Pray for Oprah.

Stalking Obama.
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I hear she is beyond hysterical these days leading up to the inaugaration.

We both love soup.

Fr. Z has posted a great recipe for soup today.

Saturday story-time.

Terry and the Silver Skates...

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Betty Mae Brinker-Nelson earned scant support for her family working in an office by day, and waitressing at night. Once she had worked at a casino in Reno while she was waiting for her divorce to be finalized. But that was before Terry, sometimes known as Hans, was born.

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When Hans-Terry had grown strong and large, he had insisted on doing all the waitress work for his mom. Her husband Kenny, Terry's dad, had become so very helpless of late that he required her constant care. Although not having as much intelligence as a little child, (when he was drunk) he was yet strong of arm and very mean, and Betty Mae had sometimes great trouble in controlling him.

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"Ah! children, he was so good and steady in his youth," Mother would sometimes say about Father, "and as wise as a lawyer. Even the burger-meister from the Little Chef Cafe would stop to ask him directions to the bar with the best happy hour. But alas, now he's no damn good! He doesn't know his wife and little ones. You remember your father, don't you Hans-Terry, when he was himself--right after he was released from jail--don't you? Admit it!"

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"Oh yes, indeed, Mutar, he knew everything and could do anything under the sun--and how he would swear and beat the crap out of everyone! Why, you used to laugh and say it was enough to set the windmills a-dancing."
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"So I did. So I did, you little bastard. Bless me! how the boy remembers every little detail! Gretel-Beth, child, take that knitting needle from your father, quick; he's trying to stab your brother; and put the shoe back on him. His poor feet are like ice half the time because he spills his drink all over himself. I can't keep doing everything around here! G** d*** it! I can't take this s*** anymore, I've got all I can do--" And then, half wailing, half humming, Betty Mae would sit back down and top off her glass with bourbon; filling the low cottage with the whirr of her hair dryer.

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Nearly all the outdoor work, as well as the household labor, was performed by Hans-Terry and Gretel-Beth. At certain seasons of the year the children went out day after day to gather peat, which they would stow away in square, brick-like pieces, for fuel. At other times, when homework permitted, Hans-Terry rode the towing-horses on the canals, earning a few dollars a day, and Gretel-Beth tended geese for the neighboring animal shelter.

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Hans-Terry was clever at carving in wood, and both he and Gretel-Beth were good bartenders. Gretel couldn't sing or sew, but she could dance and loved to watch Bandstand. She could dance better than any other girl for miles around. She could learn a ballad in five minutes, but no one wanted her to sing it, and she dreaded books, and often the very sight of the figuring board in the old schoolhouse would set her eyes swimming. But she had a lot of fashion sense. Total strangers often complimented her on how immaculate she kept her tennis shoes. Hans-Terry always told her not to wear her scaf tied on her chin. He would say, "Gretel-Beth, hon, even though you think that is cool, it makes you look like a slut." She didn't like that - but Hans-Terry knew she had to be told, if only just to keep Father at bay.

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Hans-Terry, on the contrary, was slow and steady. The harder the task, whether in study or daily labor, the better he liked it. Boys who sneered at him out of school, on account of his cool shoes and scant leather breeches, were forced to yield him the post of honor in nearly every class - especially home-ec. It was not long before he was the only youngster in the school who had not stood at least ONCE in the corner of horrors, where hung a dreaded whip, and over it this motto: "Leer, leer! jouluigaart, of dit endje touw zal je leeren!" *{Learn! learn! you idler, or this rope's end shall teach you.} And because of that, Hans-Terry felt left out and so he developed some serious anti-social behaviours for awhile - but that is another story.

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Nevertheless, from his earliest youth, Hans-Terry secretly wanted to be a star hockey player and win the Stanley Cup to impress his older brother, Skip-Bert, although if that didn't work out, he had a plan "B". He always insisted he would settle for a starring role in the Ice Capades. His dream was on its way to reality after his younger brother Timlet was born - that is when Hans-Terry left home to skate and sing in the Olympics. The rest is history - although the actual documentation has been lost...

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The End

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Photo credit: When the canals freeze, the Dutch go skating. Read here why it is so unusual this year. It also eerily fits in with a very old prophecy: "When the canals in Europe freeze, a black man will lead the world." Freaky, huh?

Aren't we neat though.

I was always very careful about the ash as I smoked. Sometimes I miss smoking so much.

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Photo credit: Life

Passionately loving the world.

Passionately loving the world.

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This morning I was looking for St. JoseMaria Escriva's homily by that name and instead came across The Greatness of Ordinary Life. I very much like Opus Dei and the teachings of St JoseMaria, although I have heard a few good Catholics express their "doubts" concerning the organization. I don't really know why, especially since the founder has been declared a saint, yet some of the same people say he shouldn't have. (See what I mean when I suggest even devout Catholics can be dissident Catholics - especially when they dissent over innocuous matters such as the canonization of a saint. But I digress.)

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Ordinary life.

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It was providential that I found the little pamphlet this morning, and so I'll use it for meditation today. I just want to post a couple of sections here. The first one is what I really mean when I refer to things some people say as, "religious BS". (Well, kinda.) The following demonstrates that saints express similar thoughts so much more delicately than I can.

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Religiousness.

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"It pains me to hear of a Catholic, a child of God called by baptism to be another Christ, who tranquilizes his conscience by going through the motions. His religiousness leads him to pray now and then... when it is to his advantage. He attends Mass on the days obliged... but not all of them. Meanwhile he makes sure that his stomach suffers no uneasiness, never missing a meal. He is willing to make concessions in matters of faith, to exchange it for a dish of lentils, to do anything so as not to endanger his social or professional status. And then he displays his Catholic "credentials" to get ahead, oblivious or indifferent to the ensuing scandal. This cannot be! We cannot settle for a veneer. We must be Christian from top to bottom, through and through. To that end you must seek proper spiritual nourishment without any if's, and's or but's.

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"Your personal experience has taught you in order to ward off any discouragement, that interior life consists in beginning again and again each day. Our hearts tell us we must fight without letting up. You doubtlessly notice in your examination of conscience that you suffer repeated setbacks; at times they seem monumental because they reveal an obvious lack of love, of dedication, of abnegation, of refinement. Foster desires for reparation and sincere contrition, but do not lose your peace." - Ordinary Life: Christian Consistency, St. JoseMaria Escriva

Is there really something wrong with capitalism?

Apparently some people seem to think so.

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I was impressed by the following statement:

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"...something is wrong with capitalism. Or, to put it more aptly, something is wrong with the human person objectified by the modern, capitalist reduction of persons into objects -- human resources." - Source

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Doh! It just dawned on me too.

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(Interesting new group blog: RIMATARA. Found on my favorite group blog: Vox Nova.)

Fr. Robert's Art.

Stunning minatures.

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These wonderful little paintings are the work of Fr. Robert, a monk at the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, Sparta, Wisconsin. Br. Stephen posted the work on his blog, Sub Tuum. The paintings are 2" square, apparently oil on copper. I love them.

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This spring, local bloggers maybe should get together and go on pilgrimage to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, and then make a visit to the Cistercians nearby.

Slumdog bloggers.

Bottom of the barrel Catholics and right-wingers.
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Doug Kmiec has accused Catholic bloggers of of being hate mongers. (I believe Dr. Kmiec voiced some theories during the presidential campaign on why it was okay for Catholics to vote for Obama.) Anyway, I never followed what was being said by either party. But now that Kmiec is complaining, I'm listening. Included in his self-defense he said:

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“A hate-filled blogosphere,” argued Kmiec, “feeds a politics of odium, misleading people of faith and good will, diminishing and at times obliterating our ability to know one another.” - Source

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Naturally, the leading Catholic bloggers have jumped to the podium in defense of their participation in the debate that ensued. Again, I never followed it. It seems to me that more than a few of the top Catholic bloggers have established themselves as a sort of magisterium for the blogosphere, and may consider themselves rather unassailable. I may be completely wrong of course, although delicate egos ride high, a fact often evidenced as blogger awards season draws nigh and the "vote for me" widgets go up. Not that it is a bad thing.

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And the award goes to...

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The most imperious comment I read in defense of the Catholic blogosphere, from the top bloggers who challenged or disagreed with Dr. Kmiec, came from Mark Shea. Now I often neglect to read him, although when I do, I very much like what he writes. (I corrected that today by linking to him.) I know some people dislike him, and I'm not sure why. Perhaps it may have something to do with attitude, I don't know. Whatever, this is part of what he had to say concerning the latest Kmiec-driven tempest:

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“I'm not interested in hearing Kmiec moan about how mean people from the bottom of the barrel were to him,” Shea told CNA. “I’m interested in hearing his responses to the very intelligent critiques of his position that were offered by a number of very respectable and honorable Catholics.” - Source

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I'm sure Mr. Shea did not mean that the way it reads. However, and this may be totally off topic, I always wonder about those who identify themselves as respectable and honorable Catholics. I believe Nancy Pelosi meant the same thing when she described herself as an "ardent Catholic." If memory serves me, some of the top bloggers in the country ripped her a new as-----... Well they ridiculed the poor woman for that assertion.

Everyone is asking for prayers...

So I will too.

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A young man I see at adoration, named Tony, desperately needs our prayers. He has some major issues, he's probably mentally ill, and his mother is dying from cancer. His mom's name is Lisa.

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Tony is doing very poorly right now, much worse than a few months ago, because his mom has now been transferred to hospice.

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Tony lives on his own, but he is very much emotionally dependent upon his mother. His parents were divorced and his mom remarried. His natural father is a recovered alcoholic.

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Tony has been present at adoration every Wednesday afternoon for the past few months. He is there from about 1:30 PM until the close at 4:30 PM. He mostly paces around the Church, sometimes standing next to me in the aisle. We speak afterwards.

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The best I can do is assure him of my prayers, and try to empathize with him by discussing how it was when my mom died. But I mostly try to let him speak.

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He tells me he is looking for a sign - of what I'm not sure. I told him about St. Therese of Lisieux and said I'd ask her to give him a sign. He can be kind of scary to some people I suppose, he swings back and forth between anger and pain, confidence and despair. But he is mostly just scared.

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Please pray for him and his mom.

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Thanks.

Sister stories.

In the 1950's, the nuns disapproved of girls wearing make-up in grade school. They said it looked cheap; pierced ears were considered cheap too. And of course, scarves tied on the chin - they knew exactly what that meant Missie.

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Photo credit: Untouched photo of school girl being tortured by Sr. Rosie O'Donnell.

I'll have NUN of that, thank you.

The lack of vocations.

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Remember those scenes in the movie The Nun's Story? The chapter house and chapel filled to overflowing with nuns? The movie depicted pre-WWII convent life at a Mother house in Belgium. Years ago I was told by an older monk that after the wars, vocations to the religious life actually increased, especially contemplative life. On the other hand, a recent study suggests the decline in women's vocations was the result of the confusion in the aftermath of Vatican II, yet another expert believes the exodus actually began in the 1930's. I tend to agree with the later, thinking Audrey Hepburn's portrayal of Sr. Luke in The Nun's Story may be an example of that phenomenon. (Although, the intitial loss of contemplative vocations might have been more directly related to the confusion generated by the Council.)

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This is what the priests think happened.

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Italian Claretian Father Angelo Pardilla, author of "Religious Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow," said the principal cause for the decline in women's vocations was that many religious misunderstood the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and lost a sense of their identity.

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Father Giancarlo Rocca, a scholar of the history of religious orders, questioned Father Pardilla's thesis in the review he wrote for the Vatican newspaper.

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Father Rocca agreed with Father Pardilla that factors contributing to the decline include materialism, secularism, the anti-authority movement of the late 1960s and declining family size.

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But he said a misreading of the Second Vatican Council could not be the prime culprit, because in many places the numbers began to drop in the 1930s, long before the council opened in 1962. For Father Rocca, the key is the emancipation of women. - CNS

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My thoughts.

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I think they are both right, although I tend to agree with Fr. Rocca that all of this started before the Council. Changes favoring modernization in the Church were well underway before there was even a thought for another Council - isn't that a major reason pre-Councilor popes wrote syllubi - to point out all the errors emerging from modernism and socialism and all the other isms encroaching upon the Church? Or maybe not.

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Nevertheless, I'm convinced the emancipation of women initiated the decline in vocations, although it seems to me there can be no doubt the Council opened wide the windows of the Roman Catholic Church to let in some "fresh air" as John XXIII said, and thus, with the doors wide open, quite a few went out and never came back... But a few came in as well. The younger vocations were women who had already been "emancipated" if you will. Women who entered the so-called active orders but who could no longer accept second class status in the Church, transferred here and there to do whatever they were told.

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What does obedience really mean today?

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I suspect what emancipation may have meant to many of "them", aside from not being obliged to walk around all bandaged up in heavy, constraining habits, and finally free to wear "the pants"; what it really meant is that they could put their academic degrees to work in diocesan and community administrative positions, rather than always being confined to the rather subservient role of school sister or nurse, subject to the discretion of men who ran the diocese, parishes, or institution. I honestly believe the perceived patriarchy in the Church became something of an affront to many women religious, whose counterparts in the world were breaking through all sorts of glass ceilings, while the sisters could sometimes be the subject of a 'lighthearted' ridicule, even by priests.

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Lay people and clergy alike will argue, "Obedience is part of the religious life, that is part of their vocation." True enough, but even the new sisters in the flourishing 'habited' congregations know obedience doesn't mean they are supposed to be a doormat. Contemplative vocations are a different matter, for both men or women I think. Without going into detail, I think that those who enter cloistered life and stay, have a different, much more profound, almost eschatological understanding of the vows and the purpose of the life.

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Independence.

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Yesterday, I watched a neighbor lady walking back from the grocery store in the heavy snow storm we were experiencing. She is in her early 60's, single - never married, and she is has a good career as a psychologist. She owns her house and car of course, she travels extensively, and she is athletic - in summer always off on bike trips, kayaking, rock climbing, and so on.

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As my neighbor walked by, I noticed she was wearing a long black coat with a knit, over sized black beret - she reminded me of a nun. I thought, 'Perhaps there goes a missed vocation?' She would have made a great nun - or sister in the world. Although in reality her life is not very different from the lives led by sisters from some of the established congregations that survived the Council. Some of whose members may live in private homes or apartments, have their own career, and are quite free to come and go as they please - as long as they check in, or get approval from someone. So what is the difference?

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Seeking God.

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I'm confident the big difference is that the religious, male or female, is seeking God - God alone - in a habit or out of a habit. Liberal or conservative. Why else would women become sisters if that were not the case? Religious life evolves and updates itself. Congregations come and go, yet in the Church there remain different charisms, different gifts. As St. Paul says, The body has different members, but all the members, though many, are one body - the body is not one member, but many. Indeed there is a hierarchy of members, yet all with their different gifts. Thus, I believe, for the most part, the religious who remained, and those coming in, recognize this and find freedom within these parameters.

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That said, I still believe the decline in vocations is rooted in the materialism and agnosticism of Western culture, and our pro-choice mentality. How else does one explain the growth of vocations from poorer regions of the world such as India, and Africa? The poor have great faith. This is just my opinion however. That said, I found a blog for nuns, with links to several other sister's blogs. I think the clergy and laity need to listen to all of the women religious who give their lives for the Church - then we may get to the bottom of this mystery.

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That aside, I thank God for all of the nuns we currently have and have had - we wouldn't be the Church we are without them. Perhaps we are a bit too late with all of this - only just now coming to fully appreciate a treasure we no longer have in such abundance.

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Link:

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A Nun's Life - a well connected blog about contemporary nuns.

If I hung out at a bar.

If I hung out at a bar day-in and night-out like my parents did, and I talked about the issues I blog about, I'd be in knock-down drag-out fights every day.

Apparitions, stigmata, revelations, oh my!

New guidelines.

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The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Holy Office) is expected to release updated instructions for bishops on the discernment of alleged supernatural phenomena such as visions, mystical charismata involving stigmata, locutions - messages from heaven, and so on. What follows is a portion of the news report I found on Pewsitters:

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The Pope is said to be deeply concerned by the explosion in the number of pseudo-mystics who, claiming a direct line to God, set themselves against the bishops and lure the Catholic faithful out of the Church and into disobedient cults.

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When a claim of heavenly apparitions occurs, the local bishop will need to set up a commission of psychiatrists, psychologists, theologians and priests who will investigate the claims systematically.

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The first step will be to impose silence on the alleged visionaries and if they refuse to obey then this will be taken as a sign that their claims are false.

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Benedict XVI plans to publish criteria to help them to distinguish between true and false claims of visions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, messages, stigmata, weeping and bleeding statues and Eucharistic miracles.

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In some cases exorcists will be used to determine if a credible apparition is of divine origin or whether it is demonic. - Telegraph

Bob Dylan - Ballad of a Thin Man

This is so my ballad... it always was.

Black Monday - the Stock Market is down again... among other things.

More photos from the Israeli war against Palestinians in Gaza.

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I assume it is rather obvious I find the photos I've been posting today to be rather upsetting, shattering my illusion concerning the war in Gaza. The sight of dead babies always gets to me. In fact, photos of aborted babies helped to convince me human life was being destroyed in abortion procedures. However, I doubt many people from countries where abortion is legal will be moved by the sight of dead Palestinian babies.

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My apologies - I get a little crazy when I see photos such as these - images that speak louder than words.

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That's all.

Re-examining my conscience: Israeli war crimes.

Click the photo to enlarge and read.
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O Lord rebuke me not in your anger
your arrows have sunk deep in me.
My guilt towers higher than my head;
it is a weight too heavy to bear.
I am bowed and brought to my knees.
I go mourning all day long.
I cry aloud in anguish of heart. - Ps. 37
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Words cannot save us now, the only way to peace is repentance. I have committed these atrocities; Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me a sinner.

Photos from Gaza and documentation of possible war crimes committed by Israeli soldiers.

Please click on the last photo to enlarge, and read the story.

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In a message to participants in a special Mass for peace at St. Stephen Church in Jerusalem Jan. 4, Msgr. Manuel Musallam, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Gaza City, wrote: "What you see on television cannot be compared to what is happening. The word love is choking in my throat. ... We are living like animals in Gaza. We cry and nobody hears us. I am asking God for mercy and pray that the light of Christianity continues to shine in Gaza." - Catholic News Service

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God have mercy on my Jewish heart.

Everyone is worried about Socialites these days.

No hon, the term is Socialists. Geez!

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Blonds can get their terms mixed up - but contrary to popular opinion, they most always know what they are talking about. Anyway - I think it's funny to call socialists socialites- because that is what it is becoming. The upper class, the intelligentsia, the elite, the American royalty (entertainers and talk show hosts), have pretty much all gone socialist on us.

Dumb.

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"I readily concede I chucked aside my free-market principles when I was told ... the situation we were facing could be worse than - the Great Depression," Bush said. "(But) we've taken extraordinary measures to deal with frozen credit markets (that) have helped thaw the credit market." - President Bush

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And Dumber.

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Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change. - Washington Times

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I find it curious. The term socialist pops up with greater frequency in connection with Obama and his policy of change. Accusations are made, the 'powers' either ignore them, or deny them; the press then focuses our attention elsewhere, and suddenly another socialist gets a key position in the Administration. While everyone watches football or the Golden Globes. I wonder when Bill Ayers will be appointed to something - you know, that Communist guy from Chicago Obama didn't know.

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"See how the wicked prowl on every side,

while the worthless are prized highly by the sons of men." - ps. 11:9

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Photo credit: Getty Images: Carol M. Browner

Dressed to kill... and it wasn't called cross-dressing then.

Fun fashion facts.
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1968 photo of a male model in a silk jersey leisure suit. The suit was part of a NYC fashion show featuring, "Clothing For The Emancipated Man." Prices ranged from $1000 to $3500 per ensemble. (I actually remember the press on this.) Though extreme for the time, the look may have been popular with some of the aging royalty from the Fire Island, P-Town, Bucks County set, otherwise it never really caught on - except in Minnesota of all places. I may be mistaken, but I am fairly certain the trend inspired the designers of Zubaz Pants. (Zubaz shown below.)
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Macho, macho man, I've got to be, a macho man...

Sic transit mundi... reflections on a snowy Sunday morning.

The irony of it all.

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The irony of it all. The Franken/Coleman hold-up... big expense. I can't say I like either one of these guys, although Coleman now looks better with his daVinci veneers, and I have to admit I did vote for him. Although I haven't been following the recount that closely, I listen to the coverage... like a faint voice in the background. At first I agreed with Coleman: Franken should have conceded - that was immediately after the elections and before the recount. After the recount - Franken it turns out, is the winner (voters are dumb, aren't we?) - so wouldn't you think Coleman would concede?

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But noooooo - even though he said in the beginning that if he were in Franken's shoes - he would have conceded. The tables are turned now, and the Republicans are insisting Franken stole the election. It is so 8 years ago when Bush beat Gore... and Dems complained for all those years how George stole the presidency. I'm not saying there shouldn't be contests and recounts and all that stuff - but there should be limits to the length of time spent in litigation, don't you think. Oh, oh, and when candidates are campaigning and embroiled in litigation, is that the work we elected them to do?

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Bless my Jewish heart.

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Call me crazy, but I will always side with Israel in the defense of their people against the chorus of Hamas terrorists, radical Islam, Persians and other Mohammedans whose main goal in life is to blow Israel off the face of the earth and impose their medieval religion upon the world. Of course I am not a hard-hearted Hannah when it comes to the Palestinians struggling for existence in Gaza either - it is terrible and horrible and awful. But I believe Israel when they insist that Hamas buries its defenses in civilian neighborhoods - in effect, holding Palestinian people as hostages. They do that stuff all of the time. Once in NYC Islamic terrorists targeted civilian office buildings and blew 'em up good. They tell me Islam is a religion of peace however.

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SNM - Saturday Night Mass.

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I can't leave this alone - I just have to comment on the music from the Mass of the Baptism of the Lord last evening. You like that heading? SNM - like SNL? I thought you would. So anyway, it was very entertaining. The cantor happens to have a magnificent voice - I'm not at all kidding - she sings as well as a young Julie Andrews, trouble is, she kind of looks like her too - from Sound of Music that is. You know the look, kind of nun-without-a-habit drab. But that girl can really hold her notes. The organist/pianist is also top-drawer-professional - his piano playing has a certain... flourish... think of Joanne Castle from Lawrence Welk. One of the hymns (I hate hymns - it sounds so churchy) was "Wade In the Water" and did they do it well. I really mean that - no sarcasm intended. When I was in high school, Ramsey Lewis Trio did the same song, I loved it and bought the album. As I listened to it, smoking my cigarette, sipping something. I day-dreamed I was in LA, watching sequined mini-skirted go-go dancers, writhing on the bar in Whiskey A-Go-Go, while I drank scotch and sodas looking all Steve McQueen like. But I am getting distracted. Anyway, the joint was rockin' last night. And I didn't even care - I decided it didn't matter.

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There is so much more I could reflect upon... but I've caused enough trouble this weekend, so I'll end it here.