Catholic Paradoxes

Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, California, explains why sick and dying pilgrims to Lourdes, even if they are not physically healed, are not disappointed.

Friday Follies

Daniel's Answer to the King (1890) - Briton Rivière

Caroline Glick of The Jerusalem Post warns that it is Time to Plan for War.

Chuck Colson quotes Soren Kierkegaard: “Suppose,” Kierkegaard wrote, “someone invented…a convenient little talking tube which could be heard over the whole land. I wonder if the police would not forbid it, fearing that the whole country would become mentally deranged.” I would argue it is past the national stage; it is now global derangement.

I applaud Franklin Graham and James Dobson who see the danger of those who are using institutional authority to expunge the Christian faith from the public forum.

Andrew Breitbart: 'The Left is, in essence, the Media.'

Peters and Pipes - Ducking the evidence

Appeasement doesn't work with the Scimitar. And so long as the MSM, the DHS, and the Last Self-Help Administration do not begin with the assumption of jihad, we will be caught in a Rube Goldberg contraption as unwieldy as it is incapable of providing legitimate defense. [h/t re: Pipes article - Gil Bailie]

Of course, they do, in actuality. But they won't say this to the unwashed masses. The oligarchy presumes that the redneck, Uncle Tom clientele will unleash untold violence upon the dearly protected of Saudi petro interests, not knowing the secret, inner workings of the Gospel that always precludes a Christian form of the Scimitar jihadista falderall that increasingly dots the news. If only we remembered, as St. Thomas Aquinas taught, there is indeed legitimate defense.

UPDATE: Prof. Barry Rubin fleshes out the ramifications of such enforced blindness here.

Charles Taylor - Future of the Secular

For those who have time, listening to Charles Taylor speak on "The Future of the Secular - the U. S. Case" is enlightening. Whether or not you agree with all of his points, one senses a mind that can grasp our secularist times far better, far more deeply than the ostensible movers and shakers. Here.

Blinders Firmly in Place - MSM

Spencer states what is too obvious for the mainstream media to see right in front of their faces here.

Graham - Scimitar 'gets a pass'

Franklin Graham isn't afraid to return stiff-arms with the White House, or to call a Scimitar a scimitar:

Evangelical leader Rev. Franklin Graham issued his toughest remarks yet Monday on the administration's role in revoking his invitation to speak at the Pentagon's National Day of Prayer event, charging that President Obama is "giving Islam a pass" rather than speaking openly about the "horrific" treatment women and minorities receive in many Muslim countries.

In an exclusive telephone interview with Newsmax.TV, Graham called revoking his invitation to the prayer service "a slap at all evangelical Christians."

And he clearly placed the blame on the Obama administration, telling Newsmax that the Pentagon would never revoke such an invitation without first consulting with the White House.

"I'm being restricted from my religious rights, and from what I believe," Graham warned, as he complained of a growing “secularization” in the government.

He also warned Christian of “coming” persecution for believing in Jesus Christ .. More>>

Dogma, Doctrines, and Clichés, O My

David G. Bonagura, Jr. at The Catholic Thing reminds us that, as opposed to the Kristoffian approach to Catholicism that would peal away the mumbo-jumbo elements of the Church and leave the pristine humanism that the NYT and all progressivists yearn for, the Catholic Church answers most completely the deepest religious needs of a fallen race of human beings here.

By the way, what is it about reductionism that is so attractive to well-schooled, well-fed, well-spoken persons? I don't see the appeal to trying to see reality solely in the Procrustean bed of the empirical method; particularly when it comes to anthropology, epistemology, ontology, and soteriology.

Agli Inferi

When I arrived home after a retreat weekend, I caught Benedict XVI on EWTN as he spoke about the Shroud of Turin (just behind him where he sat), Holy Saturday, and our Savior's entering our deepest mortal fears. Via ZENIT:

"[The Shroud] witnesses precisely to the unique and unrepeatable interval in the history of humanity and the universe, in which God, in Jesus Christ, shared not only our dying, but also our remaining in death. The most radical solidarity."

A voice in the dark

Benedict XVI reflected how in "that 'time-beyond-time' Jesus Christ 'descended into hell' -- 'agli inferi.'"

What does this mean, he asked? "It means that God, made man, went to the point of entering into the extreme and absolute solitude of man, where no ray of love enters, where there is total abandonment without any word of comfort: 'hell' ('gli inferi'). Jesus Christ, remaining in death, has gone beyond the gates of this ultimate solitude to lead us too to go beyond it with him."

The Pope compared this solitude to the childhood experience of fear of the dark, when only the presence of a loved one could bring comfort.

"So, it is exactly this that happened in Holy Saturday," he said. "In the kingdom of death there resounded the voice of God. The unthinkable happened: that Love penetrated 'into hell -- 'negli inferi' -- that in the most extreme darkness of the most absolute human solitude we can hear a voice that calls us and find a hand that takes us and leads us out.

"The human being lives by the fact that he is loved and can love; and if love even has penetrated into the realm of death, then life has also arrived there. In the hour of extreme solitude we will never be alone."

Read more here.

Sonnet 73

That time of year thou mayst in me behold

When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

In me thou seest the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadeth in the west,

Which by and by black night doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire

That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the death-bed whereon it must expire

Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.

This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

- William Shakespeare

Wherever Money is Exchanged

And this should close the book on the perfectly timed blizzard of clergy abuse stories featured so prominently in the New York Times during the final days of Lent and leading to Easter. As always, follow the money...

On the Barrelhead

Endorsed by Geert Wilders, Mark Steyn, Brad Thor, The Jerusalem Post, yes. But you might want to use cash to buy this.

Marian Chivalry is Quite Alive

A hale and hearty invitation once again. Consider the following:

CORPUS CHRISTIANUM is an international Private Association of the Faithful, open both to men and women, dedicated to praying for a renewal of Christendom.

Marian in character and guided by a Catholic chivalrous spirit, Corpus Christianum members pray daily for the following key points:

- The renewal, unity, and spread of Christendom
- The Supreme Pontiff and all priests/religious
- The protection of Christians around the world
- The restoration of the family
- The conversion of sinners and the sanctification of all people

We are looking for courageous souls who are willing to take up the standard of Christ the King! We invite you to review the association's statutes for more information about the organization and its obligations.

Read more about Corpus Christianum.

A Chivalrous Alternative

Now we know.

"Anjoum Noorani, 31" writes Damien Thompson, "was the leader of the Foreign Office’s Papal Visit Team which drew up a document suggesting that the Pope should launch his own range of “Benedict” condoms and open an abortion clinic. He’s been moved to “other duties” after he gave authorisation for the memo to be sent to Downing Street and three Whitehall departments."

What seems telling to me is the look on Mr. Noorani's face. He clearly is saying, "So, what do you plan to do about it?"

Tell me I'm projecting.

Like the Scimitar in general, he does not expect a Christian form of fatwa placed upon his head; it's been thousands of years since sanctioned violence was acceptable to biblical peoples.

Ross Douthat recently observed that the Scimitar's recent threat (or promise?) to the creators of "South Park" that they would end up like Theo van Gogh was a reminder that Islam is "just about the only place where we draw any lines at all."

For students of mimetic theory, this means that the Scimitar is very nearly the only enforcer of the anthropologically sacred in the world today. The Christian faith, on the other hand, has to force itself to even consider the possibility of performing legitimate defense and chivalry of any kind: a clear indication that as Chesterton pointed out, the contemporary world is filled with Christian virtues gone mad.

We must find an ennobling and truly chivalrous alternative to playing possum or playing dead to such affronts. It must take into account the real demands of Our Lord who, if you remember, drove and lashed the money-changers from the Temple (Mt 21,12-13), integral participants in the concretization of the sacred. We must wage the kind of holy knighthood that will neither make us blush because of its unwarranted violence nor squirm because we sat on our hands and did nothing.

What is that alternative? That chivalrous alternative? I do not know with precision. The image of Reepicheep swatting Eustace Scrubb (Voyage of the Dawn Treader) with the flat of his sword comes to mind.

But whatever chivalric measures begin to be taken they must wipe that smirk off his face and make his smarmy, self-righteous self think twice about spitting on the Holy Father again.

Longenecker - Shepherd's Voice

Essential reading: Father Dwight Longenecker on hearing - and heeding - the Good Shepherd's voice.

Our Lady of Good Counsel

Our Lady of Good Counsel of Genazzano