« October 9, 2005 - October 15, 2005 | Main | October 23, 2005 - October 29, 2005 »
October 16, 2005
WOW! They Got That One Frighteningly Right
You've been to a parish bingo game once. Don't
worry, we won't tell. After all, WASPs are
allowed in the Church as well.
We just don't trust you very much.
Provided by
Are You A Cultural Catholic?
brought to you by Quizilla
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:21 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 19, 2005
A Little (Unexpected) Silence Again
I just finished typing up the first of these posts and due to what I will explain below, I hit the wrong button and hence demolished it.
I have been suffering from a slight health problem over the past few days, the treatment of which has entailed using some pain killers that have made it somewhat difficult to spend time at the keyboard. Moreover, you will probably find a greater number of typographical errors through this period as my proofing ability diminishes with my clarity. Please forgive me. And please pray for me that the present treatment will knock this wretched thing out. I do not like to contemplate the meaning of it otherwise.
While you're praying, please add prayers for all of these in the path of our present Hurricane Wilma. I know I'm very, very tired of this season, and seeing that Orlando is squarely within the cone of uncertainty on this one, I'm somewhat concerned. NOAA's present forecast is that Wilma will be a short, sharp punch across the penisula. Please pray that it is so and that we will be done with this nonsense for the season. Tying records isn't exactly my idea of fun when it comes to weather phenomena. (Though, I must say, there is a certain thrill at the possibility of breaking such a record. And a false sense of reassurance because averages and probabilities suggest to the untrained mind that next year would HAVE to be better. Oh, unfortunately not so. But we cling to the perception of the law of averages rather than to the cold reality that we must have some high years to balance the low and average 12 storms rather than 21. Still, we're better off than Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune(?) all of which have storms that have lasted for the better part of 400 years--if we use the Great Red Spot and Galileo's observations of it as an indicator.)
Posted by Steven Riddle at 6:31 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
Detraction
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Detraction
Over in the comments box at Disputations, Marion linked to the excerpt below from the New Advent Site posting of the Catholic Encyclopedia. I thought it worth repeating. The truth must always be spoken in love. It is very rarely right to shout out another's errors from the rooftops (exceptions include public safety). God bless Marion and Tom for pointing out these important truths.
from Catholic Encyclopedia article on "Detraction"
Detraction is the unjust damaging of another's good name by the revelation of some fault or crime of which that other is really guilty or at any rate is seriously believed to be guilty by the defamer. An important difference between detraction and calumny is at once apparent. The calumniator says what he knows to be false, whilst the detractor narrates what he at least honestly thinks is true. Detraction in a general sense is a mortal sin, as being a violation of the virtue not only of charity but also of justice. It is obvious, however, that the subject-matter of the accusation may be so inconspicuous or, everything considered, so little capable of doing serious hurt that the guilt is not assumed to be more than venial. The same judgment is to be given when, as not unfrequently happens, there has been little or no advertence to the harm that is being done.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Changes in the Blog Columns (file under Subtle)
I have successfully implemented the suggestions initially reported by Talmida and then modified for MT by Jeff (The Curt Jester) in a comment to this post Unfortunately, because the text included real code, the parser actually reads it and you can't get the mods. If you e-mail me or Jeff, I can provide you with his original which I used for my modifications. Thank you, Jeff. I greatly appreciate it.
Next stop--'twould seem to me that a like strategy could be used for categories.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Some Notes on Philippians
A few days ago, a correspondent wrote to me and suggested that perhaps the introduction of the letter to the Philippians was not so evocative as I seemed to imply. In the main, I could not disagree. But honestly, I had never prayed trough the introduction and asked God what He might have in store for me there. I wrote back and said that I thought the correspondent might be correct and my enthusiasm perhaps a touch of the over-the-top side. But below is a record of some of the things I derived from praying through the introduction. I hope they are as useful to you as they were to me. If you note any overt errors, either of doctrine or of grammar, drop me a note so that I might correct my thinking or language depending on which one is faulty. So much is just now.
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
2 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
(RSV)
The verses of greeting seem to offer little enough for prayer, and yet attention to every detail of scripture is rewarded.
Paul extends, as usual, a double blessing of grace and peace. These words are worthy of a moment or two reflection on their own. Grace--God's utterly unmerited gift to us, a gift so powerful and so much a part of Him that it flows from Him to permeate all of reality. Just as the sun cannot perform its fusion and do anything other than to give off light and heat, God, just in being God cannot but give forth grace. It is impossible for Him to withhold it because it is contradictory to His nature. This grace is focused through the Mother of Grace who gave birth to God's most comprehensive sign of His grace, His own incarnation. Mary is not the source of Grace but she is the vessel and distributor of grace. As we pray in the Hail Mary, she is full of grace. Or perhaps more dynamically, she is filled and overfilled with grace, which spills out through her upon the entire human race. The same lens that focused God into flesh and blood reality continues to focus the plentiful reality of God on all the people of today. She is mediatrix of all graces. She is the distributor, but she is so charged out of the love she has for her children and for good, so though she is tasked with the distribution of good, she is a pure and clean lens that in no way distorts, obscures, or denies to any seeker that grace which flows through her. Grace is the unmerited favor that bestowed a son upon a willing virgin. It is the source of all knowledge of good and righteousness; it is, thus, the perfect inheritance and privilege of the Christian and of all of God's children.
The peace with which Paul greets the children of Philippi is not merely the absence of strife or war, though these would be blessings in themselves. No indeed, it is much more than this. This peace is the shalom of integrity and unity. It is the peace of Jesus Christ, first bestowed by Him on the apostles and by the power of apostolic succession, given them to bestow upon the people of the world, which each one does with each prayer of Mass. This peace has as external signs the absence of strife and war between people, but it starts in a far richer, more complex internal reality. This shalom is the blessing of the integrated person--the peace granted is a healing of the breach caused in each of us by original sin. When we live this peace, we are walking the path of salvation laid out in the mysterious plan of our savior's birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and culminating in His second coming. This peace then is nothing less than the promise of God fully realized. It is the gift of salvation when lived to the fullest. It allows the old man to rest peacefully and cease warring upon the new man who attempts to live out Christ's commands. In these two words Paul offers to the people of Philippi and to those of us who are privileged to share in the message through our reading of the letter. Paul offers nothing less than the fullness of God's love and mercy. Everything that follows these words is simply an explanatory footnote--essential to our understanding and acceptance of the gifts offered in this simple benediction, but incidental to them. If we could, without them, realize and reify God’s gift, we would do so much better. This is what Jesus extolled in the approach of the little children to Him. If we could, in perfect joy and simplicity accept God's most precious gifts we would have little need of words piled on words. As it stands, that is not within the purview of most of us. So Paul goes on to tell us more--to gild the lily as it were with perfect joy.
Who realized that a greeting held so much? In the space of a few short words we are offered the most treasured gifts in the rich hoard of heaven's blessings, AND we a offered a shining example of what it means to be an apostle and a disciple.
And that leads us to the question of application. Are we not all called to be both disciples, or pupils, of the Lord and Apostles--those sent out, peculiarly charged with the duty of sharing the good news of salvation with those immediately around us why do not live it daily? If so, are we not responsible for carrying out the message so clearly spelled out for us in this letter and in others? In short, are we a sign of grace and peace to others? Is our prayer life outwardly projected onto the everyday? Or is our prayer life carefully sequestered and divided from our outward life? As saints, we are offered the gift. As disciples and apostles we are charged with making it manifest in our own lives and thus substantially sharing and transmitting this blessing with others. We are vehicles of grace and peace only when we begin to live the life that grace and peace bestow upon us.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Reality of Lust
Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor
A quotation on TSO's blog from the inimitable Mr. Luse. Sometimes I read too quickly or perhaps too inattentively. I missed this and it is worth repeating:
Lust devours reality, because it's all about "me." --William Luse of Apologia
Posted by Steven Riddle at 11:12 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
TSO Invites Us All to a Meme
Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor
TSO's
7 People I Admire (in no particular order):
1. Pope John Paul the Great
2. Blessed Mary Teresa de Soubiran
3. St. Anthony Claret
4. my grandmother
5. St. Pope Pius X
6. Mother Angelica
7. my wife
My Seven I admire most, in no particular Order:
1. My Grandma Smith
2. My Wife
3. John Paul the Magnificent
4. St. Therese of Lisieux
5. St. Maximilian Kolbe
6. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
7. St. John of the Cross (with St. Teresa of Avila running so close that it would be a photo finish--but to include both my grandmother and my wife I had to choose.)
Posted by Steven Riddle at 12:06 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 20, 2005
Jesus in Islam
I do not know how much this site speaks for the main body of Islamic belief, but it records what I have understood from Muslims with respect to Jesus and His mission. Needless to say, it contradicts our scripture in major ways, and yet at the same time there are some important concurrences. Which is not to imply that Christianity=Islam or vice versa--merely to say that there are some surprising points of confluence.
We Muslims believe that one day the Antichrist will come, and then Jesus will descend from the heavens and slay him, and will live among the Muslims and rule them. During those times the earth shall be filled with justice and blessing. . .
Jesus will come again, and will marry and have children, and live for 40 years among us. And soon after he dies, the Day of Judgment will come.
These are just some thoughts peripheral to the discussion being carried on at Disputations regarding the article on the conduct of Cardinal McCarrick at a recent meeting. It is always good to know, as well as we can, the contours of the land.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:35 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
Micrographia Restaurata
An explanation of Hookes observations through the microscope with resizeable lpage images. Nice for historians of science.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 6:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Christ of Cynewulf
Honestly, I don't know what to make of the offerings of cinmay.com. I can't enthusiastically endorse all of them, but some of them have a peculiar interest both antiquarian and oddity.
The Christ is an oddity in mediocre verse with some interesting wood-cuttings or engravings. Some of the poetry sings, some thuds, I won't comment on the theology because I haven't read extensively enough, but it parallels much of the site there is enough there to be wary of. Nevertheless, these things hold an odd charm.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 7:18 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Of Interest to Home-Schoolers
Project Gutenberg Titles by McGuffey, William Holmes, 1800-1873
The Gutenberg library of the Eclectic Primers Including readers, primers, and spelling-book. These often come with enthusiastic recommendations. I am a bit cautious. I wonder if they are lauded because they are good or because they are old. Older ways are not necessarily better ways. (Nor should one jump to the conclusion that they are necessarily worse ways either.)
Posted by Steven Riddle at 7:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 21, 2005
The Great Teresas
If you're not reading Blog by the Sea and you're interested in things Carmelite, you ought to be. This merely links to the meme post of a few days back, but I got to thinking about all of the Teresas (and forms thereof) whom I admire:
St. Teresa of Avila
Mother Teresa of St. Augustine (Martyr of Compiegne)
Sister Teresa of the Holy Heart (Martyr of Compiegne)
St. Teresa Margaret Redi
St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face
St. Teresa of the Andes
St. Teresa Bendicta of the Cross
Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Those who have been blessed with the name Teresa (or its variants) are truly blessed by the models of you name. I'm sure there are a great many others, but these are the ones I know the best and love the most. These are among the women who have taught me the way of life of a contemplative. Do not attribute the poor qualities of the student to the teacher.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:08 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
To Know More About St. Teresa Margaret
Home Page of St. Teresa Margaret
For those who wish to know about St. Teresa Margaret Redi (of the Sacred Heart).
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Two On-Line Biographies of St. Teresa Margaret
St. Theresa Margaret by Canon Joseph Bardi, 1939
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
From the Worthy TSO--some thoughts worth considering
Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor
"So the problems of the world become the problems of the saints in a most personal way. If the world is hedonistic the saints will, by their contrarian example, become ascetics. If the world is Albigensian ascetic, the saints will become as "hedonists". So be careful which age you're born in (rimshot)."
--TSO at Video Meliora
Posted by Steven Riddle at 9:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 22, 2005
The List--SF Films
Seen at both the Anchoress (?) and Siris. As with others, I have bolded the ones I have seen.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!
Akira
Alien
Aliens
Alphaville
Back to the Future
Blade Runner
Brazil
Bride of Frankenstein
Brother From Another Planet
A Clockwork Orange
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Contact
The Damned
Destination Moon
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Delicatessen
Escape From New York
ET: The Extraterrestrial
Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (serial)
The Fly (1985 version)
Forbidden Planet
Ghost in the Shell
Gojira/Godzilla
The Incredibles
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 version)
Jurassic Park
Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior
The Matrix
Metropolis
On the Beach
Planet of the Apes (1968 version)
Robocop
Sleeper
Solaris (1972 version)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
The Stepford Wives
Superman
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The Thing From Another World
Things to Come
Tron
12 Monkeys
28 Days Later
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
2001: A Space Odyssey (As with Clockwork Orange, people often make the mistake of calling this a science fiction film--while the subject matter may be, the director makes it his own. This is not SF, it is Kubrick.)
La Voyage Dans la Lune
War of the Worlds (1953 version)
What is that 47, 48 of 50? Akira, and Ghost are both anime that I may get around to. And there are some that I am pretty sure I saw, but I wouldn't be placing on this list.
What might I add? Frankenstein, the Original, and not quite as campy progenitor of them all, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Gattaca, for sheer Space Opera Oddity The Fifth Element, Silent Running, and a slew of B Fifties films.
Later:
Doesn't appear to have been at The Anchoress. Was it perhaps Julie D, or the Little Professor. My head's aspin with things.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 2:48 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
That Library Thing Again
LibraryThing | Catalog your books online
He just keeps on chugging. Here's my list of "books you might like" derived from similarities with my list and the lists of other public sites. As it turns out
Book suggestions for sriddle
1. The fellowship of the ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
3. The Book of Three (Prydain Chronicles) by Lloyd Alexander
4. The return of the king : being the third part of The lord of the rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
5. Ender's game by Orson Scott Card
6. The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald
7. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
8. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
9. Leaving home by Garrison Keillor
10. Le Morte D'Arthur, Vol 1 by Thomas, Sir Malory
11. The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, Part 2) by J.R.R. Tolkien
12. Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
13. Of Mice and Men (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by John Steinbeck
14. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
15. Persuasion by Jane Austen
16. Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C. S. Lewis
17. The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide: Complete and Unabridged by DOUGLAS ADAMS
18. To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee
19. The elements of style by William Strunk
20. Taran Wanderer (Pyrdain Chronicles) by Lloyd Alexander
21. Emma (Penguin Classics) by Jane Austen
22. The name of the rose by Umberto Eco
23. The High King (Pyrdain Chronicles) by Lloyd Alexander
24. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
25. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
26. A Wind in the Door (Time Quartet) by Madeleine L'Engle
27. Lake Wobegon days by Garrison Keillor
28. Candide by Voltaire
29. The robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
30. Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart
31. A Brief History of Time : From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking
32. A wrinkle in time by Madeleine L'Engle
33. The Black Cauldron (Pyrdain Chronicles) by Lloyd Alexander
34. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
35. The grey king by Susan Cooper
36. Five complete Miss Marple novels by Agatha Christie
37. Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables) by L.M. Montgomery
38. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
39. How the Irish saved civilization : the untold story of Ireland's heroic role from the fall of Rome to the rise of medie by Thomas Cahill
40. Morte d'Arthur, Le : Volume 2 (Penguin Classics) by Thomas Malory
41. The problem of pain by C. S. Lewis
42. Lies my teacher told me : everything your American history textbook got wrong by James W. Loewen
43. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
44. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
45. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
46. CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
47. Sense and sensibility by Jane Austen
48. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
49. I capture the castle by Dodie Smith
50. Watership Down by Richard Adams
51. The hidden city by David Eddings
52. The Castle of Llyr (Chronicles of Prydain (Paperback)) by Lloyd Alexander
53. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
54. Silver on the Tree by Susan Cooper
55. Stone of Farewell (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Book 2) by Tad Williams
56. The golden compass by Philip Pullman
57. The Canterbury Tales, in Modern English by Geoffrey Chaucer
58. Madame Bovary (Bantam Classics) by Gustave Flaubert
59. MANY WATERS by Madeleine L'Engle
60. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
61. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
62. White Gold Wielder (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 3) by Stephen R. Donaldson
63. Domes of fire by David Eddings
64. Cyrano De Bergerac (Vintage Classics) by Edmond Rostand
65. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
66. A Swiftly Tilting Planet (Yearling Books) by Madeleine L'Engle
67. The mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
68. Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables) by L.M. Montgomery
69. Winds of fury by Mercedes Lackey
70. Winds of change by Mercedes Lackey
71. The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
72. Friday by Robert A. Heinlein
73. Juxtaposition (Apprentice Adept (Paperback)) by Piers Anthony
74. Winds of Fate (The Mage Winds, Book 1) by Mercedes Lackey
75. Out of the silent planet (Macmillan paperbacks edition) by C. S Lewis
76. The Martian chronicles (with a new introduction by Fred Hoyle) by Ray Bradbury
77. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
78. The Dilbert principle : a cubicle's-eye view of bosses, meetings, management fads & other workplace afflictions by Scott Adams
79. The One Tree (The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Book 2) by Stephen R. Donaldson
All I can say is that I pretty much own all of them. Now, if there were just a way to use this list to import the titles into my own library and save myself thousands of hours of plugging in ISBNs etc.
Oh, almost all except Eddings (largely unreadable), Donaldson (largely unreadable) and Garrison Keillor. Will someone explain to me why otherwise perfectly sensible, level-headed, likeable people (such as TSO) can stomach this stuff? Is it some strange midwestern sickness? Is it a nostalgia bug? Is it some form of communicable disease? If so, is it either preventable or curable? I think my antipathy was contracted at the politcal lap of Prairie Home Companion. Every time I've heard it it has been an assembly of thinly veiled, unfunny, pandering, political diatribe. Is that of recent advent? Did I miss something back in the day that was actually worthy of my time? So many people I like and trust in so many things seem to like this and I'm so clueless.
But then Tom, of Disputations fame, was scratching his head a few years back of the concurrence of my complete Golden Age Set of Carter Dickson/Anthony Boucher AND my complete A.A. Fair. So I guess we are more than the sum of our consistencies.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 10:42 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
The Intellect and the Church
It has long been a protestant slander that to be a Catholic one must check one's mind at the door. Obviously any protestant who repeats this calumny hasn't paid much attention to the Church I am accustomed to attend.
If the climate at St. Blog's is any indication at all, one is far more likely to be requested to check one's heart at the door. Reading in some of the reaches of St. Blogs, one gets the impression that if you haven't spent your entire life arguing yourself into full conformity with Catholic Doctrine on the basis on Natural Law and revelation, then you've been wasting your time and your life. If I wished to live a logically consistent life with everything exactly placed and exactly reasoned, I would have requested a Skinner Box in the early stages of my childhood.
I am far more often annoyed by the rigid intellectualists who admit of no part of the emotional life in the life of the Church. Everything done is to be done on the basis of sheer intellect alone. Our assent to doctrine is intellectual. Our reception of the Eucharist is the reification of a reality that the reason has already checked out and verified. Our very emotions are to be under the complete governance of reason.
Sorry, but the intellect does not dominate most people. There are quite a few who would like to think that it does, but the emotions have a life and a will of their own. How often have you actually talked yourself out of an irrational fear? For me, I don't think I ever have. However, I have prayed my way out many a times. I have relied upon the strength and the love of our Blessed Mother, not upon her intellect, to obtain for me the graces necessary.
No, I'm afraid one of my biggest objections since joining the Catholic Church has been the virulent strain of anti-emotionalism that circulates in some corners. Any hint of religion in emotion is seen as syrupy pietism, or devotional excess. Any questioning of the strict line of reason on the basis of any other than rigid Aristotelian lines seems to be looked down upon. The Charismatic Renewal is regarded askance both for their emotionalism and for certain pockets of questionable doctrine that can sometimes arise from the origins of the Renewal in the Pentecostal movement.
The reason is a good and powerful gatekeeper. It is necessary, right, just, and required that we cultivate it to the best of our ability. At the same time the reason uncut by the love (not merely the intellectual assent of will) demanded by one Christian for another, is the recipe for a horror. By all means, we must correct the errors of our brethren. I have been thankful time and again for course corrections offered by loving, concerned, informed friends. I have had very, very infrequent occasion to thank any polemical apologist for their unwarranted intrusion into my thoughts or life.
It is about balance. The reason must rule, but lest it is a tyrant, it must be kept in check by the heart. I absolutely must assent to the truth revealed by the Catholic Church, but it is the use of that truth that becomes a sticking point. Homosexual acts are defined as gravely sinful. If I follow the Bible and the strict rule of reason, I must therefore eschew any contacts with unrepentant homosexuals. And where, may I ask, does that leave them? Isn't my first duty to love my neighbor as myself and to conduct myself in that love. Isn't the first rule to pull the beam out of my own eye before I try to remove the mote in my neighbor's?
Sometimes when I hear some of the arguments and disagreements expressed among very good Catholics, it seems to me that we have abandoned the cardinal rule of love for the tyranny of reason guided by law. Not all of the time--but I find this problem far more pervasive than I find a problem of rampant emotionalism. (Though I must admit, I have found pockets of that as well, and it is no better--though, I suppose arguably, it might be a good deal less harmful to an outsider. Rather smother them in kisses than hand them a docket, a notebook, and a slide-rule.)
Just some half-formed thoughts upon looking into certain darker corners of the world of Catholic disagreement.
Posted by Steven Riddle at 5:28 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack