people seem dead to me; only the haters seem alive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Down I plunk myself with a liberal weekly at one of the massive tables, read it from cover to cover, nodding to myself whenever the writer scores a point. Damn right, old son, I say, jerking my chair in approval. Pour it on them. Then up and over to the rack for a conservative monthly and down in a fresh cool chair to join the counterattack. Oh ho, say I, and hold fast to the chair arm: that one did it: eviscerated! And then out and away into the sunlight, my neck prickling with satisfaction."

 

 

 

- Walker Percy, The Moviegoer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a later book Percy has a character comment, "liberals and conseratives need each other...what would they do without the other?" which again implies that "only haters seem alive" and that without the other they would slip into narcoleptic stupor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the larger view, imagine a world in which there wasn't a fight between the devil & God, between the angels and demons...hard to imagine. All drama is conflict - where there is no conflict you have no plot...without plot, no stories...without stories....?

 

 

 

"The storyteller is a pale metaphor for God who creates our world and us, falls in love with his creatures, even obsesses over us because we don’t act right, and always reserves the right to say the final word." - Andrew Greeley

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:04 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Review of Johnathon Franzen's "How to be Alone"

 

 

 

Bestselling and National Book Award winning novelist Franzen (The Corrections) urges readers to say no to drugs, but not the pharmaceutical kind; his opiates are those "technology offers in the form of TV, pop culture, and endless gadgetry," soporifics that "are addictive and in the long run only make society's problems worse." Franzen's just as hard on intellectual conformity-on academe's canonization of third-rate but politically correct novels, for example. As a serious artist, he knows that the deck is stacked against him; after all, a great novel is a kind of antiproduct, one that is "inexpensive, infinitely reusable, and, worst of all, unimprovable." The problem, he says, is that instead of being allowed to enjoy our solitary uniqueness we are all being turned into one gigantic corporate-created entity, a point Franzen makes tellingly when he says that while a black lesbian New Yorker and a Southern Baptist Georgian might appear totally different, the truth is that both "watch Letterman every night, both are struggling to find health insurance... both play Lotto, both dream of fifteen minutes of fame, both are taking a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, and both have a guilty crush on Uma Thurman." -From Publishers Weekly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This sameness, this homogeniety, dampens my enthusiasm for travel. How wonderful it would've been to travel to Ireland back in the 80s or 70s - when it was a fully Catholic country. They say Ireland is twenty years or so behind the U.S. - behind in the sense of abortion laws, alienation, urban ills that we endure - I suppose this is as close as one can come to time-travel...

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:57 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

D.C. Capers

 

 

 

Our hotel was on Dupont Circle which is the "only intelligent life in Washington" according to one travel guide. Here lay three bookstores within sight and walking distance, one of which was open all night and day on Friday’s & Saturday’s. Never having lived even near a bookstore, this appeared to be some sort of divine recompense. In one of the bookstores I read the beginning of a novel entitled "Dupont Circle" which celebrated this self-same bookstore. We checked into our Irish hotel, Jury’s Washington, and took advantage of Kramer books (joined with a coffee shop called ‘Afterwords’). The shop had big plated windows with a bright-red "Kramer’s" in neon script. A small internet café served as a corridor to the two rooms of books that lay beneath the second-floor coffee shop where a bass cello played jazz. It felt like something out of a Woody Allen movie. I continued my tradition of being the worst-dressed person there (this place was easy; Walmart is always more difficult). I wondered for t

 

 

 

he first time in months if perhaps I should buy some more stylish clothes. I banished the thought, realizing it was the devil speaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday

 

 

 

After a leisurely breakfast at "Afterwords" we were ready for action, which in this case meant walking. We had some time to kill, since the Holocaust tour wasn’t scheduled till 11:30. Fr. McCloskey, runs D.C.’s Catholic Information Center (and aided in the conversion of one of my favorite pundits, Robert Novak). Did I mention that the CIC also has the largest Catholic bookstore in Washington? So we headed towards the address I had, which apparently was outdated. We cabbed to the Holocaust Museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In an age where everyone is a victim it is important to remember what real victims are like. Words fail here, because there is no way to describe the atrocities that hasn’t been said a million times and better. The four floors carry the story chronologically, beginning in 1933 and following through the end of the war to the liberation. It is comprehensive – it is not just about the gas chambers but also the story of how the Nazi’s came to power, and a large and generous wall of remembrance filled with all known non-Jews who tried to save some of those persecuted, and an exhibit to Jewish resistance (I didn’t know there was any).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All Jews were supposed to have a tiny scroll of scripture (usually the verse, "You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all your might") above their door; I saw one of the small scroll holders for the first time. It looked no bigger than a doorbell!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were the sobering exhibits like a picture of all the hair gathered by the Nazi’s. And the exhibit of thousands of shoes of the gassed. As one war correspondent wrote, "one can talk two or three shoes, or a dozen, but this?".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I walked aboard one of the cars the Nazi’s could’ve used to transport the Jews to long journeys to places like Auschwitz. Luggage lay at the feet of the train, luggage that was immediately tossed aside by the SS. "You won’t be needing anything, there is plenty there." There were models of the typical concentration camp, and the gruesome efficiency with which it worked. There was an anecdote about a man praising and thanking God in the midst of the suffering. His friend said, "how can you thank God here, of all places!?". "I am thanking Him that I am not like them."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were too few pictures of those who perpetrated the monstrosities, although I did see a large mural of Nazis making war plans, and you look at them just amazed that they would buy into it. Couldn’t they resign their commissions? The power of tradition and culture is such that it seems to overwhelm everything, even common sense. And since no one exists apart from tradition and culture, one can must work to improve the current one. We are sheep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to see more pictures of the perpetrators to see if one could tell any difference between them and "normal" people. Are we all that close to being blasé to unimaginable evils? That this could happen in a Christian nation is especially horrifying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, in the bookshop, I found a book by Dennis Prager titled, "Why the Jews?" it attempts to answer the question why the Jews have been persecuted by nearly everyone since time immemorial. Prager attempts to find a common theme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recovering afterward, we walked down the Mall in the cold and bought some food before ambling to our next stop, the Library of Congress (LOC). Though we had a tour there on Tuesday, it was nice to take a sneak peak since we were in the area. The building, called by some the "most beautiful building in America" is all of that to me. Russian first lady Putin on a recent visit was said to have said, "I can’t believe you have this without having had Tsars". There, on exhibition was the Mainz manuscript bible and a Gutenburg bible (one of only three perfect copies in the world). I ducked, illegally, down a hallway marked "Members of Congress Only" but had not the nerve to try the ornate door that held unimagined vistas but was also marked "Members of Congress Only". I'm of the dylan school of rebellion; tell me where I can't go and I'll make an effort to go there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got out of there quickly, hoping the cameras hadn’t caught me, and headed up a couple flights to the perch overlooking the Reading Room floor and a breathtaking view. A huge round magohany desk lay in the center, surrounded by concentric rings of lit desks and the occasional scholar bent over his task. On the edges lay glimpses of stacks of books of unimaginable numbers, all in precise order like a well-disciplined army of knowledge. Suddenly a young girl of perhaps twenty came in, mid-drift bared, looking no more like a scholar than Jack LaLanne. (Okay, I know I'm not supposed to judge by appearances). I thought it possible – I could be there! I could set foot on that hallowed ground! A reverie fell upon me. I hoped the tour would take us there on Monday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided Saturday night to take a bus tour of the monuments, since it was clear (though cold). The 3-hour tour was narrated by a member of the local culture, an African-American woman who is head-over-heels for Clinton ("why did they crucify him?", she asked. "He didn’t do anything that JFK or FDR or any of the others did."). We stopped at the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, the Korean and Vietnam and other lesser knowns. By the end, we were hoping there weren’t any more memorials. I fell into bed that night and slept the sleep of the dead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Sunday I realized that a lifestyle that involves sitting all day, punctuated only by short 20-30 minute periods of stairmaster or jogging, does not condition one for multiple days of long walks. I woke up sore, my legs stiff as cardboard, my muscles the consistency of thawed hamburger meat. There was enough lactic acid buildup to start a small petro-chemical plant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But still we gamely moved on rubberly legs to our next destination: the taxi out front. And then onto the Basillica of the Immaculate Concepcion. Upon entering and exploring, I knew I had seen no more beautiful American Catholic church than this Basillica. St. Patrick’s in New York is not close. The mosaics throughout harken to Orthodox spirituality, like icons. A dozen or more side shrines and altars are woven into the sides, private little enclaves to pray and reflect, like wounds in the side of Christ where one can meditate. The mysteries of the rosary are commemorated around the altar, all with short phrases that uniquely penetrate some portion of the mystery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bookstore and gift shops of the Basillica were magnificent and a sore temptation to spend. We all did, some more than others, but needless to say I was hypnotized by the quantity and quality. We headed next to the Pope John Paul II cultural center. We toured an art exhibit, then explored a room of personal effects of the Pope. Downstairs was a huge set-up of interactive contrivances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked from our last Metro stop to the White House, walked all around the White House as the sun set and darkness came. I heard later from the Congressional tour guide that there are actually people in the trees on the White House lawn. This is one well-guarded family home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did I mention that by now our legs hung like bloody stumps from the barely extant sinews of upper thigh? By the time we stumbled back to the hotel, a warm bath and a 12-hours of sleep sounded golden. Instead we had a rejuvenating dinner at our hotel restaurant. I could feel I was at the edge of a cold and felt nauseaus. Colds are something I have much experience with on vacation (since I always try to do too much) but something I’ve been able to cheat during the past few years by the consumption of a few beers. At last I could drink with the excuse old Baptists give: for medicinal reasons only. The administration of a couple Guinnesses worked magic, and I swear it’s not psychosomatic either. Guinness is good for you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner we went to an Irish pub called the "Four Provinces" where we heard the dulcet tones of irish music played on acoustic guitar. Sandy asked for "The Rare Ol’ Times" and the song was wonderfully done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

I went to the Folger Shakespeare Library while Mark and Sandy went off the Botanical Garden/Conservatory. I ran to get there just in time for the 11 am tour. There was only one other person, an older gent. The guide, a blue-blooded, white-haired lady who was dressed immaculately gave the hour tour. It was also embarrassing how little I knew. She obviously expected us to be very conversant in all things related to the English Renaissance period. She was Alex Trebek, asking for questions. I asked if the staff there were Stratfordians. She gave a bemused half-smile and waited seemingly forever before answering. It was as if I had passed gas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susan, our tour guide, was an aide for a Congresswoman from the Poughkeepsie region of New York, and looked for all the world like a typical Midwesterner. I teased her about Hillary Clinton. "How could you guys have elected her?" She angrily answered, "We didn’t, we’re Republicans." Also apparently a hawk. "Let’s bomb them and ask questions later," she said about the Iraq situation. Ouch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite parts of the Capitol tour was seeing the room where the House met up until the 1860s. There were plaques where Abe Lincoln and John Quincy Adams sat. Speaking of sitting, it was cool sitting where the First Lady sits during the State of the Union Addresses in the House chamber.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bookstores around Dupont Circle were calling, especially Second Story Books, which is the largest used bookstore in Washington. We headed back there and spent an hour or so there. I bought one $20 Updike book of short stories there but the prices were high and the philosophy liberal. Around the store Taro cards were posted. The sexuality section was larger than the religious section. We moved on to Kramer’s, where Mark succumbed to three books and paid some $50 and Sandy bought two books and $30. I escaped without financial damage.We never did make it to the huge chain "Books-a-Million". One can afford to be selective in such a bookish environment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday

 

 

 

We arrived for the 8:30am tour of the Library of Congress just in time. The docent gave us an hour tour of the joint, which was nothing to sneeze at. I had been it already though, so it necessarily lost some of its punch. Lots of mythological figures and lots of unattributed inscripted quotes, which that first librarian, like many librarians after him, preferred we look up on our own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tour started 15 mins late and we had Arlington Cemetery planned so time was surreally tight. If I wanted to get down on that Reader’s Room floor I would have to accomplish something this side of "Mission Impossible" – I would have 15 minutes to get to the Madison building and get my credentials (apparently to discourage would-be Walter Mittys, they make getting on to the Reading Room floor as difficult as possible, but that only spurred me on). I ran through a tunnel between the buildings (fortunately there were many signs, though the distance was pretty good) and found room LM-140 where approvals to access the Reading Room are granted. There I waited in two different lines, one to show my driver’s license and acquire the form, a second to fill the form out and have a picture ID taken. After 15 minutes, I have the picture ID required to get on the Reading Room floor. I hurry to the floor but am denied. I have my coat with me. I ask if I can leave my coat at the security desk and the guard says

 

 

 

no, you have to check it. I run like hell up the stairs to the coatcheck. No one there. I realize I can just take them to Sandy and Mark, in fact I have to take it to Sandy and Mark since I am late from when I agreed to meet them. The maze-like quality of the building is now discovered, since the closest stairs and elevator do not take you to the Visitor’s Center. As they say, you can’t get there from here. I was in a no-man’s land where scholars tread, not where the visitors visit, and never the twain shall meet. There were other reading rooms here, off-limit reading rooms that held vistas of old bindings climbing to the ceilings. After asking directions a couple times I do make it to the

 

 

 

visitor center. I ask to at least go in the revered Reading Room (RR) since I have the pass after all...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I walked guiltily by the big imposing reference desk and librarian sitting there. To call it a desk would be to insult it; it was not a desk so much as a fortress, a large circular nautilus with a back some some seven feet tall (such that I could not see the far side of desks). I wondered around, amused by the marble water fountain there and taking a drink of it as if that were the purpose of this meander. I settled into a desk and sat in a surprising quantity of natural light, the sun coming in through the stained glass windows of the cupola above. The library was, in fact, designed to be used without aid of artificial light at all. An immense Victorian-style clock hung at one end. Collossal figures of history in the form of statues surrounded the stories above me. I sat as in a trance. I walked to the other side, as if my trip to Washington would be incomplete if I’d only seen the RR from the west side. I could smell the books, the stacks were right there though off-limits (even patrons of the RR are not allowed in the stacks – you have to request books and they are brought to you). The books smelled old, the half-mildewed scent I associate at the large huge booksales at OSU's library. I wondered if some were like that in Jefferson’s time, if any of his old books smelled that way. The researchers researched – there were perhaps a half-dozen of them. I studied my hand and then a printed map of the LOC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally I tore myself away from this library of all libraries, and felt the rip of the umbillica cord. We moved on to Arlington Cemetery, and Robert E. Lee’s house. The view of Washington was riveting, and one could instantly understand JFK’s wish to be buried there. But my heart was still at Jefferon's library, wondering where his original books might be hidden...

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:55 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abortion & Politics

 

 

 

I heard one of the commentators on CNN say that Bush's real interest was a Republican Senate and not a Republican House. Why? So he can get his judges appointed. And why are the judges not being appointed? Abortion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But today tis a feast for our sore, sore eyes! To see the Republicans sweep tis a feat unimagined! Thank you Lord, for the leaders you've given us, and for the voters who cast votes, for although all are flawed, terribly flawed, at least Cheney and Bush attempt the trajectory towards the good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On "The View", Star Jones said she could never marry someone who wasn't a Democrat. When asked why, she said it would be difficult to raise children if both parents didn't share the same values. When asked what values specifically, she immediately said, 'the right to choose - I feel very strongly about it and want my children to share that value.'. The sound you heard was my jaw dropping. Here we have a real, living example of someone who cherishes the right to an abortion in an almost overtly religious way! It IS their religious issue! Strangely, I feel no animus. I understand her only to be tragically mislead. Interestingly, it is sometimes easier to embrace those whose views are the opposite of our own compared to those we think "should know better".

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:39 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 6, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Schadenfreude Alert

 

 

 

Watching Judy Woodruff cover this election is a near occasion of sin for a conservative. Reminds me of the gruesome joy that a friend of mine used to take in watching the opposing team's cheerleaders cry after the football game was lost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Must turn channel. Must turn channel. Must....turn....channel....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can't turn channel. See title of this blog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's no joy in McAuliffe-ville tonite, the mighty Clinton has struck out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

note to self: do not enjoy this too much; the lows will feel that much lower (and they will come). Still, it just doesn't get any better than this. Bush can get his judges and Schumer can go back to getting pork for his constituents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update: I have successfully turned the channel! "Baby steps" - say like Bill Murray in movie What about Bob?

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:30 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Am glued to my television, watching the wonderful Peggy Noonan on Chris Matthew's show. I morph into a political junkie during elections, and so life is good right now especially given that things are still pretty wide open. The obligatory disclaimer is that I am "over" any illusion that our country will return to sanity on the life issues via political means; it will take the conversions of many hearts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news...I read with interest dylan's comments on Scott Hahn's comments on Orthodox theology. I've read that it is almost inbred in the Western scientific mind to define, define, and define some more. We are very hesistant to ascribe much to mystery. Westerners long for clarity in a way that less coldly rational cultures in Eastern Europe & Russia do not. I was told by one priest that the difference between the Western and Eastern churches is perfectly illustrated by the Consecration. The Western church wants to know the exact moment the bread and wine become the Body and Blood during Mass. The Eastern church has a more vague notion of when it changes (which is perhaps a more humble attitude). The Marian doctrines also come to mind as Western theological advances. Maybe this is what he meant by the stagnancy of Orthodox theology. Their spirituality is certainly rich, and often is like a balm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

D.C. was great; may have to inflict a trip log on you. Architectural impressions ring in my head like glorious pealing bells. The Library of Congress is a building of staggering beauty; surely the most pulchritudinous public building in the USA. (Your humble correspondent applied for a card and got to walk in the hallowed reading room, where I pretended to be a scholar).

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:44 PM

 

 

 

 

 

November 5, 2002

 

 

 

hich Founding Father Are You?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmm...I'm none too surprised. I loved this guy even before I read David McCullough's book (I wrote a high school paper on him back around '80). But it's a common affliction; I think most Catlicker bloggers are Adams types. via Flos Carmeli

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:42 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cold enters by the back door;

 

 

 

October exits with a growl and a whip

 

 

 

we trade normals for twenty-below normals

 

 

 

buying time for the normals to fall;

 

 

 

The winter lengthens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

into the dark abyss

 

 

 

deaf and blind soccer players play;

 

 

 

the ball never sent true

 

 

 

half-hits and lucky glances

 

 

 

the ball advancing by grace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaves in great numbers fall;

 

 

 

a yellow Asian carpet of hoarfrost

 

 

 

Believing evergreens stand athwart the winter yelling "stop!"

 

 

 

they keep their heads

 

 

 

while all about lose theirs;

 

 

 

calmly facing the splendid ruins of summer’s demise.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:05 AM

 

 

 

 

 

November 1, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Commentary on Matt 12:44-46:

 

 

 

The controversy over exorcism in the preceding context sets the stage for Jesus to establish the superiority of his New Covenant ministry over the Old as administered by the Pharisees. Although the Pharisees expel evil spirits ("your sons", 12:27), they leave a vacuum that exposes individuals to more severe counterattacks from Satan. Jesus also drives out demons, but, unlike the Pharisees, he fills believers with the greater power of his kingdom through the Spirit (12:28). Jesus' contemporaries must prefer these blessings of his kingdom ministry to the real but limited benefits of the Pharisee's ministry; otherwise they are left vulnerable to spiritual catastrophes worse than before. - RSV-CE Ignatius Study Bible

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:28 PM

 

 

 

 

 

October 31, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Eucharistic Complement

 

 

 

I'm beginning to see Eucharistic Adoration as a necessary complement to the Eucharist. It is a liturgical fast before the feast, a discipline that creates the desire necessary to receive Communion. That, coupled with occasional periods of physical fasting, seem to be the necessary antidotes to a surfeit of religiosity for religiosity's sake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How often I have stoned those He sent for my good!

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:22 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never paid much attention to immigration issues until 9/11. But that, coupled with the revelation that the D.C. sniper was an illegal immigrant, has definitely piqued my interest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm at a loss at just why it is so difficult to clean up the Immigration & Naturalization Service. For decades this has been a festering sore, with reorganization after reorganization failing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My suspicion is that immigration reform is something that neither party wants. And the two-party system fails when neither side "wants" an issue. I think this is a case where it has failed, and most spectacularly with the Republicans. They are the party of responsibility, the "daddy" party, the law and order party. But they have gone AWOL on this issue.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:23 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where Humility Goes Astray

 

 

 

"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong." - Bertrand Russell

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:22 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got a hit from a Google search for the following:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"brain chemistry" "facial beauty"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This blog is the only result of that search. My mother would be so proud.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:07 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chez Kat has an interesting reflection on George Harrison and his claim that it is all "show". She rightly points to the marytrs. I'm reminded of a comment from my stepson:

 

 

 

"Religious faith is something everyone says they have, but no one really believes."

 

 

 

Tell that to the St. Padre Pio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I appreciate your prayers for him.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:55 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On universalism:

 

 

 

Wasn't the Fatima apparation approved by the Church and didn't one of the children see hell with souls in it? I understand it is a private revelation, but it is a private revelation approved by the Church. The existence of Hell is probably the most difficult doctrine to believe of all, according to Peter Kreeft.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:44 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the oxymoronic quality of this post from Disputations:

 

 

 

The Resurrection: The women want to prepare Jesus' body; Jesus prevents them. (Or, Mary Magdalene wants to hold on to Him; He tells her to let go.)

 

 

 

The Ascension: The Apostles want Jesus to restore the kingdom to Israel; Jesus wants to return to the Father.

 

 

 

The Descent of the Holy Spirit: The Apostles want to keep a low profile; the Holy Spirit, sent by Jesus, wants them to proclaim His Name.

 

 

 

The Assumption: Mary's mourners bury her; Mary's Son raises her.

 

 

 

The Coronation: Mary regards herself as the handmaid of the Lord; the Lord regards Mary as His Queen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As my wife says, the Kingdom is "opposite world".

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:14 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back...

 

 

 

dylan has a remarkable post about his post-conversion tenebrous experiences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I share his sentiments, excruciatingly so. My reversion in '98 resulted in a great fervor that was spectacularly aided by the providential finding of a Byzantine church in my area and in the recovery of the beauty and truth of the Magisterium. After a long bachelorhood, marriage in '99 required enormous adjustments. I understood it that God's mission for me was my stepson's conversion, which, of course, is painfully erroneous. Conversion is God's business (including my own). My spiritual life became much more defensive rather than offensive. There was a certain bitter irony that I could not effect my own full conversion, let alone his. As marrow from a bone donor, I hoped that my new found poverty would result in his enrichment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lack of progress isn't as discouraging in the spiritual life as its devolution, or retraction. But one cannot judge those things. I've no doubt that without the reversion marriage and a stepson would've been much more difficult.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wondered during the priestly scandals and the often apparent lack of guilt the churchmen felt, and I considered perhaps they were too close to the sacraments, as if such a thing were possible. As if they were taking them for granted. Humans tend to treasure what is rare. The very ubiquitiousness of liturgies and Eucharists that the serious Christian experiences can, it seems, devalue them in his head, though not in reality. But this is the wonderful reality of the New Covenant, this closeness to God without penalty. In the OT if you touched the Ark of the Covenant you were dead, unless you were the high priest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've come to the rather banal realization that we all have different strengths and weaknesses and that the sacraments and liturgies are not magic pills that overcome heavy lifting. They simply provide the food for the building of muscle. And I've also realized that the most effective argument the devil can make is to say, "see, you're no better off. God's word and sacraments are not efficacious." As St. Thomas says, the only thing needed for sancity is to "will it".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I remember a relative, my opposite. She was outgoing and socially liberal. She made spectacular meals at Thanksgiving, single-handedly baking for who knows how long, always with at least three desserts. She never forgot my birthday. All of this despite a life filled with pain, for she lived for 20 years with Lupus. The last two years she became a different person due to the degeneration of the disease. She became completely withdrawn, would not allow even her children to see her. She spent those years in her room, and left it only to retrieve the mail. It felt like a disaster. But was it? She who epitomized strength and duty was brought low - does this sound familiar? Is it not a message that we cannot do it on own, that our power is completely insufficient? Are we not like Peter who looks down at the water instead of at Christ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know this is rambling, disjointed and perhaps contradictory. There is a certain sense that after conversion we simply trade a different set of sins for the previous set. We become self-righteous. It is human nature to think, "if I can do this (fill in the blank), then they certainly can."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How can we live this Word of Life? By focusing on three very important elements...

 

 

 

- We need great faith; that is, the deep-rooted conviction that the grace of Jesus is much stronger than the inclination to sin which we still carry within us.

 

 

 

- We need great generosity in our commitment to dig out the seeds of sin, the roots of the vices we still possess.

 

 

 

- We need to animate our generosity with a boundless trust in the mercy of Jesus; that trust which drives us always to begin over again, even after every eventual failure.

 

 

 

- Chiara Lubich via the Magnificat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Jesus fell on the way to Calvary, he did not blame God or self. He simply got back up. And while there was obviously no sin in His physical falling down, is it not a metaphor for us?

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:23 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ire 4

 

 

 

We moved on to Kilarney. The sheep we saw on the roads and in the pastures everyday began to symbolize something to me - a kind of freedom. The sheep in the moutains looked straight from the set of "Heidi", and no fences held them in. They simply grazed and went where they would, on land too rocky to till. The baby lambs looked comical, with their black stovepipe legs abutting snow white fleeces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

do you remember

 

 

 

the sodden glens

 

 

 

in the highlands of

 

 

 

Eire above the sheep lands?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

do you remember

 

 

 

the gaelic one

 

 

 

hair held thrall

 

 

 

in the glue pages of

 

 

 

Celtic lore?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

do you remember

 

 

 

the labryinth streets and

 

 

 

Galway’s bay spilling

 

 

 

o’er it’s banks?

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:36 PM

 

 

 

 

 

October 30, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tackiness not seen since Clinton

 

 

 

I'm nauseated by the turning of Paul Wellstone's memorial service into a political circus. But suddenly it became clear - this is their religion! I don't know whether or not Paul Wellstone would want his service to morph into a pep rally, but it is an entirely appropriate symbol of some members of the Democrat party who see politics, not God, as the instrument of righteousness. The secularization of the Democratic party has not resulted in the absence of religion in the party, but a new one - one that pays reverence to the environment, feminism and the right to kill the unborn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"He knew that the service became more than just a remembrance for the dead when he got a call from a reporter "who wanted some Republican response to the memorial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I said [to the reporter], 'Do you realize what you just said?' "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

"There is an ideology that fundamentally traces all existing institutions back to power politics. And this ideology corrupts humanity and also destroys the Church. Here is a concrete example: If I see the Church only under the aspect of power, then it follows that everyone who doesn't hold an office is oppressed. And then the question of, for example, women's ordination, as an issue of power, becomes imperative. I think this ideology produces a totally false point of view, as if power were the only category for explaining the world and the communion present in it. If belonging to the Church has any meaning at all, then the meaning can only be that it gives us eternal life. We are not in the Church in order to exercise power as if in some kind of association."

 

 

 

- Cardinal Ratzinger

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:37 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Anchor Hold has a passionate post on 'what is a Catholic'. Having been a cafeteria Catholic myself, I'm all for inclusivity. Would I have come back to the Church sooner if I felt I was out of it? I don't know. When I was a cafeterian, I felt a sort of limbo. I felt neither fully saved, nor fully damned, neither fully Catholic, nor fully not. Why? Because of mixed signals. I liked views some had that Jesus preached only against hypocrisy. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." But I also had that old Catholic grade school talking back at me. I took comfort in the examples around me, Catholics who were going wild, and I could justify my behavior that way. Sin, as preached in the bible or in the "old days", had possibly become redefined or outmoded. If the Church had stated its creed more clearly or preached more damningly perhaps I would've despaired and grown bolder in my sin. Or reformed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where the self-definition of Catholic begins to break down is when you publically espouse beliefs contrary to Catholic doctrine ala a Francis Kissling of "Catholics for Choice" and a Garry Wills. And for Catholic politicans who sanguinely vote pro-choice while trumpeting their Catholic roots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But they say that the sin you haven't committed is the one you think is the worst. There but for the grace of God, go I. Their addiction to the wielding of power is equivalent, or in many cases more powerful, then the poor sinner who feeds his addiction with sex, drugs or rock 'n roll. Ex-communication rightly lies in the hands of bishops. We have to "dance with the one what brung you" and the apostolic line of bishops have brought us to this place, this faith.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:16 PM

 

 

 

 

 

October 29, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ireland - part 3

 

 

 

I limped to our B&B that night at Malahyde and played dead soldier on the long couch. The next morning, after being woken by the high-pitched scream of the B&B lady (apparently she didn't expect me to be on the couch), I groggily attended the ablutionary duties that transform one to respectability. I had for breakfast my usual, "Wheatabix", a delightfully different cereal that instantly breaks down in milk. In fact, it became a fun physical challenge to pour the milk over the wheat bisquits and consume them before they evaporated into a mushy milk. The consistency was perfect for those early mornings in the Irish fog. On good days I would ask for scrambled eggs instead of the ubiquitious fried eggs and I would fork and watch, fascinated, as the yellow blood covered the plate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We toured a castle that day. It'd been in the family 800 years - one of, if not the, longest single-owned castle in all of Ireland. I sat in the banquet room of the castle, with all the personages of the family peering down at me, the oil paintings of 10 generations. Where I sat, breakfast had been served some 300 years ago, just before the famous "Battle of the Boyne". Nearby Cromwell's British troups butchered the Irish, including 18 members of the party that ate here that fateful morning. They ate their last meal, knowing full well it would probably be their last meal.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:07 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

S.A.D.

 

 

 

Read "Everything But Grace's" complaint about S.A.D. and whether it is real or not I don't know, so the following prescription might be placebic (if that ain't a word, it should be): First, get one of those "full-spectrum" lights that mimic the sun. There is a brand known as "Happy Eyes" that sells them. I put it in my book room since it's a great reading lamp as well. Second, I religiously take 1-2 hour hike in the woods every Saturday. Getting outdoors really helps.

 

 

 

/S.A.D.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OED or bust

 

 

 

I've decided this blog requires the use, nay ownership, of the Oxford English Dictionary. You might think it a needless acquisition. You might think that I'm just looking for an excuse to buy it. But surely the etymologies and date charts will allow me to much more precisely and cogently write these journal entries posts. In the meantime, eat your heart out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All But Dissertations has a wonderful post on books as "things" which can dominate us. When we moved to a larger house I realized a dream - to have all my books massed in one huge shining army, one dedicated room instead of books scattered like little sentries in rooms here and there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I double-shelve only the most heinous books, books next to be thrown out (yeah right, that'll happen). The double-shelving only lasts until I buy another bookcase, which is what I really resist. Books are cheap (half.com has $20 used books for $5 all the time) but bookshelves aren't and it is very difficult to justify that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I am still relatively young, there will come a time that storage will be a huge problem, and I don't want to be one of those who stores books in his bathtub (yes, there are people who do that).

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whereas, fifty years ago, any early passage from the bible was assumed to be mythical or symbolic, the onus of proof has now shifted: increasingly scholars tend to assume that the text contains at least a germ of truth and see it as their business to cultivate it. This has not made the historical interpretation of the bible any easier. Both the fundamentalist and the 'critical' approach had comforting simplicities. Now we see our bible texts as very complex and ambiguous guides to the truth; but guides none the less.

 

 

 

- "A History of the Jews", Paul Johnson

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:32 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter as Character Builder

 

 

 

Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,

 

 

 

The seasons' difference, as the icy fang

 

 

 

And churlish chiding of the winter's wind,

 

 

 

Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,

 

 

 

Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say

 

 

 

'This is no flattery: these are counsellors

 

 

 

That feelingly persuade me what I am.'

 

 

 

Sweet are the uses of adversity,

 

 

 

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

 

 

 

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

 

 

 

And this our life exempt from public haunt

 

 

 

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

 

 

 

Sermons in stones and good in every thing.

 

 

 

I would not change it. - Shakespeare "As You Like It"

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:53 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Errors o' Omission

 

 

 

Kudos, of course, go out to the other local bloggers with big name links. I just noticed that Disputations is permalinked on Eve (he did not, of course, mention it). I always considered Disputations more of a big name blogger though, so it's not as exciting as Dylan's breakout. I've made too much of this already, but it is kind of an enjoyable parlor game, i.e. the "politics of linking" (sing like 80s song "Politics of Dancing"). And the obligatory disclaimer applies, "it's just an exhibition, not a competition, so please - no wagering" - Letterman.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:56 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blogger Makes Good I read the news today...

 

 

 

Kudos to Mr. Dylan (or should I say "dylan" in deference to ee?). Twould be a shame not to celebrate the break-out of the tidepool of Tenebrae, who hath slipped these mortal coils, these penny-ante ten to twenty hits-a-day, by virtue of being knighted by Eve via a permalink. Well-deserved. It is the marketplace correctly valuing him. His blog "wears well" too, whatever that means. Part of his appeal for me, I think, is the honesty and lack of "smiling-faced Christianity" that causes many evangelicals to make the group "Up With People" look like Marilyn Manson. (Though admittedly the lack is in me, for St. Paul does say that one should always be rejoicing.) But his honesty is refreshing. And his success was wonderfully anti-political. No tit-for-tat linkages, no quid-pro-quo, no financing of his Presidential Library in return for a link. And no sitemeter to boot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:38 PM

 

 

 

 

 

October 28, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ireland - Part Deux

 

 

 

Far too short a time was spent in pleasant Ennis, a picturesque town with a big statue of the Irish liberator, Daniel O'Connel, in the town square. The pub was enjoyable, with the now familiar cast of characters, the occasional tourist amidst the haberdashy Irish and the old man with the gargoyle face. There always seemed to be a guy with a misshapen face - an exquisite example of British or Irish inbreeding - or was it simply the natural look of true United Kingdomers? I wish I had a picture, but alas could only look on afar at the bulbous noses, & chinless'd men. I also watched with fascination at the staid couples that would come in. A man and a woman, usually with quite plain, expressionless faces, came in and sat down, side-by-side, and grimly drank their drinks (he Guinness, she whiskey). It was a bit entertaining, as I tried to divine their reason for being there. It certainly wasn't to mingle, or to be social, or even to ostensibly enjoy the music - they would sit side-by-side without talking and drink. I thought it somehow romantic. American Gothic in an Irish pub. There could've been the caption, "what if Stoics drank?". My eyes went from the fine oil paintings on the walls of this richly panelled bar to the oil paintings sitting around me.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Thunder review

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:48 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morningside of the Mountain

 

 

 

There was a girl, there was a boy

 

 

 

If they had met they might have found a world of joy

 

 

 

But she lived on the morning side of the mountain

 

 

 

And he lived on the twilight side of the hill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They never met, they never kissed

 

 

 

And they will never know what happiness they missed

 

 

 

For she lived on the morning side of the mountain

 

 

 

And he lived on the twilight side of the hill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For love's a rose that never grows

 

 

 

Without the kiss of the morning dew

 

 

 

And every Jack must have a Jill

 

 

 

To know the thrill of a dream that comes true

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And you and I are just like they

 

 

 

For all we know our love is just a kiss away

 

 

 

But you are on the morning side of the mountain

 

 

 

And I am on the twilight side of the hill

 

 

 

- lyrics by Tommy Edwards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is something inherently romantic in this...more so than if they had met...just as Casablanca is the most romantic movie of all time though the lead characters went their separate ways. The potential of loss, or to have never lived, infuses life with meaning and shoots it full of precarious possibilities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...stop me before I get to Tony Orlando & Dawn...

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:43 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Article in the Public Interest on the secularization of the Democratic Party:

 

 

 

The Republican party can more or less take us for granted - where else can we go? The lack of pro-lifers in the Democrat party will entice Republican politicians to move towards the pro-choice side because of the lack of consequences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling thermometers ask respondents to rate social groups and political leaders on a scale ranging from 0 degrees (extremely cold) to 100 degrees (extremely warm).....In 1992, the average thermometer score of Republican delegates toward union leaders, liberals, blacks, Hispanics, and Democrats, for example, was 17 degrees warmer than their mean score toward feminists, environmentalists, and prochoice groups (44 degrees versus 27 degrees, respectively). Similarly, the mean thermometer score of Democratic delegates that year was 21 degrees warmer toward conservatives, the rich, big business, and Republicans than their average score toward prolife groups and Christian fundamentalists (34 degrees versus 13 degrees, respectively). Of the 18 groups tested by CDS, the most negatively rated group was Christian fundamentalists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ANES results indicate that anti-fundamentalism appears disproportionately among secularists...who, ironically, "strongly agree" that one should be tolerant of persons whose moral standards are different from one's own.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Coming Of Wisdom With Time

 

 

 

Though leaves are many, the root is one;

 

 

 

Through all the lying days of my youth

 

 

 

I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;

 

 

 

Now I may wither into the truth. - Yeats

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 12:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Riddle has an excellent post on a book by Wilfrid Stinissen called Nourished by the Word. There is a freedom in Scripture that I often dare not go to play in, given a lack of trust that I will not interpret a given passage in ways self-serving. I am attracted to the idea of single interpretation though it be typically folly, because Scripture is not mine, it is everyone's, and it is not for only our time, but for all times. So it need be flexible, it need be able to say different things to different people at different times. Which it does. It is like a great Divine chord that is struck and re-struck and it sounds magnificent, if slightly different, to every ear.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:23 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Sunday's Verweile Doch

 

 

 

He thought of the virtues of courage and forbearance, which become flabby when there is nothing to use them on.

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

'You're never satisifed to let the Testament alone. You're forever picking at it and questioning it. You turn it over the way a 'coon turns over a wet rock, and it angers me.'

 

 

 

'I'm just trying to understand it, Mother.'

 

 

 

'What is there to understand? Just read it. There it is in black and white. Who wants you to understand it? If the Lord God wanted you to understand it He'd have given you to understand or He'd have set it down different.'

 

 

 

- John Steinbeck, East of Eden

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 11:09 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the same newspaper:

 

 

 

Father Romano Guardini worries that people are forgetting how to achieve stillness and to reach the level of concentration needed to be 'all there' - fully present - to their life experiences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the preface, Bolt explains that he was troubled by the thin fabric of contemporary human character, by the tendency of the typical modern man to think of himself in the third person, to describe the self in terms more appropriate to somebody seen through a window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bolt provides a penetrating insight amounting to a one-sentence summary of the cultural ills that best us today: 'Both socially and individually it is with us as it is with our cities - an accelerating flight to the periphery, leaving a center which is empty when the hours of business are over.'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bolt is playwright Robert Bolt, who wrote the screenplay "A Man for All Seasons".]

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:22 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bishop Griffin in the diocesan newspaper

 

 

 

Today, I want to appeal to you to help the poor. I am speaking about the truly poor, those who can do nothing now to help themselves spiritually - the poor souls in purgatory....All who die in God's friendship and grace are saved, but, after death, there is a time of purification in which we achieve the holiness necessary to enter heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As poor as we often feel, in seeing through the glass darkly, the bishop reminds us that there are those poorer than ourselves - those who can do nothing to help themselves spiritually...

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:18 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dylan at Tenebrae is a bad influence on me. After his MacArthur Park, I have this sudden urge to post "One Tin Soldier", "Billy Don't be a Hero", and "Man of LaMancha". I'll try to repress it. Remember the old Steve Martin gag, where he sings the Perry Como song? After all these years I can't get those lyrics out of my mind - "It's impossible....to stick a Cadillac up your nose, it's just impossible".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry. Let's resume regularly scheduled programming.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:44 PM

 

 

 

 

 

October 27, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now Reading...

 

 

 

"History of the Jews" - Paul Johnson

 

 

 

"Old Thunder: the life of Hilaire Belloc" - Pearce

 

 

 

"Lenin" - Service

 

 

 

"Bible Companion" - Witherup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How vast, how oceanic is the world of books! I'm truly blessed to have fallen so ridiculously behind in my reading; blessed because in the event of a recession/depression I could live for years off the livery of my library! (Although hopefully not having to resort to bibliophagy).

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:28 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My bishop has some very worthwhile thoughts on the praying for the dead that I mean to blog about. (Hence this reminder). One good idea is to write down a name of a deceased relative/friend each day on your calendar for the month of November, and pray especially for that person on that day.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:51 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Whither Ignorance is Bliss

 

 

 

Knowledge up to a point is salvific - i.e. knowledge of Christ and those things taught necessary for salvation. That is the purpose of the bible after all, to give us the knowledge necessary for our salvation. Modern scholarship, however, is not necessary for that end and, in suspectible individuals, can be an anchor weighing on a full trust and certainty in God. One can say that their faith is by definition weak if they are upset by it. Here belief in the infallibility of the Church helps, since she has said that all Scripture is inerrant and inspired by God. In that sense it is a "Protestant" problem. (Or for those, like my mother, who has "issues" with the infallibility of the Church). Ronald Knox and others have pointed out that we wouldn't know the bible to be inspired and without contradiction without the Church's instruction to that point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a temptation in civil law to ban what causes problems for a minority, i.e. like the prohibition of alcohol. With respect to artificial birth control, perhaps its effect on the populace at large appears, on the surface, more dangerous than to an individual family. But that is a moral issue, not a knowledge issue. Knowledge itself cannot be intrinsically harmful, since truth can do no harm. Bad scholarship - yes, but good scholarship no. Perhaps the modern biblical criticism is helpful in the sense that faith can be strengthened by its exercise.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:44 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One key to understanding the bible is that it was never meant merely to bring us to itself. Every principle of Scripture shows us our need of the forgiveness that Christ secured on our behalf...It is for such a relationship that the Bible was given. - found on internet, unattributed.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:17 AM

 

 

 

 

 

October 26, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Under bare Ben Bulben's head

 

 

 

In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cast a cold eye

 

 

 

On life, on death.

 

 

 

Horseman, pass by! -William Butler Yeats

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:16 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer

 

 

 

Snake’s shed skin lay

 

 

 

like summer in humps of leaves

 

 

 

and mouldering memories;

 

 

 

she busies herself in other climes

 

 

 

inebriated by distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer warms no more;

 

 

 

no fetal bed of sun-posting down

 

 

 

real as a your neighbor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of memories sure,

 

 

 

scent of tomato leaves on your hands

 

 

 

undertow of dirt and stones

 

 

 

fires along the tree line

 

 

 

gasp-lit sighs of marshmallow-melts

 

 

 

sagging atop burnt-orange tips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hard-won leaves slowly defrock

 

 

 

medals shed; like tombstones lay;

 

 

 

Autumn cruel descends

 

 

 

grace revoked

 

 

 

the light abates

 

 

 

in weeks, it was all faerie’s dream.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 9:15 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Too much hate from the anti-hate crowd."

 

 

 

- found post on a Yahoo billboard, in response to the cursing and invective of those who love women unless they are unborn women.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering Ireland - dusting off the ol' travelogue - circa 1996

 

 

 

We drove south to Waterford, the site of our first bed 'n breakfast. The lady of the manor, Agnes, was kind and civilized, offering us tea and scones in her baroquely decorated lounge room. The rambling farm house had the added benefit of being near a pub the size of a shoebox, where a dozen locals celebrated a Saturday night in this small, randomly chosen town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The barkeep was a shyish boy of 18ish and he was so soliticious and anti-teen that it was very refreshing. Their teens seem to be lagging behind American teens in obnoxiousness. The dogs in Ireland are remarkably friendly too. It made me think of Garrison Keilor's line about Lake Woebegon..."Ireland - where the teenagers are well-behaved and the dogs respectful". The men at the stools of the bar held forth in a strict dress code followed according to age:

 

 

 

over 60 - tweed hat, tweed jacket, slight limp

 

 

 

40 - 60 - no hat, no limp

 

 

 

30 - 40 - no jacket

 

 

 

under 30 - blue jeans & tennis shoes

 

 

 

No matter how hard I concentrated, I couldn't make out their muddled accented speech. They may as well been speaking Gaelic. It sounded like a cross between Archie Bunker and an auctioneer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we made a stop at the Molly Malone statue (of the song "in Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty, crying cockles and mussels sweet Molly Malone"). The lascivious statue, with her bronzed pectorals immodestly covered by half cuffs of bronze fabric had none of the English prudery about her. But Molly seemed to have a quality that Mona had in her Lisian smile - meaning all things to all people. To some, Molly is a motherly figure that represents Ireland as earth mother, a symbol of Ireland par feminine that goes back centuries. To others it represents the youth and vibrancy of a city infused with music and poetry. Molly perpetually struts aside her cart of cockles and mussels, looking for all the world like a naive peasant girl amidst the busiest square in the busiest city in Ireland, never closing her eyes to the wide spectrum of indecencies, the public urinations on her, the drunks retching their huddled masses upon her... But, Molly retains the wide eye'd innocence that is so easy to retain when you're made of brass.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:59 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A interesting quote via Minute Particulae from Johnathon Franzen on a Gaddis book:

 

 

 

There were quotations in Latin, Spanish, Hungarian, and six other languages to be rappelled across. Blizzards of obscure references swirled around sheer cliffs of erudition, precipitous discourses on alchemy and Flemish painting, Mithraism and early-Christian theology.. . . it was a struggle to figure out what, or even who, the story was about; dialogue was punctuated with dashes and largely unattributed." - Johnathon Franzen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure I get the point of gratuitous obscurity. Obscurity can be beautiful; sprinkled words of a foreign language even look beautiful on the printed page. But some of it I think appeals to the pride of the reader - I got this allusion! It's art as a glorified crossword puzzle I guess. Shakespeare wrote plays that sound obscure to us only because of the antiquated language. To people of his day, it was plainly understood, albeit laden with rich prose, foreshadowings, symbolism, etc. The very beauty and comprenhensiveness of Shakespeare perhaps spoiled the broth for later generations who could not compete. Ultimately, the moderns often have less to say but have very creative ways of saying it. But perhaps this is merely sour grapes for not "getting it". By the way, If Shakespeare wrote today, well (don't hit this link if you are offended by coarse language) check this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On re-reading this book ten years after I wrote it, I find its chief faults to be those two which I myself least easily forgive in the books of other men: needless obscurity, and an uncharitable temper. C.S.Lewis, looking back on his Pilgrim's Regress

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:04 PM

 

 

 

 

 

October 25, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ha, good picture at Minute Particulae

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:56 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Katie Knows Best

 

 

 

I just did what I never do - I watched Katie Couric - and during a 5 minute profile of the sniper she did not once mention his conversion to Islam. She did say he changed his name. She emphasized his military background, spoke to fellow soldiers, etc...We *got* that he was comfortable with guns. We did not *get* the why he did it, which ultimately is the only thing of interest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I assume this is because she, and her co-horts at NBC/Pravda, fear reprisals against innocent Muslims in this country. But this sort of paternalism is ultimately harmful. Most obviously, it is not part of her job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paternalism is, however, part of the Church's job. She is our parent, our mother. And she was accused, in the 50s and before, of paternalism. Now since I wasn't alive pre-Vatican II, I have no idea if what I am about to say is completely true. It is what I've heard. Second-hand. So correct me if I'm wrong. But what I've heard is that the Church, paternalistically, told the faithful just to read the Baltimore Catechism and accept the answers unquestioningly. My understanding is that there were not bible study classes; which is understandable given that scripture in the wrong hands is dangerous (i.e. it fractured the Church). Not to mention that form criticism and historical criticism has weakened many a faith (my mother's among them - she said her faith was much stronger in the 50s..especially before she decided the infancy narratives were 'made up'). So...is it better to be dumb with a strong faith or smart, in the ways of biblical criticism, and have a weak faith? I leave it to another mother, Mater Ecclesia.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:56 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comic Corner

 

 

 

A New Yorker cartoon depicts a forlorn looking man, down on his knees, gazing up toward heaven and praying, "Possibly due to a technical error, I seem to be getting someone else’s comeuppance."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another cartoon shows a businessman in a suit and tie with a briefcase, walking by a homeless man sitting peacefully on a bench. They are sharing the same thought: "There but for the grace of God go I!"

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 3:10 PM

 

 

 

 

 

October 24, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pro mirth!...

 

 

 

"In human affairs whatever is against reason is a sin. Now it is against reason for a man to be burdensome to others, by offering no pleasure to others, and by hindering their enjoyment."- Aquinas

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:56 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You will know them by their dreams...

 

 

 

Dreams oft go where the day daren't, they fall into turpitude such that wakefulness itself induces scrupulosity...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The dreams of good men are better than those of any other people." - Aristotle

 

 

 

"Even during sleep, the soul may have conspicuous merit on account of its good disposition."- Augustine

 

 

 

Aquinas provides perhaps too much information on another kind of dream.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 2:34 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stop me before I schadenfreude

 

 

 

We had the first annual "Bobber Beer Test" today. My friend known variously as "'bobber" (short for scambobber) and "Hambone", has bragged ad nauseum (emphasis on nauseum) that he can tell a beer's age. He bought into the whole Budweiser "born-on date" thing hook, line & sinker. Instead of considering it a marketing ploy, he goes to the supermarket wading through cases of Bud in search of product no older than three weeks old. I found it somewhat amusing, but it gives him such joy to find something say, three weeks old instead of five. Why make an issue of it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But human preversity being what it is, I finally succumbed and called him on it. I found a 5-month old can of beer that had been stored at room temperature for most of the five months. I found a 4-week old "fresh" beer that had been always refrigerated. The beers were refrigerated overnight and poured into containers marked cryptically.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Ahh...yes...this is the real thing...fresh brew!" he said of the five-month brew, with absolute certainty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"EEEhhhhhwwwww!" he nearly retched as he drank the 4-week old brew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I admit I enjoyed it all far too much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE:

 

 

 

"The four-week old beer might've been somehow corrupted by the shipping process...maybe out in the sun." - his initial reaction.

 

 

 

"Don't you consider this test aberrant in the sense that the first taste of beer is so exhilarating than, say, a sip from the 2nd or 3rd beer?"

 

 

 

- his second thought.

 

 

 

"No, what would be aberrant would be if you didn't provide a rationalization," said me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:59 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you Saint Anthony!

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 7:47 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Converts have had a disproportionally immense impact on the Church. St. Paul, Augustine, Newman - many of the giants were converts. Part of it may be that they have been given, by grace, a vision comparable to the sudden insight Helen Keller had when she suddenly understood the meaning of words at age eight, a joyous breakthrough that happens to "cradle learners" at around age three. Her life was utterly changed that day in Alabama, changed by the opening of a world denied. Cradle learners like us take words for granted - but she had fasted before the feast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garcia Lopez de Cardenas discovered the Grand Canyon and was amazed at the sight....The assumption is that the Grand Canyon is a remarkably interesting and beautiful place and that if it had a certain value P for Cardenas, the same value P may be transmitted to any number of sight-seeers - just as Banting's discovery of insulin can be transmitted to any number of diabetics. A counterinfluence is at work, however, and it would be nearer the truth to say that if the place is seen by a million sightseers, a single sightseer does not receive value P but a millionth part of value P.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why? It is almost impossible because the Grand Canyon, the thing that it is, has been appropriated by the symbolic complex which has already been formed in the sightseer's mind. Seeing the canyon under approved circumstances is seeing the symbolic complex head on. The thing is no longer the thing as it confronted the Spaniard; it is rather that which has already been formulated- by picture postcard, geography book, tourist folders, and the words Grand Canyon. As a result of this preformulation, the source of the sightseer's pleasure undergoes a shift. Where the wonder and delight of the Spaniard arose from his penetration of the thing itself, the sightseer measures his satisfaction by the degree to which the canyon conforms to the performed complex.

 

 

 

-Walker Percy Message in the Bottle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The convert seeing the Church in its true light for the first time is like someone seeing an infinitesimally small fraction of the light of God. But that light is transformative. Supernatural grace allows those who think they have seen the light to be renewed to see it as if for the first time. Cardinal Newman once wrote a woman who was enthused by her conversion; he said it was great news, but may it continue over time.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 4:51 PM

 

 

 

 

 

October 23, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ponderables

 

 

 

I don't see much EWTN, mostly because reading is a more efficient use of time given the slowness of the verbal, but there are a couple shows that I compulsively watch. One is "Catholic Authors" with Fr. McCloskey. The other is "Franciscan University Presents" a talk show with a Franciscan priest, Scott Hahn and another professor at F.U. (oops).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One topic was "Reaching out to Lukewarm Catholics"; the professor confessed that he felt like the topic was somewhat cheeky since most of us are lukewarm Catholics, at least compared to the saints. He sighed, "I would that the gap narrow between my own sinfulness and the virtuousness of the saints". Scott Hahn quickly retorted, "we do too!" before adding the obligatory disclaimer, "as I do hope for myself too".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were substantive exchanges I could post here, but one of the more interesting ones was discussion about evangelization techniques. The guest argued that people are swayed mostly by your behavior, your peacefulness, your love. Doctrine is a side issue. Scott argued about people's thirst for truth and quoted Chesterton's line about open minds. I thought about this while reading Nancy Nall's comments about how the Catholics who frequent Amy's blog turn her away from coming back to church. On her website, she argues that she could never become a Republican because of the way they dress (I guess). There are many people like this, people who apparently think that by becoming ...Catholic or Republican...one is somehow tainted. One would think that the decision to become a Catholic or Republican would be based on the truth of it. As I commented on Amy's site, whether I see Christ in me or in others is irrelevant. What matters is whether I consider Christ truthful. The truthfulness of Christ compels me to be Christian, and the fidelity of the Catholic faith to that Truth compels me to be Catholic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, does behavior conform once the truth is known, or does good behavior lead to knowledge of the truth? To the first, one can say "no" since the devil knows the truth. And to the second, many of us know holy Mormons or Muslims. Either way, as one old philospher once said, "don't live like a tomcat while you're looking for answers", suggesting a linkage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People don't ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.- Robert Leavitt

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:43 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So much as you have of inward love and adherence to his holy light and spirit within you, so much as you have of real unaffected humility and meekness, so much as you are dead to your own will and self-love, so much as you have of purity of heart, so much, and no more, nor any further, do you see and know the truths of God.

 

 

 

-William Law via Tenebrae

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 1:31 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Poems, dusted off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I drank the dram proffered by profs

 

 

 

dressed in plaid imputing glam

 

 

 

to previously dull subjects to wit:

 

 

 

it seemed plausible to give your life

 

 

 

to a study carol and an obscurity

 

 

 

like 18th-century economics

 

 

 

amid grand trees and tenured security.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

arid as the craterous moon

 

 

 

dry bone dust

 

 

 

inconsequentialness

 

 

 

borne aloft on directionless winds

 

 

 

across a sparkling venue

 

 

 

to Paradox.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

arid as the last tundra

 

 

 

misquitoed details swarm

 

 

 

entracted distractions

 

 

 

piss flies demand

 

 

 

a share of blood

 

 

 

just a small share,

 

 

 

till volumes it becomes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throw the shackles

 

 

 

wind the thymes

 

 

 

free the smallness

 

 

 

duc in altum!

 

 

 

Put together beak and

 

 

 

Carraway and find

 

 

 

a seedy bird! be silly as

 

 

 

the created world,

 

 

 

as the three-toed sloth!

 

 

 

Hie thee to the ocean floor

 

 

 

lit by aphorismic animals

 

 

 

indeterminately shaped

 

 

 

neon bodies flashing

 

 

 

like made-up words

 

 

 

they flit about unknown to man.

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 10:22 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mind isn't meant to be open forever anymore than the mouth; as the mouth shuts upon meat, so the mind upon truth.

 

 

 

-Chesterton

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 8:56 PM

 

 

 

 

 

October 22, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am always approaching my end,

 

 

 

looking for the hidden one.

 

 

 

Tongue-tied in time for my nani's deeds,

 

 

 

I have done my trembling,

 

 

 

but the soul must be an All in All,

 

 

 

laid out in one sentence,

 

 

 

over the Pool, over the absolute intention,

 

 

 

even the knowledge of death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This, before you,

 

 

 

is the life

 

 

 

of a dark and dutiful dyeli,

 

 

 

searching for the understanding of his deeds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let my words wound you

 

 

 

into the love of the emblems

 

 

 

of the soul's intent. -Jay Wright

 

 

 

posted by T.S. O'Rama @ 5:11 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Riddle on the riddle of free will:

 

 

 

...this is an interesting proposition, but it is contingent upon a hidden axiom which is integral to the conclusion. [He] assumes that all reality is a single closed system and not a series of infinitely contingent systems. If the former is true, the conclusion (no free will) holds; however, if the latter is true, then a choice, or a bifurcation point, can be known, but the spinning out of the system totally contingent upon it. In other words, God knows all the pathways, all the bifurcations, and our choices are free, but the end result is still known in God's mind without restricting free will. God knows the end results of every single choice and does not dictate (in the vast majority of cases) which choice is made. In this sense free-will can be called an illusion, but it is an illusion with the depth of reality of imaginary numbers, which are, in no way, imaginary.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 2:36 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 22, 2002

 

 

 

I liked this Vatican art, though others thought it ugly beyond ken. It recognizes our "unfinishedness" and displays an attitude of encouragement from our Holy Father, his individual attention given to ordinary Joes like us. I have no idea what it really means - I thought it about losing our stoniness and becoming who we are meant to be. But the Pope is in stone.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:34 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woe who taketh arms in life

 

 

 

And retaineth hands of strife,

 

 

 

Better far books of whiteness,

 

 

 

Where psalms are seen in brightness! -Cellach, 6th century

 

 

 

 

 

Ancient Irish poetry from Cellach, king of the Irish province of Connaught, who wished he’d remained a student instead of king.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 8:41 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 21, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four Green Fields

 

 

 

"What did I have?" said the fine old woman

 

 

 

"What did I have?" this proud old woman did say

 

 

 

"I had four green fields, each one was a jewel

 

 

 

But strangers came and tried to take them from me

 

 

 

I had fine strong sons, they fought to save my jewels

 

 

 

They fought and died, and that was my grief" said she

 

 

 

 

 

"Long time ago" said the fine old woman

 

 

 

"Long time ago" this proud old woman did say

 

 

 

"There was war and death, plundering and pillage

 

 

 

My children starved by mountain valley and sea

 

 

 

And their wailing cries, they shook the very heavens

 

 

 

My four green fields ran red with their blood" said she

 

 

 

 

 

"What have I now?" said the fine old woman

 

 

 

"What have I now?" this proud old woman did say

 

 

 

"I have four green fields, one of them's in bondage

 

 

 

In stranger's hands, that tried to take it from me

 

 

 

But my sons have sons, as brave as were their fathers

 

 

 

My fourth green field will bloom once again" said she. Tommy Makem

 

 

 

 

 

The 'fine old woman' represents Ireland and her fields the provinces of Munster, Leinster and Connacht. Her fourth green field, the northern province of Ulster remains 'in strangers' hands.'

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 2:04 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See Peter Kreeft on the controversial topic of the historicity of the bible. My mother wants to throw Noah overboard, considering the story not true and therefore on par with Aesop. I argued for the inspiration of biblical accounts while couching it in terms of: 'whether or not it really happened is besides the point - is it inspired?' But Kreeft considers it important, so I better reconsider. I have done precious little research on the flood, specifically concerning the animals coming in the ark in pairs and presumably re-populating the earth. My scientist uncle considers this bolderdash (bowlderdash?) from an evolutionary, botanical, etc standard which it may well be. Anyway, this inter-familial debate becomes my debate whether I want it to or not, so I found this Kreeft thing and thought it might be of interest.

 

 

 

 

 

postscript: I bought her Mark Shea's book on interpreting the bible correctly, Making Senses of Scripture last year.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 1:50 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Selections from Verweile Doch

 

 

 

Therefore, the case endings in Proto-Indo-European, since they, too, must have begun as separate words, are signs that this language, too, was just one more of thousands of end products of millennia of change from the Ur-language. - John McWhorter, The Power of Babel

 

 

 

 

 

It was this that threw him off, her having to aim to be what she was. - Walker Percy The Last Gentleman

 

 

 

 

 

The engineer, on the other hand, read books of great particularity, such as English detective stories, especially the sort which, answering a need of the Anglo-Saxon soul, depict the hero as perfectly disguised or perfectly hidden, holed up maybe in the woods of Somerset, actually hiding for days at a time in a burrow of ingenious construction from which he could notice things, observe the farmhouse below. Englishmen like to see without being seen. They are by nature eavesdroppers. The engineer could understand this. Walker Percy's The Last Gentleman

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 12:08 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Battlefield

 

 

 

Blue coat planted

 

 

 

in unconcious soil,

 

 

 

brusque air falls upon thy medals

 

 

 

your cool, Victorian age

 

 

 

dew-fallen to frost

 

 

 

our Odyssey retreating.

 

 

 

Remembrance, the jewel we gave

 

 

 

tarnishes; valour shed like trees falling

 

 

 

in forests though no one heard

 

 

 

still be valour.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 11:33 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Woe is he

 

 

 

who picks at sins like festering sores

 

 

 

as if the Sinless one’s scourging

 

 

 

were done without effect.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 11:30 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Found this quote from John Henry Newman in this month's Magnifcat. It reminds me of another quote I heard, something along the lines of "love is beautiful in dreams, harsh in reality."

 

 

 

 

 

In books, everything is made beautiful in its way. Pictures are drawn of complete virtue; little is said about failures, and little or nothing of the drudgery of ordinary, every-day obedience, which is neither poetical nor interesting. True faith teaches us to do numberless disagreeable things for Christ's sake, to bear petty annoyances, which we find written down in no book...It is beautiful in a picture to wash the disciples' feet; but the sands of the real desert have no luster in them to compensate for the servile nature of the occupation.

 

 

 

 

 

And here he sounds a little like Tim Drake:

 

 

 

 

 

The art of composing, has in itself a tendency to make us artificial and insincere. For to be ever attending to the fitness and propriety of our words, is (or at least thdere is the risk of its being) a kind of acting; and knowing what can be said on both sides of a subject is a main step towards thinking the other side as good as the other. Hence men in ancient times, who cultivated polite literature, went by the name of "Sophists"; that is, men who wrote elegantly, and talked eloquently, on an subject whatever, right or wrong...Such are some of the dangers of elegant accomplishments; and they beset more or less all educated persons.

 

 

 

- Cardinal John Henry Newman

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:54 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Via Ad Orientem, via Widening Gyre...(you knew I'd have to post this):

 

 

 

 

 

The Pelagian Drinking Song

 

 

 

Now the faith is old and the Devil bold

 

 

 

Exceedingly bold indeed.

 

 

 

And the masses of doubt that are floating about

 

 

 

Would smother a mortal creed.

 

 

 

But we that sit in a sturdy youth

 

 

 

And still can drink strong ale

 

 

 

Let us put it away to infallible truth

 

 

 

That always shall prevail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And thank the Lord

 

 

 

For the temporal sword

 

 

 

And howling heretics too.

 

 

 

And all good things

 

 

 

Our Christendom brings

 

 

 

But especially barley brew!

 

 

 

With my row-ti-tow

 

 

 

Ti-oodly-ow

 

 

 

Especially barley brew! - Belloc

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 7:37 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 20, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Furthering my Apostolate of Bad Poetry:

 

 

 

* Vive la Difference *

 

 

 

Marie said

 

 

 

‘Let them have cake"

 

 

 

He said

 

 

 

Let them have my Body.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 7:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cliffs of Moher

 

 

 

The wind bereaves wayward souls

 

 

 

hugs at the corners; unrolls pageants

 

 

 

where bitterns ‘round battered lighthouses

 

 

 

hale-gust promontories sound-crush

 

 

 

winds forty miles prey on

 

 

 

tummy-crawls to vertiginous falls

 

 

 

organs fastened to skin and skeleton

 

 

 

by the barest of margins.

 

 

 

 

 

Eire robs your heart,

 

 

 

wraps it round your ankle,

 

 

 

stolen by the Gaeltacht poetry

 

 

 

Guinness and silent Green hills,

 

 

 

meandering in the mid-distance and

 

 

 

clasping to her knoll

 

 

 

unbearable poignancies.

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

-Back in ’96 I was on a forsaken hill in Ireland, as lost to earth and kin as this world can offer. The green undulating hills were big enough to offer invisibility, but not so high as to make the climbs difficult. There in the old air I pondered the white fleece of visiting sheep and rams, some with horns and stares of unnerving alertness. What was I looking for on those unbeaten, scat-scattered paths?

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 12:20 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 19, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lyrics to Irish tune ("chune") Risin' of the Moon

 

 

 

Oh come tell me Sean O'Farrell, tell me why you hurry so

 

 

 

Hush a bhuachaill, hush and listen and his cheeks were all aglow

 

 

 

I bear orders from the captain, get you ready quick and soon

 

 

 

For the pikes must be together at the rising of the moon

 

 

 

At the rising of the moon, at the rising of the moon

 

 

 

For the pikes must be together at the rising of the moon

 

 

 

 

 

And come tell me Sean O'Farrell, where the gathering is to be

 

 

 

At the old spot by the river quite well known to you and me

 

 

 

One more word for signal token, whistle out the marching tune

 

 

 

With your pike upon your shoulder at the rising of the moon

 

 

 

At the rising of the moon, at the rising of the moon

 

 

 

With your pike upon your shoulder at the rising of the moon

 

 

 

 

 

Out from many a mud walled cabin eyes were watching through the night

 

 

 

Many a manly heart was beating for the blessed morning's light

 

 

 

Murmurs ran along the valley to the banshee's lonely croon

 

 

 

And a thousand pikes were flashing by the rising of the moon

 

 

 

By the rising of the moon, by the rising of the moon

 

 

 

And a thousand pikes were flashing by the rising of the moon

 

 

 

 

 

All along that singing river, that black mass of men was seen

 

 

 

High above their shining weapons flew their own beloved green

 

 

 

Death to every foe and traitor, whistle out the marching tune

 

 

 

And hoorah me boys for freedom 'tis the rising of the moon

 

 

 

'Tis the rising of the moon, 'tis the rising of the moon

 

 

 

And hoorah me boys for freedom 'tis the rising of the moon. - J. Casey

 

 

 

 

 

This poem was written to commemorate the 1798 Irish Rebellion; plotters agreed to meet at the rising of the moon with their pikes (weapons) on their shoulders. The result may have been predictable, but the courage and determination shown by the men of '98 became a watch-word for later generations. This is my favorite Irish tune.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 18, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Healing Improvisation of Hair

 

 

 

Wind in the cottonwoods wakes me

 

 

 

to a day so thin its breastbone

 

 

 

shows, so paid out it shakes me free

 

 

 

of its blue dust. I will arrange

 

 

 

that river water, bottom juice.

 

 

 

I conjure my head in the stream

 

 

 

and ride with the silk feel of it

 

 

 

as my woman bathes me, shaves

 

 

 

away the scorn, sponges the grit

 

 

 

of solitude from my skin, laves

 

 

 

the salt water of self-esteem

 

 

 

over my feathering body.

 

 

 

How like joy to come upon me

 

 

 

in remembering a head of hair

 

 

 

and the way water would caress

 

 

 

it, and stress beauty in the flair

 

 

 

and cut of the only witness

 

 

 

to my dance under sorrow’s tree.

 

 

 

This swift darkness is spring’s first hour.

 

 

 

- Jay Wright

 

 

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:59 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It often happens that Satan will insidiously commune with you in your heart and say: "Think of the evil you have done; your soul is full of lawlessness, you are weighed down by many grievous sins." Do not let him deceive you when he does this and do not be led to despair on the pretext that you are being humble. What was the purpose of His descent to earth except to save sinners, to bring light to those in darkness and life to the dead?- from the Macarian Homilies via Tenebrae

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:03 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've always had a soft spot for professor E. Michael Jones. His critiques of modernity have just enough truth to absorb you, albeit with enough conspiracy theory to repel most casual readers. He also adheres to the commandment "never bore". His view is usually a libido-centric view of things (Degenerate Moderns was a crowd-pleaser for the smoke of satan folks, as well as for me). Anyway, I keep waiting for him to cross the line - he came close here but perhaps now he really has:

 

 

 

 

 

Urban renewal was the last-gasp attempt of the WASP ruling class to take control of a country that was slipping out of its grasp for demographic reasons. The largely Catholic ethnics were to be driven out of their neighborhoods, where they were to be "Americanized" according to WASP principles.

 

 

 

 

 

Can't judge it unless I've read it though.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 1:09 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 17, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, this appears to be life imitating art...This is very close to the "ultimate entertainment" described in David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 12:56 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Dream

 

 

 

It was a cavernous bascillica, a sort of coronation hall - with endless red carpet leading to the altar. He was in the very last pew. Behind, in the exit rotunda, was a sign that said "God's meal is done." He walked up to Communion late, and fought the urge to run up the long aisle since the 97-year old priest in the bright, heavy straining vestments waited. The pastor smiled patiently, his posture stooped. He gave him the Body and said 'take and look at it through the light'. He did and could plainly see a seed embedded in it! 'May you grow spiritually as a tree,' he said. The communicant ate half of it and immediately the other half became a steel ingot depicting the Crucifixion. He ate that too, despite its seeming hardness.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:58 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering Rome

 

 

 

The "Church of 40,000 Bones" as my friend called it was actually Santa Maria della Conceizione. Here, not quite entombed, were over 4,000 monks who donated their bones as the raw material for macabre decorations that illustrate biblical imagery as well as the brevity of life. (For example, the sacred heart with a crown of thorns adorns the walls via a unique combination of bones.) When I read about this place I imagined it much more dark and dreary, a Halloweenish place. But I thought it was about as cheerful as you could make it, especially if you forgot for a minute the archway decorations were bones. The message is the "as you are/ so was I/ as I am/ so shall you be" and is intended to give a sense of urgency in the spiritual life. The psalmist asks in Psalm 30 what profit is there in his death - "Will the dust praise you?" and I thought this place really tried to have these dusty bones praise God by showing the faith of these holy monks had in not fearing death but by taunting it and saying "where is thy sting?".

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:52 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Samuel Johnson wrote a series of sermons for his friend John Taylor. One of them deals with trust in God. Trust in God is an essential part of the Christian life. But suppose that a man does not feel trust. Ought he to try to deceive himself into thinking that he does feel it? Ought he to try to manufacture feelings of trust by sheer will-power? Johnson's answer is that he ought to behave as if he did trust God, and that means obeying God. He who obeys will find sooner or later that he does trust. "This constant and devout practice is both the effect, and Cause, of confidence in God. Trust in God is to be obtained only by repentance, obedience, and supplication, not by nourishing in our hearts a confused idea of the goodness of God, or a firm persuasion that we are in a state of grace." A problem for Johnson was that, although he had no trouble seeing that his attitude toward God ought to be one of trust and dependency, his constant struggle since infancy with his physical disabilities had instilled in him a strong habit of self-reliance and rejection of help from others. Habit and theory were thus at constant war. He also found it difficult to participate in public worship, especially when it involved sermons, since he often knew more about the sermon subject than the preacher, and had to resist the impulse to contradict him. Public prayer was less of a difficulty, and private prayer still less. - Bate's biography of Samuel Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

If thou appear untouch'd by solemn thought,

 

 

 

Thy nature is not therefore less divine:

 

 

 

Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;

 

 

 

And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine,

 

 

 

God being with thee when we know it not. -Wordsworth

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:45 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fire Sale....All Bad Poetry Must Go*

 

 

 

Portrait of a hero

 

 

 

'the Mick' with bat in hand

 

 

 

how comfortably he holds his gaze

 

 

 

and surveys the outfield land.

 

 

 

Against a darkened sky

 

 

 

the pinstripes shine so bright

 

 

 

and 'neath his cap a brim of green

 

 

 

gleams out into the night.

 

 

 

 

 

* - to make room for more bad poetry!

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:33 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving St. John’s

 

 

 

a holy old woman saw me leaving and said:

 

 

 

"I believe there is some Holy Bread up there for you."

 

 

 

I thanked her

 

 

 

the words a balm

 

 

 

I imagined those words said again

 

 

 

at the juncture of this life and the next.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:32 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like a fish in Peter’s net

 

 

 

I suffer and flap noisily

 

 

 

in the light and death-to-self

 

 

 

fighting He who saves

 

 

 

craving the dark water of sin.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:31 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do beseech you, either not believe

 

 

 

The envious slanders of her false accusers;

 

 

 

Or, if she be accused in true report,

 

 

 

Bear with her weakness, which, I think proceeds

 

 

 

From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice. - Shakespeare, Richard III

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:14 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Hypocrisy

 

 

 

"....It's crucial to understand that a Christian isn't a hypocrite, for example, simply because he condemns fornication and then commits it himself. He needs to repent and do penance, but the sin itself does not make him a hypocrite.

 

 

 

 

 

Hypocrisy is a layer of three sins: the arrogant judging of another person; the sinful act itself; and deception about the act. You don't become a hypocrite merely by saying one thing and doing anohter, but by affecting a virtue you don't have. - Erick Scheske in Our Sunday Visitor

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 7:42 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rejoice, thou barren that barest not. Break out and cry, thou that travailest not; for more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath the husband. -Gal 4:27

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 4:51 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 16, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Someone once told me that they will get religious when they have a need for it - when they are old and facing death and need something to keep them going. I reacted to this idea of "God as a device used for my mental health" as an allergen. I overreacted and thought ill of the person; I began to distrust feelings to the point where positive feelings were nearly despised. My reaction was surely partially a recognition of that utilitarian view of God in my own life. ("He protestheth too much..."). I accused myself of praying only for the peace of mind instead of love for God.

 

 

 

 

 

Lord, protect me from what I have thought in the name of self-protection; of preferring to error on the side of seeing you as a God of justice, rather than mercy. This self-protection, this desire to pass the test rather than to love you is worse than the fellow who imagines his need for God a mental health construct. Strategems made me see thee in the most stringent terms, a wrathful God, so that if you turned out to be Mercy, all would be bonus. Prudence be damned, all have sinned, all is misery, only thou art grace. Thou art Mercy or I am doomed...

 

 

 

 

 

The idea of life as a test is enervating and debilitating; life is a choice, true - Adam and Eve had to choose and one could call that a "test", but it's about a relationship, about love. "Test" is Old Testament, it is the Law. With the wiles of a good test-taker, I've too much notion of 'grading on the curve' and too much imbued with playing percentages, finding Pascal's Wager distasteful while unconsciously (or not) playing the game, forgetting the purpose of the Law is that "grace might be sought, and grace was given that the law might be fulfilled" [Augustine]. I must rejoice in the free gift, in the good news, in Love for "we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free."

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 4:51 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dylan rips these things off like there is no tomorrow, always dense with allusions and punctuated with piquant details. Fearing risk of comparison, I think I'll pass on doing something similar.

 

 

 

 

 

I do believe in intellectual submission to the Church, partly because it is the hardest thing. There is a preversity in me that imagines that which is hardest must be the best. That isn't necessarily so, but it usually is. I'm no joiner either; I did my time in a fraternity in college (which confirmed it). In my experience, the lowest common denominator wins.

 

 

 

 

 

I remember years ago telling my non-Christian brother-in-law that Christianity requires intellectual submission. He leapt at that a little too gleefully. I think he thought it meant throwing away reason and accepting a literal six-day creation. I regret that I didn't add, "but you never have to accept anything contrary to reason." But I was still in my credo quia absurdum phase.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 4:27 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Facing Winter's Death

 

 

 

Think you I can a resolution fetch

 

 

 

From flowery tenderness? If I must die,

 

 

 

I will encounter darkness as a bride,

 

 

 

And hug it in mine arms.

 

 

 

- Shakespeare Measure for Measure

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:51 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem o' the Day

 

 

 

Saint and hermit send

 

 

 

each other news by seagull.

 

 

 

Herebericht is safe within his lake,

 

 

 

islanded from demons, speaks

 

 

 

with the fresh-water fish about

 

 

 

the scent of home, its wholeness

 

 

 

of moss and quartz.

 

 

 

Otters sit outside his hut

 

 

 

and toast him with sunken wine.

 

 

 

He sniffs at the pebbles.

 

 

 

They smell jaspery.

 

 

 

They smell of Heaven.

 

 

 

The gull they send between them

 

 

 

carries no messages

 

 

 

scrolled around its leg.

 

 

 

Instead it is itself illuminated:

 

 

 

every feather written on in script

 

 

 

which only they can read.

 

 

 

- excerpt from poem by Bill Herbert

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 11:15 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 15, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rain is holy water to lovers -McKeun

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 11:10 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not too often, while dreamily browsing a book catalog, do I spy something as eye-popping as this: "The Early Church Fathers", a 38-volume set coving the first 800 years of of the church, regularly $1,100, marked down to $299.99. I don't need something like that, being hopelessly behind in my reading as it is, but it is a remarkable deal at $8 a book. An amazon.com review says that the works are all translated and edited by Protestant scholars and divines, so the footnotes, prefaces, and profiles of these Church Fathers and their works tend to be shrouded with Protestant leanings. Alas - everything is sectarian, even pre-Reformation. Why should the early church fathers be different than the bible itself?

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 8:40 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quotes, we've got quotes..

 

 

 

"The secret about the scientific method is this: Science cannot utter a single word about the individual molecule, thing, or creature in so far as it is an individual but only in so far as it is like other individuals. The laymen thinks that only science can utter the true word about anything, individuals included. But the laymen is an individual. So science cannot say a single word to him or about him except as he resembles others.

 

 

 

 

 

A man is after all himself and no other, and not merely an example of a class of similar selves. If such a man is deprived of the means of being a self in a world made over by science for his use and enjoyment, he is like a ghost at a feast. He becomes invisible. That is why people in the modern age took photographs by the million: to prove despite their deepest suspicions to the contrary that they were not invisible."

 

 

 

- Walker Percy, Message in a Bottle

 

 

 

 

 

"There is no wrath that stands between God and us but what is awakened in the dark fire of our own fallen nature; and to quench this wrath, and not his own, God gave his only begotten Son to be made man.

 

 

 

 

 

God has no more wrath in himself now than he had before the creation, when he had only himself to love. The precious blood of his Son was not poured out to pacify himself (who in himself had no nature toward man but love), but it was poured out to quench the wrath and fire of the fallen soul, and to kindle it in a birth of light and love."

 

 

 

- William Law via Tenebrae October

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fundamental Thoughts

 

 

 

One thing most fundamentalists have in common is that they a rock-hard faith. I mean undentable, diamond-hard faith. Their combined faiths could not only scratch glass but pierce the devil’s blackguard soul. Their faith resides not just in the traditional sense – i.e. faith capitalized as Faith (in God) – but faith in their own visions. Each has a surreal belief in their vision. And I think they go together. My friend believes this stock can only go up - no doubt – and though it may not go up, he resists utterly the folly that he could be wrong. Even when it falls contrarily, he considers it a fault of the market. He has the same undoubtable belief in God, and that is infinitely desirable. I don’t know that you easily get one without the other. He has since lost thousands in risky stock options, but he says that this just points to the prevalence of bad opinion.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:27 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nonsensical Tuesday...a fictional foray

 

 

 

In a moment of pique, I quit my well-paying job to become a greeter at WalMart. I’d always envied those grey-haired sentries, ever-present at the threshold of department store greatness. It was dawn, spring of ’01 when I first arrived; I stationed myself far enough away from the entrance to give the customers a sense of belonging but close enough to reassure them with the prospect of guidance. No one visited that first hour and I felt the stab of nostalgia.

 

 

 

 

 

WalMart was where I spent my youth and it’s a truism that wherever you spent your youth – be it prison, ballfield, battlefield – there becomes the talisman of sweet remembrance. I meditated on Walmart's marvelous self-containedness - there was furniture to sit on, food to eat, books to read, and aisles and aisles of self-replenishing goods. At the entrance of the in-store McDonalds sat Ronald in Eastern contemplativeness while that indefinable smell constantly triggered scent and memory glands. Customers (or clients as we were instructed to think of them as) arrived often disshelved and tattooed, with big hair and large bellies – proffering a vision of life underexamined yet lived.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:25 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"But there is another criticism that stands out as particularly pernicious: That the prayer life of Christians isn't important enough for the Pope to waste time on."

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a voice of reason. Personally, I love that the Pope is interested in our prayer life. He probably sees much better than we do that bishops come from the ranks of priests, priests from holy parents, and holy parents from prayer. He's aiming for the root cause instead of just lopping off the whole American bishopry. One can't legislate holiness.

 

 

 

 

 

I think the current helplessness we tend to feel with respect to our society, culture and leadership can be turned around into a blessing...the times I feel truly humble and reliant on God are when I am helpless.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 11:25 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes, it is as if the thorn not only becomes a rose, but the rose is dependent on once being a thorn. Let me try to 'splain (as Ricky would say).

 

 

 

 

 

I've been musing about the fact that two giants of the Church - St. Paul & St. Augustine - both preached theologies completely and radically different from what they believed in their pre-converted lives. Augustine, who lived a randy early life, is accused of being 'anti-woman', but he wrote in a way that recognized a danger, a precipice that he wished others avoid; thus his fondness for the virtues of celibacy. St. Paul, who was a relentless believer in the Law, ended up preaching its contrary. The irony that he should be the apostle of the Gentiles is rich. And yet, who better? He understood the futility of the Law completely and experienced the contrasted reality of the Risen Christ like few could. In a sense won't we look forward, in an age of doubt and apostasy, to a greater joy when we experience things made clear? Won't the joy be incomprehensibly greater for having experienced its converse?

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 6:03 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 14, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the Real Thing

 

 

 

Wow. This excerpt about the great Ted Williams speaks for itself:

 

 

 

 

 

If I had to sum up what he showed me, it was the difference between politesse -- Ted wasn't big on that -- and what was the large, true-blue, right thing to do. It was later, too, I understood this was pattern with Ted. He had to rough up the people he meant to help.

 

 

 

 

 

No one ever wrote, for example, that when Darryl Strawberry spiraled out of baseball in a gyre of alcohol, cocaine, and litigious women...when his imminent return to the Yankees was sadly scuttled by another acting out -- a D.U.I., or getting kicked out of rehab, or something (Straw's woes are hard to keep straight now)...the first call he got was not from his lawyer but from Ted Williams, who barely knew him, but who invited Darryl to come live at his house.

 

 

 

 

 

This was also pattern with Ted -- hiding the generosity of spirit that made him a great man. Maybe he assumed it would be misunderstood. Or worse still, too widely understood. "YER MAKIN' ME A DAMN SOCIAL WORKER," he yelled at me one time. This was the fact he wouldn't let me print:

 

 

 

 

 

For years, personally and secretly, Ted had been keeping a lot of guys in business -- guys too old to qualify for baseball's pension, or they didn't have enough time in the majors, or they didn't have the talent and never made it to the majors -- and mostly they were guys too proud to ask, but he knew they were just scraping by. He'd call them up. He'd tell them he was collecting for charity -- the Jimmy Fund for kids with cancer, or his museum, something -- and they'd hem and haw about how things weren't great with them, just at the moment, might be tough to pitch in...."DAMMIT, I CALLED YA!" Ted would bellow into the phone. "SEND ME A CHECK FER TEN BUCKS, SONOFABITCH!"...Then, when he got their check with the number, he'd deposit ten grand into their account.

 

 

 

- by Richard Ben Cramer

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:42 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today's special...(inspired by Kat Lively & Dark October)

 

 

 

99 Personal Revelations Marked Down to 16

 

 

 

1. The first heroic deed of my life was being born and shucking the amniotic fluid for air

 

 

 

2. Agree with Churchill's axiom that if "you are 20 and conservative you have no heart, and if you are 40 and liberal you have no brain".

 

 

 

4. Find the philosophies of Edward Abbey & Henry D. Thoreau way too attractive for my own good.

 

 

 

5. 33-min 5 mile personal best

 

 

 

6. Believed in the myth of the "noble savage" as a youth

 

 

 

7. Believed in the myth of the "noble savage" as an adult when I read that the typical hunter/gatherer worked 15 hours a week

 

 

 

8. Liked the song "Fat-bottomed Girls" but careful to add, "but not the words, of course"

 

 

 

9. Wrote following poem at age 10 and was swiftly accused of plagiarism by Sally Jurgensen: "Fierce sometimes is the rain/ bursting on the windowpane/ Rain is racing down the road/ Dripping wet is the olive toad! / But all the rain is far away / For I am in my house to stay". Consider this the highlight of my writing career.

 

 

 

10. Said poem lives on in the lives of many first-graders (my mother is a teacher and makes them write that poem)

 

 

 

11. In college, considered the phrase "fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life" flat out wrong.

 

 

 

12. John Updike can flat out write

 

 

 

13. Cardinal Ratzinger fascinates me

 

 

 

14. Like making lists

 

 

 

15. Am saddened that the Indigo Girls no longer thank God on their CD sleeves.

 

 

 

16. Find that it is easier to have the right opinion, than to do the right thing.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 1:42 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memorable Quotes from Verweile Doch*

 

 

 

 

 

'I guess the last bad habit a man will give up is advising.

 

 

 

'I don't want advice.'

 

 

 

'Nobody does. It's a giver's present.'"

 

 

 

 

 

The sectarian churches came in swinging, cocky and loud and confident...The sects fought evil, true enough, but they also fought each other with a fine lustiness. They fought at the turn of a doctrine.

 

 

 

 

 

- John Steinbeck, "East of Eden"

 

 

 

 

 

* - "verweile doch is German for "linger awhile", which is what I call my long Sunday reads.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:45 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read an electric "99 Theses" from the masked blogger (I won't link to it since I'm unsure of how much "pub" he wants). It eliminated my need for caffeine this a.m.

 

 

 

 

 

It offends my sensibilities that in Gaelic whiskey means "water of life". That water is taken, thank you very much. But one of my interests has been how to integrate transcendental experiences within a Christian life, like, for instance, alcohol. Outside of spiritual experiences such as prayer, transcendental experiences for me include writing, sex, love, running and alcohol. As one ages, there is a certain diminishment in many of the above...Not to mention that the number and quality of transcendental experiences are inversely proportional to the quantity of one's family obligations.

 

 

 

 

 

The obligatory caveat is, of course, that pleasure is not the purpose of life anyway.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:28 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quote Corner

 

 

 

The strongest human instinct is to impart information. The second strongest is to resist it.

 

 

 

- Kenneth Graham

 

 

 

 

 

People don't ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.

 

 

 

- Robert Leavitt

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:26 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a sunny, bittersweetly warm-turning-winsome day last week I headed to Oktoberfest and the Klaber Orchestra. I ordered a Warsteiner dunkel, and the 30-something woman asked who was on my watch. I showed her & said "Padre Pio." Awkward silence ensued. "Bet I’m the only one here with a Padre Pio watch, eh?". No answer. Bleeding mystics aren't for everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

I wandered over to a huge outdoor screen which showed the Bengals in action (more or less). At the nearby Bier Garten tent I heard the unmistakable sounds of the chicken dance. Both sights were humorous and fetchingly silly.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:11 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Balance of the Helmsman

 

 

 

"While it is right that, in accordance with the example of her Master, who is "humble in heart," the Church also should have humility as her foundation, that she should have a critical sense with regard to all that goes to make up her human character and activity, and that she should always be very demanding on herself, nevertheless criticism too should have its just limits. Otherwise it ceases to be constructive and does not reveal truth, love and thankfulness for the grace in which we become sharers principally and fully in and through the Church. Furthermore such criticism does not express an attitude of service but rather a wish to direct the opinion of others in accordance with one’s own, which is at times spread abroad in too thoughtless a manner.

 

 

 

 

 

Gratitude is due to Paul VI because, while respecting every particle of truth contained in the various human opinions, he preserved at the same time the providential balance of the bark’s helmsman. The Church that I – through John Paul I – have had entrusted to me almost immediately after him is admittedly not free of internal difficulties and tension. At the same time, however, she is internally more strengthened against the excesses of self-criticism: she can be said to be more critical with regard to the various thoughtless criticisms, more resistant with respect to the various "novelties," more mature in her spirit of discerning, better able to bring out of her everlasting treasure "what is new and what is old," more intent on her own mystery, and because of all that more serviceable for her mission of salvation for all: God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

 

 

 

- Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:37 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 11, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scarlett's Father

 

 

 

His wife's demise

 

 

 

be his dementia-

 

 

 

the rose of Death on O’Hara’s tomb

 

 

 

lay atavistically

 

 

 

‘on e’ry Irish heart

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:34 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Muggeridge

 

 

 

If western man continues to attempt to satisfy himself thru power or money or eroticism or indulgence in drugs, his life will destruct in such a way that it will be clear to him that such a life is not viable" – Malcolm Muggeride

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 12:50 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

duty without love

 

 

 

is unbearable

 

 

 

love without duty

 

 

 

untenable

 

 

 

duty resting on love

 

 

 

gives life.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:34 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Items from the Kitchen Compost Bin...

 

 

 

I'm at a loss at why I like Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky so much; it seems vaguely disconcerting. I used to like Monet. I used to like Renaissance art. Now I'm liking the moderns more and more, which feels vaguely perilous. It suggests I'm too much of my time and that my dreams of being a 19th-century type are just that. I wonder what the type of art you like says about you - especially when it evolves. Steve Riddle seems the most 19th-century among the St. Bloggers's. He rises early, drinks the dram of silence and contemplation, breathes old poetry and has a Southern chivalric manner.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

I once started reading a short bio of Klee, hoping he wasn't some sort of terrible person. I like artists to be moral and sane. I was always put off from reading "The Confederacy of Dunces" when I learned the author committed suicide because it was as if his world view was tried and, sadly, failed. Similarly with atheistic authors. As if depression and a lack of faith were "catching". A prejuidice I must overcome.

 

 

 

**

 

 

 

Suitcase full of apologetic writings with titles like: "Against Sociobiology" and "Why a Bible Translation itself is an act of Church" and the sobering "Death of Christ in the Church – Why Ecumenicalism No Longer Matters". Hie thee to prayer and the healing of Eucharistic Adoration.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:32 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What glee to find this for only $1 at a library book sale. Poetry is sort of an antidote to contemporary life. George Will once said he reads fiction as an antidote to a "surfeit of journalism". I sometimes feel the same, drowned in the news, and the prosaic, utilitarian words of a business-oriented culture.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:21 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This looks good...

 

 

 

 

 

The Comic World of C. S. Lewis is Lindvall's topic, and his examination of this renowned apologist ...reveals an unexpected perspective on the primacy of humor as a gateway to God.

 

 

 

 

 

"What is funny about us is precisely that we take ourselves too seriously." That quote from theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, aptly selected by Lindvall as a chapter opening, capsulizes the springboard for C. S. Lewis's dive into the comical.

 

 

 

 

 

Lewis always cuts to the heart of Christianity. His high esteem for laughter, whether generated by a joke, satire, good food and drink, or a convivial party, reflects his belief that play and pleasure are gifts from God, and in fact, that these are hints of the Kingdom of God.

 

 

 

 

 

Lewis observed that humans are stuck between two worlds, a natural one and a supernatural one. God, he said, had set out "to make an organism which is also a spirit; to make that terrible oxymoron a 'spiritual animal.' " The tension between flesh and spirit is the source of our best kind of laughter, because it fundamentally affirms our relationship to God.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 5:29 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 10, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like cans of Budweiser with "born-on" dates of a while back, so too are some of my postings of late. Here is my Mexican trip log, cannibalized from last year's journal:

 

 

 

 

 

The adrenalin began flowing at the Mexican airport, where the first impression was that we weren't in Kansas anymore. We were deep in the heart of Mexico, deep in a state capital drenched in the colors of their flag - red, green and white. This was no silly border excursion, no weak Cancun trip (no Florida warmed over and served with a Spanish accent). This was the real thing, the nerve center of Mexico where the main economy isn't tourism.

 

 

 

 

 

We met our avuncular host, Jacob, at the airport. He was loquacious and proud of his country, shown by his frequent disclaimers that most Mexicans are not "banditos" and by his intense interest in pre-modern Mexcian culture. Jacob reminded me a bit of our baseball sportscaster Marty Brenaman - never at a loss for words and having perfectly coiffed hair.

 

 

 

 

 

Unlike Cortes, who came to Mexico City in the early 16th century by long and tortuous route, we arrived by plane (while complaining, of course, on how long it took). You could see the dense city of 25 million souls hemmed in by the mountains, like a big green skirt. Our foray into the foreign met odd foreign signs like "Buenes y Sabarro" and swarms of green VW bug taxis. Dense canyons of buildings covered the land till the reach of the mountains, at which point shacks and shanties sidled halfway up the hills, their inhabitant's laundry hanging out on rooftops suggesting a kind of vulnerability.

 

 

 

 

 

That Friday we descended into another time to an old church. I saw a priest hearing a confession out in the open as if it were a common thing. I saw paintings of Jesus and Mary that exuded an inexpressible warmth. There was an electricity in these beginnings, these firsts: like the first church, the first sight of the city, the first arrival to the hotel, the first meal.

 

 

 

 

 

We visited the Shrine at Los Remedios ("the Remedy") on Saturday just one day after the feast day (Sept. 1st) when 10,000 pilgrims come here for a celebration of Masses and devotionals and food and fireworks and high-wire acts. There was a little courtyard with various rooms containing religious articles and walls papered with petitions, prayers and pictures, all home-made. I'll not soon forget walking into that courtyard of glass-eyed folks, staring impassively at us like we were visitors from Neptune. It was like a movie set and we were the "Three Amigos" wandering where we didn't belong, here with our gaudy white tennis shoes. I wanted to interact with the Mexicans and get a better sense of who they were, and what made many of them so pious.

 

 

 

 

 

I bought a rosary at the shrine and asked the local padre to bless it. He looked like a tall Sancho Pancho and wore a white Dominican-like robe. He took a pine bough and dipped it in holy water and proceeded to brusquely bless the rosary and then me. Earlier, at Mass at Los Remedios I witnessed Mexicans with tears in their eyes. They appreciated the faith. It was by their example and the knowledge that soon I would be seeing the image of Our Lady of Gaudalupe that made me ask impulsively if the padre would hear my confession, with comic results.

 

 

 

"Could you hear my confession?"

 

 

 

Quizzical look ensued.

 

 

 

"?Confessiono?" I figured adding an "o" at the end might do the trick.

 

 

 

 

 

Wasn't the Church supposed to be universal anyway? I guess when we all knew Latin.

 

 

 

 

 

"Jdkjfedkjdkjkjf," said the Padre in Spanish, or words to that effect.

 

 

 

"Hablo English?" I asked.

 

 

 

The good padre looked pained but concerned, and I was quite sorry by this time that I had brought the whole thing up. We seemed to have reached a stalemate, and I started to back away saying, "that's okay", although I realized immediately the inanity of that - I could've said, "free spaghetti!" for all he knew. He didn't leave me off the hook and instead came over and warmly led me by the hand out into the courtyard searching all around. Finally he found Jacob and I understood he was to translate.

 

 

 

"I just asked if he could hear my confession," I told Jacob.

 

 

 

Jacob said some Spanish words back out at the good Friar and then Jacob to me laughing, "I hear your confession. You tell me!".

 

 

 

Over the length of the trip we saw at least ten churches. All of them were beautiful though markedly different. The Cathedral at Zocala Square was a feast for the eyes of epic proportions. Ornate gold altars and side altars repeated like endless eaves of finely decorated libraries. The Cathedral was dark, magisterial and and not for impressionable young children. Another church, Juan Diego's uncles', was the oppposite. It was light, and airy and simple. There were no reliquaries but an easiness and it emphasized the gospel accounts of Christ riding on a donkey and being born in a manger and God's gentleness and mercy. The yin and the yang?

 

 

 

 

 

Zocola Square is second in size only to Red Square in Moscow. The imposing square is surrounded by gargoyle'd buildings and one expected to see a bullfighter or matador at any moment. Zocola felt foreign - it pulsated with foreignness. At one end loud opera music blared, at the other side there was a loud Indian drumming. The place felt like the setting of a lost empire or somewhere Indiana Jones would feel at home. The square was not quite safe -rogue tour guides and pick-pocketing banditos roamed - but had, glamour, with pistole-toting police guarding the Mexican treasures from American riff-raff. I clambored up the stairs to a sumptuous room only to receive a curt, "no moleste!". I said,"Vamous?" and he said, "si". Later, at the bottom of the stairs, I offered a "Beunes Dios" (good day) at a stiff-necked policeman and received my first 'gracias'. It was then I knew I'd connected with the Mexican people and was now one of them. The fabulous murals of the Palace were stunning and encyclopedic but the severe time period alloted to the square made 'hurry-travel' necessary.

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we loaded up the bus and headed for the reason we came - Guadalupe. The mysterious story of the image fascinates. It, like the Shroud of Turin, comes as close to a "smoking gun" for faith as you can get.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

College is the nexus of time and energy; never will you have more of either. This results in really well-made homecoming floats and clever party favors.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 1:14 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friend lets me get away with inconsistencies. I know that he knows it - and I like him all the more for it. Is that a flaw in him? He's a strong Christian and I'll often say something stupid for which I'll eventually get around to apologizing. But the funny thing is, he never points out my inconsistency, my sin. He may offer silence, but never accuses. Never preaches, unless asked. Words pale next to action, including, ironically, the phrase itself.

 

 

 

 

 

Blogging is an interesting exercise because for all its vaunted speed, it gives us tantalizing choices on whether or not to be silent. In the "real world", in real time, these choices are often made without thinking, since speech happens so much more quickly than writing & posting does. Blogging gives one a chance to think, which it is often accused of not doing.

 

 

 

 

 

This post is not inspired by Disputations. Personally, I found Disputation's criticisms of those who criticize the bishops enlightening. He makes good points. I'm not making a judgement on the specific arguments since I found both sides compelling. I just think silence or challenging the argument are better ways to go rather than the third choice, which is to reflectively criticize those who criticize given the Pot, Kettle, Black situation. But what of the case of bishops? That is more complex. They are given a special position of authority. John said of the bishop, "Exhort him, challenge him, correct him if you must, but do not try to replace him." Sounds reasonable.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 11:50 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shape-Shifting

 

 

 

Where the faeries live

 

 

 

‘neath many the odd-looking stone

 

 

 

be they not stones at all

 

 

 

but shape-shifted swans that longed

 

 

 

for a sedentary existence.

 

 

 

 

 

Of feint gypsies

 

 

 

I’d fain meet

 

 

 

there in the green sea-kettle marshes

 

 

 

where croaking brown-coat frogs

 

 

 

bestride busy-fiddlin' pub craickers

 

 

 

by skirt-wearing lacross-playing lads

 

 

 

down at the County Down -

 

 

 

Till the bare juts of cliffs

 

 

 

finality!

 

 

 

Where folly-spray waves terminate

 

 

 

crashing infinitely

 

 

 

the mist rises like incense

 

 

 

the air aghast with the spectacle below

 

 

 

where sweet Eire ends and the sea begins

 

 

 

a scandal for sea and land alike

 

 

 

the mutual breakage of continuity

 

 

 

lay there the craved border

 

 

 

where ships were let go to where they will

 

 

 

for monks, green martyrs

 

 

 

to lands near or distant.

 

 

 

 

 

How foreign it feels to me still!

 

 

 

waited on by the brogue-ish dark-haired waitress

 

 

 

how foreign compared to our grocery

 

 

 

the long tired walk to the Milk

 

 

 

in the service of merchandising

 

 

 

that I might buy something else on my journey..

 

 

 

the haggard looking cashier,

 

 

 

seemingly bored and boring

 

 

 

ahh, to see Christ in her or me!

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:02 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm a fan of C-Span's founding father Brian Lamb. In beltway talk he's known as "the Spinx" for the poker-face he shows when callers say things like, "Clinton killed, he will kill again" or "the FDA wants to ban NiQuil and it's the only thing that puts me to sleep". Brian lives a sort of 19th century life; he rises at 4am and reads every major newspaper in the U.S., Europe & Asia before having a tumbler of whiskey during open lines at 7am EST. He is preternaturally calm but then again who wouldn't be if you're unmarried, have a cush job and a 58-year old's sex drive? Mr. Lamb is known for his exceptional sense of humor - he once peppered a guest with questions like, "What do you write on?" He's also been known to stretch the truth, like when he referred to Hillary Clinton as a United States Senator. (Wait, ouch….she IS a senator).

 

 

 

 

 

NB: Much of the above, of course, is blarney.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:01 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wicked and prefer mercy. - Chesterton.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 8:59 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seventy times seven

 

 

 

oh blessed alliteration

 

 

 

oh holy equation

 

 

 

the number of our salvation.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 5:09 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 9, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love is a sort of seventh day, so thinking can rest. - from Camelot

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 5:07 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The entrée’s to choose from at the lunchtime cafe were "baked fish" or "beer-battered fish". The yeasty Yugoslavian woman asked what I wanted. "Beer-battered fish, the beer on the side." Dedicated to (is that a Guinness he be drinkin'?):

 

 

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 5:06 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Hanrahan's Song About Ireland*

 

 

 

The yellow pool has overflowed high up on Clooth-na-Bare,

 

 

 

For the wet winds are blowing out of the clinging air;

 

 

 

Like heavy flooded waters our bodies and our blood;

 

 

 

But purer than a tall candle before the Holy Rood

 

 

 

Is Cathleen, the daughter of Houlihan.

 

 

 

-- William Butler Yeats

 

 

 

 

 

* - inspired by a phantom avatar...->

 

 

 

Hint: "Superior, they say, never gives up her dead / When the dark of October comes early."

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 5:01 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, I shan't criticize those who criticize others, lest I be guity of the same! But since this post is an implicit criticism of those who criticize the criticisms of others, I'm left doing the very thing I claimed I wouldn't do. Please read "today" as "tomorrow". Thank you, the Mgt. :)

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 1:03 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was going to blog Fr. Fessio's letter but I see Flos Carmeli has beaten me to it, which is just as well since he has a larger audience. This is one endeavour I can jump on board with both feet and no reservations. Pope John Paul II has tried to insure that Catholic education remains "Catholic" with uncertain results. Perhaps tis best to develop alternatives like Thomas Aquinas, Fransican University and now, perhaps the crown jewel, Ave Maria. This was a no-brainer; I took great joy in writing the check.

 

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:42 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catherine Crier was on Imus yesterday and had some interesting things to say. Her new book, "The Case Against Lawyers", talks about how the legal system has run amuck. She mentioned how prescient De Tocqueville was in 1840 when he said that Americans will eventually lose their liberty to lawyers and become as "timid, industrious sheep", afraid to do anything outside the box...

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:09 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blarney Wednesday

 

 

 

I once worked for a university in the capacity of amateur historian sans history degree. It was a coveted position and mercifully light on duties. The goal-state was for me to have a keenly decorated office (something suitably 19th century) that would impress passerbys and potential recruits with the stacks of ornately-bound books, quill pens, and wafting pipe smoke. The position was created in 1985 in response to the "Utility Uber Alles" movement that attempted to equate human life solely with production and function. In making humans functionaries we would make them less than human, since the role of pure functionary had already been filled - by animals. The only societies in history to have shown a deep respect for leisure were the ancient Greeks and the societies of the Middle Ages – both recognized that man should not be defined by his work. The idea was to create an anti-Utility-Uber-Alles to spite the revolutionaries who lobbied to abolish literature, poetry, isometrics and Pauly Shore on the theory that they had no practical application. So the Amateur-Historian-Without-a-History-Degree was a double spite in the face of the establishment, for whom credentials rule. I walked around campus with a professorial air, in a plaid suit jacket with patches on the elbows and a insouciant beard. I smelled rebelliously of 1950s Funk & Wagnalls Standard Edition glue. My office consisted of walled eight-foot bookshelves that fingered out into a little cove with twenty or so black-and-white renderings of campus scenes and literary artists (T.S. Elliot, Henry Thoreau, Shakespeare, etc..). A few autographed pictures of myself and various writers were prominently displayed – there I am mugging with William Least Heat Moon, giving Garrison Keillor a wedgie, and beating Ayn Rand with a wet noodle.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 5:01 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 8, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Has Blogging Jumped the Shark?

 

 

 

 

 

Tim Drake and Dylan of Error503 have left the blogging world and your gut tells you that this is a case of "Gresham's Law". Both of them seemed like quintessentially quality people.

 

 

 

 

 

Dylan left quietly with hardly a word, like Maria in the Sound of Music after the Captain came back with his fiancee.

 

 

 

 

 

Tim left in a blaze of glory, firing all his guns at once.

 

 

 

 

 

His heartfelt missive has the ring of truth about it:

 

 

 

Admittedly, I've also grown tired of the entire blogging trend. Perhaps it's just me, but isn't it a prideful thing? You're saying to the world - "Hey, HEY - look at me! Look at what I have to say. It's so much more important than what X or Y has to say." How does blogging contribute to the world if eventually everyone in the world has their own blog and is talking only to themselves? Isn't this the eventual outcome of blogging?

 

 

 

 

 

Blogging tends to be a very self-centered exercise. You're filled with delight when other bloggers notice you and link to you. You get excited if your site tracker shows that you have more than 99 unique visitors on any given day. You hit the roof if The Corner mentions you.

 

 

 

 

 

Undeniably true for most of us. But must it be a prideful thing? I'm very attracted to GK Chesterton's view of "art for the masses" - that we should all be artists, writers possibly, no matter how poorly done. (I highly recommend Thomas Peters' book G.K. Chesterton on the Arts). To some extent the blog is your art. Don't all artists say, "Look at me?". Isn't the urge to create inborn? "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly," Chesterton said. He consistently defended the amateur against the professional, or the "generalist" against the specialist.

 

 

 

 

 

In using the term "art", I am using it very loosely of course. It is, no matter how bad, a small act of creation. Aren't our creative instincts and powers, no matter how flawed, also part of what makes us "the image and likeness of God"? No matter how long a dog looks at his food bowl, he will never artfully arrange it so that it will look aesthetically pleasing. That we are artists is part of what it means to be human - and that it often points to ourselves is true, but good artists don't start out good artists - they start off bad artists and get better.

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps I protest too much. Tim's note had much truth. For me, the blogging thing began when a Catholic writer I admire enormously and enjoy reading in Our Sunday Visitor had a blog link off her website. Her blog was riveting, in that she said some unpredictable things and gave insights that were often "too honest" or "too spicy" for publication, often of a personal nature. Since then she has garnered a huge audience and now her posts reveal little of herself. I'm not "dissing" her; with a large audience comes greater responsibility. If I thought I was influencing a large audience, I would be more careful with my words and probably be more interested in exposing chicanery...

 

 

 

 

 

On the breaking up into high school cliques, that, unfortunately, is as inevitable as the day turns into night. There is no way to avoid those of a like mind congregating or of politics rearing its ugly head. That is human nature in action - it reminds me of John Adams quixotian quest to avoid the formation of political parties. I like Adams all the more for his quest though.

 

 

 

 

 

Tim's post certainly offers much to ponder. I wonder if that little SiteMeter isn't the devil in disguise? A fellow would-be author and I were discussing writing. I said, "I wouldn't want to write just to get paid. I have to give them something important. But it can't be preachy...". He said, "To the contrary, you should write because you have to. You should write just for yourself, for no credit, even if no one is watching - that is pure." Interesting....

 

 

 

 

 

"But it must be admitted that writers, like other mendicants and mountebanks, frequently do try to attract attention. They set out conspicuously, in a single line in a play, or at the head or tail of a paragraph, remarks of this challenging kind; as when Mr. Bernard Shw wrote: "The Golden Rule is that there is no Golden Rule"; or Oscar Wilde observed: "I can resist everything except temptation"; or a duller scribe said in defence of hobbies and amateurs and general duffers like himself: "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly." To these things do writers sink; and then the critics tell them that they "talk for effect"; and then the writers answer: "What the devil else should we talk for? Ineffectualness?" - GK Chesterton in The Paradoxes of Mr. Pond

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I liked this from Pleroma's site:

 

 

 

 

 

...faith is not the assent to a set of propositions at base, but trust in the living God. If this was made more clear, then perhaps unbelievers would understand that we don't say people are damned for having the wrong ideas, but rather for not being reconciled to God.

 

 

 

- comment http://pleroma.blogspot.com/2002_09_22_pleroma_archive.html#81987469:

 

 

 

Lindsey makes a hard and fast division between "mystic experience" and "propositional faith", and says that Christianity is all about propositions and therefore cannot be mystical at its core. I disagree. It's true that Christianity is an historical religion. It teaches that God has personally intervened in human history for the salvation of mankind. We don't believe in an abstract "divine principle," we believe in a concrete, personal God, a God who acts and participates in actual human events. Lindsey is right that orthodox Christianity stands or falls on the proposition that God's intervention in history - the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus - is a matter of actual, historical fact.

 

 

 

But to say that Christianity is a "propositional faith" is ultimately misleading. When the Bible talks about faith, it is not talking about intellectual assent to a set of propositions. Faith in the Bible refers to a relationship of trust and dependence on a person. To be sure, if you don't believe that Jesus rose from the dead, you're not going to give Him your trust and obedience, because you don't believe that He is alive. Logically, the proposition "Jesus rose from the dead" is prerequisite to "I love Him and trust Him", but experientially and spiritually the love and trust in Him are much more important.

 

 

 

 

 

Salvation is described in various ways: deliverance from hell; forgiveness of sins; going to heaven; being freed from slavery; and so on. All of these are true as far as they go. But the core of salvation is the experience of union with God, and the Bible and the Christian Tradition tell us that that experience is not to be deferred to the afterlife, but that we can begin to experience it in this life as well. It may seem that the Bible is more concerned with sin and its forgiveness than with mystical union with God, but that is because sin is our immediate problem, and it is sin that is preventing us from experiencing union with God.

 

 

 

 

 

Sin is the reason we need salvation; and the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are how our salvation has been accomplished. So far, Christianity may be called both historical and propositional. But when we turn to the question of what it means to be saved, how salvation changes us, and what kind of life we are being saved for, Christianity turns decidedly mystical.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 12:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A postscript: Perhaps the supreme example of not trusting our senses is the Eucharist. My senses tell me one thing, my faith another. If I must choose between them, I choose faith, God willing.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 11:30 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill Mahrer’s constant boast is that he "keeps it real". The bible is replete with cases of the seeming real or the expected not being perceived or happening. It is a constant thread that what we deem real is not real at all. Is it not funny that after the Resurrection Jesus was not recognized even by those most close to Him. How perfect is that? Is that not an exclamation point on the intangibility of God, and how he determines when we see Him and when we don’t? Was there a better way to tell us not to trust our senses?

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:06 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Damp Georgian earth,

 

 

 

what claims lay still-born

 

 

 

in your red clay pining?

 

 

 

Brave and Blood-staunched men

 

 

 

lay singeing in autumnal heat;

 

 

 

Bare-backed riders sing songs of loss of woe of misery

 

 

 

while ghosts wonder why

 

 

 

the Lost Cause be elegiac

 

 

 

while Grant's prosaic.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:04 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just because...

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 7, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stop me before I...

 

 

 

via Kat Lively, via someone else, via someone else, we see a new form of blogger "comedy" developing, that of taking old songs and imaging slightly re-worded sequels (answers below):

 

 

 

 

 

- MacArthur's Green Environment in an Urban Setting

 

 

 

- Could it be the Whiskey

 

 

 

- One Silvery Metallic Element Obtained Chiefly from Cassiterite Soldier

 

 

 

- Scarlet and Saffron

 

 

 

- I am strongly attached to Rock 'n Roll

 

 

 

- Silk-ear'd Sam

 

 

 

- Girl Named Bob

 

 

 

- By the Time I Get to Alberta

 

 

 

 

 

Answers:

 

 

 

One Tin Soldier, MacArther's Park, Could it be the Magic, Crimson & Clover, I Love Rock 'n Roll, Cotton-eye Joe, Boy Named Sue, By the Time I get to Phoenix. Sorry you had to see this.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 12:21 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The angel of the Lord seized his head and carried him off by the hair to Babylon where he set Habakkuk down on the edge of the pit. ‘Daniel, Daniel,’ Habakkuk shouted, ‘take the meal that God has sent you.’ And Daniel said, ‘You have kept me in mind, O God; you have not deserted those who love you’. Rising to his feet he ate the meal.

 

 

 

- Daniel 14:31-42

 

 

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:11 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One need but look

 

 

 

at slack-jaw'd cowboys

 

 

 

at the local strip-joint

 

 

 

hard, steely souls

 

 

 

impervious to wonder

 

 

 

suddenly transfixed, meditating

 

 

 

before the altar of perceived holiness

 

 

 

an appreciation rarely felt.

 

 

 

 

 

You could depend upon it:

 

 

 

the little-boyness

 

 

 

of awe and appreciation

 

 

 

when images of untethered breasts

 

 

 

hang like notions of free gifts

 

 

 

in the air.

 

 

 

 

 

How to substitute these free gifts

 

 

 

for lasting ones?

 

 

 

How to find wonder and appreciation

 

 

 

when the muscle memory

 

 

 

still holds

 

 

 

to the flesh's siren calls?

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:08 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I may have this wrong but...

 

 

 

A non-Catholic I know says that life is hard enough, and neither the Church nor individuals should make it harder for us or themselves. Thus the Church is condemned for its birth control decision, because it undeniably makes it harder for people to have unrestricted sex. And saints who wore hair-shirts or flogged themselves are also condemned by her (didn’t John the Baptist wear a hairshirt and eat locusts spritzed with honey?) The thing that is missing here, I think, is that the unbelieveable inter-connectedness of creation. The unbelieveable but true thing is that a monk wearing a hairshirt and fasting is somehow doing us good. Their prayers and sacrifice help us slackers in some mysterious, mystical way. To use a gross analogy, it’s like an economy and you’ve got one guy spending like crazy, making for more jobs and higher wages for many. Jesus is the ultimate example of this, of course. Jesus’ death on the cross would make no sense if it weren’t that his suffering somehow "made up" for other people’s sins. His death did not seem to help people directly, anymore than a monk starving himself would. It’s a great unseen economy.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:04 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Brewed in accordance with

 

 

 

the German Purity Law of 1516"

 

 

 

reverently sayeth the dark bottle.

 

 

 

Ensue the hearty laugh!

 

 

 

Ironic, at least,

 

 

 

these Germans,

 

 

 

adorers of order and obedience

 

 

 

would produce

 

 

 

rebellious Luther and sulpherous Nietzche

 

 

 

Does a love of order

 

 

 

eventually

 

 

 

produces its opposite?

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 8:54 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw Flos Carmeli's comments on the devil, and it is true the devil is inestimately clever, which is why I shy away from acceptance of the Medjugorje apparition. Still, true humility would seem to be the one thing the devil could not use. Humility is the weapon we have, because through it we allow God to have power over us and God's power obviously trumps the devil's every time.

 

 

 

 

 

By the way, in regards to the Blessed Sacrament: the late Bishop Sheen was asked by Time magazine if there was an unforgiveable sin. They said, "you seem to be pretty lenient...is there anything unforgiveable?" Bishop Sheen replied, "Desecration of the Blessed Sacrament". I'm convinced that Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is a thing we must do.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 6:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 4, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking Up Words and Etymologies At Random and Segueing Them*

 

 

 

flail he wrote

 

 

 

from Latin’s "flagellum"

 

 

 

meaning to whip to

 

 

 

lupus erythematosus

 

 

 

a disorder of skin irritations

 

 

 

not signaling optimum health

 

 

 

where optimum was born in 1879

 

 

 

quite a semaphore

 

 

 

Greek for signal,

 

 

 

at least if you are spermatozoal:

 

 

 

the motile male gamete

 

 

 

and I think we know what they mean by that.

 

 

 

The schnozzle

 

 

 

is Yiddish for nose

 

 

 

but I wouldn’t fustigate them for it.

 

 

 

call me an Occidentalist:

 

 

 

pertaining to Asia

 

 

 

but not an octapeptide

 

 

 

a late-bloomer in 1961

 

 

 

protein fragment with eight chained amino acids

 

 

 

a place of ridotto?

 

 

 

From 1722, a public entertainment of music and dancing

 

 

 

yeah baby watch those peptides dance!

 

 

 

 

 

* written with dictionary in hand, springing from piquant word to piquant word and attempting segues.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 4:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inscription in our vestibule

 

 

 

If you are willing to bear serenely the trial of being displeasing to yourself, you will be to Jesus a pleasant place of shelter. - St. Therese

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:53 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PostScript on the Medjugorje

 

 

 

Flos Carmeli blogged about my post on Medjugorje. What I said to my mother, immediately, was that prayer is not 100% efficiacious, in the sense that the Pharisees were great pray-ers but to little effect, given that the Gentiles "would enter the Kingdom before you". But I felt a little uncomfortable "dissing" prayer, especially given the presumably fervent prayer inspired by a direct message from Mary might induce. So I jotted that post out asking not for opinions if the apparation is true or false but asking to what extent can the devil use good means to a foul end? Just about everything but prayer and fasting, one would think. But, as I told my mom, prayer can lead to self-righteousness in the sense of thinking oneself better than those "others" who don't pray. Perhaps the answer is this: everything but humility. If the Medjugorje messages said, "humble yourselves before your family & neighbor" instead of the unceasing requests to pray, perhaps that would be off-limits as a demonic strategy.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:30 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quoteable

 

 

 

 

 

"Thought and language are metaphysical, and [Stanley] Jaki loves to quote E.A. Burtt's assertion that 'the only way to avoid metaphysics is to say nothing'."

 

 

 

-from a review by M.D. Aeschliman in National Review of A Mind's Matter: An Intellectual Autobiography by Stanley L. Jaki

 

 

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:00 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Had remarkable experience at the BookPhil, a used bookstore in a house downtown. Outside was a sign saying "All Welcome except Christina Johnson who CHARACTER ASSASSINATED me at a city council meeting and …..". But like all stories, this had another side. In person, her bitterness was obviously directed at somebody other than Christina – her ex-husband. The books were cheap, but the conversation dear. She divorced her husband of 37 years because he was reclusive and anti-social. He would not talk or give money to his children or grand-children. When she wanted to show books to a customer, he would ask her to tell him when so he would not be there. She called her 91-year old mother in Britain if it was okay to divorce him and she gave her okay, saying times have changed.

 

 

 

 

 

Is there an inverse relationship between intelligence and kindness to strangers? The man was brilliant, but also brilliantly self-centered. He had a heroic career in the British air force during WWII and has many inventions to his credit. But what does it credit a man to gain the whole world but....

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 8:57 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"How much noticing could I permit myself without driving myself round the bend? Too much noticing and I was too self-conscious to live; I trapped and paralyzed myself, and dragged my friends down with me, so we couldn't meet each other's eyes, my own loud awareness damning us both. Too little noticing though - I would risk much to avoid this - and I would miss the whole show. I would wake on my deathbed and say, 'what was that?'."

 

 

 

- Annie Dilliard, on her childhood.

 

 

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 8:56 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My mother's devotion to Medjugorje is nearly unbounded. The messages from Mary are treated as gospel, the messages from our Holy Father as "purely human invention" in her view. But, if it be truly the Blessed Mother, who can blame her really? Just as the direct words of Jesus have a greater authority and suasion than Paul's, so would the Mother of God. I read a secular website that said that the modern Church reforms herself not by papal proclamations but by Marian apparations. Lourdes and Fatima have done more for the faith than most any Catholic leader. This secular site says that what matters most for the Church is not the identity of the next pope, but the next huge Marian apparation that the Church recognizes. It could be Medjugorje, or another. Perhaps one that hasn't begun yet.

 

 

 

 

 

So she is convinced the manifestations are of a supernatural order, and concedes they could be satanic. But if that were the case, why would the devil urge prayer and fasting on us? A strange means to a diabolic end.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 11:17 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 3, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting and well-written poem from Flos Carmeli. I recall Baudrillard's comment about our society having a sort of simulacrum fetish; "everything now is destined to reappear as simulation." Not sure if I mentioned it before, but a friend in his mid-30s is back in law school and is a little surprised at how well-endowed nearly all the co-eds are now. Perhaps a combination of augmentation surgery and the "wonder" bra. I think number two on the list of all plastic surgeries is augmentation. What does that say about us? Is a silicon implant not a simulacrum, an artificial construct? Are we so far from involvement with plastic dolls?

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:01 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warning: Spoiler info in this review (though this movie is over a year old):

 

 

 

Saw the movie "The Others" Saturday night, a film heavy-laden with atmosphere of dread and fog machines gone wild. It was worth the price of admission (disclaimer: free in my case) just to see a leading Hollywood actress dressed demurely in long skirts and modest blouses for the most of the film. That was truly shocking. It was also surprising to see Nicole Kidman reading the bible and teaching her children to pray the rosary, even if she had gone mad killed her two children. Hey you take what you can get. My dad's instant analysis was that it was rated "G" for "goofy" and he was right in that the plot mainly concerned a communication problem between the living and the dead – the living wanted the curtains open, the dead wanted them closed. Unfortunately, by the time the dead realized they didn’t need the curtains closed (because the children were dead and no longer reacted poorly to light) it was too late and the living left.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:51 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Otis Campbell was probably the most sympathetic and endearing character on the old Andy Griffith show. Otis displayed a firm sense of right and wrong by locking himself up when he had too much to drink. How many of us would send themselves to jail? Sure he had a drinking problem, as well as an anger management problem but Otis was mostly easy-going. He was always the soul of modesty. You never saw Otis thinking he was smarter or better than anyone, not something you could say of Aunt Bee or Barney. Excepting Andy & Opi, is there anyone who doesn’t like Otis best?

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 4:43 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 2, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

farm house in the distance with porch light on

 

 

 

On a long ride thru Outskirts, Oh

 

 

 

Hard-pack dust-singes tires

 

 

 

I drink hard-tack sun

 

 

 

eat gravel for breakfast

 

 

 

shit grins

 

 

 

yellow John Deeres go by

 

 

 

mini-dust storms rally

 

 

 

former lives fluff

 

 

 

up spit-fire rain nails dust-ups to

 

 

 

hard-tack ground.

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the long gravel line

 

 

 

unhusked corn lay in hoary piles

 

 

 

klieg-like lanterns of longing

 

 

 

draw this moth:

 

 

 

"No Trespassing" signs

 

 

 

usher utter unattainability.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:32 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'But where can we draw water,’

 

 

 

Said Pearse to Connolly,

 

 

 

‘When all the wells are parched away?

 

 

 

O plain as plain can be

 

 

 

There’s nothing but our own red blood

 

 

 

Can make a right Rose Tree.' - W.B. Yeats

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 11:28 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A veritable fertile crescent of bloggings today from the ususal suspects. Flos Carmeli applies hammer to nail when he says about saints: I'm convinced that part of this is because they have become detached from their image of self.

 

 

 

 

 

Hard-won distance from self seems often fleeting. Aquinas bluntly said words to the effect that if you care what others think, rather than what God thinks, you are not on the Path. Dorothy Day wrote, God sees Christ, his Son, in us, and loves us. And so we should see Christ in others, and nothing else, and love them. This again, results in cognitive dissonance for me. Getting it in my skull that God sees Christ, his Son, in me. But that is an absolute prerequisite to loving others, for it is in the experience of unconditional love that one can love unconditionally.

 

 

 

 

 

During my time of separation from the Church I was not only more lenient with self but more lenient with others. It is natural (that is to say not supernatural), since when one is getting away with something, one wishes and hopes the same for others. If one is withholding something from self, natch he will begrudge those not playing by the rules. We vacilitate between the Prodigal son and the elder brother. The trick is to be an unaccusatory elder brother. Our recent popes, imho, have been vintage non-accusatory elder brothers. John XXIII, Paul VI and our current Pope all are lenient on the discipline side of things, which perhaps during my period of truancy helped bring me back. Something about flies, sugar & vinegar. So I would have a hard time criticizing the Pope.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:47 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering the Gallarus Oratory

 

 

 

Galloped their souls

 

 

 

on steeds straight for heav’n

 

 

 

lean sinewed Christians

 

 

 

hell-bent on the goal.

 

 

 

Their Gallarus stones

 

 

 

bore the imprint of faith

 

 

 

impervious and lasting

 

 

 

like alms, prayer and fasting.

 

 

 

 

 

Today's quote

 

 

 

An old Italian saying goes: "The situation is hopeless, but not serious".

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:35 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I appreciate tackiness as much as the next guy, as long as it's done in good taste. By that I mean "tongue-in-cheek" tackiness or Elvis-tacky, the kind of tackiness that is so over-the-top that we know it's a joke. Give me pink flamingos, a velvet-Elvis or a gaudy beer sign any day. But don't give me fake deers. What happens when money and bad taste meet? You get what we've got - a family of faux deer in the neighbor's yard. The deer are just realistic enough to know that they intend this as an aesthetic improvement, but not so realistic that anybody who's had less than a 12-pack would not know they were fake. Plus they are 'artfully' arranged them, with a doe or buck (I don't wanna know) leading a pack of Bambi's. They are the neighborhood Hezbollah's, art terrorists bent on leveling and degrading our living environment. Everyone crossing Main St. is treated to their display. I wake up with night terrors, drenched in cold sweat, thinking what can I do? I ask myself 'what are the natural predators of artificial deer?' and it hits me - artificial deerhunters! The next day I order full-size plastic statues of a man and two sons, dressed in camoflauge and orange flapjackets, brandishing rifles pointed at the neighbor deer. Hope they don't miss!

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 5:14 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 1, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There we were, in nostril-hair territory, in the 3rd row of a ten-thousand seat hall for the Garrison Keillor reading. How nice to take that long walk to the 3rd row! We sat in anticipation until he was introduced and walked out on the stage looking a bit dissheveled, like someone getting up from bed and squinting into the morning light. He was dressed Johnny Cash-style in all-black except for white shoestrings and bright red socks.

 

 

 

 

 

He would occasionally flip open the right side of his black jacket as if it were a nervous tic, revealing a pocket with some sort of paper in it. (Later he would read from it, paying tribute to a couple celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary, unusual in that he is 77 years old, she 67).

 

 

 

 

 

His face is truly unusual, like Lurch's on the old Munster's TV show. His features are compacted; nose, mouth and eyes gathered in the low-center of his face with that prominent jutting chin. He said that as a boy he looked like a toad who was changed into a boy only the transformation wasn't quite complete. He seemed gangly, sort of like the headless horseman, with thinish arms and wide hands and shoulders. I couldn't get over the thought that here was a man who got paid, handsomely, for simply putting words on paper.

 

 

 

 

 

He started eccentrically, as I think we all hoped, just like you hope your favorite recording star will play the song you've heard on the radio a thousand times just a little bit differently. He came to the front of the stage and suggested we start off singing a song together. He chose "God Bless America". The audience sang while he softly harmonized.

 

 

 

 

 

Then the reading from his new book began and he told of the summer he turned 14, and all the words he'd come up with to describe a fart and how amazing that the word "Saturday" had the word 'turd' in it. And it got bawdier. His deep, resonant voice reminded me of Saturdays spent listening to a Prarie Home Company. When the reading we found ourselves singing at his request: "you must remember this...a kiss is still a kiss...as time goes by." The sentimental old bastard.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 4:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updike quotes

 

 

 

"I think Joyce and Kafka have said the last word on each of the two forms they developed. There's no one to follow them. They're like cats which have licked the plate clean. You've got to dream up another dish if you're to be a writer."

 

 

 

 

 

"After the war (first world war), Edith Wharton became distressed by much of the contemporary world and found the nineteenth century 'a blessed refuge from the turmoil and mediocrity of today - like taking sanctuary in a mighty temple'."

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 4:43 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Protestin' ain't what it used to be....gosh, don't you miss the 60s? I watched Michelle Shocked play guitar on C-Span with her primary school-age daughters beating empty milk jugs. The only drugs appeared to be the highly caffeinated beverages of the yuppie college audience...

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of my hits...

 

 

 

come via inexpert usage of search engines.

 

 

 

 

 

photo of pam tills 2002

 

 

 

terri gross middlebrow

 

 

 

firing line malcolm Muggeridge order video

 

 

 

methinks thou protesteth shakespeare

 

 

 

private anal video

 

 

 

"joseph epstein" chicago -snobbery

 

 

 

"Irish not Gaelic"

 

 

 

 

 

I guess I should be thankful more people don't know the secret of the "s and +s.

 

 

 

 

 

"Molly, I do declare, would we get anybod' visit 'cept for strangers with their car broke down on I-95?"

 

 

 

"I reckon not, but they're welcome jus' the same!"

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:08 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloggin'

 

 

 

I've been thinking lately about recent divisions within "St. Blog's Parish". Blogging is a mixed bag I think. The problem is that it is a 24-7 controversy-generator because controversy creates hits, and hits are seen (falsely) as a sort of affirmation of our worth. I believe controversy can be good or bad; the openness of the air can help an infected wound and also often brings out truth - but it can also be negative, in that it emphasizes our differences and divides us into camps. St. Thérèse said that God often led people in ways that were not her particular way of choice and she had to accept that. As do we.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 1:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thinking aloud...

 

 

 

On my drive into work I occasionally see Somalia immigrants dressed in their Muslim garb. Before 9/11, they were almost inspiring to me. Their discipline was attractive, and their countercultural attitudes and garb. Imagine, praying five times a day! To drop whatever you're doing...

 

 

 

 

 

After 9/11, while I bear no ill-will towards them, I am less impressed. Their culture is no longer that attractive to me. My idle interest of one day going to Syria or Iran and visiting those strange mosques has lessened dramatically. Holiness is charismatic. All else is dross.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sure just as my interest in Islam lessened, non-Catholics are thinking similarly about the Catholic Church. Where once there might've been curiosity and interest in her beauty and depth, the priestly scandal has turned many off. Holiness is evangelistic.

 

 

 

 

 

I am a poor sinner, part of the problem instead of the solution. And when people try to tar the Church by saying how unholy her members, I defend her by saying, "would you get rid of the Presidency because of Nixon & Clinton? Would you say that police stations, because some police officers are corrupt, are irrelevant?". True enough, but I sometimes wonder if I am too comfortable in that.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:44 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To live of love, -what foolishness she sings!"

 

 

 

So cries the world. "Renounce such idle jov!

 

 

 

Waste not thy perfumes on such trivial things.

 

 

 

In useful arts thy talents now employ!"

 

 

 

To love Thee, Jesus! Ah, this loss is gain;

 

 

 

For all my perfumes no reward seek I.

 

 

 

Quitting the world, I sing in death's sweet pain:

 

 

 

Of love I die!" - Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

 

 

 

 

 

Saint Thérèse - Pray for us!

 

 

 

 

 

Mother Teresa was always quick to point out that she was named not for the great St. Teresa of Avila, but the little St.Thérèse of the Little Flower.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 5:23 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 30, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question appropriated from the Livelywriter site:

 

 

 

 

 

I don't watch the television show "Survivor," but I did notice they allow each contestant to bring one "luxury item" to the deserted island with them (make-up, a book, etc.). If you were to go to an island for three months, what five "luxury items" would you bring and why?

 

 

 

 

 

I'll slightly modify this to what ten books I would bring...

 

 

 

 

 

1) Bible (NSRV or New King James...I love the Jerusalem Bible but for the Psalms).

 

 

 

2) Catechism

 

 

 

3) Shakespeare Complete Works

 

 

 

4) "Civil War: A Narrative" - Foote

 

 

 

5) an anthology of poetry

 

 

 

6) "More Matter" - John Updike

 

 

 

7) "Confessions" - Augustine

 

 

 

8) "Habit of Being" - by Flannery O'Connor

 

 

 

9) "Dawn to Decadence" - Barzun

 

 

 

10) William Carrol's History of Christendom

 

 

 

11) Don Quixote - Cervantes

 

 

 

12) "My Cousin, my Gastrinolgist" - Lehner (just kidding!)

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to bring something funny by David Lodge...Actually I could probably get by with the four food groups of literature (history, humor, a novel, & spiritual):

 

 

 

Cervantes for humor and novel, Bible for the spiritual, and Foote & Carrol for history.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 1:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sed Contra has the definitive post (given the facts we know) on the Gerard controversy, and says it very convincingly without the rancour of some of the other commentators. A post like that really makes much of the commentary seem like "noise", most especially my own drivel. In fact, I'm going to delete my posts on the subject. They only confuse the issue.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 11:57 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quotes from the "Long Sunday Read"

 

 

 

aka Verweile doch

 

 

 

 

 

Every Sunday I retire to the womb of my library and there, amid the thousand or so volumes, find wisdom where 'ere it lay. These struck me:

 

 

 

 

 

Sad and humous from John Toole's Confederacy of Dunces:

 

 

 

'What you mumbling about in there, boy?' his mother asked through the closed door.

 

 

 

'I am praying,' Ignatius answered angrily.

 

 

 

'I think it's wonderful you praying, babe. I been wondering what you do locked up in there all the time.'

 

 

 

'Please go away! Ignatius screamed. 'You're shattering my religious ectasy."

 

 

 

 

 

Walker Percy asks in The Last Gentleman

 

 

 

"Is it possible to come to believe in Christ and the whole thing and afterwards be more hateful than before?"

 

 

 

 

 

Flannery O'Connor from her letters on beat poets (written in 1959, near their zenith):

 

 

 

"Certainly some revolt against our exaggerated materialism is long overdue. They seem to know a good many of the right things to run away from, but to lack any necessary discipline. They call themselves holy but holiness costs and so far as I can see they pay nothing. It's true that grace is the free gift of God but in order to put yourself in the way of being receptive to it you have to practice self-denial. As long as the beat people abandon themselves to all sensuation satisfactions, on principle, you can't take them for anything but false mystics. A good look at St. John of the Cross makes them all look sick."

 

 

 

 

 

And another striking comment:

 

 

 

"If any of my kin take to reading Freud or Dostoevsky in their old age, I am going to leave home..."

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 11:16 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting commentary from yesterday's NY Times on why people want to write novels...

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:20 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Long criss-cross rows of

 

 

 

cut-path grass

 

 

 

sun-kissed and dew-blissed

 

 

 

long gravel-winding drives

 

 

 

carrying the scent of life

 

 

 

sandalled and happy

 

 

 

full of pregnant meanings

 

 

 

and fullsome silences

 

 

 

meadows ripe for the ransacking

 

 

 

expansive lawns of dotted picnic tables

 

 

 

buttercup’d fields ground-swollen with bees

 

 

 

robed, ribbed grasses heather-high

 

 

 

glib crickets and harrumping toads

 

 

 

while the plaintive horizon hangs

 

 

 

with unshed tears.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 2:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 28, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Silly Saturday...a weekly ficitional foray

 

 

 

When I was very young I worked in John Quincy Adams’ administration as a quill-fetcher. My job was to keep the President supplied with quills and ink. "To Patagonia!" he would oft cry, when the demands of the office grew too heavy. "To Patagonia, there my rescue be effected!". When he was especially disturbed he would add, "Get me to my livery!", and to the horses we would fly, scent of clover rising in our nostrils.

 

 

 

 

 

Adams would often enough go to Massachusettes where he would find succuor in the clapboard walls of a simple Unitarian church. He would ascend the lectern and read from the Holy Books.

 

 

 

He regularly called former President Monroe for advice and counsel. Often it was for betting advice. The greyhounds ran every Thursday, and he knew little about dogs. Monroe’s clipped British accent gave away his patrician background. He was of the last vestige of the founders while Adams was part of the next generation. Adams always thought the accent was feigned and resented it.

 

 

 

 

 

I rubbed shoulders with Calhoun and Clay by way of Adams. Not to mention his crotchety old father who thumbed Thucydides greedily, cider at his elbow. Calhoun loomed as a bellicose presence, smart as a whip, with a deep, resourceful pride that occasionally frothed like a oil spigot. Clay was more concillatory. Clay’s eye for the ladies once got him in trouble. He said "physical intimacy, like political office, should not be sought, nor declined". His wife pulled a Ruth Buzzi on him after that, and women had lots more in their purses back then (folded-up hoop skirts are extremely heavy).

 

 

 

Calhoun’s wounded, deep-set eyes put fear in me. "Slavery is natural. The ancient Greeks and the Roman Republic both had slavery". I shuddered - if he thought that way, how could not the entire South?

 

 

 

 

 

"If this brilliant Yale-educated Southern leader feels this way.." Adams’ voice trailed off. "Oh why must all the great orators be Southern?".

 

 

 

 

 

I mumbled something about the nature of the Cavalier culture and the oral tradition of the South but I soon gathered it was merely a rhetorical question.

 

 

 

 

 

"The devil’s greatest ploy is to convince that ‘it is natural’," I said. "That is the most compelling of his lies."

 

 

 

 

 

Adams played with the stubble of his chin-beard.

 

 

 

 

 

"Yes, men are comfortable with the natural, feeling it from God and therefore without culpability."

 

 

 

 

 

"Conveniently ignoring the Fall, of course."

 

 

 

"Yes…forgetting that what feels natural to fallen man is different from the natural to prelapsarian Man..My you are a precocious one. How old are you?"

 

 

 

 

 

"I’ll be ten next month."

 

 

 

 

 

"My word."

 

 

 

 

 

We lapsed into a thoughtful silence while he chewed his fine Virginian cigar.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 1:22 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relativities

 

 

 

I think of the pagans

 

 

 

their Norse mythologies

 

 

 

like children coloring

 

 

 

drawings sometimes resembling truth.

 

 

 

They who've not the Light mutely ask

 

 

 

'why should they have difficulties'?

 

 

 

 

 

Rich in Revelation

 

 

 

but never satisfied

 

 

 

expecting push-button answers

 

 

 

and neon clarity

 

 

 

sense-confirmations

 

 

 

and hard-slate certainities.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:13 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 27, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Friday

 

 

 

Beneath branches

 

 

 

Mystic of the mesotherm,

 

 

 

watcher of north wind darkening day,

 

 

 

he walks beneath arching branches;

 

 

 

a folly of leaves paves his path :

 

 

 

trees blush,

 

 

 

as if his will brought boorish gusts to bear upon this place

 

 

 

and rendered it repentant, rougissant --

 

 

 

his hope hastened hither the tempers of wuther and whack,

 

 

 

of botherbuss and bluster :

 

 

 

declamations of the light's decline.

 

 

 

- © 1991, 2002 by dylan_tm618

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:04 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boffo quotes from GS's Blog

 

 

 

In heaven there are no upright, successful types who, by dint of their own integrity, have been accepted into the great country club in the sky. There are only failures, only those who have accepted their death in their sins and who have been raised up by the King who himself died that they might live. -Robert Farrar Capon

 

 

 

 

 

Any soul, even laden with sins, captive in its vices, held by its pleasure, imprisoned in its exile, locked up in its body, nailed to its worries, distracted by its concerns, frozen by its fears, struck by manifold sufferings, going from error to error, eaten up by anxiety, ravaged by suspicion, a stranger in a strange land, and counted with those who go down to hell -- every soul, I say, in spite of its damnation and despair, can still find reasons not only to hope for forgiveness and mercy but even dare to aspire to the nuptials of the Word: as long as it does not dare to sign a covenant with God, and to place itself under the yoke of love.... For the Bridegroom is not only a lover: he is Love. You will say: yes, but also is he not honor? Some affirm this: as to myself, I never read anything of that kind. I have read that God is Love. - St Bernard.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 2:42 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can still hear, faintly but hauntingly, the faith profession of Sean Roberts of Swimming the Tiber, reciting the Nicene Creed to his parents. Hard not to get a lump in one's throat. Prepared with notes he'd written, including: I want you to know that the church believes, and I believe in a way that I never before thought possible, in [at this point, recite the Apostles Creed].

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:43 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eucharistic Adoration - the Answer?

 

 

 

 

 

The earliest records of the Blessed Sacrament being preserved in the Church are from the 4th century. By the 8th century the practice spanned continents and cultures.

 

 

 

 

 

St. Francis is credited with beginning adoration of the Blessed Sacrament outside of Mass in an attempt to draw the faithful's attention to the abiding presence of Christ dwelling among us....In more recent times, Mother Theresa was a strong advocate of Eucharistic Adoration and felt very strongly that it was a means of conversion and reform....There are youth movements that have adopted the Eucharistic Adoration as a focus for conversion and holiness... - from our church newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

Uh, St. Francis....Mother Teresa...? Can any spiritual practice have a better pedigree? I'm convinced. Sign me up! I think this is the answer - the balm of Gilead. In some ways I feel closer during E.A. than the Eucharist because of the quiet and privacy and length of time given during EA as compared to the Mass.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 9:21 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poem Found at the Confluence of Fotos & Babelfish*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

evocative of their childhood chaqueña

 

 

 

 

 

in the gallery of Flowery street 681

 

 

 

in the center of Buenos Aires

 

 

 

lowering the stairs

 

 

 

by the general have gone away by clouds

 

 

 

but serves to appreciate of what treats.

 

 

 

 

 

I ran into one of those gratuitous recitales

 

 

 

with a conjuntito of tango

 

 

 

those "bitter" cortazianos personages

 

 

 

apostatized of the humanity and the cosmos

 

 

 

 

 

as consolation and psychic food

 

 

 

to prevail and to affect, through the elegance

 

 

 

of here cerquita and yesterday just

 

 

 

to ayunar as God commands.

 

 

 

 

 

- Hernan Gonzalez and TS O'Rama

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

* - while putting Fotos del Apocalipsis' site thru the BabelFish translator, I came upon wonderously strange, fragrant phrases that have a certain innocent brokenness to them while also possessing the exoticness of the foreign (i.e. the occasional untranslateable word which often enough "fits" anyway). None of the words in the poem are my own; only the arrangement of the phrases.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:41 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 26, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beating the EWTN horse...groaners for all

 

 

 

20,000 Leagues under the (Holy) See

 

 

 

Modernist on a Hot Tin Roof

 

 

 

Forgiven

 

 

 

I Love St. Lucy

 

 

 

Gone With the Second Vatican Council

 

 

 

Coal Miner's Lay Aposolate

 

 

 

Swiss Guards: Men in Tights

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That horse must be glue by now.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 10:34 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proverbs 21: 1-6, 10-13 & Prov. 3:27

 

 

 

Like a stream is the king's heart in the hand of the Lord; wherever it pleases him, he directs it.

 

 

 

To do what is right and just is more acceptable than sacrifice.

 

 

 

Refuse no one the good on which he/she has a claim . . .

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:55 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 25, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are probably words addressed to our condition exactly, which, if we could really hear and understand, would be more salutary than the morning or the spring to our lives, and possibly put a new aspect on the face of things for us. How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book! The book exists for us, perchance, which will explain our miracles and reveal new ones. - Thoreau

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:50 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For a friend, whose rather eccentric definition of life is that "which cannot be frozen and unfrozen and live."

 

 

 

Geneticist Lejeune talk at the Louisiana State Legislature.

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 3:42 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gems from C.S. Lewis' "The Problem of Pain"

 

 

 

The golden apple of selfhood, thrown among the false gods, became an apple of discord because they scrambled for it. They did not know the first rule of the holy game, which is that every player must by all means touch the ball and then immediately pass it on. To be found with it in your hands is a fault: to cling to it, death. But when it flies to and fro among the players too swift for the eye to follow, and the great master Himself leads the revelry, giving Himself eternally to His creatures in the generation, and back to Himself in the sacrifice, of the Word, then indeed the eternal dance 'makes heaven drowsy with the harmony'.

 

 

 

 

 

Always it has summoned you out of yourself...if you attempt to cherish it, the desire itself will evade you. 'The door into life generally opens behind us', and 'the only wisdom' for one 'haunted with the scent of unseen roses, is work' (G. MacDonald). This secret fire goes out when you use the bellows: bank it down with what seems unlikely fuel of dogma and ethics, and then it will blaze.

 

 

 

 

 

"God loveth not Himself as Himself but as Goodness; and if there were aught better than God, He would love that and not Himself" (Theol. Germ., XXXII)

 

 

 

- CS Lewis, "The Problem of Pain"

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 12:58 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Methinks the Americanist Protesteth Too Much

 

 

 

The contraception discussion on Amy's blog is riveting. I can add little other than:

 

 

 

 

 

* That something was prohibited for the wrong reasons does not necessarily mean that what was prohibited was not prohibitive (in God's eye). Ha. In other words, the reasoning behind decision-making is not binding, while the dogma is. I'm unsympathetic to attempts to say that JPIIs reasoning for sticking with NFP is that he would have to admit the Church was "wrong". God writes straight with crooked lines.

 

 

 

 

 

* I'm also unsympathetic to those who would say that the Church contradicted herself. To those outside the Christian faith, the bible appears to be contradictory. It's not surprising the Church would appear to also, to those outside the fold. In fact, we should expect that. God allows the free will of even popes to extend to the very cliff-edge of apostasy. The fact that there are 20,000 Christian denominations suggests the bible is not patently obvious. Why should we be shocked that Church teachings are not patently obvious?

 

 

 

posted by Thomas O'Rama @ 4:57 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 23, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting post from Dappled Things on the liturgical

 

 

 

obedience of Americans versus Europeans.

 

 

 

That is the liturgical ideal (and maybe I'll blog on

 

 

 

that some other day). In a perfect situation, that's

 

 

 

what would happen. I think my problem (one shared by

 

 

 

plenty of American Catholics of whatever stripe) was

 

 

 

to absolutize that ideal and to forget that the

 

 

 

Liturgy exists in the midst of a living People who

 

 

 

have lived the Mass for centuries.

 

 

 

 

 

There is a funny book (bestseller in Italy) by an

 

 

 

Italian who is quite familiar with the U.S. and writes

 

 

 

about the "culture shock". He says that what amazed

 

 

 

him was how seriously and innocently Americans treat

 

 

 

traffic signs and laws. He says that in Italy, every

 

 

 

law, stop sign, traffic light is to be individually

 

 

 

interpreted. The Italian (and perhaps this is a

 

 

 

European trait) considers if this red stop light is

 

 

 

meant for him personally and for this situation. If

 

 

 

there is no traffic, he rides on thru. The author is

 

 

 

amazed that Americans wait at red lights even though

 

 

 

there is no traffic.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:37 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flos Carmeli has a nice review of Amy Welborn's "Book

 

 

 

of Saints". I recently bought this book for my niece.

 

 

 

I hope she likes it.

 

 

 

 

 

There was a time my stepson wouldn't pick up the bible

 

 

 

or CS Lewis or Chesterton or anything with the "taint"

 

 

 

of religion, he would and did pick up a book on

 

 

 

saints. He had watched a movie about a saint and

 

 

 

became interested enough to peruse my library and,

 

 

 

without any prompting from me (though surely the Holy

 

 

 

Spirit), he picked up and read one of my books on

 

 

 

saints. The attraction, of course, is their idealism

 

 

 

and uncompromising love for God as shown by their

 

 

 

actions. That is so attractive in this world of

 

 

 

political expediency and "reasonableness". The

 

 

 

authenticity is what he thirsts for, and the saints

 

 

 

had it.

 

 

 

 

 

But if we're honest I think there's also a gothic

 

 

 

element in many saint's books that can make the

 

 

 

stories intrinsically interesting to today's kids. By

 

 

 

gothic, I mean some of the more purient martyr stories

 

 

 

that involve violence - the flaying of the flesh or

 

 

 

repeated attempts to kill, etc. Those stories will

 

 

 

grab the interest of kids - as does the exhibition of

 

 

 

saint's relics. I haven't read Amy's book yet, but I

 

 

 

hope she hasn't "tamed down" the stories and removed

 

 

 

the more estoteric, even weird stuff since that may

 

 

 

attract the kids initially. As I recall, "Butler's

 

 

 

Lives of Saints" didn't pull any punches. But what do

 

 

 

I know? Amy taught school for years and is more hip to

 

 

 

what kids want than me!

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:47 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Der-Hovanessian Offering

 

 

 

How to Grow a Sailor

 

 

 

 

 

Let the children be held

 

 

 

Around the waist

 

 

 

As they float on placid

 

 

 

Water. Let them shout:

 

 

 

Let go. Let go,

 

 

 

Full of trust

 

 

 

Of liquid light.

 

 

 

 

 

Let them grow up

 

 

 

In love with depth

 

 

 

And mystery. Let them

 

 

 

Float over nights

 

 

 

Raked by a metallic moon.

 

 

 

 

 

Let them go to sleep

 

 

 

Hearing old stories

 

 

 

Of islands reached

 

 

 

Only by full blown sails.

 

 

 

- Diana Der-Hovanessian

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:30 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tell me, what precisely is the magic that adheres to

 

 

 

the phrase "place to myself"? And why when I do a

 

 

 

search on Google, it returns over 19 screen-full of

 

 

 

hits? Is there some message in that? Do we desperately

 

 

 

seek family only in order to relish the few times we

 

 

 

have the "place to ourselves"?

 

 

 

 

 

First 20 or so Example of Google Hits on the phrase

 

 

 

"place to myself":

 

 

 

I nearly had the place to myself

 

 

 

I had the whole place to myself.

 

 

 

I am looking for a room of my own in a shared place or

 

 

 

a place to myself

 

 

 

by chain of events I did have the place to myself

 

 

 

I have the place to myself

 

 

 

I almost had the place to myself

 

 

 

I'm at home with the place to myself

 

 

 

had the entire place to myself

 

 

 

But I finally, for the first time in...EVER, I have a

 

 

 

place to myself

 

 

 

And again I had the place to myself

 

 

 

And then I think, "I have this place to myself", and I

 

 

 

start to feel much better.

 

 

 

I am back to having the place to myself

 

 

 

I was in luck, I had the place to myself.

 

 

 

I FINALLY have my place to myself

 

 

 

After a while, I'll forget what it was like to have

 

 

 

the place to myself

 

 

 

I know exactly how you were feeling, I love when I

 

 

 

have the place to myself and I make it clean and it

 

 

 

smells good and my dinner is for me, big salad, YUM.

 

 

 

Of course, I've had the place to myself all summer,

 

 

 

but I still really love that.

 

 

 

Luckily, I had the place to myself

 

 

 

Not that I don't want a boyfriend, but at the same

 

 

 

time it's nice to have the place to myself...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:46 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 21, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minutiae....

 

 

 

One of the more inane yet joyous-songs of all time?

 

 

 

"I love to laugh" - from the Mary Poppins soundtrack.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:18 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our dog Obi (aka 'Budja') in the Water*

 

 

 

 

 

No more a weirder sight than Budja, with his thick,

 

 

 

muscular 100lb body, furiously defying sinking in the

 

 

 

water. No more odd sight than our doggie in a strange

 

 

 

environment, left to his own instinctive devices,

 

 

 

there in mid-Lake Hope.

 

 

 

 

 

Yet there he be, big as life, surfing the surface,

 

 

 

attemping to levitate his ungainly dog-body atop the

 

 

 

water.

 

 

 

 

 

Looks like he’s working too hard, I feel sorry for

 

 

 

him. He’s huffing and puffing, stream-linin’ towards

 

 

 

you like a bead on a wire, but then abruptly he turns

 

 

 

tail and runs back to shore like his lungs are burnin’

 

 

 

or something.

 

 

 

 

 

But I recall his flared nostrils coming at me like two

 

 

 

steam engines and how cool it was that he seemed

 

 

 

"worried" that daddy was too far in Lake Hope. Dang, I

 

 

 

thought, he’s worse than Mom.

 

 

 

 

 

So there was Budj, not content with a duckless lake,

 

 

 

still ready to go aquatic, pacing the ship’s bow &

 

 

 

stern like a nervous new father.

 

 

 

 

 

Budj in the water is like a football player on a

 

 

 

baseball diamond, like a professional wrestler in a

 

 

 

ballet, like a guitar at the symphony. Yet his

 

 

 

enthusiasm was enough to carry the day.

 

 

 

 

 

* - self-indulgent post alert

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:17 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The View from the Core has a good post on comments.

 

 

 

I have no tolerance whatever for blogroaches.

 

 

 

I agree. I cringe at some of the mean-spirited

 

 

 

comments on Amy's blog & others. Fortunately, some of

 

 

 

the more "tidepool" blogs have an audience who don't

 

 

 

seem as intent on shedding heat...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 20, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Ninth Century Irish Poem:

 

 

 

The Scholar and his Cat

 

 

 

I and Pangur Ban my cat

 

 

 

‘tis a like task we are at:

 

 

 

Hunting mice is his delight,

 

 

 

Hunting words I sit all night

 

 

 

 

 

Better far than praise of men

 

 

 

‘Tis to sit with book and pen;

 

 

 

Pangur bears me no ill will

 

 

 

He too plies his simple skill.

 

 

 

 

 

‘Tis a merry thing to see

 

 

 

At our tasks how glad are we,

 

 

 

When at home we sit and find

 

 

 

Entertainment to our mind.

 

 

 

 

 

Oftentimes a mouse will stray

 

 

 

In the hero Pangur’s way;

 

 

 

Oftentimes my keen thought set

 

 

 

Takes a meaning in it’s net.

 

 

 

 

 

‘Gainst the wall he sets his eye

 

 

 

Full and fierce and sharp and sly;

 

 

 

‘Gainst the wall of knowledge I

 

 

 

All my little wisdom try.

 

 

 

 

 

When a mouse darts from its den

 

 

 

O how glad is Pangur then!

 

 

 

O what gladness do I prove

 

 

 

When I solve the doubts I love!

 

 

 

 

 

So in peace our tasks we ply,

 

 

 

Pangur Ban, my cat and I;

 

 

 

in our arts we find our bliss,

 

 

 

I have mine and he has his.

 

 

 

 

 

Practice every day has made

 

 

 

Pangur perfect in his trade

 

 

 

I get wisdom day and night

 

 

 

Turning darkness into light. - anonymous

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:12 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nihil Obstat Take Note

 

 

 

....or how two egregious misspellings could change the

 

 

 

world

 

 

 

 

 

There is, at least in the Google universe, only one

 

 

 

website which contains the misspelled words

 

 

 

'languoruous' and 'appropos'. This one. And this was

 

 

 

the pathway of one visitor, who apparently likes to

 

 

 

spell things the way I do, and who just might've

 

 

 

clicked on Flos or Disputations or Dylan, or who

 

 

 

might've clicked on Peter Kreeft's site and become a

 

 

 

convert to Christianity, sired a devout son who became

 

 

 

a priest - a priest who eventually became the first

 

 

 

Pope from America, which led to the conversion of the

 

 

 

U.S., which led to a revival in Europe, which led

 

 

 

to...

 

 

 

 

 

Or maybe he just said, 'what the...' and clicked away

 

 

 

thinking, 'that dude can't spell'.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:07 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

....sigh

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:00 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By way of preface, this poet writes about the little

 

 

 

known holocaust of Armenia and ensuing diaspora when

 

 

 

thousands of children became orphans and the skies

 

 

 

were littered with the ashes of burning books - used

 

 

 

for fuel.

 

 

 

 

 

Recycling

 

 

 

’What day will you have back again’

 

 

 

Antranig Zarougian wrote,

 

 

 

‘on your dying day,

 

 

 

if it were given, if it were given

 

 

 

to relive again?"

 

 

 

 

 

"Not my wedding day,

 

 

 

he answered himself. "Not the day

 

 

 

of the birth of my child.

 

 

 

Not the hour of my greatest success.

 

 

 

But one day from my lost

 

 

 

Childhood. Any day."

 

 

 

"Don’t choose a special day"

 

 

 

Thornton Wilder advised.

 

 

 

"An ordinary day

 

 

 

will be extraordinary enough."

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the day,

 

 

 

Driving rolling along

 

 

 

Not cut down, smiling in the sun

 

 

 

The day we’ll have back.

 

 

 

by Diana Der-Hovanessian

 

 

 

 

 

I found a book of this poet in the "Gotham Book Mart"

 

 

 

(with the slogan 'Wise Men Fish Here') in the diamond

 

 

 

district of Manhattan. She is wonderful; I'll have to

 

 

 

share more.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:49 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 19, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the name of this blog:

 

 

 

http://suburbanbanshee.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

 

There's a sort of oxymoronic quality to it. And do you

 

 

 

get more Irish than "Maureen O'Brien"? Sounds like

 

 

 

something out of The Quiet Man.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Fiesole of Disputations has an intriguing

 

 

 

policy...

 

 

 

The Fiesole Policy is simply this:

 

 

 

I am wiser than the people I am older than.

 

 

 

 

 

It recalls the old saying: "Young men say more than

 

 

 

they know. The middle-aged tell what they know. Old

 

 

 

men tell less than they know."

 

 

 

 

 

Think of the advantages of being young and stupid. You

 

 

 

are constantly learning! And everyone you meet has

 

 

 

something to offer you. (We've all met persons with a

 

 

 

sub-70 IQ with beatific smiles, who are

 

 

 

preternaturally nice and likewise know a few high-IQ

 

 

 

curmugeons.) With knowledge and age comes a greater

 

 

 

demand for virtue, in the sense that you are in a

 

 

 

position of giving rather than receiving. I'm not sure

 

 

 

there is anything I can offer our learned Dominican,

 

 

 

Fr. Hayes conversationally speaking. I can't give him

 

 

 

some insight into the gospel he hasn't heard before,

 

 

 

or some piece of wisdom he hasn't already read. If we

 

 

 

spoke, it would be either small talk or some pearl of

 

 

 

knowledge from him. In other words, I am dependent on

 

 

 

his largesse in terms of sitting down and having a

 

 

 

conversation. He must either suffer my small talk or

 

 

 

suffer a question he's already heard a million times.

 

 

 

 

 

A friend of mine still hangs out with singles who are

 

 

 

a few years younger than him. He eats lunch with them

 

 

 

once a month, but says he really doesn't want to

 

 

 

anymore. The conversation is banal. "All they talk

 

 

 

about is where they are going, where they just were or

 

 

 

who they are meeting later this week. Or celebrities."

 

 

 

The universe of "interesting things" seems to shrink

 

 

 

as one ages, since my friend (and I commiserate) can

 

 

 

no longer feign interest in the latest sitcom.

 

 

 

Religion tends to dwarf other subjects of interest

 

 

 

such as sports. But are we not poorer for having less

 

 

 

in common with our fellow man, even if it is fluff?

 

 

 

Natural affection wanes and true love must take its

 

 

 

place.

 

 

 

"I went to a doctor of philosophy

 

 

 

with a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his

 

 

 

knees

 

 

 

he never did marry

 

 

 

or see a B-grade movie

 

 

 

he graded my performance

 

 

 

I swear he could see through me - Indigo Girls song

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:52 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How we can know the way A Greek philosopher, (and the

 

 

 

usual Chinese wise person of histories...) would have

 

 

 

answered something as "there is no a way" or "you must

 

 

 

find it yourself", etc. Or simple and a humble "I

 

 

 

don't know'". Jesus however says this enormidad: "I am

 

 

 

the way, the truth and the life "answering Thomas..

 

 

 

and Pilate, and all. (excuse the Spanglish) from fotos

 

 

 

del apocalipsis

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:37 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting comment on the Mother Blog (Amy)

 

 

 

[Sullivan writes] -"Personally, I've never been

 

 

 

embarassed by the presence of physical miracles in the

 

 

 

Gospels and believe them. But my own faith certainly

 

 

 

doesn't rest on the need for such manifestations of

 

 

 

divine power. For growing numbers of people, however,

 

 

 

miracles are integral to the conversion experience and

 

 

 

the lived faith. Just as in Jesus' time."

 

 

 

 

 

Another quotation comes to mind: "The jews want a

 

 

 

sign; the greeks demand wisdom." Like Sullivan, I find

 

 

 

myself in the greek camp on this and think the Church

 

 

 

provides wisdom sufficient for faith.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:34 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TS O'Rama's Email Etiquette

 

 

 

 

 

We have a new email policy. Please take note.

 

 

 

 

 

All emails will forwarded to a lay committee, who will

 

 

 

determine the intent of the sender and consider how

 

 

 

private the correspondence was intended to be. The

 

 

 

party of the first part (moi) will receive the

 

 

 

recommendation and then review said email - parse it,

 

 

 

interpret it, deconstruct it, re-construct it,

 

 

 

post-construct it - and then make a judgement on its

 

 

 

publishability. An appeals process is still in the

 

 

 

works.

 

 

 

 

 

All of this, of course, is contingent on my actually

 

 

 

receiving an email. I'll never forget my first blog

 

 

 

email. I had been bloggin' away for a little over two

 

 

 

months, relishing my lil' tidepool, when my first

 

 

 

email comes across. Whoa! Look at this! With tremblin'

 

 

 

hands I clicked to it and opened it up, wondering what

 

 

 

I might've said that would provoke such an extreme

 

 

 

thing as the sending an email.

 

 

 

 

 

"Can you change your background color? It's too dark

 

 

 

for my computer." *

 

 

 

 

 

Ahhh...music to my ears.

 

 

 

 

 

* this email transcription was not sent to the lay

 

 

 

committee. All emails prior to Sept 19 08:20:18 GMT

 

 

 

have been grandfathered in.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:33 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great posts from Steven Riddle on various & sundry

 

 

 

including:

 

 

 

.....Scripture no longer is a vehicle for entering into

 

 

 

prayer, it is an elaborate complex of semantic games,

 

 

 

archaeological discussions, historical-critical

 

 

 

methods, and any number of other pieces of scholarly

 

 

 

folderol that serve only to keep me from the core of

 

 

 

what I should be doing. That said, I have to say that

 

 

 

there are many of substantially different personality

 

 

 

who may be able to integrate these things seamlessly

 

 

 

into a glorious and beautiful faith-life.

 

 

 

 

 

That is part of my fascination with Scott Hahn and my

 

 

 

own learned Dominican friar Fr. Hayes. They can swim

 

 

 

in the muck and mire of the historical-critical

 

 

 

commentary and come out smilin' on the other side! Of

 

 

 

course one can never judge another's heart, but both

 

 

 

appear to have this wonderful heart-head connection

 

 

 

that Aquinas and Augustine had. How envious I am! That

 

 

 

would seem to be the way it should be, the way we were

 

 

 

designed. Faith and reason side-by-side in glorious

 

 

 

company. On the other hand, if one must choose, choose

 

 

 

the heart! For Aquinas' vision stands as a warning to

 

 

 

us all: all his writings were as straw compared to

 

 

 

Love.

 

 

 

 

 

Frank Sheed, of "Theology & Sanity" fame had some very

 

 

 

interesting things to say about the knowledge of God

 

 

 

and love of God. I'll have to quote him.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:21 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've read with interest the commentary on Andrew

 

 

 

Sullivan....When my wife and I were practicing

 

 

 

artificial birth control I still received the

 

 

 

Eucharist but always felt "tainted". I felt like there

 

 

 

was something wrong, even though 80% of Catholics use

 

 

 

the pill. Well how much worse must a practicing

 

 

 

homosexual feel! The disconnect must be surreal, so I

 

 

 

can understand Sullivan's desire to have the Church

 

 

 

change. The sex drive cannot be overestimated. It is

 

 

 

often, surreptiously or overtly, the organizing

 

 

 

principle around which our philosophies are arranged.

 

 

 

Thus for the person who is promiscuous the Church is,

 

 

 

definitionally, wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

The problem is that we moderns cannot hold together

 

 

 

the fact that something we do regularly could be

 

 

 

intrinsically wrong. It's a problem with authority,

 

 

 

naturally, but it could also be a lack of humility in

 

 

 

not being able to say, "even if I can't personally do

 

 

 

fill-in-the-blank, I will recognize that I am the one

 

 

 

that is wrong and not the Church". A friend laughed

 

 

 

when we started NFP saying, "you'll change your

 

 

 

opinion after your fourth kid", implying not only that

 

 

 

it wouldn't work but that we would change our minds on

 

 

 

the rightness of it. I said that it was true, we might

 

 

 

not be able to handle it, but that it would still be

 

 

 

wrong. But would I? Would I give up the Eucharist in

 

 

 

that case? I would have to recognize that I could not

 

 

 

live up to the standards but not to move the standard.

 

 

 

To be in the state of mortal sin is intolerable, so

 

 

 

perhaps we would all do the same thing - find someone

 

 

 

to tell us what we so long to hear - that we are in

 

 

 

the state of grace.

 

 

 

 

 

I have much more of a problem with Garry Wills and

 

 

 

John Cornwall and Fr. McBrien then Andrew Sullivan.

 

 

 

They (presumably) don't have the sex drive in the way.

 

 

 

And their credibility is higher than Sullivan's, who

 

 

 

has honestly admitted his homosexuality and somewhat

 

 

 

undermined his agenda. I empathize with Sullivan -

 

 

 

he's held together somewhat fragilely. His much

 

 

 

publicized bouts of horrible depression must make him

 

 

 

think that sexual activity will keep those demons

 

 

 

away.

 

 

 

 

 

Ultimately perhaps it comes down to a lack of trust -

 

 

 

faith - that God will not give us more than we can

 

 

 

handle, as St. Paul says. Second, a belief that

 

 

 

universal norms can be held to universally. And third,

 

 

 

the faith that even if the laws of the Church did not

 

 

 

lead to optimum mental and physical health we still

 

 

 

must follow. A perhaps flippant example of this last

 

 

 

point is when my evangelical friend showed me an

 

 

 

article which said that "looking at woman's breasts

 

 

 

for five to ten minutes a day lowers a man's blood

 

 

 

pressure" and promotes health, wealth, and longevity,

 

 

 

blah-blah-blah. Well that's not an option. And

 

 

 

besides, those studies are always wrong.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:54 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Powerful Advice from Justin @ catholicconvert.com

 

 

 

"It is a simple fact. If you study apologetics for too

 

 

 

long without the proper frame of mind, your

 

 

 

relationship with God goes to the dumps! Don't deny

 

 

 

it... you know exactly what I am talking about. Where

 

 

 

God becomes more of something you argue about than a

 

 

 

Being with whom you have a relationship. It is really

 

 

 

sad... REALLY sad. When you read Scripture, instead

 

 

 

soaking in the pure word of God for YOU to grow with,

 

 

 

you search for lofty and profound verses to support

 

 

 

your "argument."

 

 

 

 

 

It is at that time that something good, has turned to

 

 

 

a work of Satan Himself! God doesn't want us to know

 

 

 

about Him, He wants us to KNOW Him! At the Grotto in

 

 

 

Portland, every year they have the "Festival of

 

 

 

Lights." Thousands of people come to hear choirs sing

 

 

 

every day from all faith traditions, and to see an

 

 

 

awesome light display... While there a few days before

 

 

 

Chirstmas with my family, we were listening to a chior

 

 

 

from the "Church of Christ." They were very good. Of

 

 

 

course there were many Protestants there. My mother

 

 

 

wispered into my ear, "I wonder what they all think

 

 

 

about the 'Mary stuff'?" At that point I smiled,

 

 

 

looked up at the Blessed Mother, and whispered back,

 

 

 

"Mom... it really doesn't matter what they think about

 

 

 

Her."

 

 

 

 

 

For a long time now I have found myself moving out of

 

 

 

the "argument" stage of my study; the stage were God

 

 

 

and His teachings are things one simply argues about

 

 

 

and a relationship with Him becomes secondary.

 

 

 

Apologetics can be an Idol... and most let it get to

 

 

 

that stage for a time--even if they don't realize it.

 

 

 

 

 

Since the summer, I haven't read one book dealing with

 

 

 

apologetics and very little by way of theology. When I

 

 

 

have read Scripture, it has been simply because God is

 

 

 

in it and He wrote it, so out of love for Him, I want

 

 

 

to know more about Him. I haven't read it with the

 

 

 

desire to "know" the right arguments. Instead, I have

 

 

 

spent time with God and when I read, I read the works

 

 

 

of St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, St.

 

 

 

Therese, and others who's simplicity and love for God

 

 

 

is FAR more profound than all the books of theology

 

 

 

and apologetics to be found in all the world ....

 

 

 

combined!

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to recommened to you all a book called,

 

 

 

"The Soul of the Apostolate." It is addressed to those

 

 

 

who engage in evangelization work and it will tear you

 

 

 

down and build you up again. Be Still and Know that He

 

 

 

is God, Justin"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:31 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 18, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Verweile doch, du bist so schön...

 

 

 

Linger awhile, for you are so beautiful.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:32 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is cool - I got linked on this Spanish site! It

 

 

 

appears to be the Paul VI paragraph & the Muggeridge

 

 

 

quote:

 

 

 

 

 

De un post de TS O'Rama, de Video meliora, proboque;

 

 

 

Deteriora sequor :

 

 

 

.... [el sentido de la oportunidad de Pablo VI]:

 

 

 

promulgar la Humanae Vitae justo en el peor momento de

 

 

 

la historia occidental...

 

 

 

 

 

Not only is the author of this site (Hernan) fluent in

 

 

 

at least two languages, but the site design is

 

 

 

extremely attractive (Steve Riddle's is easy on the

 

 

 

eye too).

 

 

 

 

 

My stepson is in Mexico (about 40 miles from Mexico

 

 

 

City) for a Spanish-immersion program affiliated with

 

 

 

Ohio State. He'll be there ten weeks...He'll be

 

 

 

visiting the Guadalupe shrine as part of the program,

 

 

 

which just flat out amazes me. I went with a church

 

 

 

group there two years ago, and never in my wildest

 

 

 

dreams did I think my stepson would end up there! He's

 

 

 

not Catholic and struggles with Christianity in

 

 

 

general. Please pray for him and that my poor example

 

 

 

be not an obstacle to his conversion.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:20 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tell me truly, I implore:

 

 

 

Is there--is there balm in Gilead?--tell me--tell me I

 

 

 

implore!"

 

 

 

- Edgar A. Poe "The Raven"

 

 

 

 

 

the Master Egalitarian

 

 

 

To the swamps where knowledge lay

 

 

 

mosquitoes breed and rile

 

 

 

existential questions importune

 

 

 

every itch West Nile.

 

 

 

 

 

For thou hast hid these things

 

 

 

from the wise and clever,

 

 

 

yet revealed them unto babes

 

 

 

till thou be our heart's endeavour.

 

 

 

 

 

To Humility's seat we go

 

 

 

- for that which once was lost

 

 

 

Knowledge is a spring no more

 

 

 

but carries a humble cost.

 

 

 

 

 

Dwelt there in the half-light

 

 

 

sweet Jerusalem's Psalm

 

 

 

dare we demand before the Throne

 

 

 

Gilead's righteous Balm?

 

 

 

 

 

I was thinking when I wrote this how we have to submit

 

 

 

our intellect to God, and must accept the perpetual

 

 

 

half-light that even the saints walked in...The fact

 

 

 

that the saints walked in the half-light makes it so

 

 

 

much easier - who am I compared to them?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:14 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 17, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going thru old writings and found this....imagine if

 

 

 

William F. Buckley had a blog!

 

 

 

 

 

Professor Galbraith upbraided me yesterday for my

 

 

 

suggestion that our sojourns to Geneva be shortened to

 

 

 

six weeks. He chided thusly: 'Oh it's to be Denmark on

 

 

 

Tuesday, Belgium on Wednesday, eh?'"

 

 

 

Posted by WFB 2:35pm May 6, 2002

 

 

 

Survived 'Frontier House' on PBS, the premise of which

 

 

 

was to see how three modern families might fare in the

 

 

 

Montana wilds, circa 1880. A thought: Mrs. Glenn could

 

 

 

travel the summer Shakespeare circuit as the Bard's

 

 

 

'Katherina' and be eminently believeable...

 

 

 

Posted by WFB 10:48pm May 5, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

Rich and the kids seem to be doing well at NRO. Rich

 

 

 

informs me that he and Mr. Dreher have to shave now

 

 

 

and no longer get carded regularly when purchasing

 

 

 

alcohol. Jonah, like the Beatles, appears to be in his

 

 

 

'dark phase', probably due to his recent marriage to

 

 

 

Yoko. I've been told that even 'serious' adults are

 

 

 

compulsively reading 'The Corner'. Would it be

 

 

 

uncharitable to suggest that they could find a better

 

 

 

use for their time?

 

 

 

Posted by WFB 6:28pm May 5, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

Many "blogs" display a disdain for civil discourse

 

 

 

and, to the extent they say anything at all, say it

 

 

 

rather coarsely. This ensilage of words in great

 

 

 

quantities evinces the current 'quantity over quality'

 

 

 

zeitgeist and beg imprecisions such as the use of the

 

 

 

word 'blue' when 'cerulean' is obviously meant. I

 

 

 

intend to ensile my thoughts here as the spirt

 

 

 

moves...

 

 

 

Posted by WFB 10:32am May 4, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

Buckley had a great affection for British

 

 

 

wit/author/convert Malcom Muggeridge and had him on

 

 

 

his Firing Line show frequently (how's that for a

 

 

 

segue?).

 

 

 

 

 

Muggeridge once wrote:

 

 

 

When the devil makes his offer of the kingdoms of the

 

 

 

earth, it is the bordellos which glow so alluringly to

 

 

 

most of us, not the banks and the counting-houses and

 

 

 

the snow-swept corridors of power . . . Sex is the

 

 

 

mysticism of a materialistic society - in the

 

 

 

beginning was the Flesh, and the Flesh became Word;

 

 

 

with its own mysteries...its own sacred texts and

 

 

 

scriptures - the erotica which fall like black atomic

 

 

 

rain on the just and unjust alike, drenching us,

 

 

 

stupefying us. To be carnally minded is life!

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:06 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Silly Wednesday (one day early)

 

 

 

I'm sitting at my old-fashioned typewriter (or so I

 

 

 

imagine), the one that race-types gorgeously

 

 

 

professional type romantically called "Times New

 

 

 

Roman". Smartly, it creates little artworks called

 

 

 

'characters' out of thin white space; any of 26 of

 

 

 

which when placed in a non-random order communicates

 

 

 

stuff. Amaze-in'!

 

 

 

So here I am, at this old Remington, the kind that

 

 

 

gurgles and pitches, speaks and whirls, jiivvies and

 

 

 

jives at the end of a line…whiiirrrrrl - back to a

 

 

 

fresh white line. All that potential, a line has the

 

 

 

potential of a life, with everyone having the same 26

 

 

 

letters and various punctuations available to them.

 

 

 

With those humble materials, we all fashion a

 

 

 

semblance of order on a blank, vacumous space.

 

 

 

 

 

What would Shakespeare think of this? Almost 400 years

 

 

 

have passed since the Bard of Avon scribed his

 

 

 

thoughts painstakingly on parchment with the ink of a

 

 

 

sow's breath, upon the scummy tableau of an animal's

 

 

 

skin. He once sat upon rustic hills of dank England,

 

 

 

breathing the dung of sheep, and producing the most

 

 

 

hallucengic prose man has ever seen - the inky,

 

 

 

fragrant prose that carried the mind off the English

 

 

 

empire to new and heady places.

 

 

 

 

 

Note: Obviously the Bard didn't scribble his thoughts

 

 

 

using those media. Merely poetic license!

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uh..yeah...well I read "David Copperfield" in high

 

 

 

school, man

 

 

 

"Historically the stuff that's sort of rung my

 

 

 

cherries: Socrates' funeral oration, the poetry of

 

 

 

John Donne, the poetry of Richard Crashaw, every once

 

 

 

in a while Shakespeare, although not all that often,

 

 

 

Keats' shorter stuff, Schopenhauer, Descartes'

 

 

 

"Meditations on First Philosophy" and "Discourse on

 

 

 

Method," Kant's "Prolegomena to Any Future

 

 

 

Metaphysic," although the translations are all

 

 

 

terrible, William James' "Varieties of Religious

 

 

 

Experience," Wittgenstein's "Tractatus," Joyce's

 

 

 

"Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," Hemingway --

 

 

 

particularly stuff like in "In Our Time," where you

 

 

 

just go oomph!, Flannery O'Connor, Cormac McCarthy,

 

 

 

Don DeLillo, A.S. Byatt, Cynthia Ozick--the stories,

 

 

 

especially one called "Levitations," about 25 percent

 

 

 

of the time Pynchon. Donald Barthelme, especially a

 

 

 

story called "The Balloon," which is the first story I

 

 

 

ever read that made me want to be a writer, Tobias

 

 

 

Wolff, Raymond Carver's best stuff -- the really

 

 

 

famous stuff. Steinbeck when he's not beating his

 

 

 

drum, 35 percent of Stephen Crane, "Moby-Dick," "The

 

 

 

Great Gatsby." And, my God, there's poetry. Probably

 

 

 

Phillip Larkin more than anyone else, Louise Glück,

 

 

 

Auden." - David Foster Wallace's reading material

 

 

 

 

 

I think to be a serious writer, one has to have been a

 

 

 

serious reader. You are what you read.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:01 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aarghhh!

 

 

 

This Catholic Writer's conference sounds marvelous!

 

 

 

Ralph McInerny is my hero - why the devil didn't I

 

 

 

go!? A mere two hours from Steubenville and I chose to

 

 

 

camp in the woods, which can be done any old time

 

 

 

(well, short of cold weather).

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:27 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob Greene

 

 

 

Read about columnist Bob Greene's fall from grace via

 

 

 

Nancy Nall. (Is it a tendency among journalists to

 

 

 

become corrosively cynical? To be constantly immersed

 

 

 

in what is sick in society - since virtue doesn't make

 

 

 

news - probably isn't too spiritually healthy. It

 

 

 

dovetails with the idea that our job influences us to

 

 

 

the point where we risk becoming it).

 

 

 

 

 

Bob is one of my mother's favorite columnists, and his

 

 

 

seeming innocence and "boy next door" attitude

 

 

 

appeared incompatible with middle-aged forays with

 

 

 

teens. But then looks are always deceiving (eg: the

 

 

 

priest scandal). I don't judge him. There but for

 

 

 

grace go I.

 

 

 

 

 

I remember reading a Greene column that lamented how a

 

 

 

sense of wonder evades us as we age. When we were

 

 

 

kids, everything was new and we were capable of being

 

 

 

surprised. The capacity for awe seems so crucial in

 

 

 

keeping us honest, in keeping us from sin. For the

 

 

 

middle-aged and elderly, may God surprise us.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm kind of surprised at how large Nancy Nall's

 

 

 

readership is, btw. But heck, Nancy is interesting. I

 

 

 

guess things really exploded for her when featured on

 

 

 

Amy Welborn's site, and now she has at least 100

 

 

 

regular readers, many of them "Amy-Catholics" (like

 

 

 

myself) who have stayed, despite her cynicism and

 

 

 

liberal view of things. Surely there is some jealousy,

 

 

 

given I was able to retain my obscurity even after Amy

 

 

 

linked to me. (There is a sense of anti-climax to this

 

 

 

blog now, as if I had my turn at bat and should step

 

 

 

away gracefully, thankful I got that shot). There is a

 

 

 

certain deliciousness in the objectivity of blogs -

 

 

 

the stats don't lie. I always loved it about baseball

 

 

 

that you could check the back of a baseball card and

 

 

 

tell if someone were a .260 hitter or .290. (I'd love

 

 

 

it if God gave out report cards every week...St. Paul

 

 

 

says we cannot even accurately judge ourselves and I

 

 

 

believe it). Of course all this is pride, pride and

 

 

 

more pride. But as Chris Matthews says, "what is it

 

 

 

that motivates men but competition?". So we should

 

 

 

thank God for low blog stats, because if we care-

 

 

 

unless it be out of concern for His glory - then we

 

 

 

obviously couldn't handle fame, or what passes for

 

 

 

infinitessimal quantities thereof.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"He has always struggled with his sexuality, and deep

 

 

 

down we sense that in a bizzare way he enjoys the

 

 

 

struggle "like the souls in Dante who deliberately

 

 

 

remained within the purifying fire".

 

 

 

- from an Iris Murdoch novel

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:55 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay I'll admit it. I am a secret fan of Pope Paul VI.

 

 

 

Perhaps because in his indecisiveness I see some of

 

 

 

myself; I can emphasize. This man who was thrust into

 

 

 

the malestrom of it all by good Pope John XXIII and

 

 

 

the Holy Spirit was assigned an extremely difficult

 

 

 

task and he saw it through. I'm reading Hebblethwait's

 

 

 

biography now, and you have to love Paul's humility.

 

 

 

He was so different from our current Holy Father yet

 

 

 

but both are so saintly.

 

 

 

 

 

One could say his sense of timing was off; Humane

 

 

 

Vitae was promulgated at just about the worst possible

 

 

 

moment in Western history and the defections from

 

 

 

trust and belief in the Church were massive. But that

 

 

 

he made the decision in the midst of a storm makes it

 

 

 

all the more poignant. He stood like Don Quixote,

 

 

 

making seemingly impossible demands of the late 1960s

 

 

 

moderns. Or perhaps I should say he stood like Christ.

 

 

 

Malcolm Muggeridge wrote:"It was the Catholic Church's

 

 

 

firm stand against contraception and abortion which

 

 

 

finally made me decide to become a Catholic . . . As

 

 

 

the Romans treated eating as an end in itself, making

 

 

 

themselves sick in a vomitorium so as to enable them

 

 

 

to return to the table and stuff themselves with more

 

 

 

delicacies, so people now end up in a sort of sexual

 

 

 

vomitorium. The Church's stand is absolutely correct.

 

 

 

It is to its eternal honour that it opposed

 

 

 

contraception, even if the opposition failed. I think,

 

 

 

historically, people will say it was a very gallant

 

 

 

effort to prevent a moral disaster."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:34 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Reading

 

 

 

It could be, then, that we are just starting to

 

 

 

appreciate the potency that reading possesses. It is

 

 

 

an interesting speculation: that the cultural threats

 

 

 

to reading may be, paradoxically, revealing to us its

 

 

 

deeper saving powers. I use the word saving

 

 

 

intentionally here, not because I want to ascribe to

 

 

 

reading some great function of salvation, but because

 

 

 

I want to emphasize one last time the ideas of

 

 

 

transformation and change of state. The movement from

 

 

 

quotidian consciousness into the consciousness

 

 

 

irradiated by artistic vision is analogous to the

 

 

 

awakening to spirituality. The reader's aesthetic

 

 

 

experience is, necessarily, lowercase, at least when

 

 

 

set beside the truly spiritual. But it is marked by

 

 

 

similar recognitions, including a changed relation to

 

 

 

time, a condensation of the sense of significance, an

 

 

 

awareness of a system or structure of meaning,

 

 

 

and--most difficult to account for--a feeling of being

 

 

 

enfolded by something larger, more profound.

 

 

 

 

 

Working through these thoughts, I happened upon an

 

 

 

essay called "First Person Singular" by Joseph

 

 

 

Epstein, wherein he cites Goethe as saying that "a

 

 

 

fact of our existence is of value not insofar as it is

 

 

 

true, but insofar as it has something to signify." To

 

 

 

this Epstein adds concisely: "Only in art do all facts

 

 

 

signify." He communicates in seven short words much of

 

 

 

what I have been belaboring here: Facts signify

 

 

 

whenever one believes that existence is intended, that

 

 

 

there are reasons that, as Pascal wrote, reason knows

 

 

 

nothing of. - Sven Birkerts "Readings"...review &

 

 

 

excerpt

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:57 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Ravelstein held that examples of great personalities

 

 

 

among scientists were scarce. Great philosophers,

 

 

 

painters, statesmen, lawyers, yes. But great-souled

 

 

 

men in the sciencies are extremely rare. 'It's their

 

 

 

sciences that are great, not the persons.'" -

 

 

 

Ravelstein - Saul Bellow

 

 

 

 

 

Ravelstein is actually the late Alan Bloom, professor

 

 

 

at Univ of Chicago and writer of "The Closing of the

 

 

 

American Mind".

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:53 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Consolations of Rain

 

 

 

I claim to love the change of seasons even though, at

 

 

 

the cost of seasonal symmetry, I wish winter were only

 

 

 

one month long. But just as the surfeit of summer can

 

 

 

eventually tire one, so can the surfeit of religious

 

 

 

consolations and universal Church feast days. I can

 

 

 

understand, more readily, the need for feast and fast

 

 

 

and its alternating rhythm. I believe CS Lewis

 

 

 

suggested in "The Problem of Pain" that it's possible

 

 

 

the physical world exists for metaphorical reasons

 

 

 

only. Thus I should gain a clue from nature. And

 

 

 

nature, over the micro camping trip, told me that

 

 

 

unrelenting good weather is impossible to "live up

 

 

 

to". The weather was surreally good for Ohio; the

 

 

 

quality of sunshine was markedly clearer and the sky

 

 

 

shone with that Westernish blue with nary a cloud. One

 

 

 

cannot be as buoyant as the weather required; desire

 

 

 

is infinite, capacity limited.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:48 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Err503s have been brutal today...I'm thinking this

 

 

 

site should be renamed to Dylan's.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:07 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 16, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in the saddle again....

 

 

 

 

 

Twas a grand experiment. Two and 1/2 days without

 

 

 

internet, television, radio, music, newspaper...Hiking

 

 

 

and reading mainly. Reading has a sort of insatiable

 

 

 

aspect to it; I read some of Summa Theologica and

 

 

 

couldn't put it down, although I'm not sure I got that

 

 

 

much out of it (the lack being in me). Still, hanging

 

 

 

in the air of those solid volumes was the ineffable

 

 

 

scent of truth. I strove to find the low-hanging

 

 

 

fruit.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:19 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google hit

 

 

 

A visitor came by way of the search for "bell curve

 

 

 

for women's belly size". Isn't the internet amazing?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:25 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 15, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruminating on Ruminating

 

 

 

Oh to have a two hour block once a week available to

 

 

 

ruminate, to think, to plan, to dream! A block during

 

 

 

which to pull together the disparate threads of our

 

 

 

personality, to recognize our contradictions (dreams

 

 

 

are about such – our desperate nightly gambol to make

 

 

 

sense via nonsense…I see my dog dreaming and wonder

 

 

 

what has him so agitated – the squirrel that got away?

 

 

 

What disparate strands must his dogginess resolve at

 

 

 

the end of the day – that he longs to run free but his

 

 

 

master always has him on a leash?).

 

 

 

 

 

Thoreau referred to this block of time as having a

 

 

 

"margin to life", those white borders of emptiness

 

 

 

framing each page of our life script. He longed for a

 

 

 

wide margin, but a thin margin will do. Keeping a

 

 

 

journal is a nightly attempt to ruminate, to organize,

 

 

 

to let go of grievances against others but also

 

 

 

against self. We all attempt consciously or

 

 

 

subconsciously to make our lives artful, which is a

 

 

 

way of saying to make sense of it, to realize that we

 

 

 

are moving forward. To have nothing wasted is the aim

 

 

 

of great art.

 

 

 

 

 

Ruminating is especially effective while walking. A

 

 

 

hike in the woods is the perfect setting. Thoreau said

 

 

 

to "trust no thought arrived at sitting down", which

 

 

 

may sound extreme but there is something about the

 

 

 

beauty of the surroundings that provoke one to

 

 

 

appreciation, which is the ultimate aim of rumination.

 

 

 

To appreciate where we are, what we’ve been given and

 

 

 

where we are going. How can we serve God without

 

 

 

appreciation, without thankfulness? If we can get into

 

 

 

our heads His dramatic love for us, then we are

 

 

 

thankful, and if we are thankful then we our more

 

 

 

willing to serve. When we were newly converted, how

 

 

 

easy it was to serve Him and others: we were so

 

 

 

thankful.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:35 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting article via Gerard:

 

 

 

Desire...is infinite, but our capacity for pleasure is

 

 

 

not. By adapting to ever-richer indulgences, we only

 

 

 

narrow our options for pleasing ourselves. Restraint

 

 

 

may yield higher returns.

 

 

 

But authentic happiness, as Seligman defines it, is

 

 

 

not about maximizing utility or managing our moods.

 

 

 

It’s about outgrowing our obsessive concern with how

 

 

 

we feel. Life in the upper half of one’s set range may

 

 

 

be pleasant, but is it productive or meaningful? Does

 

 

 

it stand for anything beyond itself?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:41 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 11, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stigmata

 

 

 

I read a post debunking the stigmata in part because

 

 

 

it first occurred (at least in St. Francis' case) on

 

 

 

the hands instead of the wrists. The writer also asked

 

 

 

why it took thirteen centuries to happen, etc..

 

 

 

 

 

My two cents is that God is not static and is

 

 

 

constantly capable of surprise with the single

 

 

 

constant goal: winning our love. Thus, it doesn't

 

 

 

surprise me that for 13 centuries no one received the

 

 

 

stigmata since cultures are so different that

 

 

 

something that might repel one culture might attract

 

 

 

another. The stigmata spoke to that medieval culture

 

 

 

in a much more powerful way because that culture

 

 

 

valued the wounds of Christ more, having had the

 

 

 

luxury of centuries of reflection and meditation on

 

 

 

the gospel. It was a gift to that culture. That is not

 

 

 

to say that the middle ages were necessarily "holier"

 

 

 

but just that what moved the holy was different. For

 

 

 

God to have caused the stigmata on the wrists would

 

 

 

have made no sense to medieval people and thus would

 

 

 

not have effected His ultimate purpose - to motivate

 

 

 

us to love him, not to provide scientific evidence.

 

 

 

 

 

It's not surprising that Jews near the time of Christ,

 

 

 

for example, might've mis-read who Jesus was since

 

 

 

they understood there was only one God and G*d surely

 

 

 

wouldn't stoop to the level of not only allowing

 

 

 

himself to be named but also possessing a human

 

 

 

nature. Yet the Cross was a dramatic gesture that

 

 

 

motivates millions to a greater love of God, since a

 

 

 

God that suffers for us is a God much more easily

 

 

 

loved than a more deistic one.

 

 

 

 

 

Bottom line is that for those open to God, he responds

 

 

 

- in the now and 'just in time' (although he is

 

 

 

outside of time) - to what moves a culture, if they

 

 

 

ask and our receptive.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:42 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps I should mention that I subscribe to the

 

 

 

"Quote Protocol" as established by - forgive me - was

 

 

 

it Disputations or Minute Particulae or? Anyway, they

 

 

 

mentioned that quotes and excerpts are there primarily

 

 

 

because it is something they struggle with, not as

 

 

 

admonishments to the great unwashed masses who read

 

 

 

them. Similarly (especially given this blog's tiny

 

 

 

readership), I often use it for my own purposes and

 

 

 

put quotes or make comments that I don't live up to

 

 

 

precisely because I don't live up to them - i.e. they

 

 

 

are there to remind me.

 

 

 

 

 

I've always been an inveterate collector of quotations

 

 

 

(I still have hundreds on index cards at home - I was

 

 

 

pretty anal when I was younger), and so this blog

 

 

 

seems like a nice repository for them (although I

 

 

 

wanted to be able to quickly do a search for a

 

 

 

half-remembered quote on the main page, but because it

 

 

 

loads so slow I had to only show 20 days' history, so

 

 

 

now I have to check archives, etc...I know, life is

 

 

 

tough, get out the violins!).

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a quote Steve of Flos Carmeli probably knows,

 

 

 

since he's a fan of St. John:

 

 

 

"To come to the knowledge of all, desire the knowledge

 

 

 

of nothing." – St. John of the Cross

 

 

 

 

 

Blogging will recommence next Monday; I will be doing

 

 

 

my Eustace Conway imitation during the interim and

 

 

 

heading for the woods for a long weekend.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:24 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9/11/01

 

 

 

I was in a meeting in a large auditorium and in the

 

 

 

middle of it this guy walks up, appropos of nothing,

 

 

 

and hands our Vice President a note....The VP gave it

 

 

 

back to Matt and asked him to tell us. Our curiosity

 

 

 

piqued, he said that New York and the Pentagon were

 

 

 

struck by terrorists: "I know this sounds like a Tom

 

 

 

Clancy novel...but" and then he showed a picture of

 

 

 

the smoking World Trade Ctr buildings on the huge

 

 

 

screen above the stage. Jaws dropped...muffled cries

 

 

 

of surprise. Our shop closed up around noon..At

 

 

 

confession later the priest told me to pray for those

 

 

 

who had no time to prepare themselves. That, not

 

 

 

physical death, is the greatest tragedy, along with,

 

 

 

of course, the many children who will have to grow up

 

 

 

without a parent.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:42 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 10, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gentle

 

 

 

undulating

 

 

 

lines

 

 

 

earth

 

 

 

pores broke ope

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:33 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fictional Foray

 

 

 

I remember duck-hunting with old Uncle Coot, a

 

 

 

lifelong Norwegian bachelor who, upon hearing of my

 

 

 

impending nuptials, gave me the keys to his old Ford

 

 

 

and said, "run, son. Run like the wind." I didn’t take

 

 

 

him up on it, due to the sedation of my 401K drip and

 

 

 

the near-vesting of company medical benefits.

 

 

 

 

 

He said it wasn’t that I sold my soul that bothered

 

 

 

him, it was how easily I’d sold it. A tear came to my

 

 

 

eye the next morn, when in the ebullient May light I

 

 

 

could see the charred edges of our magnolia bushes,

 

 

 

and a big patch of blackened vegetation just beyond

 

 

 

the welcome mat. Coot had been a little tipsy the

 

 

 

night before, his imagination a bit overtaxed, and I

 

 

 

reckon he thought he was out west again, where you can

 

 

 

have campfires in your front yard since your front

 

 

 

yard’s normally a hundred acres.

 

 

 

 

 

Uncle Coot didn’t have a social security card or a

 

 

 

birth certificate or anything reeking of beaucracy, so

 

 

 

no one knew how old he was when we celebrated his

 

 

 

birthday. He always used to sneer the lyrics to a

 

 

 

Merle Haggard tune: "....so keep your retirement, and

 

 

 

your so-called social security.....think I’ll walk off

 

 

 

my steady job today". Coot never held a steady job, or

 

 

 

any job really, so it was kind of ironic when he sang

 

 

 

it, although no one ever pointed that out to Coot. I

 

 

 

thought it was really cool that he could have a blind

 

 

 

spot that big, but then everything about Coot was big.

 

 

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:21 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We don't need no..

 

 

 

Thomas Jefferson thought America would be a good

 

 

 

nation only as long as we were agricultural (in the

 

 

 

small farmer sense) and well-educated. We're neither.

 

 

 

Higher education is falling prey to the same "we're

 

 

 

just here to serve you" malady as the media. Instead

 

 

 

of insisting that "we have something of value that you

 

 

 

need" (as the newspapers should insist), higher

 

 

 

education is saying "what do you want, sweet eighteen

 

 

 

year old?". Grade inflation is rampant at colleges, as

 

 

 

is an elective system run amuck, insuring that a kid

 

 

 

can go through college with nothing but chips on their

 

 

 

shoulders the size of boulders due to immersion in

 

 

 

women's studies & black studies.

 

 

 

*end of old fogey rant*

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Alas! Where is human nature so weak as in the

 

 

 

book-store! What are mere animal throes to and ragings

 

 

 

compared with the fantasies of taste, of those

 

 

 

yearnings of imagination, of those insatiable

 

 

 

appetites of intellect, which bewilder a student in a

 

 

 

great bookseller’s temptation hall?" – H. Beecher,

 

 

 

1859

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:15 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sublimination, they say, is the answer. Much of the

 

 

 

best art in the world is the product of man’s

 

 

 

sublimated sex drive. I’m not sure I get it.

 

 

 

 

 

My initial reaction is that sublimination is writing

 

 

 

with all sorts of "just under the surface" sexual

 

 

 

references, like a hastily dug grave for the newly

 

 

 

entombed ‘lust’. Just a thin covering of topsoil. A

 

 

 

random example: "Summer lay herself at my feet; I sat

 

 

 

entranced as she danced around me, her fulsomeness

 

 

 

exceeding the festooned cups of measure, the sun a

 

 

 

giving lover, reaching around trees and crevices to

 

 

 

evince a brash longing."

 

 

 

 

 

None too subtle. But that isn’t really art either. I

 

 

 

guess the answer lay in the fact that sex drive unused

 

 

 

is a potential energy source, energy that can be used

 

 

 

for entirely unrelated purposes. Thus, the boxer

 

 

 

abstains from sex before the big bout. But the saving

 

 

 

of energy is not just physical, it is apparently also

 

 

 

mental.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:13 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the mountains, there cometh my strength

 

 

 

Just finished the riveting book, The Last American Man

 

 

 

by Elizabeth Gilbert, the true story of Eustace Conway

 

 

 

who left his comfortable suburban home at the age of

 

 

 

seventeen and moved into the Appalachian mountains.

 

 

 

For the last 20 years he has lived there. It interests

 

 

 

me on several levels; his unqualified absolutism and

 

 

 

idealism, the effect of constant absorption of the

 

 

 

natural (i.e. God's) world on the pysche, and his

 

 

 

independence, especially his refusal to let the

 

 

 

culture mold him.

 

 

 

 

 

We are all, more or less, prisioners of our time and

 

 

 

culture. And the funny thing is how little we realize

 

 

 

that. We don't know what we don't know, and when we

 

 

 

most think we are objective we are often being the

 

 

 

least. This book emphasizes how conformist our culture

 

 

 

is.

 

 

 

 

 

Eustace isn't content to live in the woods by himself

 

 

 

- he wants to change the culture (like we do, for a

 

 

 

different reason). And so he holds camps and goes to

 

 

 

schools across the country preaching his simplicity

 

 

 

and 'back to nature' messsage. Check out how this

 

 

 

excerpt resonates (the author is questioning why he

 

 

 

has so little time for what he is preaching):

 

 

 

'Have you ever wondered,' I asked, 'if you might

 

 

 

benefit the world more by actually living the life you

 

 

 

always talk about? I mean, aren't we supposed to live

 

 

 

the most enlightened and honest life we can? And when

 

 

 

our actions contradict our values, don't we just screw

 

 

 

everything up even more?"...

 

 

 

 

 

"Whenever I go into schools to teach, I tell people,

 

 

 

'Look, I am not the only person left in this country

 

 

 

who tries to live a natural life in the woods, but

 

 

 

you're never going to meet all those other guys

 

 

 

because they aren't available.' Well I am available.

 

 

 

That's the difference with me. I know I present people

 

 

 

with an image of how I wish I were living. But what

 

 

 

else can I do? I have to put on that act for the

 

 

 

benefit of people.'

 

 

 

 

 

'I'm not so sure it's benefiting us, Eustace.'

 

 

 

 

 

'But if I lived the quiet and simple life I want, then

 

 

 

who would witness it? Who would be inspired to

 

 

 

change?'"

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Another excerpt:

 

 

 

 

 

"What remains after all this activity? That's the

 

 

 

question Walt Whitman once asked. He looked around at

 

 

 

the galloping pace of American life and at the growth

 

 

 

of industry and wondered, 'After you have exhuasted

 

 

 

what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and

 

 

 

so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy,

 

 

 

or permanently wear - what remains'?

 

 

 

 

 

And, as ever, dear old Walk gave us the answer:

 

 

 

'Nature remains."

 

 

 

 

 

Or God. So it is fascinating watching Eustace's quest,

 

 

 

the quest we all trod in learning over and over again

 

 

 

that all is loss but Him.

 

 

 

 

 

A review of the book.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:05 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The majority of men are subjective towards themselves

 

 

 

and objective toward all others. But the real task is

 

 

 

in fact to be objective toward oneself and subjective

 

 

 

toward all others. – Kierkegaard

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:41 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

West Texas forecast, more of the same

 

 

 

sunny & mild, no chance of rain…

 

 

 

 

 

The tractor keeps rollin’

 

 

 

the dust rises high

 

 

 

creating the only

 

 

 

cloud in the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

He’s prayin’ for rain through a cloud of dust – from

 

 

 

country song by Brad Paisley

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:15 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 9, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Percy on "CA"

 

 

 

The phrase "Catholic Authors" sends a chill up my

 

 

 

spine, given its perfect nexus of two loves. But

 

 

 

"Catholic Authors on Walker Percy" is, as the kids

 

 

 

say, da bomb. (Did I really just say that?). Fr.

 

 

 

McCloskey's show on EWTN features Catholic authors

 

 

 

from Blaise Pascal to C.S. Lewis (stretching the

 

 

 

definition eh?) to the most modern offering - Walker

 

 

 

Percy.

 

 

 

 

 

Walker was one of those rare types who was very

 

 

 

familiar with science and pyschology and at the same

 

 

 

time with St. Thomas Aquinas (having read all of Summa

 

 

 

Theologica). That's a nice combination for our age -

 

 

 

devout Catholic and pyschotherapist. As is Benedict

 

 

 

Groeschel, btw. So I reveled in the half-hour

 

 

 

discussion.

 

 

 

 

 

I liked Walker Percy's analogy of our situation: we

 

 

 

are on a desert island and receive a message in a

 

 

 

bottle. Some of us expect the message to be a

 

 

 

detailed, empirical message that a sociologist would

 

 

 

appreciate. A full understanding of our situation.

 

 

 

Instead the message in the bottle (revelation) speaks

 

 

 

to us very directly with words like "go to the North

 

 

 

shore and wait for a boat". Now that message may be

 

 

 

true or false but speaks to those who understand the

 

 

 

plight they are in - marooned on a desert island. It's

 

 

 

highly relevant to them.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:09 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liked this poem entitled The Wise via Dylan. Reminds

 

 

 

me of this doggrell I once wrote:

 

 

 

Oh the dignity of the dead!

 

 

 

how quiet and decorous

 

 

 

taking neither too much space

 

 

 

or time

 

 

 

ever-gentle, non-complaining

 

 

 

bones giving mute empathy.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:50 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Friday

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;

 

 

 

How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;

 

 

 

What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do;

 

 

 

Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true. -

 

 

 

Thomas Aquinas

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:36 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 6, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fort of Rathangan

 

 

 

Once it was Bruidge’s, it was Cathal’s,

 

 

 

It was Aed’s, it was Ailill’s,

 

 

 

It was Conaing’s, it was Cuiline’s

 

 

 

And it was Maelduin’s;

 

 

 

The fort remains after each in his turn – Kuno Meyer

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:34 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'I am a believer in invisible ancestral influences’,

 

 

 

Tom Hayden writes, 'and I imagine that few people of

 

 

 

Irish heritage anywhere in the world do not share that

 

 

 

belief, at least privately.' – NY Times book review

 

 

 

 

 

Born to Clan na Gael

 

 

 

near the cliffs of Moher

 

 

 

held fast by the thatch of mud huts

 

 

 

meld with candlewax.

 

 

 

 

 

Turf fires smelt peat to matter

 

 

 

indissoluble to Catholic souls

 

 

 

with nothing but the wind to evangelize,

 

 

 

and only our young to catechize.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:26 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Chesterton might say, via Mark Shea.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:29 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of making my head hurt ...here is an email

 

 

 

response to the universe link:

 

 

 

Mr. Smarty-pants physics professor made my head hurt.

 

 

 

So tell me: If a tree falls in the forest, and one

 

 

 

person is there to hear it, but it scares him so bad

 

 

 

he runs headlong into another tree and sustains total

 

 

 

amnesia, but fortunately he has his audio cassette

 

 

 

recorder on and records the sound of the tree falling,

 

 

 

but unfortunately he leaves the tape in his shirt

 

 

 

pocket while he's subsequently in the MRI machine and

 

 

 

the magnetic waves erased most of the tape, but

 

 

 

fortunately the whole episode was caught on videotape

 

 

 

as a potential "Jackass" episode, but unfortunately

 

 

 

the video ended up on the cutting-room floor, and the

 

 

 

editor forgot to remember anything about it later, did

 

 

 

the tree make a sound?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:33 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting article on the universe for you science

 

 

 

freaks

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:40 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Fodder for Amy's Question: Then Why Bother?

 

 

 

Bill O'Reilly interviewed a Baptist minister who

 

 

 

described himself as "a Baptist who lives in the

 

 

 

south, not a Southern Baptist". He is also a professor

 

 

 

at some posh eastern university/college whatever.

 

 

 

Anyway, they talked about the "hate mail" O'Reilly

 

 

 

received in response to his comments on the Bible. The

 

 

 

Baptist minister sat there nodding his head in

 

 

 

agreement with everything Bill said. Even when he

 

 

 

related how as a child in Catholic school he was

 

 

 

taught that the stories of the Bible are nothing but

 

 

 

allegories meant to tell us that we should be good to

 

 

 

each other. They were in full agreement that the heart

 

 

 

of every religion is to love God and your neighbor as

 

 

 

yourself--as if they had intimate access to the TRUTH

 

 

 

that so many others had missed or want to negate for

 

 

 

their own ends. I just sat with my mouth hanging open

 

 

 

in unbelief at these two men negating the belief

 

 

 

systems of billions and reducing those beliefs down to

 

 

 

a one line truism. O'Reilly is no more representative

 

 

 

of Catholicism than one of my cats. Indeed, either one

 

 

 

of my cats, if he or she could speak English, would

 

 

 

probably make a better apologist than either man I

 

 

 

listened to for cats know that life is more than

 

 

 

merely not fighting with one another or having a

 

 

 

sentimental regard for the Great Cat above, even if

 

 

 

Bill and the Baptist minister don't. - Kathleen Gavlas

 

 

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:24 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was in a church in London in 1996 and was struck by

 

 

 

this statue of a woman who lay on the floor either

 

 

 

dead or in a posture of supine obedience. I took a

 

 

 

picture though I didn't know the story behind it or

 

 

 

whom it depicted (St. Cecilia). Then, last year, in

 

 

 

the Catacomb of San Callisto, we came across that

 

 

 

statue, at least another reproduction. Her body was

 

 

 

found in this particular catacomb, a marytr beheaded

 

 

 

during the Roman persecutions. The tour guide explains

 

 

 

that there is a visible line on her neck (symbolism

 

 

 

for how she died) and one of her hands one finger is

 

 

 

pointing (symbolism that there is one God, instead of

 

 

 

the Roman formulation of many gods) and her other hand

 

 

 

holds out three fingers (symbolizing the Trinitarian

 

 

 

three persons in one God).

 

 

 

 

 

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

 

 

 

The form is so natural and lifelike, so full of

 

 

 

modesty and grace, that one scarcely needs the

 

 

 

sculptor's testimony graven on the base: "Behold the

 

 

 

body of the most holy virgin Cecilia whom I myself saw

 

 

 

lying incorrupt in her tomb. I have in this marble

 

 

 

expressed for thee the same saint in the very same

 

 

 

posture of body." If it were art alone, it would be

 

 

 

consummate art but Cicognara bears witness that in the

 

 

 

perfect simplicity of this work, more unstudied and

 

 

 

flexuous than his other productions, the youthful

 

 

 

sculptor must have been guided solely by the nature of

 

 

 

the object before him, and followed it with unswerving

 

 

 

docility.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:01 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 5, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quote from priest in EWTN forum:

 

 

 

"Your salvation is in the hands of God. You are asked

 

 

 

to place your faith and hope in that God, who alone

 

 

 

knows your eternal destiny and whom alone you can

 

 

 

totally trust. Thus, there can be no greater certainty

 

 

 

than that in your faith and hope in God saving you.

 

 

 

And remember that the faith and hope are themselves

 

 

 

also gifts from God. There is no purely human

 

 

 

knowledge of one's eternal destiny that can contain

 

 

 

the infinitely greater certainty contained in your

 

 

 

faith and hope through Christ our Lord."

 

 

 

 

 

Amen!

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charity Uber Alles

 

 

 

I don't enjoy these fights about the Cathedral or the

 

 

 

pedophilia issue or any of these "controveries" that

 

 

 

constantly arise. When I join the fray it doesn't

 

 

 

engender any of the "fruits of the Spirit" in me. But

 

 

 

I think some things are worth fighting for, or

 

 

 

discussing, although I tend to think the number of

 

 

 

minds changed is miniscule. Is the L.A. cathedral

 

 

 

important? Maybe, maybe not. Is the pedophilia/bishop

 

 

 

issue? Yes, in my opinion. If the laity had raised

 

 

 

heck about it 10 years ago, I don't think we'd see all

 

 

 

the priest-shuffling we've seen since then and perhaps

 

 

 

a few chldren wouldn't have been molested. Evil

 

 

 

thrives when the good do nothing.

 

 

 

 

 

The apologetic debates get mind-numbing. The

 

 

 

Protestant-Catholic debate has been going on for what,

 

 

 

500 years? But if we truly want full communion don't

 

 

 

we at least have to try to present the case that the

 

 

 

Catholic faith is reasonable? Recently a local Baptist

 

 

 

radio host talked ad naseum about the fact that the

 

 

 

Council of Trent damned him to hell by the use of

 

 

 

"anathemna"'s or "curses", and he wanted to know

 

 

 

whether the Church still taught that. If the Church

 

 

 

did, he had us because his listeners would laugh at

 

 

 

the outrageousness of that. If it didn't, then the

 

 

 

Church had changed its teaching and thus infallibility

 

 

 

was nonsense. So I called up and got on with "Pastor

 

 

 

Bob" but I wonder if that was the right thing to do. I

 

 

 

think his show, in the style of Rush Limbaugh, is to

 

 

 

gin up controversy, and I was inadvertently 'feeding

 

 

 

the machine'. Besides, we all know that actions speak

 

 

 

much louder than defenseless words. On the other hand,

 

 

 

isn't it crucial to present both sides?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Magnifcat:

 

 

 

Men Fishing in the Arno

 

 

 

"Of secret desires yet keeping a sense

 

 

 

Of order outwardly, hoping

 

 

 

Not too flamboyantly, satisfied with little

 

 

 

Yet not surprised should the river suddenly

 

 

 

Yield a hundredfold, every hunger appeased." -

 

 

 

Elizabeth Jennings

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:16 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hie thee to the Middle

 

 

 

Read an interesting post on the Particulae blog about

 

 

 

the L.A. Cathedral controversy. I think part of the

 

 

 

problem is that modernity has made all art political,

 

 

 

and thus we are all (understandably) hyper-sensitive

 

 

 

to "what are they really trying to say with this?".

 

 

 

 

 

We all know what was going on when the tabernacle was

 

 

 

moved off-center, sometimes even out of the church

 

 

 

proper - it was a move to de-emphasize popular piety

 

 

 

and Eucharistic adoration. The thinking went that

 

 

 

piety didn't often translate to holiness or good deeds

 

 

 

or (especially) social justice concerns.

 

 

 

 

 

Balance is necessary. What did Hawthorne write?

 

 

 

Something like, "humans say 'yea and nay' but God's

 

 

 

way is in the middle". I butchered the quote but you

 

 

 

get the idea. So we look at the L.A. cathedral with

 

 

 

jaundiced eyes ("Fool me once - shame on you. Fool me

 

 

 

twice - shame on me") because we had been had before -

 

 

 

we know that art makes political and theological

 

 

 

statements and we long for a brave orthodoxy.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:39 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kudos to a fellow blogger (he knows who he is) who

 

 

 

hath retrieved from obscurity - at least for me -

 

 

 

these old-timey words:

 

 

 

* sapient

 

 

 

* bibliophagy

 

 

 

* sobriquet

 

 

 

 

 

Aren't words beautiful?

 

 

 

 

 

He also mentions a deliciously esoteric-sounding read:

 

 

 

Essential Portuguese Grammar

 

 

 

 

 

I've never seen the word "essential" used in proximity

 

 

 

to "Portuguese Grammar" but now I have.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:48 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 4, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the Hidden

 

 

 

I cannot do justice to the bliss that attends getting

 

 

 

even a single string of dialogue or the name of a weed

 

 

 

right. Naming our weeds, in fact, seems to be exactly

 

 

 

where it's at. I've been going out into my acre and

 

 

 

trying to identify the wildflowers along the fringes

 

 

 

with the aid of a book, and it's remarkably difficult

 

 

 

to match reality and diagram. Reality keeps a pace or

 

 

 

two ahead, scribble though we will. If you were to ask

 

 

 

me what the aim of my fiction is it's bringing the

 

 

 

corners forward. Or throwing light into them, if you'd

 

 

 

rather. Singing the hitherto unsung. That's applied

 

 

 

democracy, in my book. And applied Christianity, for

 

 

 

that matter. I distrust books involving spectacular

 

 

 

people, or spectacular events. Let People and The

 

 

 

National Enquirer pander to our taste for the

 

 

 

extraordinary; let literature concern itself, as the

 

 

 

Gospels do, with the inner lives of hidden men. The

 

 

 

collective consciousness that once found itself in the

 

 

 

noble must now rest content with the typical. - John

 

 

 

Updike

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:21 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the Drying Qualities of Paint

 

 

 

It's almost midnight and I can't quite turn off

 

 

 

C-Span. Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle is doing

 

 

 

his "campaigning by driving around" thing. Every

 

 

 

August he drives the highways and byways of South

 

 

 

Dakota and just talks to people. Sure, it was like

 

 

 

watching paint dry. Sure I was hoping for a miscue of

 

 

 

some sort. I don't know, the sight of Tom Daschle

 

 

 

walking into a 7-11 and looking for a certain type of

 

 

 

"Twizzler" stick was just d*mn compelling, I'm sorry.

 

 

 

So too was his preternatural calm and easy-going

 

 

 

Dakota manner. He mentioned his hobbies and they all

 

 

 

sounded wonderful - he loves being outside, loves to

 

 

 

fish and hunt, loves to read, etc... Not uncommon

 

 

 

interests I know, but they dovetail with mine. And

 

 

 

finally, I just couldn't quite get my arms around the

 

 

 

fact that this gentleman is contently pro-abort. I

 

 

 

mean, he's no Kennedy...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:16 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Silly Wednesday*

 

 

 

There, upon my wall, ne’er a finer red pub appeared:

 

 

 

"P . E G A N" it said, writ large in the fine white

 

 

 

letters upon a strip of Eire-green. Fine molded

 

 

 

columns were carved to the left and right, and two

 

 

 

old-fashioned bicycles, one festooned with a wicker

 

 

 

basket, stand in front of the two windows. In the

 

 

 

doorway, a door cut in two with the bottom half

 

 

 

closed, two gents stand in a pose of public house

 

 

 

friendliness. Below the picture a familiar monthly

 

 

 

grid was displayed (February 2001 - I’m a bit behind).

 

 

 

I wonder: what would these two think to find their

 

 

 

cheery non-sober mugs upon the wall of a house in the

 

 

 

middle of Ohio in the middle of the States?

 

 

 

 

 

So I asked ‘em. Called ‘em up. Tracked down all the

 

 

 

"P. Egan" pubs I could find through an Irish ad

 

 

 

directory and then called it and asked about the two

 

 

 

chipper fellers. One was a part-time sheep farmer

 

 

 

involved in the "Troubles"; in between pasturing sheep

 

 

 

he smuggled guns to IRA extremists (which is saying a

 

 

 

lot ya know, to some the phrase is redundant).

 

 

 

 

 

"What’s yore favorite ale?" I asked, to change the

 

 

 

subject.

 

 

 

"Ach, like I the (indescipherable), except on Friday’s

 

 

 

when it’s (indescipherable).".

 

 

 

 

 

I called the other one, a younger man, in his mid-30s,

 

 

 

whose hair was still dark and had about him the manner

 

 

 

of the manor. He explained that he liked to go to the

 

 

 

States now & again. I asked whereabouts.

 

 

 

 

 

"I’ve been to New York, L.A. But my favorite city is

 

 

 

Columbus, in Ohio".

 

 

 

 

 

"How did you know I was from Columbus?"

 

 

 

 

 

"I didn’t!"

 

 

 

 

 

"Come on. Columbus can’t be your favorite city."

 

 

 

 

 

"Why not? The sky is azure between clouds that sit

 

 

 

like pillows. There is a wonderous bronze statue of

 

 

 

Christopher Columbus downtown. His jaw is set like a

 

 

 

martial man, standing athwart history and yelling

 

 

 

‘Go!’. The Scioto river rushes like a colossus over

 

 

 

the landscape, the great southern boundary that

 

 

 

separates a Centre mall from "little Germany". The

 

 

 

city sits like a jewel in the middle of Cornfield,

 

 

 

USA, a megapolis of ‘scrapers rising from the ground

 

 

 

at right-angles."

 

 

 

 

 

"But plenty of cities rise out of cornfields at

 

 

 

right-angles."

 

 

 

"I don’t compare to Columbus to Kansas City or

 

 

 

Sacramento. I compare her to the cities near the

 

 

 

Yangtzee in 17th century China I’ve never been to

 

 

 

China or lived in the 1600s, but I’ve seen pictures in

 

 

 

Nat’l Geographic. If you compare fair Columbus to 17th

 

 

 

century China, she looks positively other-worldly."

 

 

 

 

 

"How is it that you chose China to compare her to?"

 

 

 

 

 

"China, schmina. You’re missing the point completely.

 

 

 

You measure everything, set up elaborate hierarchical

 

 

 

models…you want to know if Ted Williams was a better

 

 

 

hitter than Lou Gehrig and why. You'd be critical of

 

 

 

Jennifer Lopez's toenails."

 

 

 

 

 

"Not likely!"

 

 

 

 

 

"Ha, you say that now. You’d frown at the wrinkles on

 

 

 

her little toes. See, it’s not about toenails. It’s

 

 

 

that to the extent you see, you do not see. You look

 

 

 

at Columbus, and Lopez, with your eyes, and jaundiced

 

 

 

eyes at that. Sophistication is the paintin’ that

 

 

 

learning puts on tin structures. Still tin underneath,

 

 

 

like the lean-to I lived in outside Boone, North

 

 

 

Carolina. Split an oak to put shingles on it; still

 

 

 

tin underneath. Get it?"

 

 

 

 

 

"I think so."

 

 

 

 

 

"The radical thing is divine innocence. God’s not

 

 

 

parceling his love out based on the latest numbers

 

 

 

manufactured by angels in the Division of Statistics.

 

 

 

Yes, the hairs on your head are counted but that’s a

 

 

 

different Bureau and is completely independent of the

 

 

 

Quantity of Love Committee."

 

 

 

 

 

"Since you brought up the subject of God, did not

 

 

 

Jesus love John the most?"

 

 

 

 

 

"Yes, but that was with his human nature. Two natures,

 

 

 

remember?"

 

 

 

 

 

"So what does all this have to do with the price of

 

 

 

tea (near the Yangtzee) in China?"

 

 

 

 

 

* - can you guess where the blarney begins?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:03 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Labor Day weekend, we hardly knew ye

 

 

 

But oh for those glorious days I was free! I landed in

 

 

 

Casa de’ O'Rama, a little piece of real estate, earned

 

 

 

by merely planting (not a flag) but an ez-folding

 

 

 

chair, and in minutes I was contemplating the lovely

 

 

 

of lovelies, that Waldenesque lake in front of me,

 

 

 

decorated with the summer confetti of tree blossoms. I

 

 

 

sat there in the reverie, beneath shielding tree

 

 

 

limbs, as a soft breeze whispered and Thoreau called.

 

 

 

My bare feet propped atop the cooler, I drifted off to

 

 

 

a wholesome rest before being awakened by marauders

 

 

 

and quiet-thieves, four teenage knaves bent on fishing

 

 

 

and gabbing. I moved along unbothered, there would be

 

 

 

more private shoreline ahead. And so I alighted upon

 

 

 

another part of river, lit a cigar and felt a degree

 

 

 

of ownership never felt when I hike – ownership

 

 

 

conferred merely by a chair.

 

 

 

 

 

Down the long path with summer’s glory at the height,

 

 

 

and I could not help feeling that here was an

 

 

 

aesthetic beauty not easily repaced; one cannot easily

 

 

 

imagine being so impressed by winter’s stoicisms. What

 

 

 

would I do without it? Had I become too accustomed to

 

 

 

her charms?

 

 

 

 

 

The day was set up by a long, hard run down the bike

 

 

 

path, 45 minutes in the sun, with the headphones

 

 

 

giving reason to dance. I had finished the "Johnson

 

 

 

County War" that morning; late model Westerns being

 

 

 

this dreamer’s delight. It was four hours but could’ve

 

 

 

been four minutes for it’s power to engross. The

 

 

 

combination of variations on the endless theme of good

 

 

 

versus evil and the power of the scenery captivate.

 

 

 

 

 

After Mass on Sunday, I read voraciously. "The Last

 

 

 

American Male" is the current read, the true story of

 

 

 

Eustace Conway, who has lived off the land for the

 

 

 

last 20-plus years. Snippets of Kerr’s "Decline of

 

 

 

Pleasure" provided nothing but the latter.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 3, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do we get to know [Jesus]? Read the scriptures.

 

 

 

Not just the Mass readings every day, but read the

 

 

 

gospels every day and every night. Did you know that

 

 

 

one of the three general grants of indulgence is for

 

 

 

the reading of scripture--and if that reading is for

 

 

 

more than a half-hour each day the indulgence is

 

 

 

plenary? Such is the power the Church recognizes in

 

 

 

the transformative capabilities of the Word. - sage

 

 

 

advice from Flos Carmeli

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:52 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things I was thinking of in the post Amy

 

 

 

linked to was motherhood. That is a practical example,

 

 

 

since motherhood and sanity don't always go together.

 

 

 

I know two elderly women who had the traditional huge

 

 

 

"Catholic" families while paying dearly in terms of

 

 

 

mental health. They were apparently bitterly depressed

 

 

 

and horribly overworked. (Now we take Prozac and have

 

 

 

small families). I wouldn't be here but for the

 

 

 

sacrifice of one of those elderly women.

 

 

 

 

 

The Byzantine authors seem to presuppose that good

 

 

 

mental health is a natural by-product of faith but I

 

 

 

don't know. Certainly St. John the Baptist's diet of

 

 

 

locusts couldn't have been the most advantageous

 

 

 

physically - and isn't that the point? That health,

 

 

 

certainly not physically and perhaps not even mental,

 

 

 

is not the most important thing. Radical, but surely a

 

 

 

non-starter in terms of evangelization. That's no

 

 

 

Prayer of Jabez.

 

 

 

 

 

The gracious link from the Mother Blog has left me

 

 

 

with heretofore unimaginable numbers of visitors.

 

 

 

Self-indulgent posts like "what I did on (non)Labor

 

 

 

Day" will wait till the tide ebbs.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:58 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love (and write about) Your Enemies?

 

 

 

...it's hard to give an account of your religious

 

 

 

beliefs without sounding mawkish. William James

 

 

 

understood this. Though he claimed to admire the

 

 

 

pious, in ''The Varieties of Religious Experience'' he

 

 

 

distanced himself from them with an occasional twinkle

 

 

 

of irony. The irony can be detected in the list of

 

 

 

moods he says are indicative of true spirituality:

 

 

 

solemnity, serenity, cheerful gladness, tenderness.

 

 

 

Religious discourse ''favors gravity, not pertness,''

 

 

 

he wrote. ''It says 'hush' to all vain chatter and

 

 

 

smart wit.''

 

 

 

 

 

Still pondering this NY Times piece...writers have to

 

 

 

reflect their millieu and environment, sometimes to

 

 

 

their joy? I'm not pointing fingers here, because Lord

 

 

 

knows I'd have nine more pointing at me, but Updike

 

 

 

might be able to write about his joy - sex - and be

 

 

 

able to rightly point out that it is what is on

 

 

 

society's mind and therefore must be "dealt" with it.

 

 

 

If the ending of the story is negative towards

 

 

 

adultery, then he can write his fantasies secure in

 

 

 

the knowledge he has done the Christian service. Dante

 

 

 

was said to have something of an "anger management"

 

 

 

problem and no doubt took a little schadenfreude at

 

 

 

some of the damned he was portraying. Some of his

 

 

 

enemies were thinly disguised indeed. But isn't that

 

 

 

cathartic and isn't each writer 'following his bliss'

 

 

 

and thus producing something beautiful even if the

 

 

 

means might be a little ignoble? "Men of few words are

 

 

 

the best men" . Shakespeare

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:06 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 2, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Byzantine Perspective

 

 

 

Our Byzantine Catholic parish included a long article

 

 

 

on what is the "real crisis" in the church, and it is

 

 

 

persuasive. I couldn't find it anywhere online but

 

 

 

Hegumen Nicholas and Stavrophore Maximos make the

 

 

 

point that all of us are called to form what St. Peter

 

 

 

refers to as a 'royal priesthood' and points out the

 

 

 

errors in so-called 'conservative' and 'liberal'

 

 

 

prescriptions:

 

 

 

 

 

There was a time within living memory when the

 

 

 

institutional Church seemed much stronger...The

 

 

 

'conservative' is acutely aware of the comparative

 

 

 

weakness of the current institution. His solution is

 

 

 

to bring the institution back to its former glory by a

 

 

 

program of moral and doctrinal discipline....The

 

 

 

conservative and liberal error in that they both view

 

 

 

the Church primarily as a thing rather than a mystery.

 

 

 

They both tend to see the Church through the prism of

 

 

 

the secular world. Consequently, both are obssessed by

 

 

 

the organization of the Church, especially with the

 

 

 

institutional priesthood...The world can only

 

 

 

comprehend the Church as a means to some end.

 

 

 

Conservatives to make it more moral, liberals to make

 

 

 

it more modern....[The Church] is not a means to an

 

 

 

end. It is the end! The Church is the goal of all

 

 

 

creation: to be incorporated in Christ. Membership in

 

 

 

Christ is a sacramental fact, which is to say, it is a

 

 

 

mystery.

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

It is here we face the real priestly crisis.

 

 

 

Christians do not want totally to consecrate their

 

 

 

lives to God. Monasticism and martyrdom are no longer

 

 

 

the models. Instead the models are drawn from secular

 

 

 

systems of moral or pyschological 'improvement', so

 

 

 

that the ideal Christian is no longer seen as the

 

 

 

saint but as either the moral paragon, or perhaps

 

 

 

worse, the well-adjusted person . We do not want to

 

 

 

measure ourselves against eternal life...Moral and

 

 

 

pyschological health are no longer seen in their

 

 

 

correct perspective as indicators of a more profound

 

 

 

sanctity with its roots in eternity. They are viewd as

 

 

 

goals in themselves. It is as though salvation in

 

 

 

Christ was merely designed to make us better or

 

 

 

happier.

 

 

 

 

 

The ordained priesthood is drawn out of this other

 

 

 

priesthood (that of the laity) and exists to serve it

 

 

 

by ensuring that its holiness becomes concrete in the

 

 

 

lives of Christians.

 

 

 

 

 

In other words, we cannot expect the instituitional

 

 

 

priesthood to be holier than the charismatic

 

 

 

priesthood which is its source. The clergy do not

 

 

 

create holiness. At best, they can only express it. If

 

 

 

the people of God prefer not to exercise their

 

 

 

priesthood it is inevitable, and even perhaps

 

 

 

desirable, that all other orders in the Church should

 

 

 

also suffer. The Church can never be reformed purely

 

 

 

as an institution. That would be a terrible curse: to

 

 

 

have a well-functioning organization which will come

 

 

 

to an end with the rest of the world! God has given us

 

 

 

not an institution but a mystery; not a thing that

 

 

 

will finish and die, but a life to be lived eternally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This view seems dead-on. I posted a quote from

 

 

 

Ratzinger a few days ago (via Mr. Dylan) that pointed

 

 

 

out the constant tendency of humans to see the Church

 

 

 

in strictly moral terms. But morality is not an end in

 

 

 

itself. This Byzantine view is such a healing one

 

 

 

because it recognizes the "reason for the season" -

 

 

 

i.e. everything: Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

Lots to discuss & recuss here, but one thing is that I

 

 

 

can see constantly that emphasis on spirituality

 

 

 

'done' for our mental health - as an end in itself.

 

 

 

Some of the saints weren't the most mentally balanced

 

 

 

folks, so that article was telling since our culture

 

 

 

does preach 'health uber alles'. A friend has told me

 

 

 

that she doesn't trust many of the saints because they

 

 

 

were 'crazy'.

 

 

 

 

 

And Prayer?

 

 

 

This is interesting to me is where prayer begins being

 

 

 

about "us", our health & happiness and not about

 

 

 

pleasing God. If prayer leads to scrupulosity or

 

 

 

depression, then of course it is not of God and should

 

 

 

be discarded. But if some time of prayer is 'boring'

 

 

 

or is not fun in the sense of focusing on Christ

 

 

 

instead of ourselves and our needs (I'm thinking of

 

 

 

the rosary here, and its mediations on the mysteries)

 

 

 

then...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:48 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm intrigued by the fuss raised over Nihil Obstat in

 

 

 

general, and his/her identity specifically. That

 

 

 

blog's popularity somewhat befuddles me. I suppose I

 

 

 

should see the "service" performed by Nihil as a good

 

 

 

thing, given that some readers not sympathetic to the

 

 

 

views expressed in St. Blog's blogs might be put off

 

 

 

by a spelling or grammatical error.

 

 

 

 

 

But how we humans love a mystery. Won't there be an

 

 

 

inevitable let-down when their identity is exposed?

 

 

 

Isn't it smart of God not to totally reveal himself

 

 

 

(not that we could absorb it anyway) given that we

 

 

 

love to search?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:15 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 1, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fall-stalgia

 

 

 

I look on the South Carolina beach...The exhilarating,

 

 

 

ribald sun and sonic waves still jolt. The

 

 

 

sense-memories linger; the canvas bigger than life, a

 

 

 

Disneyfication...

 

 

 

 

 

Vacationers stand fixed, in mid-stride, now miles away

 

 

 

sitting in mundane offices, assuming identities.

 

 

 

Grey-flanned men swimming upstream like death-bound

 

 

 

salmon.

 

 

 

 

 

But there for a minute, sat I. A beach philosopher,

 

 

 

watching the waves. An older gentleman asks:

 

 

 

"Solving the problems of the world?"

 

 

 

"No, my own are enough!"

 

 

 

 

 

Taxidermed there on a cube wall, it hangs forlornly,

 

 

 

ripped from context and ghostly pale. An 8' by 10' of

 

 

 

the scene from our balcony, sky empty and

 

 

 

hierarchical, ocean blue and bracing. All pale

 

 

 

imitation.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:38 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 30, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every day and every hour, every minute, walk round

 

 

 

yourself and watch yourself, and see that your image

 

 

 

is a seemly one. You pass by a little child, you pass

 

 

 

by, spiteful, with ugly words, with wrathful heart;

 

 

 

you may not have noticed the child, but he has seen

 

 

 

you, and your image, unseemly and ignoble, may remain

 

 

 

in his defenseless heart. You don’t know it, but you

 

 

 

may have sown an evil seed in him and it may grow and

 

 

 

all because you were not careful before the child,

 

 

 

because you did not foster in yourself a careful,

 

 

 

actively benevolent love.

 

 

 

- Dostoyevsky "The Brothers Karamazov" via Simon

 

 

 

Russel's blog

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Touchstone Article

 

 

 

The Thomas Merton article provided by error 503

 

 

 

touched a nerve.

 

 

 

 

 

Taking drugs is one of the most self-centered actions

 

 

 

possible. A person can find detachment from the use of

 

 

 

drugs only during the high, and during this time his

 

 

 

ability to reason—the ability that separates him from

 

 

 

the animal, that makes him in God’s image—is faded.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought what was bad about drugs is that they do

 

 

 

harm to the human body, both in their addictive

 

 

 

properties (enslaving us) and their physical damage.

 

 

 

Is the high itself bad? I guess it depends on the

 

 

 

extent the drug obscures reason. If it totally and

 

 

 

completely occludes it, I could see that (because you

 

 

 

can no longer be responsible for your actions). But if

 

 

 

it is a partial eclipse, then...? As an aside, I'm not

 

 

 

defending drug use. I simply think that if the thing

 

 

 

about drugs that is wrong is that it impedes reason,

 

 

 

well, other things than drugs do that.

 

 

 

 

 

For don't we partially eclipse reason all the time?

 

 

 

Joggers/runners do it on long runs. (The old joke with

 

 

 

much truth goes: after a fight with your wife, go out

 

 

 

for a good run. After 2 miles, you'll forget why it

 

 

 

was so imporant to you, after 5 miles you'll forget

 

 

 

what you were arguing about, after 10 miles you'll

 

 

 

forget you have a wife). Every night, for 7-8 hours,

 

 

 

we shed rational-thinking for sleeping & dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

Eve's vast post acknowledges this in the context of

 

 

 

rock music and the validity of the "ecstatic

 

 

 

experience". Sexual activity is sans reason. The use

 

 

 

of alcohol is nearly universal. What separates us from

 

 

 

animals is reason, but nearly all of us intentionally

 

 

 

flee from it (at least partially) at regular

 

 

 

intervals.

 

 

 

 

 

Dappled Things quotes Thomas Merton (speak of the

 

 

 

devil) saying this:

 

 

 

The salvation of man does not mean that he must divest

 

 

 

himself of all that is human: that he must discard his

 

 

 

reason, his love of beauty, his desire for

 

 

 

friendship... A Christianity that despises these

 

 

 

fundamental needs of man is not truly worthy of the

 

 

 

name.

 

 

 

 

 

But is it not inhumane to divest oneself of all that

 

 

 

produces detachment in other ways than via love: i.e.

 

 

 

through travel, rock music, physical exercise, etc.?

 

 

 

We are animals too. On Star Trek the most inhuman

 

 

 

person is Spock, whose reason was always unclouded.

 

 

 

 

 

Aquinas, who believed bodily pleasures much inferior

 

 

 

to intellectual ones, said:

 

 

 

"Bodily pleasures hinder the use of the mind by

 

 

 

distracting it, occasionally conflicting with it, and

 

 

 

sometimes (as in the pleasure of drinking intoxicants)

 

 

 

by fettering it."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:14 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

on Contraception and other Controversies

 

 

 

The Church tries to draw lines that allow her

 

 

 

fisherman's net not to be too loose (i.e. to forsake

 

 

 

its mission to save souls and protect the deposit of

 

 

 

faith) and not too tight (thus that souls lose heart),

 

 

 

and those lines are always controversial. The fishies

 

 

 

in the net say, "draw the lines tighter! draw the

 

 

 

lines tighter!" the fish outside the net say, "make

 

 

 

the holes bigger! loosen the net!" Thus alas it has

 

 

 

always been, we flit between being either prodigal

 

 

 

sons or the resentful elder brothers. I think our

 

 

 

present pope, as well as Pope John 23rd, were simply

 

 

 

wonderful at being neither prodigal nor resentful -

 

 

 

they guarded the faith while not unduly offending the

 

 

 

fish outside the net.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:01 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 29, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visits to this blog have slowly doubled over the past

 

 

 

three months, from "nuclear family-size" numbers to

 

 

 

"slightly extended family size". My still near-total

 

 

 

obscurity allows honesty, since if I say something

 

 

 

stupid I will lose like three readers, whereas a Mark

 

 

 

Shea or an Amy Welborn might lose a hundred. For the

 

 

 

Gen-X'rs out there who think that "authenticity =

 

 

 

obscurity", then welcome to one of the most authentic

 

 

 

places on the web.

 

 

 

 

 

Many visitors come this way by putting "Video meliora,

 

 

 

proboque; Deteriora sequor" in the search engine. Go

 

 

 

figure.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:25 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which way to the bathroom?

 

 

 

SR of Flos Carmeli fame says, Go to almost any

 

 

 

protestant Church and you will be made warmly

 

 

 

welcome--in most cases embarrassingly so."

 

 

 

 

 

Very true. At the evangelical church my wife goes to,

 

 

 

they nearly jump on & hog tie any stranger they see.

 

 

 

You feel self-conscious, like "red meat". A big fellow

 

 

 

stands at the door like a bouncer, glad-handing as we

 

 

 

arrive.

 

 

 

 

 

Now here's an amazing thing. My wife received a memo

 

 

 

with detailed statistics saying that only 10% of new

 

 

 

visitors actually join the church (something like

 

 

 

that) and so the note says hospitality and initial

 

 

 

greetings must be increased. It's not in the realm of

 

 

 

possibility that the preaching wasn't what they were

 

 

 

looking for, or the music, or the doctrine. The

 

 

 

problem was the people - the congregation isn't

 

 

 

friendly enough. It seems cult-like in its artificial

 

 

 

friendliness.

 

 

 

 

 

The document for greeters was 3 pages long and left

 

 

 

nothing to chance. It was on the order of this: "Shake

 

 

 

their hand warmly and enthusiastically for at least 10

 

 

 

seconds. Introduce them to at least four other people.

 

 

 

Invite them afterwards to lunch. Tell them you would

 

 

 

be glad to do their grocery shopping & laundry for

 

 

 

them if they come back." I exaggerate only on the last

 

 

 

one. It was sort of eerie.

 

 

 

 

 

If your only goal is church membership, if that is how

 

 

 

you define success, then I can understand their

 

 

 

strategy:

 

 

 

a) get them in the door - have free car washes, etc...

 

 

 

b) when they get in, introduce them to as many people

 

 

 

as possible, so that they will become fast friends

 

 

 

with one of the members.

 

 

 

c) make sure they have as an emotionally satisfying

 

 

 

experience as possible

 

 

 

 

 

I love the Mass. I love the "take it or leave it"-ness

 

 

 

about it. I love the fact that it's all about God:

 

 

 

hearing the word and then consuming the Word. And I

 

 

 

love that it sort of goes on it's timeless way, with

 

 

 

nothing to offer but Christ - little in the way of

 

 

 

music or good preaching. (Obviously I wish the music

 

 

 

and preaching were better, but I love that the Church

 

 

 

doesn't define herself by those). There is a Don

 

 

 

Quixote aspect to the Church. Her refusal to

 

 

 

thoughtlessly modernize, or get rid of priestly

 

 

 

celibacy, or let marketing representatives determine

 

 

 

the liturgy, or to involve itself in cheap advertising

 

 

 

ruses - all that makes me love the Church even more.

 

 

 

It REALLY lives by faith.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:07 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eve Tushnet has an intriguing vast post:

 

 

 

You can't ignore, suppress, or dissolve the passions.

 

 

 

You can only guide them. Even catharsis doesn't really

 

 

 

do the trick--first, because catharsis can sometimes

 

 

 

be simple exhaustion, but second and more importantly,

 

 

 

because catharsis must somehow appeal to the passions

 

 

 

while drawing them toward reason. Thus the end-result

 

 

 

of reason must be continually supported, either by an

 

 

 

ebb-and-flow cycle of catharsis, or by a more constant

 

 

 

attraction toward reason and self-government. In other

 

 

 

words, we have to keep wanting self-government; if we

 

 

 

reason our way there without any emotional forward

 

 

 

thrust, the reasons alone simply won't motivate us

 

 

 

enough.

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of the many ways rock music can operate:

 

 

 

It can oppose one passion with another. The example

 

 

 

that springs to mind is using pity to oppose lust.

 

 

 

 

 

How so?

 

 

 

 

 

Reason (ratiocination) isn't the only means of

 

 

 

attaining wisdom. Ecstatic experience is one terrific

 

 

 

way of gaining insight, even if one needs to return

 

 

 

from the ecstasy in order to articulate the insight.

 

 

 

Rock, like other art, is able to "take you places."

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting. (So those who took LSD were right after

 

 

 

all - their vehemently telling us they learned

 

 

 

something).

 

 

 

 

 

I don't view the emotions as opposed to reason such

 

 

 

that stimulating one necessarily reduces the other. So

 

 

 

perhaps much of my disagreement with Bloom should be

 

 

 

traced to that disagreement.

 

 

 

 

 

And that is the key statement. I get a different

 

 

 

feeling from Aquinas, who, although sees pleasure as a

 

 

 

'good', he doesn't like pleasures that fetter the

 

 

 

rational mind, such as an excessive use of alcohol (or

 

 

 

I guess an excessive use of rock music?)... "bodily

 

 

 

pleasures are often more intense than intellectual

 

 

 

pleasures, but they are not so great or so lasting.".

 

 

 

- Aquinas

 

 

 

 

 

As I said before, there's also a lot of rock that's

 

 

 

just fun. Some of that fun comes with an admixture of

 

 

 

raunchy or critical or regretful or resentful

 

 

 

elements; I don't ultimately think that matters too

 

 

 

much. Rocking out is about pure physical joy. It's

 

 

 

like running or eating chocolate...bawdiness without

 

 

 

grossness is always fun. No pleasure is really "pure"

 

 

 

in the sense of "unmixed."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:40 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know you're all tired of this...but

 

 

 

If the Pope truly acted like a CEO, he would do

 

 

 

exactly what you said. He would go to the victims, get

 

 

 

some photo-ops, apologize, etc. Click off the

 

 

 

checklist provided by the media to say, "I care" (ala

 

 

 

Bill Clinton). The Pope does care, but he has a wider

 

 

 

perspective than the spoiled American view. We are

 

 

 

used to fast food, fast service, and get on this now!

 

 

 

Personally, I'm glad that the war brewing in the

 

 

 

Middle East and the plight of persecuted Christians in

 

 

 

so many parts of the world get the lion's share of his

 

 

 

attention. - quote Roger Cuomo on Amy's board

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:43 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is prayer? It is commonly held to be a

 

 

 

conversation. In a conversation there are always an

 

 

 

"I" and a "thou" or "you." In this case the "Thou" is

 

 

 

with a capital T. If at first the "I" seems to be the

 

 

 

most important element in prayer, prayer teaches that

 

 

 

the situation is actually different...

 

 

 

 

 

Conversion requires convincing of sin... in this

 

 

 

"convincing concerning sin" we discover a double gift:

 

 

 

the gift of the truth of conscience and the gift of

 

 

 

the certainty of redemption. The Spirit of truth is

 

 

 

the Consoler. - Pope John Paul II

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:00 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mission

 

 

 

I've a bit of Don Quixote in me. I love a good

 

 

 

windmill.

 

 

 

 

 

We seek to have a mission in life. It is bred into our

 

 

 

DNA. He must be a hero or die, preferably at the same

 

 

 

time. "To protect and serve" is the policeman’s motto

 

 

 

but should be everyone's. Listening to Seamus Heany’s

 

 

 

CD of "Beowulf" reminds me of it. We were born to slay

 

 

 

Grendels. To grossly switch metaphors, we were born to

 

 

 

stand at the blackjack table and at some point put the

 

 

 

chips down and say, "this is it. This is where I make

 

 

 

my stand".

 

 

 

 

 

Marriage, these days and perhaps always, is an

 

 

 

essentially heroic act. It takes a reliance on God’s

 

 

 

grace that comes close to being imprudent. (Except

 

 

 

with you honey!). Flannery O’Connor said something

 

 

 

about how brave an act marriage is in her book "Habit

 

 

 

of Being". (got to find that quote).

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 28, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was dramatically underweight as a child and young

 

 

 

adult. Rail-thin, I was good only for cross country

 

 

 

when it came to sports. After college I bulked up, and

 

 

 

for about ten minutes I was in fantastically good

 

 

 

shape. Now I carry an extra 20lbs or more and have for

 

 

 

years.

 

 

 

 

 

How easy, in the spiritual life, to be an unrepentant

 

 

 

bastard for a good part of life, and then for 10

 

 

 

minutes be "good", before becoming a self-righteous

 

 

 

prig. From prodigal son to elder brother. Ahh, the

 

 

 

challenge of the spiritual life.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Email Received

 

 

 

The following email represents millions of Catholics.

 

 

 

What can one say? I have a very close relative with

 

 

 

similar views, as I suppose many of you do. How can we

 

 

 

reach out to our disaffected Catholic brothers and

 

 

 

sisters?

 

 

 

[I'm upset at]..the rejoicing going on on Amy's page

 

 

 

over the priest who refused to marry the Planned

 

 

 

Parenthood worker. Michael, Amy's husband, has

 

 

 

suggested that pro-choice Catholics be excommunicated.

 

 

 

As someone who is pro-choice, this tells me I'm not

 

 

 

welcome in the church. At all. And as someone who once

 

 

 

wrote a check to Planned Parenthood, I guess I'm going

 

 

 

straight to hell

 

 

 

..

 

 

 

I understand that Catholic hierarchy has decided a

 

 

 

human soul is born at conception, but I'm not so sure.

 

 

 

At any rate, I see it as a matter of faith, not fact

 

 

 

(my Jewish friends are firmly in the choice camp, and

 

 

 

their rabbis back them), and I really don't see what's

 

 

 

wrong with a person making a distinction in their

 

 

 

private lives between their own faith and that of

 

 

 

others. I certainly don't buy every one of the

 

 

 

church's teachings, and I'd bet most Catholics don't,

 

 

 

either. Antonin Scalia doesn't; I wonder if his priest

 

 

 

is leaning on him to get with the program. Bet he

 

 

 

isn't.

 

 

 

 

 

Besides, Planned Parenthood helped me get birth

 

 

 

control when I was a 17-year-old moving toward sex

 

 

 

with my boyfriend. They sat me down and talked to me

 

 

 

about what I wanted and how to make the best decision,

 

 

 

then gave me a medical exam, blood tests and a

 

 

 

prescription for birth-control pills. It's hard for me

 

 

 

to see this as anything other than an act of kindness.

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. Partly because of what I learned at Planned

 

 

 

Parenthood (and in my public school, which also taught

 

 

 

birth control), I've never been pregnant accidentally

 

 

 

and have never had an abortion. Amazing how that

 

 

 

works.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:17 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stop me before I blog again

 

 

 

Cranky Prof sez:

 

 

 

"I have been interested to read the pro and contra

 

 

 

bloggages and comments about Josemaria Escriva - and

 

 

 

that no one brought up any opposition to Padre Pio

 

 

 

when I attended that canonization this summer. Believe

 

 

 

me, there was opposition to Padre Pio inside his order

 

 

 

up to the canonization (and it probably continues).

 

 

 

There was plenty of secular hand-wringing about the

 

 

 

inappropriateness of canonizing wonder-workers in the

 

 

 

modern world and speculations that this pope only

 

 

 

likes to canonize people who are anti-intellectual and

 

 

 

do good works (I think I blogged something about Edith

 

 

 

Stein/Theresa Benedicta of the Cross being a nice

 

 

 

counter-example to that one)."

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, let's start off with this: who do the truly

 

 

 

saintly admire most? Answer: perhaps their opposite.

 

 

 

St. Therese of Lieseux wished she were like those

 

 

 

other saints, those martyrs, those who had "big" gifts

 

 

 

to bring Jesus (until she realized she could

 

 

 

symbolically feed all the parts of body of Christ by

 

 

 

being the 'heart' of the Body).

 

 

 

 

 

So isn't it natural for John Paul II, who is saintly

 

 

 

and intellectual but not gifted with "wonder-working"

 

 

 

or famous for corporal works of mercy (at least in the

 

 

 

sense as a Mother Teresa) to lean towards canonizing

 

 

 

saints with these attributes? Is not Mother Teresa the

 

 

 

perfect complement to the Pope? One serving secular

 

 

 

needs, one serving spiritual needs, one an

 

 

 

intellectual and poet, the other not, etc...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:54 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't it Ironic?

 

 

 

....to think that a blog called Disputations would

 

 

 

remind us of the dangers of a belligerent mindset? Oh

 

 

 

but contraire, I can hear you thinking, to dispute is

 

 

 

not to be belligerent. Chesterton was very good at

 

 

 

that, Belloc not. Is it only special personality types

 

 

 

(or those who grow up in large, boisterous families)

 

 

 

who can agree to disagree without being disagreeable?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:38 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Random Thoughts & Commentary

 

 

 

Interesting discussion with my science-loving uncle,

 

 

 

who loathes (too strong a term, but you get the drift)

 

 

 

fundamentalist Christians. Here's a paraphrase of some

 

 

 

of it:

 

 

 

 

 

Me: "I think they are wrong, but at least they are

 

 

 

erroring on the right side of things. I would rather

 

 

 

error on the side of attributing to God creating the

 

 

 

earth in seven days and rapturing people up, ending

 

 

 

the world tomorrow, than taking the other side, which

 

 

 

is the danger of thinking God can't act, that He

 

 

 

couldn't end the world tomorrow...In other words, the

 

 

 

greater danger is the intellectual's contentment that

 

 

 

supernatural forces don't exist."

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

uncle: "If Jesus came back today how many people would

 

 

 

believe him? Probably not many of us. Just the poor,

 

 

 

like back then."

 

 

 

 

 

Me: "Actually there were well-off people who believed

 

 

 

in Jesus, like Nicodemus and many of the early

 

 

 

martyrs.... Jesus, after all, backed up what he was

 

 

 

saying with miracles.."

 

 

 

 

 

uncle: "He would have to do so in a different way

 

 

 

today." (implying that miracles no longer 'cut it')

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

This last part reminds me of what Friend B (from

 

 

 

below) thinks of miracles. Pure hogwash. He says that

 

 

 

miracles are simply events that science can't yet

 

 

 

explain. He said miracles in old times are mostly

 

 

 

explainable today in naturalistic terms.

 

 

 

 

 

But if you don't believe in the NT miracles, what does

 

 

 

your faith stand on?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I'm thinking of Reading

 

 

 

* Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern

 

 

 

Science By: Heisenberg

 

 

 

* Why Catholics Can't Sing: Day, Thomas

 

 

 

* Ciao, America!: An Italian Discovers the U.S. By:

 

 

 

Severgnini, Beppe

 

 

 

* Paul VI: The First Modern Pope By: Hebblethwaite

 

 

 

* Conclave (I forget the author's name).

 

 

 

 

 

I would appreciate any feedback relative to these

 

 

 

titles.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm also considering buying the following for my 7-yr

 

 

 

old niece:

 

 

 

* The Loyola Kids Book of Saints By: Welborn, Amy

 

 

 

* ABC's of the Rosary By: O'Connor, Francine M.

 

 

 

 

 

.....along with a glow-in-the-dark rosary, like the one

 

 

 

my great aunt bought me twenty-some odd years ago as

 

 

 

well as the out-of-print A Child's Book of Poems by

 

 

 

Fujikawa, a book that gave this 9-yr old a love for

 

 

 

words that has never stopped.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloggin' like it's 1999

 

 

 

Today appears to be a blogalicious day. You bloggers

 

 

 

out there, and you know who you are, have provided a

 

 

 

wealth of opportunity to reflect. I'm reeling from it.

 

 

 

There's Dylan's link from Touchstone on Merton (a must

 

 

 

read for moi), there's Flos Carmeli's hi-laire

 

 

 

'deliver me from' blogsessing ("blog" + "obsessing

 

 

 

over it"), there is a riveting piece on how revelation

 

 

 

proceeds from Mark Shea. There is the Cranky

 

 

 

Professor's "I like talking to invisible friends"

 

 

 

admission, there is the Ol' Oligarch's book

 

 

 

recommendation on "Physics and Philosophy", there is

 

 

 

Disputation's post on beauty...there is more...there

 

 

 

is a surfeit. Please, no mo' blogging!

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, I'm over being vaklempt.

 

 

 

 

 

1. On the matter of Mark Shea and revelation. One of

 

 

 

the comments said, (and I'm not surprised by this),

 

 

 

that Mark risks flying without Reason, i.e. we fly on

 

 

 

the two wings of revelation and reason, and Mark is

 

 

 

dangerously close to committing the treason in

 

 

 

discounting reason. But I think Mark is simply giving

 

 

 

God His due, and understanding what Jesus said to St.

 

 

 

Peter: "your thoughts are not God's thoughts....you

 

 

 

are thinking as man thinks". And in Job, where God

 

 

 

says "were you with Me at the creation of the world?".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Okay, the other thing was the post on "beauty" on

 

 

 

Disputations. Beauty, in the physical and auditory

 

 

 

sense (and in others too, of course) are recognized

 

 

 

the world over, to the point of it being

 

 

 

scientifically proven. For instance, it is a universal

 

 

 

phenom of facial beauty that there be 'symmetry' with

 

 

 

respect to our features. The more symmetrical, the

 

 

 

more attractive. Researchers have also found that

 

 

 

isolated tribes completely unsocialized by Western

 

 

 

culture still pick women with the best hip-to-waist

 

 

 

ratio as the most attractive. With respect to music,

 

 

 

the movement away from and then back towards "home" or

 

 

 

a specific note is pleasing to the ear, as is the tone

 

 

 

system that we are all familiar with. Atonal music is

 

 

 

a creation in modern times and is a flagrant disregard

 

 

 

for what the human ear "naturally" finds good. So it

 

 

 

seems beauty has a built-in component to it,

 

 

 

hard-wired if you will.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:12 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viktor Shklovsky wrote that "habit devours objects,

 

 

 

clothes, furniture, one's wife and the fear of war...

 

 

 

art exists to help us recover the sensation of life."

 

 

 

Defamiliarization is crucial; that's what he thought

 

 

 

literature was all about.

 

 

 

 

 

So how does one 'defamiliarize' oneself with the

 

 

 

gospel message, the Mass and sacraments in order to

 

 

 

see them with fresh eyes? How does one prevent pure

 

 

 

habit from devouring us? Only through prayer. Prayer

 

 

 

serves to recover not only the sensation of life but

 

 

 

its actuality.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:34 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 27, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A nearly impossible thing has just happened. I just

 

 

 

read something on "the crisis" that actually breaks

 

 

 

new ground (for me at least). From Tim Drake's blog:

 

 

 

 

 

"..the attitude of Pope John Paul II towards religious

 

 

 

congregations, female as well as male, is somewhat

 

 

 

Darwinian. He is content to let the healthy groups

 

 

 

prosper - Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity are

 

 

 

a prime example - while letting the unhealthy ones die

 

 

 

out of their own accord, like sick caribou amid the

 

 

 

permafrost."

 

 

 

- Paul Shaughnessy, S.J.

 

 

 

 

 

Tim Drake asks:..perhaps, like the religious

 

 

 

congregations, the Holy Father has taken a similar

 

 

 

approach with the bad bishops - allowing them to die

 

 

 

on the vine or, in some cases, even allowing them to

 

 

 

do themselves in, rather than to feed into the media

 

 

 

frenzy even further by issuing an all-out call for the

 

 

 

wholesale resignation of a handful of bishops?

 

 

 

 

 

This is a fascinating line of reasoning. If Paul

 

 

 

Shaughnessy is right, and the Holy Father prefers that

 

 

 

healthy religious groups prosper rather than nursing

 

 

 

semi-heretical religious corpses, then why wouldn't he

 

 

 

let the same thing happen to countries? Why shouldn't

 

 

 

the pope focus on third-world nations like Mexico

 

 

 

rather than cater to America, who, in the eyes of some

 

 

 

members of the Italian curia, is simply reaping what

 

 

 

we have sown? A sick society will produce sick

 

 

 

leaders, so isn't it rational to assume that a

 

 

 

wholescale lopping off of the bishops who caused the

 

 

 

problem would only be replaced by bishops no better?

 

 

 

 

 

If we look through the world's eyes we would think

 

 

 

America so important, given our financial and

 

 

 

political clout. God needs us. (Reminds me of Belloc's

 

 

 

wrong thought - that Europe is the faith.) If we look

 

 

 

through the eyes of faith, we see just the opposite -

 

 

 

the poor and defenseless are the most important. Our

 

 

 

Holy Father perhaps is giving us the medicine we

 

 

 

deserve. The local church needs to be accountable for

 

 

 

its actions.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:11 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emailed Nancy Nall this on her comments on her blog:

 

 

 

Very interesting piece on the newspaper bidness...You

 

 

 

obviously know more about it than I'll ever know, but

 

 

 

given how increasingly polarized the country is (red

 

 

 

vs blue states) doesn't it mean that in order for a

 

 

 

paper to have any "color" or interest, it needs to

 

 

 

reflect either "red" thinking or "blue" thinking, thus

 

 

 

alienating half the reading populace?

 

 

 

Perhaps the model here is the Washington Post and

 

 

 

Washington Times, which both have their respective

 

 

 

readerships and both have "color". Unfortunately most

 

 

 

cities can't support two papers, so we are left with

 

 

 

one drab, colorless one, which, in some ways, is worse

 

 

 

than having a paper of the wrong ideological ilk.

 

 

 

 

 

Now you might say, rightly, people need to be open to

 

 

 

other points of view. But is it right for a

 

 

 

left-leaning person to support a newspaper (by

 

 

 

subscribing to it) that continually espouses and

 

 

 

promulgates issues like conceal and carry laws,

 

 

 

corporate welfare, the death penalty and pro-war

 

 

 

stances? Similarly for a right-leaning person &

 

 

 

abortion.

 

 

 

 

 

Successful papers seem to come out of, and reflect,

 

 

 

the community, but communities now are so

 

 

 

multi-cultural with so many competing values that an

 

 

 

urban newspaper is left holding the bag. Maybe this is

 

 

 

part of the popularity of blogs, which reflect a

 

 

 

"community" so well (i.e. Amy on Catholicism). You can

 

 

 

say it is the 'echo chamber' effect, people love to

 

 

 

hear their own opinions spewed back at them, but I

 

 

 

think it's more subtle than that. I may not always

 

 

 

agree with Amy, but I know where she's coming from and

 

 

 

that makes all the difference.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Offending Everybody

 

 

 

My take on the Dreher piece and Cardinal Law situation

 

 

 

is this:

 

 

 

 

 

First off, I am not a parent, and so I think I lack

 

 

 

some of the absolutely burning-white rage that parents

 

 

 

would more naturally feel since they can imagine their

 

 

 

son or daughter being abused. No one but another

 

 

 

parent can fully understand the love a parent feels

 

 

 

for their child - it is a "non-transferable emotion",

 

 

 

and is life-altering.

 

 

 

 

 

But the dirty little secret is that American society

 

 

 

has become more feminized, and women value safety uber

 

 

 

alles, sometimes at the expense of freedom. The fact

 

 

 

that we are moving in this direction is shown, in a

 

 

 

small way, by the fact that when I was a child none of

 

 

 

us wore bike helmets. We also went on long car trips

 

 

 

many states away while comfortably ensconced in the

 

 

 

back car window for heaven's sake. Drinking and

 

 

 

driving was relatively common and the penalties nearly

 

 

 

non-existent. Car seats and bike helmets and M.A.D.D.

 

 

 

are wonderful things, but it is true that parents

 

 

 

nowadays have an increasingly smaller tolerance for

 

 

 

risk and the bishops were blind-sided by this.

 

 

 

 

 

We can say, rightfully, how in the world did society

 

 

 

allow serial drunken drivers to cause so many

 

 

 

accidents without serious punishment? We say the same

 

 

 

thing about the bishops now. They didn't get it - now

 

 

 

they do.

 

 

 

 

 

So you had a collision of two completely different

 

 

 

worlds - the prelates and other non-parental types who

 

 

 

are more comfortable with risk, and parents who are

 

 

 

tightening what "an acceptable risk" means. Bishops do

 

 

 

not have children and have spend much of their adult

 

 

 

lives in mostly all-male environments and thus have

 

 

 

not caught on to the "safety uber alles" model. That

 

 

 

is not excusing them at all; they acted atrociously.

 

 

 

But maybe it was part of their thinking. They are not

 

 

 

as "plugged in" to the culture. They don't watch Oprah

 

 

 

much.

 

 

 

The overriding important matter is that the

 

 

 

"priest-shuffle" stop, and I personally can't imagine

 

 

 

that the bishops will ever try that again. So I

 

 

 

consider where Cardinal Law is serving is irrelevant

 

 

 

to whether or not "priest-shuffling" continues (since

 

 

 

it won't continue either way). There may be a

 

 

 

vengeance, a blood-thirst out there for Cardinal Law's

 

 

 

throat, and I think that is God's job, not ours.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:27 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 26, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Beauty is to enthuse us for work, and work is to

 

 

 

raise us up." - poet Cyprian Norwid via John Paul II's

 

 

 

"Letter to Artists"

 

 

 

St. Bernard explained it by saying that God loves us

 

 

 

not because we are good and beautiful, but because his

 

 

 

love makes us good and beautiful. A fundamental idea

 

 

 

arises from the two meanings that fills the human

 

 

 

heart with hope, that is, God is ready to receive you,

 

 

 

to begin again with you, regardless of your history,

 

 

 

your past, your experience of estrangement and

 

 

 

infidelity.... A God who is prepared to start all over

 

 

 

again with us. - Msgr. Bruno Forte via "Dappled

 

 

 

Things"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:13 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's like this you see...

 

 

 

I like Mark Shea's clarity of language and his

 

 

 

willingness to address tough issues. Here he is at his

 

 

 

best in his blog:

 

 

 

"Is it about oxen that God is concerned?" St. Paul

 

 

 

asks this question and assumes that we know the

 

 

 

answer: No.

 

 

 

 

 

Biblical revelation concerns itself solely with our

 

 

 

salvation. It does not pretend to be a science book of

 

 

 

Everything. For Paul, "death" refers to human death,

 

 

 

not the death of oysters. He gives no hint that the

 

 

 

sin of Adam results in the death of anybody but human

 

 

 

beings. It is reading into, not out of, the text to

 

 

 

assume that he has in mind the suffering of animals at

 

 

 

the hands of carnivores.

 

 

 

 

 

Scripture simply does not commit us to the idea that

 

 

 

no living thing died before the fall. It has in view

 

 

 

only human death. My suggestion: Read C.S. Lewis' The

 

 

 

Problem of Pain for an attempt to wrestle with that

 

 

 

problem.

 

 

 

 

 

I would be interested in what he thinks Romans 8:19-23

 

 

 

is about though.

 

 

 

 

 

Quick Quote

 

 

 

An infallible definition is never new revelation. It

 

 

 

is merely a clarified description of old revelation.

 

 

 

Thus, infallibility is a negative charism, not a

 

 

 

positive act of inspired prophecy.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:16 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was amused by this article about filmmaker John

 

 

 

Waters, who has 'marshalled his life into rigid

 

 

 

routine' including drink:

 

 

 

 

 

He makes it a point to drink every Friday night, 'like

 

 

 

a coal miner with a paycheck in his pocket', and

 

 

 

arranges his home life to accommodate his

 

 

 

compulsiveness.- John Leland NY Times News Service

 

 

 

 

 

Reminds me of what you get when you marry a German and

 

 

 

an Irishman....a punctual drinker.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:29 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riveting NY Times article titled In God They Trust,

 

 

 

Sort Of.

 

 

 

 

 

Our very own crosses, Garry Wills & James Carrol

 

 

 

appear and are considered "apologists" for the faith,

 

 

 

which, I suppose is like calling Genghis Kahn an

 

 

 

apologist for peace and tranquility.

 

 

 

 

 

The quote below does have the whiff of recognition

 

 

 

about it and I'll have to think on it. More grist for

 

 

 

my suspicion that writers are natural wretches,

 

 

 

although Flannery O'Connor is the exception that

 

 

 

proves the rule:

 

 

 

 

 

...it's hard to give an account of your religious

 

 

 

beliefs without sounding mawkish. William James

 

 

 

understood this. Though he claimed to admire the

 

 

 

pious, in ''The Varieties of Religious Experience'' he

 

 

 

distanced himself from them with an occasional twinkle

 

 

 

of irony. The irony can be detected in the list of

 

 

 

moods he says are indicative of true spirituality:

 

 

 

solemnity, serenity, cheerful gladness, tenderness.

 

 

 

Religious discourse ''favors gravity, not pertness,''

 

 

 

he wrote. ''It says 'hush' to all vain chatter and

 

 

 

smart wit.''

 

 

 

 

 

In other words, religious sentiment can be deadly to

 

 

 

the literary impulse, which must be as willing to

 

 

 

traffic in vain chatter and smart wit as in solemnity

 

 

 

and uplift.

 

 

 

 

 

Jesus certainly had a smart wit, though he was a

 

 

 

religious leader (not to mention God), and not a

 

 

 

follower or a writer.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:14 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 25, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"First, severity. That is to say, the severity of the

 

 

 

ideal. Then, mercy."- Kierkegaard

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:11 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This piece from Dave Armstrong looks interesting

 

 

 

asking why Pope John Paul II doesn't more forcefully

 

 

 

discipline dissenters. I haven't read it yet, but want

 

 

 

to. Mainly I just didn't want that last post so

 

 

 

prominently 'front & center'. The next few posts can

 

 

 

be looked upon with a similar jaundiced eye...ha.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the Brain's Machinations

 

 

 

Even my subconscious (i.e. in the dream state)

 

 

 

understands now that it must look away from sexually

 

 

 

explicit material. So this has resulted in some rather

 

 

 

elaborate ruses to get by the censor. You would think

 

 

 

that it would be as simple as dreaming of someone

 

 

 

holding a gun to your head saying, "You must look at

 

 

 

this pictures!", but I guess that is too crude or

 

 

 

unbelieveable. The latest one really took the cake.

 

 

 

 

 

The one magazine I trust implicity and read

 

 

 

cover-to-cover is Crisis. So you can imagine my shock

 

 

 

and dismay when the latest issue arrived chock-full of

 

 

 

nubile females in the altogether. The mental-wrestling

 

 

 

in this dream was fierce, but eventually I had to go

 

 

 

through the whole magazine and 'look' at those

 

 

 

pictures on the theory that something would eventually

 

 

 

explain this mystery. When I woke up, I realized I'd

 

 

 

been had of course. I think even my subsconscious now

 

 

 

knows that Crisis isn't Playboy. But it is fascinating

 

 

 

the lengths the brain (or devil?) will go to in order

 

 

 

to get one to give in to lust.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 6:50 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sick of cynicism. And I tire easily of

 

 

 

contemporary arguments btwn Republicans and

 

 

 

Damnocrats, and I'm a little tired of the

 

 

 

bishops/scandal stuff, although I recognize its

 

 

 

importance.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a prelude to saying how sad I am to have come

 

 

 

to the end of McCullough's "John Adams". How

 

 

 

refereshing it is to read something that, although not

 

 

 

haiography, is at least respectful of the subject. I

 

 

 

so long to read about heroes instead of our current

 

 

 

crop of spineless leaders, from Cardinal Law to Bill

 

 

 

Clinton. For some of the same reasons I loved James

 

 

 

Robertson's bio of Stonewall Jackson.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:36 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 24, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A New England Bachelor

 

 

 

My death was arranged by special plans in Heaven

 

 

 

And only occasioned comment by ten persons in Adams,

 

 

 

Mass.

 

 

 

The best thing ever said about me

 

 

 

Was that I was deft at specifying trump.

 

 

 

- Richard Eberhart

 

 

 

 

 

...and it gets much harsher.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:21 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Short Sketch of Fr. Hayes

 

 

 

A large man he is, with a full-belly laugh and a large

 

 

 

beard to go with it. He speaks fluent Irish, not

 

 

 

Gaelic, for Gaelic is only used by the uninitiated.

 

 

 

His huge, Santa-like belly might give you pause to

 

 

 

think him a glutton, but he isn't; he explained that

 

 

 

gluttony was what the Romans did – eating as the end

 

 

 

all and be all, such that you throw up in order to eat

 

 

 

again. One can’t accuse anyone of gluttony merely by

 

 

 

being fat; his calmness and huge appetite for study

 

 

 

might point merely to a weak metabolic rate.

 

 

 

 

 

I wasn’t sure what to make of this jolly Dominican in

 

 

 

the fiercely orthodox St. Patrick’s Church, where

 

 

 

battles rage over whether the women should wear veils

 

 

 

and the confession lines form to infinity.

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t know that he had gotten his undergrad in

 

 

 

biology and then went on to be a lawyer before finally

 

 

 

becoming a priest. An odd, if interesting, turn of

 

 

 

events. Born of an Italian father and Irish mother,

 

 

 

his family was torn in two when someone died. The

 

 

 

Irish half would have a wake, a jolly and exuberant

 

 

 

celebration of his or her entry into heaven. The

 

 

 

Italian half would stand like black-clad statues,

 

 

 

somber in their desire to show respect for the loss,

 

 

 

and resentful of the base Irish display.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:49 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inscrutable

 

 

 

I once read of a saint, or so it seemed to me.

 

 

 

Accounts of his devotion to the Lord and doing his

 

 

 

duty surpass my poor powers of imagination. I could

 

 

 

offer a hundred anecdotes of his dedication,

 

 

 

intelligence, or how admirable and worthy of respect

 

 

 

he was. A man’s man.

 

 

 

 

 

Before I read a biography my prejuidice showed; I

 

 

 

thought him a redneck, hilljack, dumb and reckless.

 

 

 

 

 

His name was Thomas, and a more devout soldier one

 

 

 

could scarcely imagine. His solace was the solely in

 

 

 

the Lord and he prayed nearly always. Even the deaths

 

 

 

of his first wife and first child could not shake the

 

 

 

beautiful and resolute faith in Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

He read Shakespeare or the scriptures to his wife

 

 

 

every night when he was home, sitting in the parlor of

 

 

 

their Virginian home. He wasn’t home often enough

 

 

 

though, due to the war that raged.

 

 

 

 

 

He remains to me a source of fascination, for this man

 

 

 

who I so admire was on the wrong side of the Civil War

 

 

 

and the wrong side of truth. And it seems a scandal to

 

 

 

imagine someone so close to God could, at the same

 

 

 

time, be so wrong about slavery and about Catholicism.

 

 

 

His name? Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

 

 

 

 

 

How discouraging that even the devout can be so

 

 

 

mistaken, can so misread the will of God. And while we

 

 

 

cannot judge hearts, we can see and understand

 

 

 

sacrifice, and on that score Thomas J. Jackson was

 

 

 

nearly without peer.

 

 

 

 

 

I visited his tomb in Richmond last year and stood a

 

 

 

few paces from his remains. If I had lived at that

 

 

 

time, I would surely not have rated an audience with

 

 

 

him. But with the democracy of death, a hundred and

 

 

 

forty years later this soft, lazy, Yankee Catholic -

 

 

 

verything he wasn't - can stand a mere ten feet from

 

 

 

his bones.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:43 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 23, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reason to Rejoice

 

 

 

"The presence of Christ's sacred humanity in heaven is

 

 

 

itself a perpetual pleading, our names are better

 

 

 

written in his sacred wounds than the names of the

 

 

 

twelve tribes on the gems of Aaron's pectoral, and his

 

 

 

heart's desire for our salvation is before God

 

 

 

always." - A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture

 

 

 

 

 

It nears poetry; breathtakingly beautiful in its

 

 

 

message.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:29 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Son of man, can these bones live? O Lord, thou

 

 

 

knowest." Ezekiel 37

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:25 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Have Fun With Nigerian Scammers Without Really

 

 

 

Trying

 

 

 

DR VINCENT .A YOMI

 

 

 

LAGOS-NIGERIA.

 

 

 

 

 

DEAR SIR,

 

 

 

 

 

I GUESS THIS LETTER MAY COME TO YOU AS A SURPRISE

 

 

 

SINCE I HAD NO PREVIOUS CORRESPONDENCE WITH YOU. I AM

 

 

 

THE CHAIRMAN TENDER BOARD OF INDEPENDENT NATIONAL

 

 

 

ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC) I GOT YOUR CONTACT IN THE

 

 

 

COURSE OF MY INTRNET SEARCH FOR A RELIABLE PERSON WITH

 

 

 

WHOM TO HANDLE A VERY CONFIDENTIAL TRANSACTION

 

 

 

INVOLVING THE TRANSFER OF FUND VALUED THIRTY MILLION

 

 

 

TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS ($30.2M) TO

 

 

 

A SAFE FOREIGN ACCOUNT....blahblahblah"

 

 

 

 

 

One time I responded with Aeschylus in the original

 

 

 

Greek, excerpted here for your enjoyment:

 

 

 

 

 

"Dear Sir:

 

 

 

 

 

Iô ouk oid' hopôs humin apistêsai me chrê, saphei de

 

 

 

muthôi pan hoper proschrêizete peusesthe: kaitoi kai

 

 

 

legous' theossuton cheimôna kai diaphthoran morphês,

 

 

 

hothen schetliai proseptato. aiei gar opseis ennuchoi

 

 

 

pôleumenai es parthenônas tous emous parêgoroun

 

 

 

leioisi muthois "ô meg' eudaimon korê, ti partheneuei

 

 

 

daron, exon soi gamou tuchein megistou; Zeus gar

 

 

 

himerou belei pros tethalptai kai sunairesthai Kuprin

 

 

 

thelei: su d', ô pai, mê 'polaktisêis lechos to Zênos,

 

 

 

all' exelthe pros Lernês bathun leimôna, boustaseis te

 

 

 

pros patros, hôs an to Dion omma lôphêsêi pothou."

 

 

 

 

 

I actually received an email back saying, "Sir I do

 

 

 

not understand you!". I'm sure they thought I was

 

 

 

totally on board, ready to send them a couple grand,

 

 

 

but just had a couple nagging questions involving

 

 

 

"Zeus".

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:15 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journal of a Soul

 

 

 

I've been keeping a journal since June of 1998 in a

 

 

 

single Word document that now stretches for a

 

 

 

mind-numbing 500+ pages. Prior to that, I have lots of

 

 

 

poems that functioned as pseudo-journals, since they

 

 

 

reflected what was on my mind (I've noticed that the

 

 

 

typical entry is either a rant or a praise. The

 

 

 

praises are about just three subjects: the beauty of

 

 

 

nature, women, or God - and nowadays always the first

 

 

 

or the last).

 

 

 

 

 

Flos Carmeli has an interesting post on keeping a

 

 

 

journal. He's right that writing out your white-hot

 

 

 

anger and letting it dissipate on the harmless skillet

 

 

 

of a Word document works, at least for short-term

 

 

 

annoyances. Humor really helps defuse, and I try to

 

 

 

use humor and exaggeration. But it is the chronic

 

 

 

situations, like a bad relationship with a co-worker,

 

 

 

that writing about doesn't seem much to help because

 

 

 

there is an aspect of "Groundhog Day" to it - the

 

 

 

ventilation doesn't 'work' because the situation that

 

 

 

lead to the flame-up simply reoccurs continuously.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:15 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vat I

 

 

 

I've been meaning to do a little research for a few

 

 

 

weeks now, although it is admittedly an indulgence of

 

 

 

something close to superstition. (Along the lines of

 

 

 

seeing some kind of portent in Thomas Merton's sudden

 

 

 

end).

 

 

 

 

 

In 1870, while the fathers of Vatican I were voting

 

 

 

for papal infallibility, a terriffic thunderstorm

 

 

 

broke out causing a window in St. Peter's to come

 

 

 

crashing down, the pope shielded from its fragments by

 

 

 

the canopy of the papal chair.

 

 

 

 

 

I'd like to check out all references in the bible to

 

 

 

'thunderstorm' and see in what context it normally is

 

 

 

used.

 

 

 

 

 

The Catholic Encyclopedia interprets it thusly:

 

 

 

On Monday, 18 July, 1870, one day before the outbreak

 

 

 

of the Franco-German War, 435 fathers of the council

 

 

 

assembled at St. Peter's under the presidency of Pope

 

 

 

Pius IX. The last vote was now taken; 433 fathers

 

 

 

voted placet, and only two, Bishop Aloisio Riccio of

 

 

 

Cajazzo, Italy, and Bishop Edward Fitzgerald of Little

 

 

 

Rock, Arkansas, voted non placet. During the

 

 

 

proceedings a thunderstorm broke over the Vatican, and

 

 

 

amid thunder and lightning the pope promulgated the

 

 

 

new dogma, like a Moses promulgating the law on Mount

 

 

 

Sinai.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:57 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ratzinger is awesome

 

 

 

The temptation to turn Christianity into a kind of

 

 

 

moralism and to concentrate everything on man's moral

 

 

 

action has always been great. For man sees himself

 

 

 

above all. God remains invisible, untouchable and,

 

 

 

therefore, man takes his support mainly from his own

 

 

 

action. But if God does not act, if God is not a true

 

 

 

agent in history who also enters into my personal

 

 

 

life, then what does redemption mean? Of what value is

 

 

 

our relationship with Christ, and thus, with the

 

 

 

Trinitarian God? I think the temptation to reduce

 

 

 

Christianity to the level of a type of moralism is

 

 

 

very great even in our own day ... For we are all

 

 

 

living in an atmosphere of deism. Our notion of

 

 

 

natural laws does not facilitate us in believing in

 

 

 

any action of God in our world. It seems that there is

 

 

 

no room for God himself to act in human history and in

 

 

 

my life. And so we have the idea of God who can no

 

 

 

longer enter into this cosmos, made and closed against

 

 

 

him. What is left? Our action. And we are the ones who

 

 

 

must transform the world. We are the ones who must

 

 

 

generate redemption. We are the ones who must create

 

 

 

the better world, a new world. And if that is how one

 

 

 

thinks, then Christianity is dead.

 

 

 

-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, courtesy of Dylan's blog:

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:15 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 22, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pope & Youth

 

 

 

A Catholic who wants the Church to become more liberal

 

 

 

on its sexual policies said to me, "I don't understand

 

 

 

how all those kids flock to the Pope so much when they

 

 

 

don't agree with what he says!" (I assume she meant

 

 

 

they use birth control and have sex outside of

 

 

 

marriage).

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:01 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blogs to Come: Journal & Vatican I

 

 

 

Maybe tomorrow I'll blog about the mental health

 

 

 

benefits of keeping a journal while exploring possible

 

 

 

spiritual detriments of the same. This was prompted by

 

 

 

a magazine article I read that suggested that venting

 

 

 

in a journal or diary can make you feel better and be

 

 

 

happier, but can result in you loving your partner

 

 

 

less, perhaps because negative feelings about their

 

 

 

behavior which are buried constantly come to light.

 

 

 

This is can be a good thing, since resents deferred

 

 

 

are resents that build up or implode, but it also can

 

 

 

result in a morbid self-absorption on hurts, real or

 

 

 

imagined. (Let's keep aside for the moment of what

 

 

 

their definition of 'loving a partner less' is, since

 

 

 

it suggests love as purely a feeling rather than

 

 

 

action). If one uses a journal to vent or complain,

 

 

 

perhaps that only serves to reinforce the sense of

 

 

 

injustice that you feel in being wronged, rather than

 

 

 

in forgiving that person and "moving on".

 

 

 

 

 

Also want to blog about the thunderstorm at Vatican I.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:31 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dog Haikus

 

 

 

Dylan at 503 blog asked for bad haikus. Here are a

 

 

 

few!

 

 

 

The cat is not all

 

 

 

Bad; she fills the litter box

 

 

 

With Tootsie Rolls.

 

 

 

 

 

You may call them fleas,

 

 

 

But they are far more; I call

 

 

 

Them a vocation.

 

 

 

 

 

I am your best friend,

 

 

 

Now, always, and especially

 

 

 

When you are eating.

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

Quotes

 

 

 

"A well-trained dog will make no attempt to share your

 

 

 

lunch. He will just make you feel so guilty that you

 

 

 

cannot enjoy it." H. Thomson

 

 

 

 

 

"Won't be long means nothing to a dog. All he knows is

 

 

 

that you are GONE." - Jane Swan

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:42 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for something completely different

 

 

 

Baseball was the mysticism of my youth; the lore, the

 

 

 

history was closely associated with the Communion of

 

 

 

Saints in my mind. Babe Ruth was as real as Mike

 

 

 

Schmidt; it was the sport where tradition mattered.

 

 

 

 

 

Over the past few decades baseball has proved (as if

 

 

 

proof were needed) that any institution - be it law

 

 

 

enforcement, a church, the Presidency of the United

 

 

 

States - is only as good as society itself, the pool

 

 

 

from which it can draw from to populate its human

 

 

 

component. And while the past was no golden age, I

 

 

 

resist notions that there are no moral differences

 

 

 

between eras or that degeneration in society, as in

 

 

 

individuals, is not possible. My father used to say

 

 

 

that those things are cyclical, but just as the stock

 

 

 

market can rebound and then go to "lower lows" so can

 

 

 

a society. Look at ancient Rome. And I certainly

 

 

 

recognize my part in that, given that I am not the

 

 

 

person my forebears were.

 

 

 

 

 

So it should not be surprising that baseball has taken

 

 

 

a hit too. The strikes are bad enough; the one in 1994

 

 

 

fundamentally changed the way I viewed the game. It

 

 

 

changed from being an avocation to becoming

 

 

 

"background music", a purely aesthetic experience

 

 

 

beholding the green blades of astroturf beneath the

 

 

 

sun. No longer did I care that much about statistics,

 

 

 

or compulsively check boxscores. I quit collecting

 

 

 

baseball cards. Inter-league play was another knife,

 

 

 

because it showed the owners & players were on the

 

 

 

same team on one score - anything for a dollar. That

 

 

 

farce they call an All-Star game has been stripped of

 

 

 

any meaning because the players no longer consider the

 

 

 

other league that "great other". Mystery was shelved.

 

 

 

 

 

This coming strike is, therefore, much less painful. I

 

 

 

was innoculated in '94 when the World Series was

 

 

 

cancelled. They've so damaged the game that I now root

 

 

 

for its destruction, so that something newer, cleaner

 

 

 

and less expensive can take its place.

 

 

 

 

 

Bring on the wrecking balls!

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:32 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dappled Things has a good discussion going about TSM

 

 

 

("Traditional Sexual Morality"):

 

 

 

My correspondent hits on another problem with a lack

 

 

 

of natural-law principles in our ethical debate. The

 

 

 

Christian moral code begins to look like an arbitrary

 

 

 

set of rules and taboos, more or less unrelated to

 

 

 

each other, with no support beyond this or that

 

 

 

biblical text (for the evangelical) or this or that

 

 

 

remembered injunction from the catechism or grandma

 

 

 

(for the Catholic). "The rules don't make sense

 

 

 

because they're not supposed to makes sense: this is

 

 

 

just what good Catholics do (or don't do)." The

 

 

 

problem with this is that the best we can hope for is

 

 

 

that people will do the right thing simply because

 

 

 

they're told to. The "why" gets lost, and we're left

 

 

 

with positivism and arguments from authority.

 

 

 

 

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Pope Paul VI's

 

 

 

committee on birth control recommend to the pontiff

 

 

 

that proscriptions against artificial birth control be

 

 

 

lifted, partly on the basis that natural law was a

 

 

 

weak argument (recall these were Catholic

 

 

 

theologians)? While I'm no expert on natural law, I

 

 

 

think intellectual arguments in the face of hormones

 

 

 

are usually a poor match. E. Michael Jones' book

 

 

 

Degenerate Moderns: Modernity As Rationalized Sexual

 

 

 

Misbehavior nicely illustrates the hoops intellectuals

 

 

 

will go through to justify sexual license. Certainly

 

 

 

Garry Wills is unconvinced, and he presumably has an

 

 

 

excellent grounding in natural law.

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, my re-conversion to traditional sexuality

 

 

 

morality occurred in the context of seeking a closer

 

 

 

relationship to God and realizing that I was

 

 

 

out-of-step with my Christian (both Protestant and

 

 

 

Catholic) concerning sexual morality. The final step,

 

 

 

that of abandoning contraceptives, occurred only when

 

 

 

I completely accepted the authority given to the

 

 

 

Catholic Church.

 

 

 

 

 

Blind obedience is unsatisfactory, although some would

 

 

 

say the merit received is higher ('blessed are those

 

 

 

who don't see and still believe'). Surely during the

 

 

 

Old Covenant there were laws which made no sense but

 

 

 

which Jesus said must be obeyed (Matt.23:1-2 - "The

 

 

 

scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; so

 

 

 

practice and observe whatever they tell you").

 

 

 

Ultimately I think the important thing is to show

 

 

 

church teaching on sexual morality is not

 

 

 

unreasonable, which is how natural law can help - not

 

 

 

in proving to Protestants or anyone else that TSM is

 

 

 

correct but just getting to the point that they can

 

 

 

see it as a reasonable belief.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 21, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saint Patrick, reformed Brit

 

 

 

All but Dissertations has an interesting link about

 

 

 

the greatest Brits of all time. Despite my bardolatry,

 

 

 

I have to go with St. Patrick, who was born in

 

 

 

Britain, and who converted the Irish to Christianity

 

 

 

without bloodshed, leading to the development of the

 

 

 

Irish monasteries that saved civilization, as written

 

 

 

by Thomas Cahill's book How the Irish Saved

 

 

 

Civilization.

 

 

 

 

 

Besides, what is great art (Shakespeare) or great

 

 

 

military leaders (Churchill) compared to the loss or

 

 

 

gain of one's immortal soul?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:15 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ground Control to Major Tom

 

 

 

Walker Percy, in his wonderful non-fiction book Lost

 

 

 

in the Cosmos argues (much more persuasively than I

 

 

 

can communicate here) that artists have trouble with

 

 

 

"re-entry" to the real world after experiencing the

 

 

 

other-worldly sphere of pure creativity. Thus they are

 

 

 

prone to addictions, suicides and other evidences of

 

 

 

maladjustment as they constantly re-adjust to the more

 

 

 

prosaic world that the rest of us, more or less

 

 

 

permanently, inhabit.

 

 

 

 

 

You can see this plainly in addictions, where the

 

 

 

person begins to prefer to be permanently under the

 

 

 

influence. But I would argue that you can also see

 

 

 

this in the spiritual life, where we desire to be

 

 

 

permanently under the drunkeness of spiritual highs or

 

 

 

consolations. St. Therese is a wonderful tonic here.

 

 

 

In Story of a Soul she writes:

 

 

 

I have been convinced for a long time that, though of

 

 

 

course one must not despise anything that helps us to

 

 

 

be more closely united to God, such inspirations,

 

 

 

however sublime, are worth nothing without deeds....

 

 

 

[If these inspirations] make the latter self-satified,

 

 

 

like the Pharisee, [they] would be like someone dying

 

 

 

of hunger at a well-spread table.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:06 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 20, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more Google hits

 

 

 

"The Sexual Life of Catherine" + review

 

 

 

+isometrics +Christianity

 

 

 

video - riding bike through manhattan singing

 

 

 

 

 

Hope they're not too disappointed.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:56 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some really beautiful religious art here. I love the

 

 

 

expression of the woman in Alonso Cano's The Miracle

 

 

 

at the Well.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Email response:

 

 

 

"What did St. John Vianney or one of the other great

 

 

 

confessors-of-sinners have to say about our mixed

 

 

 

motives? You might find some talking points there.

 

 

 

 

 

I myself worked for a pro-life 800 hotline for my last

 

 

 

5 years in grad school. I realized about 3 months

 

 

 

after I started that at least part of why I

 

 

 

volunteered was one of those bargains with God - you

 

 

 

know, "God, I'll do this if you'll stop my friend the

 

 

 

pro-life activist from dying from cancer."

 

 

 

 

 

She died anyway. I kept going for another 4 years,

 

 

 

until I left town. I had other mixtures in my motives,

 

 

 

but I also came to understand that the work was more

 

 

 

important than me, but that parts of it might not

 

 

 

happen without me. So, mixed motives and all, it was

 

 

 

best to talk to those people on the phone." - M.

 

 

 

Tinkler

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:12 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Want to be a spirtual child of St. (Padre) Pio?

 

 

 

Below is from the Padre Pio Foundation...I like the

 

 

 

attitude of it, that you can't simply put your name on

 

 

 

a list or donate and receive blessings like some sort

 

 

 

of heavenly ATM machine:

 

 

 

 

 

Padre Pio once told a friend of the Foundation that if

 

 

 

someone wants to be his spiritual child they must be a

 

 

 

good Catholic and receive the sacraments often. Then

 

 

 

you ask him in prayer to accept you as a spiritual

 

 

 

child. He is the only one who can grant your request.

 

 

 

No one else. Again, he said you must be a good

 

 

 

practicing Catholic and you must not "embarrass" him

 

 

 

before Jesus and Mary. Ask anyone who is a spiritual

 

 

 

child of Padre Pio how they know they are a spiritual

 

 

 

child and they will most likely tell you, "they just

 

 

 

know" or "they feel it in their heart" and probably

 

 

 

won’t be able to explain it any more than that. Some

 

 

 

say that there are lists to be placed on but being

 

 

 

placed on a list can’t be the way of knowing you’re

 

 

 

accepted. It is Padre Pio who must accept you and no

 

 

 

one else.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:47 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a fit of nostalgia I woke this morning recalling

 

 

 

one of my favorite poems as a child. As an American

 

 

 

remnant of the Irish diaspora, would it be a stretch

 

 

 

to suggest its appeal for me is the result of some

 

 

 

sort of atavistic hangover? (I can hear the snickers

 

 

 

from here).

 

 

 

 

 

I doubt kids today read it. Educators would probably

 

 

 

consider it too nationalistic and/or mawkish.

 

 

 

 

 

The Long Voyage by Malcolm Cowley

 

 

 

Not that the pines were darker there,

 

 

 

Nor mid-May dogwood brighter there,

 

 

 

Nor swifts more swift in summer air;

 

 

 

 

 

It was my own country.

 

 

 

 

 

Having its thunderclap of spring,

 

 

 

Its long midsummer ripening,

 

 

 

Its corn hoar-stiff at harvesting,

 

 

 

Almost like any country.

 

 

 

 

 

Yet being mine; its face, its speech,

 

 

 

Its hills bent low within my reach,

 

 

 

Its river birch and upland beech

 

 

 

Were mine, of my own country.

 

 

 

 

 

Now the dark waves at the bow

 

 

 

Fold back, like earth against the plow;

 

 

 

Foam brightens like the dogwood now

 

 

 

At home, in my own country.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:25 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More on St. Therese

 

 

 

How great is the power of prayer. One could call it a

 

 

 

queen who has at each instant free access to the king

 

 

 

who is able to obtain whatever she asks....For me,

 

 

 

prayer is a simple glance directed to heaven, it is a

 

 

 

cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as

 

 

 

well as joy; finally it is something great,

 

 

 

supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to

 

 

 

Jesus. - St. Therese of Lisieux via Flos Carmeli site.

 

 

 

 

 

For Therese, Mary's way of life and faith is devoid of

 

 

 

ecstasy, miracles, even words. The Virgin, Therese

 

 

 

noted, 'marvelled at' the prophecies which the

 

 

 

venerable Simeon uttered about the baby Jesus when he

 

 

 

took him in his arms. For Therese, Mary's attitude

 

 

 

showed 'a certain degree of surprise on her part.' For

 

 

 

Mary, as Therese saw her, and almost certainly for

 

 

 

Therese herself, simple faith was allied with a

 

 

 

certain kind of ignorance, of perplexity overcome with

 

 

 

a heroioc effot, and of battling on in a perpetual

 

 

 

half-light....Perhaps she would have acknowledged the

 

 

 

view of some mystics, that the reason why the risen

 

 

 

Jesus did not appear to his mother was because she did

 

 

 

not need this particular sign and because her faith

 

 

 

remained totally pure." - Jean Guitton, "The Spiritual

 

 

 

Genius of Saint Therese of Liseiux

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:02 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 19, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Altruism & Authenticity

 

 

 

In order to protect identities, heretofore a close

 

 

 

relative will be "Friend A" and my intelligent friend

 

 

 

(hopefully that's not narrowing it down too much) will

 

 

 

be "Friend B". Friend B is a Gen-X'r and values, like

 

 

 

many of his generation, authenticity uber alles. He

 

 

 

also questions whether there is such a thing as

 

 

 

altruism in the truest sense. He says that good acts

 

 

 

are motivated either by:

 

 

 

 

 

a) the high you get from helping someone (aka 'the joy

 

 

 

of giving') - OR -

 

 

 

b) to avoid hell or to lay up greater treasure in

 

 

 

heaven

 

 

 

 

 

So I'll have to ask him what, if possible, an

 

 

 

"authentic" altruistic act is (surely the Cross, but

 

 

 

I'm not sure he really believes it). Friend A, by the

 

 

 

way, volunteers for "Meals on Wheels" and has done

 

 

 

other charity work and is completely at loss at the

 

 

 

concept of the "joy of giving", finding none there.

 

 

 

 

 

I guess I am most interested in how to reach out to

 

 

 

the Gen-X'r. I'm thinking altruism, if in its proper

 

 

 

context, should be a response to God. A recognition of

 

 

 

the familial relationship we have with everybody and a

 

 

 

desire to please Him rather than to avoid punishment.

 

 

 

That in pleasing Him you should get a psychological

 

 

 

'pay-off' shouldn't make the charitable act

 

 

 

'unauthentic'.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:52 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See particulae for more particulars on assumptions

 

 

 

concerning the Assumption.

 

 

 

 

 

How's that for alliteration?

 

 

 

 

 

Obligatory disclaimer (as if this needs to be said):

 

 

 

obviously God can do anything, so that is decidedly

 

 

 

not the issue. I've long puzzled, for instance, how

 

 

 

the idea of the virgin birth can give people trouble

 

 

 

while the Resurrection doesn't. Given belief in the

 

 

 

Resurrection, it seems an absurdly small stretch to

 

 

 

believe that the miracles of the loaves & the fishes,

 

 

 

the Eucharist, and the virgin birth are true.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:17 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 18, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've long struggled with how the theory of evolution

 

 

 

has forced us to consider that death - for sure animal

 

 

 

death and pain - existed before the fall and so we've

 

 

 

been tempted to re-interpret St. Paul's words as

 

 

 

meaning a spiritual death. I suppose science can

 

 

 

correct our biblical theologies, but then at least

 

 

 

since Galileo that has occurred and of course science

 

 

 

and theology can, of course, in no way contradict.

 

 

 

 

 

When I emailed Amy Welborn about this about a year

 

 

 

ago, she said the Church needs to really look at this

 

 

 

issue because it never has addressed it in light of

 

 

 

the new discoveries. She said Teilhard de' Chardin

 

 

 

(I'm too lazy to check for spelling) tried, but she

 

 

 

felt he was off the mark in his diminishing of the

 

 

 

role of sin.

 

 

 

 

 

No less than Cardinal Ratzinger recognizes this need

 

 

 

and has been begging the Pope to give him leave to

 

 

 

retire so that he can personally study this

 

 

 

issue....There is a book I've recently purchased, "The

 

 

 

Joy of Being Wrong" that I haven't read yet but tries

 

 

 

to snythesize antropological issues with the concept

 

 

 

of original sin.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:12 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I belong entirely to everyone. Everyone can say

 

 

 

'Padre Pio is mine.'" - Padre, now Saint, Pio

 

 

 

 

 

"If the morbid Renaissance intellectual is supposed to

 

 

 

say, 'To be or not to be - that is the question," then

 

 

 

the massive medieval doctor [Thomas Aquinas] does most

 

 

 

certainly reply in a voice of thunder, 'To be - that

 

 

 

is the answer.' Chesterton's "St. Thomas Aquinas"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 16, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I am not deprecating your individual talent, Joseph,"

 

 

 

the Bishop continued, "but, when one thinks of it, a

 

 

 

soup like this is not the work of one man. It is the

 

 

 

result of a constantly refined tradition. There are

 

 

 

nearly a thousand years of history in this soup." -

 

 

 

Willia Cather "Death Comes For the Archbishop"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice... cold

 

 

 

beer

 

 

 

Speaking of Disputations, he says his posts on alcohol

 

 

 

garner more comments than anything else....Hmm, I

 

 

 

muse. What is the special connection between alcohol

 

 

 

and Catholics, if any? I was reading Tom Hayden's

 

 

 

"Irish on the Inside" recently and he goes on for

 

 

 

pages blaming the Irish propensity to drink on 1690

 

 

 

(i.e. the Battle of the Boyne). Seriously he blames it

 

 

 

on sexual repression and the English, the latter

 

 

 

having caused an environment of hopelessness. Why must

 

 

 

everything be about political or sexual repression?

 

 

 

Can't one drink out of the sheer enjoyment of the

 

 

 

thing? Or to loosen the strings of a tightly-strung

 

 

 

violin?

 

 

 

 

 

Watched the "Biography" tv show on John Wayne the

 

 

 

other night. And it was said he loved to drink, and

 

 

 

was down in Mexico on a 2-week binge and couldn't be

 

 

 

found when WWII started. Implied was: oh, how

 

 

 

terrible! That's not the John Wayne we know and love!

 

 

 

But I was sort of envious. It sounds like the man was

 

 

 

merely on vacation. The dirty secret is that men

 

 

 

drank, and drank heavily in the 40s, 50s & 60s. Much,

 

 

 

much less now (although I'm sure college students do

 

 

 

their part).

 

 

 

 

 

Consider Thomas Aquinas' tremendous output of

 

 

 

theological writings. When I contemplate all the

 

 

 

thinking and study that went into them and the tales

 

 

 

that sound apocryphal (that he had the entire bible

 

 

 

memorized) it makes my head swim. It makes one

 

 

 

completely understand his affinity for the Songs of

 

 

 

Solomon - it is the love poetry that must've driven

 

 

 

his prose. One needs the yin to that sort of yang, all

 

 

 

that thinking about God must be counter-balanced by

 

 

 

resting in His love. Someone once said one should

 

 

 

spend twice as much time in prayer as in apologetic

 

 

 

discussions.

 

 

 

 

 

And the consumption of a fine microbrew ale is also

 

 

 

like poetry: an anti-intellectual act that soothes the

 

 

 

side of the brain responsible for logic and math, by

 

 

 

exercising the left, full of fire and creativity and

 

 

 

the Song of Solomon.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:15 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concerning John of Disputations post on the needful

 

 

 

connection btwn Mary's Assumption and her lack of

 

 

 

original sin (i.e. sin as the cause of death):

 

 

 

 

 

1) It might be semantics, but can it be left that

 

 

 

original sin is the cause of the physical corruption

 

 

 

of the flesh, which, both parties can agree did not

 

 

 

occur to Mary?

 

 

 

(Both parties meaning those who believe she did die

 

 

 

and those who believe she didn't).

 

 

 

2) It is true that the Assumption can be unmoored from

 

 

 

original sin by pointing to the examples of Enoch &

 

 

 

Elijah. But what that does is show how the Assumption

 

 

 

is not an unreasonable article of faith. Since we

 

 

 

believe she was assumed to heaven either way, either

 

 

 

while still alive or after death, it does not speak to

 

 

 

the sin=death scenerio.

 

 

 

3) It is true that Christ died and was sinless and was

 

 

 

without original sin, but wouldn't you say that His

 

 

 

was a 'special case' in the sense that it was his

 

 

 

divine mission to die?

 

 

 

 

 

I'm persuaded that Mary did die first, but I'm

 

 

 

wondering how John reconciles that with his comments

 

 

 

implying that theology requires that she not die?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:43 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the Assumption

 

 

 

"God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his

 

 

 

covenant could be seen in the temple." - Rev 11:19

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

"During the Second World War, while I was employed as

 

 

 

a factory worker, I came to be attracted to Marian

 

 

 

devotion. At first, it had seemed to me that I should

 

 

 

distance myself a bit from the Marian devotion of my

 

 

 

childhood, in order to focus more on Christ. Thanks to

 

 

 

Saint Louis of Montfort, I came to understand that

 

 

 

true devotion to the Mother of God is actually

 

 

 

Christocentric, indeed, it is very profoundly rooted

 

 

 

in the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity, and the

 

 

 

mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption.

 

 

 

 

 

And so, I rediscovered Marian piety, this time with a

 

 

 

deeper understanding. This mature form of devotion to

 

 

 

the Mother of God has stayed with me over the years,

 

 

 

bearing fruit in the encyclicals Redemptoris Mater and

 

 

 

Mulieris Dignitatem.

 

 

 

 

 

In regard to Marian devotion, each of us must

 

 

 

understand that such devotion not only addresses a

 

 

 

need of the heart, a sentimental inclination, but that

 

 

 

it also corresponds to the objective truth about the

 

 

 

Mother of God. ...The Mother of Christ the Redeemer is

 

 

 

the Mother of the Church."

 

 

 

- John Paul II, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:58 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 15, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Universal speculation via Mark Shea's blogspot.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:23 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Doubt

 

 

 

I see the Foote comment has sparked some interesting

 

 

 

commentary, which was its purpose. Disputations and

 

 

 

Steven Riddle at Flos Carmeli have weighed in.

 

 

 

Fascinating.

 

 

 

 

 

The novel has been held in low regard by some

 

 

 

Christians in the past - in John Adams' era it was

 

 

 

considered the vice of the weak-minded, while poetry

 

 

 

was held up as the standard.

 

 

 

 

 

I do agree that Foote is not the arbiter of what makes

 

 

 

for good literature, but in fairness he is extremely

 

 

 

well-read. On Brian Lamb's show he said he's read

 

 

 

Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past" nine times,

 

 

 

which, given its length, is surreal. He's read

 

 

 

basically everything (unlike Walker Percy, who had to

 

 

 

be nagged constantly to read Dante past "Inferno" or

 

 

 

any of Proust). He's also sits on the Modern Library

 

 

 

board, which is a pretty elite group. That having been

 

 

 

said, you are right, it's mere conjecture on his part

 

 

 

since it is certainly subjective.

 

 

 

 

 

I think SR and John are dead right about how moderns

 

 

 

look through lenses of doubt. But not only that, but

 

 

 

those who author AND determine great art are almost

 

 

 

always doubters simply because they are the elites,

 

 

 

and the elite are no longer Christian. So, there is

 

 

 

some self-selection going on. It's sort of like how

 

 

 

journalists tend to be politically liberal because

 

 

 

those who are interested in 'creative' things like

 

 

 

writing, art, etc, tend to be more liberal.

 

 

 

 

 

John Updike has a quote about writers here.

 

 

 

 

 

One last thought: I'm not sure Shakespeare should be

 

 

 

given a pass on doubt, his later works were very

 

 

 

pessimistic, which I think is ultimately an

 

 

 

unChristian attitude since we know how it all turns

 

 

 

out. God wins.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:30 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Disputations:

 

 

 

Beauty is that which, being seen, pleases; when

 

 

 

someone encounters the beautiful, he desires to rest

 

 

 

in it. A novel about resting in beauty is unlikely to

 

 

 

be a great novel; it may be very poetic, but it

 

 

 

probably won't be very interesting. Novels tell

 

 

 

stories, and stories are about conflicts, and where

 

 

 

there is no conflict -- and only the perverse are

 

 

 

conflicted about resting in beauty -- there is no

 

 

 

story.

 

 

 

 

 

So yes, the modern evidence is that great novelists

 

 

 

are not greatly devout; even the great Catholic

 

 

 

novelists have not, as a class, been marked by their

 

 

 

sanctity. But I think it's wrong to interpret this

 

 

 

evidence, as some do, as meaning that Catholicism is

 

 

 

somehow opposed to great novels, much less to great

 

 

 

art. Rather, I think that doubt strengthens a desire

 

 

 

to novelize, while trust weakens it. (Provisionally,

 

 

 

I'd say doubt and trust work the other way round on

 

 

 

the desire to versify.)

 

 

 

 

 

Obivously a novel has to have conflict but that surely

 

 

 

doesn't preclude non-doubters from writing beautifully

 

 

 

of conflict, does it? The greatest conflict of all

 

 

 

time is the spiritual one between good and evil and to

 

 

 

describe that I'm not sure why being a doubter

 

 

 

'helps'. (As a unrelated aside, I'm interested in the

 

 

 

connection between doubt and sanctity, in that there

 

 

 

is more merit in 'not seeing and still believing'.

 

 

 

When I read recently that Mother Teresa was racked by

 

 

 

doubts at times.) Bernanos, in "Diary of a Country

 

 

 

Priest" understands the great spiritual battles hidden

 

 

 

in the ennui of our lives and and that is why some

 

 

 

call it the most Catholic of novels. Ralph McInerney

 

 

 

said recently that in this novel Bernanos, who was

 

 

 

fiercely conservative (to the point of being a

 

 

 

monarchist), goes where many other Catholic novelists

 

 

 

(including Mauritain and Powers) fear to tread.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:12 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 14, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From National Review on Hebron, where Abraham is said

 

 

 

to be buried:

 

 

 

"This city that feels like an entrance to hell is said

 

 

 

to be the point where Earth is united with Heaven: the

 

 

 

very portal to the Garden of Eden. The chibur alluded

 

 

 

to in its name (Hebron meaning 'bridge') is also the

 

 

 

eternal joining together of the four married couples

 

 

 

buried here: the three patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac &

 

 

 

Jacob) and their three wives, plus Adam and Eve, who

 

 

 

lie in a cave perfectly preserved and surrounded by

 

 

 

the scent of paradise....There is, finally, not much

 

 

 

to see. Abraham's cenotaph is behind an iron grille.

 

 

 

The cave itself, which has an outer and inner part, is

 

 

 

inaccessible, which is just as well. Stories from

 

 

 

medieval times tell of those who attempted to

 

 

 

penetrate the underground halls hearing strange

 

 

 

voices, feeling a wind of unknown origin coming from

 

 

 

below, and sometimes dying suddenly or going mad or

 

 

 

dumb. If this is the place where Heaven joins with

 

 

 

Earth, then it is no place for mortals..."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:29 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steven Riddle of Flos Carmeli makes the point that

 

 

 

definitionally beauty & goodness are inseparable,

 

 

 

otherwise one is just a facade of one or the other.

 

 

 

Works for me. Now wither nature is fallen is something

 

 

 

I've struggled with... "The apparent amorality of

 

 

 

nature, so wonderfully portrayed in Frost's "Design"

 

 

 

is not suggestive of a lack of goodness, but perhaps a

 

 

 

lack of understanding on our part." Probably so. These

 

 

 

are muddy waters.

 

 

 

 

 

Cut & paste from previous emails on the subject, which

 

 

 

is lengthy as a day is long...

 

 

 

That is precisely the heart of the matter. Aquinas

 

 

 

claimed the physical world is NOT wounded - that only

 

 

 

man is wounded in his alienation from God and nature.

 

 

 

Can I look around and really see the physical world

 

 

 

with its reliance on naked strength as the way to

 

 

 

survive as good? That is the challenge. A physical

 

 

 

world free from mishap would require miracles at every

 

 

 

moment of every day - and miracles are a departure

 

 

 

from the natural; they would then be, in fact,

 

 

 

natural.

 

 

 

REPLY:

 

 

 

While the whole division between "natural" and

 

 

 

"supernatural" is useful for common discussion, I'm

 

 

 

inclined to say it's really a relative way of speaking

 

 

 

about things. I'm inclined to say the "real" division

 

 

 

that we can cite, in discussing that which exists, is

 

 

 

between created and uncreated. I think this is a

 

 

 

better way of looking at things, for it here that the

 

 

 

difference is most profound. On one side of the divide

 

 

 

you have God, on the other side, absolutely everything

 

 

 

else. Angels, demons, different levels of existance,

 

 

 

the earth, man, beasts, you name it. An angel may be

 

 

 

of a more subtle substance, but it's still a creature

 

 

 

that had a beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

God on the other hand, and His "energies", which

 

 

 

refers to that of God which we experience, and can be

 

 

 

known by the human being (typically refered to as

 

 

 

"Grace", a reference to His benevolence towards

 

 

 

mankind), are not created.

 

 

 

 

 

I think understanding God in "energetic" terms is

 

 

 

important, because it has a bearing on how we view

 

 

 

this world. The cosmos as we know them, while

 

 

 

obviously still subject to the providence of God, lack

 

 

 

the fullness of God's Presence, which confers

 

 

 

immortality and incorruption. The vision of St.John in

 

 

 

the Apocalypse, is of a "new creation", a renewed

 

 

 

world where God will be "all in all" - we read about

 

 

 

the "new Jerusalem", which will need no lamps, because

 

 

 

they will be illuminated by God. What this is telling

 

 

 

us is that there is another world coming, and that it

 

 

 

will be a world glorified by God, for it will be His

 

 

 

manifest abode.

 

 

 

 

 

So like I said before, making deductions about how we

 

 

 

should act, based on bad data, from bad minds, makes

 

 

 

no sense. Nor should we be surprised that the very

 

 

 

things that the Christian tradition often labels as

 

 

 

being sins, are in fact (in a worldly p.o.v.)

 

 

 

precisely the things that will make you "get ahead".

 

 

 

Stealing, oppression, pride, lust, gluttony, etc.

 

 

 

Human nature transfigured by God, on the other hand,

 

 

 

even if we only have the beginnings of such a renewal

 

 

 

(the renewal of the mind), see's the situation

 

 

 

differently.

 

 

 

 

 

This whole subject makes me think of the stories told

 

 

 

by ancients (actually I think one such story was told

 

 

 

about the first "Buddha" in India), of people who

 

 

 

spent all of their time living in palaces, being

 

 

 

sheltered from the outside world, so that when they

 

 

 

first stepped out of their palaces (often without

 

 

 

permission), they were shocked to find that the world

 

 

 

was not a nice place at all, and were scandalized that

 

 

 

people were going hungry, dying, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

I think something similar to that is going on in the

 

 

 

case of most sceptics who approach Christianity, but

 

 

 

it is happening in reverse. They're used a world that

 

 

 

is consumed by death, and in fact are unaware that the

 

 

 

Church, and the Apostles themselves, were so bold as

 

 

 

to speak of the devil as being the "god of this world"

 

 

 

or the demons as being the "rulers of this age" or the

 

 

 

anti-christ as being the "prince of the air", etc.

 

 

 

 

 

The creation itself, is basically good, because God

 

 

 

made it. However what most people encounter as being

 

 

 

"Christianity", fails to properly explain our dilemma

 

 

 

as creatures and as human beings. What is totally

 

 

 

understated (perhaps out of pride, or because they

 

 

 

think such a view of things is "childish" or

 

 

 

"supersticious") is how comprimised this world is, how

 

 

 

death exists as a poison wrapped up in it's fabric,

 

 

 

and the real influence and literal existance of evil

 

 

 

spirits, in particular their prince, satan. There is

 

 

 

not enough emphasis that this "basically good

 

 

 

creation", is ruled by these forces, for reasons that

 

 

 

go back to mankind's beginnings. And everything,

 

 

 

including the conclusions people reach solely through

 

 

 

carnal reasoning, is poisoned by this. Indeed, so many

 

 

 

things taken for granted seem so obvious in this

 

 

 

scenario, that there could be any other meaning for

 

 

 

things that exist in this physical world, just doesn't

 

 

 

occur to them.

 

 

 

 

 

This whole matter reminds me of the stories of the

 

 

 

19th century Russian Saint, Seraphim of Sarov. There

 

 

 

exist many sayings of his, stories about him from

 

 

 

those who knew him, and so on. St.Seraphim lived in

 

 

 

the woods for much of his life, the very forest

 

 

 

becomming his church, and he would kneel motionless

 

 

 

for incredible amounts of time, totally consumed in

 

 

 

prayer. Saints are called such, because they are made

 

 

 

"holy" by their communion with God, the root the word

 

 

 

"holy" in Hebrew being "seperated" - just as God is

 

 

 

totally seperate from all other things (they being

 

 

 

created, He being the uncreated, the eternal.) A

 

 

 

particular feature of people we honour with the title

 

 

 

of "saint", is that they experience "glorification"

 

 

 

even in this world. That means, they would enter into

 

 

 

periods of particularly intense discourse with God,

 

 

 

and when they did such, it was as if the very laws of

 

 

 

nature we take for granted, did not apply to them

 

 

 

anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

In the case of Saints like St.Seraphim, they would

 

 

 

often remain in a state of prayer for incredible

 

 

 

periods of time, days upon days, with neither food nor

 

 

 

drink. They would manifest the glory of God at many

 

 

 

points, inexplicable radiance coming forth from their

 

 

 

bodies. Another famous example was the early Church

 

 

 

Saint, St.Simeon Stylites. He was a profound ascetic,

 

 

 

who had totally and utterly renounced the world, and

 

 

 

stayed in prayer upon a pillar - a "stylite", an old

 

 

 

pillar that once supported a building. He would

 

 

 

sometimes not take food or water for weeks, and show a

 

 

 

total indifference to the elements.

 

 

 

 

 

Other manifestations like this are common to Saints,

 

 

 

even outside of these deep states of "theoria" - for

 

 

 

example, the Saints often manifest a certain quality

 

 

 

which cannot be explained, which brings consolation by

 

 

 

their very presence, or can drive those totally

 

 

 

dominated by evil to either repentence or revulsion.

 

 

 

One interesting example in the case of St.Seraphim,

 

 

 

was the fellowship he had with wild beasts. The

 

 

 

animals did not fear him, nor acted with hostility

 

 

 

towards him. He was even known to sit serenely, as a

 

 

 

gigantic brown bear approached...but it had no malice,

 

 

 

but was his friend, and St.Seraphim would smile and

 

 

 

feed the wild animal as if it were a pet.

 

 

 

 

 

The Church is a place where healing takes place, a

 

 

 

hospital for the sick. But it is not only men who are

 

 

 

waiting for their final redemption, but also the

 

 

 

creation itself. When you look at the example of

 

 

 

Saints like St.Seraphim, or St.Anthony (considered by

 

 

 

many to be the "father of monasticism" - an early

 

 

 

Christian who fled worldliness by living in the desert

 

 

 

as a solitary, who also was so sanctified that wild

 

 

 

beasts were not adversarial towards him), you get an

 

 

 

idea of how another world is possible. In fact,

 

 

 

glimpses of it are seen, here and there, even now.

 

 

 

 

 

The author from Time magazine is obviously unaware of

 

 

 

all of these things. But then again, so are many

 

 

 

professing Christianity. Perhaps the hardest part of

 

 

 

all of this, is that modern westerners are mentally

 

 

 

shackeled by post-industrial ideas about technological

 

 

 

progress, and more remotely, by the "renaisance",

 

 

 

which really was a renewal, but a renewal of a

 

 

 

fundamentally pagan (carnal) view of the world, in

 

 

 

which the sick patient is called healthy, and from

 

 

 

there on in to "attain health" is to make one's self

 

 

 

all the more ill.

 

 

 

 

 

In the face of this pious materialism, with man

 

 

 

sitting as the crown idol amongst all the others it

 

 

 

has erected, there is very little room for shrugging

 

 

 

your shoulders anymore, or being honest enough to

 

 

 

admit that you "don't know". Thus you have everyone,

 

 

 

whether it be people professing to be "Christians" or

 

 

 

others professing atheism, sounding pretty sure of

 

 

 

their respective explanations about everything...

 

 

 

totally unaware of the fact that the last century has

 

 

 

taught us how quickly today's certainty will become

 

 

 

tommorow's quackery. It is pride which will always

 

 

 

convince people that they are somehow special, exempt

 

 

 

from the faults of their ancestors, even though they

 

 

 

still indulge in the same games that they did.

 

 

 

 

 

I am content to say that I can tell you something

 

 

 

about our past (only because it is preserved in the

 

 

 

Tradition of the Church), but what I can say has more

 

 

 

relevence to the "why" than the "how". If your primary

 

 

 

concern in life is to live rightly, and sucessfully,

 

 

 

you'll cherish this most necessary knowledge.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:26 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still pondering this beauty & truth & goodness stuff.

 

 

 

I want to see the connection as inseparable but...

 

 

 

 

 

As an adolescent I loved Thoreau's "Walden". I thought

 

 

 

it the most magical piece of literature. Now I have

 

 

 

misgivings about the somewhat misanthropic sentiments.

 

 

 

Certainly the message to 'simplify' is a great one,

 

 

 

but sometimes what most appeals to us is that thing in

 

 

 

the literature or art that appeals to our special

 

 

 

vice, our Achilles heel. If Thoreau appeals to

 

 

 

slothfulness or lack of generosity, I might see it as

 

 

 

a great 'truth' and revel in it. In other words, it

 

 

 

can be very beautiful to have a worldview constructed

 

 

 

that appears to fit what we consider it should be.

 

 

 

 

 

Let's take a look at nature herself - astonishingly

 

 

 

beautiful, right? And good, indeed good - but good

 

 

 

before the Fall, right? Nature can be pretty ruthless,

 

 

 

amoral, in the whole sense of prey or be preyed upon.

 

 

 

Natural selection isn't pretty. Can't art be beautiful

 

 

 

but deadly, like some gorgeous but poisonous coral?

 

 

 

Satan was the highest of angels before he fell and

 

 

 

presumably could produce something beautiful in

 

 

 

imitation. St. Paul writes in Romans 8 that all

 

 

 

creation groans in anticipation, seemingly implying

 

 

 

that this physical world is inadequate to what even it

 

 

 

was intended to be. He seems to have come close to

 

 

 

saying that nature was fundamentally altered by the

 

 

 

Fall, although Aquinas would never accept that

 

 

 

interpretation.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 13, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting article on Seasonal Preferences

 

 

 

Summer's tide is high and soon will turn. That's how

 

 

 

it always is. On July 4, the entire summer lies before

 

 

 

us. A few short weeks later, we're on the homestretch

 

 

 

to Labor Day. Among us, there are those who will cling

 

 

 

by our fingernails to the last shred of summer right

 

 

 

through September and others who are secretly already

 

 

 

a little sick of sand, chlorine, endless days and

 

 

 

bored kids. Which camp are you in?

 

 

 

 

 

Some scientists believe that a person's outlook may

 

 

 

come down to neurotransmitters in the brain.

 

 

 

 

 

Craig H. Kinsley, an associate professor of

 

 

 

neuroscience at the University of Virginia, said his

 

 

 

friends accuse him of being "an evangelist for the

 

 

 

brain.'' He believes that everything from whether you

 

 

 

like chocolate or vanilla to whether you enjoy

 

 

 

relaxing on a beach is related to the brain chemistry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People who can't sit still, who crave new experiences,

 

 

 

who desire new challenges and who are bored with

 

 

 

summer relaxation may be driven by their brain's

 

 

 

appetite for a neurotransmitter called dopamine.

 

 

 

Kinsley said that dopamine is released during new

 

 

 

experiences and enhances good feelings. Some of us

 

 

 

have a greater need for dopamine than others. Those

 

 

 

who are more content with a relaxed, low-key routine

 

 

 

apparently have sufficient supplies of dopamine and

 

 

 

don't need more, Kinsley said.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Michael Nuccitelli, a psychologist and executive

 

 

 

director of SLS Health in Brewster, N.Y., said

 

 

 

chemicals play a role in people's reactions to

 

 

 

everything, but environmental factors play a role in

 

 

 

how people feel about summer.

 

 

 

 

 

One of those factors is wealth. If you can afford

 

 

 

beach houses, camps for your kids and summer toys such

 

 

 

as boats or jet skis, you probably like summer better

 

 

 

than someone who can't afford such luxuries.

 

 

 

Nuccitelli considers himself a risk-taker, an

 

 

 

adventuresome type, but he's not a big fan of summer

 

 

 

because he can't stand the heat.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Nicholas DeMartinis, a psychiatrist at the

 

 

 

University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington,

 

 

 

Conn., said that whether you mourn the demise of

 

 

 

summer probably has a lot to do with whether you're an

 

 

 

outdoorsy person.

 

 

 

 

 

"A lot of people find summer less stressful,'' said

 

 

 

DeMartinis. "One of the best antidotes to stress is

 

 

 

getting out and exercising. People may do less of that

 

 

 

in the winter and it's easier for stress to build

 

 

 

up.''

 

 

 

 

 

For those who are reactive to light, the days also

 

 

 

grow shorter, which can lead to seasonal blues in the

 

 

 

fall and winter.

 

 

 

 

 

Some people will find any transition rough-going.

 

 

 

"These may be people with a more obsessive-compulsive

 

 

 

personality, not a disorder,'' said DeMartinis. "They

 

 

 

like to do things the same way, over and over and

 

 

 

over. You start changing things and it's stressful.''

 

 

 

 

 

As for thrill-seekers, DeMartinis, they may be as

 

 

 

likely to enjoy winter as summer if they are skiers or

 

 

 

snowboarders.

 

 

 

 

 

In, general, Kinsley said, human beings weren't really

 

 

 

made for a two-week beach vacation.

 

 

 

 

 

If you go back to early man, the competition for

 

 

 

resources and for mates defined us, Kinsley said. We

 

 

 

needed time for rest, but rest amounted to a good

 

 

 

night's sleep. And then we were ready for more

 

 

 

challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

"The animal, humans included, were not designed nor

 

 

 

were we shaped by the crucible of natural selection,

 

 

 

to just sit around,'' Kinsley wrote. "We crave

 

 

 

stimulation, work, competition. Or most of us do.''

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps that means that those of us who are able to

 

 

 

look - without nausea - at the fall clothes already in

 

 

 

department stores are more like our prehistoric

 

 

 

relatives.

 

 

 

 

 

And those of us who long to sit on the beach till

 

 

 

sunset in October have accepted change. You could even

 

 

 

say we've evolved. By Kathleen Megan The Hartford

 

 

 

Courant

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:36 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lady of Shalott & Flos Carmeli have had some

 

 

 

interesting posts, especially Flos' comments on Keats.

 

 

 

I have started, but not finished, "Dawn to Decadence"

 

 

 

which makes the case that art has suffered greatly

 

 

 

over the past 500 years due in part to modernism. I

 

 

 

guess the stuff of art comes out of the muck and mire

 

 

 

the culture has handy - since the Enlightenment we've

 

 

 

had less to work with in terms of "healthy" (i.e.

 

 

 

good) thinking and that must and is reflected in art.

 

 

 

 

 

Now I'll really butcher this concept, and I don't even

 

 

 

hardly believe it but feel compelled to offer it. A

 

 

 

year or two ago I read that art over the past 200

 

 

 

years have consciously intended to skew (i.e. like

 

 

 

surrealism) creation because it is rejecting the

 

 

 

Creator and also his creation. In other words, the

 

 

 

fact that paintings no longer mirror nature was done

 

 

 

in a way to devalue creation, devalue the earth,

 

 

 

reject the line in Genesis where God says, "it is

 

 

 

good". Now I don't know what to think about that

 

 

 

because I certainly like Monet and Dali and others.

 

 

 

But it was interesting, given how the increase in

 

 

 

"non-real" art has followed the decrease in faith

 

 

 

since the Enlightenment. Art glorified God for many

 

 

 

centuries and there was a fierce resistance when the

 

 

 

humanists came in and made man the central subject.

 

 

 

And from there artists began to paint 'fractured" man

 

 

 

(like Picasso), which was to symbolize the monster

 

 

 

that he considered man to be (or especially women).

 

 

 

 

 

Shelby Foote to Walker Percy:

 

 

 

"One of the things I've most admired about the

 

 

 

Catholic religion for is its unwillingness to

 

 

 

compromise and its essentially realistic outlook. But

 

 

 

the Catholic intellectuals seem to destroy all this.

 

 

 

Here we've been better than 500 years (since the

 

 

 

Divine Comedy - which, incidentally, is as much a

 

 

 

spiteful paying-off of personal animosity as it is

 

 

 

'Catholic') without a single devoted Catholic writer

 

 

 

producing one big lasting thing in the field of poetry

 

 

 

or fiction; adn yet, mind you, these intellectuals

 

 

 

insist that the advantage lies with writers with an

 

 

 

orthodox background to fall back on; it gives them a

 

 

 

scale of reference, they say. It ought to be true; it

 

 

 

out to - but look at the result. Graham Greene, or a

 

 

 

bare handful of minor poets like Hopkins.."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:40 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 11, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the risk of pulling this out of context:"It is

 

 

 

pretty generally recognized that woman is 'by nature'

 

 

 

more sentimental, and man more sensual." - K. Wojtyla

 

 

 

"Love & Responsbility"

 

 

 

 

 

By sensual, he means more along the lines of enjoying

 

 

 

the senses rather than limited to the sexual. And by

 

 

 

sentimental, he means of the feelings and emotions

 

 

 

rather than simply nostalgia.

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder if the reason the church doesn't attract as

 

 

 

many men (i.e. Podles thesis that the Church is

 

 

 

feminized) is partly because the liturgy has been

 

 

 

stripped of many of the 'sense' sensations if you will

 

 

 

- the 'smells and bells'. The Eastern rite and

 

 

 

Orthodox Judiasm both have strong male participation

 

 

 

and both have liturgies that appeal to the senses.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:33 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am back. Thursday and Friday were glorious

 

 

 

self-appointed sea dog days, days spent under a

 

 

 

glittering, unquenchable sun, days spent continuously

 

 

 

outdoors from 10 am to 6 or 7 pm, days which landed me

 

 

 

in the surf, on bike, btwn the pages of a book or

 

 

 

quaffing Guinness or drinking Corona as the sun's

 

 

 

corona faded. The other days were more or less pinched

 

 

 

by responsibility, and tested my ever-weakening

 

 

 

tolerance for chatter. Chatter this, chatter that.

 

 

 

Lots of social bookings. "The Imitation of Christ",

 

 

 

written for monks I think, has it that unnecessary

 

 

 

talking is nearly sinful. Jeesh that sounds appealing

 

 

 

sometimes. (And that is supposed to be a cross?). The

 

 

 

actor Larry Hagman never speaks on Mondays - a whole

 

 

 

day of complete silence. (I read it years ago in the

 

 

 

Nat'l Enquirer so you know it's true). I thought it

 

 

 

odd. Now.... But of course I am doing the equivalent

 

 

 

of chattering here, never letting a thought slip by

 

 

 

unpublished.

 

 

 

 

 

So a week later, 50 miles of bike rides and a 12-pack

 

 

 

later here I am – inflight – carrying back a better

 

 

 

man? Surely the break in routine was precious. What

 

 

 

did I learn? Valuing hope over experience, I always

 

 

 

imagine that from vacations will spring a well of good

 

 

 

ideas that I can take back to 'the real world'.

 

 

 

 

 

It seems the problem with purity is that the greater

 

 

 

the purity the more affected you are by impurities. So

 

 

 

in trying to shield myself from nudity via R-rated

 

 

 

movies and any other kind of soft-porn has apprently

 

 

 

left me particularly vulnerable to 'beach shock'. The

 

 

 

shielding seems to have resulted in more keen

 

 

 

antennae, such that the merest whiff of viva le’

 

 

 

difference is detected. And so, returning to the beach

 

 

 

this year was like laying before a drug addict this

 

 

 

huge spread of the latest pharmaceuticals.

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately I could behold the Cross and it is so

 

 

 

catechetical – one finds many assurances. One is love,

 

 

 

of course, and there is also the sense that he will

 

 

 

accept our buffets and stings willingly (indicated by

 

 

 

the posture of open arms). The vertical nature of it –

 

 

 

the fact it leads from ground skyward – neatly

 

 

 

incarnates the doctrine that Jesus is the bridge

 

 

 

between heaven and earth and there is no getting from

 

 

 

here to there without Him.

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

My beach reading was Clive Clusser's "Inca Gold",

 

 

 

JP2’s "Love & Responsibility" and Dineson’s "Out of

 

 

 

Africa"; a perfect admixture of good, bad and saintly

 

 

 

writing. (You guess which).

 

 

 

 

 

And I noticed that after a week of relaxation, of

 

 

 

white sand and white sun, of Guinnesses, after long

 

 

 

bike rides to puffy sand beds with elliptical petals

 

 

 

shading me, of hard runs down a hard-packed beach to

 

 

 

any good tune I could find, that well, I liked it. One

 

 

 

day I rode around a retirement community with

 

 

 

conflicted emotions. On the one hand it was a

 

 

 

retirement community, symbol of tragic things (i.e.

 

 

 

loss of freedom, diminishing bodily powers, enforced

 

 

 

artificial community, etc) and yet also at once

 

 

 

attractive (i.e. no job, beautiful island, quiet,

 

 

 

peaceful pathways and spacious balconies).

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:32 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I must be off for vacation in South Carolina, blogging

 

 

 

will resume on Aug. 12!

 

 

 

 

 

Will leave you with a quote, forgive me for not

 

 

 

remembering which blog I got it from. It is from one

 

 

 

of his letters:

 

 

 

J. R. R. Tolkien

 

 

 

"The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is

 

 

 

Communion. Though always itself, perfect and complete

 

 

 

and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate

 

 

 

completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act

 

 

 

of faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise.

 

 

 

Frequency is of the highest effect. Seven times a week

 

 

 

is more nourishing than seven times at intervals. Also

 

 

 

I can recommend this as an exercise: make your

 

 

 

Communion in circumstances that affront your taste.

 

 

 

Choose a snuffling or gabbling priest or a proud and

 

 

 

vulgar friar; and a church full of the usual bourgeois

 

 

 

crowd, ill-behaved children -- from those who yell to

 

 

 

those products of Catholic schools who the moment the

 

 

 

tabernacle is opened sit back and yawn -- open necked

 

 

 

and dirty youths, women in trousers and often with

 

 

 

hair both unkempt and uncovered. Go to Communion with

 

 

 

them (and pray for them). It will be just the same as

 

 

 

a Mass said beautifully by a visibly holy man, and

 

 

 

shared by a few devout and decorous people. (It could

 

 

 

not be worse than the mess of the feeding of the Five

 

 

 

Thousand -- after which our Lord propounded the

 

 

 

feeding that was to come."

 

 

 

 

 

I went to Mass after reading this and...yes...there

 

 

 

were many loud children behind me. I smiled.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:00 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 2, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

of the Rosary

 

 

 

Some interesting posts on the Rosary going around on

 

 

 

Disputations, Steven Riddle's & GoodForm among others.

 

 

 

I have something of a scattershot approach with

 

 

 

prayer, hoping the variety gives me maxim receptivity

 

 

 

to what God wants to say. I consider the rosary a

 

 

 

wonderful tool in the prayer toolbag even though often

 

 

 

my concentration is terrible with it. There is great

 

 

 

consolation in the asking Mary to pray for us at the

 

 

 

time of our death and of its imminence in the grand

 

 

 

scheme. It's also good to review the human events in

 

 

 

the family life of Jesus & Mary, as all families

 

 

 

remember their history and we are a part of that

 

 

 

family.

 

 

 

 

 

The Joyful mysteries teach me that beneath the surface

 

 

 

of the seemingly banal - a Jewish girl saying her

 

 

 

prayers, a visit to her cousin, a baby born and

 

 

 

presented - lay spectacularly universe-altering

 

 

 

events. It serves to remind one that our lives, at

 

 

 

times banal, are never really so.

 

 

 

 

 

Insights are infrequent, but they come. I always

 

 

 

considered the Resurrection the greatest of the

 

 

 

mysteries but then it occurred to me that it was the

 

 

 

Crowning with thorns. For which is greater - power

 

 

 

exercised or power restrained? ('Schindler's List' has

 

 

 

a great pardon scene that illustrates this). That God

 

 

 

would approve of Jesus' submission to the baptism of

 

 

 

John, how much greater must be the Father's

 

 

 

approbation when his son submitted to the crowning of

 

 

 

thorns? In Japanese culture one would rather die than

 

 

 

be humiliated, and so there is a sense in which this

 

 

 

humiliation was greater even than His death.

 

 

 

 

 

The rosary also forces me to think about HIM instead

 

 

 

of the petitionary prayer that seems to be the

 

 

 

'default' prayer of life and even the reading of

 

 

 

Scripture can be about us, in the sense of reading it

 

 

 

historically or apologetically or ....i.e. not

 

 

 

spiritually.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:20 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a difference a translation makes....Dostoyevsky's

 

 

 

Karamazov can come off as either humbly seeking his

 

 

 

sonship of Christ or presumptively making demands on

 

 

 

God

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:47 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walker Percy, in a letter to Shelby Foote on the

 

 

 

Catholic novels in this book:

 

 

 

What is it about? Screwing and God (which all Catholic

 

 

 

novels since Augustine have been about) - to use

 

 

 

"Catholic" somewhat loosely since you were right the

 

 

 

other day about me not being a Catholic writer as

 

 

 

Flannery [O'Connnor] was.

 

 

 

....

 

 

 

FROM SHELBY FOOTE:

 

 

 

She [Flannery O'Connor] is a minor-minor writer, not

 

 

 

because she lacked the talent to be a major one, but

 

 

 

simply because she died before her development had

 

 

 

time to evolve....That, and I think because she also

 

 

 

didn't have time to turn her back on Christ, which is

 

 

 

something every great Catholic writer (that I know of,

 

 

 

I mean) has done. Joyce, Proust, and I think

 

 

 

Dostoevsky, who was just about the least Christian man

 

 

 

I ever encountered except maybe Hemingway. The

 

 

 

Jesuitical strain, as Joyce said, can be injected the

 

 

 

wrong way. Inject it the right way and you've killed

 

 

 

the artist; he's guilty of idolatry and has comitted

 

 

 

the greatest sin of all - putting something ahead of

 

 

 

his art, avoiding the total commitment, keeping soft

 

 

 

inside while pretending to be tough....Don't take

 

 

 

personal offense at any of the above; I don't consider

 

 

 

you a Catholic writer at all, except in your spare

 

 

 

time out of hope of heaven."

 

 

 

 

 

More Foote:

 

 

 

"..The best novelists have all been doubters; their

 

 

 

only firm conviction, the only one never shaken, is

 

 

 

that absolute devotion and belief in the sanctity of

 

 

 

art which results in further seeking, not a sense of

 

 

 

having found. THe part of any writer's book which

 

 

 

says, 'Look here I've found the answer' is always the

 

 

 

weakest.'" It was Dostoevsky's doubt that made him

 

 

 

great - Ivan is a portrait of his doubt, as Mitya is a

 

 

 

portrait of his lust.."

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately we don't have WP's replies; he obviously

 

 

 

disagreed.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:32 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That rarest of hothouse flowers, true peace of mind,

 

 

 

found me yesterday amid the fields of Athenry, in the

 

 

 

bowels of my sweet liberty, my library, where I found

 

 

 

four hours of John Paul II’s "Love & Responsibility"

 

 

 

and Steinbeck’s "East of Eden". It was there I found

 

 

 

repose and respite, there I found safety in my God,

 

 

 

safety in the form of hope. My fruit so often sucks or

 

 

 

lay stillborn, and I cannot help but notice it. How

 

 

 

can I not, when Jesus tells of seeds that were choked

 

 

 

by worries or cares or carried off by the evil one?

 

 

 

How can one not stand, paralyzed, in the middle of the

 

 

 

field, willing oneself to bear fruit, desperately

 

 

 

wanting to see fruit so that we can know that weI love

 

 

 

Him since His test is stark: "they love Me who love do

 

 

 

My will."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:27 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 1, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, this is going to be a real struggle of a post.

 

 

 

Exceedingly politically incorrect to boot. But, as

 

 

 

Bill O'Reilly says, 'tell me where I'm wrong'. I want

 

 

 

to be wrong. It was provoked by Dissertations & her

 

 

 

riveting post on the literature & orthodoxy,

 

 

 

mentioning how T.S. Eliot's earlier works are

 

 

 

generally considered better than his later, more

 

 

 

Christianized works...

 

 

 

 

 

Point 1: The Feminization of Christianity

 

 

 

My reading lately has consisted of Leon Podles, "The

 

 

 

Church Impotent" which tries to explain why

 

 

 

Christianity, as opposed to say Islam or Orthodox

 

 

 

Judiasm, struggles to attract men in terms of church

 

 

 

attendance and other outward signs of commitment.

 

 

 

Priests, for instance, tend to have lower testosterone

 

 

 

levels than average. Podles argues that Christianity

 

 

 

has been feminized soon after the heroic age of

 

 

 

martyrs and the Church Fathers.

 

 

 

 

 

Point 2: Genius as Masculine

 

 

 

IQ tests have shown men to have a more extreme range

 

 

 

of intelligence (or lack thereof) than women. The bell

 

 

 

curve seems to include lots more points to the right

 

 

 

side (i.e. geniuses) and more points to the left

 

 

 

(dunces). And although women have not had nearly the

 

 

 

opportunities men have in the arts, still the Joyces,

 

 

 

Shakespeares, Dantes, Beethovens, Bachs are nearly

 

 

 

universally male.

 

 

 

 

 

Point 3: Combine the two and ...?

 

 

 

 

 

Okay that was going nowhere. Let's move to a different

 

 

 

solution. Walker Percy & Shelby Foote argued about

 

 

 

this incessantly in their letters (published as "The

 

 

 

Correspondence of W.P. & SF") and Foote argues that

 

 

 

art requires that nothing be placed before it, which

 

 

 

is what religion also requires. Hence the

 

 

 

incompatibility. You cannot serve both art and God.

 

 

 

I'll try to find exact quotes tomorrow.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:07 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can barely keep up with all the quality blogging going

 

 

 

on out there. All but Dissertations has a lengthy but

 

 

 

riveting post on the literature & orthodoxy,

 

 

 

mentioning how T.S. Eliot's earlier works are

 

 

 

generally considered better than his later, more

 

 

 

Christianized works. I wonder if Christianity as

 

 

 

practiced emasculates us somehow (i.e. in Origen's

 

 

 

case it was literal!). Thoreau was never enamored of

 

 

 

religion because he wanted to grow wild 'according to

 

 

 

his nature' and that wildness certainly can produce

 

 

 

great art. Yeats, in one of his poems, says Christians

 

 

 

are stone-faced and slumbering.

 

 

 

She writes:

 

 

 

As the editor of Mozart's letters says, "It was a

 

 

 

paradox that the same person who wrote such sublime

 

 

 

music used such language. But it was the case."

 

 

 

The awful produces the sublime.

 

 

 

The orthodox produces the sub-par.

 

 

 

What are we to do?

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, I would prefer to be called slumbering and

 

 

 

produce horrible art than lose my soul, so the point

 

 

 

is perhaps moot.

 

 

 

 

 

P.S.: Err 503 has a crucial post to read: here

 

 

 

(JP II's letter to artists).

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:28 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quote on Amy Welborn's site:

 

 

 

In a game of rock-scissors-paper, evangelical

 

 

 

Christianity seems to trump Catholicism these days.

 

 

 

And Catholicism trumps Orthodoxy (which is why the

 

 

 

Russian Orthodox are so defensive).

 

 

 

 

 

Why? Because our world seems to have rejected a

 

 

 

sacramental view of things. The Orthodox expansive

 

 

 

liturgies and huge emphasis on "mystery" (they call

 

 

 

their sacraments 'mysteries') are 'more sacramental'

 

 

 

if you will than Catholicism. In other words, low

 

 

 

churches drive out high churches in the 21st century,

 

 

 

and Orthodoxy is a high church compared to the RCC

 

 

 

liturgies, and evangelical Protestantism is low church

 

 

 

compared to the RCC.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:28 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Priceless

 

 

 

Read a comment (DW) in Flos Carmeli's blog that had me

 

 

 

laughing out loud and feeling guilty afterwards,

 

 

 

knowing it to be uncharitable to our separated

 

 

 

brethren, but a classic in every sense. I'm only

 

 

 

saddened I cannot use it in polite company since it is

 

 

 

so scathing:

 

 

 

 

 

How can one not love a guy (the writer James Joyce)

 

 

 

whose response to being asked whether he had become a

 

 

 

Protestant was to say that he did not give up a

 

 

 

rational and coherent absurdity in order to embrace an

 

 

 

irrational and incoherent absurdity, and that he had

 

 

 

simply lost his faith, not his reason? As a Catholic,

 

 

 

I certainly disagree with his describing the Faith as

 

 

 

"an absurdity", but one must admit, the quote is

 

 

 

delicious...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:23 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting quote in David McCullough's "John Adams"

 

 

 

in light of the "Fiction Monday" post below:

 

 

 

Why was it that a nation without wars to fight seemed

 

 

 

to lose its honor and integrity, Adams pondered in one

 

 

 

leter to Rush. 'War necessarily brings with it some

 

 

 

virtues, and great and heroic virtues, too,' he wrote.

 

 

 

'What horrid creatures we men are, that we cannot be

 

 

 

virtuous without murdering one another?'

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:23 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fyodor

 

 

 

Let me be damned, let me be vile and base, but let me

 

 

 

kiss the hem of the garment in which my God is clad;

 

 

 

let me be running after the devil at that very moment,

 

 

 

but I am still thy son, O Lord, and I love thee, and I

 

 

 

feel the joy without which the world cannot be and

 

 

 

exist.

 

 

 

 

 

Too many riddles oppress man on earth. Solve them as

 

 

 

you can, but see that you don't get hurt in the

 

 

 

process. - Dostoyevsky "Brothers Karamazov"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:37 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 31, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembrance of Communions Past

 

 

 

My life is but a string of Hosts

 

 

 

since the age of reason

 

 

 

for only thou who is Life

 

 

 

comprises life sans treason.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:12 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flos Carmeli has a good blog on what makes a Catholic

 

 

 

novel. Words are helpless things, easily misconstrued

 

 

 

indeed. Even clear words and sentences such as in Matt

 

 

 

16 can be shrugged off. (A Baptist pastor once told me

 

 

 

that Christ giving Peter the keys to the kingdom was

 

 

 

an 'obscure' passage that would've been repeated

 

 

 

elsewhere in the NT if it were important). Words are

 

 

 

symbols of larger things and therefore are necessarily

 

 

 

limited.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for that thought-provoking post, SR. I suppose

 

 

 

I am still thinking along the lines of Amy Welborn's

 

 

 

question of how to evangelize the culture and how art

 

 

 

could play a role. Flannery O'Connor once said she

 

 

 

wrote very harsh novels because that is what it takes

 

 

 

to get through to people these days (I'm

 

 

 

paraphrasing).

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:40 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Updike can flat-out write. But his books teem

 

 

 

with vivid sexual imagery, at least for a writer who

 

 

 

happens to be Christian (he even won the Campion award

 

 

 

given to him by the Catholic Book Club). I'm

 

 

 

fascinated how he can, sans scruples, reconcile

 

 

 

writing hard-core salacious stuff with his

 

 

 

Christianity. I've wondered: am I being puritanical in

 

 

 

no longer reading him?

 

 

 

 

 

I've gotten hints in the past of how he reconciles it.

 

 

 

In a footnote in one of his non-fiction books he

 

 

 

basically writes off the Gospel of Matthew, saying it

 

 

 

depicts a harder, harsher Jesus than the other gospels

 

 

 

and so it apparently doesn't count.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what Karol Wojtyla says in Love and

 

 

 

Responsibility about the line between art and

 

 

 

sexuality:

 

 

 

Art has a right and a duty, for the sake of realism,

 

 

 

to reproduce the human body, and the love of man and

 

 

 

woman, as they are in reality, to speak the whole

 

 

 

truth about them....[and] sexual aspects are an

 

 

 

authentic part of the truth about human love. But it

 

 

 

would be wrong to let this part obscure the whole -

 

 

 

and this is what often happens in art.

 

 

 

 

 

Pornography is a marked tendency to accentuate the

 

 

 

sexual element when reproducing the human body or

 

 

 

human love in a work of art, with the object of

 

 

 

inducing the reader or viewer to believe that sexual

 

 

 

values are the only real values of the person, and

 

 

 

that love is nothing more than the experience of those

 

 

 

values alone.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:03 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just as there is a danger that faith become merely

 

 

 

intellectual, and not personalized, there is the

 

 

 

danger faith be only personalized without intellectual

 

 

 

assent. My 21-year old stepson seems to be of the

 

 

 

latter. He loves science and is open-minded enough to

 

 

 

realize that it strains credibility that this is all

 

 

 

an accident. But he tends to take a very utilitarian

 

 

 

view of religion, considering it something he may

 

 

 

believe "when he needs to", i.e. when nearing death,

 

 

 

or for purposes of fostering mental hygiene or

 

 

 

happiness. He identifies with Mark Twain's quote that

 

 

 

religion is something that everyone knows not to be

 

 

 

true, but believes it anyway. He goes to church

 

 

 

services sometimes and tries to have a relationship

 

 

 

without the underpinning of intellectual assent. God

 

 

 

works with that just as he does with everything else,

 

 

 

which is why I so love the "hound of heaven" imagery

 

 

 

so much.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't mean to be hard on him. Everyone's motives, of

 

 

 

course, are mixed with self-preservation. After all,

 

 

 

trying to avoid hell is that. And the constant danger

 

 

 

is that prayer and the Mass become something for me

 

 

 

rather than for Him. In my past I held fast to

 

 

 

Tertullian's quote, "Credo quia absurdum" ("I believe

 

 

 

because it is absurd"), which comforted somehow

 

 

 

because I found in Tertullian that resonance that

 

 

 

'hey, yeah, I know this seems impossible to believe'.

 

 

 

Now I distance myself from Tertullian's quote, fearing

 

 

 

it would be misconstrued as advocating the divorce of

 

 

 

faith and reason. But my helplessness was and

 

 

 

continues to be the most valid faith experience I can

 

 

 

have because the moment I forget my total dependence

 

 

 

on Him is a lost moment. And I held on to Jesus,

 

 

 

always finding Him and his story credible.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:51 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Holy Father, in his pre-papal book "Love and

 

 

 

Responsibility" has some interesting things to say

 

 

 

about art and the line where pornography begins. He

 

 

 

admits the need for literature to reflect reality and

 

 

 

sexuality is obviously a part of reality, even

 

 

 

sexuality misused. Really great books are great

 

 

 

because they can be interpreted multiple ways, often

 

 

 

in seemingly opposite ways - almost to the point where

 

 

 

an agnostic can read it and interpret it as

 

 

 

"pro-agnostic" and a Christian can read the same thing

 

 

 

and think it "pro-Christian". I recall a convert

 

 

 

friend who read Percy's "Love in the Ruins" totally

 

 

 

differently after he converted and "Love in the Ruins"

 

 

 

had absolutely no part in the conversion. Percy was a

 

 

 

sort of Christian existentialist, which seems to me

 

 

 

almost a contradiction in terms. Don't get me wrong, I

 

 

 

love reading Percy, and am deeply appreciative that

 

 

 

someone so talented was also a believer - but I wonder

 

 

 

how truly "Catholic" his novels can be considered when

 

 

 

an agnostic sees them in sync with his/her worldview.

 

 

 

I realize the purpose of art is not to proselytize.

 

 

 

But this is sort of personal to me since I have

 

 

 

agnostic friends who could seemingly be reached by art

 

 

 

- they are hugely turned off by a more direct approach

 

 

 

- but art that to me is transcendent to them, well...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 30, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google hits

 

 

 

I'm fascinated by how visitors from Google

 

 

 

accidentally find the site - it must be more eclectic

 

 

 

than I thought. Here's what some typed into the search

 

 

 

engine and landed here:

 

 

 

St. Therese hairshirt

 

 

 

does trickle down economics work

 

 

 

lake cumberland nudity

 

 

 

"david lodge" email birmingham

 

 

 

scat eat

 

 

 

cults in the mojave dessert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you say some of those on a Catholic blog?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:45 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Turn for a Mea Culpa

 

 

 

I hit my own link to the "Blogs for God" guy and he

 

 

 

assiduously noticed it via tracking and visited my

 

 

 

site. Unfortunately my whine was a pretty recent post,

 

 

 

and he didn't fail to miss it. I was unfair to him in

 

 

 

assuming that he got some of his blog list here. He

 

 

 

says the links seem to have been holdovers from Martin

 

 

 

Roth's web index.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:22 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fiction Monday

 

 

 

Winston Churchill, on the eve of battle, enjoyed a

 

 

 

brandy at 10 Downing with President Roosevelt. He lit

 

 

 

a Royal Tannebaum cigar, special issue, and sat in the

 

 

 

cherry-wooded room surveying the works of the

 

 

 

ancients.

 

 

 

"Should the bombs fall, we can retire to the

 

 

 

basement where I have a collection of stamps that has

 

 

 

left me positive febrile! Oh all the old monarchs,

 

 

 

their pictures in winsome miniature portraiture!"

 

 

 

And so the bombs rained, and Goering’s raiders took

 

 

 

evil delight while FDR pondered the upside-down Wright

 

 

 

brother’s plane.

 

 

 

"What think ye sir, most benefits a man?" asked FDR.

 

 

 

"What do you mean?"

 

 

 

"What are the permanent things, what should absorb a

 

 

 

man. Stamps? War?"

 

 

 

"Good point you. War, for all its disaster, occupies a

 

 

 

warm place in man’s heart, for it is there virtue is

 

 

 

nurtured, honor born, sacrifice given, and glory-"

 

 

 

"Though it be a incredible immoral waste."

 

 

 

"Indeed, war is, I suppose, the thing that gives men

 

 

 

no excuses. They cannot say, ‘this does not matter’,

 

 

 

for their country, their lives are on the line. Men

 

 

 

live only when the stakes are high, they merely

 

 

 

survive when the stakes are low."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:56 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 29, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I usually attend an Eastern Byzantine Catholic

 

 

 

liturgy, which is similar to the Orthodox liturgy that

 

 

 

Dostoyevsky would've attended (except for language of

 

 

 

course). And I can see what he means by Orthodoxy's

 

 

 

emphasis on mystery & mysticism....The gospel readings

 

 

 

are usually the miracle stories of Jesus, rather than

 

 

 

the parables. And the heavy use of incense and singing

 

 

 

(even the gospel is sung) leads one to a more mystical

 

 

 

experience rather than an intellectual one. The

 

 

 

emphasis is more on obedience and our sinfulness and

 

 

 

need for grace. Less practical or utilitarian and more

 

 

 

monastic in flavor, there is not the slightest hint of

 

 

 

political concerns or social justice but a sort of

 

 

 

pure faith that presumably leads to "doing the right

 

 

 

thing" in the business or political sphere.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:54 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I whine, therefore I am

 

 

 

Come on, every blog in Christendom appears at this

 

 

 

self-appointed blog index except this one. Oh, and our

 

 

 

favorite nemesis Nihil Obstat. If Nihil did, that

 

 

 

would really transcend reason.

 

 

 

 

 

I've taken a preverse sort of joy that this blog

 

 

 

infinitely approaches total obscurity because I refuse

 

 

 

to ask anyone to link to it or in any way be

 

 

 

"political". Whatever tiny merit it might have, I want

 

 

 

visitors to come by it honestly. The wonderful

 

 

 

democracy of blogs is that hit counters don't lie, and

 

 

 

I use it as a sort of very rough indicator on the

 

 

 

possibility of a writing career.

 

 

 

 

 

Obscurity hopefully allows me to be a little more free

 

 

 

with my posts, and maybe more honest, having no

 

 

 

reputation to protect or audience to please. In my

 

 

 

opinion no one even approaches Amy Welborn's site

 

 

 

anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE: I am now on the blogsforgod.com site so all is

 

 

 

well with the world and total obscurity has morphed

 

 

 

into nearly total obscurity.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:37 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the Grand Faith

 

 

 

"My name is Avercius, a disciple of a holy shepherd,

 

 

 

who pastures flocks of sheep on mountains and on

 

 

 

plains,

 

 

 

(and) who possesses huge eyes, which he casts down

 

 

 

everywhere.

 

 

 

Faith led me everywhere

 

 

 

and everywhere served a fish from a spring as

 

 

 

nourishment,

 

 

 

(a fish) which was enormous and pure, (and) which a

 

 

 

holy virgin grasped.

 

 

 

And she (Faith) bestowed it among friends so that they

 

 

 

could always eat it,

 

 

 

as they had excellent wine and as they gave it in its

 

 

 

mixed form with bread.

 

 

 

While present I, Avercius, said that these (words)

 

 

 

were to be written here,

 

 

 

when I was in fact in my seventy-second year.

 

 

 

Let everyone, who understands these (words) and who is

 

 

 

in unison (with them), pray on his behalf." - AVERCIUS

 

 

 

OF HIEROPOLIS

 

 

 

 

 

Dated somewhere about 200, -- a time when it was not

 

 

 

safe to make too open profession of Christian faith;

 

 

 

hence Avercius phrases his confession in mysterious

 

 

 

language which has a double meaning, yet is easily

 

 

 

intelligible to one "who understands."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 26, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Psalm 132 says, "For the Lord has chosen Zion; he

 

 

 

prefers her for his dwelling. 'Zion is my resting

 

 

 

place forever; in her will I dwell, for I prefer

 

 

 

her.'"

 

 

 

 

 

And so was the great comfort of Israel, that they were

 

 

 

the Chosen ones. But now, in the new dispensation, God

 

 

 

desires the salvation of all and prefers to dwell in

 

 

 

all. So I can rejoice because God chooses to dwell in

 

 

 

useless me, a Gentile, and I can rejoice for having

 

 

 

been baptized and have access to the sacraments. If

 

 

 

the sacraments are efficacious then how can one not

 

 

 

feel chosen? For there is no merit in being Catholic

 

 

 

by birth...

 

 

 

 

 

I see the attraction of the "no salvation outside the

 

 

 

Church" types, who see the Catholic Church as the new

 

 

 

Israel and its members as the new Chosen ones. For

 

 

 

there is a great attraction to be chosen, to be called

 

 

 

by name, to be singled out in some way. Love usually

 

 

 

means exclusivity in humans - we choose one spouse

 

 

 

among all the others - whereas with God love means

 

 

 

inclusivity. But wow, what a tension - I long to

 

 

 

believe in universalism, but I can't seem to do that

 

 

 

without denigrating the sacraments, and therefore

 

 

 

Christ, because that would be saying the sacraments

 

 

 

have no special efficacy. God is not bound by the

 

 

 

sacraments but if he routinely works around them then

 

 

 

isn't it like what they say about miracles - if they

 

 

 

happened all the time then they wouldn't be miracles,

 

 

 

i.e. special?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garry Wills....I see he's provoked 28 comments on

 

 

 

Amy's site. He's a really interesting dude.

 

 

 

1) He's an intellectual with the highest credentials.

 

 

 

He's not a knee-jerk liberal on political matters (he

 

 

 

wrote for Nat'l Review a long, long time ago), so you

 

 

 

would think he would be broad-minded enough to be

 

 

 

credible on other matters. The fact that he is

 

 

 

Catholic also gives him credibility in that you would

 

 

 

think he would be fair to the Church. Here, you might

 

 

 

think, is the perfect writer for the Church - someone

 

 

 

who's fair-minded, broad-minded, not a Church

 

 

 

Triumphalist nor a Jack Chick....

 

 

 

2) He's still Catholic. That amazes me, given that he

 

 

 

believes the Church is wrong about just about

 

 

 

everything that the modern world holds dear (i.e.

 

 

 

birth control, abortion, etc). I just don't "get" why

 

 

 

he's still Catholic except as a superior marketing

 

 

 

ploy - the New York Times adores a someone from inside

 

 

 

since they don't have to be accused of

 

 

 

anti-Catholicism. It seems like just as it is hard to

 

 

 

be an Amishman and believe that modernity is okay, it

 

 

 

seems strange that someone who is Catholic should not

 

 

 

believe the Church has infallible authority. I mean,

 

 

 

isn't that what sets Catholics apart? The truth claim

 

 

 

that the Church has authority given to it via

 

 

 

apostolic succession?

 

 

 

 

 

I've decided that the faulty premise, and it is a huge

 

 

 

one, is that the fact he is Catholic gives him

 

 

 

credibility. That could easily be a detriment rather

 

 

 

than an advantage. He probably was hit by nuns in

 

 

 

grade school in the 50s and never forgave them for it.

 

 

 

Many who grew up during that time have axes to grind

 

 

 

against the institutional church. Plus he might've

 

 

 

fallen to "Justice Souter" disease - i.e. someone who

 

 

 

falls in love with his press and moves to the liberal

 

 

 

side of things.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:37 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 25, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Russel Kirk's "Principals that Have Endured"

 

 

 

From amazon.com

 

 

 

Kirk wrote that certain principles endured over time,

 

 

 

having arisen from centuries of trial and error in

 

 

 

human experience. They included:

 

 

 

1) belief in a transcendent order and natural law;

 

 

 

2) affection for variety and mystery over uniformity,

 

 

 

egalitarianism, and utilitarianism;

 

 

 

3) recognition of natural hierarchies and talents over

 

 

 

equality;

 

 

 

4) belief that freedom and property are connected;

 

 

 

5) preference for prescription, custom, and convention

 

 

 

over rational or economic planning

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:50 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Dostoyevsky

 

 

 

"He was hypercritical of Western Christianity, which

 

 

 

he said had 'distorted the image of Christ' in both

 

 

 

Catholicism and Protestantism. A Russian nationalist,

 

 

 

he suggested his country not look to Europe for any

 

 

 

sort of enlightenment:

 

 

 

"I assert that our people became enlightened long ago,

 

 

 

by taking into its eternal soul Christ and his

 

 

 

teaching…".

 

 

 

 

 

He foresaw disaster in the West because of a failure

 

 

 

to be faithful to Christ, and, in contrast to the deep

 

 

 

universal brotherhood characteristic of a genuinely

 

 

 

Russian vision, he 'concluded that the comedic

 

 

 

multicultural identity of Europe’s bourgeoisie and

 

 

 

intelligentsia simply could not be taken seriously as

 

 

 

the natural or proper form of human unity'." From the

 

 

 

Vatican website

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting both in light of the West (a disaster, as

 

 

 

predicted) but also in his overconfidence w respect to

 

 

 

Russia...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:22 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Eucharistic overtones... mentioned by our priest

 

 

 

yesterday:

 

 

 

Bethlehem means "City of Bread"...a manger is a

 

 

 

feedbox...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been over-commenting over on Amy's blog;

 

 

 

evangelization is a topic that is both fascinating and

 

 

 

crucial, so I just couldn't help myself though I

 

 

 

really don't have the answer:

 

 

 

 

 

One of the glories of modern medicine has been pain

 

 

 

management and the ability to relieve suffering. The

 

 

 

typical person suffers far less, and dies far later,

 

 

 

than the typical person a century or two ago, which

 

 

 

tends to induce less concern about eternal things.

 

 

 

Suffering & the threat of death concentrate the mind

 

 

 

remarkably. Was it Socrates who said that if you have

 

 

 

a shrewish wife then at least you'll have philosophy

 

 

 

(religion)? Now you just get divorced...

 

 

 

 

 

And then there is our scientific mindset. I'm a firm

 

 

 

believer that your type of work begins to warp who you

 

 

 

are (sometimes in a good way, so perhaps 'warp' is a

 

 

 

bad word choice). Something you do day in and day out

 

 

 

for the best part of every day influences you to a

 

 

 

great degree. Edward Gibbon wrote, "as soon as I

 

 

 

understood the principles, I relinquished for ever the

 

 

 

pursuit of Mathematics; nor can I lament that I

 

 

 

desisted before my mind was hardened by the habit of

 

 

 

rigid demonstration so destructive of the finer

 

 

 

feelings of moral evidence which must however

 

 

 

determine the actions and opinions of our lives."

 

 

 

 

 

That "mathematical hardness" is something that now

 

 

 

courses through our veins in this computer age, this

 

 

 

age of "rationality". Why do so few scientists believe

 

 

 

in God? Thomas Edison said he couldn't believe in God

 

 

 

because his training was to believe only what he has

 

 

 

scientific evidence for. But God steadfastly refuses

 

 

 

to be "proven" for it would no longer be a

 

 

 

relationship of faith & trust and would remove our

 

 

 

free will.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 24, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments from Amy's blog

 

 

 

"I'm always reminded of Our Lady's pleas for prayer

 

 

 

with the heart. Or when she asks for prayers for the

 

 

 

"unbelievers" we find that we who think we believe can

 

 

 

also be considered in that category since her

 

 

 

definition of this type are those who do not feel

 

 

 

God's love in their hearts. Amazingly simple..."

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

"Frank Sheed once gave an example of a man who had

 

 

 

never shaved before discovering a razor. The man would

 

 

 

discover that the razor cuts and use it to cut wood.

 

 

 

He didn't cut very much wood, and he ruined the razor.

 

 

 

Sheed goes on to say that one cannot use one's life

 

 

 

rightly nor serve one's fellow man without a true

 

 

 

knowledge of purpose."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:55 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy Welborn's asking the hard questions...

 

 

 

My sense is that modern society is very utilitarian.

 

 

 

Therefore, to the extent that Christians are no

 

 

 

different from anybody else then there is less desire

 

 

 

to explore Christianity.

 

 

 

 

 

I can think of two remedies: one is "no salvation

 

 

 

except thru the Church", which basically promises the

 

 

 

consumer something he/she can't get anywhere else. (I

 

 

 

think the Church has tried that and feels that

 

 

 

argument has lost it's potency.) Or there is Eve

 

 

 

Tushnet's solution which is to love Christ and then

 

 

 

the Church will be something you love because of its

 

 

 

relationship to Him.

 

 

 

 

 

But that's the story of all time isn't it? Threat of

 

 

 

punishment, or attraction of love? Two ways to come to

 

 

 

God.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:02 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 23, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dostoyevsky constantly mentioned that he absolutely

 

 

 

detested the idea of salvation as a judicial or

 

 

 

forensic act - but stressed instead the mystical

 

 

 

conversion experience. - Jay Rogers

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:43 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ever complex Thomas Merton

 

 

 

It is a timeworn literary conceit, but some writers

 

 

 

seem to be several people....a kind of multiple

 

 

 

personality disorder keeps turning up in writers-and

 

 

 

writers with a religious bent seem particularly

 

 

 

susceptible, as they keep in play not only complex

 

 

 

human realities but divine realities as well.

 

 

 

Dostoyevsky, Graham Greene, Walker Percy, and many

 

 

 

other distinguished names attest to how common a

 

 

 

phenomenon this is. But of all the great modern

 

 

 

religious writers, no one harbored within himself a

 

 

 

larger cast of dramatis personae than Thomas Merton.

 

 

 

 

 

Even for a man not vowed to silence, Merton's several

 

 

 

dozen books would have been an extraordinary output.

 

 

 

But adding the journals...can a man committed to the

 

 

 

wordless apophatic way and a forgetting of self be

 

 

 

preoccupied with recording-and publishing-every

 

 

 

thought and act?

 

 

 

 

 

Merton made a gradual turn from a convert's effusive

 

 

 

gratitude to the type of critical stance usually

 

 

 

associated with cradle Catholics. Partly this was a

 

 

 

reaction to monastic restrictions and a widening and

 

 

 

deepening of his knowledge of human nature. But there

 

 

 

was a more rebellious element in him as well. Merton

 

 

 

sometimes took pride in what he regarded as the fact

 

 

 

that poets and monks are marginal people. The Trappist

 

 

 

life occasionally seemed good to him because it

 

 

 

represented the greatest nonconformity in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Merton is beyond doubt one of the great spiritual

 

 

 

masters of our century. His personal turmoil and the

 

 

 

misjudgments in his social thought notwithstanding, he

 

 

 

is a forceful reminder that what may appear the most

 

 

 

rarefied of contemplative speculations have powerful

 

 

 

and concrete implications for the world. God dealt

 

 

 

Thomas Merton a difficult hand. His greatness as a man

 

 

 

lies not only in that he was able, more or less, to

 

 

 

keep several different persons together in difficult

 

 

 

times under the banner of "Thomas Merton," but that he

 

 

 

provides an enduring witness to all of us much less

 

 

 

gifted seekers who have to shore up our own

 

 

 

fragmentary lives in quest for the "hidden wholeness."

 

 

 

- Robert Royal

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:22 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Xenia, Ohio to Corwin, Ohio on bike

 

 

 

....so began the fourth annual, the bike trip that

 

 

 

traverses small, unseen Ohio towns like Corwin, Spring

 

 

 

Valley and Oregonia. As far back as the 17th century

 

 

 

one exercise fan wrote, "Oh, how much misery is

 

 

 

escaped by frequent and violent agitation of the

 

 

 

body!". Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both

 

 

 

recognized the mental benefits of exercise and

 

 

 

described those who tend to sit around and think all

 

 

 

day as likely to be "melancholic". But to me it was

 

 

 

just a great excuse to take a half-day off work, which

 

 

 

in itself reverses melancholy. Not to mention the

 

 

 

enjoyment derived from the long exposure to sun and

 

 

 

other natural phenomenon like snakes, herons, beavers,

 

 

 

lily-padded lakes, small waterfalls and strangely

 

 

 

attired bikers.

 

 

 

 

 

In fairly fast time (unless measured by other bikers,

 

 

 

who apparently traveled at a rate of speed that made

 

 

 

the tree’s leaves blur), we arrived in the

 

 

 

euphoniously named Spring Valley. Oh to live in Spring

 

 

 

Valley, where it is eternally spring! It’s a little

 

 

 

Mayberry of a town, with a small ice cream & antique

 

 

 

shop called the "Spring Valley Mercantile Exchange".

 

 

 

There, behind a counter, a slow-moving man makes the

 

 

 

sweets that keep the bikers going. An olde picture in

 

 

 

the shop shows the Exchange in feister days,

 

 

 

displaying a banner that said: "Spring Valley Against

 

 

 

the World!". One can only imagine what the little

 

 

 

Mercantile was fighting for or who won.

 

 

 

 

 

We re-entered the bike path under blazing sunshine.

 

 

 

The threat of rain appeared a distant bad memory. We

 

 

 

continued along towards our goal of Corwin, the

 

 

 

half-way point, or mile 14. We rode by a masterwork

 

 

 

vista of several farms dotting the landscape and a

 

 

 

large white house on the hill looking as pristine as

 

 

 

paradise.

 

 

 

 

 

We came to a proverbial fork in the road, or at least

 

 

 

an animal with a forked tounge. Mary gave a whoop and

 

 

 

a yell at a huge lumpy snake in mid-path..Mark could

 

 

 

not tell us the type of snake, but it looked like a

 

 

 

rattler, for its tail shook and sort of rattled and

 

 

 

its head cocked up and menacingly danced from side to

 

 

 

side. It might have been a cobra, come to think of it,

 

 

 

for it had that sort of look about him. Dangerous as

 

 

 

sin. Soon another biker happened by, one dressed in

 

 

 

the inexplicable fashion of bikers these days – in a

 

 

 

tight suit of loud colors, this time red, white and

 

 

 

blue. The biker was stopped dead in his tread when he

 

 

 

saw the snake. He confessed his great fear of snakes.

 

 

 

Mary, in a nice understatement, said something like,

 

 

 

"well I guess you’ll be stuck here".

 

 

 

 

 

Onward we pressed, but Mark noticed a disturbing

 

 

 

development. The sky behind us seemed a swollen black

 

 

 

and blue, like some sort of horribly disfiguring

 

 

 

injury. It looked angry as some sort of huge pus

 

 

 

abscess, soon to be drained all over us. We moved on

 

 

 

to Corwin, had ice cream & cokes, and waited for the

 

 

 

inevitable. Which came in buckets and buckets. And so

 

 

 

we were stranded in the small Corwin Peddler for at

 

 

 

least an hour and a half.

 

 

 

 

 

Our long national nightmare – being trapped with

 

 

 

strangers at a claustrophobic shop in Corwin, Ohio -

 

 

 

finally ended when I convinced Mom & Mark to take a

 

 

 

chance and ride in the slight drizzle. Apparently all

 

 

 

the other bikers felt similarly, for they all passed

 

 

 

us within a matter of a minute or two never to be seen

 

 

 

again.

 

 

 

 

 

And so we traveled back through Spring Valley, I

 

 

 

noticed confirmation of Tom’s law of inverse

 

 

 

patriotism – those who have little show the most,

 

 

 

those with grand houses the least. I passed by houses

 

 

 

the size of small cabins with big flags and

 

 

 

window-sticker red, white & blue’s. I recall that when

 

 

 

I drive through some of the poorer neighborhoods in

 

 

 

Columbus, there are all sorts of flags & decorations

 

 

 

but when I drive by the McMansions, well, flags are

 

 

 

more rare. But then there are more pink flamigos in

 

 

 

poorer neighborhoods too, so maybe it doesn’t prove

 

 

 

anything....

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:08 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 22, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently reading the Pope's Love & Responsibility, a

 

 

 

wonderful tonic for the sexual ethic quagmire:

 

 

 

"Beauty is essentially an object of contemplative

 

 

 

cognition, and to experience aesthetic values is not

 

 

 

to exploit..Thus sensuality really interferes with

 

 

 

apprehension of the beautiful, even of bodily, sensual

 

 

 

beauty for it introduces a consumer attitude to the

 

 

 

object; 'the body' is then regarded as a potential

 

 

 

object of exploitation."

 

 

 

 

 

"[The sexual life process] has not a consumer

 

 

 

orientation - nature does not have enjoyment for its

 

 

 

own sake as its aim."

 

 

 

 

 

"The sexual urge in man is a fact which he must

 

 

 

recognize and welcome as a source of natural energy -

 

 

 

otherwise it may cause pyschological disturbances. The

 

 

 

instinctive reaction in itself, which is called sexual

 

 

 

arousal, is to a large extent a vegetative reaction

 

 

 

independent of the will...An exuberant and readily

 

 

 

roused sensuality is the stuff from which a rich - if

 

 

 

difficult - personal life may be made. It may help the

 

 

 

individual to respond more readily and completely to

 

 

 

the decisive elements in personal love. Primitive

 

 

 

sensual excitability (provided it is not of morbid

 

 

 

origin) can become a factor making for a fuller and

 

 

 

more ardent love. Such a love will obviously be the

 

 

 

result of sublimination."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:41 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The great debate...

 

 

 

Modernism - by James Akin

 

 

 

Pope Piux X dubbed Modernism "the synthesis of all

 

 

 

heresies." Modernists viewed doctrine not as a means

 

 

 

of obtaining supernatural knowledge, but as a symbol

 

 

 

of an unknowable ultimate reality or as a symbol of

 

 

 

human religious expression. Because they do not

 

 

 

contain genuine knowledge of the supernatural,

 

 

 

theological dogmas are relative and may adopted or

 

 

 

rejected based on whether they exercise power over

 

 

 

people's imaginations. Those dogmas which are found

 

 

 

productive to people's religious sentiments are to be

 

 

 

accepted, then abandoned when they are no longer found

 

 

 

satisfying. Dogmas may thus change over time, either

 

 

 

being completely rejected or reinterpreted and given a

 

 

 

meaning different than what they originally had.

 

 

 

 

 

Since dogmas do not give us knowledge of the

 

 

 

supernatural and religion is best viewed as an

 

 

 

expression of human religious aspirations, no real,

 

 

 

objective knowledge of God is possible. Intellectual

 

 

 

arguments in favor of his existence are useless, as

 

 

 

are arguments based on miracles or fulfilled

 

 

 

prophecies. In the Modernist view, the only knowledge

 

 

 

we can have of God is subjective, found in individual

 

 

 

religious experiences (which are binding on only those

 

 

 

who receive them).

 

 

 

 

 

Since God is found primarily or exclusively in the

 

 

 

human heart - in subjective experience - he is

 

 

 

profoundly immanent in the world. Modernism has a

 

 

 

tendency toward pantheism (the doctrine that God is

 

 

 

identical with the world or a part of it), emphasizing

 

 

 

his immanence at the expense of his transcendence.

 

 

 

 

 

Because theology does not give us knowledge of the

 

 

 

supernatural, Scripture is best viewed as an

 

 

 

expression of profound religious experiences had by

 

 

 

its authors, but not as a sure guide to a knowledge of

 

 

 

God and his ways. Scripture is not free from human

 

 

 

error and contains much symbol and myth. Since it is

 

 

 

historically unreliable and based on human religious

 

 

 

sentiment, there is a gap between what it records and

 

 

 

what actually took place.

 

 

 

 

 

In view of the fact that theological dogmas are

 

 

 

relative, all Christian denominations are equal. Even

 

 

 

non-Christian religions are valid expressions of man's

 

 

 

religious yearnings. It follows that the Church should

 

 

 

have no special relationship with the state and that

 

 

 

the state has no duty to uphold and promote the true

 

 

 

religion. Instead of openly acknowledging that the

 

 

 

state's power comes from God (Rom. 13:1) through Jesus

 

 

 

Christ (Matt. 28:18), the state should be indifferent

 

 

 

to all religions and to those with no religion.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:26 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ravelstein said it

 

 

 

"I was always drawn to people who were orderly in a

 

 

 

large sense and had mapped out the world and made it

 

 

 

coherent. We had a buddy back in the States who liked

 

 

 

to tell us, 'Order is charismatic.'

 

 

 

 

 

"On especially enjoyable days I suffer an early

 

 

 

afternoon drop – fine weather makes it all the worse.

 

 

 

The gloss the sun puts on the surroundings – the

 

 

 

triumph of life, so to speak, the flourishing of

 

 

 

everything makes me despair. I’ll never be able to

 

 

 

keep up with all the massed hours of life-triumphant."

 

 

 

- Saul Bellow's "Ravelstein"

 

 

 

 

 

The summer ignites a certain carelessness – the sun

 

 

 

flings herself so freely, cold beer feels better

 

 

 

against summer’s hot skin, and the languorous vacation

 

 

 

days extend brotherly even into the work week…Nature

 

 

 

feels so over-the-top now.

 

 

 

 

 

I come by my back-to-nature roots naturally. At 11, I

 

 

 

was already deeply attracted to stories like that of

 

 

 

an L.A. architect who became a farmer in Iowa. The

 

 

 

show, "Apple's Way", was shortlived. But it activated

 

 

 

some sort of primeval purity button in me, as did

 

 

 

"Little House on the Prarie" and "the Waltons". I

 

 

 

mainlined those shows and they still have an

 

 

 

influence.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:57 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 18, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One year, in a vain attempt to recover the white trash

 

 

 

within me, I bought an old pick-me-up truck and a

 

 

 

bumper sticker that read, "Work is for people who

 

 

 

can't fish". I didn't put it on since I thought it

 

 

 

intellectually dishonest given that I haven't been

 

 

 

fishing since I was a pre-pubescent (aka rugrat, drape

 

 

 

crawler). I still have the bumper sticker, a symbol of

 

 

 

the road not taken (i.e. the unshaven, divorced me

 

 

 

with a beer belly the size of Manhattan). Last

 

 

 

Christmas, in a vestigal thirst for redneckdom, I

 

 

 

asked my parents for the tackiest lawn ornament they

 

 

 

could find (I suggested starting in the pink flamingo

 

 

 

aisle). Call it a late, late, late adolescent

 

 

 

rebellion. Well come Christmas, you can imagine the

 

 

 

effort it took to paint a smile on when I opened the

 

 

 

gift and found a handsome, tasteful bronze-green

 

 

 

leprechuan. I display it proudly next to the shrubs,

 

 

 

but it's not what I had in mind. There's no neon.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:44 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"In the dark little library I became a crabbed squire,

 

 

 

a cranky country hobbyist, a 19th-century minded

 

 

 

custodian of uniform sets of Balzac and Dickens, O.

 

 

 

Henry and Winston Churchill." -- John Updike, "Toward

 

 

 

the End of Time"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

wow...

 

 

 

Read an interview about a member of the French

 

 

 

Resistance during WWII. Some of the hero's friends

 

 

 

joined the Resistance, some actively supported the

 

 

 

Germans, and many stayed quiet and kept their heads

 

 

 

down. Was it surprising who did what?

 

 

 

 

 

"I'd asked if he was surprised when the guy betrayed

 

 

 

the group. No, he said, he wasn't really surprised by

 

 

 

anyone's behavior during that desperate preriod. 'Even

 

 

 

the kids in my high school," he said, 'I could have

 

 

 

predicted beforehand how almost every one of them

 

 

 

would act. It wasn't so different from how they'd

 

 

 

always been before'.

 

 

 

 

 

At the time it seemed a stunning thought: that by our

 

 

 

routine behaviors and seemingly banal choices, we

 

 

 

reveal what we're ultimately made of. But of course it

 

 

 

is absolutely so. It is by the incidental tests, day

 

 

 

by day and hour by hour, that we establish what we are

 

 

 

about; and, indeed, how we will respond when most

 

 

 

severely tested."

 

 

 

-Harry Stein

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ponderables

 

 

 

Our Dominican priest has a different view of the

 

 

 

Church than non-Catholics or perhaps even some

 

 

 

Catholics have. He stresses the great freedom of

 

 

 

belief – how wide the pasture of what one can believe

 

 

 

is - because the Church’s doctrine are fences on the

 

 

 

far edges of the landscape pointing to the cliffs.

 

 

 

There are many theologies and one doctrine. An example

 

 

 

he mentions is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin –

 

 

 

the doctrine - and whether she died first or was taken

 

 

 

up before death - the theology. (He pointed out that

 

 

 

it shouldn’t be irrational that Mary, whom the angels

 

 

 

called blessed, should be taken up to heaven when

 

 

 

Elijah and Enoch were in the OT). Another example is

 

 

 

the idea of limbo for unbaptized babies. You can

 

 

 

believe they are in heaven. Or not. But then what kind

 

 

 

of thing is that? If I am a mother who lost an

 

 

 

unbaptized child, you could probably guess what I'd

 

 

 

believe.

 

 

 

 

 

So, there is a freedom of belief, one that Fr. Hayes

 

 

 

finds good. Why? I like to believe the answers are all

 

 

 

nice and neat in print, without holes or inventions;

 

 

 

maybe because I don’t then have to depend on Somebody

 

 

 

for the answers? The bible says the Holy Spirit will

 

 

 

teach you. But I look around at the variety of beliefs

 

 

 

and think: how do you know if the HS teaches you? The

 

 

 

Church I can believe. Me? Protestants haven't gotten

 

 

 

very good results from that type of thinking...

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas Aquinas would sometimes lean his head against

 

 

 

the Blessed Sacrament during long times of prayer over

 

 

 

difficult issues, as if in a gesture for help. That we

 

 

 

must sweat and pray for truth is surely just another

 

 

 

evidence of the Fall - why should our fallen state not

 

 

 

extend to truths we might've forgotten?

 

 

 

 

 

Father Hayes says he has been taught by God in his

 

 

 

heart, things he knows. I would that I had his

 

 

 

confidence. Instead of faith being a set of answers at

 

 

 

the back of a math book, it is a relationship of

 

 

 

dependency upon the Deity. And though I know we will

 

 

 

not be held accountable for believing a falsehood in a

 

 

 

some matter which the Church allows latitude, it would

 

 

 

really rankle. And I'm not sure why - maybe pride.

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps it is a question of not being properly

 

 

 

thankful for the truths we do have. The Catechism is a

 

 

 

very rich diet. The problem many of us cradle

 

 

 

Catholics have is that we have no appreciation for the

 

 

 

truth given to us because it was too rich a diet for a

 

 

 

5th or 8th grader or high schooler. Doctrines were not

 

 

 

appreciated, instead they were scrutinized for

 

 

 

inconsistencies or omissions. For a Simeon or the

 

 

 

apostles after the Resurrection, the NT was simply

 

 

 

breathtaking in its revelatory power.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:43 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 17, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Via All But Dissertations "Women's clothiers shrink

 

 

 

sizes to flatter buyers' vanity." link

 

 

 

 

 

Perfect metaphor for our time...shrink standards to

 

 

 

make us feel better. SATs too low? Let's dumb them

 

 

 

down. Morality too difficult? Let's loosen...

 

 

 

 

 

Standards and sizes make us uncomfortable because they

 

 

 

reveal the truth...they are too objective by a half.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:44 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting comments from Steve Mattson:

 

 

 

"The emphasis on having the "right" ideas for oneself,

 

 

 

in one's head, is prevalent....

 

 

 

 

 

The answer to liberal Protestant and Catholic

 

 

 

intellectuals and conservative Fundamentalists is

 

 

 

faith. Not fideistic, naive, unthinking faith. But

 

 

 

faith in Christ who promised the Holy Spirit would

 

 

 

guide the Church into all truth. At the end of the

 

 

 

day, faith is an act of submission and obedience more

 

 

 

than strictly intellectual effort.

 

 

 

 

 

Faith requires our willingness to have the Truth

 

 

 

enfold us instead of striving always to prove to

 

 

 

ourselves that we're smart enough to be saved. In

 

 

 

other words, salvation (like faith) is not rooted in

 

 

 

propositions, but in a Person. When faith gets reduced

 

 

 

to "truths" we trot out for review, instead of

 

 

 

confidence in the person to whom we must submit all we

 

 

 

are and hope to be, we don't yet know the Truth that

 

 

 

sets us free.

 

 

 

 

 

As Catholics, we embrace mystery as part of our faith.

 

 

 

So we must trust, we must have faith, in Him who said

 

 

 

He would guide the Church into all truth. That does

 

 

 

not mean each of us will have all truth-- nothing, in

 

 

 

fact, is less likely. However, the Church makes up for

 

 

 

what we lack. In fact, as St. Paul said, the Church is

 

 

 

the Pillar and Bulwark of the Truth. I don't know

 

 

 

about you, but I'd say that's real good news. I'm glad

 

 

 

I don't have to work it all out for myself.

 

 

 

 

 

In contrast, the desire to possess tidy faith

 

 

 

formulations that can pass muster with the world (on

 

 

 

Wills' side) or Sola Scriptura (on the

 

 

 

Fundamentalists') is vanity. In the end, it produces

 

 

 

more pride than love. And it leads to the lifeless

 

 

 

faith that Amy described so well."

 

 

 

 

 

My take on this is that it is true, we defer to

 

 

 

Christ's Church for truth, but the maddening thing is

 

 

 

that we must admit even the Church "looks through the

 

 

 

glass darkly" as St. Paul wrote. Israelites of OT

 

 

 

times surely thought they possessed truth, and they

 

 

 

did in a sort of elementary way. But the hard fact

 

 

 

remains: can we not say that Christianity has

 

 

 

developed such that we no longer persecute those who

 

 

 

do not believe as we do? From "errors have no rights"

 

 

 

to religious freedom? Two hundred years from now it's

 

 

 

hard to believe that those looking back will cast an

 

 

 

eye on us and think not that our doctrines were wrong,

 

 

 

but that they were crude. And that is humbling, which

 

 

 

is to say, saving.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:29 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the Rat's blog: "There are five reasons for

 

 

 

drinking: the visit of a friend, present thirst,

 

 

 

future thirst, the goodness of the wine, or any other

 

 

 

reason." —attributed to Père Sirmond, 16th century

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds like Père had been drinking...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:58 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 16, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From John Derbyshire in the Corner:

 

 

 

"As soon as I understood the principles, I

 

 

 

relinquished for ever the pursuit of Mathematics; nor

 

 

 

can I lament that I desisted before my mind was

 

 

 

hardened by the habit of rigid demonstration so

 

 

 

destructive of the finer feelings of moral evidence

 

 

 

which must however determine the actions and opinions

 

 

 

of our lives."---Edward Gibbon, Memoirs of My Life

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:19 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 15, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heard Tammy Bruce, a pro-choice lesbian, defend Dr.

 

 

 

Laura's famous "homosexuality is deviant behavior"

 

 

 

comment on C-Span yesterday. She's for free speech,

 

 

 

and is basically a libertarian except in the case of

 

 

 

prostitution and drugs (since those are not victimless

 

 

 

crimes, in her estimation, but apparently abortion

 

 

 

is). She said she was tired of being lied to by the

 

 

 

left. Rosa Parks wasn't a tired old lady who didn't

 

 

 

want to go to the back of the bus but a leader in the

 

 

 

NAACP who staged it. Betty Friedan wasn't a bored

 

 

 

housewife, but an activist in the Communist

 

 

 

Party....Interesting.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:08 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay I'm over my whiney, Kumbayi moment. I got a

 

 

 

little vaklempt there. The damned are damned but God's

 

 

 

mercy is great. Case closed.

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. I suspect that my concern for other's salvation

 

 

 

is more a concern for self, in the form of worry over

 

 

 

my own soul. Would that I trust God enough to say like

 

 

 

Job (albeit in a different context) "though you slay

 

 

 

me, yet.."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:44 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been listening to a lecture on tape about Early

 

 

 

Christianity by Luke Timothy Johnson and he has an

 

 

 

interesting definition for a religious experience

 

 

 

(i.e. in contrasting it with a aesthetic experience).

 

 

 

If one goes to church and hears a magnificent sermon

 

 

 

on the Good Samaritan and afterwards you tell the

 

 

 

priest how much you liked the sermon but then your

 

 

 

life doesn't change, then you had an aesthetic

 

 

 

experience. If you go to the symphony and hear Mozart

 

 

 

and then go home and buy a violin and begin study, you

 

 

 

had a religious experience. Then funny thing is, he

 

 

 

said, that you can never tell whether you are having a

 

 

 

religious experience at the time you are experiencing

 

 

 

it...

 

 

 

 

 

From the Gratuitous Nonsense Dep't

 

 

 

I worked briefly for the Mexican government in the

 

 

 

Mexican Immigration Service (MIS) in ’89. I was hired

 

 

 

to stop the flow of illegal Americans crossing into

 

 

 

Matadoros, Mexico. I was given a badge and a gun and

 

 

 

told to shoot anyone with blonde hair and blue eyes.

 

 

 

Brown-haired Americans should be interviewed to

 

 

 

determine if they are Mexicans before being jailed.

 

 

 

 

 

My first day on the job was unsettling. I saw what

 

 

 

looked to be an obviously American family in a

 

 

 

late-model van crossing the border. I stopped them.

 

 

 

"What business do you have in Mexico?" I asked.

 

 

 

"We are here on vacation," the driver said.

 

 

 

"How do I know you’re not here to steal Mexicano

 

 

 

jobs?"

 

 

 

"What Mexican jobs?"

 

 

 

I stammered, "I ask the questions."

 

 

 

Damned if this North American family didn’t proceed to

 

 

 

run the barricade. They had entered Mexico illegally!

 

 

 

My first customers. The dust rose up like a fog and

 

 

 

they were gone.

 

 

 

 

 

I called it into my supervisor.

 

 

 

"No, no no! No one from Ohio comes to Mexico for a

 

 

 

job…they come to escape non-stop rain!"

 

 

 

 

 

From then on I was ready. A family with Indiana plates

 

 

 

drove up.

 

 

 

 

 

"State your business," I said.

 

 

 

"We are here on vacation."

 

 

 

"Aren't you really here to escape the constant clouds

 

 

 

of the Midwest?"

 

 

 

"Well, to be honest, yes."

 

 

 

"And you expect me to believe you will leave sunny

 

 

 

Mexico and return to 300 days of cloudy weather in

 

 

 

Fort Wayne?"

 

 

 

 

 

They made a run for it too. Had my gun ready, but I

 

 

 

didn’t shoot. I figured they were right. I’m now

 

 

 

working at a specialty supermarket for gringos in

 

 

 

central Mexico.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:23 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I read the bible with one hurt: I identify too

 

 

 

strongly with the underdog. That is, of course, an

 

 

 

American trait. I pity those born before Christ who

 

 

 

had to live under that onerous Law and for their

 

 

 

existence as old wine in old wineskins and not "new

 

 

 

creations" in Christ. I feel sorry for the pagans who

 

 

 

lived outside Israel, or before her time. For those

 

 

 

who did not possess the "Ark of the Covenant" in

 

 

 

battle. For those who weren’t the Chosen People. I

 

 

 

feel sorry for those Israelites who didn’t recognize

 

 

 

Jesus as the savior. I even have some pity for Judas.

 

 

 

The idea of predestination, in the form of grace

 

 

 

withheld, pains most of all: (Aquinas said that God

 

 

 

predestined some to hell in the sense of not providing

 

 

 

grace - they, of course, exercised free will in

 

 

 

sinning, thus damned themselves - somehow that feels

 

 

 

unsatisfying. Imagine reading Aquinas and it being a

 

 

 

'near occasion of sin' - ha).

 

 

 

 

 

It seems in order for us to be appreciative, we need

 

 

 

to see ourselves in relation to someone who has less

 

 

 

than we. Thus the new Christians can feel joy at

 

 

 

losing the Law and gaining the Spirit. Thus the

 

 

 

Israelites can feel euphoria in acquiring the Promised

 

 

 

Land or in just knowing they are the Chosen people. Is

 

 

 

the notion of exclusivity something humans need to

 

 

 

feel in order to know they are loved? We marry one

 

 

 

person only in order to show that person they are

 

 

 

special and beloved?

 

 

 

 

 

In short, I long for fairness, while living in utter

 

 

 

unfairness. For it is utterly unfair that I live in

 

 

 

physical comfort, after Christ...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:52 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 12, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One for the ages:

 

 

 

"The worst thing you can do is exactly what I ask." -

 

 

 

my boss.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great post from Amy Welborn on Garry Wills' Papal Sin

 

 

 

book.

 

 

 

 

 

"You're too smart to believe in God".- a co-worker.

 

 

 

The fact that intellectual elites have largely

 

 

 

abandoned religion has made the rest of us, quite

 

 

 

naturally, sensitive on the subject. Just as a boy who

 

 

 

is continually told that he is weak and puny will try

 

 

 

to develop muscles, so there is a natural reaction to

 

 

 

defend the faith intellectually, i.e. on the terms

 

 

 

that the "other side" sets. My motives (as always) are

 

 

 

mixed? I want to defend the faith to people I respect

 

 

 

but in doing so I also want to defend myself. Pride.

 

 

 

 

 

I've often wondered about the connection between truth

 

 

 

and hubris. Does God do us a favor in keeping us in

 

 

 

the dark for humility's sake? On a "Catholic Authors"

 

 

 

program on EWTN, the guest said that the great danger

 

 

 

is the middlebrow. Those who are brilliant tend to see

 

 

 

how little they know; those at the other end also know

 

 

 

they don't know much. But 'tweeners...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:18 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Yet, though I stooped to feed my child, they did not

 

 

 

know that I was their healer." - Hosea 11:3-4.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:55 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 11, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great post on Blog for lovers on play as a virtue.

 

 

 

Scroll down for best results.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:55 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 10, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post-vacation Euphoria drying up....

 

 

 

...but oh that it be true that for one grand and

 

 

 

glorious moment, that I escaped the quotidian, there

 

 

 

on that blessed ground, that holy ground, upon an

 

 

 

emerald lake under a giving sun. Oh to think, as I

 

 

 

wind down the slate gray stairs with the exposed

 

 

 

insulation, oh to think that I was there...and

 

 

 

vicariously I fly to it again, with our dog in the

 

 

 

lake, swimming, a life preserver on him, oh the

 

 

 

caninity! Oh to be flopping, flapping in the coddling

 

 

 

waters of Lake Cumberland....Oh to have been on that

 

 

 

pontoon with Aquinas and a beer and the spectacle of

 

 

 

it all...the stratified rocky cliffs, the benevolent

 

 

 

water, the shade-giving trees....It doesn't matter

 

 

 

that I'm not there now, just that I was and glimpsed

 

 

 

it and can reclaim it. Like that happy Lab that leapt

 

 

 

when his owners returned, so Shakespeare's words jump

 

 

 

and sprite to mind!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,

 

 

 

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

 

 

 

This other Eden, demi-paradise . . .

 

 

 

This happy breed of men, this little world,

 

 

 

This precious stone set in the silver sea...

 

 

 

Against the envy of less happier lands,

 

 

 

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this

 

 

 

England.

 

 

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Nall blogged about the pledge. I admit to a

 

 

 

little schadenfreude, or joy in another's pain, when I

 

 

 

see liberals contorting in anger over something George

 

 

 

Bush does (i.e. breathing), or now about the pledge

 

 

 

controversy. Conservatives went through purgatory

 

 

 

during the Clinton years, so there is a sort of rough

 

 

 

justice.

 

 

 

 

 

As a Christian, you can bet I enjoyed the

 

 

 

Congressional marionette show and their rush to pledge

 

 

 

allegiance to their re-election. In other ten years

 

 

 

they won't even bother...

 

 

 

 

 

Personally, I wonder if a little ol' fashioned

 

 

 

hypocrisy isn't a good thing now and then. For

 

 

 

instance, it's been said that some of the Catholic

 

 

 

bishops were hesitant to discipline wayward priests

 

 

 

because they themselves were wayward. So to protect

 

 

 

against hypocrisy children had to be abused. Now that

 

 

 

just ain't fair.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:40 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Our noise for some seconds passed beyond excitement

 

 

 

into a kind of immense open anguish, a wailing, a cry

 

 

 

to be saved. But immortality is nontransferable. The

 

 

 

papers said that the other players, even the umpires

 

 

 

on the field, begged him to come out and acknowledge

 

 

 

us in some way, but he never had and did not now. Gods

 

 

 

do not answer letters." - John Updike writing about

 

 

 

Ted Williams

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:26 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 9, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FYI, here's the original Touchstone article.

 

 

 

 

 

Lee's response to my email:

 

 

 

Both in the OT and NT the bridegroom analogy is

 

 

 

applied to Yahweh/Christ and Israel/the Church,

 

 

 

emphasizing: that there is only one God, and that he

 

 

 

has only one Church. It was not consistently applied

 

 

 

to individuals until after Bernard, who popularized

 

 

 

it.

 

 

 

 

 

Receptivity does not equal femininity. Obedience is a

 

 

 

military virtue.

 

 

 

 

 

John was a Son of Thunder. His femininity (and

 

 

 

homosexuality) is a modern invention.

 

 

 

 

 

Gibbons and others project the state of modern

 

 

 

Christianity back into patristic times.

 

 

 

 

 

Critics of my book have not pointed out any factual

 

 

 

errors in my data. I am looking for the truth of the

 

 

 

matter. The only modifications I would consider my

 

 

 

thesis are:

 

 

 

1 the rise of courtly love may be more important than

 

 

 

Bernard's mystical theology, but they quickly got

 

 

 

mixed up.

 

 

 

2 The Eastern churches have to be studied to see if

 

 

 

they show any signs of feminization when they are not

 

 

 

under Western influence.

 

 

 

 

 

I cannot believe that God created half the human race

 

 

 

to less fit for salvation - I am not a double

 

 

 

predestination Calvinist. Thanks for the comments

 

 

 

however.

 

 

 

 

 

The ugly point, however, is that it appears (on the

 

 

 

surface at least) that some are less fit for salvation

 

 

 

by their very nature, and so his quibble seems to be

 

 

 

with numbers, given that 50% is too high a threshold

 

 

 

(or else it is because he is a member of that 50%).

 

 

 

 

 

We have a very learned, highly orthodox Dominican

 

 

 

priest at our parish who told us that receptivity is a

 

 

 

feminine aspect, which is the reason priests are male

 

 

 

- i.e. they are an icon of Christ and Christ is the

 

 

 

initiator, pollinator...He said it is hard for lay men

 

 

 

to deal with this imagery.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:35 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Spiritual Reading List

 

 

 

How many have you read? Here's why...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the Podles Controversy

 

 

 

Leon Podles dates the feminization of the Church to

 

 

 

when "Bernard of Clairvaux taught that the

 

 

 

relationship to the Christian soul to God was that of

 

 

 

a bride to a Heavenly Bridegroom. In this he continued

 

 

 

an allegorical exegesis that goes back to Origen.."

 

 

 

 

 

This was actually rather bluntly stated by Christ, who

 

 

 

referred to Himself as the bridegroom in Matt 9:15,

 

 

 

Matt 25:1-13. "Similar OT imagery depicts Yahweh as

 

 

 

the husband of Old Covenant Israel (Is 54:5, Jer 3:20,

 

 

 

Hos 2:14-20). Jesus takes this role upon himself and

 

 

 

is now the divine spouse of the New Covenant Church

 

 

 

(Jn 3:29, Eph 5:25, Rev 19:7-9)." - Ignatius Study

 

 

 

bible.

 

 

 

 

 

Like it or not, humans are stuck in a passive role

 

 

 

given that we are receivers and not initiators. If the

 

 

 

male role is to initiate (if only in a biological

 

 

 

sense, but that is important given that God created

 

 

 

the idea of gender) then that is explicitly a role

 

 

 

given to God. We have only to wait and respond. I

 

 

 

would say that Christianity, if feminized, comes by it

 

 

 

honestly at least with respect to the bridegroom

 

 

 

analogy.

 

 

 

 

 

Podles also says that the "age of the martyrs evinced

 

 

 

no great signs that Christianity was especially for

 

 

 

women but Gibbon, in the "Decline and Fall of the

 

 

 

Roman Empire", wrote that "The clergy successfully

 

 

 

preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity;

 

 

 

the active virtues of society were discouraged; and

 

 

 

the last remains of the military spirit were buried in

 

 

 

the cloister."

 

 

 

 

 

It's difficult not to surmise that just maybe women

 

 

 

are better people and that's the reason they are more

 

 

 

religious. Rather than bending and twisting

 

 

 

Christianity to gain male adherents why not recognize

 

 

 

that there are all kinds of inherent advantages that

 

 

 

religious people have that others do not. For

 

 

 

instance, people whose father abused them have a hard

 

 

 

time believing in God, while those with a strong

 

 

 

family are more likely to believe. Poor people in

 

 

 

aggregate have a greater faith than rich. Those born

 

 

 

with a rational, scientific-type minds seem to

 

 

 

struggle with faith (scientists have about a 10% rate

 

 

 

of belief in God).

 

 

 

 

 

Bottom line is that religious faith has all types of

 

 

 

natural fetters, and we can only assume that God will

 

 

 

reward each according to the faith given to him or

 

 

 

her. That more may be required of a woman or a man

 

 

 

with less testosterone is, I don't think,

 

 

 

unreasonable. It could be argued that the least

 

 

 

masculine figure among the apostles was John, who also

 

 

 

was the one most loved by Jesus.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 8, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sex & the Church

 

 

 

Amy's having quite a blogcussion on the Leon Podles

 

 

 

controversy. I am fascinated that Podles allegedly

 

 

 

lays the blame for a feminized Church at the feet of

 

 

 

Hans von Balthasar and Pope JPII. I'll have to read

 

 

 

more about that. It seems like one of Gerard's

 

 

 

contentions is that sexual sin should not be viewed

 

 

 

horrendously. Amy Welborn in the past has said

 

 

 

something similar - that the Church is too hard on

 

 

 

sexual sins at the expense of other types of sin.

 

 

 

Michael Jones has a very interesting view of the

 

 

 

question; he's a hardcore "see everything thru the

 

 

 

lens of sex" type, but then men are supposed to think

 

 

 

about it every six seconds. I've heard many others

 

 

 

claim that the Church is obsessed with sex, but then

 

 

 

so is modern society. Perhaps the Church has to be

 

 

 

obsessed with whatever society is obsessed with.

 

 

 

Crocker's take on it seems to be that the Church has

 

 

 

guided a middle ground despite the seemingly

 

 

 

sexophobic Augustine (and St. Paul?). Crocker points

 

 

 

out that the influential theologian Origen actually

 

 

 

had himself castrated. So I guess Augustine does look

 

 

 

a little moderate compared to Origen.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:10 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I Did on my Summer Vacation

 

 

 

Wednesday shone jewel-like, empty of duty. It began

 

 

 

with clipping some of the errant limb'd maples out

 

 

 

back. Then I sat in the hot shade and even hotter sun

 

 

 

and melted beneath God’s beauty-earth, eventually

 

 

 

merging my chair with the tomato plants…..ahh…'twas

 

 

 

nearly 2:00 before the clock lent some sense of

 

 

 

urgency, so I threw the bike in the truck bed and did

 

 

 

the whole, expanded bike path. It ended with the

 

 

 

pleasant sound of church bells, pleasant until I

 

 

 

discovered they were connected to a cemetery instead

 

 

 

of a church. On the ride back I listened in the long

 

 

 

heat to NPR & Terri Gross interviewing the makers of

 

 

 

"Frank Sinatra & Hollywood". Heard outtakes of the Rat

 

 

 

Pack recording a movie tune, Frank restless and ready

 

 

 

to go back to Jersey. A metaphor for us all. There

 

 

 

amid the passing farms I felt the unlikeliest of

 

 

 

emotions – longing. Later I would feel it more

 

 

 

profoundly when stopped at a Pizza Hut forty miles

 

 

 

north of Lexington, KY. While waiting the obligatory

 

 

 

twenty minutes, I ran a pluperfect rural route.

 

 

 

Shortly after take off, I noticed, there upon a hill,

 

 

 

a white house with wrap-around porch and a truck set

 

 

 

jauntily on a dirt drive. Something in it, maybe the

 

 

 

whiteness of the house, or its nearness in look to

 

 

 

Tara of "Gone With the Wind" set me off and I

 

 

 

experienced an ache of longing akin to pain. At the

 

 

 

end of the lane I came to a house with a huge yard

 

 

 

full of automobiles, a motley crew of perhaps fifty

 

 

 

cars in all states of rust; they were crowded together

 

 

 

like some sort of car lot from hell. I thought: only

 

 

 

in America that such wealth could marry such lack of

 

 

 

taste.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday was July 4th, brutally hot even by 10:30am,

 

 

 

so I tarried barely a minute before leaving the scene

 

 

 

of the supposed parade (apparently not a 10am start).

 

 

 

By 11:30 we were on our way to the Red’s game. We had

 

 

 

nice seats; with only 16,000 fans the blue lay

 

 

 

unoccupied and downright breezy. No body heat here.

 

 

 

Unforunately the Redlegs lost a 4-3 lead with 2 outs

 

 

 

in the 9th, but that was a technicality. Watching a

 

 

 

game and caring about the outcome (at least in July;

 

 

 

September's different if it's still a race) is like

 

 

 

going to a symphony and being upset that the last note

 

 

 

was an e-minor.

 

 

 

 

 

Friday morn we set off for Elizabethtown, KY (known to

 

 

 

locals as "E-town") and ended up at a desultory

 

 

 

campsite with a weed-eaten pool and neighbor camper

 

 

 

blaring the Broadway soundtrack from "Momma Mia". But

 

 

 

the redeeming quality was the farm behind us, and so I

 

 

 

sat upon a huge tree stump while the girls showered,

 

 

 

and stared as dusk molecules slowly greyed the slate.

 

 

 

The barn was red and grey and peeling and one support

 

 

 

leaned slightly, and a tree leaned in sympathy with

 

 

 

the crumbling barn as if for purely photogenic

 

 

 

reasons. A closer tree, with an exotic look about it,

 

 

 

gave off the impression of the African savannah. The

 

 

 

unbearable part of the tableau was that the tree and

 

 

 

barn sat atop a slight hill that did not allow any

 

 

 

view beyond them. And so there was that inscrutable

 

 

 

mystery – what lay just over the hill? Uncomfortable

 

 

 

with mystery, I tested the fence for voltage (editor’s

 

 

 

note: the low-tech way – put hand against it) and then

 

 

 

climbed o’er the barbwire and advanced a few steps

 

 

 

before seeing that there were people walking into the

 

 

 

house. A sometime respector of private property, I

 

 

 

climbed back to the tree stump, forever wondering what

 

 

 

lay just over that little hill. (Probably more farm.)

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday we discovered a minor ponc. Lake

 

 

 

Cumberland wasn’t 20 minutes away but 2 hours. I

 

 

 

wasn't in charge, I was just along for the ride. So we

 

 

 

packed up everything and headed southwest. Away from

 

 

 

Louisville to deep south Kentucky. After a drive in

 

 

 

the brilliant sunshine we made Cumberland and

 

 

 

fortunately found a camping spot. More work ensued,

 

 

 

which made me think: one goes camping to trade

 

 

 

drudgery and cooking and cleaning one’s home for

 

 

 

drudgery and cooking and cleaning one’s campsite. Viva

 

 

 

le’ difference. By 2:30 we were all set up and ready

 

 

 

for action. The camping vacation would begin

 

 

 

officially right now! Since all the "funtoon" boats

 

 

 

were rented out, we settled for two fishing boats. We

 

 

 

swam in the emerald green water in a private cove

 

 

 

surrounded by picturesque rock cliffs… Cumberland has

 

 

 

that irresistable feature of having a million

 

 

 

"fingers" or coves and thus there is always a new

 

 

 

vista or private island just ahead. We split the calm

 

 

 

waters at a good pace and cut across other boat wakes

 

 

 

and oogled a dead fish with pop-eye’d eyes...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:35 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oy vey...Nihilstic Obstreperous (intentional sic) has

 

 

 

landed. Well they say there's no such thing as bad

 

 

 

publicity. She found a niche, so there you go. There

 

 

 

must be a market for schadenfreude else she wouldn't

 

 

 

have visitors. Good time for me to go on vacation and

 

 

 

avoid plural's. <- Just teasin' N.O.!

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:44 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 3, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No bloggin' for awhile. Lake Cumberland calls. A long

 

 

 

weekend. Blessed bliss...

 

 

 

 

 

Written in 1909 on 1860s baseball:

 

 

 

"Baseball was then just coming into its own. It was no

 

 

 

child’s play either, in the original package. Curved

 

 

 

balls were undreamed of….There were no great padded

 

 

 

gloves, either…".

 

 

 

 

 

The curveball was only 35 years old when he wrote

 

 

 

that, but the interesting thing here is that the

 

 

 

‘great padded gloves’ of 1909 were NOTHING compared to

 

 

 

today’s gloves! Now we would call the 1909 gloves a

 

 

 

joke.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Re: Amy Welborn's blogcussion (i.e. blog discussion)

 

 

 

on faith...:

 

 

 

"In believing, we entrust ourselves to the knowledge

 

 

 

acquired by other people. This suggests an important

 

 

 

tension. On the one hand, the knowledge acquired

 

 

 

through belief can seem an imperfect knowledge, to be

 

 

 

perfected gradually through personal accumulation of

 

 

 

evidence; on the other hand, belief is often humanly

 

 

 

richer than evidence, because it involves an

 

 

 

interpersonal relationship and brings into play not

 

 

 

only a person's capacity to know but also the deeper

 

 

 

capacity to entrust oneself to other's, to enter into

 

 

 

a relationship with them which is intimate and

 

 

 

enduring." - JPII Fides et Ratio

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:24 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 2, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funny stuff from National Review Online:

 

 

 

"The sun is hot, the beer is cold, and the thoughts

 

 

 

are long and languid. It is vacation week at the

 

 

 

ocean.

 

 

 

 

 

We do this every year. Fourteen or so of our closest

 

 

 

immediate family members, plus a parasitic teenage

 

 

 

guest or two, pile into a large house near the Corolla

 

 

 

Lighthouse. Huge stores of provisions are loaded in:

 

 

 

the better parts of pigs and cows; eggs, fruits,

 

 

 

vegetables, bags of candy bars, cookies, and enough

 

 

 

beer and wine to stun a Russian division.

 

 

 

Vacations like these, of course, are much about

 

 

 

family, and more than one friend has observed that

 

 

 

their own families could not gather under one roof for

 

 

 

much more than a holiday meal. They ask the secret for

 

 

 

success. The answer is fairly simple: People are like

 

 

 

nations, and nations get along best when they are

 

 

 

given space and respect, no matter how little they

 

 

 

deserve either. During the day, we are a group of

 

 

 

individuals: walking, running, sunning, swimming,

 

 

 

fishing, reading, doing business over the computer,

 

 

 

practicing musical instruments, and in the junior

 

 

 

division chasing chicks. These are undertaken alone or

 

 

 

in small clusters. We all gather for the evening meal,

 

 

 

at which time it is imperative to know which subjects

 

 

 

to avoid."

 

 

 

 

 

Poem Illustrating the Plight of Christians Who Find

 

 

 

Themselves Astride the World & the Kingdom, Full

 

 

 

Citizens of Neither.

 

 

 

 

 

Deep 'side an Irish lea

 

 

 

lies a mermaid

 

 

 

in a capricious pose

 

 

 

half-reclining, half-sitting

 

 

 

as her half-and-halfness dictates.

 

 

 

She takes her coffee with cream:

 

 

 

Half & Half naturally-

 

 

 

and is half-way committed

 

 

 

to the cause of boycotting tuna

 

 

 

for the fish in her sympathizes

 

 

 

but the woman in her

 

 

 

loves her Starfish.

 

 

 

Longing for love

 

 

 

she sighs a wistful sigh

 

 

 

for neither the marlins satisfy

 

 

 

nor the fishermen that happen by.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:26 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 1, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Various & Sundry

 

 

 

My summer resolution: instead of eating two big meals

 

 

 

each day, I'll eat lots of big meals each day.

 

 

 

 

 

Am I being legalistic if I worry if I’m too

 

 

 

legalistic?

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing is more attractive than other people’s

 

 

 

humility.

 

 

 

 

 

Heaven is...turning on C-Span and finding yourself at

 

 

 

the beginning of an hour long interview with William

 

 

 

F. Buckley. Bank error in my favor.

 

 

 

 

 

The best Catholic magazine on the market: Crisis.

 

 

 

Couldn't put down the latest issue.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:31 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 30, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The unbearable lightness of riding, 2 hours, drunk on

 

 

 

sunshine. Found that elusive ‘perfect’ rural road,

 

 

 

that rarest of beings in urban Ohio. How difficult to

 

 

 

retrieve from its obscurity! To the end of a

 

 

 

seven-mile bike path, then veered off and went miles

 

 

 

down a semi-country road until there it lay like a

 

 

 

perfect jewel in the sun. I knew it immediately. I

 

 

 

knew it as if by some sort of muscle memory - here was

 

 

 

the road of perfection. I turned and followed it for

 

 

 

three blessed miles, passed by only one car, a road

 

 

 

capable of summoning songs shot through with

 

 

 

nostalgia. Unbidden came "Oklahoma!", and it was an

 

 

 

"Oklahoma" moment, a corny moment, a moment those

 

 

 

ordered fields stretched out to infinity, the soil

 

 

 

roiling in the midday heat with Norman Rockwell farms

 

 

 

scattered here and fro, silo’s strong and silent and

 

 

 

seeming permanent, giving mute voice to a purity lost.

 

 

 

I felt I was moving in the Mojave desert - so desolate

 

 

 

and dry and sunny it was - but I was surrounded by

 

 

 

new-born green fields and an occasional ancient oak.

 

 

 

Here you can see the whole evolution of civilization -

 

 

 

from thick forest to meadow clearing to farm to small

 

 

 

town. You take Manhattan. I’ll take dusty Midwestern

 

 

 

fields and old red barns under an unbending sun.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 6:00 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 29, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advice received concerning on the Summas

 

 

 

The two works have different purposes. The Summa

 

 

 

Theologiae was written for Catholics, especially for

 

 

 

beginning theologians who have a solid grounding in

 

 

 

the philosophy of Aristotle. The Summa Contra Gentiles

 

 

 

was written earlier and is dlirected towards

 

 

 

convincing Jews, Muslims, and heretics of the truth of

 

 

 

the Catholic Faith. There is a lot of interlap between

 

 

 

the two works, but you'll find that the same subject

 

 

 

is often approached in a slightly different manner

 

 

 

because of the different purpose. Also, I found that

 

 

 

the Summa Contra Gentiles is more difficult in some

 

 

 

places. For example, in the proofs of the existence of

 

 

 

God, if you compare the two works you will find that

 

 

 

the Summa Contra Gentiles is wordier and more

 

 

 

involved--in the Summa Theologiae he has really

 

 

 

cleaned up the arguments and has done away with

 

 

 

superfluities or questionable premises.

 

 

 

 

 

: I think a better introduction to St. Thomas would be

 

 

 

any of his works on the Scripture--there is no

 

 

 

comparison to his commentaries, and they are more

 

 

 

accessible than the Summas. Also his Catechetical

 

 

 

Instructions (There's a beautiful volume being

 

 

 

published by Roman Catholic Books) are an excellent

 

 

 

beginning and reflect his thought in the Summa, but

 

 

 

they were written as sermons, so they are much more

 

 

 

accessible than the works written for students of

 

 

 

theology. - Reb

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:39 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The link for the Cardinal Ratzinger mug is working

 

 

 

now. If I buy it I'll have to hide it from my

 

 

 

evangelical wife. (Apologetic discussions tend to

 

 

 

provoke more heat than light; we emphasize our common

 

 

 

beliefs rather than differences). Some men hide porn,

 

 

 

I hide Karl Keating and Hilare "bellicose" Belloc.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:09 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 28, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Re: Amy's site - It beggars the imagination that

 

 

 

people should be surprised that on a Catholic blog

 

 

 

there is criticism of St. Rudy of New York, the former

 

 

 

mayor. If it follows that most of Amy's readers are

 

 

 

Catholic, then you would think that it follows that

 

 

 

they believe that abortion is wrong, i.e. murder. So

 

 

 

how is it that we are supposed to take in the

 

 

 

disconnect that we should celebrate and/or vote from

 

 

 

someone who is pro-choice but would provide us better

 

 

 

gov't? Should we trade a tax cut and lower crime for

 

 

 

the greater crime of abortion?

 

 

 

 

 

I think it must be that whole East coast Catholic

 

 

 

versus Midwest Catholic difference. East coasters have

 

 

 

no problem with the Mario Cuomo and Teddy Kennedy. The

 

 

 

Midwesterner is somewhat more likely to vote pro-life

 

 

 

(witness the current two Ohio senators). Ultimately,

 

 

 

of course, it won't be solved by politics anyway. It's

 

 

 

a heart issue; a matter of conversion. It's easy to

 

 

 

get discouraged when half of Catholics vote for

 

 

 

Clinton. Amy Welborn's pretty orthodox, so you would

 

 

 

expect an orthodox audience. So when even she is

 

 

 

getting snarked for linking to an anti-Rudy article,

 

 

 

then I think, damn, what hope have we. We've lost our

 

 

 

saltiness, this correspondent most definitely

 

 

 

included. I continually forget what T.S. Eliot wrote:

 

 

 

There is only the fight to recover what has been lost

 

 

 

And found and lost again and again: and now, under

 

 

 

conditions

 

 

 

That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor

 

 

 

loss.

 

 

 

For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our

 

 

 

business.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:47 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 27, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nancy Nall blogged an interesting piece on the Amish

 

 

 

and on an article from the Fort Wayne newspaper.

 

 

 

 

 

Granted the Amish are prejudiced and ill-educated, but

 

 

 

aren't they also an experiment of life before TV?

 

 

 

Shouldn't they be different because of that (besides

 

 

 

just being superstitious & prejudiced?). Everyone says

 

 

 

TV and movies have altered us; shouldn't they have

 

 

 

longer attention spans at the very least? Seemingly

 

 

 

affected by neither Nietsche or TV (but automobile's,

 

 

 

yes) the Amish could be a test of Jonah Goldberg's

 

 

 

thesis.

 

 

 

 

 

I remember years ago on my first visit to Berlin, Ohio

 

 

 

seeing a beer can near one of their fields and being

 

 

 

*shocked*. I shouldn't have been. Not that beer is a

 

 

 

specifically American thing, but our culture is so

 

 

 

dominating and so assimilating that I should rather be

 

 

 

surprised when any of us put up the least resistance

 

 

 

to it. I recently finished "Crossing Over: An Exodus

 

 

 

from Amish Life" by Ruth Garrett and she talks about

 

 

 

the massive switch of going from full-body covering to

 

 

 

buying lingerie at Victoria Secret. Sadly, the book

 

 

 

barely touches on her sudden exposure to movies and

 

 

 

television and what effect they had on her if any (she

 

 

 

loves movies though initially by the violence).

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:11 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 26, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"We look not to what is seen but to what is unseen;

 

 

 

for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is

 

 

 

eternal." - 2 Cor 4:18

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:37 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Bauer of Hokie Pundit asks if we can be

 

 

 

Christian and follow the American dream. He says: "To

 

 

 

my Protestant sensibilities, it seems as if you're

 

 

 

saying "um, so long as we don't kill anyone and put

 

 

 

our $5 in the plate every week, it's all good." Also,

 

 

 

if I'm understanding him correctly, he's asking why

 

 

 

all Christians don't give up all their money and

 

 

 

become missionaries because Jesus and the disciples

 

 

 

lived a pretty austere life, and were told to even

 

 

 

reject their families. Several times they went out as

 

 

 

beggars with only one tunic apiece.

 

 

 

 

 

I wade into these murky and dangerous shoals by saying

 

 

 

my take on it is that first and foremost we are

 

 

 

radically damaged due to original sin. Damaged beyond

 

 

 

belief. And so therefore we start life in a huge hole

 

 

 

but have the ability, via baptism, to receive grace.

 

 

 

Now just as Jesus healed sometimes very quickly and

 

 

 

sometimes more slowly (witness the man whose blindness

 

 

 

gradually dissipated), so does our growth via grace

 

 

 

sometimes move fast, sometimes slow.

 

 

 

 

 

The point is that we don't heal ourselves. We don't

 

 

 

say to God, "I'm going to be a Mother Teresa" and move

 

 

 

to Calcutta. Rather God says to us, "you're going to

 

 

 

be a Mother Teresa..." Why? Because a) maybe that is

 

 

 

not God's plan for us (i.e. bloom where you are

 

 

 

planted) and b) we can't manufacture the grace

 

 

 

necessary for that tremendous sacrifice. That has to

 

 

 

come from Him. Just as priestly celibacy is possible

 

 

 

only from Him. Someone who doesn't have a vocation to

 

 

 

the priesthood and yet attempts celibacy...well..you

 

 

 

see the results.

 

 

 

 

 

All of this is hopefully not an excuse for our

 

 

 

laziness and/or sin. And the danger, of course, is

 

 

 

more likely that we will miss God's call than we will

 

 

 

volunteer for something God hasn't called us to - but

 

 

 

the point is that it imprudent to do something

 

 

 

'heroic' (that might have more to do with our

 

 

 

self-glorification than His) without his backing.

 

 

 

"Story of a Soul" by St. Therese of Liesux makes the

 

 

 

point that little things mean a lot to God.

 

 

 

 

 

Also, don't we, in a sense, test or tempt God if we

 

 

 

put ourselves in a situation that demands his grace?

 

 

 

Does the Christian scientist who refuses medical help

 

 

 

to their child because they prefer to rely on God's

 

 

 

help not error from a lack of prudence? Is that

 

 

 

different from someone who, without perceiving a

 

 

 

definite call from God, gives away all their money?

 

 

 

 

 

I may sound dogmatic here, and I don't mean to. I'm

 

 

 

still trying to sort it all out. I do agree that we

 

 

 

are called to much more than $5 in the plate and to

 

 

 

not kill. But that's where "Story of the Soul" is so

 

 

 

powerful because it convincingly argues that when we

 

 

 

hold our tongue instead of criticizing someone at work

 

 

 

or refrain from talking behind someone's back those

 

 

 

are little acts of praise that sound large in heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

Obligatory Disclaimer: As Bill O'Reilly says, "tell me

 

 

 

where I'm going wrong". It's very possible I am dead

 

 

 

wrong about all this and should hie me to a monastery

 

 

 

and wear a hairshirt. In fact, I have a feeling

 

 

 

Dorothy Day would disagree...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:14 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catholic blogger email on seeing saints 'in context':

 

 

 

I mean to write about that someday. What are the

 

 

 

limits? Of course we can't judge people of the past

 

 

 

according to our own standards. That's ahistorical and

 

 

 

unfair. But then what happens? If we rationalize OT

 

 

 

violence, or the violence of the Crusades (I know, I

 

 

 

know... a small part of an extended war between Islam

 

 

 

and the West which Islam came very close to winning)

 

 

 

or the Inquisition or the forced baptisms of untold

 

 

 

natives from the Gauls to Native Americans, why not

 

 

 

rationalize contemporary sexual laxness? Why not

 

 

 

say..well...you gotta see it all IN CONTEXT of a

 

 

 

sexually permissive culture, so that means it's all

 

 

 

okay.

 

 

 

 

 

And in a sense it is, I guess...to the extent that the

 

 

 

culture defines us, we're less culpable for our

 

 

 

failure to live up to the ideals of Christ...but it

 

 

 

doesn't make any of it okay, and it doesn't make any

 

 

 

of it a reason for celebration...right?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 25, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Amy' s site, excerpted letter from Cyprian:

 

 

 

"Considering His love and mercy, we ought not to be so

 

 

 

bitter, nor cruel, nor inhuman in cherishing the

 

 

 

brethren. Lo! a wounded brother lies stricken by the

 

 

 

enemy in the field of battle. There the devil is

 

 

 

striving to slay him whom he has wounded; here Christ

 

 

 

is exhorting that he whom He has redeemed may not

 

 

 

wholly perish. Whether of the two do we assist?"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:21 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merton is the pluperfect opposite of a fundamentalist

 

 

 

and the study of extremes is interesting. The health &

 

 

 

wealth, smiley-faced Christianity with its allergy to

 

 

 

the idea of anyone but Christians will be saved is at

 

 

 

one end, and Merton's flirtation with Eastern

 

 

 

religions and disgruntled, independent demeanour is at

 

 

 

the other...Merton loathes those who subscribe to any

 

 

 

sort of Catholic sacramental "magic". I just finished

 

 

 

a book about the Amish, and all is not as it appears

 

 

 

(surprise). The idyllic privitism and purity some

 

 

 

picture just ain't so.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:07 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Email response:

 

 

 

I know - Merton had an independent, critical spirit,

 

 

 

which I'm sure he hoped the monastery would help mold

 

 

 

and even..overcome. He went in some interesting

 

 

 

directions at the end of his life, that's for sure.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:55 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm reading Thomas Merton's last journals ('67-68) and

 

 

 

it is positively purgatorial. It's hard to endure the

 

 

 

juxtaposition of his early, inspiring work The Seven

 

 

 

Storey Mountain and his last journals. They are

 

 

 

certainly honest. And so what if he's not a saint?

 

 

 

Just because you are a monk (or bishop) doesn't make

 

 

 

you better than anyone else. Merton comes off as an

 

 

 

Edward Abbey - crabby, nature-loving, beer & bourbon

 

 

 

drinking, hater of America, etc...Maybe all heroes

 

 

 

have feet of clay and I should get over it. It's

 

 

 

certainly a familiar pattern - the bright-eyed,

 

 

 

idealistic youth moving towards a cynical, curmugeonly

 

 

 

older age.

 

 

 

 

 

Merton on his monastery: "Is this institution worth

 

 

 

preserving? Maybe - but let someone do it who do it

 

 

 

who knows how and is interested. Not me!"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:39 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Veni Sancte has a very interesting post on 1968, the

 

 

 

year of the Church's Maginot line (i.e. Humane Vitae).

 

 

 

He says that "The teaching of the Church is shaped by

 

 

 

human experience and human experience is shaped by the

 

 

 

teaching of the Church. What happens when the circuit

 

 

 

is disrupted? Especially difficult is finding the

 

 

 

source of the disruption. The teaching Church is

 

 

 

blaming the learning Church and the learning Church is

 

 

 

blaming the teaching Church. If history is any guide,

 

 

 

I would place my money on the learning Church as

 

 

 

coming out ahead. When the learners are telling the

 

 

 

teachers that what they are teaching is not the

 

 

 

learners’ experience of human existence, nothing can

 

 

 

be taught."

 

 

 

 

 

But I don't think the learning Church is protected

 

 

 

from error. And therein lies the difference. The

 

 

 

teaching Church has no choice in teaching that

 

 

 

contraception is an evil, if she believes it to be so,

 

 

 

regardless of what the learning church thinks or

 

 

 

"experiences". The choice in how hard to crackdown is

 

 

 

whether or not the Church wishes to risk becoming a

 

 

 

remnant, like the Amish. And in these days when

 

 

 

bishops act like CEOs, one senses they won't take that

 

 

 

path. And so we will probably continue to muddle

 

 

 

through with an increasingly polarized Church.

 

 

 

 

 

Interestingly, Islam & Mormonism are two fast growing

 

 

 

religions that have in common they ask a lot from

 

 

 

their adherents. The perfect way to marginalize

 

 

 

oneself as a Church is to be weak and capitulate and

 

 

 

ask nothing...(Jesus must've understood this in asking

 

 

 

that we become perfect as the Heavenly Father is

 

 

 

perfect). Mormons, of course, are expected to do two

 

 

 

years of missionary work and fast from caffeine,

 

 

 

alcohol, etc...Muslims are expected to pray five times

 

 

 

a day and fast one month a year. So I don't quite

 

 

 

understand why Humane Vitae should've been the

 

 

 

lightening rod it has become in the sense that

 

 

 

practicing it be considered so unreasonable. My wife

 

 

 

and I use NFP and don't find it unduly burdensome.

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps the point is that American Catholics find an

 

 

 

undemocratic Church a scandal in of and itself.

 

 

 

Democracy is in our very blood now; dissent as natural

 

 

 

as breathing. Tocqueville wrote in 'Democracy in

 

 

 

America': Two things must here be accurately

 

 

 

distinguished: equality makes men want to form their

 

 

 

own opinions; but, on the other hand, it imbues them

 

 

 

with the taste and the idea of unity, simplicity, and

 

 

 

impartiality in the power that governs society. Men

 

 

 

living in democratic times are therefore very prone to

 

 

 

shake off all religious authority; but if they consent

 

 

 

to subject themselves to any authority of this kind,

 

 

 

they choose at least that it should be single and

 

 

 

uniform."

 

 

 

My mother experienced the confusion in 1968, and the

 

 

 

confusion was born mostly because the authority became

 

 

 

fractured and no longer uniform. She went to a priest

 

 

 

to confess her use of birth control and the priest

 

 

 

told her, "it's okay, that's not really a sin". This

 

 

 

disconnect was what turned her off. In the next

 

 

 

sentence Tocqueville writes that "Religious powers not

 

 

 

radiating from a common center are naturally repugnant

 

 

 

to their minds." It was at this point my mom became of

 

 

 

the "learning Church" and dissented from the teaching

 

 

 

of Humane Vitae. The tendency in a democracy is to

 

 

 

hold one's own opinion as gospel, unless there is a

 

 

 

single, uniform authority. And because that authority

 

 

 

was fractured in 1968, by dissenting priests and even

 

 

 

bishops, we are still suffering the consequences.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:23 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 24, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cranky Professor brings back pleasant memories of

 

 

 

Rome...(Fade to flashback music)...I've this vivid

 

 

 

memory of the pushy Italian nuns at St. Peter's who

 

 

 

formed an impentetrable line for Communion making it

 

 

 

difficult to merge...Instead of waiting for the rows

 

 

 

ahead of them to empty, they came up from rows back.

 

 

 

Charitably, we chalked it up to their great hunger for

 

 

 

the Eucharist..

 

 

 

 

 

We searched for our grail, the little French

 

 

 

restaurant run by lay missionaires called "l' eau

 

 

 

Vive" where the cardinals of the church party and

 

 

 

where, after dinner, comes the ritual singing of Ave

 

 

 

Maria in French, sung in such sweet and childlike

 

 

 

tones that the hair on your skin stands up. We found

 

 

 

the little restaurant, where JPII frequented before

 

 

 

his papal promotion and where discreteness is the

 

 

 

word, but not easily. I ask various people where "Le

 

 

 

Monterone" is...A policeman knows but isn't telling,

 

 

 

another local tells but doesn't know. The pleasure of

 

 

 

looking and finding was greater, and it is that little

 

 

 

area of Rome I consequently remember most - the little

 

 

 

café Le Euastochio where big shots sip cappuchino,

 

 

 

where religious shops line the square like a geiger

 

 

 

counters triggering the nearness of the eccleciastical

 

 

 

restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

One night in Rome venturing out after a couple glasses

 

 

 

of wine (the in-room refrigerator had provided the

 

 

 

wine at no immediate cost other than my signature on a

 

 

 

sheet of paper), I walked in the light rain to a new

 

 

 

(i.e. hundred year old) church. I peaked inside it's

 

 

 

slightly ajar doors, and inside were the comforting

 

 

 

images of saints. I stealthily moved in and saw that

 

 

 

some sort of singing practice was going on. The

 

 

 

language barrier being such, I could make out nothing

 

 

 

of their sounds; it was completely opaque. I felt like

 

 

 

a voyeur, an outsider, and lurked in the shadows. A

 

 

 

man in his late 40s, with a look of annoyance, began

 

 

 

the long trek down the aisle. Reading body language, I

 

 

 

scattered. I bolted out the door, delighted that I'd

 

 

 

provoked a response, and then observered from a

 

 

 

distance as the man looked left and right and left

 

 

 

again, and then closed the church doors completely. I

 

 

 

was on vacation, and if I could enter the locals

 

 

 

lives, even in a perfectly annoying way, then at least

 

 

 

I was impacting.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:46 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting blog from Eve Tushnet on "How one becomes

 

 

 

what one is".

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:20 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another from the NY Times:

 

 

 

Contrary to all appearances, Catherine Millet

 

 

 

considers herself no libertine. Being French and an

 

 

 

intellectual, however, she has a particularly precise

 

 

 

definition of that term. "I don't think I am a

 

 

 

libertine in the literary, 18th-century sense of the

 

 

 

word," said the 54-year-old author of "The Sexual Life

 

 

 

of Catherine M.," a surprisingly dry memoir, given its

 

 

 

clinically detailed descriptions of group sex and

 

 

 

seemingly innumerable affairs energetically pursued

 

 

 

over the course of two decades by Ms. Millet.

 

 

 

 

 

Yet her own conclusions about sex are much more

 

 

 

mundane. "For a long time, people said that

 

 

 

procreation was the point of sex," she said. "Today

 

 

 

people tend to think that the point of sex is

 

 

 

pleasure, orgasm. But sincerely, I don't think there's

 

 

 

any point to sex at all. People think there's some

 

 

 

secret they'll discover in that black box of sex,

 

 

 

which will help them to live better or make them

 

 

 

happy. And in fact there's nothing, nothing, nothing

 

 

 

there at all."

 

 

 

 

 

Re: that last paragraph. Isn't this the perfect mirror

 

 

 

of our whole materialistic mindsight? It reminds me of

 

 

 

someone who has studied biochemistry and de-mystified

 

 

 

the body - it's just cells....there's no soul

 

 

 

there....She went about her "research" in the most

 

 

 

clinical, empirical way imaginable and came up empty.

 

 

 

What a great metaphor for modernity.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:35 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NY Times piece on work:

 

 

 

I happened on one of those online lists showing which

 

 

 

wire-service articles have been e-mailed most

 

 

 

frequently. The leader of the pack, by a great margin,

 

 

 

was a Reuters article headlined ''Boring, Passive Work

 

 

 

May Hasten Death: Study.'' In the prior six hours, it

 

 

 

had been e-mailed 870 times....Apparently a nation of

 

 

 

people sitting at their desks and avoiding whatever

 

 

 

simple operations they are supposed to be performing

 

 

 

found a certain resonance in the idea that, as the

 

 

 

study put it, ''the meaningfulness of work may be an

 

 

 

important contributor to the mortality experience.'

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:14 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 23, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoroughly enjoyed my birthday celebration at

 

 

 

Mecklenburg Garden’s Restaurant in downtown (and I do

 

 

 

mean downtown) Cincinnati. Set amid tenement buildings

 

 

 

and urban color, we survived the walk into

 

 

 

Mecklenburgs without incident. The restaurant oozed a

 

 

 

sort of tangible Germanness, though it might’ve been

 

 

 

my imagination since it didn’t exactly have an

 

 

 

apostolic line of succession – i.e. there were breaks

 

 

 

when it was something other than a German restaurant.

 

 

 

But it didn’t matter, since we enjoyed tremendously

 

 

 

good food and company. I chose the beer with the most

 

 

 

syllables, as good an indicator of a great beer as any

 

 

 

other for any beer company confident enough to call

 

 

 

themselves"Fahrenesbruder Dunkel Scheinheimer Bier"

 

 

 

(or whatever it was) must be good. After all, by the

 

 

 

time you get done saying the name you could’ve had a

 

 

 

Bud Light. But the beer lived up to its name. As did

 

 

 

the steak. And dessert. Ohhhhh..! St. Thomas wrote

 

 

 

that "bodily pleasures are often more intense than

 

 

 

intellectual pleasures, but they are not so great or

 

 

 

so lasting" and that is true, but surely doesn’t mean

 

 

 

we should ignore the God-given bodily ones.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:10 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 22, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wife's professor (at a Catholic college) said that

 

 

 

St. Thomas Aquinas 'hated women'. News to me. One

 

 

 

'example' she used is when he chased a prostitute

 

 

 

around the room with a hot poker (a prostitute

 

 

 

provided by his parents to try to prevent him from

 

 

 

becoming a Dominican). Michael Novak says no

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:23 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 21, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Self-indulgent Bloggin' Exhibitionism is

 

 

 

Out....(bummer)

 

 

 

Sayeth Eve Tushnet:

 

 

 

The final nifty characteristic of blogs that I

 

 

 

discussed was the personal nature of the writing. Now,

 

 

 

this can be either a bug or a feature. It is just

 

 

 

creepy to detail every moment of your life, or worse

 

 

 

yet, to air your dirty laundry in public--who is

 

 

 

reading your site? Why are you writing it? I think

 

 

 

last night I sounded more critical of personal-life

 

 

 

blogs than I really am--when they're funny, their

 

 

 

appeal is pretty much the same as Dave Barry's. But

 

 

 

there are some blogs that really do suffer from

 

 

 

exhibitionism, and that's lame.

 

 

 

 

 

"But Momma, that's where the fun is..." - Manfred

 

 

 

Mann's 'Blinded by the Light'

 

 

 

 

 

"One of America's specific problems is fame and

 

 

 

glory... partly on account of its extreme

 

 

 

vulgarization. In this country, it is not the highest

 

 

 

virtue, nor the heroic act, that achieves fame, but

 

 

 

the uncommon nature of the least significant destiny.

 

 

 

There is plenty [of fame] for everyone, then, since

 

 

 

the more conformist the system as a whole becomes, the

 

 

 

more millions of individuals there are who are set

 

 

 

apart by some tiny pecularity." - Jean Baudrillard

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:17 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matt Labash in The Weekly Standard (re: Walker Percy &

 

 

 

Bourbon)

 

 

 

"Make no mistake, I have nothing against wine. When I

 

 

 

visit my wife's relatives in Tuscany, I drink their

 

 

 

Brunello with an urgency that could be better

 

 

 

addressed by an intravenous drip bag. Likewise, I have

 

 

 

no quarrel with beer. These six-pack abs didn't build

 

 

 

themselves. They're imported--from Milwaukee.

 

 

 

 

 

[But] a good bourbon is the ideal slow-and-steady

 

 

 

pick-me-up. Bourbon is the spirit most likely to put

 

 

 

you in an easy sipping rhythm with all its attendant

 

 

 

benefits: the relaxation and conviviality, the brief

 

 

 

waylay in that magically lucid state that resides

 

 

 

somewhere between stone-cold sobriety and

 

 

 

intoxication.

 

 

 

 

 

Walker Percy was a seminal bourbon fan for whom

 

 

 

drinking Scotch was akin to "looking at a picture of

 

 

 

Noel Coward," a whiskey he said assaulted the senses

 

 

 

"with all the excitement of paregoric." Thus he

 

 

 

advocated bourbon's analgesic benefits to help Joe

 

 

 

Suburbia cope with existential questions such as, "Is

 

 

 

this it? Listening to Cronkite and the grass growing?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lest one think Percy was an unrepentant lush, he

 

 

 

added: "If I should appear to be suggesting that such

 

 

 

a man proceed as quickly as possible to anesthetize

 

 

 

his cerebral cortex by ingesting ethyl alcohol, the

 

 

 

point is being missed. Or part of the point. The joy

 

 

 

of bourbon drinking is not the pharmacological effect

 

 

 

of C(2)H(2)OH on the cortex, but rather the instant of

 

 

 

the whiskey being knocked back and the little

 

 

 

explosion of Kentucky U.S.A. sunshine in the cavity of

 

 

 

the nasopharynx and the hot bosky bite of Tennessee

 

 

 

summertime--aesthetic considerations to which the

 

 

 

effect of alcohol is, if not dispensable, at least

 

 

 

secondary." Link

 

 

 

 

 

"Omar Khayyam's wine-bibbing is bad, not because it is

 

 

 

wine-bibbing. It is bad, and very bad, because it is

 

 

 

medical wine-bibbing. It is the drinking of a man who

 

 

 

drinks because he is not happy. ... He feasts because

 

 

 

life is not joyful; he revels because he is not glad."

 

 

 

GK Chesterton more here

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:44 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 20, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christianity is the only religion which has ever

 

 

 

united in a common faith, equally clear, complete, and

 

 

 

steadfast the common people and philosophers, the

 

 

 

ignorant and the learned. It affords a singular

 

 

 

phenomenon in the annals of humanity. - "Causes and

 

 

 

Cures of Unbelief" by James Cardinal Gibbon

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:32 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. (Padre) Pio said that he was just "a monk who

 

 

 

prayed" and that prayer is our only weapon....St.

 

 

 

Therese on that subject courtesy Amy Welborn.

 

 

 

 

 

Our Dominican priest had much to say last night on the

 

 

 

OT/NT connections..

 

 

 

1) Cain offered God 'the fruits of the earth' - i.e.

 

 

 

bread and wine - which God rejected. Abel offered the

 

 

 

perfect sacrifice (unblemished lamb), acceptable to

 

 

 

God. We re-enact this when we go to Mass, admitting we

 

 

 

are Cains by bringing up at the Offertory the fruits

 

 

 

of the earth, but after the Consecration we offer the

 

 

 

unblemished Lamb (Christ). If the Eucharist is just a

 

 

 

symbol (i.e. bread and wine) then we are offering what

 

 

 

God rejected in the OT.

 

 

 

2) In the OT, the image of the serpent healed the

 

 

 

snakebit. In the NT, Jesus in the form of man, "made

 

 

 

sin for us", heals us.

 

 

 

3) John's gospel promises that God will teach us the

 

 

 

Scriptures. There is great freedom in the gospels.

 

 

 

"But there are also many other things which Jesus did;

 

 

 

were every one of them to be written, I suppose that

 

 

 

the world itself could not contain the books that

 

 

 

would be written." (John 21:25) The catechism exists

 

 

 

as boundary, to warn us from areas the Church has

 

 

 

proven not to be fruitful.

 

 

 

 

 

Abel's blood "cried out for vengeance" while Christ's

 

 

 

blood cries out for mercy.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:40 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A young life on the front lines of love and sex...a

 

 

 

poignant blog entry.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:03 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 19, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charity is the queen of virtues. As the pearls are

 

 

 

held together by the thread, thus the virtues are held

 

 

 

together by charity; as the pearls fall when the

 

 

 

thread breaks, thus virtues are lost if charity

 

 

 

diminishes.- St. Padre Pio

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday is St. Thomas More's feast day as well as my

 

 

 

birthday. Since my actual first name is Thomas, I have

 

 

 

a special affinity for this great saint. Between the

 

 

 

apostle, Thomas Aquinas and Thomas More, it's an

 

 

 

embarrassment of riches.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:31 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The nice thing about blogs is they don't just give you

 

 

 

a chance to write, i.e. exercise the right side of

 

 

 

your brain, you can also do it with the

 

 

 

presentation....Hence the search for the perfect

 

 

 

template never ends. Note the new art feature, stage

 

 

 

left. Hopefully it won't affect load time too badly,

 

 

 

if so let me know.

 

 

 

Let Us Now Praise Famous Blogs

 

 

 

Look at Emily's blog will ya? Is this not full of

 

 

 

order, harmonious, easy on the eyes? Is this not what

 

 

 

I am looking for in my life? The pacific blue and

 

 

 

links-in-boxes inspire me to clean out my closet or

 

 

 

something.

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the gothic look of this blog. Celtic cross &

 

 

 

all and he's not even Catholic. Oliver Cromwell is

 

 

 

spinning in his grave (I just saw the movie Oliver

 

 

 

Cromwell starring Richard Harris by the way).

 

 

 

 

 

I like this page of Louder Fenn's. Tolle lege indeed.

 

 

 

You don't have to tell this bibliophile twice.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Veni Sanctespiritus and Lively Writer for

 

 

 

the link to this blog.

 

 

 

 

 

Most honest blogger award goes to Joyce Garcia of Holy

 

 

 

Weblog! fame. Her FAQ section is a hoot and contains

 

 

 

the bawdy "Show us your hits". My, my.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:39 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recent neuroscientific findings link the brain's

 

 

 

frontal cortex - larger in humans than in animals - to

 

 

 

inhibition, the ability to control impulses. It's this

 

 

 

capacity for mental restraint that makes us uniquely

 

 

 

responsible for what we do. The difference between

 

 

 

'is' and 'ought' is one only we can understand. Humans

 

 

 

alone create a moral world. -

 

 

 

Marc Hauser [author of "Wild Minds: What Animals

 

 

 

Really Think"]

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:17 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old but good stuff from Jonah Goldberg of NRO fame:

 

 

 

There is a split in the ranks of intellectuals about

 

 

 

how much ideas affect culture versus how much

 

 

 

impersonal events affect it. Did society become

 

 

 

secular, self-indulgent, morally subjective, etc.,

 

 

 

because Nietszche & Co. introduced a bunch of bad

 

 

 

ideas? Or did society become all of those things

 

 

 

because material prosperity, education, birth control,

 

 

 

the automobile, etc., made such changes inevitable? To

 

 

 

some extent it's a bit of a nature-versus-nurture

 

 

 

argument, in that everybody agrees there's at least

 

 

 

some of both going on.

 

 

 

 

 

But most of the time, conservatives ignore the fact

 

 

 

that the automobile did as much to destabilize

 

 

 

communities as rock and roll or Allen Ginsberg. The

 

 

 

problem is that it's very difficult to argue with the

 

 

 

car — but it is not only easy, it's fun to argue with

 

 

 

hippy-dippy beatniks. Intellectuals like to fight

 

 

 

ideas, not gadgets. This is especially true of

 

 

 

conservatives, since we favor individual liberty and

 

 

 

economic freedom; in a free-enterprise system, there's

 

 

 

no acceptable policy position against the walkman or

 

 

 

the cellular phone. There are plenty of people on the

 

 

 

Left who want to ban cigarettes, certain foods, even

 

 

 

the automobile. On the Right, we may entertain

 

 

 

censorship of ideas (as does the Left; the difference

 

 

 

is, we're just too dumb to lie about it) but censoring

 

 

 

innovation is strictly and rightly verboten.

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, we can focus so much on the perfidy of

 

 

 

ideas we convince ourselves that if we can just prove

 

 

 

to the world why these ideas are bad, everything will

 

 

 

be fine. It's like the guy who looks for his lost car

 

 

 

keys under the street lamp because the light is better

 

 

 

there; academic nihilism may not be the chief cause of

 

 

 

moral decay, but we can see things clearly there, so

 

 

 

that's where we do the fighting.

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving aside the well-documented stubborn refusal of

 

 

 

millions of people to let go of their bad ideas,

 

 

 

culture is not just a collection of ideas. Almost

 

 

 

every custom and tradition anywhere in the world —

 

 

 

from the use of cutlery to burying our dead to the

 

 

 

languages we speak — was begun out of some practical

 

 

 

necessity. (Go read Hayek if you want a smart person

 

 

 

to explain all that.)

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, the point is that technology changes the times

 

 

 

we live in but it doesn't change human nature (at

 

 

 

least not yet). One of the challenges, today more than

 

 

 

ever, is the need to recognize the problems which come

 

 

 

from convenience. For example, many college kids today

 

 

 

— and maybe even more journalists — think that if

 

 

 

something isn't on the web, it doesn't exist. The

 

 

 

truth is that the web excludes vastly more information

 

 

 

than it includes. But because it is easy to use, we

 

 

 

rely on it. This may be the greatest instance of

 

 

 

socially imposed amnesia since the Russian Revolution,

 

 

 

or the revolts of the iconoclasts or the Luddites. It

 

 

 

is certainly the most successful one. At the same

 

 

 

time, we think that simply because the web makes

 

 

 

something easier to do, it means we should do it.

 

 

 

 

 

Think of it this way: Hard work leads to character.

 

 

 

There isn't a person in the world who's written on the

 

 

 

topic who doesn't say something like that. Now imagine

 

 

 

if you could take a pill that would automatically make

 

 

 

you very smart and in perfect physical shape

 

 

 

overnight. Intelligence and physical strength used to

 

 

 

be well-recognized by-products of character building.

 

 

 

With the pill, there's no building — just the final

 

 

 

product. That pill would be more dangerous to a

 

 

 

virtuous society than any "if it feels good do it"

 

 

 

doctrine coming out of Brown University.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:42 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 18, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

C.S. Lewis wrote about "a particular recurrent

 

 

 

experience which dominated my childhood," a kind of

 

 

 

"intense longing which...is acute and even

 

 

 

painful..yet the mere wanting of it is somehow a

 

 

 

delight." Unlike other desires, Lewis says, which "are

 

 

 

felt as pleasures only if satisfaction is expected in

 

 

 

the near future," this desire contines to be prized,

 

 

 

"and even to be preferred...even when there is no hope

 

 

 

of possible satisfaction...this desire is so unusual

 

 

 

because it cuts across our ordinary distinctions

 

 

 

between longing and having."

 

 

 

 

 

I felt this too - I used to think it somehow unique or

 

 

 

rare - but in adulthood I shrugged it off as some kind

 

 

 

of inchoate pre-pubescent sexual longing...I like

 

 

 

Lewis' description.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:33 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 17, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Friend's Conversion Story

 

 

 

"There was something raw about the images of women in

 

 

 

Walker Percy's "Thanatos" that I liked perhaps a

 

 

 

little too much. The first time I read "Love in the

 

 

 

Ruins" (early '80's) I was a devout agnostic. As a

 

 

 

recent convert to Catholicism (less than a year ago) I

 

 

 

can say, without giving anything away, that it struck

 

 

 

me *completely* differently when I recently reread

 

 

 

it...

 

 

 

 

 

There was no defining moment, where the scales fell

 

 

 

from my eyes and golden rays of enlightenment shone

 

 

 

through newly opened doors of perception.... it was

 

 

 

much more mundane than that. I have reconciled

 

 

 

(finally) the idea that you (I mean I) could

 

 

 

distinguish what you believe from what you can prove

 

 

 

to be true. There's that Freethinker element, which

 

 

 

rejects authority and dogma in favor of rational

 

 

 

inquiry and speculation, and which traditionally has

 

 

 

had way too loud a voice in the old mental

 

 

 

committee...

 

 

 

Which is kind of why I stress the strict definition of

 

 

 

agnosticism, which merely holds that you simply can't

 

 

 

"Know", but you can still believe. My fiancee, who has

 

 

 

been Catholic her whole life, invited me to attend

 

 

 

mass a couple of years ago, and "yikes!" I found it

 

 

 

enriching. As it continues to be... When I went

 

 

 

through RCIA classes a year ago I had many rewarding

 

 

 

conversations with a deacon from the Josephinum (now

 

 

 

he's a priest in KC, Kansas) about how the Catholic

 

 

 

Church reconciles and makes amends for its sometimes

 

 

 

distasteful history. Still learning, -JD"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:37 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 15, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journal du jour

 

 

 

 

 

A weekend feature of more or less random journal

 

 

 

entries from the past four years....in lieu of fresh

 

 

 

writing:

 

 

 

 

 

06/21/00

 

 

 

Slipping into the glove of the summer equinox, a

 

 

 

low-rider house reminds me of the houses on Capri, or

 

 

 

those squat against the Florida sun with the brine

 

 

 

smell of the near-ocean...then comes the clean smell

 

 

 

of the laundry detergent at the Estero Laundrymat,

 

 

 

proof that even in Paradise they have to clean

 

 

 

clothes…

 

 

 

 

 

Meandered past houses that shone in the escaping

 

 

 

natural light with preternaturally clipped grasses

 

 

 

that soothe and relax, as order always does. Death,

 

 

 

taxes, and Perot’s short-clipped never-out-of-place

 

 

 

hair. The grass does not extrude an inch upon the

 

 

 

sidewalk - are their lives so orderded or is this

 

 

 

compensation for disordered lives? I’d love a lawn and

 

 

 

garden worthy of such meditation, but too often the

 

 

 

time spent meditating on its glory is a small fraction

 

 

 

of the time spent accomplishing that condition.

 

 

 

 

 

07/03/01

 

 

 

After a few sundry raindrops, I continued for a visit

 

 

 

to Ohio Village. A bit farther back in time I went,

 

 

 

first the 1940s era exhibit inside the Historical

 

 

 

society, followed by an outside visit to the old

 

 

 

buildings and a patriotic speeches by guys dressed in

 

 

 

period clothes. A horse-drawn carriage came by a very

 

 

 

fast rate of speed and and I idly imagined the

 

 

 

headlines if lawsuits weren't the issue:

 

 

 

Pedestrian Killed by Horse-drawn Carriage at

 

 

 

Historical Society

 

 

 

A pedestrian-horse accident claimed the life of a

 

 

 

visitor yesterday, according to an Ohio Historical

 

 

 

society representative.

 

 

 

"We like to keep things exactly as they were in 1862,

 

 

 

and back then if you were in the way, you got yourself

 

 

 

run over," said the Historical director. "They didn’t

 

 

 

molly-coddle you back then. And he isn’t the first one

 

 

 

you know."

 

 

 

The Society has recently come under fire for the

 

 

 

accidental lynching of a young black man.

 

 

 

04/02/02

 

 

 

Man has been divided for the millenium over questions

 

 

 

that have perplexed the wise – how should we govern

 

 

 

ourselves (politics) and what is truth (religion).

 

 

 

Politics and religion. Religion and politics. Walker

 

 

 

Percy once wrote "It crossed my mind that people at

 

 

 

war have the same need of each other. What would a

 

 

 

passionate liberal or conservative do without the

 

 

 

other?"

 

 

 

With religion, differences have been made of

 

 

 

hairsplitting distinction causing liberal Baptists to

 

 

 

scorn their conservative Baptist neighbor. And now to

 

 

 

this panoply of divisive issues we can add one more,

 

 

 

one of hairsplitting (or at least hairwetting)

 

 

 

dimensions: rain. To rain or not to rain is the

 

 

 

question, but just don’t ask it in front of a mother

 

 

 

and daughter with a combined age of an impressive 155

 

 

 

years. It has been said that into each life a little

 

 

 

rain must fall, and into their lives this damp,

 

 

 

discordant subject has reared its dripping head.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, to that long grey line of controversies such as

 

 

 

"how many angels can fit on a pin?" and "how does

 

 

 

trickle-down economics work?", we add "how much rain

 

 

 

is too much rain?". My mother and grandma are

 

 

 

absolutists on the subject, and therein lies the

 

 

 

problem. No rain is too much for Grandma, no number of

 

 

 

sunny days too many for Mom. They have reached an

 

 

 

impasse.

 

 

 

 

 

A short look of how man has evolved may illumine this

 

 

 

touchy subject. Over most of the past 20,000 years,

 

 

 

rain was considered so important it was deemed a god

 

 

 

and sacrificed to. It became so because it was so

 

 

 

intimately connected to the livliehood of the first

 

 

 

agriculturalists, farmers if you will. Rain meant

 

 

 

crops would grow, drought mean crops would die.

 

 

 

Theoretically a lack of sun could also cause crops to

 

 

 

die, but the sun never seemed to be a problem.

 

 

 

However, for the millions of years prior to the first

 

 

 

agriculturalists rain was a nuisance, making it more

 

 

 

difficult to find and catch prey. We see the two

 

 

 

groups still today - Mom is a hunter/gatherer on the

 

 

 

subject, and Grandma an early agriculturalist.

 

 

 

 

 

Mom showed her hunter/gatherer tendencies early. For

 

 

 

most of the early 1970s she sang to her children songs

 

 

 

like, "rain, rain, go away, come back some other

 

 

 

day!". That sounded a bit disingenuous to our young

 

 

 

ears, for if truth be told there didn’t seem a day she

 

 

 

did want it to come back.

 

 

 

 

 

Grandma, on the other hand, comes from a long line of

 

 

 

farmers going back to west Ireland. She lived on a

 

 

 

farm, and through a depression, and rain was like

 

 

 

money except it couldn’t be stored. Her parents sang

 

 

 

and composed pro-rain ditties like, "Rain, rain why

 

 

 

can’t it rain?" and the classic "Let that be a rain

 

 

 

cloud and not a dust cloud".

 

 

 

 

 

Ireland, you see, is the land of milk and honey, if by

 

 

 

milk you mean rain and by honey you mean rain. The

 

 

 

Irish have learned to deal with the unrelenting rain

 

 

 

over the centuries by drinking a lot. An awful lot.

 

 

 

They developed one of the smoothest whiskey’s

 

 

 

(Jameson) and one of the best ales (Guinness). They’ve

 

 

 

never invented much else, and that should tell you

 

 

 

something about a rainy climate. But I’m not here to

 

 

 

insert my admittedly sunny-day bias. I can have an

 

 

 

opinion and not let it affect my reporting, for this

 

 

 

is a no-spin zone. I report, you decide.

 

 

 

Alas we see that the roots for a great conflict were

 

 

 

sown. Just as the pro-slave South went on its merry

 

 

 

way during the antebellum period while the North

 

 

 

became increasingly abolitionist, so did Grandma and

 

 

 

Mom become even more fixed in their beliefs: that rain

 

 

 

was intolerable and that sunny days were tragic.

 

 

 

 

 

What is the solution? A civil war? No! Perhaps as

 

 

 

simple as avoiding the subject.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:53 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our priest weighed in on the bishop's shuffling bad

 

 

 

priests around. He said (I'm paraphrasing): 'you ask

 

 

 

what were they thinking? Probably not much. Or to the

 

 

 

extent they were they had absorbed the culture into

 

 

 

their decision-making. And our culture lacks common

 

 

 

sense. An example: a wealthy businessman, widely

 

 

 

respected for his ability to make money, was caught in

 

 

 

a massive tax fraud. You ask why? What was he

 

 

 

thinking? He didn't need more money. The thing he was

 

 

 

praised for was the same thing he was denounced

 

 

 

for...'

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds like the bishops may grandfather in the 'zero

 

 

 

tolerance' policy. They've apparently chosen to throw

 

 

 

o'er their own to please the media. I guess in the

 

 

 

rock-paper-scissors game the media trumps clericalism.

 

 

 

A phyrric victory of sorts for the parishioner in the

 

 

 

pew.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:22 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 14, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Friday

 

 

 

That crazy herdsman will tell his fellows

 

 

 

That he has been all night upon the hills,

 

 

 

Riding to hurley, or in the battle-host

 

 

 

With the Ever-living.

 

 

 

 

 

What if he speak the truth,

 

 

 

And for a dozen hours have been a part

 

 

 

Of that more powerful life?

 

 

 

 

 

His wife knows better.

 

 

 

Has she not seen him lying like a log,

 

 

 

Or fumbling in a dream about the house?

 

 

 

And if she hear him mutter of wild riders?

 

 

 

She knows that it was but the cart-horse coughing

 

 

 

That set him to fancy. - excerpt from W. B. Yeats poem

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:46 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting post from Thomas Hibbs on National Review

 

 

 

Online today:

 

 

 

Catholic schools, the majority of which are under the

 

 

 

control of the local bishop, have many virtues, but

 

 

 

they typically produce graduates who are theologically

 

 

 

illiterate, but who — because of their affiliation

 

 

 

with Catholic education — think that they already know

 

 

 

everything about the Church. Asking your average

 

 

 

graduate to say something intelligent about, say, the

 

 

 

trinity or the communion of saints, would prompt

 

 

 

responses akin to those Jay Leno receives when he

 

 

 

walks the streets of L.A. quizzing ordinary citizens

 

 

 

about American history and current events.

 

 

 

 

 

In their indifference to doctrine, many American

 

 

 

Catholics are already more American than Catholic.

 

 

 

Tocqueville observed that the effect of democratic

 

 

 

culture upon religion is to deflect the believer's

 

 

 

attention away from specific and divisive doctrinal

 

 

 

issues toward general moral principles. The vague

 

 

 

pantheism he predicted is evident precisely in the

 

 

 

popularity of the vacuous term "spirituality" as a

 

 

 

replacement for "religion." What many Catholics

 

 

 

apparently believe about the core doctrinal issue of

 

 

 

the Eucharist is that it's just a symbol. But if you

 

 

 

don't believe that what the Church teaches about this

 

 

 

and other fundamental issues is true, why, especially

 

 

 

these days, remain Catholic? As Flannery O'Connor once

 

 

 

remarked in response to the suggestion that in our

 

 

 

enlightened age no one could continue to believe

 

 

 

traditional Catholic teaching about the Eucharist :

 

 

 

"If it's just a symbol, then to hell with it."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:34 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my five readers suggested that I go with layout

 

 

 

of dark letters against a light background for easier

 

 

 

reading...Since she represents 20% of the readership,

 

 

 

her voice caries much weight. Anyone second the

 

 

 

motion? I'm not too fond of the way italics look...

 

 

 

 

 

Stolen from another blog

 

 

 

"It's a battle to death between gluttony & sloth. The

 

 

 

main reason I'm not fatter is that I can't eat while

 

 

 

I'm sleeping."

 

 

 

 

 

Humorous comments on the perils of book ownership.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:24 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 13, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vignettes

 

 

 

When I was in the throes of my agony, i.e. surgery at

 

 

 

the age of seven, I remember Dad saying: "I wish I

 

 

 

could take your place". I was struck by it and never

 

 

 

forgot it. The notion of self-sacrifice was still

 

 

 

completely foreign to me then (as a matter of fact I’m

 

 

 

not too familiar with it presently either). Mom added,

 

 

 

"Me too." And I was never sure whether she meant she

 

 

 

wished dad could take my place too or herself…

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

When I was young we had a neighbor who was a severe

 

 

 

alcoholic. I was told he gave up alcohol every Lent

 

 

 

and then drink wildly on Easter. My first reaction was

 

 

 

to cringe and think "legalism!" or "what's the

 

 

 

point?". But it occurred to me that he gave up the

 

 

 

most important thing in his life for forty days every

 

 

 

year. He put God ahead of thing that almost defined

 

 

 

him. How many of us can say that? The point is not to

 

 

 

not have pleasures, but to acknowledge there is

 

 

 

something more important that pleasure. And our

 

 

 

wild-eyed neighbor did that every Lent.

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

 

My wife recently laughed at me for writing the worst

 

 

 

poem ever on the eve of our vacation to the Great

 

 

 

Smokies. Funny, we bonded more over my lame poem than

 

 

 

others that might've attained mere mediocrity.

 

 

 

Cusp, cusp,

 

 

 

cusp of vacation;

 

 

 

sweet rim of a Tuesday night

 

 

 

lipp’d edge

 

 

 

of freedom

 

 

 

momentary as a a dandelion’s flower

 

 

 

black asphalt’s answer;

 

 

 

tarway to heaven.

 

 

 

 

 

Don't say I didn't warn ya.

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

 

I woke up one morning recently to find all my clothes

 

 

 

either slightly too large or too small. The ones too

 

 

 

large were hand me-downs from dad. The ones too small

 

 

 

were hand me-ups from my stepson.

 

 

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

I was reading an Updike novel to my wife one night,

 

 

 

and we came across the phrase "deer scat" and since

 

 

 

then we use it to amuse ourselves in unlikely

 

 

 

situations. Example: she pays the bills and then

 

 

 

leaves an Excel spreadsheet of them for me.

 

 

 

"I see you left some scat on my desk last nite," I

 

 

 

say.

 

 

 

She laughs.

 

 

 

When I write her a check for my half of the bills, I

 

 

 

write in the memo portion, "scat payment".

 

 

 

I know, too much information.

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

 

"Draggin’ my chains….draggin’ my chains….well I'm

 

 

 

movin’ in slow motion, but it’s motion just the same.

 

 

 

Well I may not be free yet, but I’m draggin’ my

 

 

 

chains" – Pam Tills song.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:48 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got mixed emotions about these PenPal appeal for cash

 

 

 

on some Catholic blogger sites. On the one hand, one

 

 

 

feels the urge to contribute since they are allies in

 

 

 

the culture wars, bedfellows for truth. And heck even

 

 

 

Subway sandwich 'artists' have tip jars. (Why not

 

 

 

McDonald's grill cooks?) On the other hand, and I'm

 

 

 

obviously flamboyantly jealous, but it seems an

 

 

 

outrage that they should be paid to pontificate.

 

 

 

Certainly blogging is child's play compared to writing

 

 

 

a book. Let them get paid for their books (that sounds

 

 

 

like 'let them eat cake'), although admittedly in a

 

 

 

culture that is skewed and somewhat not ready for

 

 

 

truth their books don't get their due. Still, I like

 

 

 

Amy Welborn's decision to use her blog to point to

 

 

 

them. In a recent column Jonah Goldberg hinted that

 

 

 

with blogs you pretty much get what you pay for. Which

 

 

 

is why they are (say it with me)....free!

 

 

 

 

 

Current Reading

 

 

 

Theology and/or "deep" books are the crack cocaine of

 

 

 

my reading world; likely to keep me wired tightly and

 

 

 

up at night. Since I am more comfortable than

 

 

 

afflicted, theology tends to afflict more than

 

 

 

comfort. I can't read Chyrsostom and feel good about

 

 

 

myself. A recent example: Jesus said that those who

 

 

 

error or lead others astray in small matters will be

 

 

 

called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. This would seem

 

 

 

to imply good news. That those who are imperfect or

 

 

 

who might lead people astray will at least go to

 

 

 

heaven. But nooo, Chrysostom & Augustine say that the

 

 

 

"least in the kingdom" could still refer to hell (I

 

 

 

forget why, I can find the exact wording if anyone

 

 

 

wants to know). Part of the reason is Jesus' making

 

 

 

the smallest sins large (i.e. equating lust with

 

 

 

adultery). Perhaps this is another way of them saying

 

 

 

what Jesus said about the rich - the impossibility of

 

 

 

being good without God, how it's impossible to earn

 

 

 

heaven. And if so, that is a good thing. But it's not

 

 

 

for the scrupulous.

 

 

 

 

 

The best antidote to theological reading is something

 

 

 

earthy, funny and slightly irreverent (and/or a cold

 

 

 

dark beer). And David Lodge is fitting that bill

 

 

 

perfectly in "Small World". He makes marvelous fun of

 

 

 

clueless academics. I'm also reading Harry Stein's

 

 

 

surprisingly engaging "How I Accidentally Joined the

 

 

 

Vast Right Wing Conspiracy and Found Inner Peace". I'm

 

 

 

almost done with Jean Baudrillard's pompous,

 

 

 

look-down-my-French-nose review of America. These

 

 

 

books you don't have to take too seriously -

 

 

 

Baudrillard because he's such an elitist know it all,

 

 

 

Stein because he's funny and sticks to uncontroversial

 

 

 

topics (for me) and Lodge because he can flat out

 

 

 

write. I used to read Kinky Friedman and/or Mark

 

 

 

Leyner but now find them a little

 

 

 

too...too...scatalogically childish?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:08 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Pio

 

 

 

to be canonized this weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will stand at the gates of Heaven but will not go

 

 

 

through until all of my spiritual children have

 

 

 

entered. - Padre Pio

 

 

 

On the subject of saints from Amy Welborn.

 

 

 

What an honest and revealing reflection.... No wonder

 

 

 

she's so esteemed in the blogging community. It's also

 

 

 

here.

 

 

 

In response to Mark Shea's post: I think we're

 

 

 

Catholic ultimately because it is the shortest path to

 

 

 

holiness or sainthood, which is the only thing that

 

 

 

matters.

 

 

 

 

 

So isn't the fact that these bishops act little better

 

 

 

than your average CEO so discouraging in part because

 

 

 

of their great access to grace and yet non-cooperation

 

 

 

in/with it? Given all the Masses they say, and all the

 

 

 

prayers that are said for them, it seems to show at

 

 

 

the very least the resistability of grace. Now that is

 

 

 

scary.

 

 

 

 

 

"You're nobody till somebody blogs you..."

 

 

 

Thanks to Praise of Glory and Zounds and Tim Drake for

 

 

 

the links.

 

 

 

Gosh they have good taste.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:11 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 12, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The humorous Hokie Pundit (example: rejected title for

 

 

 

paper:

 

 

 

Abortion: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love

 

 

 

the Womb) has an

 

 

 

interesting inquiry: Can We Live Both the American

 

 

 

Dream and Obey God's Will?

 

 

 

 

 

I asked a similar question (concerning military

 

 

 

service) of an Catholic columnist (not our Amy Welborn

 

 

 

btw), who replied, interestingly:

 

 

 

 

 

If it is quite unthinkable that Jesus would be a

 

 

 

soldier, and if Christians are supposed to imitate

 

 

 

Christ, doesn't it follow that Christians should not

 

 

 

serve in the military?

 

 

 

 

 

There are, it seems to me, only two ways of getting

 

 

 

around this difficulty. One way is to say that the

 

 

 

non-military life of Jesus was purely accidental; that

 

 

 

in other circumstances he would have taken up arms.

 

 

 

 

 

The other way (and this is the way the Catholic Church

 

 

 

has traditionally dealt with the difficulty) is to say

 

 

 

that there are two levels at which the "imitation" can

 

 

 

be pursued. The higher level is that followed by

 

 

 

priests and religious; the lower level is that

 

 

 

followed by ordinary laypersons. The "hihger

 

 

 

imitation" attempts to stay very close to the life of

 

 

 

Jesus, including the rejection of arms; the "lower

 

 

 

imitation" doesn't come nearly that close, and permits

 

 

 

-- in addition to marriage and wealth -- military

 

 

 

service.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know if this second way of answering the

 

 

 

difficulty is philosophically satisfactory, but it

 

 

 

certainly has been the traditional Catholic way.

 

 

 

Vatican II called into question the distinction

 

 

 

between the higher and lower imitation of Christ...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:30 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 11, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Normally bishops serve. One of the Pope's titles is

 

 

 

"Servant of the servants of God". And so it is

 

 

 

disconcerting that now lay people have to carry our

 

 

 

shepherds, forgive them their sins (in a sense), and

 

 

 

bear them as burden. And perhaps that is healthy

 

 

 

thing, both in terms of our exercising our strength to

 

 

 

forgive and also in the sense of not expecting from

 

 

 

them what only God can deliver.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:23 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, Amy Welborn has hit the nail on the head today

 

 

 

on "The Situation".

 

 

 

"The need for the approval of the secular media and

 

 

 

the elites in the cities in which the cardinals and

 

 

 

Important Bishops have their big houses and attend

 

 

 

their Important social events. The need to be

 

 

 

perceived as "progressive" ideologically, in education

 

 

 

and everything else."

 

 

 

 

 

That's it! The bishops have been sucked in by the left

 

 

 

& right-coast elites. Money, wealth, prestige, status,

 

 

 

caring about what others think....Aquinas was so

 

 

 

right.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:18 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's Go Take a Hike

 

 

 

All is patient in the woods. The spider waits by her

 

 

 

web, "let the prey come to me" she says. Tiny red

 

 

 

wildflowers wait with patient regard for bees to

 

 

 

visit. Oaks of huge circumferences stand stolidly,

 

 

 

more permanent than houses. Leaves under the canopy

 

 

 

stand at horizontal attention, table-top straight to

 

 

 

receive every bit of sun that leaks down. Metallic

 

 

 

beetles, florescently green, flit about like little

 

 

 

green goblins, or hotrodders showing off their new

 

 

 

paint job.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 7:50 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 10, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"How much misery is escaped by frequent and violent

 

 

 

agitation of the body" – 18th century pro-exercise

 

 

 

tract (the first?)

 

 

 

 

 

I'd like to live the "dumb life" for a week & avoid

 

 

 

reading, writing, thought in general, & the

 

 

 

'data-smog' and live the body-life instead: hiking,

 

 

 

gardening, biking, tipping a pint, listening to music.

 

 

 

Nice to be brainless for awhile, though I feel vaguely

 

 

 

guilty. On the positive side it is life as festival;

 

 

 

on the negative, life as animal.. But the truth is we

 

 

 

are animals too.

 

 

 

 

 

Tis always bothered me that one’s disposition and

 

 

 

tendency to sin or not to sin can be as provisional as

 

 

 

whether you’ve had that meditative 45 minute run that

 

 

 

Kosturbula writes of in the "Joy of Running". The

 

 

 

author Lauren Slater believed in the power of stories,

 

 

 

and of the word (small 'w' I think, unfortunately),

 

 

 

until along came her little pill, Prozac, that became

 

 

 

her savior. Best get out the wide-angle lens and see

 

 

 

that, in the big picture, God makes up for whatever

 

 

 

losses we produce. If the 45 minute run makes you a

 

 

 

better Christian, then use it. With or without Prozac

 

 

 

He loves us.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:44 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another interesting Baudrillard comment on religion &

 

 

 

America:

 

 

 

 

 

It is not by chance that it is the Mormons who run the

 

 

 

world's biggest computerization project: the recording

 

 

 

of twenty generations of living

 

 

 

souls....Evangelization [has] progressed thanks to the

 

 

 

latest memory-storage techniques. And these have been

 

 

 

made possible by the deep puritanism of computer

 

 

 

science, an intensely Calvinistic, Presbyterian

 

 

 

discipline, which has inherited the universal and

 

 

 

scientific rigidity of the techniques for achieving

 

 

 

salvation by good works. The Counter-Reformation

 

 

 

methods of the Catholic Church, with its naive

 

 

 

sacramental practices, its cults, its more archaic and

 

 

 

popular beliefs, could never compete with this

 

 

 

modernity."

 

 

 

 

 

Au Contraire! It is our bishops, not beliefs, that are

 

 

 

undermining the faith at the present moment. (end of

 

 

 

cheap shot).

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 6:54 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 9, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fr. Hayes, our brilliant Dominican (he got degrees in

 

 

 

biology & law before becoming a priest 12 yrs ago),

 

 

 

said an interesting thing the other day. He said that

 

 

 

God will hold us accountable for our use of time

 

 

 

(suggesting, of course, less TV), but went on to

 

 

 

recommend we learn a trade, something like carpentry

 

 

 

or wood-working or leather crafts...something of the

 

 

 

hands, a sort of tangible, physical learning. I was

 

 

 

reminded of this while reading Jean Baudrillard's

 

 

 

America. Baudrillard wrote that "everything now is

 

 

 

destined to reappear as simulation. Landscapes as

 

 

 

photography, women as the sexual scenario, thoughts as

 

 

 

writing...events as television. Things seem only to

 

 

 

exist by virtue of this strange destiny. You wonder

 

 

 

whether the world itself isn't just here to serve as

 

 

 

advertising copy in some other world."

 

 

 

 

 

The line "thoughts as writing" hit home. It reminds me

 

 

 

of Mark Shea's tagline about never having an

 

 

 

unpublished thought. I felt it too on a recent trip to

 

 

 

the Smokies, where we would do a photo-stop and the

 

 

 

image was beautiful but it didn't represent a

 

 

 

memory...for we weren't there long enough to enjoy it

 

 

 

in the moment. Anyway perhaps Fr. Hayes was right in

 

 

 

suggesting we make something that isn't a copy...

 

 

 

something concrete made for its own sake...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 6:32 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Friday

 

 

 

 

 

A Poem Named "Spot"*

 

 

 

Kansas saw-grasses whisper and wave

 

 

 

in the unbearable 1800s wind

 

 

 

I listen to Dixie songs first as irony

 

 

 

till the simpleness wins my heart

 

 

 

crystal voices selling honesty

 

 

 

be they so or not, I am sold

 

 

 

I Fly Away to unbearable earlier ages

 

 

 

Kansas saw-grass waving on the prarie

 

 

 

little houses, yes.

 

 

 

 

 

*Flannery O’Connor wrote that she would name her dog

 

 

 

‘Spot’ as irony, her mother would sans irony. FO said

 

 

 

she figured it didn't matter much in the end.

 

 

 

 

 

Hangman

 

 

 

In the history of man

 

 

 

we few

 

 

 

we hang like half-done hangman scrawlings

 

 

 

our tombstones

 

 

 

holding yet one date.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 7, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why this thrall of blogdom, this heady rush, this

 

 

 

swoon of reading ones words in a public forum – this

 

 

 

seeming nudity in public? Why the need to reveal?

 

 

 

Reassurance that we have something worth saying?

 

 

 

Reassurance is like a sponge that sops up attention

 

 

 

while never quite filling it. This seemingly universal

 

 

 

thirst to blog is interesting to me. I like to think

 

 

 

my motives are the same of any other frustrated

 

 

 

writer, exacerbated by all the left-brain thinking

 

 

 

required as a computer programmer. I recall St. Thomas

 

 

 

Aquinas’s words of warning that as long as one cares

 

 

 

what others think of you then you are far from the

 

 

 

kingdom. And no one lived up to that better than him.

 

 

 

Can you imagine an intellectual giant being sanguine

 

 

 

about being called the "Dumb Ox"? That modesty and

 

 

 

reluctance to show-off is such a sure mark of the

 

 

 

saints. St. Therese of Liseux had to be dragged

 

 

 

kicking & screaming to write her autobiography. Yet

 

 

 

Chesterton had great reverence for even the most

 

 

 

mediocre artist because they were engaging in an

 

 

 

activity that reflects our dignity in being created in

 

 

 

the image and likeness of God. You'll never find a dog

 

 

 

arranging the food in his food bowl in an

 

 

 

aesthetically-pleasing manner...

 

 

 

John Updike on writers:

 

 

 

"From the admission that a good writer might be a

 

 

 

scoundrel it is but a short step to the speculation

 

 

 

that a writer is necessarily something of a scoundrel.

 

 

 

A raffish and bitter scent clings to the inky

 

 

 

profession. Seeing truly and giving the human news

 

 

 

frankly are both discourtesies, at least to those in

 

 

 

the immediate vicinity. The writer's value to mankind

 

 

 

irresistibly manifests itself at some remove of space

 

 

 

and, often, time."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:52 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quiz:

 

 

 

Which is the Most Difficult To Believe?

 

 

 

1) Resurrection of the Body

 

 

 

2) the Trinity

 

 

 

3) Pauly Shore is a good actor

 

 

 

4) unconditional love

 

 

 

 

 

I agree with our priest, who says number 4....

 

 

 

The temptation towards Jansenism is acute but natural

 

 

 

given our conditon.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:08 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting comment from Steve Ray's board: "All sins

 

 

 

are highly subjective and as St. Paul says, we are

 

 

 

poor judges of even our own sins, let alone the sins

 

 

 

of others." I've always simultaneously liked & cringed

 

 

 

at the idea that Padre Pio, soon to be St. Pio, was

 

 

 

able to point out unconfessed sins in the confessional

 

 

 

- it's our own blindness that somehow most defeats us

 

 

 

and most comforts us. Defeats us in that it prevents

 

 

 

us from holiness, comforts us in that we cling to our

 

 

 

blindness and sins for fear of suffering.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:14 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 6, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brush with greatness II....an Updike parody at Eve

 

 

 

Tushnet's blog

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:21 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crisis of Faith the real Crisis

 

 

 

Catholic author Walker Percy had one of his

 

 

 

characters, a priest, say to a man who didn't feel he

 

 

 

should serve Mass because of his lack of faith:

 

 

 

'Don't worry,' he said, doing a few isometrics in

 

 

 

the hall, pushing and pulling with his hands. 'It is

 

 

 

to be expected. It is only necessary to wait and to be

 

 

 

of good heart. It is not your fault.'

 

 

 

'How is that, Father? I ask him curiously.

 

 

 

'You have been deprived of faith. All of us have. It

 

 

 

is part of the times.'

 

 

 

Over the past 40 years the American bishops have gone

 

 

 

from a dogmatic, authoritarian style to a more

 

 

 

pastoral, "kinder/gentler" style. An unfortunate

 

 

 

side-effect seems to have been a crisis of confidence.

 

 

 

And that confidence was a belief not just in God but

 

 

 

in sin - that sin was evil and that discipline

 

 

 

necessary. A priest fooling around with a kid was

 

 

 

shocking not primarily because it was against the law

 

 

 

but because it was a mortal sin. What is prison

 

 

 

compared to losing your eternal soul? And so when

 

 

 

someone loses their confidence, they tend to hang out

 

 

 

with the crowd, they adhere to the culture for

 

 

 

support. One senses that in the way the bishops

 

 

 

pandered to the left in the 70s - the call for U.S.

 

 

 

unilateral disarmament and the flirtation with

 

 

 

socialism while being relatively quiet on abortion.

 

 

 

That drive for approval from the intellectual left was

 

 

 

a warning sign of the lack of confidence. The culture

 

 

 

at the time most of the bad priests were committing

 

 

 

their acts was the 1960s & 70s when sexual license was

 

 

 

rampant. But then in the 80s with the advent of Reagan

 

 

 

and a conservatism, the culture become more

 

 

 

materialistic, more pro-business. And so most of the

 

 

 

bishops, influenced by this culture, became CEOs. And

 

 

 

what do most CEOs do? They think short-term. They put

 

 

 

off/hide bad news from stockholders as long as

 

 

 

possible. Sound familiar?

 

 

 

 

 

I hope our leaders can find that ever elusive middle

 

 

 

ground. Not dogmatic, cruel or needlessly

 

 

 

authoritarian, nor confused, unconfident and

 

 

 

undisciplined.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 5, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had always believed in God's love and God's

 

 

 

omnipotence. But once I put the two ideas together,

 

 

 

saw the unavoidable logical conclusion (Rom 8:28), I

 

 

 

could never again see the world the same way. If God

 

 

 

is great (omnipotent) and God is good (loving), then

 

 

 

everything that happens is our spiritual food; and we

 

 

 

can and should thank him for it. - Peter Kreeft

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:21 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check this out from Slate magazine of all places:

 

 

 

"Who'da thunk it? Hollywood takes celibacy more

 

 

 

seriously than most members of the elite Eastern

 

 

 

media, whose by-and-large reaction to the church's

 

 

 

pedophilia scandal has been to opportunistically

 

 

 

attack a celibacy doctrine they see as outdated and

 

 

 

nonsensical. It's startling to see putatively liberal

 

 

 

moviemakers portray celibacy as a noble, selfless,

 

 

 

even rational endeavor. Of course, it's possible that

 

 

 

the Hollywood message is more subversive and

 

 

 

underhanded than that: Only superheroes are fit for

 

 

 

lives of celibacy, and as we've learned, not all

 

 

 

priests are superheroes."

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:55 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read a fascinating article about a series of

 

 

 

experiments showing, impossibly, that simply by

 

 

 

observing photons changes the path they take (from

 

 

 

Discover magazine). It gets even wierder when the

 

 

 

physicist claims that it appears past events can be

 

 

 

changed likewise. Whether true or not, the article

 

 

 

insists that the universe is a much more interactive

 

 

 

place than we can imagine. A week later I read that

 

 

 

one of the Vatican's top scientists (I forget his

 

 

 

name, but he heads the Vatican astronomy dep't) said

 

 

 

that his notion of God is not as an autocrat. God as a

 

 

 

jazz improvisationalist I guess...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:56 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 4, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy Grant news

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:18 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 3, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a story

 

 

 

The smell of aged tobacco lay in every crease and

 

 

 

corner of the 40’s style dance hall. It was there

 

 

 

dreams had begun, chance meetings to marriages, and

 

 

 

where adulterous boundraries were crossed, the

 

 

 

juxtaposition of their physical geographies seemingly

 

 

 

without penalty – just the unreal sense gratification

 

 

 

of the sword in a new sheath, a key and a lock not

 

 

 

supposed to fit – but they do! His humble body,

 

 

 

nothing special, not something held dear – what is it

 

 

 

that its part fit another lock? Every seven years

 

 

 

every cell in his body would be swapped - in seven

 

 

 

years it would be as if he hadn't done it, another

 

 

 

self had.

 

 

 

 

 

What to do with that awful knowledge that locks and

 

 

 

keys fit without consequence? But what if the

 

 

 

impossible happened – a baby? Well you can prevent

 

 

 

those. But skin on skin is intimacy! And she hates the

 

 

 

pill...But anyway there was that a fellar he knew in

 

 

 

Birmingham who knew of a clinic. They’d do it for

 

 

 

cheap, just the sudden removal of tissue, another

 

 

 

geographic boundary crossed without consequence. Her

 

 

 

body, her tissue. Moved to another location. He

 

 

 

thought, what is her husband but tissue grown big?

 

 

 

What would it mean if he were missing? What if it be

 

 

 

if he speeded up the process, arranged his death-date

 

 

 

a little sooner on the tombstone, that stone all march

 

 

 

to? He puzzled over it. He couldn’t figure where

 

 

 

evil’s geography really lay. The law says you could

 

 

 

kill that baby minutes before it was born. The law

 

 

 

doesn’t make sense…He wondered if the law knew what it

 

 

 

was doing, and if it could be wrong about it all, even

 

 

 

that fatal juxtaposition of his body in hers...

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:21 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 31, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"I know what you mean about being repulsed by the

 

 

 

Church when you have only the Jansenist-Mechanical

 

 

 

Catholic to judge it by. I think that the reason such

 

 

 

Catholics are so repulsive is that they don’t really

 

 

 

have faith but a kind of false certainty. They operate

 

 

 

by the slide rule and the Church for them is not the

 

 

 

body of Christ but the poor man’s insurance system.

 

 

 

It’s never hard for them to believe because actually

 

 

 

they never think about it. Faith has to take in all

 

 

 

the other possibilities it can." - Flannery O’Connor

 

 

 

"Habit of Being"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:18 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Islam intellectually bankrupt? go here

 

 

 

 

 

Eve Tushnet rates the charities: here

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:41 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 30, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love that there is a Cardinal Ratzinger fan club.

 

 

 

And boy do I want one of those kitschy "Cardinal

 

 

 

Ratzinger Fan Club" coffee mugs with the slogan

 

 

 

"putting the smackdown on heresy since 1981". But alas

 

 

 

the link to buy is broken...

 

 

 

 

 

A quote:The loss of joy does not make the world better

 

 

 

-- and, conversely, refusing joy for the sake of

 

 

 

suffering does not help those who suffer. The contrary

 

 

 

is true. The world needs people who discover the good,

 

 

 

who rejoice in it and thereby derive the courage and

 

 

 

impetus to do good. We have a new need for that

 

 

 

primordial trust which ultimately faith can give. That

 

 

 

the world is basically good, that God is there and is

 

 

 

good. That it is good to live and be a human being.

 

 

 

This results, then, in the courage to rejoice, which

 

 

 

in turn becomes commitment to makng sure that other

 

 

 

people, too, can rejoice and receive good news.

 

 

 

-Cardinal Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth, pp. 36-37.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:49 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 21, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My brush mit greatness (alias D. Connaughton) on Eve

 

 

 

Tushnet's blog. Also: who knew?

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting blog-o-rhythmn from Amy Welborn:

 

 

 

Feminist Brenda Walker is arguing that

 

 

 

multiculturalism is a threat to liberal values and

 

 

 

social freedom and refered to current and future

 

 

 

immigrants such as 'conservative Catholics and

 

 

 

Moslems'."

 

 

 

Conservative Catholics? Gee, she couldn't mean

 

 

 

Hispanics could she? Why doesn't she just come out and

 

 

 

say it then: "You know, our right to get our unborn

 

 

 

babies killed might just be threatened if we let in

 

 

 

too many Mexicans." I hate to bring this up, but one

 

 

 

of the dark sides of 19th century women's suffrage

 

 

 

movements was a distinct nativist tone to much of the

 

 

 

argumentation. The push was for middle class

 

 

 

Anglo-Saxon women to be able to vote in order to

 

 

 

balance out the waves of African-Americans and mostly

 

 

 

Catholic and Jewish immigrants.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:08 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 20, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quoteables

 

 

 

To those who loathe the bourgeoisie,

 

 

 

I offer this advice to thee:

 

 

 

Get very rich or very poor,

 

 

 

And you won't be bourgeois anymore. - Clifford D. May

 

 

 

 

 

A happy childhood leaves you hideously unprepared for

 

 

 

life. - Kinky Friedman

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 10:49 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 15, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entertainment Uber Alles

 

 

 

"Day was turned into night, and light into darkness: -

 

 

 

an inexpressible quantity of dust and ashes was poured

 

 

 

out, deluging land, sea, and air, and burying two

 

 

 

entire cities, Herculaneum and Pompeii, while the

 

 

 

people were sitting in the theatre." - Dion Cassius,

 

 

 

lib. lxvi in preface of Lytton's "The Last Days of

 

 

 

Pompeii"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 1:14 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 13, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

good stuff from Mark Shea's blog:

 

 

 

"I Have Said Elsewhere...

 

 

 

that mercy, in addition to being God's greatest

 

 

 

quality is, when demanded of us, his most appalling

 

 

 

one. We love the idea of mercy for ourselves. We hate

 

 

 

it and regard it as a travesty of justice when applied

 

 

 

to others, especially others whose sins hurt us. I

 

 

 

recently wrote that part of the duty of laypeople is,

 

 

 

of course, to extend forgiveness to the priests and

 

 

 

bishops who have so agonizingly betrayed us. I got

 

 

 

complaints back from folks saying, in effect, that we

 

 

 

are under no obligation to forgive if they don't

 

 

 

acknowledge their sin. This attitude, in addition to

 

 

 

being flatly against the model of Jesus Christ and St.

 

 

 

Stephen, who forgave their unrepentant murderers, is a

 

 

 

formula for modeling the American Church on that happy

 

 

 

land known as the Balkans, where people remember

 

 

 

everything and learn nothing.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, the perp may go on living in denial till the day

 

 

 

he dies. But if we forgive, we do not have to live

 

 

 

with his having endless power over us till the day we

 

 

 

die. Refusal to forgive is like taking poison and

 

 

 

expecting the other guy to die.

 

 

 

 

 

And from another Sheaite entry:

 

 

 

A priest I know once pointed out to me that one of the

 

 

 

marks of the satanic is that it claims to see right

 

 

 

through you, to identify you with your sins and pin

 

 

 

you to the wall like a bug on a card. The devil, in

 

 

 

speaking to Jesus, says "I know who you are!" He does

 

 

 

the same to us. He says "I see right through you. You

 

 

 

are your sins. This is who you really are!" In

 

 

 

contrast, Jesus never does this. Indeed, in the

 

 

 

miracle of grace he distinguishes us from our sins and

 

 

 

frees us from them. Peter says, "Go away from me, for

 

 

 

I am a sinful man" and Jesus doesn't say, "You're damn

 

 

 

right you are! You sicken me!". He liberates Peter

 

 

 

from that. He calls him by a new name and gives him a

 

 

 

new life.

 

 

 

Something that troubles me about the way in which we

 

 

 

treat sin is this tendency to speak as though our sins

 

 

 

name us. "Now we know who Jesse Jackson--or Cardinal

 

 

 

Law--or Whoever--really is." The answer of the Faith

 

 

 

is, "No you don't. Not when you are naming people by

 

 

 

their sins." Sin is what destroys persons. It's not

 

 

 

what constitutes them. To the degree that we sin we

 

 

 

are not who we really are. Doesn't mean that we can't

 

 

 

sin, of course. Radical evil is a reality. Nor does it

 

 

 

mean that we should not speak clearly of evil when it

 

 

 

is committed. But when we say that "This is who X

 

 

 

really is" we are in fact delighting in evil and

 

 

 

rejoicing in a lie. The point of the gospel is not

 

 

 

that our sins name us, but that Jesus comes to free us

 

 

 

from our sins and really name us. It's a reality we as

 

 

 

Catholic will have to cling to, not least because of

 

 

 

the temptation we will feel to indulge it as more

 

 

 

betrayals from our clergy come to light.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:23 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 1, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the search for humility in the bishops is a

 

 

 

vain search, for the humility gene is one they simply

 

 

 

don't have. They are politicians, and we know that an

 

 

 

admission of guilt from a politician requires a

 

 

 

DNA-stained dress. The best we can hope for (and I

 

 

 

think it HAS been achieved) is that they will not

 

 

 

shuffle bad priests any more. They have gotten that

 

 

 

message, even if they will not publically confess

 

 

 

their sins. I have come to peace with that because I

 

 

 

confess my sins in the privacy of the confessional and

 

 

 

therefore will give them the right to do the same.

 

 

 

 

 

I think clerics look at the laity the same way a

 

 

 

customer service manager looks at customers. Lay

 

 

 

people require priests to work for them, they are

 

 

 

needy. My uncle is a pharamcist and he says they all

 

 

 

secretly loathe working with 'the public'. Isn't that

 

 

 

what clerics do? But isn't that quite human? The

 

 

 

customer makes demands, often unreasonable. As one

 

 

 

customer service manager I know says, "The customer

 

 

 

isn't always right, but the customer is always the

 

 

 

customer". I'm not excusing this mentality at all, but

 

 

 

I think anyone who works with the public everyday has

 

 

 

to fight against an "us against them" mentality.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:10 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 30, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Man can be defined as an animal that makes dogmas.

 

 

 

As he piles doctrine on doctrine and conclusion on

 

 

 

conclusion

 

 

 

in the formation of some tremendous scheme of

 

 

 

philosophy

 

 

 

and religion, he is, in the only legitimate sense of

 

 

 

which the

 

 

 

expression is capable, becoming more and more human.

 

 

 

When he drops one doctrine after another in a refined

 

 

 

scepticism, when he declines to tie himself to a

 

 

 

system,

 

 

 

when he says that he has outgrown definitions, when he

 

 

 

says that he disbelieves in finality, when, in his own

 

 

 

imagination, he sits as God, holding no form of creed

 

 

 

but contemplating all, then he is by that very process

 

 

 

sinking slowly backwards into the vagueness of the

 

 

 

vagrant animals and the unconsciousness of the grass.

 

 

 

Trees have no dogmas. Turnips are singularly

 

 

 

broad-minded."

 

 

 

G. K. Chesterton, Heretics, Ch. 20

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 17, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Nat'l Review Online:

 

 

 

"Um, this is getting really weird. One month ago, a

 

 

 

red heifer was reportedly born in Israel. Rabbis

 

 

 

checked her out and found her to be unblemished.

 

 

 

Apocalyptic types hardly need to be reminded that an

 

 

 

unblemished red heifer is needed for the sacrifice to

 

 

 

purify the Temple Mount for the rebuilding of the

 

 

 

Jewish temple, in anticipation of the Messiah's coming

 

 

 

(or Second Coming, depending on which way you swing

 

 

 

theologically). The Temple Mount, of course, is

 

 

 

currently occupied by the Al-Aqsa mosque. You do the

 

 

 

math; I'm headed for the hills, and hoping this is a

 

 

 

hoax." Go here

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:21 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 12, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The line separating good and evil passes not through

 

 

 

states, nor between classes, nor between political

 

 

 

parties either -- but right through every human heart

 

 

 

-- and through all human hearts. This line shifts.

 

 

 

Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even

 

 

 

within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small

 

 

 

bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best

 

 

 

of hearts, there remains . . . an un-uprooted small

 

 

 

corner of evil."- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Gulag

 

 

 

Archipelago, "The Ascent"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:05 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 9, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections on pedophile priests.....

 

 

 

 

 

Nietzche was so pious as a youth that he was called

 

 

 

'the little pastor'. Stalin was a seminary student. Do

 

 

 

intensely spiritual environments produce either a

 

 

 

Satan or a Judas or a Nietzsche or, contrarily, a

 

 

 

Gabriel or Peter or Aquinas? Do religious communities

 

 

 

produce either great saints or great sinners, whereas

 

 

 

laymen & women are more likely to be mired in

 

 

 

mediocrity?

 

 

 

 

 

Don't we humans only respect 'scarcity'? Did the

 

 

 

priests begin to treat the sacred as profane due in

 

 

 

part to their overfamiliarity with the sacred? Isn't

 

 

 

that why God had the high priest only visit the Holy

 

 

 

of Holies once a year in the O/T?

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:38 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knowing her to be my mother

 

 

 

only by virtue of her holiness

 

 

 

for if she were a sinner

 

 

 

she would pick and choose.

 

 

 

But she chooses all to mother

 

 

 

as her son chooses all to save.

 

 

 

Confident only in her holiness

 

 

 

I gaze upon Purity;

 

 

 

for the fruit of her perfection

 

 

 

is her perfection's source.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:36 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 26, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St.Therese of Liseux struggled with the fact that she

 

 

 

had

 

 

 

never committed a mortal sin, distraught at feeling

 

 

 

she wasn't as dependent

 

 

 

on God as someone who HAD committed a mortal sin.

 

 

 

Amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

Le' Difference btwn Mary & Eve

 

 

 

Eve disobeyed God and consumed fruit, Mary obeyed God

 

 

 

and bore fruit.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 11:35 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Excessive confidence in the ability to understand the

 

 

 

will of God, is irreverent because it fails to

 

 

 

recognize human

 

 

 

limitations. Reverence means understanding the

 

 

 

difference

 

 

 

between the human and the divine. " -

 

 

 

Paul Woodruff

 

 

 

 

 

"We shall say no more, 'Our god,' to the work of our

 

 

 

hands." Hosea 14:7

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:52 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 13, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

www.selectsmart.com/PHILOSOPHY

 

 

 

My results (I would've preferred more Aquinas):

 

 

 

1. Augustine (100%) Click here for info

 

 

 

2. Aquinas (75%) Click here for info

 

 

 

3. Spinoza (63%) Click here for info

 

 

 

4. Ockham (57%) Click here for info

 

 

 

5. Plato (54%) Click here for info

 

 

 

6. Mill (45%) Click here for info

 

 

 

7. Sartre (43%) Click here for info

 

 

 

8. Kant (42%) Click here for info

 

 

 

9. Rand (41%) Click here for info

 

 

 

From EWTN's Philosophy maven:

 

 

 

"I get along with St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas

 

 

 

very well. St. Augustine is very concrete. After all,

 

 

 

he wrote an autobiography. Anyway, he never held that

 

 

 

man is totally corrupt. At the same time Augustine is

 

 

 

a realist when it comes to human nature. He believes

 

 

 

that man is a sinner, not a very popular position

 

 

 

today." - Richard Geraghty

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:15 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 11, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Received this email on the St. Margaret mystery:

 

 

 

Our patron saint officially is St. Margaret of

 

 

 

Cortona,

 

 

 

although she is not the saint the parish founders had

 

 

 

in mind in the beginning, nor is she the St. Margaret

 

 

 

who appears in the Stained Glass Window. How did the

 

 

 

mix-up happen? The Italian families who emigrated

 

 

 

to the United States from Pettorano sul Gizio wanted

 

 

 

to

 

 

 

dedicate the parish church and the parish itself to

 

 

 

the

 

 

 

St. Margaret they knew as the patron saint of their

 

 

 

home

 

 

 

town (which would actually be St. Margaret of

 

 

 

Antioch).

 

 

 

They simply knew her as St. Margaret. Presumably,

 

 

 

when asked which St Margaret she was, the founders of

 

 

 

the

 

 

 

church could not say. Bishop Hartley, who was aware

 

 

 

of several St. Margarets, apparently concluded that

 

 

 

the

 

 

 

patron saint of Pettorano sul Gizio would have to be

 

 

 

St. Margaret of Cortona, since she was an Italian.

 

 

 

The Parish was named St. Margaret of Cortona, but the

 

 

 

window and the statue of St. Margaret that is carried

 

 

 

in

 

 

 

the Festival Procession are both St.Margaret of

 

 

 

Antioch.

 

 

 

The Feast day of St. Margaret of Antioch is July 20,

 

 

 

hence, our parish festival is the last weekend of

 

 

 

July.

 

 

 

The feast day of St. Margaret of Cortona is on

 

 

 

February 22.

 

 

 

The mix up was never corrected, thus our parish which

 

 

 

should have been named St. Margaret of Antioch, is

 

 

 

actually called St. Margaret of Cortona.

 

 

 

There is a picture of St. Margaret of Cortona that was

 

 

 

brought back from Cortona Italy in 2001, in the

 

 

 

Vestibule

 

 

 

of the church, and the statue directly in front of the

 

 

 

church

 

 

 

is of St. Margaret of Cortona, who dedicated

 

 

 

her life to prayer and penance.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:13 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of my mother's ancestors immigrated from Ireland

 

 

 

during the height

 

 

 

of Irish immigration - the 1840s. Similarly, my

 

 

 

great-grandmother on my

 

 

 

father's side immigrated from Germany during the

 

 

 

height of German

 

 

 

immigration - the 1880s. Our Irish forebears left

 

 

 

because of the potato

 

 

 

famine - why did she leave?

 

 

 

 

 

The name "Hatti" is very rare among German surnames,

 

 

 

but the Old High

 

 

 

German spelling of Hatti, "Hesse" is common. Why she

 

 

 

was "Hatti" and not

 

 

 

"Hesse" isn't clear, but to begin the story of our

 

 

 

ancestor we begin with

 

 

 

the fall of Troy in 677. The Assyrians migrated out of

 

 

 

Anatolia

 

 

 

northwest up the Danube into Europe. Roman annals

 

 

 

within a few centuries

 

 

 

were filled with the name Chatti, or Hatti, which

 

 

 

later was changed to

 

 

 

"Hesse". The people of Hatti were numerous in the

 

 

 

current areas of

 

 

 

Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse-Kassel, and Hesse-Humburg,

 

 

 

which happen to be in

 

 

 

southwest Germany, about 100 miles north of

 

 

 

Baden-Baden, the reputed

 

 

 

birthplace of Amelia. Fifty years before Amelia's

 

 

 

birth, an Anastasia

 

 

 

Hatti was baptized at the Gamshurst Catholic Church in

 

 

 

Baden, Baden.

 

 

 

Could she be a great aunt of Amelia's? (See here and

 

 

 

here. )

 

 

 

 

 

We don't know Amelia's parents birthdates, so they

 

 

 

might've been

 

 

 

somewhere between young children or older teens when

 

 

 

the German

 

 

 

Revolution hit Baden, not far from the romantic Black

 

 

 

Forest and Rhine

 

 

 

River. It was the year 1848, and riots broke out in

 

 

 

the streets and for

 

 

 

months 'the monarchies of central Europe looked as

 

 

 

fragile as a house of

 

 

 

cards'. Poor harvests, which drove the price of bread

 

 

 

sky high, was the

 

 

 

proximate cause. Germany was just a collection of

 

 

 

states then and was

 

 

 

not yet a nation and Catholics were only about a

 

 

 

quarter of the

 

 

 

population. The mighty Prussian state in the north of

 

 

 

Germany began

 

 

 

exercising its power, and in the year Amelia was born

 

 

 

Prussia and Austria

 

 

 

won a war against Denmark and gained the northern

 

 

 

territories of

 

 

 

Schleswig-Holstein.

 

 

 

 

 

In 1866, when Amelia was two years old, Prussia looked

 

 

 

south and declared

 

 

 

war on her state. Baden was quickly swallowed up in

 

 

 

what was called the

 

 

 

"Six Weeks War". The German nation now existed in

 

 

 

theory if not in fact;

 

 

 

that would come five years later when Wilhelm was

 

 

 

crowned and Otto von

 

 

 

Bismarck was made the Prime Minister. Bismarck

 

 

 

disliked the recently

 

 

 

formed Catholic political party known as the "Centre

 

 

 

Party". "He

 

 

 

objected to the existence of a religious party because

 

 

 

it seemed to stand

 

 

 

for allegiance to an authority other than the national

 

 

 

state," said one

 

 

 

biographer, and considered Catholics a "separatist"

 

 

 

group and, along with

 

 

 

social liberals & Jews, as 'enemies of the Reich'. He

 

 

 

attempted to end

 

 

 

parochial education, expelled the Jesuit order and

 

 

 

deported many clergy,

 

 

 

but ended up uniting Catholics even more strongly and

 

 

 

by 1880 Bismarck

 

 

 

had had enough. The hatred of these laws (known as the

 

 

 

"Kulturkampf")

 

 

 

was still felt over the nation, especially in the

 

 

 

southern Catholic state

 

 

 

of Baden, when Amelia was sixteen and about to

 

 

 

emigrate. The religious

 

 

 

situation didn't give many Catholics a reason to stay.

 

 

 

And Germany's

 

 

 

economy at that time was weak at best. The reason most

 

 

 

Germans immigrated

 

 

 

then was due to this economic situation, especially

 

 

 

when compared to the

 

 

 

United States. It was made worse in part because of

 

 

 

very high birthrates.

 

 

 

Germany was by far the youngest country in Europe, and

 

 

 

there were too

 

 

 

many mouths to feed on most farms and not enough of an

 

 

 

industrial base

 

 

 

yet. Southwest German inheritance laws forced parents

 

 

 

to divide their

 

 

 

farms equally among their children, which quickly

 

 

 

resulted in properties

 

 

 

too small to live on. America looked pretty

 

 

 

attractive.

 

 

 

 

 

Amelia must not have been too hung up on her

 

 

 

Germanness. Or maybe she

 

 

 

got tired of waiting for a Prince Wilhelm. Unlike most

 

 

 

of her fellow

 

 

 

immigrants, she would marry outside her nationality -

 

 

 

to an Englishman

 

 

 

(or Irishman?) named James H. Smith. Eleven long years

 

 

 

passed in

 

 

 

America before she married at the age of 27, which at

 

 

 

that time was very

 

 

 

long in the tooth. (I think it's far too young).

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:12 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ohio is debating whether to teach evolution and/or

 

 

 

intelligent design in schools.

 

 

 

Historically, I think that both sides in the school

 

 

 

debate have reason to be defensive.

 

 

 

The scientific side has ample evidence of religious

 

 

 

blindness going back

 

 

 

to the Scopes trial. But what is less known is that

 

 

 

the religious side

 

 

 

also has good reason to be on the defensive. As Thomas

 

 

 

Dubay points out

 

 

 

in his book, "Faith and Certitude': "members of the

 

 

 

secular academe are

 

 

 

assumed to be free to think and say and publish just

 

 

 

what they wish. Not

 

 

 

so. Scholars must hew the officially accepted line in

 

 

 

their fields or

 

 

 

they are consigned to the sidelines by their peers who

 

 

 

organize

 

 

 

convention programs and publish journals....The

 

 

 

eminent physicist and

 

 

 

astronomer Robert Jastrow finds strange the reaction

 

 

 

of scientific minds

 

 

 

to the accumulating evidence that the universe did

 

 

 

begin with the 'big

 

 

 

bang'. 'All recent evidence points to this scenario',

 

 

 

says Jastrow, 'but

 

 

 

scientists are unhappy with it. It turns out that the

 

 

 

man of science

 

 

 

reacts as the rest of us do when our beliefs conflict

 

 

 

with the evidence.

 

 

 

We paper it over with meaningless phrases.'"

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:10 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Paul made the breakthrough between the universal

 

 

 

destination of the

 

 

 

Gospel and the universal condition of sin. Christian

 

 

 

theology would call

 

 

 

Paul's synthesis the doctrine of "original sin".

 

 

 

Christian theologians

 

 

 

and preachers have, unfortunately, not yet succeeded

 

 

 

in developing and

 

 

 

presenting a coherent anthropology of original sin.

 

 

 

Part of this

 

 

 

challenge is to derive a correct exegesis of the

 

 

 

highly symbolic creation

 

 

 

narratives which contain fundamental truths in a very

 

 

 

sophisticated,

 

 

 

ficitional genre. Despite the evident commonness and

 

 

 

frequency of sin,

 

 

 

it reamins something of a mystery, still dominating us

 

 

 

rather than we

 

 

 

dominating it." - Msgr. Herron in Catholic Times.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:04 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 18, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the time I was a child, I loved oxymorons. I

 

 

 

relished terms like

 

 

 

"jumbo shrimp", "military intelligence" and "giant

 

 

 

dwarf". Some have a

 

 

 

weakness for puns, I liked oxymorons and collected

 

 

 

them. How fortunate

 

 

 

then to be a Christian and a lover of oxymorons, for

 

 

 

how rich is the

 

 

 

bible in them. Mary is the Virgin Mother.

 

 

 

Christ is God made man. Moses was an Egyptian-raised

 

 

 

Jew. David was

 

 

 

the runt of the litter made king. Abraham and Sarah

 

 

 

were the infertile

 

 

 

couple with descendents "as numerous as the stars of

 

 

 

the sky". Paul was

 

 

 

a Pharisee-Christian.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:02 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was my great secret. The time Mom was right. I

 

 

 

couldn't bear to tell

 

 

 

it, couldn't bear that she could say "I told you so".

 

 

 

And so I thought

 

 

 

it would be buried with me, but I shall tell it now.

 

 

 

 

 

On October the 30th, 1987, the water towers next to

 

 

 

the Continent

 

 

 

Apartments were sabotaged by Iranian fundamentalists

 

 

 

upset that America

 

 

 

had a higher standard of living than Iran. They

 

 

 

punctured gaping holes

 

 

 

into the towers and flood waters surged toward my

 

 

 

apartment, number 319.

 

 

 

 

 

I had just arrived home that evening, preparing for

 

 

 

the two or three

 

 

 

trick-or-treaters I expected and hoping to play some

 

 

 

basketball on the

 

 

 

court out front given the freakish 70 degree

 

 

 

temperature. A frozen pizza

 

 

 

was unfreezing in the oven, while last night's

 

 

 

Letterman played on the

 

 

 

VCR. Larry "Bud" Melman was involuntarily touring

 

 

 

Tierra Del Fuego.

 

 

 

 

 

I was reclining on my gray couch, (a couch that

 

 

 

incidentally was saved

 

 

 

and still exists in my present home) when I noticed

 

 

 

the ominous sight of

 

 

 

a wall of water climbing the big picture window next

 

 

 

to me. I leapt out

 

 

 

of the couch despite a lunchtime 4-miler (of course I

 

 

 

was a 25-year old

 

 

 

in the prime of life) and saw the water surge to the

 

 

 

top of the window,

 

 

 

such that I felt like a goldfish trapped in an

 

 

 

aquarium. Water seeped

 

 

 

into the corners of the apartment and the carpet

 

 

 

became soaked.

 

 

 

 

 

I had no windows to look out of but the southern

 

 

 

exposure, so I couldn't

 

 

 

get a good grip on where the water was coming from,

 

 

 

though I almost

 

 

 

immediately suspected the water towers that Mom had

 

 

 

warned me about on my

 

 

 

very first day (-May 16, 1985, as well as on the 18th,

 

 

 

23rd, 31st, etc..)

 

 

 

The towers lay just to the northwest, and that was the

 

 

 

only explanation I

 

 

 

could come up with to cause water flooding well-nigh

 

 

 

over thirty feet

 

 

 

high.

 

 

 

 

 

I ran to the kitchen for what I supposed was my last

 

 

 

meal; the pizza was

 

 

 

not quite done but still good, thank you very much.

 

 

 

Frozen pizza has an

 

 

 

unnecessarily bad reputation. I will admit it was hard

 

 

 

to concentrate on

 

 

 

eating while being underwater and hearing sirens.

 

 

 

 

 

I skipped dessert in favor of rescue. It occurred to

 

 

 

me that some of my

 

 

 

baseball cards might be getting wet, so I ran to the

 

 

 

bedrooom and pulled

 

 

 

out the huge wood case I stored over 10,000 cards in,

 

 

 

and, to my great

 

 

 

relief found that none were wet though the case itself

 

 

 

was soaked. I

 

 

 

stuffed my Rose rookie card in my pocket, the

 

 

 

sentimental one I bought at

 

 

 

a card show because Pete wouldn't answer my letter

 

 

 

begging him for one.

 

 

 

 

 

I ran to the Sauder bookcase and wasn't sure which

 

 

 

books to try to save.

 

 

 

The Baseball Encyclopedia was too big and Thoreau's

 

 

 

"Walden" was already

 

 

 

wet. I saved "The Main Spark", a biography of Sparky

 

 

 

Anderson, mostly

 

 

 

because it was handy. My failure to plan was a direct

 

 

 

result of not

 

 

 

taking Mom's warning about the possibility of the

 

 

 

water towers coming

 

 

 

down. I wrapped "The Main Spark" quickly in Reynold's

 

 

 

Wrap, tucked it

 

 

 

under my arm, and fled.

 

 

 

 

 

I tried to open the door but the water pressure was

 

 

 

too strong, so I went

 

 

 

in my bedroom and broke the window and swam through

 

 

 

it. Years of

 

 

 

Fairfield YMCA swimming lessons had prepared me for

 

 

 

this very moment, and

 

 

 

I was ready. At last I knew why it was important for

 

 

 

me to graduate from

 

 

 

"Minnow". I held my breath and fought for the surface

 

 

 

while holding "The

 

 

 

Main Spark" to my rib, the torrent carrying me past

 

 

 

the basketball nets

 

 

 

to the roof of the Continental Athletic Club where I

 

 

 

sat and waited for

 

 

 

rescue.

 

 

 

 

 

The damage to the Continent Apartments was $1.3

 

 

 

billion for insurance

 

 

 

purposes, $50,520 in actuality. Fortunatly, since I

 

 

 

lived on the top

 

 

 

floor, most of my possessions were salvegable. My grey

 

 

 

Cavalier was

 

 

 

located two miles away but seemingly no worse for the

 

 

 

wear. She started

 

 

 

on the second try.

 

 

 

 

 

The wire services never picked up this story and so

 

 

 

was mostly not known

 

 

 

outside Columbus. Many think that the reason the

 

 

 

national news didn't

 

 

 

pick up on it was because the perpetrators, Ahmed and

 

 

 

Muhammed, were

 

 

 

pro-choice Democrats who believed that Michael Dukakis

 

 

 

should be the next

 

 

 

President. This was the time before O'Reilly. There is

 

 

 

little doubt in

 

 

 

my mind that FoxNews would've covered this.

 

 

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:00 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The storyteller is a pale metaphor, I have often

 

 

 

thought, for God who

 

 

 

creates our world and us, falls in love with his

 

 

 

creatures, even obsesses

 

 

 

over us because we don't act right, and always

 

 

 

reserves the right to say the

 

 

 

final word.

 

 

 

 

 

Does God really obsess over us? Anyone who claims to

 

 

 

be God and doesn't

 

 

 

obsess over us (and the birds of the air and the

 

 

 

flowers of the field) is a

 

 

 

fraud and a phony. As Elie Wiesel remarked somewhere,

 

 

 

God made humans because

 

 

 

he loves stories, and our lives are the stories he

 

 

 

tells.

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to think that the illumination in my

 

 

 

story is that we live in a

 

 

 

cosmos that is finally, however oddly, implacably

 

 

 

forgiving; that it is never

 

 

 

too late to begin again; that there are always second

 

 

 

(and more)

 

 

 

chances; that it is possible, Ulysses-like, to go home

 

 

 

again; that we will

 

 

 

all be young again and all laugh again; that love is

 

 

 

always and necessarily

 

 

 

renewable; and that life is stronger that death." -

 

 

 

A.G.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 8:54 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 4, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweat, Blood

 

 

 

on me a little

 

 

 

Garden Blood

 

 

 

find me

 

 

 

estranged

 

 

 

a Pharisee

 

 

 

mired in debts

 

 

 

calling in debts.

 

 

 

 

 

Blood crimson

 

 

 

seek me out

 

 

 

find my hovel

 

 

 

my eyes defect

 

 

 

they cannot see

 

 

 

else I would come

 

 

 

to thee.

 

 

 

 

 

That I cannot be John

 

 

 

let me be Andrew

 

 

 

or Thomas

 

 

 

anyone

 

 

 

but

 

 

 

Judas

 

 

 

 

 

Oh but the inconsolance

 

 

 

the unbearableness

 

 

 

of the Wait

 

 

 

of not knowing where I stand

 

 

 

Of having no art

 

 

 

to influence You

 

 

 

no sophistry, argument, excuse, no beauty

 

 

 

of having no weapons

 

 

 

but which thou hast given.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:59 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 24, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is only the fight to recover what has been lost

 

 

 

And found and lost again and again; and now,

 

 

 

under conditions

 

 

 

That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor

 

 

 

loss.

 

 

 

For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our

 

 

 

business. - T.S. Eliot

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:41 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 21, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saw the Mark Twain special on PBS and was struck that

 

 

 

a four-hour

 

 

 

two-part special could omit a book Clemens spent

 

 

 

twelve years

 

 

 

researching, two years writing and later called his

 

 

 

"most

 

 

 

important book" - his story of Joan of Arc. I was

 

 

 

curious

 

 

 

what their 'spin' would be on such a seemingly unusual

 

 

 

undertaking for a

 

 

 

secular ex-river boat captain. But they simply ignore

 

 

 

it. How like PBS.

 

 

 

And Ken Burns.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 12:41 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 18, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"From what troubles we are saved, my God, by the vow

 

 

 

of obedience! The simple religious, guided by the will

 

 

 

of her Superiors alone, has the joy of being sure that

 

 

 

she is on the right path; even when she is sure that

 

 

 

her Superiors are mistaken, she need not fear. But the

 

 

 

moment she ceases to consult this infallible compass,

 

 

 

she goes astray down barren pathways, where the waters

 

 

 

of grace soon fail her." - St. Theresa of Lisieux

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 3:25 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 11, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quotes from or about Bishop Sheen

 

 

 

"'I think the closer we get to Christ the closer we

 

 

 

get to one another.

 

 

 

That is why one feels very much at home with a real

 

 

 

Christian. Our

 

 

 

differences as Protestants and Catholics are lovers'

 

 

 

quarrels.'"

 

 

 

 

 

While fully aware of modern biblical scholarship, he

 

 

 

chose, as did the

 

 

 

Church, to reject almost all of it. Fulton wrote

 

 

 

simply, 'He will not

 

 

 

allow us to pick and choose among His words,

 

 

 

discarding the old ones, and

 

 

 

accepting the ones that please our fancy.'"

 

 

 

 

 

"Sheen could not repress his basic optimism. 'There

 

 

 

are wonderful times

 

 

 

in which to be alive because 30 years ago, and in

 

 

 

other days, when we

 

 

 

were moral, when we had a spirit of work in the United

 

 

 

States, not a

 

 

 

spirt of sloth and avoiding responsibility, it was

 

 

 

easy to be good, it

 

 

 

was easy to be American, it was easy to be Christian.

 

 

 

Today it's hard.

 

 

 

You're being tested. Dead bodies float downstream - it

 

 

 

takes a live body

 

 

 

to resist the current. And that's why these are great

 

 

 

days. They are

 

 

 

struggle, and I love them."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

from the author, Thomas Reeves:

 

 

 

"The True Believer is, of course, a familiar character

 

 

 

in history. It is

 

 

 

important to observe that he is capable of great good

 

 

 

as well as great

 

 

 

evil. There is nothing intrinsically bad in seeking

 

 

 

meaning to life and

 

 

 

trusting wholeheartedly in an institution or book or

 

 

 

philosophy that

 

 

 

claims to have the whole truth. By the same token,

 

 

 

cynicism, doubt,

 

 

 

indifference and selfishness are not always, as some

 

 

 

believe, evidence of

 

 

 

enlightenment and goodness."

 

 

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:31 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We pulled in the parking lot with some trepidation.

 

 

 

We'd heard that

 

 

 

the friend of Mryt's had had her car broken into on a

 

 

 

Sunday night in

 

 

 

this very parking lot. The neighborhood was poor but

 

 

 

had the cache of

 

 

 

charisma about it, like a movie set. The church was

 

 

 

called "Higher

 

 

 

Ground Always Abounding Asssembly" and we were there

 

 

 

to hear the choir

 

 

 

"High Praise Company".

 

 

 

We walked in feeling self-consicous given our extreme

 

 

 

whitness. Three

 

 

 

black youths stood by the doorway and looked us over.

 

 

 

Once inside, we

 

 

 

took our conspicuous seats in the sanctuary, which was

 

 

 

dominated by a

 

 

 

circular stained glass window of Christ tending sheep

 

 

 

and huge twin glass

 

 

 

structures on either side with large amounts of water

 

 

 

streaming though

 

 

 

them. It was hypnotizing. The concert was scheduled to

 

 

 

start at 7pm,

 

 

 

but Carole, the black friend of Myrt's, warned us that

 

 

 

these things don't

 

 

 

start on time. That was the first thing I noticed -

 

 

 

the laid-back

 

 

 

attitude towards time. The Irish used to be called the

 

 

 

black Englishmen,

 

 

 

in part because of a similar relaxed attitude towards

 

 

 

time. By 7:40

 

 

 

things started up. I felt like an extra in an Eddie

 

 

 

Murphy movie.

 

 

 

We started up with a praise and worship service. Much

 

 

 

clapping, lots of

 

 

 

following directions on lifting hands up (and they say

 

 

 

the Mass is hard

 

 

 

to follow?). We had to turn to our partner and repeat

 

 

 

to them

 

 

 

spiritual-slang phrases that the pastor had expressed.

 

 

 

I turned to

 

 

 

Steph. But then the leader had us do it to the person

 

 

 

on our right, who

 

 

 

in my case was a large black guy. He was probably

 

 

 

thinking, "damn my

 

 

 

luck."

 

 

 

A large black man in an all-brown, shiny leather soon

 

 

 

strode up to

 

 

 

the front and said "Y'all know I have the hardest job

 

 

 

today. I got get

 

 

 

some money out of you. Colored folks need to support

 

 

 

their own." (Steph

 

 

 

later told me that she thought this meant we wouldn't

 

 

 

have to

 

 

 

contribute).

 

 

 

"Will every man here willing to give $50 or $100

 

 

 

please stand up."

 

 

 

No one stood for a bit, then three or four extremely

 

 

 

well-dressed

 

 

 

men stepped up and put money into a purple-clothed

 

 

 

inlaid basket. (Of

 

 

 

course nearly everyone was very well-dressed; the gent

 

 

 

beside me was in a

 

 

 

suit and tie and cufflinks while I wore dockers and a

 

 

 

denim shirt).

 

 

 

"Will every man here willing to give $20 please

 

 

 

stand."

 

 

 

After some uncomfortable moments, ten or twenty men

 

 

 

made their way

 

 

 

to the front.

 

 

 

"Okay. Now, I want everyone here who is not a woman to

 

 

 

stand up."

 

 

 

Hmm…how do I get out of this one? I stood up. I was

 

 

 

now triply

 

 

 

conspicuous - I was white, ill-dressed and standing.

 

 

 

"Who is willing to give $5 or $10 to the Lord?"

 

 

 

Most went up, including a rare white man. (I'd guess

 

 

 

there were 3

 

 

 

or 4 besides us out of a couple hundred or so people).

 

 

 

I went up too,

 

 

 

and donated $5.

 

 

 

I sat down with relief and was surprised that he asked

 

 

 

for $3, $2,

 

 

 

or $1 donations. Three or four younger guys came up

 

 

 

and donated that.

 

 

 

They then did the same routine with the ladies, though

 

 

 

Steph and Myrt

 

 

 

cheated by giving their $5s for Carole to bring up.

 

 

 

By 9:00 the choir finally came up and began their set.

 

 

 

The songs

 

 

 

were not your daddy's gospel - they were much speeded

 

 

 

up with lots of

 

 

 

percussion. No "Amazing Grace" here. They were all

 

 

 

self-written tunes

 

 

 

that allowed the singers to display the range of their

 

 

 

voices, which was

 

 

 

spectacular. The songs often expressed lines like

 

 

 

"Praise and Glorify

 

 

 

Him" over and over and over that had an almost

 

 

 

mesmerizing effect, like a

 

 

 

chant almost.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:29 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Thanksgiving weekend, my wife, her three sisters,

 

 

 

and mother

 

 

 

ventured to a cabin deep in the woods of Hocking

 

 

 

county in the

 

 

 

Appalachian foothills of southeast Ohio. They would be

 

 

 

renting it for

 

 

 

just two nights and so drove up the long, gravel drive

 

 

 

so typical of

 

 

 

country residences with a sense of anticipation.

 

 

 

Unknown to them,

 

 

 

nestled in those hills lived a stray tomcat,

 

 

 

redneck-thin and just shy of

 

 

 

two years. He lived by his wits and little else, and

 

 

 

surely not for

 

 

 

long.

 

 

 

On the first day, my wife's sister Karen walked down

 

 

 

that long

 

 

 

spirally drive and noticed the plucky tomcat walking

 

 

 

towards her, begging

 

 

 

for attention and food, whichever came first. The

 

 

 

owner happened to be in

 

 

 

the vicinity and warned Karen he'd soon be putting a

 

 

 

bullet in the cat's

 

 

 

head since he didn't much like strays. She didn't

 

 

 

doubt him; he looked

 

 

 

like he was born with a gun and an appetite for

 

 

 

killing. She brought him

 

 

 

up to the cabin, and they noticed with amazement the

 

 

 

little eight-pound

 

 

 

wonder was not intimidated in the least by our

 

 

 

hundred-pound dog, a

 

 

 

German shepherd-mix my wife rarely leaves behind.

 

 

 

The new member of the cabin had dark tiger stripes

 

 

 

down the length of his

 

 

 

back and humorous tall legs, one of which was nearly

 

 

 

all white and the

 

 

 

other white only to the ankle sock. He looked like

 

 

 

he'd gotten up late

 

 

 

for work and put on a calf-length tube sock on the

 

 

 

right foot and an

 

 

 

ankle-sock on the left! A respiratory infection had

 

 

 

him sniffling and

 

 

 

snorting; his eyes leaked and gave off a shiny glow.

 

 

 

By a process of elimination, all the sisters but one -

 

 

 

my wife -

 

 

 

offered reasons they couldn't take the stray in. My

 

 

 

wife called and

 

 

 

asked if we could add a second cat to go along with

 

 

 

our dog and I

 

 

 

couldn't say no. She returned with the strikingly

 

 

 

beautiful new animal

 

 

 

in tow.

 

 

 

The country cat was tough and routinely drove our dog

 

 

 

Obi to the

 

 

 

point of insane barking. The little piker was afraid

 

 

 

of nothing. But

 

 

 

what name to give him? Long whiteboard sessions led to

 

 

 

fruitless

 

 

 

results. Winston, Seamus, Sir Tuneces, Hobbes, Piker,

 

 

 

Lazarus all came

 

 

 

and went. His behavior had noticeably cooled since

 

 

 

being locked 24-7 in

 

 

 

the family homestead, so it was finally decided that

 

 

 

Mr. Hyde would suit

 

 

 

this Jeckel puss. The name was picked hours before his

 

 

 

Great Escape,

 

 

 

when he found the door open at 2a.m. and calmly

 

 

 

strolled out with the

 

 

 

insouciance of …well, a cat. Our son had not

 

 

 

completely closed the back

 

 

 

door and the cat was nothing if not an opportunist.

 

 

 

The timing was

 

 

 

especially fortunate for him given that he was

 

 

 

scheduled to go under the

 

 

 

knife the next morning and experience the pangs of

 

 

 

becoming half a cat -

 

 

 

i.e. neutered.

 

 

 

And so the days went by and an at-large Mr. Hyde made

 

 

 

himself

 

 

 

scarcer than a dime in Scrooge's outstretched palm. My

 

 

 

wife put Mr. Hyde

 

 

 

on the FBI's Most Wanted Pet list and littered the

 

 

 

neighborhood with

 

 

 

posters. She also visited the death camp, I mean kitty

 

 

 

shelter, to see

 

 

 

if he had turned up there. Given her obvious

 

 

 

determination (and threat

 

 

 

to get another cat), I went to a childhood friend, St.

 

 

 

Anthony - the

 

 

 

saint who helps find lost things - and asked if he

 

 

 

might help. She went

 

 

 

directly to the Father, a bit sheepishly but knowing

 

 

 

that not a hair on

 

 

 

our heads goes uncounted.

 

 

 

The next afternoon, six days after Hyde's

 

 

 

disappearance, my wife's

 

 

 

brother Joe was delivering packages for UPS about a

 

 

 

half-mile away from

 

 

 

our house and across a busy thoroughfare. A stray

 

 

 

tomcat walked right up

 

 

 

the drive towards him, begging for love or food,

 

 

 

whichever came first.

 

 

 

Joe, a cat-lover, thought it a disgrace that someone

 

 

 

would leave a tomcat

 

 

 

run loose. He remembered my wife Steph was missing her

 

 

 

new stray, so he

 

 

 

made a mental note to check a picture she'd emailed

 

 

 

him. He went home

 

 

 

and checked it and that was the positive ID he needed.

 

 

 

He called Steph

 

 

 

at work and she called me and then rushed to pick up

 

 

 

her still sniffling,

 

 

 

still snorting cat. He was back, back from the seeming

 

 

 

dead, and

 

 

 

rechristened "Lazarus" for his remarkable rebounding

 

 

 

abilities. He

 

 

 

wasn't able to avoid his rescheduled date with the

 

 

 

knife though, and so

 

 

 

now Lazarus is less interested in the lady cats in the

 

 

 

neighborhood.

 

 

 

Obi, meanwhile, is sharpening his barking abilities

 

 

 

while experiencing

 

 

 

the downside of a cat not de-clawed!

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 2:27 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Different theological approaches exist in the Church,

 

 

 

as shown by the

 

 

 

different religious orders. I couldn't be a Jesuit,

 

 

 

for instance. They

 

 

 

lead with their will and expect that their intellect

 

 

 

will eventually

 

 

 

follow. Dominicans lead with their intellect and then,

 

 

 

if they are of

 

 

 

good will, expect their will will catch up. At the

 

 

 

risk of sounding

 

 

 

irreverent, I've got to know why it's true first

 

 

 

before obeying." - Dominican Fr. Hayes

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:50 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 14, 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"There's Hawkeye and Trapper John back in Korea. I

 

 

 

never did like those

 

 

 

guys. They fancied themselves super-decent and

 

 

 

super-tolerant, but

 

 

 

actually had no use for anyone who was not exactly

 

 

 

like them. What they

 

 

 

were was super-pleased with themselves. In truth, they

 

 

 

were the real

 

 

 

bigots, and phony at that. I always preferred Frank

 

 

 

Burns, the stuffy,

 

 

 

unpopular doc, a sincere bigot." - Walker Percy, The

 

 

 

Thanatos Syndrome

 

 

 

 

 

"But when he invited me to serve Mass routinely, I

 

 

 

refused. I told him

 

 

 

the truth: that since I no longer was sure what I

 

 

 

bleieve, didn't think

 

 

 

much about religion, participation in Mass would seem

 

 

 

to be deceitful.

 

 

 

He nodded cheerfully, as if he already knew.

 

 

 

'Don't worry,' he said, doing a few isometrics in the

 

 

 

hall, pushing

 

 

 

and pulling with his hands. 'It is to be expected. It

 

 

 

is only necessary

 

 

 

to wait and to be of good heart. It is not your

 

 

 

fault.'

 

 

 

'How is that, Father? I ask him curiously.

 

 

 

'You have been deprived of faith. All of us have. It

 

 

 

is part of the

 

 

 

times.'

 

 

 

'Deprived? How do you mean?'

 

 

 

'It is easy enough to demonstrate," he says, shrugging

 

 

 

first one

 

 

 

shoulder high, then the other.

 

 

 

'Yes?'

 

 

 

'Sure. Just consider. Even if the truths of religion

 

 

 

could be proved to

 

 

 

you one, two, three, it wouldn't make much difference,

 

 

 

would it? One

 

 

 

hundred percent of astronomers have discovered that

 

 

 

the universe was

 

 

 

created from nothing. The explanation is obvious but

 

 

 

it does not avail.

 

 

 

Who can handle it? It does not signify. It is boring

 

 

 

to think of.

 

 

 

Ninety-seven percent of astronomers are still

 

 

 

atheists. Do you blame

 

 

 

them? They are also boring. The only thing more boring

 

 

 

would be if the

 

 

 

ninety-seven percent all converted, right? It follows

 

 

 

that there must be

 

 

 

some other force at work, right?" - Walker Percy, The

 

 

 

Thanatos Syndrome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 9:20 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Took a micro-trip to OSU last week for their annual

 

 

 

booksale and stopped on the way back to my car at the

 

 

 

luxuriously-appointed faculty hall, drawn in by the

 

 

 

sight of statuary and art. I tried to check out the

 

 

 

pieces without giving myself away as a faculty

 

 

 

wannabe. I slipped into their private library, checked

 

 

 

out the book selection and made my way downstairs to

 

 

 

the "Colleagues Bar" where rows and rows of perfectly

 

 

 

arranged liquors of every description waited for a

 

 

 

faculty member's nod and made me suddenly thirsty.

 

 

 

 

 

On my way back, at 2nd & High Street, a pair of black

 

 

 

gentlemen in their 40s were engaged in fisticuffs. It

 

 

 

was a hypnotizing sight, two fully grown men swinging

 

 

 

wildly at each other on a Friday afternoon. Perhaps

 

 

 

they lacked jobs and needed the discipline of the

 

 

 

daily grind to squeeze the life, er, aggression out of

 

 

 

them. The driver ahead of me honked her horn and the

 

 

 

two men stopped fighting, as if they'd heard a police

 

 

 

siren. Then they shook hands.

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 5:46 PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 7, 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heard a NY Times columnist today say that the Northern

 

 

 

Alliance often gather around a television (hooked up

 

 

 

to a portable battery) to watch women's

 

 

 

tennis....Hmm.....considering that the average Afghani

 

 

 

is lucky if he sees a woman's neck, this has to be

 

 

 

pornography to them. I have this vision where the

 

 

 

Northern Alliance is watching some young tennis player

 

 

 

and saying, "THIS is what we're fighting for men!"

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting quotes

 

 

 

"Consider the abysmal problem of the relation between

 

 

 

God's Kingdom and earthy power (into the ultimate

 

 

 

depths of which probably only Reinhold Schneider has

 

 

 

the courage to descend today): whether, for example, a

 

 

 

call to arms by the Church, a blessing of weapons, or

 

 

 

taking up the sword of this world is an expression of

 

 

 

the courage of the Christian faith or, on the

 

 

 

contrary, the symptom of an unchristian and faithless

 

 

 

anxiety; whether something that can be defended and

 

 

 

justified in a hundred ways with penultimate reasons

 

 

 

drawn from faith (quite apart from the lessons of

 

 

 

Church history - but then what does Church history

 

 

 

teach?) will collapse miserably before the throne of

 

 

 

judgment of the ultimate reason - because what of

 

 

 

course appeared to be God's weapon in the hands of

 

 

 

God's warrior against God's enemies is now suddenly

 

 

 

exposed as Peter's desperate sword-waving against the

 

 

 

high priest's servant, whose side Jesus takes in order

 

 

 

to expose such brandishing of weapons for what it was:

 

 

 

anxious betrayal." - Hans Urs von Balthasar, The

 

 

 

Christian and Anxiety

 

 

 

 

 

"It crossed my mind that people at war have the same

 

 

 

need of each other. What would a passionate liberal or

 

 

 

conservative do without the other?" - Walker Percy,

 

 

 

The Thanatos Syndrome

 

 

 

 

 

"The subtle signs that Denise [daughter] was

 

 

 

exercising patience--the slightly deeper breaths she

 

 

 

took, the soundless way she set her fork down on her

 

 

 

plate and took a sip of wine and set the glass back

 

 

 

down--were more hurtful to Enid [mother] than a

 

 

 

violent explosion." - Franzen's The Corrections

 

 

 

 

 

"Christianity has always proclaimed itself superior to

 

 

 

the state. When Christ said "render unto Ceasar that

 

 

 

which is Ceasar's, and to God that which is God's" He

 

 

 

proclaimed an authority superior to government. (If He

 

 

 

had not, then what right did the early Christians have

 

 

 

to refuse sacrifices to pagan gods in violation of

 

 

 

Roman law?). By creating a Church, he gave that

 

 

 

authority visible form.

 

 

 

As civilization developed, men took their Christianity

 

 

 

with them into the halls of state. If Christ and faith

 

 

 

in Him is the highest reality, which penetrates into

 

 

 

every action of men, would a state be foolish to

 

 

 

proclaim itself independent of Him? No. Quite the

 

 

 

contrary. So the Emperor Theodosius thought when he

 

 

 

made Christianity the official religion of the Empire.

 

 

 

Throughout that time and in the millenia to follow, it

 

 

 

was inconceivable to men that the state would have any

 

 

 

basis of its authority that was not religious, and

 

 

 

therefore Christian, and therefore linked with the

 

 

 

Church. Charlemagne had himself crowned by the Pope

 

 

 

for the same reason the French kings to follow were

 

 

 

told by the bishops performing the coronation "By this

 

 

 

crown you become a sharer in our ministry." This

 

 

 

consciousness was called Christendom.

 

 

 

As a natural extension of these ideas, it was also

 

 

 

natural to conclude that departure from the Christian

 

 

 

faith was contrary to the common good of society.

 

 

 

Fundamentalist preachers say as much, and maintain as

 

 

 

much, whenever they hand out voter guides and 'demand'

 

 

 

(since we're into pejorative terms) that good

 

 

 

Christians should exercise their authority in

 

 

 

government by voting for candidates who accept

 

 

 

Christian teaching. As it is now, so it was then --

 

 

 

departure from Christianity was a blow struck at the

 

 

 

health of the entire society, and therefore

 

 

 

punishable. The Albigensians were seen, in this light,

 

 

 

as being as great a threat to civil society as Shays

 

 

 

rebellion or the Confederacy was seen to the United

 

 

 

States. No one blames the United States for

 

 

 

'exterminating' confederates, or 'persecuting'

 

 

 

farmers, or making the country 'explicitly' what

 

 

 

Abraham Lincoln said it was. So do we, I wonder,

 

 

 

consider religion and Christianity less important to

 

 

 

our well being than our forebears in the first

 

 

 

thousand years of Christian history?

 

 

 

I am about to greatly condense things. But with the

 

 

 

Reformation, and the devastating wars between

 

 

 

Catholics and Protestants that followed, it became

 

 

 

clear that doctrinally-specific Christianity could no

 

 

 

longer serve as the basis for a stable civil or

 

 

 

international order. Men began to look for new

 

 

 

theologies on which to found their states, culminating

 

 

 

in the present Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment

 

 

 

ideas of democratic consent and religious tolerance.

 

 

 

But this was originally a grudging accomodation made

 

 

 

in stages and over time by Catholics and

 

 

 

Protestants...." - anon post on bulliten board

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 28th Hocking Hills

 

 

 

Into the glen we sprung like faeries on furlough from

 

 

 

the big house. Immediately after arriving, Oblet and I

 

 

 

ambled for an hour, exploring the dusk-lit edges of

 

 

 

Acorn Acres. We shoveled the goodly leaf mold scent

 

 

 

into our nostrils and watched the moon rise. (Obi

 

 

 

might've been sniffing scat, I can never tell for

 

 

 

sure, for deer were supposedly not dear in this part

 

 

 

of the woods). Soug went to Walmart while I pyro'd a

 

 

 

fire for us. That night we watched the movie "Red

 

 

 

Planet" and then slept sound despite hearing the eerie

 

 

 

sound of a loudly hooting owl, a sort of archaic

 

 

 

baying, outside the window.

 

 

 

 

 

Steph made the most ingenious hazelnut coffee and we

 

 

 

were all comfortably ensconced by 9:30am, and I

 

 

 

savored the coffee while reading the rich prose of

 

 

 

Percy's "The Thanatos Syndrome" while Soug read

 

 

 

peaceably on the couch. By 10am, in the

 

 

 

brilliantly-lit morning, with the sound of shush-quiet

 

 

 

around us, I felt the nirvana of it. When I

 

 

 

contemplated where I could be at the time, at work in

 

 

 

the harried 'Wide building, with where I was, with a

 

 

 

plush view of longly-wooded trees that signalled

 

 

 

permanence and peace - I was overcome by it all and

 

 

 

wished the clock be arrested, stopped in its tracks,

 

 

 

and that this moment might linger by divine

 

 

 

providence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

posted by TS O'Rama @ 4:42 PM