From Andrew Cusack's blog: James II, by the grace of God.
It has a fascinating account of King James II's intense religious practices near the end of his life, after his exile from England. There's also information on a novel about his life, from Roman Miscellany:
A new book was also launched, for which I wrote a short Introduction: James by the Grace of God..., a historical novel about King James II written by Hugh Ross Williamson (1901-78) and originally published in 1955.
Ross Williamson is someone that everybody should be reading at this time of year, since one of his great works was a study of the Gunpowder Plot, in which he convincingly argued that the Government had known about the conspiracy well in advance and had used this information to damage the English Catholic community. However, he also wrote a whole series of novels and plays, based on extensive historical research. It was his belief that a carefully written novel could do as much as a textbook (if not more) in giving an accurate picture of the past.
James By the Grace of God... deals with one of the most misunderstood figures in British history: King James II, our last Catholic King. He’s normally seen as a popish tyrant, removed from the throne by the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688. The novel gives a more sympathetic- and historical - picture of the last six months of the reign. James had been warmly welcomed by the country when he succeeded his brother, Charles II, despite his Catholic faith. The dramatic events of 1688 were caused not by what King James did but by what he was perceived to do, combined with the opportunism of his Dutch son-in-law, William of Orange.
The novel is fast-moving and contains all the great ingredients of a historical epic: hidden staircases and secret letters, attempted kidnappings and nocturnal escapes, and, at the heart of it all, a family argument between a Catholic father and his two Protestant daughters - all-in-all, a fast-moving narrative, based on undeniable fact.
To buy a copy (£11.99 + £1.52 postage & packing in the UK) you need to write to Fisher Press, P.O.Box 41, Sevenoaks, Kent TN15 6YN (01732 761830). Cheques can be made out to 'Fisher Press'.
From Roman Miscellany: Fr. Garnet's "Facebook".
And CNS: Book bound in skin of executed Jesuit to be auctioned in England.
Father Henry Garnet, a Jesuit priest, was the confessor to Robert Catesby, Guy Fawkes, and the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot. For reference, I already wrote a post about the Gunpowder Plot earlier this month here.
Although Garnet never approved of the Plot and tried to dissuade the plotters from going through with it, he didn't reveal it to outside authorities because of the confessional seal. He was condemned and hanged until dead. According to the custom of the time, it was apparently popular to bind a book about a condemned criminal's life with the criminal's own skin. This book, called "A True and Perfect Relation of the Whole Proceedings Against the Late Most Barbarous Traitors, Garnet a Jesuit and His Confederates", contains records of the Garnet trial. The binding was made with Father Garnet's skin.
If you look at the cover, you might be able to see a face. It gives a whole new meaning now to the term "Facebook"!
Luke 3:3-6
And he [John the Baptist] came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins. As it was written in the book of the sayings of Isaias the prophet: "A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight His paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways plain. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God."
This next Sunday will mark the first Sunday of Advent and thus, the first day of the new liturgical year. Its name coming from the Latin word Adventus ("arrival" or "coming"), it is a season of penance and preparation for the First Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ on that day in Bethlehem, 2,000 years ago. The first Sunday of Advent is set to the nearest Sunday to St. Andrew's Day (November 30) and spans four Sundays.
History is unclear about when this season was first observed. The first mention of something like Advent is in St. Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks. In it, Gregory writes that his predecessor, St. Perpetuus, established a custom around AD 480 which decreed fasting three days a week from the feast of St. Martin (November 11) until Christmas. Apparently, the first Advent seasons were intended to be just as long as Lent; a second Lent, as it were. This, however, proved to be too rigorous even for medieval Catholics, and by the ninth century, was reduced from 40 days to its current size: four weeks.
Though no specific rules for fasting or abstinence still stand today for the laity, the Church has established other rules which keep the spirit of penance and expectancy in our minds. During Advent, the clergy wear purple vestments, the color of penance. Some churches differentiate the purples used on Advent and Lent by wearing blue-purple during Advent to symbolize the royalty and majesty of Christ the King, and red-purple during Lent to symbolize the bloodshed and suffering of Christ the Victim. At Mass, the Gloria is not sung (although unlike in Lent, the Alleluia is retained before the Gospel). At the Divine Office, the Te Deum is omitted. Weddings are not typically allowed to be celebrated at this time. Some churches continue a tradition of covering the statues and images in the churches with purple veils.
Advent is meant for the faithful to recall that spirit of longing that the Israelites held for centuries as they waited for the coming of the Messiah, foretold by the prophets. Nothing captures this better than the eight "O Antiphons", those antiphons which are sung before the Magnificat at Vespers on the eight days before Christmas. These eight antiphons recall eight of the titles given to the Messiah in the Old Testament. They read: O Sapientia (O Wisdom), O Adonai (O Lord), O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse), O Clavis David (O Key of David), O Oriens (O Rising Sun), O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations), and O Emmanuel.Father William Saunders provides us the text of each of these antiphon prayers, along with their references in the book of Isaiah:
O Sapientia: “O Wisdom, O holy Word of God, you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care. Come and show your people the way to salvation.” Isaiah had prophesied, “The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.” (11:2-3), and “Wonderful is His counsel and great is His wisdom.” (28:29).O Adonai: “O sacred Lord of ancient Israel, who showed yourself to Moses in the burning bush, who gave him the holy law on Sinai mountain: come, stretch out your mighty hand to set us free.” Isaiah had prophesied, “But He shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.” (11:4-5); and “Indeed the Lord will be there with us, majestic; yes the Lord our judge, the Lord our lawgiver, the Lord our king, he it is who will save us.” (33:22).
O Radix Jesse: “O Flower of Jesse’s stem, you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples; kings stand silent in your presence; the nations bow down in worship before you. Come, let nothing keep you from coming to our aid.” Isaiah had prophesied, “But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom.” (11:1), and A On that day, the root of Jesse, set up as a signal for the nations, the Gentiles shall seek out, for his dwelling shall be glorious.” (11:10). Remember also that Jesse was the father of King David, and Micah had prophesied that the Messiah would be of the house and lineage of David and be born in David’s city, Bethlehem (Micah 5:1).
O Clavis David: “O Key of David, O royal Power of Israel controlling at your will the gate of Heaven: Come, break down the prison walls of death for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death; and lead your captive people into freedom.” Isaiah had prophesied, AI will place the Key of the House of David on His shoulder; when he opens, no one will shut, when he shuts, no one will open.” (22:22), and “His dominion is vast and forever peaceful, from David’s throne, and over His kingdom, which he confirms and sustains by judgment and justice, both now and forever.” (9:6). O Oriens: “O Radiant Dawn, splendor of eternal light, sun of justice: come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.” Isaiah had prophesied, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown.” (9:1).
O Rex Gentium: “O King of all the nations, the only joy of every human heart; O Keystone of the mighty arch of man, come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust.” Isaiah had prophesied, “For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.” (9:5), and “He shall judge between the nations, and impose terms on many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” (2:4) .
O Emmanuel: “O Emmanuel, king and lawgiver, desire of the nations, Savior of all people, come and set us free, Lord our God.” Isaiah had prophesied, “The Lord himself will give you this sign: the Virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.”
(7:14). Remember “Emmanuel” means “God is with us.”
The monks who devised these antiphons arranged them meticulously so that,when the first letters of each were taken and read in reverse order, it would form the phrase ero cras, which in Latin means "Tomorrow I will come".
The famous hymn, Veni Veni Emmanuel (O Come, O Come Emmanuel) is a paraphrase of each of these antiphons.
The first Sunday of Advent is set to occur on the Sunday nearest the feast of St. Andrew, November 30. Beofre I do an article an Advent, here's a quick one on St. Andrew.The Apostle St. Andrew was the older brother of the first Pope, St. Peter. Both were fishermen when Jesus called them to drop their nets and become fishers of men. Though the gospels say little about who he was, he was originally a disciple of St. John the Baptist and was the first Apostle called by Jesus. He is prominent in the ranks of the Apostles, for whenever the gospels lists the names of the Apostles, Andrew always appears among the first four. There is a plethora of traditions about the lands he preached at following Christ's ascension into heaven. Origen wrote that Andrew preached from Asia Minor all the way to Kiev; thus, Andrew became the patron saint of Russia. One critical part of this tradition is that, along the way, Andrew established a church at Byzantium (Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul) in AD 38 and appointed Stachys as its bishop. This was the creation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and gave the Patriarch of Constantinople and successor of St. Andrew, now arguably the figurehead of the Eastern Orthodox Church, a prestige comparable to that of Rome and the successor of St. Peter, the Pope.
During the persecutions of Nero, Andrew was crucified under the Roman governor Aegeas at the city of Patras, a hundred miles north of Athens in Greece. Andrew had baptized the governor's wife and brother into the Catholic faith. According to tradition, Andrew, like his brother Peter, felt unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord. However, where Peter asked to be crucified upside-down, Andrew asked to be crucified on an X-shaped cross. Rather than being nailed, he was tied to it and left hanging there for two days to prolong his suffering as much as possible. For those two days, Andrew continued his preaching to the Greek people, until he died.When the Emperor Constantine liberated the Church from persecution, he had St. Andrew's body dug up from Patras and taken to his new city of Constantinople to be re-buried in the see which he traditionally established centuries before. When the French and Venetian Crusaders infamously sacked Constantinople in 1204, a papal legate in the city, Cardinal Peter of Capua, sought to protect the relics of St. Andrew by taking the bones to his cathedral in Amalfi, Italy. To this day, pilgrims flock to the cathedral at Amalfi on November 30 to see Andrew's relics exude a miraculous and sweet-smelling oil which they call "manna".
The head of St. Andrew, and a few other relics, were brought to Rome at the end of the medieval era and enshrined in St. Peter's Basilica. One of the four great statues around the rotunda of St. Peter's is of Andrew carrying his cross. In 1964, Pope Paul VI returned these relics to the Patriarch of Constantinople as they both lifted the thousand-year long excommunications against each other.
Patron Saint of Scotland
According to tradition, the bishop of Patras, St. Regulus, received a vision that Emperor Constantine would remove Andrew's bones and entomb them in Constantinople. An angel bade him to take as many of these relics as possible and store them away in the farthest corner of the earth for "safekeeping". For Regulus, Scotland was as far away as one could get. He was shipwrecked in Scotland at what is now the city of St. Andrews. He built a chapel there to house Andrew's relics. Eventually, the city of St. Andrews became the seat of the Archbishop of St. Andrews and Primate of Scotland. The Cathedral of St. Andrew was completed under the reign of King Robert the Bruce (of Braveheart fame) and was the largest building in all of Scotland. The last Catholic archbishop, John Hamilton, baptized the infant James VI (King James I of England). When the Protestant Reformers took over Scotland in the 1500's, Archbishop Hamilton was hanged for his support for Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1559, the great cathedral of St. Andrew was sacked by a Protestant mob under John Knox; the relics of St. Andrew were destroyed, along with all statues and images, and the ruins were used as a quarry for stones for next few centuries. And of course, like in England, Catholics were persecuted and priests, if caught, were put to death.
There is a good ending to this story, though. British law against Catholicism was relaxed in the 19th century, and in 1879, the Catholic hierarchy in Scotland was re-established. The Archbishop of Amalfi donated a piece of Andrew's shoulder to the new Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, and on the feast of St. Andrew in 1879, pontifical high Mass was celebrated with the relic exposed. "In the evening the relic was carried round the Cathedral in a grand procession, including 72 men from 3 different Army regiments, a long line of schoolchildren and 60 altar boys!" Another relic was recieved in 1969 from Pope Paul VI, with a note saying, "Peter greets his brother Andrew".The flag of Scotland bears St. Andrew's cross
I joined the Knights of Columbus and was initiated through their secret rite of exemplification. No, I can't tell you what happened, but it was amazing.The Knights of Columbus was founded by Father Michael J. McGivney in 1881 with a group of his male parishioners in New Haven, Connecticut. At the time of its founding, Catholics (especially Irish immigrants) were ineligible to join many of the labor unions and other fraternities that existed at the time. The Knights of Columbus successfully served as the first major fraternity for Catholics in the United States. The Order was named after Christopher Columbus, whose 400th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas was rapidly approaching. Not only did the name of Columbus unite Irish, Italian, and other Catholic ethnic groups under one cause, it served as a direct challenge to the Protestant establishment which celebrated this great Catholic discoverer, yet excluded Catholics from society.
The chief purpose of the Knights of Columbus is to foster the growth and support of true Catholic gentlemen. The Order originally had three degrees of knighthood to represent the three virtues which the Order upheld: Charity, Unity, and Fraternity (Brotherly love). In 1900, seeing the need to emphasize the active participation of Catholics in their civic duties and defense of the nation, a fourth degree was created: Patriotism. Fourth degree Knights, which consist of only 18% of the total membership of the Order, are those you see wearing the regalia of the Order, marching on parade or escorting the archbishop. Perhaps the Knights' most famous achievements in the political arena are their role in the declaration of Columbus Day as a federal holiday by President F. Roosevelt in 1937, and their convincing the U.S. Congress to insert the phrase "under God" into the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 as a sound rejection of godless Communism.
The Knights of Columbus claims many famous men among their ranks, in the past and present. The most famous and most powerful was President John F. Kennedy, who was a fourth degree Knight. Some other prominent Knights in the political arena are: Samuel Alito, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; Jeb Bush, the Governor of Florida and brother of President George W. Bush; Rick Santorum, former Senator of Pennsylvania; and Alan Keyes, a former diplomat and presidential candidate.
Other famous Knights include: Jerome Orbach, an actor (played as Det. Lennie Briscoe on the show Law & Order) and Eduardo Verastegui, also an actor (played as the lead character in the recent film Bella).
There are two particularly famous Knights who served on the field of battle for the nation, despite their great differences.
Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Daly was born in 1873 in New York. A warrior by nature, Daly enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps to fight in the Spanish-American War in 1899, but the war was over by the time he finished his basic training. Instead, he was deployed to China in 1900 to put down the Boxer Rebellion. Defending a wall bastion by himself and suffering numerous wounds, Daly inflicted 200 casualties until reinforcements arrived, and received his first Medal of Honor.For his second Medal of Honor, his citation reads:
"Gunnery Sergeant Daniel Daly, United States Marine Corps, on the night of October 24, 1915, three officers and 35 enlisted men were attacked by 400 Cacos while crossing a river in a deep ravine concealed in bushes about 100 yards from a fort. The Marine detachment fought its way forward to a good position which it maintained during the night, although subjected to a continuous fire from the Cacos.
"At daybreak the Marines in three squads under the command of Captain Upshur, Lieutenant Osterman and Gunnery Sergeant Daly advanced in three different directions, surprising and scattering the enemy in all directions. Had one squad failed, not one man of the party would have lived to tell the tale. Gunnery Sergeant Daly, 15th Company, during the operations was the most consipicuous figure among the enlisted men."
Daly is famous for yelling, in this battle, "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"
Daly saw his service in the Marine Corps as a vocation and never married. After serving on the front lines for almost two years in WWI, he moved to the Marine Reserve and spent the last 17 years of his life as a bank guard. He turned down numerous offers for officership because he preferred to be an "outstanding sergeant" than just another officer.
The other was Sgt. Joyce Kilmer, an author who was killed on the battlefield in the First World War. Kilmer was born in New Jersey in 1886 to an Episcopalian family and named after the rector of his family's Episcopalian church. After graduating, he became a Latin teacher, author, and poet; not exactly the man one would expect to be soldier material. In 1913, Kilmer and his wife converted to the Catholic faith. Of his conversion, he wrote:"Of course you understand my conversion. I am beginning to understand it. I believed in the Catholic position, the Catholic view of ethics and aesthetics, for a long time. But I wanted something not intellectual, some conviction not mental - in fact I wanted Faith.
"Just off Broadway, on the way from the Hudson Tube Station to the Times Building, there is a Church, called the Church of the Holy Innocents. Since it is in the heart of the Tenderloin, this name is strangely appropriate - for there surely is need of youth and innocence. Well, every morning for months I stopped on my way to the office and prayed in this Church for faith. When faith did come, it came, I think, by way of my little paralyzed daughter. Her lifeless hands led me; I think her tiny feet know beautiful paths. You understand this and it gives me a selfish pleasure to write it down."
As an author, Kilmer's critics bashed him for his traditional or even "archaic" language, while others hailed him as the American Catholic equivalent of G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. His potential would never be realized. When the United States entered the First World War in 1917, Kilmer enlisted in the Army and joined the 69th Volunteer Infantry Regiment. While on a scouting mission to locate the posiiton of a German machine gun, Kilmer was shot in the head by a sniper.
Finally, the Knights also boasts an extensive membership among the clergy of the Church, including seven cardinals. One bishop of the Church, Rafael Guizar Valencia, was canonized as a saint in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI. St. Rafael was a Mexican bishop who was driven out of his diocese during the anti-Catholic persecutions of the 1920's and '30s and hid in Mexico City, disguised as a junk dealer while ministering to the sick and the poor. After the government ordered him to be shot on sight, Rafael moved to the United States for a time, and then went to Cuba and Guatemala. He returned to Mexico in 1920, had to flee again in 1927 due to a resurgency of persecutions, and returned for the final time in 1929, where he died of natural causes in 1938. After his body was exhumed in 1950, they found that it was incorrupt, except for his left eye, which the bishop is believed to have offered up for an unknown sinner.
Having decided to offer the Tridentine Mass, I began the arduous project of recovering—and reinforcing—my Latin grammar and vocabulary so that I could celebrate the liturgy in a prayerful, intelligible way. As I studied the Latin texts and intricate rituals I had never noticed as a boy, I discovered that the old rite’s priestly spirituality and theology were exactly the opposite of what I had expected. Whereas I had looked for the “high priest/king of the parish” spirituality, I found instead a spirituality of “unworthy instrument for the sake of the people.” The old Missal’s rubrical micromanagement made me feel like a mere machine, devoid of personality; but, I wondered, is that really so bad? I actually felt liberated from a persistent need to perform, to engage, to be forever a friendly celebrant. When I saw a photo of the old Latin Mass in our local newspaper, I suddenly recognized the rite’s ingenious ability to shrink the priest. Shot from the choir loft, I was a mere speck of green, dwarfed by the high altar. The focal point was not the priest but the gathering of the people. And isn’t that a valid image of the church, the people of God?
The act of praying the Roman Canon slowly and in low voice accented my own smallness and mere instrumentality more than anything else. Plodding through the first 50 or so words of the Canon, I felt intense loneliness. As I moved along, however, I also heard the absolute silence behind me, 450 people of all ages praying, all bound mysteriously to the words I uttered and to the ritual actions I haltingly and clumsily performed. Following the consecration, I fell into a paradoxical experience of intense solitude as I gazed at the Sacrament and an inexplicable feeling of solidarity with the multitude behind me.
Pope Benedict XVI placed the red hat on 23 new cardinals this past Sunday. Here's an interview with comments on Father Z's blog with His Eminence Daniel Cardinal DiNardo of Galveston-Houston.Also, from CWNews: Pope tells 23 new cardinals: be ready to sacrifice. The Holy Father offers some wise words:
At a Mass that he concelebrated with the new cardinals on Sunday, November 25-- the feast of Christ the King-- Pope Benedict returned to the themes of service, sacrifice, and suffering. Pointing out that each new cardinal was given a ring that depicted the Crucifixion, the Pope told them that this ring would be "a permanent invitation to remember what King you serve." He added that "by wearing the cardinal's ring, you are constantly reminded to give your own lives for the Church."
Fr. Z also notes that at the consistory, the Pope used a throne which was also used by Pope St. Pius X. At the high altar in St. Peter's Basilica, His Holiness restored the large crucifix and candleabra which used to stand there in the days before Vatican II. It just keeps getting better and better every day.
Instead, here are two opinions on this series. The first is by Donna Freitas, on the Boston Globe: What Catholics attacking "The Golden Compass" are really afraid of.
The second is by Carl Olson, in reply to the above article, on the Ignatius Press blog: Why is Donna Freitas an unabashedly "Catholic" fan of Philip Pullman?
From the Star: Return of the 3-piece suit. Excerpts:
When 24-year-old Matty Tsoumaris dresses for work, most likely he will put on a three-piece suit.
Tsoumaris' office hours start at 7 p.m. and his place of business is the swank King St. W. watering hole Cheval, where he is co-owner.
He is one of a growing number of young professional men embracing the return of the three- piece suit.
...The pendulum in menswear is swinging from the sloppy casual looks to one that is sartorially sharp. It's now hip to be fashionably formal.
"Classic menswear style is coming back – hats, vests, ties – things that your dad or grandpa used to wear," says Melissa Austria of Gotstyle, the King St. W. menswear emporium. "It's almost a rebellion of younger guys wanting to dress better than their dads or guys in their 40s and 50s."
...Austria believes the three-piece look shows individuality, creativity and says you're a risk-taker. "But when the younger generation dresses better, it also shows a sign of respect," she adds.
But not all guys are taking the traditional route and matching their three pieces.
Shawn Hewson, the Project Runway Canada judge and creative director of Toronto menswear label Bustle, showed the three-piece suit in his fall runway show with mismatched and contrasting fabrics.
"We were going for that British gentleman look, but quirky," he says. "This is not your grandpa's three-piece suit; we mixed it up. It's sexier."
Hewson also says he paid a lot of attention to the third piece – the vest – adding lapels, multiple pockets and even making it double-breasted because a lot of guys are wearing just the vest with the pant as a look right now.
Apocalypse 19:11-16The Last Judgment, by Gustave Dore
And I saw heaven opened: and behold a white horse. And He that sat upon him was called faithful and true: and with justice doth He judge and fight. And His eyes were as a flame of fire: and on His head were many diadems. And He had a name written, which no man knoweth but Himself. And He was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood. And His name is called: THE WORD OF GOD.
And the armies that are in heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp two-edged sword, that with it He may strike the nations. And He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty. And He hath on his garment and on His thigh written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
Tomorrow (in the calendar) marks the last Sunday of the liturgical year: the Solemnity of Christ the King.
On the 28th of June, 1914, a young college student and member of a Serbian nationalist organization called the "Black Hand" shot and killed the heir to the throne of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie, the Duchess of Hohenberg, in a motorcade during a state visit to Sarajevo. It was truly a "shot heard round the world", summoning a network of unholy alliances between the European nations to war against each other. When the dust finally settled, the Great War had dissolved empires and laid waste to what was formerly the center of the Christian world. Christendom was no more.
In 1917, Pope Benedict XV issued a seven-point plan for peace (online here), calling for, among other things, disarmament, the restoration of Belgium, and freedom of the seas. Where the Pope was once "father of princes and kings", this time he was ignored by every warring nation, with the exception of the pious Emperor of Austria, Charles V. Though President Woodrow Wilson of the United States had called for these very same measures before America had entered the war, and though he would appropriate the same general structure a year later in his Fourteen Points proposal, Wilson was hell-bent on continuing the war in 1917 and waging the crusade for "democracy" against the tyrannical crowns of old-world Europe. Or, as Wilson himself said:"The object of this war is to deliver the free peoples of the world from the menace of a vast military establishment controlled by an irresponsible government, which, having secretly planned to dominate the world, proceeded to carry the plan out without regard either to the sacred obligation of treaty or the long established practices and long cherished principles of international action and honor, which chose its own time for the war, delivered its blow fiercely and suddenly, stopped at no barrier either of law or mercy, swept a whole continent within the tide of blood, not the blood of soldiers only, but the blood of innocent women and children and also of the helpless poor, and now stands balked but not defeated, the enemy of four fifths of the world."
Sad to say, the false god of democracy prevailed over the words of the Pontiff. The Kingship of Christ over all nations had been long forgotten. It was for this reason that Pope Benedict XV's successor, Pius XI, issued the encyclical Quas Primas (available at the Vatican's website here) on December 11, 1925. It was the sixteenth centenary of the great Council of Nicaea in 325, convened under the patronage of Emperor Constantine. In his encyclical, the Pope announced the creation of a new feast: the Solemnity of Christ the King. The message is clear in his words: peace can never be achieved without submitting to the Lord's rule. In today's debates, when our politicians and lobbyists continue to throw out all laws and precepts based upon the gospel, this encyclical becomes more relevant than ever:"And We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and we said further, that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations. Men must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ; and that We promised to do as far as lay in Our power. In the Kingdom of Christ, that is, it seemed to Us that peace could not be more effectually restored nor fixed upon a firmer basis than through the restoration of the Empire of Our Lord."
Christ the King was originally set on the last Sunday of October to precede the feast of All Saints', and remains so in the Tridentine calendar. In the modern, Novus Ordo calendar, however, it is set on the last Sunday of the liturgical year. The added dimension to this move is to recall the reading from Apocalypse (Revelation) that I quoted at the top of the post: the Second Advent, when Christ will return in glory with all the heavenly host, scatter the false rulers of the world and establish a kingdom which will have no end.The name "Christ the King" is saturated with an awe-inspiring power. During the French Revolution, the Vendee region of France resented the new Republic's government and laws regarding the Church. Forming a counter-revolutionary force called the "Royal and Catholic Army", they marched under a banner of the Sacred Heart with the words Dieu le Roi, "God the King".
In 1926, the year after Christ the King was established, the bishops of Mexico imposed an interdict, or closed down all the churches in the country, in protest against the newly elected president, Plutarco Calles, who strictly enforced laws that forbade priests from wearing their clericals in public, forcibly shut down all monastic houses and Catholic schools, expelled all foreign priests, and seized church property for the government. On August 4, government soldiers stormed the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Guadalajara, killing the priests inside. Catholic around the country joined in civil war, with the rallying cry, ¡Viva Cristo Rey! ¡Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! ("Long live Christ the King! Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe!") The Cristero War produced many martyrs. You can read about a handful of them here on Father Phillips's blog. One of the most famous is Blessed Miguel Pro, whose feast day was yesterday. A priest, Father Pro was shot by firing squad. As he died, refusing to wear a blindhold, he stared down his executioners boldly, spread out his arms like a crufifix and cried out, ¡Viva Cristo Rey! The government circulated the photo of his execution in the papers, believing it would deter rebels from joining the Catholic Cristeros. They were wrong!In 1936, Spain; once renowned for being the tallest, sturdiest pillar of the Catholic faith in all the world; underwent the greatest series of martyrdoms in world history, topping even the persecutions of the ancient Romans. Over 7,000 priests were murdered by republican and anti-clerical forces. Just a few descriptions of the atrocities committed in this era:
An eye witness to some of the persecution, Cristina de Arteaga, who was soon to become a nun, commented that they "attacked the Salesians, people who are totally committed to the poor. There was a rumor that nuns were giving poisoned sweets to children. Some nuns were grabbed by the hair in the streets. One had her hair pulled out ..."[24]
On the night of July 19, 1936 alone, some fifty churches were burned.[25] In Barcelona, out of the 58 churches, only the Cathedral was spared, and similar atrocities occurred almost everywhere in Republican Spain.[26]
The parish priest of Navalmoral was put through a parody of Christ's Crucfixion. At the end of his suffering the militiamen debated whether actually to crucify him or just shoot him. They finished with a shooting. [27] His last request was to be allowed to face this tormenters so he could bless them. [citation needed]
The Bishop of Jaen and his sister were murdered in front of two thousand celebrating spectators by a special executioner, a woman nick-named La Pecosa, the freckled one. [28] The Bishop of Almeria was murdered while working on a history of Toledo. His card index file was destroyed. [29] In Madrid, a nun was killed because she refused a proposition of marriage from a militiman who helped storm her convent. [30] In El Pardo, near Madrid, a group of militiamen became drunk on communion wine while trying the parish priest. One militiaman used the chalice as a washing bowl as he shaved himself. [31]
Although rare, it was reported that some nuns were raped by militiamen before they were shot. [32] The priest of Cienpozuelos was thrown into a corral with fighting bulls where he was gored into unconsciousness. Afterwards one of his ears was cut off to imitate the feat of a matador after a successful bullfight. [33]
In Ciudad Real, the priest was castrated and his sexual organs stuffed in his mouth. [34] Also in Ciudad Real, a crucifix was shoved down the throat of a mother of two Jesuit priests.
Never forget! Jesus Christ is the King of Kings!
The Last Judgment, by Michaelangelo
Tales from the Old South: Jefferson Davis and Bl. Pius IX
Southern Gentleman: Robert E. Lee
King George III, Thomas Jefferson, Capitalism and kings
Here's one for the liberation theologians. I had meant to post this a couple weeks ago but had forgotten about it for some reason. Anita Moore from V for Victory! quotes the man for all seasons, St. Thomas More, on the issue of the distribution of wealth. This was part of his Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation, written while More was in the Tower of London, with a piece of coal.
The Man for All Seasons on the Distribution of Wealth.
Excerpt:
[T]here have to be people with wealth, because otherwise you'll have, by God, more beggars than there already are, and no one left able to relieve anyone else. For in my mind I feel quite certain of this: that if tomorrow all the money in this country were brought together out of everyone's hands and laid all in one heap, and then divided out equally to everyone, things would be worse on the day after that than they were on the day before.
Ebrard (Mayor of Mexico City) said the church had no right to close the cathedral because the historic building was expropriated by the government, along with other church property, in the 1800s.
"This is an act of intolerance because nobody can close a national monument," Ebrard said.
Churches in Mexico can now own properties they acquired after the 1992 reforms, but are only allowed to occupy church buildings that existed before that.
Romero defended the church's right to close the cathedral.
"The cathedral is state property, but as a religious association we have the right to determine what religious rites are held there," he said. "And because the site was profaned, we can declare the suspension of the rites."
Archaeologists have discovered what is believed to be the cave where the mythical twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, were nursed as infants by a she-wolf. From BBC News: Mythical Roman cave unearthed.
And finally, a message from my own prelate, the Archbishop of San Antonio.
Giving loving gratitude to God.
I ask you all, during this very significant feast, on which we acknowledge that all good comes from God, that all powers are subject to Him, and that He is the true owner of the destiny of the world and of men, to give thanks to God that we are Catholics, for all the gifts that He has given this year to us personally, to our families, to our communities, and to our Church in San Antonio and in Texas.
During this feast, let us also acknowledge that we Catholics are called to recognize the supremacy of our faith in Christ the King over the pressures of secularism and of the powers that threaten his plan for love, life, and peace.
On this Thanksgiving Day, may our loving gratitude to God for all His gifts illuminate and be fully present in all facets of our celebrations, the supper, gathering with family members, and the good times shared together.
I assure you that during my visit to the Holy See to accompany our first Texan cardinal and my good friend, Daniel DiNardo, Archbishop of Houston-Galveston, I shall kneel before the tomb of St. Peter and of the beloved Pope John Paul II to pray for each of you, for the entire Church of San Antonio and of Texas.
Archbishop José H. Gomez, S.T.D.
Nevertheless, I think it's appropriate to let this tradition be seen and known; thus, here is President Bush's Thanksgiving proclamation for 2007. Note and appreciate the traditional formula used by His Excellency at the end.
Americans are a grateful people, ever mindful of the many ways we have been blessed. On Thanksgiving Day, we lift our hearts in gratitude for the freedoms we enjoy, the people we love, and the gifts of our prosperous land.
Our country was founded by men and women who realized their dependence on God and were humbled by His providence and grace. The early explorers and settlers who arrived in this land gave thanks for God's protection and for the extraordinary natural abundance they found.
Since the first National Day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed by President George Washington, Americans have come together to offer thanks for our many blessings. We recall the great privilege it is to live in a land where freedom is the right of every person and where all can pursue their dreams. We express our deep appreciation for the sacrifices of the honorable men and women in uniform who defend liberty. As they work to advance the cause of freedom, our Nation keeps these brave individuals and their families in our thoughts, and we pray for their safe return.
While Thanksgiving is a time to gather in a spirit of gratitude with family, friends, and neighbors, it is also an opportunity to serve others and to share our blessings with those in need. By answering the universal call to love a neighbor as we want to be loved ourselves, we make our Nation a more hopeful and caring place.
This Thanksgiving, may we reflect upon the past year with gratefulness and look toward the future with hope. Let us give thanks for all we have been given and ask God to continue to bless our families and our Nation.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 22, 2007, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather together in their homes and places of worship with family, friends, and loved ones to reinforce the ties that bind us and give thanks for the freedoms and many blessings we enjoy.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.
GEORGE W. BUSH
George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.
G. WashingtonAbraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
Since I assume most of you are no longer in grade school, I'll tell you about the real first Thanksgiving celebration offered in the lands which compose the United States. It was not celebrated by English Puritans, but by Spanish Catholics on April 30, 1598, over 20 years before the Pilgrims landed in America. Furthermore, the first Thanksgiving was offered not in Massachusetts, but in El Paso, Texas. The story of the events leading up to it are the stuff which make epic films. My following summary of the first Thanksgiving cites this article by Don Adams and Teresa Kendrick from the Historical Text Archive as its main source.
In 1573, King Philip II passed the Colonization Laws of Spain, which provided Spanish nobles with the incentive to take the conquistador's helm and explore untamed lands for the glory of God, wealth, and prestige in the eyes of the King. One of these many conquistadors was a man named Juan de Onate y Salazar, born around 1555 in Zacatecas, New Spain (modern-day Mexico), to a noble family of Basques. Don Juan's father, Cristobal de Onate, was also a conquistador, credited with the founding of the city of Guadalajara. Don Juan's wife, Isabel de Tolosa Cortes Moctezuma, was the granddaughter of the famous Hernan Cortes and great granddaughter of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma.
Don Onate
In his youth, Don Onate had joined with the Viceroy of New Spain, Don Luis de Velasco,
in several campaigns against the Chichimeca Indians. In return for his service, in 1595, the Viceroy gave Onate a commission from the King himself to lead an expedition into the wilderness of El Nuevo Mexico (New Mexico). However, Onate was obliged to pay for the entire expedition himself. As Adams describes:
Getting the nod from Viceroy Velasco elevated Oñate’s prospects enormously, but it also committed him to huge expenses and equally huge risks. In order to get the nod, Oñate, at his own expense, had to agree to equip, arm, and feed two hundred men who would serve as soldier-colonists committed to exploring and settling in Nuevo Mexico. Oñate also agreed to take mining equipment, tools, seed wheat, farming implements, blacksmithing tools, corn, trade goods for the indigenous populace, medicines, a thousand head of cattle, a thousand head of sheep for wool and another thousand for mutton, a thousand goats, a hundred head of black cattle, a hundred and fifty mares, and a goodly supply of jerked beef.
That was more or less the standard laundry list for expeditions of the age. Since the King technically owned all conquered territories, the individual conquistadors and developers had to pay their own way initially, and if they hit pay dirt of any kind, they had to pay the King a percentage of what they found. Usually this was a fixed twenty percent of all profits, taxes, and any treasure discovered or “liberated.” This was referred to as the quinto, or the ”King’s Fifth.”
Onate asked for only one thing from the King: a company of missionaries to convert the indigenous natives to the Catholic faith. The King granted to Onate ten Franciscan priests and friars under the Patronato Real, or Royal Patronage, meaning that the priests' expenses would be subsidized by the Crown so as to be no burden to Onate's already massive expenses.
On January 26, 1598, after three long years of delay, Onate's expedition was finally sent out. Starting at Santa Barbara, Mexico, Onate planned to head north for 200 miles. Onate rode at the head under his personal banner, which on one side featured the Virgin Mary and Onate's patron saint, John the Baptist, and on the other side, depicted Santiago de Matamoros, St. James the Moor-slayer on horseback. Behind him was a caravan which spanned 3 miles: "some 500-600 men, 175 of them soldiers, many of them in armor, 83 ox-carts, 26 wagons and carriages, and over 7,000 head of livestock."
Don Onate's trail
The trail he navigated would one day be known as El Camino Real, the King's Highway, but for him, it was a long and miserable trek through the desert. The expedition's first obstacle, however, was crossing the Conchos River. Marian Horvat, Ph.D, in an article posted on Tradition in Action, describes their plight this way:
The first significant obstacle Don Oñate faced was not the desert, but the unseasonable high waters of the Conchos River, making a crossing appear impossible. Don Oñate refused to halt or turn back. Instead, he made a rallying call:
“Come, noble soldiers, knights of Christ, here is presented the first opportunity for you to show your mettle and courage to prove that you are deserving of the glories in store for you.”
Then he ordered up his horse and without pause plunged into the foaming torrent and reached shore. His exploit set the example, and the crossing was made. Only the sheep were left behind on the south bank, unable to swim because the weight of their wool when soaked with water would pull them under. Don Juan ordered the wooden wheels removed from the carts, anchored them in pairs to rafts, and strung them in a line over the water. The bleating sheep crossed the Conchos on them, and the expedition continued.
Adams describes the courage of Onate, the first to cross the Conchos, with gallantry reminiscent of Alexander the Great:
Oñate, seeing the hesitation of his men, “…then leaped upon a fearless horse of terrible and fearless mettle…” and plunged into the swiftly flowing water, showing the others the place to cross. The men, emboldened by his actions, sprang into action and began driving the oxen across, some of which were pulling heavy carts, and then the beef cattle, the swine, the cows, the goats, and the horses and mules.
It was March when the expedition began their journey through the Chihuahuan Desert. Already impoverished for water after days of traveling through the desert, the colonists were relieved when, on Holy Thursday, they encountered a stream of water. The stream was thereafter named Rio Sacramento, to remember its discovery on the day when the Blessed Sacrament was instituted by Christ at the Last Supper. Here, the expedition stopped to hold a vigil night, as the next day, April 20, was Good Friday. The colonists built a small chapel out of tree trunks, and during the vigil, some of the explorers, including Onate himself, bared their backs and flagellated themselves as an act of penance.
After Easter passed by, Onate had the explorders break camp and continue the journey north. For eight more days, the expedition traveled with no water or grass in sight. Onate's own words about their plight:
“That, with their throats all miserable dry,
The tender children, women, and the men,
Afflicted, ruined, quite burnt up,
Did beg for aid from sovereign God,
This being the final remedy
That they should have in such distress.
And the sad, tired animals,
Feeble as those of Ninevah,
Worn down by the unchecked fast,
Thus all did show themselves worn out
By the weather they had borne.”
Once again, just as all hope was lost, God answered their prayers. In the middle of a cloudless day with the sun beating down on their necks, some clouds blew by and poured down so much rain that puddles formed on the ground for the livestock to drink and for barrels to be filled to sustain the explorers for a continued journey. From Onate's logbook: “God succored us with a downpour so heavy that very large pools formed …. Therefore we name this place Socorro del Cielo [Aid from Heaven].”
For another month, Onate and his followers pressed on through the dunes of Mexico, enduring many hardships and long periods of drought and starvation. Perhaps it was because this was the harshest leg of the journey that the explorers, weak in mind body, wrote little about it. Finally, on April 21, they arrived at the banks of the Rio Grande. Crossing the river into modern-day El Paso, Don Onate declared a week of rest.
As the scouts exchanged gifts of clothing with the local Indians for map information, the rest of the explorers began work on a temporary chapel which would hold the entire expedition inside it. On April 30, the entire camp gathered together under one roof for the first time. It was the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord. They first prayed the hour of Matins and sung the Te Deum, "We praise Thee, O God". The Franciscans then offered a solemn high Mass, and Fray Alfonso Martinez delivered a "famous sermon, well thought out", giving thanks to almighty God for all of the graces bestowed on the explorers which helped them endure their long journey north.
After Mass, some of the Indians in attendance were baptized, and a play was presented, depicting:
“The great reception of the church
That all of New Mexico did give,
Congratulating it upon its arrival,
Begging, with thorough reverence,
And kneeling on the ground, it would wash out
Its faults with that holy water
Of precious Baptism which they brought,
With which most salutary sacrament
We saw many barbarians cleansed
When we were traveling through their lands.”
The final ceremony of the day was the Spanish rite of La Toma, the Taking. More than any other European nation, the Spanish were fond of marking every endeavor with a ceremony of some kind. It was not enough for them to just ride into a territory and stick a flag in the ground. All the soldiers polished and donned their armor and rode in formation to hear Don Onate give his official declaration of conquest:
“In the name of the most Holy Trinity…I wish to take possession of the land today…through the person of Juan Pérez de Donís, Notary of his Majesty and Secretary of the journey …in the voice and name of the most Christian King, our lord, don Felipe, the Second of this name…and for the crown of Castile…I take and seize one, two, and three times…the Royal tenancy and possession…at this aforesaid River of the North, without excepting anything and without limitation, with the meadows, glens, and their pastures and watering places…towns, cities, villas, castles, and strong houses and dwellings… the leaf on the mountain to the rock in the river and sands of it, and from the rock and sands of the river to the leaf on the mountain.”
Then, according to Adams:
He then, to the fanfare of trumpets and volleys of musket shots, affixed the Royal standard and a Holy Cross to a tree to complete the legal requirements of “La Toma.” His written speech of “La Toma” was then notarized with the signature and seal of Donís and witnessed by the priests and Oñate’s senior officers.
With that, the colony of New Mexico was officially created. The Spanish explorers ended the day by (just as the story of the Pilgrims goes) sharing a great feast of fish and geese with the local Indian tribes, followed by song, dance, and games. This was indeed the first Thanksgiving celebrated in the United States. While this version isn't taught in grade schools today, it's re-enacted every year in El Paso. Whenever I celebrate Thanksgiving, I opt to remember the epic journey of Don Onate and the Spanish explorers; imagining their splendid banners and armor, their building of the makeshift chapel and their singing of Te Deum; than the grim, dour faces of the English Puritans. But that's just me. At any rate, I hope you enjoyed this alternate story of Thanksgiving. I hope it enriches your own celebrations this day.
Happy Thanksgiving, ladies and gentlemen. Unfortunately, I'll be spending most of this Thanksgiving by myself, since the vast majority of students at my university have gone home for the week. And, I feel bad because I overslept and missed the Thanksgiving Mass this morning.Since I have a lot of free time, though, I figured it would be a good time to write some blogs about this American holiday. So, watch this space for a few Thanksgiving-related entries throughout the day.
A couple of random things which have nothing to do with wanton popery!My friend Heath just got a copy of Super Mario Galaxy for the (Nintendo) Wii. I've been waiting for the true successor of Super Mario 64 for over ten years now; Mario Sunshine was a pretender to the throne, and a crappy one at that. This is going to rock.
I also went out and took one of those "what are you" quizzes that I probably haven't done since the days of LiveJournal and beyond. I used to love these, though. Anyway, this one was the "which generic anime character are you?" quiz. For those of you who know me in real life: accurate?
Mmmm... fangirly. |
 |
| You're a bishounen! |
You're male, but people often mistake you for the other option. You're unfeasibly thin and pretty and always have perfect hair, often surrounded by sparkles/sakura/roses. You almost certainly have a tragic backstory which involves one or more of your parents, and are liable to have a Tragic Destiny (TM). You were almost certainly invented by a female mangaka, are worshipped by a female audience, and your life is characterised by periods of extreme pain and angst. Sucks to be you. Which generic anime character are you? |
A great companion editorial to this is by Damian Thompson: Why the pope is right to purge modern music.
The New Oxford Review: The Woeful Plight of Iraqi Christians.
On the brighter side of the Iraq war, from Michael Yon: traditional Mass (Chaldean rite?) celebrated in Baghdad. Here are all the pictures. It's quite heartwarming to see both the U.S. soldiers and members of the Muslim communities at the Mass, encouraging expatriated Iraqi Christians to return home.
The Dome Under the Cross: Local Muslim and Christian leaders had prepared the church for his arrival.
A Bishop came to St. John’s Church in Baghdad today, 15 November, where a crowd of locals welcomed him home. They were joined at the service by soldiers from the 2-12 infantry battalion, many of whom had fought hard to secure these neighborhood streets. Members of the hard-fighting Iraqi Army 3rd Division were also here for this special day.
Most Reverend Shlemon Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of the St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Diocese for Chaldeans and Assyrians in Iraq officiated standing directly beneath the dome under the Chaldean cross. Speaking in both Arabic and English, Bishop Warduni thanked those American soldiers sitting in the pews for their sacrifices. Again and again, throughout the service, he thanked the Americans.
LTC Stephen Michael at St. John’s. LTC Michael told me today that when al Qaeda came to Dora, they began harassing Christians first, charging them “rent.” It was the local Muslims, according to LTC Michael, who first came to him for help to protect the Christians in his area. That’s right. LTC Michael told me more than once that the Muslims reached out to him to protect the Christians from al Qaeda. Real Muslims here are quick to say that al Qaeda members are not true Muslims. From charging “rent,” al Qaeda’s harassment escalated to killing Christians, and also Muslims. Untold thousands of Christians and Muslims fled Baghdad in the wake of the darkness of civil war. Most of the Christians are gone now; having fled to Syria, Jordan or northern Iraq.
The ceremony was long and very Catholic, and since I was not raised Catholic, I would not have understood most of it even if it were all in English. But some of the American soldiers understood what was going on, and they said it was good.
Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St. John’s. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize their friends here. The Muslims in this neighborhood worry that other people will take the homes of their Christian neighbors, and that the Christians will never come back. And so they came to St. John’s today in force, and they showed their faces, and they said, “Come back to Iraq. Come home.” They wanted the cameras to catch it. They wanted to spread the word: Come home. Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. “Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq.”
The Iraqi children were well-behaved, but they seemed restless during the service, and so the parents quietly ran herd.
Ho-hummm. World history is unfolding, and this little girl is playing with her sister’s pigtails. Later, after the service was finished, their mom asked me to photograph the girls.
It was the first mass said in St. John’s since the church was shuttered after the nearby St. George’s was destroyed and clergy in the north were kidnapped, tortured and executed.
But things have changed dramatically in Dora, which is how the locals refer to this part of Baghdad. So much so that St. John’s is open and mass is being said again.
The interpreter “Ice,” pictured here with members of the congregation outside St. John’s after mass, grew up in this neighborhood. His family is Christian and St. John’s is their church. I asked Ice if the Muslims treat the Christians poorly in Iraq, and he said what other Iraqi Christians and Muslims have also told me: an unequivocal “No.” Ice said they had no problems at all until al Qaeda instigated friction between people.
I talked with some of the Iraqi boys between the ages of about 7 and 14. A 9-year-old—at least, I think he was 9—told me he likes to read. When I asked what he likes to read, he said, “Superman.” And then he told me how Superman wears a mask. Ice and I said that Superman does not wear a mask. I pointed to the Indian Head patch on an American soldier’s arm and said Superman wears that patch. Everyone laughed. But we thought he was talking about Batman, but then he said no, it was not Batman. We figured maybe it was Zorro and he asked if Zorro is from America, and I said something like no, I think he is from Mexico. But then an American photographer named Chris Hondros said he thought Zorro was from Spain, and shortly after that, the boy smacked another boy behind the head and laughed saying you told me Zorro is from America! All the boys cracked up. Nobody mentioned the Lone Ranger, or Captain Marvel, or Spider-Man, or any of the other myriad masked men in the pantheon of comic book superheroes. When I asked a 14-year-old boy if he liked school, I cautioned him to be careful about his answers because the video was running and his teacher might see it. I won’t publish what he said because many Iraqis read this site, and he could get into trouble at school. All the world round, boys are boys.
This Christian mom wanted to show off her kids. Muslim women also do this. Iraqi women love to show off their kids.
A truce in the battle of pigtails had been declared, or a cease fire enforced. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen any fighting. I can’t remember my last shootout: it’s been months. The nightmare is ending. Al Qaeda is being crushed. The Sunni tribes are awakening all across Iraq and forswearing violence for negotiation. Many of the Shia are ready to stop the fighting that undermines their ability to forge and manage a new government. This is a complex and still delicate denouement, and the war may not be over yet. But the Muslims are saying it’s time to come home. And the Christians are saying it’s time to come home. They are weary, and there is much work to be done.
Protesters kick down the altar rail!
Full article below:
MEXICO CITY, NOV. 19, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The cathedral of Mexico City closed its doors last weekend, after more than 100 political protesters disrupted Sunday Mass.
The decision was announced the same day by Armando Martínez, the president of the College of the Catholic Lawyers of Mexico, who said that the cathedral will not open again until the government can guarantee the security of the faithful and priests.
During the midday Mass at the cathedral Sunday, a group of members of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) interrupted the liturgy chanting slogans supporting Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the 2006 presidential candidate who lost by a slim margin to Felipe Calderón. López Obrador contested the results, raising allegations of electoral fraud, and proclaimed himself the "legitimate president" of Mexico.
The protesters also threatened the faithful, the priests and Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, archbishop of Mexico City, who was in Rome on Sunday.
"These are acts of aggression that we should not allow," said Martínez, who said the main concern is for the safety of the faithful present in the cathedral, as well as the cardinal, bishops and priests.
The demonstrators said they were provoked by church bells that chimed for an unusually long time, disrupting a rally in the central Zocolo square at which López Obrador was speaking. The dean of the cathedral, Rubén Ávila, told the newspaper El Universal that the bells rang for the normal time for a Sunday Mass.
In a statement released by Hugo Valdemar Romero, director of communication for the Archdiocese of Mexico, he called the event a "condemnable and cowardly act of terror, unequivocal expression of religious intolerance and of the hatred toward the Catholic Church."
The presidential candidate in question, BTW, is a man by the name of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Until 2005, he served as Head of Government of the Federal District (basically, Mayor of Mexico City). He resigned to run for the 2006 presidential election under the Alliance for the Good of All (an alliance of left-wing parties), but was defeated by a slim margin (only 0.56%) to the right-wing candidate, Felipe Calderon. Must have been pretty frustrating for him. At any rate, on Mexican Revolution Day that year, he was present at a rally which proclaimed him as "legitimate President of Mexico".
There he is, ladies and gents: the true President of Mexico
If you ask me, I think it's about time for another Cristero War.
Last week, I posted an entry on King Juan Carlos's "diplomatic exchange" with the president of Venezuela. Now, "why don't you shut up?" has become a ringtone hit, generating $2 million in revenue already.From BBC News: 'Shut up' Chavez is ringtone hit. Excerpt:
The king of Spain's recent undiplomatic outburst at the Venezuelan president has become a ringtone hit across Spain.An estimated 500,000 people have downloaded the insult featuring the words "Why don't you shut up?", generating a reported 1.5m euros ($2m).
King Juan Carlos asked Hugo Chavez to "shut up" at a summit in Chile last week after the president said Spain's ex-PM Jose Maria Aznar was a "fascist".
Branded mugs, t-shirts and websites featuring the row are also profitable.
In Venezuela, a group of students who oppose Mr Chavez's government have also been downloading the ringtone, a US newspaper reported.
BTW, a few comments about this whole affair....
First of all, former Prime Minister Aznar is not a "fascist", and His Majesty the King would know more than anyone else alive today who can or cannot be called a fascist.
Second, I find it laughable that Mr. Chavez would complain about the King's remark, saying that (unlike Juan Carlos), he is a democratically elected head of state and deserves due respect: "[The king] disrespected me, and he was laid bare before the world in his arrogance and also his impotence." I think it's quite clear that Hugo Chavez has absolutely no idea how to conduct himself in a respectful manner, anywhere at all.
And I would add this on a personal note: that while I fight in the name of democracy and freedom for the United States armed forces, and am a red-blooded American, I have more respect for His Majesty the King than for any elected representative; for elected officials pander to the whims of the masses, but the King of Spain rules by the grace of almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Though we no longer live in a medieval world, Juan Carlos's throne is much older than any post-Enlightenment ideologies, and I believe that when our modern constitutions pass away, the thrones will remain, even though vacant for long periods of time. Juan Carlos is one of God's lieutenants on earth, answerable to no man but Him alone (and His vicar on earth, the Pope) so as long as he rules with justice and benevolence.
Juan Carlos is a member of the royal House of Bourbon, a descendant of an illustrious line of kings dating back over a thousand years: among them are Merovech, Clovis, Hugh Capet, St. Louis IX, and the Sun King Louis XIV, as well the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. As King of the Spains, he sits on a throne formerly occupied by St. Ferdinand, Alfonso X, and Isabella of Castile. His Majesty even holds claim to the titles of King of Jerusalem and Emperor of the Romans (willed to his predecessors by the last Byzantine emperor).
And, despite inheriting General Franco's great political authority, he willingly let it go to become a politically weak constitutional monarch. The petty dictator of a South American banana republic has nothing on the King. Were this two centuries ago, Hugo Chavez would have been one of the King's colonial governors at best. Chavez, plain and simple, is a peon in comparison to the King and acts like one every step of the way. So wipe that smug grin off your face, Mr. Chavez, and shut up.
This time, I attempted a more dramatic flair throughout the essay to give the reader a sense of wrestling or struggling with the paper. Having written this in one sitting at 4 in the morning, though, it doesn't retain as strong of a focus at the end as I wanted it to. Oh, well. I believe this is a good paper, anyway. Let me know what you think.
The first femme fatale: Aegisthus leads Clytaemestra to Agamemnon for the murder
The bloody deed is done
The Remorse of Orestes, by Bouguereau: the Furies persecute Orestes after he kills his mother
A Clash of the Titans—Two Divine Generations’ Struggle to Define Justice
by
James H. Griffin
Aeschylus's trilogy of plays, the Oresteia, presents to his audience the tragedy of an incessant cycle of murder and vengeance and challenges them with the hard moral question: when does it end? The hero of the story, Orestes, is commanded from on high by Apollo to avenge his father's murder and take his rightful place on the throne, but the moment the dagger is plunged into his mother's heart and the blood spills onto the ground, the frightful Furies are summoned to terrorize Orestes for the sin of matricide. Trapped between the wills of two generations of gods, Orestes journeys to
In the first play of the Oresteia cycle, the audience saw the famous tale of Clytaemestra’s conspiracy and murder of Agamemnon, sung of by Homer in his Odyssey, unfold on the stage. The next installment, The Libation Bearers, recalled a matured Orestes, Agamemnon’s only son, to his father’s grave after a long exile. What prompted the young hero to brave the danger of being caught and killed by his mother’s henchmen? Orestes explains that he is driven, not by his own impulse, but by the will of a god:
The big strength of Apollo’s oracle will not
Forsake me. For he charged me to win through this hazard,
With divination of much, and speech articulate,
The winters of disaster under the warm heart
Were I to fail against my father’s murderers;[1]
Orestes then rattles to the Chorus a litany of curses and punishments that the god of light will inflict upon him should he fail to kill his mother: ulcers, leprosy, madness, dishonor, exile from all of humanity, and a painful, gruesome death.[2] When he faces Clytaemestra down, he hesitates at first, but is reminded by his companion Pylades of his obligation to Apollo: “What of sworn oaths? / Count all men hateful to you rather than the gods.”[3] The wisdom of piety to the gods over blood bonds prevails in Orestes’ judgment, and trusting in Apollo, he takes Clytaemestra off-stage to plunge the fatal dagger in her heart and propitiate the vengeance demanded of him.
The tragic deed having been accomplished and the gods having been satisfied, Orestes should be allowed to take his crown and administer his kingdom in triumph, yet an unexpected force from beyond has him recoil in trembling instead. The Furies; frightful goddesses of ancient times who reek of the most foul vapors, whose eyes drip with blood, whose heads are crowned not with hair but with serpents, and whom Orestes calls “the bloodhounds of my mother’s hate”;[4] rise up to drive Orestes mad for violating the sacred bond between mother and child. The story abruptly ends in cliffhanger fashion with some serious theological questions left unanswered for the people of
The final play, The Eumenides, provides Aeschylus’ answer to all of these questions. Orestes, having retreated to the oracle of Apollo at
The Furies relentlessly uphold their traditional office since time immemorial “to drive matricides out of their houses”[5] into the pits of hell, “where happiness is nevermore allowed.”[6] It becomes evident, though, that their motive is driven by bloodlust and the letter of ancient law, for Athene declares both that “you wish to be called righteous rather than act right”[7], and that “wrong must not win by technicalities.”[8] When Orestes challenges the Furies as to why they did not avenge the comparable blasphemy of wife murdering husband, they answer, “the man she killed was not of blood congenital,”[9] circumventing all question of real justice in favor of that single-minded pursuit of vengeance according to their office.
Apollo now raises the stakes by citing the authority of Zeus, who is the voice of justice in his eyes. He thus argues:
I am a prophet, I shall not
Lie. Never, for man, woman, nor city, from my throne
Of prophecy have I spoken a word, except
That which Zeus, father of Olympians, might command.
This is justice. Recognize then how great its strength.
I tell you, follow our father’s will. For not even
The oath that binds you is more strong than Zeus is strong.[10]
The final stages of the trial take a turn which modern readers may find surprising. For 21st century students of literature, the classical Greek pantheon; Zeus and Hera, Ares and Athene, Hephaistos and Hades; are the iconic gods of the great pre-Christian works. For the Greeks themselves, though, the Olympian divinities were the latest group in a series of naturally developing cults which had replaced older ones. In the Oresteia, the Furies belonged to the ancient generation of gods which had been displaced by the Olympians, and thus are actually senior to Zeus. Daring to challenge even the lord of the skies, the Furies criticize the Olympians’ sense of justice by citing how Zeus shackled his own father, Cronus, in chains. Their conviction that the Olympians are actually usurpers is affirmed when, after Orestes is cleared of all charges, they say:
Gods of the younger generation, you have ridden down
The laws of the elder time, torn them out of my hands.
I, disinherited, suffering, heavy with anger
Shall let loose on the land
The vindictive poison
Dripping deadly out of my heart upon the ground;[11]
The great resolution achieved at the end of Aeschylus’ trilogy is much more than just the acquittal of one man’s guilt. Here, the great feud between two generations of gods is finally reconciled when Athene humbly acknowledges the Furies’ seniority and convinces them to collaborate with the Olympians for a greater good. She baptizes them into a new race: the Eumenides, guardians of humanity’s prosperity. The Oresteia, then, takes the ancient story of a familiar tragedy and works it into an allegory of
Athens: from that first pilgrimage by Orestes to the Acropolis in his quest for justice, to St. Paul’s disputation with the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers at the Areopagus; from Raphael’s famous fresco of Plato’s academy in the papal apartments to the classrooms of today’s universities, the city of Pallas Athene has captured the Western imagination as a lighthouse of reason, and a new chapter in the story of our civilization’s pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful. In this innovative retelling of an archaic legend, Aeschylus unites the venerable traditions of old with the intrepid, optimistic spirit of the new age. Though the golden age of
[1] Aeschylus, “The Libation Bearers”, in the Oresteia, trans.
[2] Ibid., 276-296.
[3] Ibid., 901-902.
[4] Ibid., 1054.
[5] Aeschylus, “The Eumenides”, 210.
[6] Ibid., 423.
[7] Ibid., 430.
[8] Ibid., 432.
[9] Ibid., 605.
[10] Ibid., 615-621.
[11] Ibid., 778-783.
[12] Dudley Fitts, introduction to the Oresteia, by Aeschylus, p. 1.
[13] See William Smith, A Smaller History of Ancient Greece, ch. vii., http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/history-of-ancient-greece-7-persian-wars.asp (accessed
[14] See Marcus Baram, “Does Bush Resemble Leonidas or Xerxes?”, ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=2950625 (accessed
:edited to clarify: No, not "negligees with tab collars", as the owner of that site put it to me in a comment, but clerics wearing lingerie.
:second edit: Also, if it wasn't clear from the beginning, no, dear friends, this is not a real argument against female clergy, although I may post an entry with some real ones later. Of course, the issues with Protestant ordinations aren't in my capacity to discuss with accuracy.
Calling Mel Gibson!
Dear Mr Gibson,
Please make a brilliant film about St Edmund Campion.
Yours Sincerely,
Catholics in England
The graphic to the left is from the Facebook group of the same name. (For those on Facebook, here is a link to the group.) More than one person has suggested to me in the past that it would be a great thing if Mel Gibson were to make a film about the life of St Edmund Campion. This was always a good idea; after the new Elizabeth film, it is a must.
So the campaign starts here. Someone reading this blog must know someone who knows Mel Gibson. 1. Encourage him to read Evelyn Waugh's stirring account of St Edmund Campion (if indeed he has not already read it); 2. Challenge him to find a good reason not to make a thrilling, spectacular and emotionally-charged blockbuster movie about the Saint which would inspire anyone with an open mind; 3. Emphasise that this will counter the black legend, whig history propaganda of "Elizabeth. The Golden Age".
Fellow bloggers: I don't often make blatant requests of this sort so I hope you will excuse me on this occasion. If you agree with this idea, please post something about it. Let's get the word out and...Unleash the power of the Blog!
Tony Blair is preparing to convert to Roman Catholicism within weeks, it emerged last night.
The news prompted demands from followers of the faith for the former prime minister to renounce his previous support for abortion.
Mr Blair's long-expected switch to the faith of his wife and four children is expected to come at a Mass in the private chapel of Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O'Connor, the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales.
The Catholic newspaper The Tablet says the service of conversion will take place this month.
Mr Blair has regularly attended Catholic services in recent years, both with his family and alone. He has also visited Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor John Paul II.
The Tablet said Mr Blair has received instruction from two priests, RAF chaplain John Walsh and Father Mark O'Toole, the cardinal's secretary.
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The king of Spain told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to "shut up" Saturday during a heated exchange at a summit of leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal.Chavez, who called President Bush the "devil" on the floor of the United Nations last year, triggered the exchange by repeatedly referring to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a "fascist."
Aznar, a conservative who was an ally of Bush as prime minister, "is a fascist," Chavez said in a speech at the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile. "Fascists are not human. A snake is more human."
Spain's current socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, responded during his own allotted time by urging Chavez to be more diplomatic in his words and respect other leaders despite political differences.
"Former President Aznar was democratically elected by the Spanish people and was a legitimate representative of the Spanish people," he said, eliciting applause from the gathered heads of state.
Chavez repeatedly tried to interrupt, but his microphone was off.
Spanish King Juan Carlos, seated next to Zapatero, angrily turned to Chavez and said, "Why don't you shut up?"
The Venezuelan leader did not immediately respond, but later used time ceded to him by his close ally Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega to answer Zapatero's speech.
"I do not offend by telling the truth," he said. "The Venezuelan government reserves the right to respond to any aggression, anywhere, in any space and in any manner."
Finally, some honesty in politics! Thank you, Your Majesty. Viva el Rey, God save the King.
A priest has been arrested on charges of stalking late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien by writing him threatening notes on parish letterhead, contacting his parents and showing up at his studio, prosecutors said Wednesday.A Boston priest was arrested last week trying to enter a taping of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."
The Rev. David Ajemian, a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, was arrested last week while trying to enter a taping session of NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" at New York's Rockefeller Plaza, said Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan prosecutor's office.
Ajemian referred to himself as "your priest stalker" in one note and complained of not being allowed in to see an earlier taping of the O'Brien show, court papers say.
"Is this the way you treat your most dangerous fans?" the note said.
The letters and e-mails, which started coming in September 2006, continued even after Ajemian was asked to stop and were "intended to cause annoyance and alarm," Thompson said.
"I want a public confession before I ever consider giving you absolution -- or a spot on your couch," wrote Ajemian, who signed the notes "Padre," Thompson said.
What a creep. And using parish letterhead for stalking notes? And in Boston, the heart of the clerical sex scandals? It's almost as though he was trying to cause as much scandal as humanly possible.
On the bright side, at least this priest was already removed by the Archdiocese from public ministry before the story began. Still, though, I have to wonder if the Archdiocese of Boston really, truly hates itself. If I were the archbishop of that hellhole, any priest even remotely suspected of any funny business would be thrown into a monastic cell on rations, or be defrocked.
1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament (27%)
2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen’s image upside-down (7%)
3. It is illegal for a woman to be topless in Liverpool except as a clerk in a tropical fish store (6%)
4. Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned (5%)
5. If someone knocks on your door in Scotland and requires the use of your toilet, you are required to let them enter (4%)
6. In the UK a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman’s helmet (4%)
7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen (3.5%)
8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing (3%)
9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour (3%)
10. It is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls of York, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow (2%)
The four evangelists; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; are often represented in art as four different creatures: a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. For example, at the high altar at San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, there's a giant golden retablo with statues of the four evangelists, with the heads of each beast beside their feet. Have you ever wondered what this meant or where they came from? I did, so I looked it up.Apparently, the symbolism is derived from a couple of visions in Scripture. The first is the Old Testament's book of the prophet Ezekiel, where Ezekiel experiences a most, err, psychadelic vision of the Merkabah, the throne of God which somehow is also a four-wheeled chariot, driven by a beast on each side. Here's one fairly simple artistic rendition.
Notice the four beasts. Ezekiel 1:10, "And as for the likeness of their faces: there was the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side of all the four: and the face of an ox, on the left side of all the four: and the face of an eagle over all the four."
Likewise, the vision in St. John's Apocalypse of heaven, from where we derive the triple Sanctus, also makes reference to these four beasts:
And in the sight of the throne was, as it were, a sea of glass like to crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four living creatures, full of eyes before and behind.
And the first living creature was like a lion: and the second living creature like a calf: and the third living creature, having the face, as it were, of a man: and the fourth living creature was like an eagle flying.
And the four living creatures had each of them six wings: and round about and within they are full of eyes. And they rested not day and night, saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. (Apocalypse 4:6-8)
As tradition developed, it would be the man to Matthew, the lion to Mark, the ox to Luke, and the eagle to John, and all for very specific reasons. Wikipedia sums them up here:
- Matthew the Evangelist, the author of the first gospel is symbolized by a human (not an angel as sometimes thought) - a figure of humanity and reason. Mattthew's gospel starts with Jesus' genealogy from Abraham; it represents Jesus' Incarnation, and so Christ's human nature. Christians should use their reason for salvation.
- Mark the Evangelist, the author of the second gospel is symbolized by a lion - a figure of courage and monarchy. Mark has John the Baptist preaching "like a lion roaring" at the beginning of his Gospel. It also represents Jesus' Resurrection (because lions were believed to sleep with open eyes, a comparison with Christ in the tomb), and Christ as king. Christians should be courageous for salvation.
- Luke the Evangelist, the author of the third gospel (and presumably the Acts of the Apostles) is symbolized by an ox bull or calf - a figure of sacrfice, service and strength. Luke's gospel starts on the temple duties of Zacharias in the temple; it represents Jesus' sacrifice in the Passion, and Christ as priest (this also represents Mary's obedience). Christians should be prepared to sacrifice themselves for salvation.
- John the Evangelist, the author of the fourth gospel is symbolized by an eagle[3] - a figure of the sky, and believed to be able to look straight into the sun. John starts with an eternal overview of Jesus the Logos and goes on to describe many things with a "higher" level of theology than the other three "terrestrial" Synoptic Gospels; it represents Jesus' Ascension, and Christ's divine nature. Christians should look directly on eternity without flinching for salvation.
The Church Father who definitively established the above tradition was St. Jerome, in his Preface to the Commentary on Matthew. He wrote:
'The first evangelist is Matthew, the publican, who was surnamed Levi. He published his Gospel in Judaea in the Hebrew language, chiefly for the sake of Jewish believers in Christ, who adhered in vain to the shadow of the law, although the substance of the Gospel had come. The second is Mark, the amanuensis of the Apostle Peter, and first bishop of the Church of Alexandria. He did not himself see our Lord and Savior, but he related the matter of his Master's preaching with more regard to minute detail than to historical sequence. The third is Luke, the physician, by birth a native of Antioch, in Syria, whose praise is in the Gospel. He was himself a disciple of the Apostle Paul, and composed his book in Achaia and Boeotia. He thoroughly investigates certain particulars and, as he himself confesses in the preface, describes what he had heard rather than what he had seen. The last is John, the Apostle and Evangelist, whom Jesus loved most, who, reclining on the Lord's bosom, drank the purest streams of doctrine, and was only one thought worthy of the words from the cross, 'Behold! thy mother' [John 19:27]. When he was in Asia, at the time when the seeds of heresy were springing up (I refer to Cerinthus, Ebion, and the rest who say Christ has not come in the flesh, whom he in his own epistle calls Antichrists, and whom the Apostle Paul frequently assails), he was urged by almost all the bishops of Asia then living, and by deputations from many Churches, to write more profoundly concerning the divinity of the Savior, and to break through all obstacles so as to attain to the very Word of God (if I may so speak) with a boldness as successful as it appears audacious. Ecclesiastical history relates that, when he was urged by the brethren to write, he replied that he would do so if a general fast were proclaimed and all would offer up prayer to God; and when the fast was over, the narrative goes on to say, being filled with revelation, he burst into the heaven-sent Preface: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: this was in the beginning with God' [John 1:1-2]."
Some depictions of the four evangelists in art:
The Book of Kells
Lectionary Cover in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Four Evangelists conferring about the Gospels, by Peter Paul Rubens
The Baptistery of St. John, Florence
St. Ignatius Parish, San Francisco, California
WASHINGTON (AP) — Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a non-partisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies."At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners" among teenagers, the study concluded.
...
A spending bill before Congress for the Department of Health and Human Services would provide $141 million in assistance for community-based, abstinence-only sex education programs, $4 million more than what President Bush had requested.
$141 million for abstinence-based sex education? Whaaaat?
I'm not sure what to think of all that. Of course, I do support abstinence very much. But I do know that my mind was not made up in favor of it by anything I learned in the public school system. In fact, as I recall, the whole sex education program in general was a subject of ridicule. If I were to take a wild guess, I'd say that 90 to 95% of all teens who abstain from sex do so only out of (very) deep religious convictions, ingrained from birth by a morally conservative, God-fearing family; without that belief that extra-marital sex is outright, damnable sin, all the rhetoric about abstinence for the purpose of avoiding pregnancy or STD's or even respect for the body is either going to fall on deaf ears, or will be left on the wayside when, after a typical American teenager has had a few (quite a few) drinks at a party (of course with no "elder" supervision anywhere in sight), the fat chick on the other side of the table starts to look rather hot.
Of course, the problem isn't limited to the promiscuous party animal segment of the teen population. I like to think of myself as rather disciplined, but to be honest, that's a lie; and in recent times, this whole abstinence thing has been about as difficult for me as not breathing. Because of it, I know I can never be a priest without causing great scandal and having my mug shot broadcast on the 6 o'clock news for some horribly lewd affair. Thank the Lord I won't be a teenager anymore after this weekend passes. For my birthday present, I think I'd much like God to take some hormones away.
Back to the story at hand, though: perhaps the government should cut these sex education programs altogether and force parents to, you know, be parents and teach kids about sex on their own, and all the moral ramifications therein.
PS: By the way, I was about to do a Google image search to put up an obligatory picture at the top of the post, but then I figured any combination of "teen" and "sex" in the search bar would produce disastrous results!
I was invited by a friend to post some info about a petition to bring His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to Quebec City next year. To help her, I've tried to lay out as much information about it as possible right here.So, what's going on in Quebec in 2008?
Quebec City will be hosting an International Eucharistic Congress from June 15 to June 22; the last one hosted by Canada was in 1910.
The year 2008 marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City; it's the only city north of Mexico whose fortified walls still stand to this day, and is the first non-Spanish colony that was intended to be a permanent settlement, rather than just a commercial outpost. A brief quote about the city's religious origins:
Some French pioneers with deep faith, wanting to evangelize the Amerindians and offer spiritual support for the first colonists, were joined by the Récollet missionary priests in 1615 and by the Jesuits in 1625. Along with the Ursuline Sisters and the Augustinian Nuns who arrived in 1639, they together set the foundations of the Catholic Church in New France. In 1658, Monsignor François de Laval was appointed the first Bishop of New France.
France bringing the Faith to the Hurons of New France. Artist unknown. 17th century. Ursuline Monastery of Québec.
Here's the page from the Congress's website about the history of the Catholic Church in Quebec.
Back to the Eucharistic Congress: it seems like it will be a large gathering of bishops, priests, families, youth, and other pilgrims to teach and bolster faith in the Eucharist, the Precious Body and Blood of Christ. This year's theme is: “The Eucharist, Gift of God for the Life of the World.” Each Congress has a sort of foundational theological document written under the authority of the host bishop; this one is a bit of a monster, at 68 pages, on .pdf right here.
The theme and schedule for each individual day of the Congress is outlined here. Lauds, Vespers, Mass, Eucharistic processions and adoration, penitential services, catechesis, the promoting of social services, it's all there.
The president of the Congress will be the Primate of Canada and Archbishop of Quebec, Cardinal Marc Ouellet.
And so, what does this have to do with the Pope?
The website explains:
In 1964, Paul VI began the custom of having the Pope conclude an International Eucharistic Congress with a solemn Mass. John Paul II continued that custom, although his state of health prevented him from attending a few times. Benedict XVI told Québec’s Archbishop, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, that he hoped to come. The final decision will probably be known in December 2007.
Former Quebec cabinet minister Marc Bellemare has begun an effort to bring Pope Benedict to this Congress, especially since His Holiness will be visiting America next year, anyway. Or, to quote this blog:
The Vatican has already announced the pope's travel agenda for the year 2008.
Quebec City is not on the itinerary.
That is a shame. We need the Pope in Canada.
We need the Christian message of salvation through Christ and peace through God. Our culture is immersed in despair,darkness, consumerism, idolatry-- the idolatry of sex, money, fame, success, false compassion and so forth. Jesus Christ is the answer to this emptiness and vanity.
And we need the pope's Gospel of Life. We not only need personal salvation, we need societal salvation. We need to build a Culture of Life.
Holy Father: you are the best herald for this message. Because if you come, people will pay attention.
We not only need you to preach to the faithful and the unconverted, but also to the clergy. Holy Father, the clergy in Canada do not stand up for the faith. In fact, they regularly flout it. Especially in Quebec. We need you to remind the clergy that standing up for core Catholic doctrines is not optional, but obligatory especially for the ordained. We need you to remind the clergy to preach salvation through Jesus Christ, the right to life, universal truths, and so forth.
Canada is like a dried flowerbed that needs to be watered with your message to bloom.
Readers: the Holy Father has said that he will go to those places in response to a real desire for his presence, and where his message will likely have the greateste impact.
You have the power to help bring the pope to Canada in 2008!
Former Quebec Justice Minister Marc Bellemare has launched an initiative to persuade the pope to come to Quebec City. He is partnered with Luciano Dorotea, Quebec's former representative to Rome, and the head of Séminaire St. Francois, the Capuchin friar Jean-Marc Boulay. He has launched a petition in Quebec City, and this petition is being circulated in various businesses and venues across the city, including Ameublement Tanguay, Les Restaurants Normandin and Boston Pizza. The first two may not mean anything to you, but those are very well-known businesses in the Quebec City area.
This is a big effort.
And your help is needed.
Anyway, the petition page is here. To understand the French, refer back to this page.
The pontifical high Mass at the Chicago stadium on Children’s Day, June 21, 1926
I forgot to mention that last weekend, I drove all the way to Miami just to see the movie Bella (official site here). The Wikipedia plot summary:An international soccer star is on his way to sign a multi-million dollar contract when a series of events unfold that bring his career to an abrupt end. A beautiful waitress, struggling to make it in New York City, discovers something about herself that she's unprepared for. In one irreversible moment, their lives are turned upside down...until a simple gesture of kindness brings them both together, turning an ordinary day into an unforgettable experience.
Once a famous athlete, and now a cook at his brother's restaurant, Jose has retreated from the world. But he recognizes something in Nina, a young waitress, and reaches out to her. In the course of a single day, he not only confronts his own haunting past but shows her how the healing power of love can help her embrace the future.
This was actually a very good movie with a strong pro-family, pro-life, and pro-Catholic theme, and all quite subtly. I'd say it's the movie with the most "substance" I've seen all year. Also, I've never seen Hispanic culture portrayed in such a good light before.
BTW, has anyone who's seen this noticed how ridiculously good-looking all the actors and actresses are? That's not a criticism, by any means; I just thought it was amusing to notice.
A confession: actually, I feel kind of awkward, because this was one of those last-minute papers that you write in the wee hours of the night before it's due, with only a subconscious state of mind that tends to spout more gibberish than coherence. That's why I didn't post it on the blog. But apparently, it's actually worth reading! So, here it is.
Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus, by Waterhouse
by James H. Griffin
For many students of literature, the greatest seeming discrepancy between the Iliad and the Odyssey is the role which the ancient gods play in each epic. The former tells of a great, prolonged war waged by a dramatis personae of equally titanic proportions, of gods and men who walk and fight side by side at the close of a bygone era. The latter recounts the personal journey of one man where the gods, while yet assuming crucial positions in the story, affect the world of men from a greater distance, preferring rather to let Odysseus fight his own battles and endure many hardships. The two differing portrayals of the gods are so pronounced that some literary critics believe they could not possibly have been written by the same author. Without making any definitive judgment on the questions of authorship, this essay will examine the portrayal of the gods in both Homeric epics and explore the Iliad's and Odyssey's complementary theologies.
In the world of Homer's Iliad, all the gods have a keen interest in the outcome of the Trojan War. The council at
Then the father balanced his golden scales, and in them
He set two fateful portions of death, which lays men prostrate,
For Trojans, breakers of horses, and bronze-armoured Achaians,
And balanced it by the middle. The Achaians’ death-day was heaviest.
There the fates of the Achaians settled down toward the bountiful
Earth, while those of the Trojans were lifted into the wide sky…[1]
Although the gods in the Iliad have the power to mercifully whisk their heroes away from danger, they choose not to grant the same generosity toward Odysseus in the Odyssey, even though they all, except for Poseidon, desire him to return home safely. The gods instead prefer to watch him suffer from on high and interfere only in those rare moments when Odysseus's wits are not enough to survive the tribulation at hand. Zeus sends Hermes to give Odysseus advice or messages from time to time, such as to warn him about Circe’s power to transform men into pigs. But if Odysseus is so loved by the gods, why does Hermes not simply grab him by the shoulders and fly him back to
Homer might have known that the people of his own day would ask the same questions, so he provides a short theological discourse by Zeus at a council of the gods within the epic’s first few lines:
Oh, for shame, how the mortals put the blame upon us
Gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather,
Who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given…[2]
Recounting the story of Aigisthos, Zeus explains how Aigisthos brought destruction upon himself by murdering Agamemnon and marrying his wife, despite the gods having sent Hermes to tell him specifically not to commit those sins. It is made clear from the beginning of the Odyssey that men have themselves to blame for their follies. The theme of personal culpability as the price of folly recurs again and again. When Odysseus describes his long journey to Alkinoos, he seems to blame much of his misfortune on the gods when he says at first, “many are the sorrows the gods of the sky have given me,”[3] but his homecoming is really delayed thanks to his own misdeeds and those of his men. After he pillages the city of the Kikonians like a pirate, Zeus redirects the North Wind against his ships, tearing them apart until they land in the country of the Lotus-Eaters.[4] Odysseus then earns the enmity of his brother, Poseidon, when he boastfully announces his identity to Polyphemos as he sails away from the land of the Cyclopes. And again, his men’s greed causes them to prematurely open the bag, given by Aiolos, which was stuffed with the winds that would deliver them home.
Far from there being a dissonance between the Iliad and Odyssey regarding the role of the gods, both Homeric epics involve them proportionately according to the scopes of their plots. The story of the Trojan War employs a confusing mass of characters, deceptions, and carnage because it is a harrowing account of the destruction wrought by discord: from the war’s origins out of Hera’s and Athena’s unholy jealousy against Aphrodite for Paris’s judgment, to Paris’s great blasphemy against a host’s hospitality by his robbing of Menelaus’s wife, to the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon over slave girls at the beginning of the Iliad itself. The mortal and divine worlds affect each other, and with so many opposing interests, supplications and sacrifices, and bastard sons of the gods clashing together, the result is total chaos. On the other hand, the Odyssey represents the journey of only one man returning from the aftermath of
A final thought: the disparity between the gods’ portrayal in the two epics need not suggest that they had different authors. Rather, it acknowledges that
“Remember, remember the fifth of November,The gunpowder, treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.”
At the accession of King James I (of King James Bible fame), English Catholics a new day of tolerance for their faith would begin. James was, of course, the son of the Catholic martyr Mary, Queen of Scots, and many believed that the king's own wife had secretly converted to Catholicism. No dice, though. King James renewed the anti-Catholic restrictions placed by his predecessor, Elizabeth I, such as the banning of Masses and Catholic priests from the realm on pain of a large fine, then death. Catholics were tired of it. The time was ripe for a revolution.
According to the official story, a group of about a dozen men under a Catholic Englishman named Robert Catesby plotted to begin a revolution. The first step was to pack explosives in the cellar under the House of Lords in Westminster Palace. At the State Opening of Parliament, when the Royal Family, the House of Lords and House of Commons were all gathered together, the plotters would detonate the gunpowder, thus killing off essentially every important member of the Protestant aristocracy. At the time of the explosion, they would be in the Midlands, inciting a rebellion and kidnapping the king's nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, to install her as a new Catholic monarch. The plotters were also petitioning the King of Spain to prepare for a second invasion.
The Plotters
As it so happened, the plotters were successful in moving 36 barrels, or 1800 pounds of gunpowder, into one one of the cellars underneath Parliament. They sent a warning to one of the Catholic members of Parliament, Lord Monteagle, telling him not to show himself at the state opening. Monteagle, however, turned the letter in to the Secretary of State. The night before the state opening, a search party was sent in underneath the House of Lords. There, they encountered the barrels of gunpowder, as well as the plotters' chief gunpowder expert, Guy Fawkes.
The rest is history, but for those who still don't know, Fawkes was tortured until he revealed the identities of the other conspirators. Immediately before he was to be partially hanged, then drawn and quartered, he jumped off the scaffold to deny the executioners of the opportunity to kill him slowly. As for Catesby, he was killed in a shootout with law enforcers.
Fawkes is arrested
Today, Englishmen gather on the night of November 5 to make bonfires with effigies of Guy Fawkes and the Pope. But how can Catholics celebrate Guy Fawkes Day? I did some research and found just the thing, in an excerpt from A Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living.
While this day is not part of the Church's liturgical calendar, there's no reason we can't enjoy it—albeit giving the holiday a bit of a twist. Why not get the baking enthusiasts in your family (i.e. the girls) to make a House of Parliament out of gingerbread? Find pictures of these exquisite gothic buildings on the Internet, and make the best copy you can, lovingly adding details with icing, perhaps even forming a tiny King James I out of marzipan. Unveil it at the outset of tonight's family dinner-or at a gathering of friends. As dinner unfolds, tell the story of Guy Fawkes and his friends—then for dessert take the gingerbread parliament outside, stuff it with M-80 fireworks, and blow it all to hell.
Heh heh.
Seriously, though, the Gunpowder Plot still raises a lot of questions, and today, many historians believe it was all a set-up by zealous Puritan factions government as an excuse to increase anti-Catholic legislation. Here's a short article on that.
Check out this video of a the 36 barrels of gunpowder being detonated underneath a to-scale reconstruction of the 1605 House of Lords. Holy snap, that thing got annihilated.
And then, here are a couple of YouTube documentary clips made by the BBC, which are actually quite decent with nice costumes and sets. First, about the Five Conspirators. Then, about the Act of Uniformity against Catholic practices. Sorry, I'm unable to embed those.
Last fact: I believe the greatest irony of the Gunpowder Plot and its use in persecuting Catholics for another 200 years is the fact that, after a fire destroyed Parliament in 1834, the architect Augustus Pugin was hired to design (with Sir Charles Barry) a new Westminster Palace, as well as Big Ben. This is the famous one that stands today and is featured in many movies and postcards. And what's ironic about that?
Pugin was a convert to Catholicism; today's Westminster Palace was built on what Pugin believed to be Catholic architectural principles. His book, True Principles of Christian Architecture, was a treatise on the inherently Catholic nature of Gothic architecture, reaching towards heaven and evoking the glory of a medieval past dominated by Catholic rule. It was also an argument against using Greek or Roman architectural designs, as Protestants of his time were fond of, because they were "pagan".
No, really, here's the last thing. The idea of Britain ever becoming a right-wing fascist state within the next 200 years is completely ridiculous, and even totally misleading from that country's real problems; but this comic book/movie did a good job of playing with the Guy Fawkes motif.
Gaudeámus omnes in Dómino, diem festum celebrántes sub honóre Sanctórum ómnium: de quorum solemnitáte gàudent Angeli, et colláudant Fílium Dei. (Ps. 32: 1) Exsultáte, justi, in Dómino: rectos decet collaudátio. v. Gloria Patri...
Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a festival day in honor of all the Saints: at whose solemnity the Angels rejoice, and give praise to the Son of God. (Ps. 32:1) Rejoice in the Lord, ye just: praise becometh the upright. v. Glory be to the Father...
This is the best recording I could find online of the Gaudeamus chant, and it's just a sample from Amazon for a CD. I thought it was somewhat exotic. The CD, by the way, is the Missa Gaudeamus, an All Saints' Mass set to polyphony by the Renaissance composer Josquin Deprez.
The Introit, however, seems to be in the original Gregorian.
From the NYTimes: The Evangelical Crackup. A look at the decline of the "religious right" at the final years of the Bush Administration.
From Breakpoint: Monasticism and Evangelicals.
From CWNews:
Saudi king to visit pope.
Imprisoned Viet Catholic priest denied Bible, sacramental wine.
Quebec's loss of faith seen triggering social problems.
Dominican Catholics rally against abortion.
Congo bishop survives gunfire.
Fiji: Catholics uncertain about prelate's political role. Excerpt:
Catholics in Fiji are divided over the prospect of a prelate's membership on a commission drafting a new "people's charter" for the troubled country.Archbishop Peter Mataca of Suva was named early this month as one of two co-chairmen of the charter commission. His appointment, announced by President Ratu Josefa, drew a protest from lay activists who said that the archbishop should not be involved in political affairs-- especially in light of the questions about the legitimacy of the current government.
The fact is that the world is divided between users of the Macintosh computer and users of MS-DOS compatible computers. I am firmly of the opinion that the Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant. Indeed, the Macintosh is counterreformist and has been influenced by the "ratio studiorum" of the Jesuits. It is cheerful, friendly, conciliatory, it tells the faithful how they must proceed step by step to reach - if not the Kingdom of Heaven - the moment in which their document is printed. It is catechistic: the essence of revelation is dealt with via simple formulae and sumptuous icons. Everyone has a right to salvation.
DOS is Protestant, or even Calvinistic. It allows free interpretation of scripture, demands difficult personal decisions, imposes a subtle hermeneutics upon the user, and takes for granted the idea that not all can reach salvation. To make the system work you need to interpret the program yourself: a long way from the baroque community of revelers, the user is closed within the loneliness of his own inner torment.
You may object that, with the passage to Windows, the DOS universe has come to resemble more closely the counterreformist tolerance of the Macintosh. It's true: Windows represents an Anglican-style schism, big ceremonies in the cathedral, but there is always the possibility of a return to DOS to change things in accordance with bizarre decisions.....
And machine code, which lies beneath both systems (or environments, if you prefer)? Ah, that is to do with the Old Testament, and is Talmudic and cabalistic.
From an English translation of Umberto Eco's back-page column, "La bustina di Minerva," in the weekly Espresso (30 September 1994).
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
May 2007
June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
June 2008
July 2008
August 2008
September 2008
April 2009
May 2009
October 2009
November 2009
December 2009
Armed and dangerous: This man has been convicted of wanton popery!
VIEW HIS GRACE'S COMPLETE PROFILE