No Rationalization Hamster Here

From The Life of our Holy Mother Mary of Egypt by St. Sophronius of Jerusalem:

Much more said Abba Zosimas. But the woman raised him and said:

"I am ashamed, Abba, to speak to you of my disgraceful life, forgive me for God's sake! But as you have already seen my naked body I shall likewise lay bare before you my work, so that you may know with what shame and obscenity my soul is filled. I was not running away out of vanity, as you thought, for what have I to be proud of -- I who was the chosen vessel of the devil? But when I start my story you will run from me, as from a snake, for your ears will not be able to bear the vileness of my actions. But I shall tell you all without hiding anything, only imploring you first of all to pray incessantly for me, so that I may find mercy on the day of Judgment."

The elder wept and the woman began her story.

"My native land, holy father, was Egypt. Already during the lifetime of my parents, when I was twelve years old, I renounced their love and went to Alexandria. I am ashamed to recall how there I at first ruined my maidenhood and then unrestrainedly and insatiably gave myself up to sensuality It is more becoming to speak of this briefly, so that you may just know my passion and my lechery. for about seventeen years, forgive me, I lived like that. I was like a fire of public debauch. And it was not for the sake of gain -- here I speak the pure truth. Often when they wished to pay me, I refused the money. I acted in this way so as to make as many men as possible to try to obtain me, doing free of charge what gave me pleasure. do not think that I was rich and that was the reason why I did not take money. I lived by begging, often by spinning flax, but I had an insatiable desire and an irrepressible passion for lying in filth. This was life to me. Every kind of abuse of nature I regarded as life.

That is how I lived. Then one summer I saw a large crowd of Lybians and Egyptians running towards the sea. I asked one of them, `Where are these men hurrying to?' He replied, `They are all going to Jerusalem for the Exaltation of the Precious and Lifegiving Cross, which takes place in a few days.' I said to him, `Will they take me with them if I wish to go?' `No one will hinder you if you have money to pay for the journey and for food.' And I said to him, `To tell you truth, I have no money, neither have I food. But I shall go with them and shall go aboard. And they shall feed me, whether they want to or not. I have a body -- they shall take it instead of pay for the journey.' I was suddenly filled with a desire to go, Abba, to have more lovers who could satisfy my passion. I told you, Abba Zosimas, not to force me to tell you of my disgrace. God is my witness, I am afraid of defiling you and the very air with my words."

Did she justify her behavior as a misguided way to find "love"? No. She should be a model to us modern libertines, admitting to having fallen into the sin of lust and repudiating it for Christ. We must find a balance between recognizing the gravity of sin and emphasizing God's mercy - the latter does not make the former any less serious or contrary to God and His Goodness.

An Eastern Imagination

Fr. Finigan has a photo of the chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae - maybe the triangular arched ceiling was necessitated by the design of the building (But couldn't it have been altered? Even a neo-gothic ceiling would be better.) The ceiling is quite bare, and the look of concrete reminds me of our modernist monstrosities. The chapel probably is not used regularly, but would it have been difficult to have a different ceiling, with some sort of sacred art on it? Ceiling art or frescoes or icons would probably not work with a triangular arched ceiling - but some icons (or neo-gothic sculptures) could be put on cross beams spanning the chapel. And then there is the "sanctuary" of the chapel... how could that be salvaged, besides my prefer approach of making it more "Eastern"? When this is with what our cardinals and bishops become acquainted, it should be expected that their own personal understanding off a traditional liturgical aesthetic would be woefully underdeveloped.

If the Buck Stops with Him...

The Thinking Housewife reports: Archbishop Says Girl Can Play Football

The archbishop in question? Charles Chaput. If the report is true, then a low opinion of even "conservative" Uhmerican bishops seems justified.

I don't watch the local news so I didn't learn about the fire until today - Berkeley’s Iconic Chez Panisse to Soldier on After Damaging Fire. I'm actually surprised I didn't see any mention of the fire on Facebook, but with the Facebook tweaking the news feed and playing with the filter to its advantage, any such posts could easily have been deemed unimportant for my news feed.

website

Pope Francis

Unfortunately, Daylife is no longer available.



Rome Reports:
'Habemus Papam': Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is the new Pope of the Catholic Church


New Pope greets the World Francis I


Francis I to faithful: pray for me, trust in me


Pope Francis: His First Words

Chiesa: The First Pope Named Francis
From 2002: Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Profession: Servant of the Servants of God

Vatican Insider:
Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the new Pope of the Catholic Church: Francis I
Photo Gallery

First Things
Ethika Politika

Zenit:
Cardinal Bergoglio Is the 267th Successor of St. Peter
A Profile
1st Words

Francis Has Spoken With Pope Emeritus
And Journalists to Be Among First to Have Papal Audience

Patriarch Sviatoslav: Newly elected Pope knows Ukrainian Catholic Church, its Liturgy and Spirituality

Pope Francis, Not Francis I

Yes, the beloved of God may suffer unjustly at the hands of others, but sometimes your misery is your own d*mn fault.

How can Christians respond?

To sentiments like this:

No Rings for Sluts.

It is up to men, however, to enforce some dignity for themselves by refusing to wife up a woman who finally wearies of the cock carousel.

The women are cashing in their best years on play time, and expecting men to commit their best years on them.

Remember guys, only YOU can stop SlutFraud!

There should be very little for them to say, if they refuse to agree with it.

No Agenda Here

From CUESA FB:

Tomorrow at UC Berkeley: Michael Pollan interviews Sally K. Fairfax, co-author of "California Cuisine and Just Food," Berkeley professor, CUESA board member, and a whip-smart and wonderful lady to boot: http://bit.ly/W7J7nd

Picture is of the cover of the book.

Sally K. Fairfax - profile

Commonwealth Club event - archived podcast (mp3)

Herman Daly Reviews Paul Craig Robert's Latest

The surprising conclusion to an important new book - The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and the Economic Dissolution of the West (Towards a New Economics for a Full World) (Resilience)

Alas, the English edition is available only in electronic form - is there no paleocon or trad con publisher willing to print it?

Sex Egalitarianism

Re: "sex egalitarianism, in practice"

Defenders of the status quo may claim that women are being put in positions that they deserve, that this is proper to a true meritocracy (even though affirmative action and other sex-related or ideological considerations probably play a role in the deliberation of those who enable these women to displace men) - but this "meritocracy" is nonetheless based on the assumption of sex egalitarianism, that the sexes and the roles proper to each are the same. This is the underlying error which causes great injury (to men), despite the "good intentions" of those seeking to promote women or to provide redress for "historical wrongs" which are not really such.

The Conclave Begins

Conclave begins behind closed doors, as the famous 'Extra Omnes' phrase is announced


Cardinals take oath of secrecy as Conclave begins


Related:
"Peter and Succession" by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Charles Coulombe, A New Pope

Sacred Liturgy: Past, Present, and Future
An interview with Dom Alcuin Reid about the liturgy, Vatican II, and the upcoming Sacra Liturgia 2013 conference in Rome

The Transfiguration of the Church by Rev. George W. Rutler

The "State of the Church"

The Church That the New Pope Will Govern by Sandro Magister

It will be a Church with two thirds of the faithful in the southern hemisphere. With more Catholics in Manila than in Holland. With the West in a decline of faith. And with the United States at the center of the new geography

A Church of numbers or a Church of faithful? Does the growth in numbers give a misleading picture of the health of the local churches? How good are the native seminaries? Are many of them still staffed by foreign missionaries who are neo-modernist in belief? How well are the faithful in the "boom" countries catechized? After all, the description given here is primarily of "Latin," or Roman-rite Catholics. Spanish-speaking Catholics (and I would argue Roman-rite Catholicis in general) may be receptive to liturgical worship that makes greater use of the senses. But what is the state of liturgical music in Ibero-America? Someone I met on Saturday commented that Latinos might adjust quickly to the use of icons, given the place of statues in their devotional life. Better music, more sacred images, and a greater use of liturgical gestures might be a bulwark against the temptation of a sentimental "pentecostal"-style worship.

I think this kind of assessment (and Magister is not the only one who looks at the Church in such a way, especially now with the election of a new pope in the news) does not accurately depict the health of local Roman-rite churches, nor give an idea of what sort of actions or reforms are necessary at a "universal" level [some would say at the level of the Roman or Western patriarchate]. (It's based on this sort of statistical description that some would advocate for a non-Italian or non-caucasian pope, in the name of reflecting the current and future "demographics" of the Church.)

It reminds me - I have not read anything on how the underground Catholics in China deal with the population control laws. Do they resort to NFP with the thinking that the threat of government coercion and punishment provides a grave and necessary reason?

Is the age of the Tridentine seminary system over, at least in the "West"? Would it be possible to adopt a more localized form of clerical education, modeled after the English universities and their use of tutors? Could we use alternative means of students demonstrating their understanding of the material? (Any living form of scholasticism would not require the lecture as a teaching medium.) This sort of tutorial would be coupled with an apprenticeship at a local parish - my preference would be one with several priests living together and praying the hours in common. At the very least it would be a parish seeking a better liturgical life. Seminarians currently learn various liturgical offices in the context of communal worship - why could this part of their education be transferred to the local parish, as much as possible? They could continue learning singing/sacred music together, as it may be more efficient . The singing of readings and so on needs to be recovered. [An adaptation of Latin singing/chanting is still probably better than whatever has been invented for American English.]

This should not be seen as a cost-cutting measure - though the abolition of a seminary may have that consequence. The faculty could be retained in a tutorial system, while any lay teachers of sacred music, for example, could also be employed at the cathedral (if they are not already) to improve the quality of the music there. Is such a system feasible? And would it be more readily applicable to the education of married men to be ordained to the diaconate (or even the priesthood)?

Would it be possible for Catholics in the typical American mega-city or suburb to organize among themselves and to make housing available on the market to other Catholics? While most Catholics remain wage-slaves and tied to some profession or industry such an effort may be useless, but what if Catholics decide to develop and participate in an alternative economy?

Even if Catholics are unable to avoid wage-slavery this does not prevent them from participating in the life of a local parish as much as possible. But they must be taught and encouraged to do so, and to re-think friendship and what it means to be a Christian. Voluntary simplicity as a contemporary form of Christian witness.

"Just Say No"

Peter Hitchens has posted on marijuana and drugs, and his opposition to their use and legalization.

While I was at the opening of the studio, the familiar smell of marijuana was in the air.

Choosing to induce pleasure through the ingestion of taking of some chemical [for example, the use of alcohol] can be permissible, or is not always contrary to the human good. But deriving pleasure while simultaneously obliterating or diminishing the use of reason?* Or deliberately surrendering autonomy/self-control by altering the brain? That is sinful, although the act's repugnance to reason might not be so clear to the untrained or to the vicious. For me, the use of "recreational" drugs is rather repulsive, and I would not consider using drugs because of the importance I place on reason and human agency. That's not my sin. Though I won't say that in severe circumstances it might not become more tempting.

*Could it be justified through the principle of double-effect, i.e. I intend to derive pleasure by taking this drug, but I do not intend to lose self-control or the use of reason?

Other "Christianities"

Turfan and the Christians of the Silk Route by Philip Jenkins (Patheos)

James Kalb on What Are Catholics To Do?

Catholic World Report

That’s what’s happened in our public life. Everybody who matters is a secularist today, and the situation has far-reaching implications. One is that educated and well-placed people now believe that the institutions on which social order is based should be technically expert, economically rational, morally nonjudgmental, and universal in their reach. So the world should be ordered comprehensively by global markets and expert regulatory bureaucracies, together with subsidiary institutions such as universities, think tanks, media organizations, and various NGOs that serve or try to influence government and business. That, it is thought, is the uniquely rational way of organizing society, and whatever threatens it, or attempts to limit it or introduce other authorities, is irrational, disruptive, and a threat to humanity.

That’s why the people who run things in Europe have rejected Christianity and adopted the EU as their religion. For those committed to it, the European Union is not really a practical contrivance to be judged by its visible or likely effects. It is a supreme principle that must forever expand and deepen in its application without regard to practical considerations or the outlook or well-being of the people the governments involved supposedly represent. Anything else would violate the vision of the secular development of the human world into an ordered and beneficent cosmos. That, it is thought, would be the triumph of chaos, irrationality, and violence.

The problem is that the society aimed at has no room for man as he is. It treats him as fundamentally a careerist and consumer, with no natural particularities, and no higher aspiration or destiny than the perfection of the system that enables him and his fellows to get what they want. Any qualities that go beyond that are disruptive, and must be eradicated or neutralized by confining them to a purely private sphere where they won’t influence anything.

For that reason it has no place for the attachments that have always formed human life and to which we have always given our deepest loyalties: family, religion, specific community, particular people and culture, ultimate truth. Such things become private, sentimental matters with no special definition and therefore no serious public function. They are not permitted to make a difference, because when they do the kind of rational, transparent society at which liberal modernity aims becomes impossible. So to the extent they retain a connection to aspects of how people live, it’s a problem to be dealt with under the rubrics of equality, tolerance, and inclusion.

The vision is utopian, which means that it does violence to human nature by trying to root out things that make us human. To make matters worse, the situation can’t be discussed intelligently because the abolition of ultimate truth leads to the abolition of truth as such. Truth becomes first a matter of what is useful, then what is comfortable and pleasing, and finally what helps the teller get what he wants. Integrity disappears from commerce, politics become spin and optics, and even scholars present truth as something constructed for other purposes. When such tendencies join with the view that common sense doesn’t count, and we should only pay attention to what experts say, the result is a tendency to ignore the obvious in favor of the assertions of those who have social authority and claim special insight. For examples, consider contemporary architecture and educational theory. People hate the one, and the other notoriously doesn’t work, but nothing can be done about either.

So the problem with present-day life is that it’s short on truth and reason. Our job as Catholics is to stand for those things, so if (to pick a prominent example) the truth of marriage and the sexes is rejected, then we need to say what it is and work toward it.

I don't see the American Church extricating itself easily from feminism (or, in practice, sex egalitarianism).

Fr. James Schall, S.J. Retires

Father James Schall’s ‘Final Gladness’

A History of the Conclave

Rome Reports

Kristin Scott Benson Interview

Bluegrass Today: Kristin Scott Benson Talks Bluegrass and Grascals

The Tonight Show

Kristin Scott Benson
The Grascals

Christopher Hogwood Lecture

The Past is a Foreign Country

Vandana Shiva on Bowman v. Monsanto: This Case Is About Every Farmer, Person and Seed in the World

The entire interview.

Just Because It's Not Feminism...

Doesn't mean that everything is ok.

Fred Reed on the progress of women in Mexico: Machismo. Certainly this reality is reflected in telenovelas - the romantic heroine who is strong, capable, runs her own business or what have you. Tonight I saw a commercial for Fernando Colunga's telenovela, Porque el amor manda, in which he plays a man who is down on his luck and becomes the secretary for some female executive (or business owner) - guess who becomes romantically involved? Is this realistic? He may be manly in some respects, but the male secretary who is subordinate to a woman at work - would she really fall in love with him? If she was over 40, divorced, and looking for a fling or even a LTR, it might be a different story.

Assuming that Mr. Reed's observations are accurate...

While there may not be such a strong feminist movement in Ibero-America or Mexico, with young women not adopting and spreading this idealogy in great numbers, but are merely seeking to make a living, is this such a positive development? Has it been accompanied by the emasculating of men? How many dispossessed men are there in the urban centers of Mexico? What sort of jobs are these women taking, and where are the men who could have filled them? Is there a growing underclass of men who haven't been able to find their place within polite society? How is what Mr. Reed observes different from what you find in industrializing, urbanizing "societies," like those in East Asia and elsewhere, where feminism does not have such a strong hold, and yet many of the consequences are the same? (Hypergamy, suppression of fertility, etc.)

Loafer's Glory at Don Quioxte's

March 20.



website - FB

Pious Practice Crossing Over into Superstition

I saw a commercial for Nuestra Belleza Latina, and one of the former winners was apparently doing a blessing/sign of the cross on the latest winner. Again, why? It seems like it's an example of unthinking folk piety, bordering on superstition. Is a blessing really congruent with such an occasion? Should thieves make the sign of the cross after they successfully rob someone?

Alas, One More Blog Gone

Sunshine Mary's blog - Sarah's Daughter comments.

2013 Berkeley Old Time Music Convention Spring Situation

Coming up, March 16! Noon to 4 P.M. - Freight and Salvage and official