Blithe Spirit
The man from Kosovo was not doing this.
A source tells Fox News that the shooter yelled “Allah Akbar” when opening fire on the U.S. military personnel.
New v.p. for mission & ministry at the Jesuits’ St. Louis U. The post is not new. It caught my attention because the same appointment was made last March at Wheeling (WV) Jesuit U., where it is new, apparently in anticipation and certainly expectation of Wheeling Jesuit’s hiring its first non-Jesuit president.
The position allows educationally experienced Jesuits who do not want to head a college or university and/or would not be considered for such a job to help shape one in the Jesuit tradition.
This one at St. Louis U. held a similar position at Wheeling Jesuit, in fact, as director of campus ministry — maybe also as director of Mission and Identity, as the release has it. Hmmm. “Campus chaplain” begot “director of campus ministry” begot “director of mission and identity” in the ever-vibrant world of denominating people assigned to college or university.
Huh!
Sharia law NOT, says T. More Law Center.
The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) announced today that the City of Dearborn, its Mayor, John B. OReilly, its Chief of Police, Ronald Haddad, 17 City police officers, and two executives of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce were named as defendants in a ninety-six page federal civil rights lawsuit filed in the Federal District Court in Detroit this morning.
Thou shalt not rule Christian preaching out of order.
No troopers allowed in such a place
Religious leaders offering sanctuary for Wisconsin Democrats
Leaders include Catholic, Jewish and Protestant faiths
Not kidding. It’s three AP paragraphs out of Madison, tantalizing uninformative. But do you remember when “sanctuary” meant beyond the altar rail for Catholics and the body of the church for Protestants?
Now it’s three hots and a flop for the wretched refuse of the teeming shore of the lake called Michigan and points west.
Wait, BizTimes.com for Milwaukee and SE Wis. has Rev. Jason Coulter, pastor of Ravenswood United Church of Christ in Chicago, and Rabbi Bruce Elder of Congregation Hafaka in Glencoe, Ill. as two of the plucky clergymen.
Looking for Wisconsin?
On the one hand this, on the other hand that, and why can’t we all just get along?
It is especially in times of crisis that new forms of cooperation and open communication become essential. We request that lawmakers carefully consider the implications of this proposal and evaluate it in terms of its impact on the common good. We also appeal to everyone lawmakers, citizens, workers, and labor unions to move beyond divisive words and actions and work together, so that Wisconsin can recover in a humane way from the current fiscal crisis.
It’s the archbishop of Milwaukee in a valiant attempt to find guidance in encyclicals.
This Chicago Census Roundup: Why Is Chicago Shrinking? probably does justice to the housing-stock issue but like other analyses treats the black-loss matter in terms solely of migration. But what about the black abortion rate?
Blacks . . . have much higher rates of abortions than whites or other minority groups. In 2000, while blacks made up 17 percent of live births, they made up more than twice that share of abortions (36 percent). . . . . The comparison with whites and other minorities is striking. Whites made up 78 percent of live births, but only 57 percent of abortions. Non-black minorities had 7 percent of live births and 5 percent of abortions.
In other words, there are fewer blacks in general, especially in big cities:
. . . black flight isn’t solely a Chicago phenomenon. New York’s black population declined as well, while the black populations of major Southern metropolises grew.
Unreasonable?
"Jesus prayer" here.
This from about.com agnosticism/atheism about prayer and belief is very well put:
According to Catholic tradition, lex orandi, lex credendi [means] the law of prayer is the law of belief. What this means is that how a person worship[s] not only shows what the person really believes, but that how a person worships can ultimately decide what that person really believes.
Hence the importance of liturgical nuance:
As people’s patterns of actual worship change, so will their underlying beliefs – even without their realizing it. It is because of this that the Catholic Church can be so strict in maintaining what many might regard as superficial practices, causing them to be seen by many as old-fashioned and tyrannical.
The hierarchy realizes that allowing even minor changes in the practice of worship could lead to unforseen and unintended changes in beliefs, and the Church is one organization which understands how to think about how things will turn out over very long spans of time.
The author’s intent may be to show how we sheep are manipulated by our shepherds, but it’s an honest statement and quite accurate as taken to show how bishops fulfill their mandate and the deposit of faith is preserved.
I am reminded of one of the late Ralph McInerny’s novel about the Soviet mole who after years in a monastery was converted by the daily chanting of the divine office. (Anybody out there know the name of that book?) Prayerful repetition has its effect, as in J.D. Salinger’s Jesus prayer in Franny and Zooey.
I think today’s priests who insert subtle changes into the words of the mass have this in mind. They have their theology and want to promote it.
Wow. Have been noodling the way priests ad lib words of the mass, did some checking and found this:
The Holy See’s 2004 disciplinary document, Redemptionis Sacramentum, states very emphatically:
59. The reprobated practice by which priests, deacons or the faithful here and there alter or vary at will the texts of the Sacred Liturgy that they are charged to pronounce, must cease. For in doing thus, they render the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy unstable, and not infrequently distort the authentic meaning of the Liturgy. [italics added]
I like the reasoning, but I take special note of the date. This issue is neither brand new nor dating back several decades and so no longer current in the eyes of Vatican detectives and judiciary.
Definitely more later on this, as instances pile up. As I said before, for those who pay attention, it’s annoying, to say the least.
He persevered - Rotterdam, 2009
I’d say take four and half minutes off for a bit of inspiration. Right here. It’s the marathoner asking, What gives you the will to persevere?
The Baptist, by Joan de Joanes (1523-1579)
Slim pickin’s today offered by the liturgy monkeys at the bishops’ conference, I don ‘t know why. The Isaiah passage —
The LORD said to me: You are my servant,
Israel, through whom I show my glory.
Now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
that Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him;
and I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
— is pretty generic. I mean, admirable sentiments and at the heart of belief, but nothing to inspire most of us short of extensive explanation, it seems to me.
Douay-Rheims has this, by the way:
[3] And he said to me: Thou art my servant Israel, for in thee will I glory. . . . . [5] And now saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I may bring back Jacob unto him, and Israel will not be gathered together: and I am glorified in the eyes of the Lord, and my God is made my strength.
[6] And he said: It is a small thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to convert the dregs of Israel. Behold, I have given thee to be the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayst be my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth.
Quite a bit more musical, of course. It has soundbites, words to walk away with and mayhap recall during the day. Like God’s being one’s salvation “even to the farthest part of the earth,” vs. that it “may reach to the ends of the earth.” The farthest part. I like that.
The reading from Paul is even more generic, even in part procedural, as goes the explanation, “Paul follows the conventional form for the opening of a Hellenistic letter,” which is helpful in its way. But what else? It “expands the opening with details carefully chosen to remind the readers of their situation and to suggest some of the issues the letter will discuss,” which is Bible study.
That’s the idea, apparently. The Vatican 2 liturgy is to make every day a Scripture lesson, so as to make us more scripturally literate. But the same people are going to church for consolation, self-improvement, encouragement, and the like as before. Which is where soundbites come in. Why do newspapers have headlines? To get people to read the stories.
Finally, the gospel, from John 1, John the Baptist beholding Jesus as “the lamb of God,” etc. Again the odious comparison with Douay-Rheims. “[34] And I saw, and I gave testimony, that this is the Son of God”? Or, currently, “34 Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God”? Gimme the first.
More substantially, contrast the selections for this “Second Sunday in Ordinary Time” (who thought that up?) with the long-ago Third Sunday after the Epiphany, which gives us the pithy Romans 12.16–21,
Be not wise in your own conceits. [17] To no man rendering evil for evil. Providing good things, not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of all men. [18] If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men. [19] Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. [20] But if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him to drink. For, doing this, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.
[21] Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good.
Dunno know where this turns up in the current cycle of readings, but I tell you, it sings: you are pissed off at someone? Hah! Returning good for evil is the best revenge! Suck it up, you Christian, take your cue from The Apostle.
Or the olden-time gospel passage, Matthew 8.1–13, with tight narrative, hardly a word wasted:
[1] And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him: [2] And behold a leper came and adored him, saying: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. [3] And Jesus stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: I will, be thou made clean. And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed. [4] And Jesus saith to him: See thou tell no man: but go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. [5] And when he had entered into Capharnaum, there came to him a centurion, beseeching him,
[6] And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grieviously tormented. [7] And Jesus saith to him: I will come and heal him. [8] And the centurion making answer, said: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. [9] For I also am a man subject to authority, having under me soldiers; and I say to this, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh, and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. [10] And Jesus hearing this, marvelled; and said to them that followed him: Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel.
[11] And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven: [12] But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [13] And Jesus said to the centurion: Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee. And the servant was healed at the same hour.
I hope this selection also appears, even in one of our Sundays in ordinary time.
