What to do for Friday?

What's going on over at OLoP?

The bulletin says: "A day of festivities for Our Patroness of the Americas and Protector of the Unborn: Dinner, Folkloric Dance, Raffles, and More. Tickets for sale after all Masses; donation only $5.00."

I'll have to call the rectory and see if tickets are still available.

Then there's St. Joe's:
Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration: 6:30-8:30 P.M.
Mass: 7:00-8:30 P.M.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Fiesta: 8:30-11:00 P.M.

I don't know if I can handle another mariachi Mass, though.

KK are you going to either?

Over at St. Maria Goretti: Mañanitas at 5 A.M., Mass at 6 A.M., reception afterwards...

via NLM: Legnano, III Domenica di Avvento: ars celebrandi ambrosiana.

Ugh. A Hollywood remake of 47 Ronin, with Keanu? "Why, oh why?"

New Terminator Salvation trailer. Via AICN.

McG has denied that the rumors about the ending are true. Still, the trailer does make one wonder if the end isn't crazy in some way...

Posters

Edit. I watched the trailer again--from one angle, Bryce Dallas Howard does resemble Claire Danes--I am not sure they are playing the same character (John Connor's wife-to-be from T3). I think Claire Danes is underused in Hollywood--it would have been nice for her to be in T4. (Nick Stahl, on the other hand... was too much of an adultlescent... the same criticism I have of Chris Pine in the new Star Trek movie.)

Bryce Fan
Simply Bryce
Bryce Online

Redheads!
Bryce Dallas Howard promotes Terminator Salvation


Terminator Salvation Panel, Comic Con 2008

Bryce Dallas Howard on Letterman


How about "Kiss a Ginger" Day instead... hah.

Chrissy Crowley at ECMA 2008



alt: part 1, 2

Children Go Where I Send You


The Rankin Family
The Rankins Online

Loyalty in the Modern World, by Andreas Kinneging

What is loyalty? What is its quintessence, its fundamental nature? What rank does loyalty have in the realm of values and virtues? How important is it to a life well lived? The question of loyalty is of considerable interest because it sheds light not noly on the nature of modern society but also on similarities and differences of today’s culture to that of the ancients. . . .

(from Modern Age, 46:1-2, Winter/Spring 2004)

The Art of Manliness: Free Ebook: Guide to Being A Gentleman in 2008
*(here)*
*

Pearl Harbor Day, by Clyde N. Wilson.

Change is a constant in the life of men and nations, and old geezers going on about how it used to be are tedious. But our change in America has been, it seems to me, abnormally large and fast, excessive to the point that most of the population is literally cut off from the past. It may be argued that America has always been the land of change, but that is a half truth. The other truth is that Americans have through most of their history, until recently, sought stability. Pioneers moved west for opportunity—opportunity to recreate on new and richer land the communities from which they had come.

The Dalai Lama receives the Honoris Causa doctorate from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, Monday, Dec. 8, 2008. In comments at a news conference after the ceremony, the Tibetan spiritual leader said conditions in Tibet have "not improved at all" since the Olympic Games in Beijing. (AP Photo)

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama receives an honorary doctorate at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland on December 8, 2008, during an eight-day visit to Poland which began on December 5. The Dalai Lama received an honorary doctorate in Poland Monday and expressed admiration for the nation's 1980s non-violent struggle against its now defunct communist regime. (AFP/Getty Images)

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama receives an honorary doctorate at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, on December 8, 2008, during an eight-day visit to Poland which began on December 5. Poland-Tibet-education-award-religionAFP PHOTO / PAWEL ULATOWSKI.

Check out Polish academic dress and regalia. I am abstaining from commenting on honorary doctorates and the Dalai Lama... The flattened biretta(?) is interesting.

The new prefect of CDW: Antonio Card. Cañizares Llovera

Pope Names Spanish Cardinal to Head Office on Liturgy

NLM: Cardinal Cañizares New Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship
More on the New Prefect of the CDW

Fr. Z: New Prefect of the Cong. for Divine Worship: Antonio Card. Cañizares Llovera

More about Card. Cañizares Llovera

Hey you liturgical progressivists! Get a load of this!

I was supposed to go to LA school today to sub for a first grade class, but the car wouldn't start. (I don't know if YR is in that class or not, but I probably would have seen her somewhere--I wonder if her mom is satisfied with her progress now. She moved her daughter because the teacher had been absent for most of the school year, and the class was being taught by subs.)

So I ended up using AAA Roadside Assistance; they dispatched a towtruck from a local garage, but a tow turned out to be unnecessary, as the two truck driver was able to get the get started after 2 or 3 minutes of quick, constant turning of the ignition. (Is that good for the starter?)

Of course, the starter was bad. I went to a garage in Apple Country that my mother had used to get the starter in her car changed. The cost of replacing the starter? Almost $300. The mechanic advised that I get other parts replaced; on top of that there are the rear brakes. Around $1000 worth of work needs to be done, if I follow all of his recommendations, and on top of that the front passenger window needs to be fixed as well. Having a car is such a pain.

Just last night I dreamt I was riding a horse.

Anthony Esolen, Is Culture a Thing of the Past?--ISI lecture, Yale University, New Haven, CT
11/8/2008--mp3.

No sign of the lectures by Patrick Deneen or Daniel Larison.

Pontiff's Piazza di Spagna Address

Pontiff's Piazza di Spagna Address

Mary Immaculate: "Sign of Sure Hope and Consolation"

ROME, DEC. 9, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Monday afternoon, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, during his visit Saturday to the image of the Immaculate Conception in Rome's Piazza de Spagna.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Almost three months ago, I had the joy to go on pilgrimage to Lourdes, on the occasion of the 150 years of the historic apparition of the Virgin Mary to St. Bernadette. The celebration of this singular anniversary concludes precisely today, solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, because the "beautiful lady" -- as Bernadette called her, when appearing to her for the last time in the grotto of Massabielle, revealed her name, saying: "I am the Immaculate Conception." She said it in the local language, and the little seer referred that expression, which to her was unknown and incomprehensible, to her parish priest.

"Immaculate Conception": Today we also repeat with emotion that mysterious name. We repeat it here, at the foot of this monument in the heart of Rome; and innumerable brothers and sisters of ours do the same in other places of the world, in shrines and chapels, as well as in the homes of Christian families. Wherever there is a Catholic community, the Virgin is venerated with this wonderful and marvelous name: Immaculate Conception. Of course, the conviction of Mary's immaculate conception already existed many centuries before the apparitions of Lourdes, but the latter came as a heavenly seal after my venerated predecessor, Blessed Pius IX, defined the dogma on Dec. 8, 1854. In today's feast, so loved by the Christian people, this expression arises from the heart and flowers on the lips as the name of our heavenly Mother. As a child raises its eyes to his mother's face and, seeing him smiling, forgets all fear and pain, so we, turning our gaze to Mary, recognize in her "God's smile," immaculate reflection of divine light, we find in her our hope, also in the midst of the problems and tragedies of the world.

It is a tradition for the Pope to join the city's acknowledgement by bringing a basket of flowers to Mary. These flowers indicate our love and devotion: the love and devotion of the Pope, of the Church of Rome and of the inhabitants of this City, who feel themselves spiritually children of the Virgin Mary. Symbolically, the roses can express all the beautiful and good we have carried out during the year, because in this now traditional meeting we would like to offer it to our Mother, convinced that we could have done nothing without her protection and without the grace that she obtains continually from God. However -- as is usually said --there are no roses without thorns, and also on the stems of these wonderful white roses there is no lack of thorns, which represent for us the difficulties, sufferings, and evils that mark the lives of persons and of our communities. We present our joys to our Mother, but also entrust to her our preoccupations, confident of finding in her the comfort not to be discouraged, and the support to go forward.

O Immaculate Virgin, in this moment I would like to entrust to you especially the "little ones" of this, our city: the children above all, especially those who are seriously ill, children who are deprived and those who suffer the consequences of harsh family situations. Watch over them and make them feel, in the affection and help of those around them, the warmth of the love of God. I entrust to you, O Mary, the lonely elderly, the sick, immigrants who find difficulty in integrating, family nucleuses that struggle to cover their bills and persons who do not find work or who have lost an indispensable job to get ahead. Teach us, Mary, to be sympathetic with those who are going through difficulties, to level the ever larger social differences; help us to cultivate a lively sense of the common good, of respect for what is public, encourage us to regard -- more than ever this, our city of Rome -- as patrimony of all, and may each one of us do, with awareness and determination, our part in constructing a more just and sympathetic society.

O Immaculate Mary, who are for all a sign of sure hope and consolation, let us be attracted by your immaculate candor. Your beauty -- "Tota Pulchra," we sing today -- assures us that the victory of love is possible; what is more, that it is certain. It assures us that grace is stronger than sin and, therefore, that rescue from any slavery is possible. Yes, O Mary, you help us to believe with greater confidence in the good and to put our faith in gratitude, service, nonviolence, the force of truth. You encourage us to stay awake, not to yield to the temptation of easy evasions, to confront reality and its problems with courage and responsibility. So you did, young woman, called to risk all for the Word of the Lord. Be a loving mother for our young people, so that they will have the courage to be "morning watchmen," and give this virtue to all Christians so that they will be the soul of the world in this not easy period of our history. Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God and our Mother, "Salus Populi Romani," pray for us!

[Translation by ZENIT]

On the Immaculate Conception

On the Immaculate Conception

"The Reflection of the Beauty That Saves the World"

ROME, DEC. 9, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Monday, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, before praying the Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

The mystery of Mary's Immaculate Conception, which we celebrated solemnly today, reminds us of two fundamental truths of our faith: in the first place original sin, and then the victory of Christ's grace over it, a victory that shines sublimely in Mary Most Holy. The existence of what the Church calls "original sin" is, sadly, a crushing truth, suffice it to look around us and above all in our interior. The experience of evil is, in fact, so consistent, that it imposes itself and makes us ask the question: from whence does it come? For a believer especially, the question is even more profound: If God, who is absolute goodness, has created everything, where does evil come from?

The first pages of the Bible (Genesis 1-3) respond precisely to the fundamental question -- posed by every human generation -- with the account of creation and our parents' fall: God created everything so that it would exist, in particular he created man in his own image; he did not create death, rather, the latter entered the world because of the envy of the devil (cf. Wisdom 1:13-14; 2:23-24), who, rebelling against God, also attracted men with deceit, inducing them to rebellion. It is the drama of freedom, which God accepts totally out of love, but promising that there would be the son of a woman that would crush the head of the ancient serpent (Genesis 3:15).

Hence, from the beginning, the "eternal counsel" -- as Dante would say -- has a "fixed term" (Paradise, XXXIII, 3): The Woman predestined to be mother of the Redeemer, mother of him who humbled himself to the extreme to lead us back to our original dignity. In God's eyes, this Woman has always had a face and name: "full of grace" (Luke 1:28), as the Angel called her when visiting her in Nazareth. She is the new Eve, spouse of the new Adam, destined to be the mother of all the redeemed. Thus wrote St. Andrew of Crete: "The Theotokos Mary, the common refuge of all Christians, was the first to be delivered from the primitive fall of our parents" (Homily IV, on Christmas, PG 97, 880 A). And today's liturgy states that God has "prepared a worthy dwelling for his Son and, in anticipation of his death, preserved her from all stain of sin" (Collect Prayer).

Beloved, in Mary Immaculate we contemplate the reflection of the Beauty that saves the world: the beauty of God that shines on the face of Christ. In Mary, this beauty is totally pure, humble, free of all pride and presumption. The Virgin showed herself in this way to St. Bernadette 150 years ago in Lourdes, and in this way she is venerated in so many shrines. This afternoon, in keeping with tradition, I will also render her homage before the monument dedicated to her in the Piazza di Spagna. Let us now invoke the Immaculate Virgin with confidence, recalling with the Angelus the words of the Gospel, which today's liturgy proposes for our meditation.

[Translation by ZENIT]

[After the Angelus the Pope greeted the pilgrims in various languages. In English, he said:]

I greet all the English-speaking visitors and pilgrims who are present today. The feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an occasion for us all to rejoice in the radiant purity of the Mother of our Redeemer. She was chosen from among all women to be our pattern of holiness, a sign of favor to the Church at its beginning and the promise of its perfection as the spotless bride of Christ. May God bless you, your families and all those you love.

© Copyright 2008 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Hayley Westenra - Santa Lucia


alt

Hayley Westenra - Variety Club Awards 2008 - Classical Performer of the Year

Recent clips from Psallentes

Inviolata integra et casta es Maria


O Sancta Mater Begga


Virgineos flores


O sacrum convivium

Twitch: Bollywood Goes Kung Fu! Full Trailer Arrives For CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA!

official website

Edit: Apple trailer

Illegal immigration foe Rep. Tom Tancredo retires

AP: Court won't review Obama's eligibility to serve

Spengler: Benedict XVI is magnificently right

Pope Benedict XVI argued when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger that an unethical economy will destroy itself, and that economics cannot determine whether any activity is ethical or not. If the present economic crisis helps the West to reflect on its moral weakness, the cost well may be worth it.

Harold Fickett, A Monastic Kind of Life: How Catholic religious communities are trying to attract young people again. (via Godspy)

On the Definitive Exodus

On the Definitive Exodus

"From the Kingdom of Evil to the Kingdom of God"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 7, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address Benedict XVI delivered today before praying the Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

For a week now we have been experiencing the liturgical season of Advent: a time of openness to God's future, a time of preparation for Christmas, when he, the Lord, who is the absolute novelty, came to dwell in the midst of this fallen humanity to renew it from within. In the Advent liturgy there resounds a message full of hope, which invites us to lift up our gaze to the ultimate horizon, but at the same time to recognize the signs of God-with-us in the present. On this second Sunday of Advent, the Word of God assumes the emotional aspects of the so-called Deutero-Isaiah, which finally announces liberation to the Israelites, who have suffered decades of bitter exile in Babylon: "Comfort, give comfort to my people," the prophet says in God's name. "Speak to Jerusalem's heart and tell her that her tribulation is over" (Isaiah 40:1-2). This is what the Lord wants to do in Advent: to speak to the heart of his people and, through them, to the whole of humanity, to proclaim salvation.

Today as well the Church's voice is lifted up: "Prepare a way for the Lord in the desert" (Isaiah 40:3). For populations worn out by misery and hunger, for throngs of refugees, for those who suffer grave and systematic violations of their rights, the Church is as a sentinel on the mountain of faith and she announces to them: "Behold your God! The Lord your God comes in power" (Isaiah 40:11).

This prophetic announcement is realized in Jesus Christ. He, with his preaching and then with his death and resurrection, fulfilled the ancient promises, revealing a deeper and more universal perspective. He inaugurated an exodus that was no longer a merely earthly, historical, and as such provisional, exodus, but one that was radical and definitive: the passage from the kingdom of evil to the Kingdom of God, from the dominion of sin and death to that of love and life. Because of this, Christian hope transcends the legitimate desire for a social and political liberation, because that what Jesus began is a new humanity that comes "from God," but that at the same time germinates on our earth, to the extent that it lets itself be impregnated by the Spirit of the Lord. It is thus a matter of entering fully into the logic of faith: believing in God, in his plan of salvation, and also working for the building up of his Kingdom. Justice and peace, in fact, are God's gift, but they require men and women who are "good soil," ready to receive the good seed of his Word.

Jesus is the first fruit of this new humanity, the Son of God and the Son of Mary. She, the Virgin Mother, is the "way" that God himself prepared for his coming into the world. With all her humility, Mary walks at the head of the new Israel in the exodus from every exile, from all oppression, from every moral and material slavery, toward "the new heavens and the new earth, in which justice lives" (2 Peter 3:13). Let us entrust the desire for peace and salvation of the men of our time to her maternal intercession.

[After the Angelus the Pope greeted the pilgrims in various languages. In Italian he said:]

The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, His Holiness Alexy II, died on Friday. We join our Orthodox brethren in prayer to recommend his soul to the goodness of the Lord, that he might welcome him into this kingdom of light and peace.

On Thursday, Dec. 11, in the afternoon, following the Holy Mass at which Cardinal Agostino Vallini will preside, I will meet with the students of the Roman universities in the Basilica of St. Peter. In observance of the Pauline Year, I will give the young students the Apostle Paul's Letter to the Romans. I will be happy to greet the students, along with the rectors, the professors and the technical and administrative staffs at this traditional gathering in preparation for Christmas.

I am happy to address a special greeting to the Chierici Mariani dell’Immacolata Concezione, who are beginning the jubilee of the rebirth and reform of their congregation. Dear brothers, may the Virgin Mary obtain abundant graces for you and help you always to remain faithful to your charism.

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

[In English he said:]

I greet the English-speaking visitors and pilgrims who are gathered here today. The Church puts before us, on this second Sunday of Advent, the figure of John the Baptist, the voice crying in the wilderness: "Prepare a way for the Lord". During this Advent season, as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of Christ, let us prepare a place for him in our hearts. I invoke God's abundant blessings upon all of you, and upon your families and loved ones at home.

© Copyright 2008 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

The singularity: The fantasy and its effect
Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
An aura of inevitability surrounds the idea of technological progress. And, that aura implies meaningful progress for human society as well. But is that aura in reality merely a paralyzing agent that prevents careful examination of technology and its claims for the future?

While we should remember and pray for those killed at Pearl Harbor, should we not also look critically at the 'official' history and the actions of the Roosevelt administration? How much did the administration no, and was it deliberately negligent in order to force the United States' entry into war?

Misallocated Infamy, by Srdja Trifkovic

Other links:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/
USS Arizona Memorial (U.S. National Park Service)