at IGN
Stars Keira Knightley and Kôji Yakusho(from Shall We Dance?). I think I'd rather watch Year One in the North; this appears to have the same sensitivity to Japanese culture as The Last Samurai. Why is it that none of the Asian stars get billing in the trailer?
official website; poster
IMDB
A possible third Elizabeth movie?
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Cardinal Has Message for Beauty-Obsessed World
Cardinal Has Message for Beauty-Obsessed World
Recalls Church's Preferential Option for Marginalized
LOURDES, France, SEPT. 11, 2007 (Zenit.org).- In a world that exalts physical perfection, the Church must proclaim its preferential option for the weak and marginalized, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
Cardinal Renato Martino said this today during the inauguration of the 5th Congress of European Pilgrimages and Sanctuaries, taking place through Thursday as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations in Lourdes.
The cardinal called Europe the "common house where people and ideas circulate."
"This continuous meeting," he added, "is a sign of the times that the Church must interpret," while encouraging fraternity and solidarity. Like the patron saints of Europe, the cardinal said, "we must be educators and providers of spirituality."
The 74-year-old cardinal affirmed: "Our task consists in continuing to invite Christians and people of good will to break away from daily routine and start their journey." He said that "we must help pilgrims to find proper meditation," and called pilgrimages a journey of reconciliation.
"It is important," he explained, "that each one of us not only accept the great diversity of cultures and expressions of faith, but we must live in communion. Pilgrimage is also a place of mercy.
"In a world that places sickness and weakness on the outskirts of society, in order to exalt beauty and physical perfection, you directors of pilgrimage and rectors of sanctuaries offer a witness to the fact that the Church goes out to meet the forgotten and marginalized.
"You must remember that the heart of God is mercy, which is reflected in man created in the image of God."
The Cardinal does bring up a good point--how much of the money spent on cosmetics and procedures would be better used as alms for the poor?
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Recent articles by Henry CK Liu
Liquidity Bust Bypasses the Banking System
Part I: The Rise of the Non-bank Financial system
Part II: Bank Deregulation Fuels Credit Abuse
Part I: The Rise of the Non-bank Financial system
Part II: Bank Deregulation Fuels Credit Abuse
Thomas Fleming, Counting People and People Who Count
Counting People and People Who Count
Dr. Fleming gives an introduction to liberal education.
While it may be the case that the cultural literacy of students of all "socioeconomic" backgrounds is rather poor and that they may be fully immersed in the ideals of consumerism, nonetheless, would we be surprised to learn that those who grow up in broken families, families where a father is absent or present but with abuse, etc., are more likely to have other problems as well?
How often do we witness the results of parents who have neglected to raise their children properly? Whether it be on a bus picking up students leaving their high school, in the shopping malls, or wherever else our young people may congregate?
Dr. Fleming reiterates that the end of liberal education is the contemplation of the good. This Sunday I spent some time with a friend and mentor, and we discussed in part the lack of desire for wisdom among professional academics occupying the institutions of "higher learning" in this country, and even among certain Catholic schools.
While there are the fortunate few who may be able to receive such an education, what about the rest of us, especially those who are trapped in the spiritually impoverished urban centers of this country, or their suburban colonies? If we have the humility to admit that we lack a good education, and our opportunities to learn are limited, then perhaps we can become content with focusing on God and receiving the gift of wisdom that He wishes to impart on all.
Dr. Fleming gives an introduction to liberal education.
A Quaker headmaster informed me that he hoped his students would be themselves; I naturally asked him why parents should pay high tuition to a private school if not to turn their little savages into some kind of civilized human beings.
While it may be the case that the cultural literacy of students of all "socioeconomic" backgrounds is rather poor and that they may be fully immersed in the ideals of consumerism, nonetheless, would we be surprised to learn that those who grow up in broken families, families where a father is absent or present but with abuse, etc., are more likely to have other problems as well?
How often do we witness the results of parents who have neglected to raise their children properly? Whether it be on a bus picking up students leaving their high school, in the shopping malls, or wherever else our young people may congregate?
Dr. Fleming reiterates that the end of liberal education is the contemplation of the good. This Sunday I spent some time with a friend and mentor, and we discussed in part the lack of desire for wisdom among professional academics occupying the institutions of "higher learning" in this country, and even among certain Catholic schools.
The ancient system had its shortcomings, and nothing could be more foolish than to design a school around Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria, much less to pretend to revive an imaginary trivium and quadrivium that more often existed on paper (or, rather, parchment) than in practice. However, the fundamental objectives of education remain, and not just the objectives but the methods that have proved useful and indispensable: the teaching of Latin and mathematics; the study of grammar and rhetoric (which includes logic and composition); and a systematic reading of the books that make us who we are, particularly poetry, drama, and history—and not the pseudo-scientific history written by professors but the history of historians who can write and think: Thucydides and Livy, David Hume and Shelby Foote. This is a far cry from four years spent on the Five Foot Shelf.
While there are the fortunate few who may be able to receive such an education, what about the rest of us, especially those who are trapped in the spiritually impoverished urban centers of this country, or their suburban colonies? If we have the humility to admit that we lack a good education, and our opportunities to learn are limited, then perhaps we can become content with focusing on God and receiving the gift of wisdom that He wishes to impart on all.
Fr. Cantalamessa, The ‘Atheism’ of Mother Teresa
via Godspy
The ‘Atheism’ of Mother Teresa
She became poor to serve the materially poor — did she similarly share the sufferings of the spiritually poor?
The ‘Atheism’ of Mother Teresa
She became poor to serve the materially poor — did she similarly share the sufferings of the spiritually poor?
Taewangsasingi on the air
Yonsama's Drama Hits TV Screens
Will it live up to expectations? I think BY
Can't find the official website yet...
Ah ok, Uhm Jung Hwa has a new drama out too...
Will it live up to expectations? I think BY
Can't find the official website yet...
Ah ok, Uhm Jung Hwa has a new drama out too...
Children need real playtime.
Who knew?
Lack of play hurting children's mental health, experts warn
Larissa Liepins, CanWest News Service
via EB
Lack of play hurting children's mental health, experts warn
Larissa Liepins, CanWest News Service
via EB
Article about a traditional craftsman
Glazing Modernity to Tradition: Art of Lacquer
How many individuals like Lee Hyung-man are left in South Korea?
How many individuals like Lee Hyung-man are left in South Korea?
On Loving Jesus as Mary Did
On Loving Jesus as Mary Did
"She Allowed God to Fill Her With Love"
VIENNA, Austria, SEPT. 10, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the German-language address Benedict XVI gave Sunday before reciting the midday Angelus at the Cathedral of St. Stephen.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
It was a particularly beautiful experience this morning to be able to celebrate the Lord's Day with all of you in such a dignified and solemn manner in the magnificent Cathedral of Saint Stephen. The celebration of the Eucharist, carried out with due dignity, helps us to realize the immense grandeur of God's gift to us in the Holy Mass. In this way, we also draw near to each another and experience the joy of God. So I thank all those who, by their active contribution to the preparation of the liturgy or by their recollected participation in the sacred mysteries, created an atmosphere in which we truly felt God's presence. Heartfelt thanks and Vergelt's Gott to all!
In my homily I wished to say something about the meaning of Sunday and about today's Gospel, and I think that this led us to discover that the love of God, who surrendered himself into our hands for our salvation, gives us the inner freedom to let go of our own lives, in order to find true life. Mary's participation in this love gave her the strength to say "yes" unconditionally. In her encounter with the gentle, respectful love of God, who awaits the free cooperation of his creature in order to bring about his saving plan, the Blessed Virgin was able to overcome all hesitation and, in view of this great and unprecedented plan, to entrust herself into his hands. With complete availability, interior openness and freedom, she allowed God to fill her with love, with his Holy Spirit. Mary, the simple woman, could thus receive within herself the Son of God, and give to the world the Saviour who had first given himself to her.
In today's celebration of the Eucharist, the Son of God has also been given to us. Those who have received Holy Communion, in a special way, carry the Risen Lord within themselves. Just as Mary bore him in her womb -- a defenceless little child, totally dependent on the love of his Mother -- so Jesus Christ, under the species of bread, has entrusted himself to us, dear brothers and sisters. Let us love this Jesus who gives himself so completely into our hands! Let us love him as Mary loved him! And let us bring him to others, just as Mary brought him to Elizabeth as the source of joyful exultation! The Virgin gave the Word of God a human body, and thus enabled him to come into the world as a man. Let us give our own bodies to the Lord, and let them become ever more fully instruments of God's love, temples of the Holy Spirit! Let us bring Sunday, and its immense gift, into the world!
Let us ask Mary to teach us how to become, like her, inwardly free, so that in openness to God we may find true freedom, true life, genuine and lasting joy.
© Copyright 2007 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Papal Homily in Cathedral of Vienna
Papal Homily in Cathedral of Vienna
"Give the Soul Its Sunday, Give Sunday Its Soul"
VIENNA, Austria, SEPT. 9, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the homily Benedict XVI delivered today during the Mass he presided over in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
"Sine dominico non possumus!" Without the gift of the Lord, without the Lord's day, we cannot live: That was the answer given in the year 304 by Christians from Abitene in present-day Tunisia, when they were caught celebrating the forbidden Sunday Eucharist and brought before the judge. They were asked why they were celebrating the Christian Sunday Eucharist, even though they knew it was a capital offence. "Sine dominico non possumus": in the word dominico two meanings are inextricably intertwined, and we must once more learn to recognize their unity. First of all there is the gift of the Lord -- this gift is the Lord himself: the Risen one, whom the Christians simply need to have close and accessible to them, if they are to be themselves. Yet this accessibility is not merely something spiritual, inward and subjective: the encounter with the Lord is inscribed in time on a specific day. And so it is inscribed in our everyday, corporal and communal existence, in temporality. It gives a focus, an inner order to our time and thus to the whole of our lives. For these Christians, the Sunday Eucharist was not a commandment, but an inner necessity. Without him who sustains our lives with his love, life itself is empty. To do without or to betray this focus would deprive life of its very foundation, would take away its inner dignity and beauty.
Does this attitude of the Christians of that time apply also to us who are Christians today? Yes, it does, we too need a relationship that sustains us, that gives direction and content to our lives. We too need access to the Risen one, who sustains us through and beyond death. We need this encounter which brings us together, which gives us space for freedom, which lets us see beyond the bustle of everyday life to God's creative love, from which we come and toward which we are travelling.
Of course, if we listen to today's Gospel, if we listen to what the Lord is saying to us, it frightens us: "Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has and all links with his family cannot be my disciple." We would like to object: What are you saying, Lord? Isn't the family just what the world needs? Doesn't it need the love of father and mother, the love between parents and children, between husband and wife? Don't we need love for life, the joy of life? And don't we also need people who invest in the good things of this world and build up the earth we have received, so that everyone can share in its gifts? Isn't the development of the earth and its goods another charge laid upon us? If we listen to the Lord more closely, if we listen to him in the context of everything he is saying to us, then we understand that Jesus does not demand the same from everyone. Each person has a specific task, to each is assigned a particular way of discipleship. In today's Gospel, Jesus is speaking directly of the specific vocation of the Twelve, a vocation not shared by the many who accompanied Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem. The Twelve must first of all overcome the scandal of the Cross, and then they must be prepared truly to leave everything behind; they must be prepared to assume the seemingly absurd task of travelling to the ends of the earth and, with their minimal education, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a world filled with claims to erudition and with real or apparent education -- and naturally also to the poor and the simple. They must themselves be prepared to suffer martyrdom in the course of their journey into the vast world, and thus to bear witness to the Gospel of the Crucified and Risen Lord. If Jesus's words apply in the first instance to the Twelve, his call naturally extends beyond the historical moment into all subsequent centuries. He calls people of all times to count exclusively on him, to leave everything else behind, so as to be totally available for him, and hence totally available for others: to create oases of selfless love in a world where so often only power and wealth seem to count for anything. Let us thank the Lord for giving us men and women in every century who have left all else behind for his sake, and have thus become radiant signs of his love. We need only think of people like Benedict and Scholastica, Francis and Clare, Elizabeth of Hungary and Hedwig of Silesia, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, and in our own day, Mother Teresa and Padre Pio. With their whole lives, these people have become a living interpretation of Jesus's teaching, which through their lives becomes close and intelligible to us. Let us ask the Lord to grant to people in our own day the courage to leave everything behind and so to be available to everyone.
Yet if we now turn once more to the Gospel, we realize that the Lord is not speaking merely of a few individuals and their specific task; the essence of what he says applies to everyone. The heart of the matter he expresses elsewhere in these words: "For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?" (Lk 9:24f.). Whoever wants to keep his life just for himself will lose it. Only by giving ourselves do we receive our life. In other words: only the one who loves discovers life. And love always demands going out of oneself, it demands leaving oneself. Anyone who looks just to himself, who wants the other only for himself, will lose both himself and the other. Without this profound losing of oneself, there is no life. The restless craving for life, so widespread among people today, leads to the barrenness of a lost life. "Whoever loses his life for my sake … ", says the Lord: a radical letting-go of our self is only possible if in the process we end up, not by falling into the void, but into the hands of Love eternal. Only the love of God, who loses himself for us and gives himself to us, makes it possible for us also to become free, to let go, and so truly to find life. This is the heart of what the Lord wants to say to us in the seemingly hard words of this Sunday's Gospel. With his teaching he gives us the certainty that we can build on his love, the love of the incarnate God. Recognition of this is the wisdom of which today's reading speaks. Once again, we find that all the world's learning profits us nothing unless we learn to live, unless we discover what truly matters in life.
"Sine dominico non possumus!" Without the Lord and without the day that belongs to him, life does not flourish. Sunday has been transformed in our Western societies into the week-end, into leisure time. Leisure time is certainly something good and necessary, especially amid the mad rush of the modern world. Yet if leisure time lacks an inner focus, an overall sense of direction, then ultimately it becomes wasted time that neither strengthens nor builds us up. Leisure time requires a focus -- the encounter with him who is our origin and goal. My great predecessor in the see of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Faulhaber, once put it like this: Give the soul its Sunday, give Sunday its soul.
Because Sunday is ultimately about encountering the risen Christ in word and sacrament, its span extends through the whole of reality. The early Christians celebrated the first day of the week as the Lord's day, because it was the day of the resurrection. Yet very soon, the Church also came to realize that the first day of the week is the day of the dawning of creation, the day on which God said: "Let there be light" (Gen 1:3). Therefore Sunday is also the Church's weekly feast of creation -- the feast of thanksgiving and joy over God's creation. At a time when creation seems to be endangered in so many ways through human activity, we should consciously advert to this dimension of Sunday too. Then, for the early Church, the first day increasingly assimilated the traditional meaning of the seventh day, the Sabbath. We participate in God's rest, which embraces all of humanity. Thus we sense on this day something of the freedom and equality of all God's creatures.
In this Sunday's Opening Prayer we call to mind firstly that through his Son God has redeemed us and made us his beloved children. Then we ask him to look down with loving-kindness upon all who believe in Christ and to give us true freedom and eternal life. We ask God to look down with loving-kindness. We ourselves need this look of loving-kindness not only on Sunday but beyond, reaching into our everyday lives. As we ask, we know that this loving gaze has already been granted to us. What is more, we know that God has adopted us as his children, he has truly welcomed us into communion with himself. To be someone's child means, as the early Church knew, to be a free person, not a slave but a member of the family. And it means being an heir. If we belong to God, who is the power above all powers, then we are fearless and free. And we are heirs. The inheritance he has bequeathed to us is himself, his love. Yes, Lord, may this inheritance enter deep within our souls so that we come to know the joy of being redeemed. Amen.
[Original text: German]
© Copyright 2007 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Monday, September 10, 2007
Kurt Cobb, Unprepared
Unprepared
by Kurt Cobb
by Kurt Cobb
Not too long ago I was marooned for an entire day at Chicago O'Hare airport. While there, I got the impression that the standard uniform for airline passengers is now a T-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. Surprisingly, this uniform is worn not only by children, but also by mothers and fathers with families headed for vacations, most college students, many middle-aged businessmen, and even some senior citizens. Whatever one thinks of the aesthetics of such apparel--and on many people the aesthetics are none too pleasing--I wondered if this attire could be used as an index of how modern, jet-faring people in America think about preparedness. (This has implications for how we Americans think about long-term threats such as climate change and resource depletion. But, I'll come back to that later.)
Sunday, September 09, 2007
For God, for Country and for Yale: report on Fr. Lang and Martin Mosebach
Fr. Lang's introduction, Martin Mosebach's presentation and the Q&A session
via NLM
Wish I could have been there...
via NLM
Wish I could have been there...
Chan Akya, In gold we trust
@ Asia Times
Is Chan Akya a follower of the Austrian school? Or is he just making the same recommendation as they are?
Is Chan Akya a follower of the Austrian school? Or is he just making the same recommendation as they are?
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