Recently in Quotes, Word, other Miscellaneous Category

Sharia courts for arbitrating Islamic law have been officially adopted in the UK having the full force of the judicial system. Yet another step in the takeover of Europe by the Muslims. Islam is the second largest religion in the United Kingdom with a total of 1,591,000 Muslims (or 2.8% of the total population). This is almost as high as the number of Anglicans (1,808,174) but below Catholics (2,044,911), although these are 1992 numbers and the Muslim numbers are more recent. Although these I think are self-identified numbers; another source I saw said that the 2005 count of baptized Anglicans in England and Wales is 25 million.

(Thanks to Amy M.)

"If I conceived a theological idea that had never occurred to anyone in the past, I would have every reason to think myself mistaken." —Avery Cardinal Dulles, 39th McGinley Lecture

(Thanks to John D.)

I realized something as I gazed today on a classical portrayal of St. Paul preaching yesterday or today or sometime, and that is that it seems to be the custom when religious art is drawn to portray saints without shoes (as this work portrayed St. Paul, and no, sorry, I do not have a link as I forgot where I saw it). Why is this I wonder? This is certainly the case for the icons at my church (although as I look at them, at least two of the full-size icons are not barefoot). Is it more holy to have bare feet? Is that how the people back then really walked? Seems unlikely to me; I thought they wore sandals.

Funny, today going barefoot except if you're going swimming is almost verboten. Certainly you'd never dare do it at an office — even if you could get away with a minimalistic sandal. Once I got a very kind and subtle rebuke (at least I interpreted it as such) for going about work in my socks. And here we are portraying saints in bare feet!

I wish I knew why this was ...

The story of the Russian officer who saved the U.S., arguably the world, from nuclear annihilation. Not about the faith at all but I'm entitled to one of these every once in a while. :-) Simply incredible story.

Thanks to Greg K.

This was sent to me (with approbation, much to my surprise) by a secular friend who is not hostile to religion but definitely an independent thinker with an opinion:

"You have no idea how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic. Without supernatural aid I would hardly be a human being."

— Evelyn Waugh, writer, responding to criticism from his friend Nancy Mitford that his cruelty was inconsistent with his Christianity.

Of course he could have said "Christian" as well. The point being that Jesus Christ transforms us from being the inhuman state we are in and makes us truly human.

For all the nasty things that Christians have done throughout the ages, I'm convinced that non-Christians, especially in last century, have beat them, especially when you distinguish between those who are authentically living out their Christian vocation from those who profess it (or maybe not even that) but do not live it.

Here is the Wikipedia entry on Waugh.

This may come as a surprise to those of you not living in Las Vegas, but there are more Catholic churches than casinos there.

Not surprisingly, some worshippers at Sunday Mass will give casino chips rather than cash when the basket is passed.

Since they get chips from many different casinos, the churches have devices a method to collect the offerings.

The churches send all their collected chips to a nearby Franciscan monastery for sorting and then the chips are taken to the casinos of origin and cashed in.

This is done by the chip monks.

<rim shot>

You didn't even see it coming, did you?

News of the Weird reports one way to unite Jewish Israelis and Muslim Palestinians:

And, though general tensions between Arabs and Jews remain high inside Israel, prominent ultra-Orthodox Jews joined militant Palestinian Muslims in fierce opposition to the November gay-pride parade in Jerusalem, according to a Boston Globe dispatch. (Said activist Rabbi Yehuda Levin, "Only this onslaught of homosexual radicalism could bring together such disparate voices.") [Boston Globe, 11-9-06]

If that's so, I say, let's have more gay pride parades!

G. K. Chesterton said (possibly apocryphally), "When people cease to believe in God, they do not believe in nothing; they believe in anything." Few things illustrate this better than this phenomenon. No, I'm not referring to the phenomenon of the "orbs", I'm referring the phenomenon of those who believe that they are the work of aliens, or ghosts, or fairies, or what have you.

For those not sufficiently game to click, the Wikipedia article refers to a phenomena where strange circular objects appear in photographs. Scientific types attribute it to dust, rain, or other particles in the air interacting with flashes, or otherwise some trick of lighting. True believers though are convinced that spirits are trying to communicate with them through the orbs, or that they are spirits trying to protect them.

It is amazing to me in this day and age that people can buy into such stuff, and be so convinced of junk spirituality. Though I suppose that many scientific types would say the same about us and our faith.

(With the permission of Gospel Communication Incorporated and ReverendFun.com)

(Not sure why he didn't say 6/6/2106)

Seriously ... it's funny how so many people were predicting the Apocalypse. Perhaps these weren't bible-believing folks; I say that because nothing whatsoever in the Scriptures would suggest that 6/6/6 would be the date of the Apocalypse. It says, of course, that 666 is the number of a man, not the number of a date. Maybe these people were just scammers trying to take advantage of ignorant people. I don't know.

To me, as a person who loves patterned dates (e.g., 1/1/1, 1/2/3, etc. — is there a name for this?) it was just a cool date, just like an odometer reading (yes I love those too), only a little special because it had a different meaning from 1/1/1 and 5/5/5. (A Christian friend of mine is holding out for 7/7/7.) Ok, so maybe it was a birth date that one might suffer teasing and ridicule about all one's life, but beyond all that, it meant nothing. But I guarantee you, in June 3006, assuming the Lord hasn't come by then, there will be people proclaiming the Apocalypse.

Apropos Speedbump Comic

That's what I thought when I saw this photo, but no — they are Palestinians in support of Hamas (hence the green getup).

In case anyone might be interested: Catholic Distance U. (cdu.edu) is preparing to offer a new intro course in canon law taught by Peter Vere, STL.

A description is on-line and you can reach Pete at petevere@gmail.com (though procedural
questions should probably be directed to CDU).

I got the following press release excerpt from the Catholic League from a friend that had me ROTFL:

WAL-MART HAS BEEN PUT ON NOTICE

Bill Donohue commented today on the latest development
in the Catholic League’s fight with Wal-Mart:

“Yesterday, I announced a boycott of Wal-Mart and
asked 126 religious organizations that span seven
faith communities to join with us. We want a) an
apology for insulting Christians by effectively
banning Christmas and b) a withdrawal of its insane
statement regarding the origins of Christmas and c) a
revision on its website.

“The piece today by Joe Kovacs on worldnetdaily.com
quotes Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jolanda Stewart saying,
‘We already serve a diverse customer base, and we’re
just trying to help them to celebrate their individual
needs and wants.’ I thought Wal-Mart was a department
store—not a Wellness Center.

“Stewart’s remark is flatulent. . . .

I think what we have here is a hilarious malapropism. I suspect what he meant to say was "fatuous", "marked by want of intelligence and rational consideration; especially : marked by futile ill-founded hope or desire, by witless complacent disregard of reality, or by inane lack of consideration." Although I suppose "flatulent" makes a good synonym for this.

It just seemed rather improbable to hear the word "flatulent" come out of a Catholic League press release.

(By the way, I think there are many much better reasons to boycott Walmart than this one, as I've pointed out before.)

Source

I thought I'd share this quote from The Way of the Fathers:

He who sees any evil in his neighbor and keeps silent about it acts like the surgeon who looks at his friend's wound and will not cure it.
—Pope St. Gregory the Great

Try goat — very low in fat, low in cholesterol, and tasty!

Someday I will try it myself — probably at a local Indian restaurant I know serves it.

In an article about Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans (the most powerful in history), it was noted that "[Bryan Steven's] wife, wearing a Bourbon Street T-shirt with a lewd message, interjected: 'I just don't want to die in this shirt.'"

Well put, Mrs. Steven.

I got a fundraising letter from a Catholic apostolate a few weeks ago basically saying that they were in dire, dire straits and needed money pronto. You've seen the appeals before. I've heard rumors of financial mismanagement at this apostolate some years ago but it was hard to tell if they were justified (they came from a former employee so you can see how credible they were). But anyway, I had pity on them and sent them a donation double the size of what I would normally give at one time.

Today I get another letter from them. It's a copy of the first, plus a cover letter saying that they had reason to believe that their letters were not getting delivered, that people had told them they didn't get it, and would I please 1) Acknowledge that I got the original letter; 2) Help out with an emergency donation.

Well I had already given what I had chosen to give, and I had no intention of giving more. I despise it when someone asks for money twice. Parishes do this all the time when they give you extra envelopes for a "special monthly collection" or make up some excuse to get you to pony up some more. (I wouldn't object to an honest, "We still need more money, if you can, please give more.) Anyway there is more to it. It seems that there was no way to "acknowledge" receipt of the letter. Enclosed was the same form sent in the original letter designed to accompany and document a donation. Nothing at all that said "I acknowledge that I received the original letter". In fact, there would be no way they could distinguish responses from the first letter from responses to the second letter, hence no way to count acknowledgements. In other words, I suspect the whole "mail was lost, please acknowledge" schtick is a scam designed to get you to give more money.

I happen to know personally the person who runs this apostolate so I thought I'd send him a note. I wrote:

Dear XXXXXX,

May God bless abundantly the work of XXXXXX,
Eric

The response I got back was, "Thanks, Eric, both for the note and the donation. Yeah, I guess there was an imprecision in 'information transferral'!" That's it — not very substantial. Doesn't really resolve my doubts.

Home

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."
—Michael Althsuler

"The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold."
—Aristotle

A priest falls on hard times and is forced to sell his beloved horse.
He explains to the new owner, "Remember now, you say, "Praise the Lord" to go and "Amen" to stop."
"Okay, I've got it!" the new owner says, and says, "Giddap" to no
result.
"Oh yeah, Praise the Lord" he says, and the horse starts off. This is
nice, but I'd like to go a bit faster, he says to himself, so he says, "Praise the Lord" again, and goes a bit faster. This continues a few
more times until he is running along very fast. There is a cliff ahead.
"Stop, Whoa, Stop, Oh yeah, Amen!!!!!"
The horse stops an inch from the edge of the cliff.
The guy wipes his brow and sighs, "Praise the Lord".

There is a good article on the Eastern Catholic churches in Crisis Magazine this month. I learned that John Paul II's mother was Eastern Catholic, which was an exciting fact for me. No wonder he had such an interest in the Eastern Churches.

Did you know that "It's a rosy lie" is an anagram of "social security"?

(Ok, so that's a Gen X'er's cynical view of it.)

"Even to the death fight for truth, and the Lord your God will battle for you."
—Sirach 4:28

For the über-geek in your life

(Thanks, Caleb!)

Merriam-Webster compiles a list of the twenty most frequently looked-up words on their website. For April, the number 5 word was pontiff, and the number 9 word was conclave. Blog was number 13; I'm impressed that they even had it.

Also read the amusing story behind insipid, #3.

"The unexamined tradition is not worth discarding." — Me (with apologies to Socrates)

I thought this one up while coining the word "neophilia" (love of what is new) to describe that tendency we see nowadays of being attracted to anything new. You see this attitude in many places: consumer goods, media, etc. Anything that is new, is good!

However not wanting to be a neophobe (one who fears what is new), either, or cling to tradition for the sake of tradition alone, and wanting to acknowledge a place for the new but also a place for the old, I decided that I can respect someone who embraces what is new after carefully examining that which is old and finding it wanting. Otherwise, to discard the old without examining it is a form of paleophobia (don't you love all these terms!), fear of the old, or perhaps neomania, being a bit too crazy about the new. Or maybe it is just indifference and lack of care. Either extreme is worthy of censure: clinging to the old out of fear of the new, or summarily rejecting the old out of an addiction to the new.

I think this is relevant to the faith because so many people today reject the faith without truly understanding it. Anything that is "modern" is preferable to the faith, regardless of whether it's been carefully reasoned or not. People don't give the faith a chance, allowing themselves to be carried away by the culture. I have more respect for someone who has studied the faith, reasoned through it, and rejected it than for someone who rejects it simply because it is old.

http://www.doxaweb.com/ratzenfreude.html

An adorable little papal teddy bear. Don't plan on ordering one though; only 265 of them have been made and they start at €160.

Hilarious humor posted to The Curt Jester.

Thanks to John Desmond.

John Paul traveled the equivalent of 30 times the circumference of the earth during his reign.

colporteur (KAWL-por-tuhr) noun

A peddler of religious books.

[From French colporteur (peddler), from col (neck) + porter (to carry), from Latin portare, from the idea of a peddler carrying his wares in a bag hung around his neck. Ultimately from Indo-European root per- (to lead, pass over) that gave us other words such as support, comport, petroleum, sport, passport, Swedish fartlek (a training technique), Norwegian fjord (bay), and Sanskrit parvat (mountain).]

"By then, because a Seventh-Day Adventist colporteur had come into
Croscombe selling religious tracts, his parents had joined that Church,
and Hardy became a keen member of it."
The Rev Bertram Hardy; The Times (London, UK); Mar 27, 2003.

[Excerpted from A Word A Day]

Do they really check your signature on credit card transactions? You can find the entertaining answer here.

Quote from the Wall Street Journal today, "Saying 'No' to Free Money":

More than three-quarters of doctors feel it is "medically ethical" to remove Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, according to a survey of 851 physicians conducted this week by the Louis Finkelstein Institute for Religious and Social Studies and HCD Research.

I just read the statistic that 70% of annulments are granted in the U.S. What a sad statistic.

Of course this is as much a reflection on our poorly catechized, worldly Catholic population as it is an indictment of "liberal" tribunal judges. For all we know it could hardly be the judges at all. In any case, something is very wrong.

This classic comes from a Catholic elementary school. Kids were asked questions about the Old and New Testaments. The following statements about the Bible were written by children. They have not been retouched or corrected. (Incorrect spelling has been left in.)

In the first book of the bible, Guinessis, God got tired of creating the world, so he took the Sabbath off.

Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. Noah's wife was called Joan of Ark. Noah built an ark, which the animals come on to in pears.

Lot's wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire by night.

The Jews were a proud people and throughout history they had trouble with the unsympathetic Genitals.

Samson was a strong man who let himself be led astray by a Jezebel like Delilah.

Samson slayed the Philistines with the axe of the Apostles.

Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread which is bread without any ingredients.

The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten ammendments.

The first commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple.

The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.

Moses died before he ever reached Canada. Then Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol.

The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.

David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fought with the Finklesteins, race of people who lived in Biblical times.

Solomon, one of David's sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.

When Mary heard that she was the mother of Jesus, she sang the Magna Carta.

When the three wise guys from the East side arrived, they found Jesus in the manager.

Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption.

St. John the blacksmith dumped water on his head.

Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which says to do one to others before they do one to you. He also explained, "a man doth not live by sweat alone."

It was a miracle when Jesus rose from the dead and managed to get the tombstone off the entrance.

The people who followed the Lord were called the 12 decibels.

The epistles were the wives of the apostles.

One of the oppossums was St. Matthew who was also a taximan.

St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached holy acrimony, which is another name for marriage.

Christians have only one spouse. This is called monotony.

The Passion: Recut opens in theaters tomorrow. Make plans to go see it before Easter! No excuse this time since much of the gore has been removed.

Today is 3/4/5!

I think it should be a holiday.

I missed celebrating 2/3/4 last year. Can't remember about 1/2/3.

I'll be doing this until 12/13/14!

Fr. Peter Stravinskas, well-known author, is hosting a pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land, June 17th-June 30th. Fr. Stravinskas knows his stuff, I'd highly recommend this. The pilgrimage is being organized under the auspices of The Catholic Response, Fr. Stravinskas' Catholic apologetics magazine. The cost is $3,675 plus $150 in departure taxes. For more information you can contact Peter's Way Tours at 800-225-7662, or either Fr. Stravinkas or Fr. Nicholas Gregoris at 402-733-2423.

Ever wanted to go on retreat and be a hermit for a week or even just a few days?

A friend was doing a little reading up on the Disney-produced "The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" movie and clicked onto a link
to a site devoted to C.S. Lewis. Their quote for today:

"He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it
hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart."
&mdash Letters to an American Lady

I wanted to highlight something Marty Helgesen wrote in a comment box:

Catholics who want to participate in the evangelization of the South might want to join the Society of Sts. Francis Xavier and Therese. Members mail brochures to people in southern states and other parts of the country with small Catholic populations inviting them to take free correspondence courses in the teachings of the Church. There are no membership fees or dues and the brochures and mailing lists are provided free. The only cost is a 23 cent stamp a day and the few minutes it takes to address a double postcard and pray for the recipient. The courses are provided by the Catholic Home Study Service and Catholics as well as non-Catholics are invited to enroll. Anyone interested in joining can request further information from the Society of Sts. Francis Xavier and Therese:

In Conversation With God by Francis Fernandez (published by Scepter Press) is an excellent devotional book I've been reading for many years now and highly recommend to all. It's published by Opus Dei folks and will challenge you in your faith, I guarantee it. If you've ever read spiritual works that are full of "And I learned from Mother Superior that when in the refrectory, I mustn't ..." and wondered if there was something that would speak to you in your state of life, whether at work or in school, this is the devotional for you. Unabashedly orthodox, it gives practical tips on living the Christian life in the world. It follows the liturgical calendar and readings (naturally), and each day is divided into three sections you can read morning, noon, and night or afternoon. He quotes the Scriptures, the Fathers, the Saints, the Popes (especially John Paul), and St. Escriva. Occasionally it gets a bit heavy on the sentimentalism — sometimes I have to gag at how he speculates on what this or that saint would have done (my favorite is how Jesus and St. Joseph would have always carefully cleaned and put their tools away whenever they were done with them) — but it is a flaw that can easily be overlooked.

Unfortunately Amazon doesn't have samples you can read. If I had a larger audience I'd type in a segment for you. But I'll give you yesterday's headings. The topic says, "The existence of the devil and his activity." The sections were "The devil exists and acts in people and society. His activity is mysterious, but real and effective.", "Who the devil is. His power is limited. We need divine help in order to conquer.", "Jesus Christ vanquishes the devil. Trust in Christ. Means that we have to use. Holy Water." He quotes Scripture 12 times, church councils four times (three are SVC), St. Irenaeus, Ven. Cdl. Newman, Cassian, St. Jean Vianny, St. John of the Cross, St. Escriva, and four times quotes St. oops John Paul II. All and all an excellent, edifying book.

(as we'd say in New England)

This has got to be the coolest thing I've seen in a long time.

(Thanks, Caleb!)

Some people think, perhaps with some reason, that the Pope wears an odd-looking hat. Ain't nuthin compared to this one sported by the King of Nepal.

(Ok, so maybe it doesn't count 100%, but it's still funny.)

"Let the famous Benedictine dual conept, Ora et Labora, be for you, my brothers and sisters, an inexhaustible source of true wisdom, of sure equilibrium, of human perfection. May prayer give wings to your work, purify your intentions, and defend you from the perils of boredom and carelessness; and may your work, after your exertions, allow you to rediscover the invigorating force of the encounter with God, in whom we once more recover our true, great stature. Ora et labora!" (Pope John Paul II, Address to workers, Turin, 13 April 1980, quoted in Agenda for the Third Millenium, p. 156)

Rae Stabosz writes:

I'm putting together a panel discussion for the upcoming ConSecration I SF convention sponsored by the Christian Science Fiction, Fantasy and Gaming Society. The convention will be held March 11-13 in Chicago. See http://consecration-con.org/ for details.

Would anyone like to join me on the panel? You'd have to come to ConSecration on your own dime (this is a self-supporting con) but it will be lots of fun and if you live near Chicago, it could be fairly inexpensive. I'm looking to maximize the Catholic participation. And if you are a professional author, we'll get them to put you on the web page and in the adverts as a Pro Guest.

The topic will be "Sex, Violence, and the Christian Speculative Writer." It's a topic of interest to me especially because my friend Mark Rogers writes some of the most violent and sexually explicit SF fare I know of that is also perfectly and beautifully theologically correct (he is a Catholic writer.) Also as a Pauline Cooperator I have participated in discussions of what it means to "meet the culture where it is at" and "uplift the culture with one's art." What makes this fun for me is that I have no hard and fast POV on what's appropriate and what is not — just a bunch of resources and opinions.

I may be able to find you someone to share a room with.

Email me at stabosz@UDel.Edu if you are interested.

"Safeguard above all the integrity of the word of God and of Christian teaching. ... Spare no effort in seeing that the word of Scripture reaches the hands of everyone, even if this entails much work and sacrifice."

— Pope John Paul II, To the Prelates of the Hungarian Episcopal Conference, September 7th, 1996

diriment (DIR-uh-ment) adjective

Nullifying.

[From diriment-em, present participle of dirimere (to separate or interrupt), from emere (to take). Ultimately from Indo-European root em- (to take or distribute) that is also the source of words such as example, sample, assume, consume, prompt, ransom, vintage, and redeem.]

"Arguably, sometime Illinois senatorial candidate Jack Ryan is a cad. One might even contend that he is a dummy. However, neither of these characteristics have ever been a diriment impediment to service in the United States Senate."
Andrew Greeley; Will Voters Reject the Media Feeding Frenzy?; Chicago Sun Times; Jul 2, 2004.

"Thus are we able to report that the Bishop of London's hamster has shuffled off the treadmill, that there is a lively correspondence over whether Worzel Gummidge may lawfully marry Aunt Sally ('surely there are two diriment impediments to such a union')."
Mike Amos; John North - In Search of Kate Adie; Northern Echo (Darlington, UK); Sep 27, 2001.

[I'm posting this since it's a term used in canon law and I didn't know what it meant until I got this in my A Word A Day (www.wordsmith.org) subscription.]