Is Frodo the Virgin Mary?

On the way to Mass this morning, I had something on the radio, not sure what the program was, one voice, of several, I recognized as Scott Hahn. (They were having one of those "discussions" where everyone seems to already know what everyone else has thought of, and thoroughly agrees with it - more like a multi-voice lecture than anything else.)
They were discussing the "story" of the Nativity, and mentioned that the Hero, being a baby, is pretty passive, and it made me question: if we do approach the birth of Christ as a story, a drama, is He the hero of it?

Isn't the Blessed Mother? It is her fiat that sets the story in motion, or at least the part of the story that is open to human perception, the part that occurs in time and space and history, instead of unchangingly out of time and space and history.
And this girl alone is there from the beginning, from the angel's shocking announcement.
It is her willingness to make the journeys, some literal, some metaphorical; her willingness to suffer, a sword piercing her heart, as Simeon was to prophesy, for what for she alone of all human creatures bears no responsibility; her willingness to take on the appearance of transgressive behavior for which the punishment is death; her willingness to trust in the Lord with no assurances of how it all will end except that it is what He wills...

The small, seemingly insignificant character; essentially powerless, an onlooker might suppose; destined to be a supporting player at best in a story that would be of interest to anyone else... on whose shoulders the fate of all the earth rests?

Doesn't that pretty much describe both Blessed Mary Ever Virgin and the little hobbit?

Speaking of Kryptonite...

... sin is ours.
It is poison.
It is toxic.
There is no "mercy" in sitting back sipping your post-prandial port or brandy while someone else is enjoying poison.
And it is even worse to pass him the decanter.

"I say, old boy, I wouldn't touch it, but feel free... care for a splash with that anti-freeze?  Carson, would you fetch---"

"Don't be an ass....he will have a syrup of ipecac cocktail and stop being so suburban.".

The Synod, the Church as a Hospital for Sinners, and the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and Why Accompaniment is Not Always the Merciful Thing to Do

My child is very ill.

Alas, let us see what we can do for him.

I fear my child is dying!

How tragic, is there some service we can perform

 to ease his suffering, or some dream that he has, 

that we can help him to fulfill in the little time 

he has left? 

Why yes, thank you, so kind, he's always wanted...

We've taken care of it, it is all arranged, it's 

the least we can do, if only there were 

something more.

He'll be so pleased

By the way, what is his malady?

He has contracted....

But God be praised! Do you not know? We have a 

cure for that! But there is no time to be wasted, 

he must be treated immediately if he is to live!

Are you kidding? We don't have time for
that crap- we're going to Disney 
World!

"It's a Large World, After All! It's a..."

I have thought more than once lately, that I need to remember that not every Catholic lives in the south east of the United States, and my experiences are not universal, and what seems obvious or essential to American Catholics may not be so at all for Catholics in other parts of the world - the 4 year annulment process in Argentina? the polygamy situation in Africa? crony capitalism in the former communist bloc or in Latin America?

Not everything is about you, 

America, stop being so self-centered!

And some journalists and pundits who ought to know better take issue with Pope Francis's view of world affairs because he, obviously, sees things from a different point from us 'Muricans, not taking into account that, hey, we Americans are not necessarily more objective, (and if there is any nation given to the surprise when other parts of the world do things differently, isn't that us? don't tell me you've never seen someone trying to get coffee in a Chinese restaurant, I shan't believe you.)
Now, I'm not letting him off the hook entirely, while I think the statement from some Synod father or other about letting some doctrines be decided upon regionally is... what's the word? oh, yeah, CRACKED OUT.... there is something to be said for knowing your audience.
We've all met people who suffer from scrupulosity around whom no criticism must be uttered, because they, to whom said criticism does not apply, will be the only ones who take it to heart, and they, in fixing what was not in them broken, will go off the deep end and be covered with Crazy Glue.
And sometimes lack of specificity is just laziness - more than once I've been in a cast that during notes was told volume was a problem, and when questioned as to when and who was not loud enough a director just said, everything, generally.
Then next night in notes, inevitably someone is scolded, you're too loud now, you were fine before, you weren't who I meant.
Well, then.....?

But anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah...
If there were more proof needed that the nation from which cometh this Pope is not like unto ours, read this:

Two judges in Argentina have given a pedophile a reduced sentence because his 6-year-old victim had already been sexually abused and showed “homosexual tendencies”....

Court papers show that judges ... reduced the sentence of soccer club coach Mario Tolosa who in 2010 was charged with raping the unnamed boy. Tolosa’s sentence was reduced from six years to 38 months because the boy was used to such abuse from his father....

The two judges have a long record of reducing sentences for sexual and gender-based crimes. In the past, they have justified a pastor’s rape of two teenage girls because they belonged to a lower economic class, lowered the sentence of a man who raped his daughter because she gave contradictory statements in court and reduced the sentence of a man who murdered his wife from 17 years to 10 because the woman’s attitude was “almost provocative”.

Wow. A woman dared to be "almost provocative."
Wonder what the murderer would have done had she be actually provocative...

Soylent Green Planned Parenthood Clinic Workers and Hand Washing

Frankly, I'd be fine if something like that that were the straw that broke the camels back and led to the shuttering of the facility.

Is focusing on such trivialities harassment? Indubitably.

Let's not foget that Al Capone finally went to prison for tax evasion.
If the person responsible for this -

 

  - was finally brought down by accounting, well, there - math DOES have a purpose.

(Thought I'd give the Nazi metaphors a rest....)

Speaking of the Seamless Garment...

... I can embrace that concept without having to deny a certain obvious truth.

Some holes in your clothes are waaaaay worse than others.

See? not so bad....

  

On the other hand...

Purgatory, Explained

God's mudroom.
(Filed under, Everything I Need To Know, I Learned From Better Homes and Gardens )

"The Tradition That Unites Us To Christ"

A very nice testimonial, essentially, from the Canons Regular of St John Cantius, to the great Francis Cardinal George, of happy memory.

The Liturgy, along with Sacred Scripture, is the primary carrier of the tradition that unites us to Christ.

(From an interview His Eminence gave last October.) 

I hadn't read the interview at the time - George rightly calls the interviewer, (albeit gently,) for phrasing a question in a way that presumes, and therefore helps spread, an untruth.
And he pulls no punches on the translation the current Missal translation replaced, (after graciously admitting that his opinion is perforce biased):

...the first full translation of the missal of Paul VI was ideologically charged..... the loss of the theology of grace, the domestication of God, the paraphrasing that deliberately omitted nuances of understanding, the deliberate omission of biblical references in the liturgical text itself, etc. left the church for forty years without a way of worship that adequately expressed our faith. This was clear for those of us who used the Roman missal in Spanish during those years; their translation was far more adequate. The bishops had the obligation to see that the translation into English of the third edition of the Roman Missal was faithful and also able to be used communally. I believe it has been well done.

And,

Some of the expressions in the Prefaces are a bit “clunky,” but the collects are truly beautiful if a priest takes the time to interiorize the structure of  dependent clauses and use his voice so that the prayer is comprehensible to the faithful. Normally, people paid little attention to the collect; they couldn’t tell you what the priest said as soon as they sat down. Hopefully, a more deliberate style of declamation with a more adequate text will help draw people into a climate of worship and prepare them to hear the Word of God in Scripture.

Amen and amen.
I've said it more than anyone cares to hear, in so many cases, the phrasing, the orator's rhetorical techniques utilized in the, ordering of the words acts like stage lighting, or a singer's expressive breaths to draw attention to key words, emphasize parallels, highlight the center of the prayer -- time after time I find myself turning over a phrase I'd never noticed before for hours after morning Mass, sometimes days.
If unacustommed to the syntax or vocabulary, a celebrant finds that he needs to focus, to pause, to slow down, TO SPEAK WITH GREATER CARE THAN USUAL - is that not all to the good?

(Full disclosure, I am a member of the flock of a shepherd who says Mass as if a meter is about to run out, and a parking ticket will mean financial ruin for us all...)

Frank Bruni Seeks To School the Church on "Valuing" Women

The Times columnist compares Pope Francis to a potato chip vendor lecturing on obesity.
 
I'd say Bruni's like a vegan presuming to pronounce on the quality of Morton's ribeyes...

Funeral Wishes, Funeral Liturgies, Funeral Music

If you are reading this, and haven't already done so, I urge you to make your wishes known to someone who is in a position to see to it that your desires are accomplished, (and if you are a member of a liturgical denom, check with TPTB to insure that the are appropriate, or at least judged so  now. Thinks change.)

At my old parish we often encountered lapsed, apostate or functionally pagan survivors who really didn't care that Aunt Millicent was a daily communicant, they weren't going to put up with any of that priestly mumbo jumbo, nice flowers and some jokey family reminiscence at a funeral parlor would do, well, okay, ya call yourself reverend or father? no mind, you can come along and say some words if ya want.

Wait, what's this going to cost us?

This despite the fact that my parish put a great deal of effort into funerals and never took a fee for a parishioner's or a parishioner's dear ones obsequies.

Cardinal Egan's send-off will, I presume take his stated wishes into account.

One final point: Asked what he would like played at his own funeral, Egan answered:

I didn't expect that question, and let me tell you what I would do if I had the opportunity. And, I would say that if it ever were possible for me to choose what it would be, it would be the Perosi Requiem. I don't know what'll happen, but if they did have the Perosi Requiem, it would be wonderful.

As far as much of Perosi's output is concerned, IMO, Catholic ceremonial was deprived 
unceremoniously of it in the wake of the Changes, in a baby and bathwater kinda way.

(The "Changes"? the Bride of Christ going through menopause? Hmmmm, may have to explore that idea, picking my way through the minefield of sacrilege that is Ecclesialogical metaphor....)

Synodal Sausage

I feel as if, how to put this? too many people, and people in media who should know better, are treating the notes for several opposing lawyers conflicting summations as if they were a ruling handed down by the court.

On the other hand, should we blame secular news media? I mean, if you are going to be cagey about press and public's access to what's going on, and then you release a multi-page doc, the relatio post disceptationem, to the press and public, you've go to expect folks to give it weight that it might not deserve.
Especially if said folks are highly invested in the results, (although seriously, why do non-Catholic, actually non-theist types, who have no intention of living their lives according to Church teaching, and think, or at least like to pretend to think that the Church is irrelevant, give a rodent's hind quarters what that teaching is? or may become, if you are so dim as to think it can change?)

The other analogy that comes to mind, what with the wailing and gnashing of teeth in concert with the gloating and dancing int the end zone?

Sausage tastes far better than one might fear from watching what goes into it.
Best to avert your eyes if you are weak of heart or stomach. (I have stopped talking to Himself about it.)

Religious (w)Rangling of RugRats.

RugRat Religious Wrangling, which, yes, that's what I've decided to call Sunday School, currently occupies very little of my time, but excessive amounts of my thought.

Tying to get a handle on being engaging while getting in content.

Thought I was so brilliant, the idea of the Faith as a roadmap for getting home,  for eventually joining our Father in heaven, figured out paper folding, what aspect of the "rules" could be on each page, how we could decorate them, (because sad to say, coloring and gluing are always a winner.)

I was talking to one child,  ahead of time, he polite but quizzical and then it hit me -- in the age of GPS, none of them have ever seen a roadmap.

A useless metaphor!

Happily, the idea that rules might be expressed negatively or positively and that what may at first appear to be a hurdle whhenne looked at from one angle, an obstacle, might really be a guardrail, a help and protection, was well received.
   

What You Oughta Know, according to the Pope Emeritus

I am probably the last one who would be interested in this to learn of it, but John Allen wrote a gem of a... well, it is hardly a book, more of a pamphlet,  back in 2007, that is well worth any Catholic's time, 10 Things Pope Benedict Wants You To Know

The ten things are, or perhaps should be, obvious to any inquiring Catholic, but they are profound, nonetheless, (Well done, as almost always, Mr Allen!) and a good synthesis, as far as I can tell with my limited knowledge, of the enormous outpouring of works of theological (and pedagogical!)  genius produced by this future Doctor of the Church.

They are that God is Love, that Jesus is Lord, that Truth and Freedom as well as Faith and Reason are complementary, that the Eucharist is the heart of the of our Christian lives, that Christianity is a positive message, (No! You mean that contrary to everything we've heard from the secular media that idea wasn't just  invented in the past year???? next you're going to try to convince me that Benedict has occasionally kissed a baby, or even smiled!!!!)that the Church should stay out of politics but MUST inform consciences, including those of politicians, that so-called "Catholic identity" does matter whatever the Winking Catholics might say,that Christ and His Church cannot be looked at as anything but inseparable, and that we must be patient. As the Father has always been. Anyway, good, good stuff.

One of the most striking aspects of Benedict XVI's papacy has been how determined he is to phrase his message in a positive key. To take one example, when the Holy Father visited Spain in July 2006, many expected a dramatic showdown with the Socialist government of Prime Minister Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, whose left-wing government has done battle with the Church on a variety of fronts: gay marriage, abortion, divorce, euthanasia, and public funding for Catholic schools. Many Catholics expected fire and brimstone from the pope. Instead, he was doggedly positive, concentrating on the Christian fundamentals, never directly engaging any of the issues that have divided Church and state.

Later, some German TV reporters asked Benedict what had happened. It's worth listening to his reply in full:

Christianity, Catholicism, isn't a collection of prohibitions: it's a positive option. It's very important that we look at it again because this idea has almost completely disappeared today. We've heard so much about what is not allowed that now it's time to say: we have a positive idea to offer, [emphasis added] that man and woman are made for each other, that the scale of sexuality, eros, agape, indicates the level of love and it's in this way that marriage develops, first of all, as a joyful and blessing-filled counter between a man and a woman, and then the family, that guarantees continuity among generations and through which generations are reconciled to each other and even cultures can meet. So, firstly it's important to stress what we want. Secondly, we can also see why we don't want something. I believe we need to see and reflect on the fact that it's not a Catholic invention that man and woman are made for each other, so that humanity can go on living: all cultures know this.

I have been trying to explain to my CCD kids that hurdles and sections of guard rail look pretty much the same...

A Vegetarian? Did you know HITLER was a Vegetarian?

Does the editor of this blog really think the story "will interest Pray Tell readers" who were as of yet unaware of what sedevacantist means?
Or that his readers would be a touch slow on the uptake, and would need the meaning spelled out to this extent?

sedevacantist – that is, someone who believes that the bishop’s “seat” in Rome is “vacant” – sede, sedentary, sitting around, seat, see, I think you get the connection

Yeah, I think they get the connection you are trying to make.
You know, your blog quotes approvingly, accepts entries from, and is altogether very conciliatory with... um, protestants -- that is, adherents of any of those Christian bodies that separated from the Church of Rome during the Reformation, or of any group descended from them, protestant, expressing disagreement or complaint separated, apart from, from Latin sēparāre, from sē- apart + parāre to obtain, I think you get the connection.

Or is that irrelevant and inflammatory?

The Reform of the Liturgy, the Ideal of Ecumenism, and the Way It Actually Played Out...

Conspiracy theorists abound, but I don't think it is necessary to impute malice to those whose actions brought about near-disastrous consequences. Quoth one Combox Commando:

Many faithful Catholics in the aftermath of the Council shared almost euphorically the expectation that the new liturgy would spur a wholesale influx of Protestants into the One True Church. Of course, we now know that nothing of sort happened—and instead that the Church itself was Protestantized—but in that time of hope the optimism seemed neither suspect nor unrealistic.

Another asks:

Is it any wonder that only 30% of Catholics now believe in the Real Presence?

People don't really listen to the spiel given by the flight attendant before take-off, do they? (Of course, flying was less common, then -- had either of the popes who presided over VCII flown?)
Good advice in any number of circumstances:

“If the cabin looses sufficient pressure, a mask will drop down from your over-head compartment. Secure the mask around your head like this, and breathe normally. Don’t be concerned if the bag doesn’t inflate. If you are traveling with a child or someone who needs assistance, secure your own oxygen mask first, and then offer assistance to your companion.”

Because chances are you can't give meaningful assistance to someone else after ya lose consciousness, ya know?

I loves me a good analogy...

'Course, I also loves me a loopy analogy.

Not sure which this is, but a commentator at Damian's blog waxes eloquent and verbose with alcoholic beverage and other mood-altering substance metaphors:

As far as the Church is concerned, I think that there was a period of collective drunkenness, starting with the excesses of good wine with V II itself and continuing with the ocean of vodka of “the spirit of V II”. The top (the Vatican) has sobered down relatively fast and in 1978 sobriety was firmly in charge within the conclave, but there was no courage to eradicate bad habits among the generation of guitar-strumming alcoholics who in the meantime had spread all over Catholicism, starting from the bishops.
What I think is happening is that from above (the Vatican) Chianti Classico is slowly being introduced again, but that it will never establish itself as a habit among those who have spent a life amidst bloody marys and alcopops.
Whilst I think that a bigger effort should be done to kick out some of the worst offenders (the South of England being a point in case), I do understand that there is no great desire at the top to start fights when, as a famous drug addict once said, “time is on our side”.

I think there's some kind of cosmic synchronicity in the simultaneous discussion, (amongst those CMAA sots,) of absinthe, and Tullamore Dew, and Dos Equis, don't you?
Shameful, shameful...
I am suddenly a-thirst.

What's an alcopop, is that like shandy? and where can I get some?

More on Inter-species Genetics

I am patently the product of inter-species breeding , (funny that that just struck me today, after the warning from that Fox news guy.... timely, huh?)

But it becomes clear to me that I am neither hedgehog nor fox. Or rather, I am a little bit of each.

I do know "one great thing."

But it is hard for me not to be drawn into tangents.

And while I am intelligent, I am not original, (but who is? is there anything new under the sun?) so none of the "deep thoughts" on these many thing, these tangents, these spokes are anything I could not have come to more readily, if instead of heading out to the rim I had stayed at the hub, the One Great Thing.

Saints, whatever the breadth of their knowledge and interest and erudition, are, when it comes down to it, Hedgehogs.

Well-meaning people who insist on politicizing the Truth? Foxes.

Martha, Martha, thou art careful and art troubled about many things.... Martha was, at least at that point in her life, a Fox.
We have to assume she subsequently became a Hedgehog.

I want to get back to the center.

I want to choose the Best Part

The centrifugal force of living sends, or tries to send us all out into the Foxdom, and the life of faith is all about waddling back to the Hedgehoggy center.

Speaking of Fireworks

I love them, don't you?
I mean, who doesn't?
Who could quarrel with fireworks, helping someone put on a firework display?
It would be like being anti-puppy.
Or pro-death.

When I was younger, it was well-known that one neighborhood in New York had spectacular, spectacular Fourth of July aerial- and ground-work displays, all out of proportion with the size of the neighborhood and its general affluence.
This was accomplished through the good graces of a local boy who had made good.

Well, kinda good.

But the fireworks, and the generous picnic?
I mean, that's nice.
I don't think there would have been any problem working with him, do you? maybe even contributing? as long as you only helped with civic projects of such obvious virtue, so what that it freed up his other resources of money and man-power for... other projects?

Isn't that pretty much the rationale behind one of our American Shepherds warning us against "shadow boxing with friends"?

How difficult a concept it must be, that money is a fungible commodity....

There was an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, where a Robert, after confessing to horrible money worries, you know, rent, bills, that sort of thing; is kindly lent $1000 by his brother, and just cannot understand why anyone should take it amiss that he immediately treats himself to Vegas, baby....

Bishop Robert Barrone --- has kind of a nice ring, don't you think?

A Woman's Way With Words

...or do I mean her "wayward words"?

In any case, coming from a study of Office Hymns, reflecting on the lyrics of the contents of a modern "hymnal":

"Instead of honeyed phrases they give us high fructose corn syrup!"

(Mind you, I am in no position to throw such stones, my tastes are so puerile that blank verse hymns irk me. Nonetheless, a martyr to the marketing success of Archer Daniels Minions, I can appreciate another's denigration of corn syrup. Not to mention of bad hymns.)

Our Kids are Going to Drive Drunk Anyway!

So the responsible thing to do is to put all our efforts into getting them to wear helmets.

Helmets are practically a sacramental, if you look at this thing the right way.

What, you disagree?

You must hate our children!