Snow in El Dorado

It is very unusual to get snow of any quantity down here in the sunny south where the Gulf of Mexico is usually our big weather maker. A combination of a cold front from the north and moist air from the south have combined to create quite a snow for us. Everybody is quitting work and going home. The schools got out at noon after the snow started coming down. I have a wake tonight and a funeral tomorrow. I just hope the musicians will be there. Our organist-choirmaster is stuck in Louisville, KY where he was attending the ACDA convention (American Choral Directors Association). Anyway, we'll enjoy this snow while it lasts.

Now I'm a mandarin

I'm a Mandarin!

You're an intellectual, and you've worked hard to get where you are now. You're a strong believer in education, and you think many of the world's problems could be solved if people were more informed and more rational. You have no tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking. It frustrates you when people who are ignorant or dishonest rise to positions of power. You believe that people can make a difference in the world, and you're determined to try.

Talent: 51%
Lifer: 28%
Mandarin: 59%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

What kind of sports car are you?

I'm a Lamborghini Murcielago!

You're not subtle, but you don't want to be. Fast, loud, and dramatic, you want people to notice you, and then get out of the way. In a world full of sheep, you're a raging bull.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Amazing!

Finally, someone!

Bedlam in the Spirit

In 18th century London, an Sunday afternoon's recreation might consist in going to the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem (shortened to "Bedlam" from where we get the word) to watch the poor, insane, inmates roll, scream, and jump around. Such gazing on the insane was later judged unseemly, and the hospital was eventually turned into the Imperial War Museum (trading one insanity for another). Watching this video of a group on Indian pentecostals is almost as sick. Of course the people who produced it thought it was something beautiful for God. That's sick, too.

Cindy Sheehan agitates in Egypt for the Muslim Brotherhood

If you don't believe it, click here: http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/019944.php

Tuesday nights in Lent

Our parish will be having a series of lectures called Tuesday Nights in Lent. It will consist of Vespers and Eucharist at 5:30, followed by a simple supper in the parish hall. At 6:30 I will give a talk on various topics. Tonight is on "Prayer." The subsequent Tuesdays will cover liturgical music, forgiveness, hospitality and the liturgies of Holy Week. Indications show that these will be well attended.

False rumor about the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem

A false rumor concerning His Beatitude Michel Sabbah, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, is circulating at the moment. According to it, His Beatitude visited Africa: Congo, Rwanda, etc. He was hospitalized following an accident, and is asking for urgent financial support to cover the costs of medical care. All of this information is false. His Beatitude is in Jerusalem and is doing very well, thanks be to God. Please ignore these rumors.

Fr. Humam Khzouz
Chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate
of Jerusalem

Brother Martin Gocke, OSB

I have received word that my confrere, Brother Martin, passed away at 9:45 a.m., Sunday. He professed his vows as monk of our monastery on May 1, 1947. He was an interesting man. For many years he worked in the Abbey kitchen. He was a simple monk who has gone to his reward. May God bless and receive him as a faithful servant.

Like being a pastor

Ave Maria

Bobby McFerrin takes on Bach.

Video from the funeral of Archduke Charles Ludwig in the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Vienna

Tantum ergo is sung to the magnificent Kaisarhymne of Haydn.

Death of His Imperial Highness Charles Ludwig, of Austria-Hungary

His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Carl Ludwig Maria Franz Joseph Michael Gabriel Antonius Robert Stephan Pius Gregor Ignatius Markus d'Aviano of Austria, also known as Carl Ludwig Habsburg-Lothringen, died on 11 December 2007. (Born, March 10, 1918) He was the fifth child of Blessed Charles I of Austria and Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma. He was born in Baden, Austria, and died in Brussels.
He was married in Beloeil on 17 January 1950 to Princess Yolande of Ligne (born May 6, 1923). They had four children:
Archduke Rudolf (b. 1950) married Marie Hélène de Villenfagne de Vogelsanck. Eight children.
Archduchess Alexandra (b. 1952) married Héctor Riesle Contreras. Three children.
Archduke Carl Christian (b. 1954) married Princess Marie Astrid of Luxembourg. Five children.
Archduchess Maria Constanza (b. 1957) married Franz Josef, Prince (Fürst) von Auersperg-Trautson. Three biological daughters (one died shortly after her birth) and one adopted daughter.

The Archduke joined the US army in 1943, and participated in the D-Day invasion. He was honorably discharged in 1947. His Imperial and Royal Highness was buried in the Capuchin crypt in Vienna after a funeral service in the Cathedral of St. Stephen, presided over by the Papal Nuncio. Requescat in pace.

Zaporozhian Cossacks---interestingly anti-islam

I recommend the following for some historical stuff on the Cossacks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporozhian_Host

http://turbanbomb.blogspot.com/2007/09/surrender-up-yours.html

Nothing like telling the Sultan where to go!

Oriana Fallaci

“A moderate Islam does not exist. It does not exist because there is no difference between Good Islam and Bad Islam. There is Islam and that it the end of it. Islam is the Koran, and nothing other than the Koran. And the Koran is the Mein Kampf of a religion that desires to eliminate others- non -Muslims-who are called infidel dogs, and inferior creatures. Read the Koran, that Mein Kampf, yet again. In whatever version and you will see that the evil which the sons of Allah against us and themselves has perpetrated comes from that book”. (Oriana Fallaci”The Force of Reason” AMEN!

Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, OP, priest, friar, doctor of the Church

Thomas Aquinas' feast day is today.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) lived at a critical juncture of western culture when the arrival of the Aristotelian corpus in Latin translation reopened the question of the relation between faith and reason, calling into question the modus vivendi that had obtained for centuries. This crisis flared up just as universities were being founded. Thomas, after early studies at Montecassino, moved on to the University of Naples, where he met members of the new Dominican Order. It was at Naples too that Thomas had his first extended contact with the new learning. When he joined the Dominican Order he went north to study with Albertus Magnus, author of a paraphrase of the Aristotelian corpus. Thomas completed his studies at the University of Paris, which had been formed out of the monastic schools on the Left Bank and the cathedral school at Notre Dame. In two stints as a regent master Thomas defended the mendicant orders and, of greater historical importance, countered both the Averroistic interpretations of Aristotle and the Franciscan tendency to reject Greek philosophy. The result was a new modus vivendi between faith and philosophy which survived until the rise of the new physics. Thomas's theological writings became regulative of the Catholic Church and his close textual commentaries on Aristotle represent a cultural resource which is now receiving increased recognition. The following account concentrates on Thomas the philosopher and presents him as fundamentally an Aristotelian. (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/)

One of my favorite saints, I used him greatly in teaching. I wish that I had had time to study him more when I was in the seminary.

Prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas: Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you,a heart to seek you, wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you, faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you. Amen.

Another prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas: [Recited in Preparation for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass]
Almighty and ever-living God, I approach the sacrament of your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I come sick to the Doctor of Life, unclean to the Fountain of Mercy, blind to the Radiance of Eternal Light, and poor and needy to the Lord of Heaven and Earth. Lord, in your great generosity, heal my sickness, wash away my defilement, enlighten my blindness, enrich my poverty, and clothe my nakedness. May I receive the bread of angels, the King of kings and the Lord of lords with humble reverence and with the purity and faith, the repentance and love, and the determined purpose that will help to bring me salvation. May I receive the Lord’s body and blood, and its reality and power. Kind God, may I receive the Body of your only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, born from the womb of the Virgin Mary, and so be received into His Mystical Body and numbered among his members. Loving Father, as on my earthly pilgrimage I now receive your beloved Son under the veil of a sacrament, may I one day see Him face to face in glory, who lives and reigns with you forever. AMEN.

B16 to the Slovenian Bishops

Zenit.org "Not all forms of humanism are the same," he added, "nor are they equivalent in moral terms. I am not referring here to religious aspects, but limit myself to ethical and social questions. The various visions of man that can be adopted have consequences for civil coexistence. If, for example, man is conceived -- following a widespread modern tendency -- in individualistic terms, how can we justify efforts for the construction of a more just and united community?"

"Each generation is called to renew the choice between life and goodness and death and evil. We as pastors have the duty to show Christians the path of life, that they in their turn may become the salt and light of society. I encourage the Church in Slovenia, then, to respond to materialist and selfish culture with a coherent evangelizing activity that begins in parishes."

The Huck and the Second Amendment

Diversity

There are many who believe that the politically correct concept of "diversity" is something that makes life better for everyone. Diversity is, of course, the bastard child of "multiculturalism," i.e., the idea that all cultures and their characteristic "values" are equal. This is an idea that should be resisted by everyone. It was brought home to me by someone mentioning the absurd idea that it is wonderful that there are so many different Christian denominations---as if that were something to rejoice in---and by the presentations at the National Pastoral Musicians convention in Indianapolis in July of last year. There we had contemporary Catholic liturgy served with a large helping of multiculturalism and two scoops of diversity. It was silly.

Look, the only reason why these other Christian bodies exist is because we Catholics didn't do our job right.

If we had fulfilled the mission that Christ gave us at his Ascension, then the world would've been evangelized, the Gospel preached, and those who came to Faith would've been baptized and joined to his body. It is a shame, and it is contrary to the desire of Christ himself (See the Last Supper discourse in the Gospel of John.) Of course, we can't go back and change history, but we should be able to learn from it, you'd think.

The work of Christian ecumenicism is not to rejoice in diversity in the essentials of the Faith. There is no room for diversity in the essentials, that's why they are essentials. The existence of different rites, and spiritualities are diversities of the non-essential variety, and to be gloried in. But the Faith itself is only one, as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one, and for which Christ prayed so earnestly on the night before his death. To pretend otherwise is simply to fall into religious indifferentism, and no Catholic can hold to that.