September 2009 Archives

Our first experience of God is so important, we either experience Him as the police guard that wants to punish or as Creative Love that awaits - Pope Benedict XVI

Found here

A 14-year-old schoolgirl died hours after being given the controversial cervical cancer vaccine today. The teenager from Blue Coat Church of England School, in Coventry, died in hospital after receiving the Cervarix jab.

The tragedy marks the first reported death since more than 1.5m doses of the injection were given to young girls as part of a national vaccination programme since last September in the UK.
A number of her classmates have reported side effects to the vaccine.....

I do that from time to time. It's a guilty pleasure and now you know my secret. Blackmail me if you wish.

In yesterday's episode, Oprah had Mackenzie Phillip on talking about her drug addiction and her incestuous relationship with her father. When this news broke in the Internet yesterday, I read many obvious comments: shock, disgust, why doesn't she keep this to herself, she is doing it for money and attention. Perhaps I am alone, but all I could feel was deep sadness for Mackenzie. It seemed clear why she spent so many years struggling with a drug addiction. How does one get over such a thing? How does one deal at all? I cannot even begin to fathom.

I have to say I think she should tell her story. Whatever means she has utilized to deal so far has not worked. There is something about keeping secrets of this kind that takes on a life of its own never allowing you to deal with the initial problem. A lot of energy is spent hoping no one knows, or brushing it under the carpet...or simply trying to forget. I find that when I spend a lot of time worrying about something I did and feeling guilty about it, it often helps a great deal to talk to someone (in this case, a therapist would be a good start) and bring perspective to the situation (me:I can't believe I made them white flour sandwiches! They are doomed to lives of bad nutrition now! friend:blinks). While guilt can be helpful in determining a right course of action, left unchecked, it can be the cause of equally egregious behavior if left unchecked.

I suppose I should state the obvious thoughts about her father. She makes a point of naming this "consensual incest", but it started when she was very young and continued until she was much older. Her father crossed a line when she was vulnerable. I am not saying she is not responsible for her actions, but simply that I can't imagine how sound she was in her situation to see things clearly. Her father=disgusting. I will refrain from making the obvious Baby Boomer observation. God help me, I know when my children are adults, despite my best efforts, they will have complaints about my parenting abilities, because I am human. But I cannot imagine knowingly using my child like this. Maybe I should pity him too. Maybe he did not understand the ramifications and the selfishness of his actions. Only God knows.

Mostly what struck me is what Mackenzie Phillips said about forgiveness. I do not have a quote, so I will paraphrase. She said she learned that forgiveness is not something you give to the person that offended you as much as it is giving yourself some peace. If I may take it a small further and say it is making peace with God as well, which is why Jesus tells us we must forgive. I wish her he best.

Thanks, readers, for your patience during the system maintenance Friday evening.

(Brought to mind by the movie of the same name)

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--- Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores, Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--- No---yet still stedfast, still unchangeable, Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever---or else swoon in death.

John Keats, 1819

The Catholic Archbishop of Moscow has given a remarkably upbeat assessment of relations with the Orthodox Church, saying unity between Catholics and Orthodox could be achieved “within a few months.”

In an interview today in Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper, Archbishop Paolo Pezzi said the miracle of reunification “is possible, indeed it has never been so close.” The archbishop added that Catholic-Orthodox reunification, the end of the historic schism that has divided them for a millennium, and spiritual communion between the two churches “could happen soon, within a few months.”

column by Danielle Bean at Inside Catholic

Geoffrey Chaucer cracketh me uppe:

Ich wente up to bedde and sadlie closid my eyes, while Philippa burned our beste candles readinge of teenage sparklie vampyres. She was already on to the next oon, Compline....

In this fyne book of sparklie vampyres, Bella Cygne moveth from Essex to Yorkshyre to lyve with her fathir, who ys a sheriff and escheator.... Ther is considerablie moore sexual tensioun than in Piers Plowman.

Yt is reallie very good. Ich did reade al of Vespers, right through to Compline and ich have just startid Matins. This ys absolutelie the beste teenage sparklie vampyre love storye ich haue evir reade.

on this article, but I am drawing a blank. The only thought that comes to mind is how backwards we are as a culture. Just throw the concept of race out already. Done. Finish. As long as you have race, race is going to be an issue.

Let all the nations praise You:

Thomas Tsugi was born around the year 1571 in Japan, to a wealthy family of Japanese nobility. Educated by the priests of the Society of Jesus at Arima, he joined the order while quite young, around 1588. As a Jesuit, Thomas traveled Japan and became very popular as an eloquent and persuasive preacher....

I wonder, what would the world look like today if Christianity had not been driven underground in China and Japan? This long, long withholding of the Gospel from the people: What good will God bring of it, ultimately?

Perhaps it's so that someday we'll have another one billion fervent Christians, instead of one billion bored post-Christian apostates?

The Noonday Demon:

The beginning of the attack of acedia comes as an invitation to divert one's attention from the prayer, work, or charity at hand and to pay attention to something else, which might be entirely innocent or even useful in itself. This is what Evagrius is talking about when he says that acedia urges the monk to look at the window to see if anything is going on, and finally to gaze about to see if anyone is coming to visit him.

It's very easy to let one's web browser become one of Evagrius's windows out of the cell. Even though I know that there are prayers to be made, things to do, people and projects to look after and books to read, something inside suggests that it would be good to open up some Firefox tabs and check the tropical storm activity out in the Atlantic one more time, check for Roman-Seraphic liturgical books on Ebay, or read another Wikipedia article about some entirely random topic, like the history of Dr. Pepper, the Gregorian calendar reform, or the geology of the moon.

HT Eric Sammons via New Advent