St. Nicholas of Myra - December 6

This is the feast day of Saint Nicholas of Myra. Although details of the saint's life are sketchy, Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) put to his own compositions the legendary events surrounding him in a series of Nine Scenes in his Saint Nicolas Cantata.

I was privileged to play in the First Violin section of a staging of the cantata at DePauw University, Advent, 1976, the year Britten died. It was one of those moments in my life during which the Holy Spirit broke through the egoism to reveal to me a reality of truth, beauty, and goodness beyond my meager life's boundaries. I am still thankful to Dr. Frank Jacobs for producing it there at DePauw.

Today, I can, blessedly, still play a recording of that live performance. I highly recommend you find a copy of it - many fine recordings are out there.

Steyn - Then Do Something About It

Mark Steyn reports that practitioners of the Scimitar are feeling vulnerable after the murderous Mumbai terrorism.

Yeah, well, their inability to empathize with kafir - the primary targets of the terrorists - is a prime indicator of the degree to which the Scimitar is still part and parcel with the primitive sacred.

Will Smith for President

Newsmax reports on actor Will Smith's respect for the human longing for God, and says, For me, I'm certain about my relationship with the model of perfection of human life that's laid out with the life of Jesus Christ. (Scroll down in article)

Mackenzie

"A Castle was in Sight, Built Close by the Sea" (1920) - Thomas Mackenzie
Illustration fr. Arthur and His Knights by Christine Chaundler. London: Nisbet and Co. Ltd.

Christians Scapegoated Bishop Says

Riot Survivors

The popular understanding of the term "scapegoat" is evidence of the work of the Gospel in history. So it isn't a surprise to hear a bishop use it in Nigeria.

Christians in Jos are ‘scapegoats’, says bishop. [ht: Dhimmiwatch]

Bishop Kwashi described the weekend’s violence as “a wake-up call to state and federal authorities . . . to ensure that truth is told, truth is maintained, and justice done.” He said on Tuesday, “It’s our usual call and I’m tired of making it.

To international media, he made the plea: “Please, if you have evid ence of anywhere where Chris tians have sparked off a riot or done anything wrong, please be honest in telling it. But if not, stand up for justice.

“We want the support of the Church worldwide to understand that we have never initiated crimes against the Muslim people.”

Uh Huh, Right

Don't believe your eyes or intuition. The Scimitar is just for cutting up produce, as a mirror, or for other peaceable pastimes, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

Overcome Evil with Good

Benedict XVI affirmed the good news about Original Sin. The Christian explanation of evil and original sin is a happy proclamation, since it affirms that life and living is good.

The Holy Father explains - if you read far enough - that evil is neither equal and opposite to the good of being, nor simply a part of a mindless, arbitrary evolutionary model of the universe. Rather,

"Evil comes from a subordinate source. With his light, God is stronger and, because of this, evil can be overcome. Therefore, the creature, man, is curable; […] man is not only curable, he is in fact cured. God has introduced healing. He entered in person into history. To the permanent source of evil he has opposed a source of pure good. Christ crucified and risen, the new Adam."

This, if you will remember, is why Our Lord not only proclaimed the good news of God's Kingdom, but also healed and cured in the days of His flesh. The fallen world is not as God intended creation. If we are to be one-with His mission, pledging fealty and partaking in a quest of Marian chivalry, we must stay close to Him; do as He did and does.

Do not fight the fire of evil with its own fire. Fight it with the waters of our Baptism; put on the armor of God; and sing merrily with our good companions who dine with us on Panis angelicus. Deo gratias.

Waterhouse - PRB

Flora (1890) - John William Waterhouse

That's My Bishop!

(CNSNews.com) - Bishop Paul Loverde of the Roman Catholic diocese of Arlington, Va., said last week that if the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) should become law and a Catholic hospital in his diocese is forced to provide abortions, he would refuse to let the hospital comply, but he would also not close the institution.

Though there are no Catholic hospitals in his diocese, the bishop nevertheless was defiant: “I would say, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to close the hospital, you’re going to arrest me, go right ahead. You’ll have to drag me out, go right ahead. I’m not closing this hospital, we will not perform abortions, and you can go take a flying leap.’ ”

Read all …

One Christian Meeting Another

ROME, DEC. 1, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The high-profile baptism of Magdi Cristiano Allam at the Easter Vigil ceremony presided over last year by Benedict XVI has a story behind it. According to Allam himself, his conversion journey was possible because of great Christian witnesses.

"This journey," he recalled, "began apparently by chance, [but] in truth was providential. Since age four, I had the chance to attend Italian Catholic schools in Egypt. I was first a student of the Comboni religious missionaries, and later, starting with fifth grade, of the Salesians.

"I thus received an education that transmitted to me healthy values and I appreciated the beauty, truth, goodness and rationality of the Christian faith," in which "the person is not a means, but a starting point and an arriving point."

"Thanks to Christianity," he said, "I understood that truth is the other side of liberty: They are an indissoluble binomial. The phrase, 'The truth will make you free' is a principle that you young people should always keep in mind, especially today when, scorning the truth, freedom is relinquished."

The journalist continued: "My conversion was possible thanks to the presence of great witnesses of faith, first of all, His Holiness Benedict XVI. One who is not convinced of his own faith -- often it's because he has not found in it believable witnesses of this great gift.

"The second indissoluble binomial in Christianity is without a doubt that of faith and reason. This second element is capable of giving substance to our humanity, the sacredness of life, respect for human dignity and the freedom of religious choice."

The journalist affirmed that the Holy Father's 2006 speech in Regensburg -- which caused uproar within the Muslim community -- was for him a reason to reflect.

Allam said: "An event, before my conversion, made me think more than other events: the Pope's discourse in Regensburg. On that occasion, citing the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus, he affirmed something that the Muslims themselves have never denied: that Islam spreads the faith above all with the sword."

He added: "There is a greater and more subliminal danger than the terrorism of 'cut-throats.' It is the terrorism of the 'cut-tongues,' that is, the fear of affirming and divulging our faith and our civilization, and it brings us to auto-censorship and to deny our values, putting everything and the contrary to everything on the same plane: We think of the Shariah applied even in England ...

Read all …

Bipolar Scimitar

Moshe, orphaned son of Rabbi & Rebbetzen Gavriel Holtzberg (via Pam Geller)

I post this via The Curt Jester not to provoke to mimetic rivalry, but to offer those fellow travelers on this garden planet who are interested in Marian chivalry and prayer knighthood grist for our 3:00 a.m. vigils: He is asking where his father is, and crying for his mother.

The problem is, of course, that the Scimitar is bipolar with scriptures that its adherents do not see in terms of progressive revelation. They can justify actions that are one-with the primitive sacred in bloodthirstiness in the words and actions of their Prophet.

And until the Holy Spirit - the Third Person of the Moly Holy Trinity - breaks through into enough hearts and souls of Scimitar religionists to reject this bloodthirsty "holy warrior" ethos, the world will continue to be a dangerous place - particularly for Jews and Christians.

Pray for us, Saint Francis. You had dealings with the Scimitar. We need your prayers again, and how.

Madox Brown - PRB

Chaucer at the Court of Edward III (1846-51) - Ford Madox Brown

Last Self-Help Administration

From the fine essay on Walker Percy by Michael A. Mikolajeczak, "A home that is hope": Lost cove, Tennessee:

(In his book, Lost in the Cosmos,) (t)he choice that Percy puts before the reader at the end of Space Odyssey II is one of the clearest and most decisive of the book: the utopianism of Aristarchus Jones, which is merely self-help raised to a societal degree, or the Incarnational vision of Abbot Liebowitz. However, it is critical that there be no illusion about the difference between the two. It is not a matter of science versus faith (interestingly, it is Liebowitz who plans to restore science by reviving the University of Notre Dame around a remnant of Jewish scientists). Both options rest on faith: one on the belief that humanity possesses sufficient experience, accurate understanding of human nature, and steadiness of purpose to maintain a vision through several generations; the other on the preposterous notion that God created the world and humanity, that humanity fell off from God, that God sent his Son to reclaim humanity, that the Son, being both God and man, founded a church, appointed as its first head a likeable but pusillanimous person, like himself a Jew, the most fallible of his friends, gave him and his successors the power to loose and to bind, required of his followers that they eat his body and drink his blood in order to have life in them, his body and blood, vowed to protect this institution until the end of time (253).

Now, having read this excerpt from Mikolajeczak, which of the two above - the utopianism of Aristarchus Jones, on the one hand, or the Incarnational vision of Abbot Liebowitz - best approximates the incoming president-elect's project of Change for America? Hmm?

I agree with you. Therefore, the new Label here at Chronicles of Atlantis for all-things-Big-O shall henceforth be: Last Self-Help Administration. Selah.

Roots

Jill Fallon at Business of Life seconds my motion on R. R. Reno's "We Need Roots" and the music of Show of Hands AND Mes Aieux (My Ancestors) - one of our favorite Distributist music videos.

Enjoy.

Choose This Day

Jeffery T. Kuhner spells it out in no uncertain terms. For my fellow Girardians, we see one of the twin pincers of the primitive sacred: the neo-pagan with its current Gnostic coloration (the other pincer being the Scimitar). Please read the article in full.

The Vatican is the last line of defense against the new Dark Age ... No self-respecting, principled Catholic can or should support murder - regardless of who occupies the White House.

The Bipolar Scimitar

Alan Caruba at Family Security Matters observes,

The 21st century is now challenged by the 7th century and, everywhere, it finds itself bewildered by what appears to be appalling and senseless killing.

It makes perfect sense, however, to those who believe they are practicing Islam as commanded by Muhammad and the Koran. The Koran heaps scorn on both Judaism and Christianity

despite incorporating aspects of both faiths that preceded Islam, claiming that Muhammad received the Koran from the archangel Gabriel and is the last of the prophets. This is a thin veneer to suggest the legitimacy of Islam.

Western and other nations put themselves at peril when they seek accommodation with Islam and it is an irony that 9/11 marked a moment in time when many Muslims began to question their faith, often leaving it either openly or secretly.

An “insult” to Muhammad carries with it a death sentence. Perceived insults can result in riots and attacks as occurred when Danish cartoonists drew unflattering pictures of Muhammad. Apostasy, the act of converting to another religion is a death sentence for Muslims. Adultery, homosexuality, alcohol, and a long list of other “offenses” can get you killed.

It is an irony, too, that Muslim nations such as Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and others find themselves the victims of Islamofascism because Islam does not separate the state from the religion.

The final irony is that the United States of America has elected as its next President, Barack Hussein Obama, born to a Muslim father, adopted by a Muslim step-father while living in Indonesia, and amerced in Islam in his formative years.

Mumbai now becomes another page in the history of Islam’s war on the world when its two major sects, Sunni and Shia, are not making war on one another...

Read all of The ‘Religion of Peace’ Strikes Again.