Extra Credit for Creativity?

Funny (and very wrong) answers to test questions. This is why I always liked multiple-guess questions...If I didn't know an answer, I didn't have the creativity or the guts to make something up. (HT: Jonah Goldberg in the Corner).

Ascension Prayer

Thanks to Dr. Paul Ford for this beautiful Ascension imagery and prayer:

The Ascension of the Lord
“. . . since through the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary by the new and living way he opened for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, let us approach . . . in absolute trust . . . “
John 13:34

Reflection

Across altars all over the world—stones scarred with five crosses for His nailed hands and feet and lanced side, washed with baptismal water, stained with chrism, and set alight with candle wax, charcoal, and incense—Christ’s very Body and Blood makes a way for us, for me, into the heart of God.

Yes, the Bridegroom is now absent, but, oh, when he returns!

Prayer

Ascended Christ, I ascend to your/my/our Father through
the wounds in your hands, your feet, and your side.

HT: NPM 'Sunday's Word for Pastoral Musicians' 5/14/2007

Happy Mother's Day !!!

Loving God,
as a mother gives life and nourishment to her children,
so you watch over your Church.
Bless these women,
that they may be strengthened as Christian mothers.
Let the example of their faith and love shine forth.
Grant that we, their sons and daughters,
may honor them always
with a spirit of profound respect.

Grant this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

from the Book of Blessings

Chant 101

Why chant? What should be chanted? What settings are most effective?

Jeffrey Tucker at The New Liturgical Movement starts what looks to be an awesome series of posts that teaches about chant in terms that even an old rocker like me can understand.

Not that he needs them, but he also gets bonus points for the accuracy of his description of Catholic musician conversations and discussion boards.

From the Sports Desk

Given my current lack of knowledge, I should limit my posting on sports even more than my ventures into political discourse. This year, though, the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons have renewed a playoff rivalry that made me remember when I could name the starting 5 of the better NBA teams. Though the Pistons are humiliating the Bulls this year, I'm enjoying the Bill Laimbeer-Scottie Pippen-Zeek Thomas-John Paxson-Joe Dumars-Bill Cartwright-Vinnie Johnson short shorts-wearing memories.

Church and State

Topic warning - politics style.

Two successive posts from First Things examine the selective vision of some Catholic leaders.

Michael Novak sheds some light upon progressive (even imperialist?) domination of Catholic social and political action where conservative thought is excluded from the arena of ideas. The Cliff's Notes version:

In short, there is more than one way of grasping the principles, working out the middle axioms, and examining with accuracy and through open, respectful debate the concrete realities addressed by Catholic social thought [SNIP] Catholic social thought has more than one wing. It needs at least two to fly.
Alas, the imperialist Catholics try to foist off their monolithic, myopic vision of Catholic social thought as though it were the whole of that beautiful, long-lived, and many-colored intellectual tradition. Theirs is only a splinter, not the whole beam.
If Mr. Brennan were content to present his own views, and those of his allies, as one option among many, I would have no quarrel with them. We could then have many useful arguments about the concrete realities, as well as about the policy options most likely ofsuccess.

James Kerian notes how selectively the USCCB chooses to apply church teaching in this article. He concludes:
It seems far more likely that after over three decades of succumbing to cultural pressure, our clergy are simply eager to show their courage in the face of the law on the first safe issue that has presented itself. [SNIP] If one is going to stand up to the law, it may as well be a law that many people already ignore.

Role-Reversal

The abundant writing and speculation about relaxing the permissions required to pray the traditional Latin Mass as it was in the 1962 Missal have provided an interesting insight for me courtesy of a caller to last Friday's 'Catholic Answers' radio show. The caller (from 47 minutes into the podcast) relates that she 'lived through' the change from Latin to the vernacular, and believes she'll have to 'live through' the 'reversal' from the vernacular back to Latin.
Notwithstanding the merits of (or lack thereof) the caller's concerns, it did cause me to consider the upheaval many of the faithful must have experienced with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. That awareness goes a long way to explain why this is taking longer than some expect, and why the Vatican is proceeding carefully.

Bob Kurzhals fund-raiser

St. Jude 6th grade girl scouts will be washing cars at Buster's Creamy Whip, 6581 Glenway Rd. (next to Rally's near Glenway/Bridgetown/Race intersection) to raise money for the Kurzhals family. Buster's will also be donating 20% of sales to the Kurzhals when customers mention Bob's name with their order.

Bring Flowers of the Rarest...

Two May Crownings in 2 days (and I get paid to be there - lucky me). Very different celebrations, though...St. Jude the Apostle (May 1 afternoon) celebrated May Crowning within the format of Evening Prayer, while St. Lawrence (May 2 evening) followed the outline from World Library's Missalette (Liturgy of the Word plus Litany & Act of Consecration).

I was very impressed with St. Lawrence's children's choir. There were 20-plus middle-schoolers, and their tone was clear and bright. Music for both celebrations was traditional and similar, but playing the Mighty Schaedle-tzer at St. Lawrence was nice. I'd like St. Jude's children's choir to hear what Becky Rogers does with the kids from St. Lawrence. I hope it would encourage the current 4th & 5th graders to sing through 6th, 7th, & 8th grades...if they do, I think they'll be something special in a couple years, too.

Rev. Eric Bowman

I don't know much about St. Jude's new Pastor besides the fact that he was a seminary classmate of the world-famous Rev. Geoffrey Drew (scroll down after you click to see the face made for EWTN Radio), but I did find two interesting articles featuring Fr. Bowman. This one from 2002 highlights his involvement with pro-life ministry as a seminarian. This other more recent article is from the also-world-famous Rev. Kyle Schnippel's Cincinnati Vocations web page).

Fr. Bowman is the Associate Pastor at St. Charles Borromeo, Kettering, and also a theology teacher and football team chaplain at Kettering-Alter High School. May God bless Fr. Bowman, Fr. Rick, and all Pastors and priests. Pray for vocations.

CarePages updates

Great news from the Daniel's (keepdaninyourprayers) and Kurzhals' family (TheWrongGuy) Care Pages. Both Daniel and Bob are home, though still facing intense continuing treatments.

News from Daniel's mom (updated 4/29):
We are home and doing fine! No hospital visits last night. Dan had a lot of energy this weekend, which is good to see!

Great Bobby Brady reset from the same post:

His voice is also changing a little bit. It is higher pitched than usual. I tease him and call him Bobby Brady. Of course, he has no clue who I am talking about.

Daniel and his family continue to inspire and share their faith:

We have had mostly positive things to say about what is happening with Dan. I think we have done this, because he has actually been dealing with this in a very positive way. We really have not had to deal with all the bad side effects that could be happening when he has his treatments. I think we have our moments where we can't believe this is happening, but we have to be strong for him. It is quite stressful at times when you sit back and take everything in. It's also a thing where you learn a lot of patience, because things take time and you have
no control over what is going on. Thanks for the continued support and prayers!!!!!!!!!

If you're still having trouble counting your own blessings, read Bob Kurzhal's most recent post (from 4/25):

I do not mean to minimize the experience, but we really haven’t loss anything that is truly meaningful, as some of you have. In fact, I know our family has gained a stronger deeper faith, which, isn’t that what the Christian life is/should be all about.
Please allow me to pontificate. God answers all prayers, He just doesn’t always answer prayers in the way we want. If he did it would, we would all be running around like overly-indulged, spoiled little Christian (or maybe non Christian) brats. If needs or requests are delayed in a balanced manner, the individual becomes stronger, and develops, patience, faithfulness, and self-control.
God sent a bunch of angels to the aid of our family. Don’t take this the wrong way, but part of the problem is that many of you do not exactly look like angels (ie., wings), but nevertheless in my/our eyes you are.

The feast of St. Peregrine is May 4 - Pray, pray, pray!
Graciously hear the prayers for Daniel and Bob which we present O God, to you in honor of St. Peregrine, your beloved servant and patron of those suffering from cancer or other life-threatening disease. Grant that we may receive help in our needs through the intercession of him whose life was so pleasing to you. Hear us in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.

4/30 Update

Bob has had a setback and returned to the James a little early. Keep praying, and keep the faith for Bob, Kamela, and their girls.

Young Adult Catholic Fellowship

This festival sounds ambitious and awesome. St. Gertrude seems to be renowned for conservatism and contemporary music. God bless Theology on Tap, the St. Gertrude young adult ministry, JTM, and other sponsors for putting up the resources for a regional celebration. If you go, let me know how it turns out.

Gonzales vs. Carhart - Catholic angles

Of course, the Supreme Court's decision last week upholding the federal ban on partial-birth abortions has Catholic angles, especially since the majority opinion consists of the 5 Catholic justices, and it may represent some form of conversion for Justice Anthony Kennedy. If you're interested:

This article (HT The Corner) covers and refutes biased claims that the majority justices "have failed to respect the fundamental difference between religious belief and morality” (as described by University of Chicago former dean and provost Geoffrey Stone). At the end of this article, I learned that Justice Thomas had converted from Episcopalism to Catholicism since his selection to the Court.

This First Things recap and Fr. Neuhaus' reflections make me wish I was smart. For now, I'll settle for seeing the truths of the Church revealed as the consequences of following Roe v. Wade to its logical conclusions unfold before us. All life is sacred...always has been, always will be.

Audrey's First Communion

Eating,

Drinking,

and being merry at the Table of the Lord.

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

Congratulations to the 70-something First Communicants from St. Jude Parish. May our tribes increase, and may we live our faith so those who need the Gospel will want the love, joy, and peace Jesus gives us.

The longest-running joke that no one's ever heard of...

...seems to be the 'Motu Proprio' that many expect will relax the permissions necessary to use the 1962 Missal. I got caught up in the excitement last month and took the bait (and posted ignorantly about this here) - many (myself included) were looking for the MP when B16 gave us Sacramentum Caritatis.

Amy Welborn gets in on the act, and makes some interesting side points in the process. I was unaware of potential concerns about inter-religious relations because of the 1962 language.

I don't envy the task the Vatican appears to have to anticipate the concerns of other faiths, traditionalists, liberals, liturgists, and anyone else waiting to be offended by an optional change to a 400-year old tradition. Given the apparent hitches, the Vatican appears to be proceeding cautiously, indeed.

It's a Sad, Sad, Sad, Sad World

So sad it can make one sick. Prayers for the souls of those who lost their lives, families and friends who lost loved ones, and the entire Virginia Tech community as it tries to move beyond the shock and fear of such carnage.

Amidst the tragedy:

Heroes young and old (HT Powerline).

Irony (this editorial was published in the Roanoake (VA) Times last summer - HT RCP).

Hope (HT Hugh Hewitt).

and, as always, the LORD.

Did you know the Pope is depressed?

According to this article, anyway.

Evidently, preaching about '"darkness" threatening the world in the form of war, oppression and hate. ' makes one 'downbeat'. I couldn't spot the 'gloom and doom' the headline promises, but I did see some typical media spin here:

The conservative Benedict, though less warm and spontaneous than his predecessor, has drawn similar-sized crowds so far in his young papacy, according to Vatican figures, though the numbers are falling.

No need to worry about any facts here - just ominous warnings about what being less warm and spontaneous than JPII (as well as conservative) will get you.

Happy birthday, Holy Father!

Upon Further Review...

...or as Emily Litella might have said, "Never mind" about the Lost Tomb of Jesus.

Christ Is Risen! Alleluia!

Happy Easter to all. Now that I've survived Holy Week, I hope to resume more frequent posting (after several weeks of posting less than Fr. Kyle Schnippel).

At St. Jude, it's a privilege to have a wonderful children's choir, a beautiful adult choir, several talented musicians, and the resources to hire a brass quartet for Easter Masses. I pray that all we have to be grateful for leads us to be more aware of how much God loves us, and helps us love each other as selflessly as Jesus did.

Anglican update

Here's a comprehensive update from First Things about a topic I'm not hearing much about elsewhere, though I blogged another First Things post here.

It's a sad, fascinating story. Are we witnessing the end of the religion of Presidents George Washington, James Madison, James Monroe, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, Chester Arthur, FDR, Gerald Ford, and George Bush 41?