Rotten in Denmark

A review and interview with the author of Among Criminal Muslims: A Psychologist’s Experience from Copenhagen here.

Rossetti PRB

Sir Galahad at the ruined Chapel (1857-59) -

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Hitler, the Shroud, and the Sudarium

A fascinating little story: Adolph Hitler send troops to steal the Shroud of Turin, but was thwarted by a few plucky Benedictine monks. Bully!

Relatedly, Ignatius Press has an enormously good deal on a hard-bound copy of Janice Bennett's seminal study of the Sudarium of Oviedo. The Sudarium, the blood on which matches the blood on the Shroud of Turin (think about that for a moment), has a much longer and well-documented "paper trail" than that of the Shroud. It is, therefore, of primary importance in any investigation into the authenticity of the Shroud that Hitler, apparently, wanted so badly.

Magister - 6 Accusations, 1 Question

Sandro Magister examines Six Accusations, One Question against Benedict XVI.

'Modernism on the Rampage'

For the record: Lutheran theologian, John Stephenson, does an Ironman crumple on the recent attackers of the Pontiff in The dictatorship of relativism strikes back—and goes nuclear.

Benedict - 'Cure Against Death'

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Jesus is the “cure for death” man has sought since ancient times and still seeks at present, a “cure” that begins at baptism that continues for one’s whole life, this according to Benedict XVI who spoke last night at Easter Vigil, the “Vigil of all Vigils”, during which he performed baptism for six catechumens.

Men try to extend and improve life. “But let us reflect for a moment,” the Pontiff said. “[W]hat would it really be like if we were to succeed, perhaps not in excluding death totally, but in postponing it indefinitely, in reaching an age of several hundred years? Would that be a good thing? Humanity would become extraordinarily old; there would be no more room for youth. Capacity for innovation would die, and endless life would be no paradise, if anything a condemnation.”

Christ instead transforms “our lives from within”; he creates “a new life within us, truly fit for eternity,” transforming “us in such a way as not to come to an end with death, but only then to begin in fullness.”

More>>

Duke 61 Butler 59

Gold Standard

Sanctity, Pure Love, and St Bernard

Fr Dwight Longenecker analyzes the age-old version of the two-pronged attack on Mother Church. He tells us, rightly, that each one of us is to engage in the battle using the only remedy: sanctity.

Below is a key understanding of the mysticism of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the Doctor Mellifluus, on that remedy of sanctify as explicated by Thomas Merton:

False contemplation can be attained by the prudence of the flesh, but true mysticism is a gift that is granted only to those who are extremely little and poor in their own eyes, and who have learned, as Bernard himself did, to live not for themselves but for others. Such things are only learned supernaturally from the Holy Spirit ...

First ... every man should aspire to perfect union with God, at least in heaven. The fact that we are made in God's image should lead us to do this without any fear. The perfection of love, indeed, demands that we cast out all fear and seek the mercy of God with perfect confidence ...

...(S)ince God Himself is love, nothing can give Him greater honor than our love. Consequently nothing could be more meritorious than this pure love by which we abandon all and live for God alone. What does love merit? More love. For charity is at once the merit and the reward ...

Turning to our own world, the Holy Father (Pius XII) laments the fact this charity has grown cold. The love of God is not known. The doctrine of this divine union has been forgotten by those who lose themselves in the cares and business of increasingly active lives. They have forgotten the meaning of contemplation and of that charity which is fed not by human enthusiasm and the inspirations of natural ambition but by God Himself in prayer and sacrifice.

Christos Voskrese

Huge h/t and bow to Orthodox Fr Stephen, who provides the English translation (below video):

People rejoice, nations hear:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Stars dance, mountains sing:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Forests murmur, winds hum:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Seas bow, animals roar:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Bees swarm, and the birds sing:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!

Angels stand, triple the song:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Sky humble yourself, and elevate the earth:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Bells chime, and tell to all:
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!
Glory to You God, everything is possible to You,
Christ is risen, and brings the joy!

Spinmeisters and Double Standards

Just imagine if Tea Baggers did this.

I don't fancy myself a Tea Party type myself, but it is interesting to note how the liberal progressivist agitprop machine works.

Boycott the NYT

Fr Dwight Longenecker and Francis Beckwith both are calling for Catholics to boycott the New York Times in light of Maureen Dowd's refusal to recant her "sleazy and false attack" on the Holy Father. Count me in.

Let's Cuff Him

This is what passes for British jurisprudence?

Meanwhile, amidst the knee-jerk accusations, a rabbi recommends the biblical ethos of charity.

P. Hitchens - The Lost Archbishop

For the record: the only Hitchens brother worth reading on Our nice, furry Archbishop... lost in a barbarous world.

4 Quotes for an Easter Afternoon

1.

“So after I signed the bill, I looked around. I looked up at the sky to see if asteroids were coming. I looked down at the ground to see if any cracks had opened up in the ground.

"It turned out to be a pretty nice day. Birds were still chirping. Folks were strolling down the street. Nobody had lost their doctor, nobody had pulled the plug on granny, nobody was being dragged away to be forced into some government plan.”

- President Barrack Obama

2.

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

— Mark Twain

3.

"We are not baptized into the hierarchy; do not receive the Cardinals sacramentally, will not spend an eternity in the beatific vision of the pope. Christ is the point. I, myself, admire the present pope, but even if I criticized him as harshly as some do, even if his successor proved to be as bad as some of those who have gone before, even if I find the Church, as I have to live with it, a pain in the neck, I should still say that nothing a pope (or a priest) could do or say would make me wish to leave the Church although I might well wish that they would leave."

- Frank Sheed

4.

"If it don't play in the cancer ward, it ain't the Gospel."

- Carlyle Marney

Happy Easter

Resurrection (1518) - Albrecht Altdorfer

Resurrection (1400s?) - Fra Angelico

Resurrection (1515 Isenheim altarpiece) - Grünewald