Mass at the Angelicum chapel

Frs. Philippe-Andre, Philip Neri, Cyprian, and Benedict celebrate Mass 

at the Chapel of SS. Domenico e Sisto, Angelicum in Rome.

The Bible (New Revised Children's Version)

A cousin sent this to me. . .no idea where she got it.


The Children's Bible in a Nutshell 

In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, 'The Lord thy God is one, but I think He must be a lot older than that.  Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did.

Then God made the world.  He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet.

Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden.  Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars.

Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel.

Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.

One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.

After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat. 

Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable. 

God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His Top Ten Commandments. These include: don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbour's stuff. Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humour thy father and thy mother. 

One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town. 

After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me. 

After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore.

There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them.

After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of The New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my mom is always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.')

During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Democrats.

Jesus also had twelve opossums.

The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.  Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount.

But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead. 

Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminium.  His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

We are in the very best of hands:  AG Holder hasn't even read the AZ anti-illegal immigrant law he has threatened to challenge in court.

One of my fav games in grad school:  while attending university functions, I always ended up in chats with faculty/students from one or both US coasts or from Europe. . .we would discuss literature, politics, philosophy, etc.  I loved to watch the incredulity on their faces when I told them that I was born and raised in rural Mississippi and attended public schools.  For them, this was like learning first-hand that monkeys can not only talk but read and write as well!

On the adverse consequences of training college students to hear racism, classism, and sexism in the most innocuous language.  The central hermeneutical problem with "racial awareness" dogma is that the perceptions of the hearer are given priority over the intent of the speaker.  IOW, it doesn't matter what you meant or what you actually said. . .the only thing that matters is "what I heard you say."

SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan calls Judge Richard Posner (7th Circuit Court of Appeals), “the most important legal thinker of our time."  If this is so, then why doesn't she decline B.O.'s nomination and argue that Posner be given a seat on the S.C.  Answer:  Posner is considered a conservative legal rock star. 

Venezuela is quickly becoming another example of the inevitable failure of socialism.   

Weird statues from all over the world

Insta-buttons for all your fav movie/video game/prank sound effects.

The Poet and the Thug-rose: a lesson on perspective.

Useful phrases for those times when the temptation to be a smart-a$$ just can't be resisted. 

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A few updates. . .

Finally!  There is some positive movement on the Summer Plans front. Not all is doom and gloom.  Deo gratis.

French translation exam tomorrow afternoon. . .please, get those prayers heading heavenward.  I'm gonna need them.  If I pass the exam, I will move on to the oral/written exams and the defense of the thesis.

Thanks for the activity on the Wish List.  I will have a nice stack of new material to keep me and the squirrels busy while visiting the parentals.

I'm still drinking the Apple Cider Vinegar solution.  It has allowed me to skip the evening meal w/o getting a low blood sugar headache.  I've not really been able to test out its anti-sweating effects.  The weather here has been cool and cloudy.

Nice side effect of skipping dinner:  I'm sleeping much, much better.

Podcasting News:  since 4/19 there have been 510 homily downloads.  Mille grazie.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

The White House reports that a group of enraged Lutheran extremists in Sweden attacked the cartoonist who drew a picture of Martin Luther with a dog's body.  B.O. called on Christians to denounce this violence and end the persecution of those who disagree with them.

In other Christian-terrorist news, a member of the MSA (Methodist Student Association) at UCSD openly calls for a Holy Crusade against the Muslim minority populations of the Middle East.

Here's one surefire way to make sure professors don't run their classes into overtime:  concealed handguns!  Apparently, this solution is spreading.

Take one look at this pic and you will see where the Catholic Left wants to take the Church of Rome: down the suicidal path of the Episcopal Church.  The unanswered question remains:  if this is where dissenting Catholics want to go, why don't they just go?

In Ontario, teachers are becoming Catholic in order to get teaching jobs with Catholic schools.  The astonishing piece of info in this notice?  The province's Human Right Code graciously deigns to allow Catholic schools to discriminate against non-Catholic when hiring their teachers.  Thank you so much, Ontario, for tolerating our irrational prejudices!

Just fine by us:  "A new Pew Research Center Poll finds fully 73% of the country thinks police requesting immigration status documents is fine, while 67% think detaining someone for a status check is OK."  Keep in mind:  the new AZ anti-illegal immigration law empowers state police to check a person's immigration status only in the context of otherwise lawful police activity; in other words, a traffic stop, a shoplifting arrest, drug bust, etc.  Police are not empowered to wander around randomly asking people for papers.

B.O.'s nominee to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, Donald Berwick:  “Any health care funding plan that is just equitable civilized and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is by definition redistributional.”  Surprise!

Are you a small-bladdered movie buff?  Here's a site just for you!

On textbook content bias and local school boards:  revisionist histories of the dinosaurs

My kind of organic chemistry!

A whole bunch of funny pics. . .

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Sample pages of my book

The good folks at Liguori Publications have recently posted a link to a few sample pages of Treasures Holy and Mystical, including the table of contents!

Check it out. . .

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We are the "Much More" that Christ has to say

6th Week of Easter (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Podcast

What is the truth that Jesus believes the disciples cannot bear? What is the “much more” he has to tell them? The intrigue of knowing that there is a secret to tell but not knowing what that secret is might tempt us into wild speculation. Is there a body of occult Christian knowledge to be learned? Arcane symbols, rituals, books of secreted lore? We might even go so far as to guess that the gospel writers left out the Good Stuff so that the herd of gullible believers wouldn't contaminate the True Teachings of Christ. Do all those non-canonical gospels—the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary—do they reveal the “much more” that Jesus thought the disciples couldn't bear? No, they don't. There is no secret knowledge, no truths hidden in coded messages, no decoder rings, or elaborate handshakes. There is the truth that Christ himself reveals. No more, no less. Christ himself is the Truth. Following after him, getting behind the Truth, is at once freeing and binding; Christ cuts our bonds, binding us to his truth. 

Jesus tells his disciples that there is much more he needs to tell them, but what he has left unsaid is too much for them to bear. At that moment the disciples must have been deeply, thoroughly scared to death. Consider what he has already told them. He has told them that he will be tortured and that he will die—horribly—and they will be left to carry on his preaching. He has told them that because they will go on to preach his good news that they too will be tortured and that they will die, also, horribly. If Jesus believes that his students can bear up under this bit of dark prophecy, what could he possibly have left to tell them that is too much for them to bear?! We can imagine that their worst fears, their most dread nightmares are rising to the surface. . .

They will have to wait to hear what waits for them. Just a little while more, wait. Jesus tells them, “. . .when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” All that he has taught them to this point has been true. But he has not taught them all the truth. The truth he has not yet to teach them is not teachable, not transferable in a lesson or a parable; what he has left over is not sayable in words or done ritual, not unveiled in gesture or exposed by display. The whole truth, all the truths of Christ, must be lived and lived in the coming Spirit, revealed to the grief-burdened men and women of the Upper Room by the ferocious bonfire of the Holy Spirit's passing. In modern terms, we would say that the “much more” Christ has to tell us is intelligible only as direct experience; “much more” must be lived to be known. But “experience” is a sterile word; it hardly does justice to what it means to be freed by Christ and bound to him forever.

When the Spirit comes to speak to us all that he has heard from Christ, to declare all the things that are to come, to glorify his holy name and unstick our tongues to praise that Name, then we will know the “much more” that Jesus would not speak, all the truths that he knew our unprepared souls could not bear. How will we know? Because when the moment of revelation comes, we will not being reading about it, or hearing it described, or watching it unfold. We will be on fire, in the center of the conflagration, ourselves the fuel and air that feeds the flames of truth's unveiling. We won't have to ask, “Is this the 'much more' Jesus didn't tell us?” Why? Because we will be Much More, the living sparks who set the bonfires that burn through this world's darkness; the lights of Christ, bound to his light and freed to shine.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

On SCOTUS nominee, Elena Kagan:  Being nice to your ideological enemies is not a sign that you think they are right.  

Does Kagan believe that the Constitution can be read to support SSM?  Maybe. 

64 high speed chases in AZ county. . .not one of the perps was a U.S. citizen.

John Allen outlines the significance (and possible consequences) of Cardinal Pell being appointed to the head the Congregation of Bishops. 

Following the electoral chaos in the U.K. makes me very happy that our Founding Fathers chucked the parliamentary system in favor of something more republican!

On the factually-challenged MSNBC. . .Chris Matthews blames the right-wing gov'ts of Greece, Spain, and Portugal for financial collapse.  FACT:  all three countries are currently governed by socialist parties.

The Welfare State Death Spiral. . .is Greece a preview for the U.S.?

On Obama Messiahism:  "If twentieth-century history teaches us anything, it’s that political religions spell trouble."  The Devil is always trying to seduce us with movements/ideas/causes that mimic the Church. . .anything to draw us away from Christ!

Homer Simpson, call your cardiologist!  It's processed ham infused with more processed ham.  

10 Bizarre Psychological Disorders. . .these are bizarre; however, nothing beats Borderline Personality Disorder when it comes to just plain scary. . .and untreatable.

Or, you could suffer from Dress Up Like a Doctor Kill a Deer and Drive Around in a Stolen Ambulance Disorder.   

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Where are you going?

6th Week of Easter (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Podcast

Have the disciples been listening? Have they truly heard what Jesus is trying to teach them about who and what they are to become? On many occasions in the three years they have spent with Jesus, the disciples have misunderstood him, ignored him, failed to follow him, and now, as he stands on the verge of leaving them behind, they exhibit a curious lack of curiosity. Jesus says to them, “Now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?'” Do they fail to ask because they do not care? Or, because they already know and don't want their worst fears confirmed? Jesus answers the question for us, “. . .because I told you [that I am leaving], grief has filled your hearts.” His friends know that he is leaving them behind, moving on to Jerusalem and a gruesome death. Though their grief is only natural, it cannot stand against the coming of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who convicts the world of sin and convinces the worldliest heart that not even death can triumph over the promise of eternal life through Christ. 

Jesus will leave his friends behind. He will go to Jerusalem, suffer at the hands of his enemies, die on the cross, and rise from the grave to live again. He will ascend to the Father, and the Holy Spirit will come to sweep across those who heard his words and witnessed his deeds. All their fear, doubt, worry; all their confusion, questions, insecurities; any hesitation they harbor in preaching the gospel, all of these will be set ablaze, burned away by the coming of the Holy Spirit. Then they will set out to heal, to cast out demons, to speak God's word of mercy to sinners, to suffer and die as Christ himself suffered and died. In the rush to pack and leave for their missions, do they remember the question they forgot to ask, “Where are you going?” If they were listening to Jesus while he was among them, they already know how to answer, “Lord, I am going to Jerusalem; I am following you to the cross.”

Two thousand years later, the question still matters. Baptized, confirmed in the Spirit, nourished at the altar, where are you going? Jesus is gone and the Advocate has come. Where are you going? To Jerusalem and your cross? Of course. But there are many hours and many miles between now and then, here and there. If the Spirit has convicted us of our sin and convinced us of the truth, what do we do in the meantime, all those miles in between? We do what Jesus did. We do what the disciples did once the Spirit seized their grieving hearts. Proclaim the truth. Heal the sick. Feed the hungry. Forgive, love, show mercy. Bring peace to worry. Bear good fruit and give it away. Live in joy. Die for your friends. Each time, a step behind our Lord. Each step, a moment longer with him. 

Where are we going? Wherever the Spirit sends us. When are we leaving? If we've been listening, we are already well on our way.

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Podcasting. . .???

Comments on the Podcasts?

Clear?  Speaking too fast?  Too slow?  Ease of downloading?  Problems of any sort?

The echo is unavoidable since the chapel has a 30ft ceiling. . .I turn the microphone away from the lectern b/c I figure my big mouth hardly needs amplification. 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

<---Yes, the actual Bowl of Coffee Bowl Browsing!

Presumably, one of the reasons people want to immigrate to the U.S. is to enjoy our tradition of natural rights, including the right of free expression.  But, as we all know, when natural rights conflict with The P.C. Cause of the Moment, rights take a hike.  

On the cheap gracelessness of the New Atheists. . .David Hart puts the smackdown on this generation's Barbie Unbelievers:  "The principal source of my melancholy, however, is my firm conviction that today’s most obstreperous infidels lack the courage, moral intelligence, and thoughtfulness of their forefathers in faithlessness."

Weekly Standard:  "Why does the Obama administration find it so hard to utter the words ‘terrorism’ and ‘jihad’ and ‘Islamic extremism’?"  Because, like most postmodern relativists/nominalists, B.O. believes that words magically create reality. . .

Polling opinion on the Supreme Court:  Americans don't want a more liberal Court.  NB.  the poll doesn't ask respondents to define "liberal," so it is not entirely clear what this info means.

B.O.'s Attorney General says that the new AZ anti-illegal immigrant law is not motivated by racist ideology.  

A poem by Pablo Neruda:  "I Do Not Love You"

The Game of Kings. . .with booze!

Goat hooves, a gold revolver, and footwear. . .High Caliber Fashion!

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Treasures Holy & Mystical now available. . .(UPDATED)

The second volume of my prayer book set is now available from Liguori Publications!

UPDATE:  If you have a blog, would you be so kind as to mention the book on your site?  Despite rumors to the contrary, all the royalties from sales go to support the preaching mission of the Order. . .and not to support my Nutella habit!  ;-)

Behold, the Lamb of God. . .

An interesting occurrence at Mass this morning. . .

It stormed last night here in Rome.  The sun rose on a cool, gloomy day.  I was a just a little thankful for the lack of sun b/c our chapel is oriented east/west, meaning that the presider's chair faces east.  At the top of the eastern wall is a huge gold tinted window.  When the sun is shining, it shines right through the window and heats up whoever is sitting in that chair!

Just as I elevated the host and chalice at Mass this morning and began the prayer, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. . ." the clouds broke and the sun beamed in through the window, flooding the chapel with golden light.  

I couldn't help but smile!

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Work with what you've got

5th Week of Easter (Th)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Podcast

A complete circle measures 360 degrees. A complete sentence contains a subject and a predicate. A complete meal is composed of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. To describe something as “complete” is to say that this something's unrealized potential has been fully realized—there is nothing left for it achieve, nothing remaining for it to do in order to be the best possible thing that it can be; it is perfect. So, a circle with only 180 degrees to measure is not a circle. A sentence without a predicate is not a sentence. But if we draw 180 degrees, we see the potential for a complete circle. If we write a word on paper, we can see the potential for a complete sentence. Our ability to recognize the potential for perfection in the imperfect is one way that we are able to fortify ourselves along the Way with Christ. Seeing that our imperfect hope, faith, and love can be made perfect in us, we receive these divine gifts—honing them, sharpening them—and we use them as tools in the hard work of growing up to be holy men and women in Christ. Knowing that we can be perfect as God Himself is perfect, we labor on with joy, with the joy of Christ—whole, complete, perfect.

Preparing his disciples for his death on the cross, Jesus gives his friends a number of gifts. He gives them his word; he gives them his peace; and he gives them his joy. The word he gives them is the word of spirit and truth, wisdom and consolation. The peace he gives them is the peace of hope, the certain knowledge that his Father's promises of eternal life have already been fulfilled in him. The joy he gives them is the joy he himself feels as his ministry among them comes to fruition in Jerusalem—the elation, the satisfaction of having done the Father's will perfectly. How did he accomplish his appointed task? He kept his Father's commandments and remained in His love. Christ's joy can be our joy as well if we follow him: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love. . .” Why does Jesus tell us this? “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” 

It is no accident that we are reading the Acts of the Apostles along with this portion of John's gospel. In the gospel, Jesus is teaching his friends how to be apostles, warning them of their future trials and girding them with all the hope they will need to sustain them. Like us, the apostles are fully aware of their deficiencies, fully aware of all the ways in which they are incomplete. They have the words of Christ and his peace; they have his commission and his authority; they have the anointing of the Spirit and tongues unchained for preaching. And so do we. Like us, in the course of carrying out their ministries, they butt heads with governors, princes, and the spirits of this world. They fail; they succeed. They suffer and die by the hands of their enemies. The gospel is preached and heard. The Church spreads and prospers despite fierce opposition and bloody persecution. Just as it does now. They remained in Christ and he remained in them. Their joy is complete. And ours can be as well. Our imperfections as apostles are hazardous to the gospel mission only if we forget to love as Christ loves, only if we forget his words, and fail to live out his joy. If we can see the perfect circle in the 180 degree line, and if we can see the complete sentence in one word on a page, then surely we can imagine the smallest seed of joy growing into the perfect joy of Christ. We can, if abide in his love as he abides in the love of the Father. His love is our complete joy!

Coffee Bowl Browsing (Missing link added)

32 black GOP Congressional candidates this year. . .thus, the GOP/Tea Party is Racist meme of the MSM is once again gut punched.

Presbyterian extremist arrested on charges of trying to car bomb Times Square.   When will the terrorists of suburban mainline Protestantism stop the violence?  MSM is refusing to identify the elderly female bomber as a Presbyterian.

Seton Hall may cancel class on SSM.  I wouldn't be opposed to such a class if it were clear that the class would about analysis and not advocacy.  However, the prof of the class has a history of publicly dissenting from Church teaching on the issue. 

BXVI moves Cardinal Pell to the Vatican where he can help the Holy Father choose the Church's bishops.  OORAH!

While working in three different psych hospitals I was spit on, peed on, pooped on, bled on, punched, kicked, bitten, head-butted, body-slammed, hit with a chair, doused with toilet water, pinged in the head with a science book, and called every obscene name available in at least three languages. . .so, calling me "a man in a dress" is kinda weak.  Yawn.  :-)

As my father used to tell my little brother when he got into fights at schools:  "Son, don't write checks your @$% can't cash."  George Will bounces the Bill "Lib Atheist Blowhard" Maher all over the studio.

B.O. is the single largest recipient of BP campaign cash.  

I hear from reliable sources that The One eats this stuff on his toast every morning.

All the monsters mentioned in the Bible, including a reference to Zombies! 

The Straight Dope:  a website that answers all your questions. . .and then some.

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Ask to be pruned

5th Week of Easter (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Podcast

Doctors of western medicine have recently rediscovered the ancient practice of using maggots—fly larvae—in the treatment of gangrenous wounds. When introduced into the wound, the maggots will eat away the dead flesh, leaving behind healthy tissue. This nauseating procedure significantly reduces the chances of infection, which in turn reduces the chance that amputation will be necessary. What the surgeons are unable to accomplish with scalpels and anti-biotics, the maggots accomplish with their voracious appetites. Farmers perform a similar kind of surgery on their fruit trees and vines. Cutting back excessive growth, pruning unproductive branches, the tree's nutrients are used to full effect in producing healthier, more productive blossoms, giving the farmer a more abundant harvest. Though it may seem counter-intuitive to wound a tree in order to prod it into producing better fruit, or using carrion insects to heal an infected wound, the idea that living things can be improved with a little pruning is a proven, time-honored method of encouraging growth. Thinking for a moment on your relationship with God and His Church, what in your life can you afford to prune away?

Jesus tells his disciples that he is the true vine and his Father is the vine grower. We are the branches. Any branch from the vine that fails to produce good fruit will be prune away by the grower. Branches that produce good fruit will be pruned so that they might produce more and better fruit. Jesus says, “You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you.” As baptized members of the Body, confirmed by the Holy Spirit, and welcomed to the altar of sacrifice, we are among those who have already been pruned. We've heard the Word spoken, and we go out to speak that Word to others. We scatter the seeds of mercy and love and nurture the young shoots in the soil where they take root. At harvest, we reap the fruit of our labor and give thanks to God for His providence. And though we may bring in an abundant crop this year, we can always do better next year! So, what unproductive branches need pruning in your spiritual life? What is it that drains away vital nutrients, saps your strength, ruining the goodness of your good fruit?

We can always point to sin as a drain on our courage and perseverance. Wasting time and energy with disobedience not only wastes God's gifts, but it also encourage moral rot, spiritual decay. More specifically, we could point to inordinate attachments to soul-destroying passions—anger, revenge, bitter disappointment, hurt feels. Maybe your strength is drained away by self-made crisises, emergencies you yourself design to distract you from the hard work of ministry. Maybe you are plagued by a fear of risking your reputation; anxiety about how to use your gifts; or perhaps, you obsess about your past, re-living old sins and worrying about God's mercy. If so, it is time to ask the Vine Grower to prune these away, to cut them off so that you can use the vital food of His loving-care to produce more and better fruit. 

Jesus promises us that so long as we abide him, he will abide in us. That is a promise of boundless energy, unlimited food for our hard work: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.” What is the best gift that we can ask for? Ask to be pruned, ask to have your unproductive attachments, your dead leaves and desiccated fruit, cut away. The surgery may hurt for a little while, but the harvest will be abundant!

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Zombie Awareness Month!

I am very happy to see that Those in Authority are finally taking the threat of the Coming Zombie Apocalypse seriously!

May is Zombie Awareness Month:  "It May Be Too Late."

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Not the peace we are longing for

5th Week of Easter (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Podcast

Jesus says to his disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” Reading the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's letters, we might be inclined to return the gift of Christ's peace with a polite “No Thank You” note. If Stephen's execution, Paul's imprisonment, the martyrdom of every apostle except John, and all the other trials, torments, and deaths that befell the merry band of Christians in the first few centuries of the Church are examples of what taking the gift of Christ's peace means, then, yea, we would wise to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Living “peacefully” with Christ looks a lot like living in constant turmoil with an ever present threat of injury and death floating nearby. Complaining to Jesus about this apparent misnomer wouldn't do much good. He promised us trial, tribulation, persecution, torture, and death if we took up the cross and followed him. Yet he says that he gives us his peace. It is reasonable to ask then, “Um, Lord, exactly what do you mean by 'peace.' Because frankly, I'm not seeing it.” 

Let's begin to answer this question with a quick philosophy lesson: when dealing with an apparent contradiction in terms, the first move to make is to define your terms and distinguish. “Peace” is usually used to mean something like “a state of non-conflict, the condition of relative calm.” But if we limit ourselves to understanding peace as the absence of conflict, then we will not be able to say much about Christ's peace. Our history of living in the world as preachers of the gospel is stained with the blood of Christian martyrs and with the blood of those we ourselves have killed. So, we need to refine our definition. Peace could also mean, “a state of tranquility; freedom from disquieting thoughts or emotions; external and internal calm.” While peace can indicate that harmony has been achieved between opposing external forces, it can also indicate that internal conflicts have been brought into agreement, a state of interior concord and silence. Given these differences, we must make this distinction: rather than bequeathing to us a perpetual state of non-conflict with our enemies, Jesus gives us the peace of internal silence; the quiet assurance of hope. 

Why does Jesus give his disciples his peace? At this point in John's gospel, Jesus is preparing his friends for Judas' betrayal in the Garden. He is on the brink of being arrested, tortured, and crucified. He knows that his death will shock his students, leaving them dispirited and quite possibly rendering them useless as preachers. Notice how Jesus imparts the peace which passes all understanding: “Peace I leave with you; MY peace I give to you.” The disciples are not given just any old peace, any old garden variety balm for their twitchy nerves. They are given the peace that Christ himself possesses. “MY peace I give to you.” The peace that Christ himself possesses is the sort of peace that comes with surrendering to the Father's providence, His loving-care: surrendering plans, expectations, dreams; surrendering a stubborn heart and a cold mind; surrendering need, want, self, and living wholly in sacrificial love as God has willed us to love one another. And even as we love imperfectly, failing over and over again, we do so out of his gift of peace. 

We are told that if we want peace, we must work for justice. If we want peace, we must confront conflict; or disarm national armies; or eliminate poverty and disease; or take the right medications and see the right therapists; or buy enough stuff and live to our full economic potential; or educate ourselves in the best philosophies. We can purchase the peace of this world if that's what we truly want. But we cannot buy the peace that has already been given to us for free. We peace we need is the peace purchased for us on the cross, the peace of sacrificial love and the certain hope of resurrection.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Street preacher in the U.K. is arrested for saying that the Bible opposes homosexual sexual activity.  NB.  the arresting officer is a gay atheist.  Peter Hitchens column following the news report is excellent.

10 Sci-fi/detective novels.  I've only come to enjoy detective novels in the last two years.  I've always read historical fiction, so when I found a series of historical detective novels in our reading room, I dug in.  My favorite author so far is Lindsey Davies, the author of the Marcus Didius Falco novels set in the "Fall of the Republic" era of ancient Rome.

Leftists rioters run riot during an immigration rally.  Let's watch and see if the MSM will worry themselves into fits like they do when grandmas and grandpas in the Tea Party gather together for a peaceful protest.

Stephen Hawking:  We might be able to travel forward in time but not backward.   If time is the subjective measure of objective motion, and everything in the universe is always in motion, then there would be no place in the universe where time doesn't apply, even the "future". . .hmmmm. . .I like the possible worlds theory better.  

Narcissist-in-Chief resorts to predictable passive-aggressive form when tackling opponents. . .NB. in the past Presidents have mostly been self-deprecating at these events.  George W. certainly was.  One of the tell-tale signs of Narcissistic Personality Disorder is the inability to have fun at one's own expense.

Five reasons why the E.U. bailout of Greece has made the situation worse.

The problem with Gaudium et spes. . .we were told over and over again in seminary that this document of Vatican Two was the most important development in Catholic theology since Aquinas was introduced to Aristotle.  Fortunately, few of us believed it. 

A little visual caffeine for your morning wake-up!

Lunch Box of Evil, or Your Mom is Trying to Entice You into a Demonic Pact Using PB&J.

This is what happens when you divide by zero while cleaning your house. 

Our government at "work."  I was once held up in traffic on I-40 for three hours in AR.  I imagined that there must have been some sort of massive accident, something huge!  When I arrived at the site of the delay, I wasn't surprised to find a Dept of Transportation pick-up parked in the left lane with two road workers sitting on the tailgate. . .how they managed to survive is beyond me.

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"Young Dads," or First Five Years of Ordination

For the first five years after ordination, Dominican friars in the U.S. gather together annually for a retreat. This pic was taken in 2007 at San Felipe de Neri in the "Old Town" of Albuquerque, NM.  The retreat master that year was Fr. Allen White, OP, former Provincial of the English Province (first row, fourth from the R). 

One bowl on the way to another

This is what I see every morning on my way down to get my first bowl of coffee:

The Monument, a.k.a. "the Birthday Cake"

The view from the cloister window overlooking the Piazza Venezia.

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Nuns, Sisters, and the Really Real

The National Review Online has up an excellent interview with Sr. Prudence Allen, RSM.  Sister is a philosopher, teaching at St. John Vianney Seminary in the Archdiocese of Denver.  The whole interview is well your time!

In the course of discussing the recent dissenting letter from the LCWR-Network endorsing ObamaCare, the interviewer notes that the women who signed the letter are not nuns but sisters.  The interviewer asks Sister to distinguish between "sisters" and "nuns."  She does so.  The interviewer then asks her why this distinction should matter to anyone in the context of the controversy. 

Sister gives an excellent Catholic answer:

To answer your question about “why it should matter,” we need to consider the deeper question of the relation of truth to language and the relation of reality to the human mind. According to a realistic philosophy, truth is the union of the mind with reality. There are two complementary pathways to the truth: reason and faith, which correspond to philosophy and theology.

For a Christian, language matters a lot. In Genesis 1:1-3, we learn that before God spoke and there was life, the earth was “without form and void.” From John 1:1, 1:4, and 1:14, we learn that the Eternal Word was with God and was God from the beginning, and that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” Jesus Christ, this Eternal Word made flesh, leads us to the Truth; He told us that He is the Truth. So, by faith, we believe that Truth and reality are important and that we are created with intelligent minds able to grasp truths.

We do this by apprehending different forms capable of being grasped. However, if reality is simply a void and is without form, truth is not possible for us to know or to live by.

Language is at the heart of Catholic philosophy. In the United States, where pragmatic theories of truth and postmodern approaches to knowledge abound, the relation between truth and reality is undermined. All becomes superficial, and imagination replaces the union of human mind to reality. So the answer to “Why should it matter at all to the world” is embedded in the deeper question of whether a person cares about truth or not, and how much he or she cares.

Go read the whole thing.

A rough and ready way of framing the history of western philosophy is to divide the timeline into three movements/questions:

Ancient/Medieval: What is the world like and how do we come to know it?  (Turn to the Object)

Early Modern: What am I like and how do I come to know myself? (Turn to the Subject)

Late Modern/Postmodern: What is language like and how does it shape reality? (Turn to the Linguistic)

The general movement here is away from the notion that the human mind is capable of grasping The Real; knowing it as it is; and adequately describing what it is like.  IOW, the further away from Aristotle we get historically, the less confident we are that we live in a knowable, explicable world, and closer to holding the idea that language is all we can really know. 

From Plato up to Descartes, philosophers and theologians worried mostly about metaphysical questions:  what's really real?  From Descartes on, they worry mostly about epistemological questions:  what can we know?  For Catholic philosophers and theologians, the two questions are linked by a realist understanding of how creation works:  what we can know is the really real and our language is adequate for describing the real. 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing (in breve)

It's like going on a drunken spending spree with all your credit cards, then giving the bills to your children and telling them that they have to live in poverty in order to pay for your partying.

Citizen journalism is not new. . .before the advent of Professional Journalism we managed to chronicle the human story of adventure and invention w/o too many problems.

Heh, I was wrong.  The NYT violates its pro-B.O. narrative and criticizes The Won for his sloppy response to the oil spill disaster. 

Ten of the dumbest (and false) things said about the new AZ anti-illegal immigrant law. 

Americans are smart enough to properly distinguish between legal and illegal immigration.  By large majorities we support the former not the latter. 

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A new HancAquam sponsor

HancAquam is pleased to announce that Rocky the Squirrel and Starbucks 

have teamed up to sponsor Coffee Bowl Browsing!

Coffee Bowl Browsing

Holy Father urges careful catechesis with the introduction of the new English translation of the missal.   Yea, let's not repeat the huge mistake made with the 1970 translation and drop it on regular Catholics like a millstone.

Two part interview with Dutch Catholic psychologist on the role of his profession in sex abuse scandals.  Good stuff.  Part one and part two.

The Anchoress explores the possibility of suspending the statute of limitations on ALL sex abuse allegations in NY.  Predictably, howls of lamentation and preemptive excuse-making emanate from all the usual suspects.  Apparently, only the Catholic Church should be forced to confront its history of abuse, cover-up, and neglect. 

New non-narcotic pain-killer developed using chili peppers.  This is good news for me as someone who suffers from cluster headaches!  Narcotic pain meds like hydrocodone and morphine really don't work for me.  OTC's are OK, but they cause G-I upset. 

The Closing of the Muslim Mind:  looks like an interesting book.  One of the persistent questions in the history of science is why the modern scientific method/technology happen so successfully in the Christian West but not in the Muslim/Hindu/Buddhist East.  One answer:  the philosophical traditions of the religious east are all anti-materialist, or hostile to the body.  If you think that the material world is evil, you are less likely to study it systematically.  For the Christian West (esp., the Catholic West), God reveals Himself in His creation. . .so, science is the natural companion to theology in discerning God's presence in creation.

On the use of citizen journalists in combating the media narrative that Tea Partiers are violent and racist.  The easy availability of video cameras and the accessibility of the internet have all but rendered our Media Betters useless.  

Will the Gulf of Mexico oil spill be B.O. Katrina?  No.  CNN/NYT/etc. would never allow that to happen.   

Gordon Brown's re-election looks doomed.  I was recently asked by a cheeky friar, "What does 'bigot' stand for?"  Brown is gone on Thursday.  Ha.

Euro Zone under serious threat of collapse.  Note that all of the so-called PIGS nations (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain) are big government nanny states with massive entitlement budgets. 

Ummmmmmmmm. . .make a wish?

Poster boy for beating adulthood eating disorders.

Exploring your creative side. . .art, design, sculpture, video, etc.  After the philosophy Ph.D. I want to get a M.F.A. in creative writing and then another one in painting.  I'll be 75 by then and ready to retire!  :-)

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I dunno why. . .

I don't know why I think this is funny. . .but I crack up every time I see it.

Two quick updates

Liguori recently informed me that the Beatitude Rosary I wrote for my second prayer book will not only be published as a separate pamphlet but it will also be translated into Spanish! 

Also, many thanks for the recent activity on the WISH LIST.  My father emailed me yesterday to report that one book has already safely arrived in Mississippi. 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Without a word of opposition from our Feminist-in-Chief, the U.N. gives Iran a seat on its Commission on the Status of Women.  Next on the U.N. agenda:  giving Mexican drug cartels seats in the AZ, CA, NM, and TX legislatures.  

Jeff Jacoby asks, "Why aren't democratic dissidents as well-known in the free world today as the dissidents who challenged the Soviet empire were in the 1970s and 1980s?"  He wants to make them famous:  CyberDissidents.

Roger Simon notes, "The real reason liberals accuse Tea Partiers of racism is that contemporary American-style liberalism is in rigor mortis. Liberals have nothing else to say or do.  Accusations of racism are their last resort."  Unfortunately for the Libs and the victims of real racism, the left's constant siren call of racism has reduced the accusation to little more than a vigorous sneeze.

Law professor who helped write AZ's new anti-illegal immigration law debunks most of the hysterical nonsense of the opposition.  A hint when discussing the new law with an opponent:  ask him if he has read the law.  I've yet to talk to anyone who has.

NYT is most like the Roman Catholic Church:  "The Times, of course, does not claim to speak infallibly in its judgments on current events. (Neither does the pope.) But to the truly orthodox believers in the Times, its editorials carry the burden of liberal holy writ."

The authors of the vile anti-Catholic memo published by the UK's foreign service are suspended and sent "diversity training."  Oh, the irony.

NJ Court says that bloggers aren't journalists. . .I take that as a compliment.  Thank you.

On the existential beauty of Godzilla. . .in haiku.

How long have you been alive? 

Aight. . .here's your Cute Pic for the day. 

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Insomnia report

My insomnia is starting to make me crazy.  I slept about three hours last night and none of those hours were good.  

I've tried everything short of massive doses of horse tranquilizers.  You name it, I've done it:  herbal, pharmaceutical, behavioral, dietary, psychological/spiritual, mechanical, and mystical.  I wake up around 3.00am and cannot go back to sleep. 

I blame philosophy.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Another courageous bishop ousts CCHD from his diocesan coffers.  Why they haven't all done this is beyond me.

WashPost confuses B.O. and Malcolm X. . .or did they?

Final Vatican approval for the new English translation of the Roman Missal has been given.  Now, we wait for a year or so for the bishops' conferences to publish it for general use.  Of course, the new missal will cause much garment rending and teeth gnashing among our Liturgical Betters.  Expect lots of "creative editing" from Fr. Hollywood.

Bizarre claim of the day by Aussie bishop:  priests who molested boys and teens didn't know that they were violating their vows.  OK.  Then why did they keep their molestation a secret?  Do I need to say how beyond stupid this is?

The destructive power of narcissism at work in politicians:  Charlie Crist to run as an independent in FL senate race.  Basically, Crist will lose the GOP nomination b/c he endorsed B.O. porkulus scheme.

The L.A. Times book prizes. 

A video on how seminarians are screened.  This piece focuses on psychological testing.  It's important to keep in mind that testing is not predictive; it is basically a way of detecting serious personality disorders.  Anyone who has survived a novitiate can tell you that testing does nothing to screen out everyday weirdnesses, ordinary and annoying social quirks.

Using pics of sacred persons to deter public urination. . .we need these in Rome!

Anti-Christian pagan Memorial Day celebration. . .note the carnival events. 

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Let's disobey God!

4th Week of Easter (W)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Podcast

Jesus puts to rest any question about the source and summit of our salvation, any question about the only means available for achieving a face-to-face audience with God the Father: “Whoever believes in me…whoever sees me…everyone who believes in me…anyone who hears my words…whoever rejects me…does not accept my words…I did not speak on my own…the Father who sent me commanded me…what I say, I say as the Father told me.” There can be no question that Jesus himself is the exclusive path to our redemption; he is the only salvific show in town. If we want to spend a little more time unpacking this teaching, we can note the passion with which Jesus teaches. John writes that Jesus “cried out and said.” We can note that Jesus explicitly says that he and the Father are one; that believing in him is the same as believing in the Father; that as the Word sent by the Father, accepting or rejecting his words determines one's place in the light or one's condemnation to the darkness. We can note that Jesus says he is teaching nothing more or less than what his Father has told him to teach; and we can note that he makes this startling claim: “I know that [the Father's] commandment is eternal life.” If the Father's commandment is eternal life, why must we believe in Jesus? Isn't it enough that God has commanded us to live with Him in eternity? It would seem that God's commandment can be thwarted by our refusal to believe.

For the sake of argument, let's assume that we want to refuse to obey God's commandment of eternal life. How would we go about about doing this? Jesus points out two ways to be disobedient: 1). we can hear his words, accept them, but fail to observe them, or 2). we can hear his words and reject them. When we hear his word but fail to live them, we are not condemned because, as Jesus says, “. . .I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.” When we hear his words and reject them, we condemn ourselves according to his word; that is, his words stand as our judge and we are condemned to darkness because the Father, Jesus, and his words are all one. Lest we think that we can hear his words, accept them, fail to obey, and then escape the consequences, we must remember that God commands us to enjoy eternal life. Jesus says that he will not judge our disobedience. Why? Because our refusal to live out the words we have heard and accepted is itself a judgment, and we remain in darkness despite having glimpsed the light. There is nothing more he needs to do than to allow us to live in the eternal night we have chosen for ourselves.

Why would anyone, having heard and accepted his words and knowing that God has commanded us to live eternal lives, why would anyone see the light of Christ and choose the darkness of disobedience? Well, there's the false sense of freedom that comes with making such a choice. There's the inordinate love of the transient things of this world. There's the desire to indulge our destructive passions—anger, revenge, hatred, greed. And then there's the obstinate refusal to believe, the persistence of voluntary doubt—willful disbelief. Like the child who closes her eyes and believes she is invisible because she cannot see, we choose darkness because we believe it hides us, protects us from judgment, nurtures our liberty. In fact, we are never more in danger than when we walk after dark.

Jesus speaks these words of hope: “I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.” Though we may foolishly choose eternal night, we do not have to remain there. His coming among us is the dawn of salvation, our eternal healing from all the wounds that would drive us into hiding. All we need do is accept the medicine of his words and follow behind him, doing right now everything he did back then.

A few updates. . .

Scuba Becky has been back at work now for two weeks.  No problems so far. . .Deo gratis!  Your prayers have been much appreciated by mom, me, and our whole family.

Still no word on how my summer plans can be salvaged.  I will have to make a decision soon.  It looks like my Religion & Science course will have enough students to make.  The American literature course will not.

The WISH LIST has been update.  I changed my shipping address to my parents' place in Mississippi, so shipping will be domestic rather than international.

My thanks for all the emails of concern about my family in Mississippi. . .no one from our neck of the woods was hurt by the recent tornadoes in the delta. 

Update on the Apple Cider Vinegar cure:  I continue to get an energy boost, but the help it gave me with my insomnia has dissipated.  One caution if you try this. . .wait at least three hours after a meal before drinking.  It can cause G-I upset.

I am working on a few posts from the Suggestions List I solicited recently.  Be patient and keep checking back.

Podcast download numbers have been good. . .good enough to encourage me to continue recording and posting links to my preached homilies.  Thanks for the business!

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

"Many feel the sting of racism in new law". . .OK, but remember:  "feeling racism" is not evidence of actual racism any more than "feeling rich" is evidence of actual wealth.

And yes, there is a danger that the new anti-illegal immigration law in AZ will be used to racially profile individuals.  No fair-minded person can support this kind of abuse.  But it is an abuse.  If we stop enforcing any law that might be abused, we will descend into anarchy.

B.O. appoints another big DNC donor to the bench.  

Ross Douthat spanks Cartoon Network over their easy surrender to Islamo-fascism.

B.O.'s own actuary outlines nine serious problems with ObamaCare.  No, you can't keep your doctor; and yes, premiums will rise.

Yet again our Government Nannies are trying to legislate the basic lessons of good manners.  Tell me they aren't trying to find a substitute for the family structures they have worked so hard to destroy.

Good news in Hungary:  the socialists were outed from power in recent elections.  Let's pray that the center-party that won isn't a nationalist monster.

Ruth Gledhill on the vile anti-Catholic memo circulated in the U.K.'s Foreign Service office:  "What this document illustrates is that repulsive sense of entitlement we sometimes see in the over-educated young and privileged, combined with a taken-for-granted anti-Catholic prejudice that does still persist in our nation, more than a century and a half after the restoration of the hierarchy." You have to wonder if this memo would have caused a stir at all if it hadn't been released to the bishops' conference.

Militant atheist convicted of "anti-social behavior" for leaving offensive tracts in an airport chapel.  I'm surprised he was convicted given the general anti-Christian culture of the U.K. elites.  However, I don't think Christians should be cheering this conviction.  Laws like this one are always double-edged.

Funny announcements from airline captains and flight attendants.   I once heard on a Southwest flight:  "Federal law requires all passengers to obey the instructions of uniformed flight personnel.  Don't pay any attention to the naked ones.  They tend to lie."

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On not resolving the mystery

4th Week of Easter (T)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Podcast

If you are a fan of mystery novels, you know all too well the temptation to start the latest who-dun-it by reading the last chapter first. By sneaking a peek at how the author resolves the mystery, you then feel free to start at the beginning. Literary purists disparage this habit as a sin against the genre; it's cheating; it's a crime worthy of having your library card revoked! The whole point of reading a mystery novel is to enjoy the tension of not knowing who-dun-it, living with the suspense that the clues produce along the way. If you are not willing to put in the work of trying to figure out the mystery, you should probably stick to romance novels, or science fiction and leave the perils of solving puzzles to braver, stronger souls. Among the souls who gather before Jesus at the Portico of Solomon are those who would skip to the end of the mystery and cheat themselves of an adventure. They plead with him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus, the author and main character of creation's greatest mystery, replies, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. . .The Father and I are one.” So, if Jesus has revealed the mystery, if he has already shown them how the story ends, why are they in suspense? Why do these weak souls continue to demand that he end their suspense? Simply put, they know who he is, but they do not believe in him. They have knowledge of his identity, but they do not trust in his ministry.

Here's the thing we need to know about mystery: mystery is not about not knowing; it's not about being ignorant of the relevant facts. You can have all the facts, the critical skills to interpret these facts, and the will to put them all together to form a reasonable conclusion. But even with a reasonable conclusion in mind, with all the facts neatly lined up to support you, you can still have a mystery to contemplate. So, if mystery is not about being ignorant of the facts, then what is it about? Note again what Jesus says to the crowd, “I told you [who I am] and you do not believe.” Knowledge is not enough, knowing is not sufficient to relieve the tension we experience when confronted by the unknown. To understand the mystery of who Christ really is, we must first believe; we must transcend facts, logic, experiment, and evidence, and submit ourselves to the dangerous adventures to be found in trusting Jesus at his word, trusting his work among us: “The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me. . .The Father and I are one.”

It would be too easy at this point to dismiss the art of believing without evidence as a fool's game, a trick to trick the gullible. But dismissing belief as irrational misses the point of what it means to experience mystery. William Blake, the great British Romantic poet, wrote: “Rational truth is not the truth of Christ, but the truth of Pilate.” While Pilate pretends to want a reasonable answer to his question about the nature of truth, all the while hiding his disbelief behind self-righteous suspicion, Christ, the Truth made flesh, stands right in front of him. Pilate has the facts, but he doesn't believe the truth that the facts report. And, like Pilate, those in crowd gathered before Jesus, those tortured by suspense, they know the facts, but they do not believe. And because they do not believe, they cannot hear the voice of their shepherd. They are both blind and deaf to mystery. Their suspense will be eternal.

For those who know the facts about who Christ is and put their trust in the revelation of his words and deeds, the mystery he presents produces joy rather than suspense, hope rather than anxiety. There is no temptation to skip to the end of the story because his word is enough, “I told you [who I am]. . .The Father and I are one.” We don't resolve this mystery, we live it.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

From Reason.com:  "For lefties not versed in the ways of the world, Republicans are standing up for Goldman because they support laissez-faire capitalism and unfettered free markets. Inconveniently for that thesis, Goldman has given more than twice as much money to Democrats as to Republicans in this election cycle."

The fearless irreverence of Comedy Central. . .yea, not so much.  If Catholics declared fatwahs and carried out jihads, we wouldn't be having all these media infidels dissing the Holy Father.  Also, I think the "Let's All Draw Muhammed Day" is a very bad idea. 

Legit ethical questions about medical research, informed consent, and the cultural differences btw scientists and test subjects.  Informed consent is The Bedbug of human-trials research. 

Instapundit gets it exactly right:  "Worry about carbon footprint is for the little people: BBC lectures us incessantly on climate change. So why did their bosses make 68,000 domestic flights in two years? I’ll believe it’s a crisis when the people who keep telling me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis." 

Damien Thompson comments on the sick Labour gov't memo that proposes that the Holy Father launch his own condom brand while visiting the U.K. in September.

The "N-word" is spotted at a Tea Party rally. . .well, sort of.  Also, a great video.

Fr. Z. notes that the Holy Father is planning to issue an apology for the clerical sexual abuse scandals.  He rightly claims that the media will yawn and demand more.  There will be resignations, etc.  However, personnel and policy changes will not eliminate sexual abuse in the Church.  Why?  Because human beings are sinful creatures.

I gotta have one of these:  an antique vampire-killing kit!  Once you are kitted with the Zombie-killing chainsaw machine gun, you need to think about the Other Undead Meat, right?

Various analytical takes on the Legend of the Super Pigeon.  NB.  none of these flying rats live in Rome, but we do host millions of their dumber cousins.

B.O.'s porkulus money is being used for one good public works project at least.

36 Rules of Life: "My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance."

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Tornado in Dixie

Poor ole Mississippi catches hell from tornadoes this time of year.

Pray for these folks, please. 

My parents live well north of the damage area. . .closer to TN.  Our extended family lives in Sunflower Co., which is in the northern part of the delta.

The Impeccable Logic of the Superhero/Circus Non Sequitur