Thomas Fleming writes a dialogue concerning a proposed bailout of cart-makers--
To Bail or Bail Out, That is the Question
Xanthippe: The Thrilling Conclusion

It doesn't seem likely to happen, does it?

Robert Paterson: Canada - A Jugoslavia of the North? Constitutional Crisis will now get worse (via Global Guerillas)

See also his The Rise of the Old Academy from the ashes of the University?.

William Lind: On War #284: More 4GW Operational Art

Plus, J.B. Longley, Implications of Mumbai

via WWWTW: The Christendom Review

The Hermeneutic of Continuity: Trailer for Upcoming St Edmund Campion Film

AICN: Capone has a GOOD chat with Viggo Mortensen about politics, THE ROAD, APPALOOSA, and THE HOBBIT!!!

Capone: One of the most lasting images I have of you--I don’t remember the interview itself that well--but you were on Charlie Rose’s show with your T-shirt that you said was handmade by you that said "No More Blood for Oil."

VM: 2002.

Capone: 2002, right. And, that was pre-invasion of Iraq, wasn’t it?

VM: It was a good six months before it.

Capone: So, it was sort of an anticipatory statement.

VM: If you were paying just a little bit of attention, I don’t think it was that hard to come to that conclusion, any more than it was for someone like Dennis Kucinich. Unfortunately, he was pretty much alone in saying, “Wait a minute,” not only about the invasion, but, then, the Patriot Act--the other thing that was jammed down people’s throat. Even Democrats called him a traitor and “What are you doing? How can you vote against the Patriot Act?” And, he goes, “I’ll tell you why, fellas: ’Cause I read it.” And, they all clammed up, ’cause they hadn’t, and they voted ‘yes’.

Does he not know about Ron Paul?

Fr. Rosica's Biblical Reflection for the 2nd Sunday of Advent

John the Baptizer, the Advent Prophet


Biblical Reflection for 2nd Sunday of Advent



By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB

TORONTO, DEC. 3, 2008 (Zenit.org).- One of the great stars of the Advent and Christmas stories, John the Baptizer, makes his appearance on the biblical stage today. Let us consider some of the details of John's life and see how he is such a good model for us.

John the Baptist didn’t mince words. He got right to the point and said what needed to be said. He would speak with equally straightforward words to us -- words that would zero in on the weak points of our lives. John the Baptist was a credible preacher of repentance because he had first come to love God's word that he heard in the midst of his own desert.

He heard, experienced and lived God's liberating word in the desert and was thus able to preach it to others so effectively because his life and message were one. One of the most discouraging things we must deal with in our lives is duplicity. How often our words, thoughts and actions are not coherent or one. The true prophets of Israel help us in our struggle against all forms of duplicity.

The desert wilderness

Throughout biblical history, leaders and visionaries have gone to the desert to see more clearly, to listen intently for God's voice, to discover new ways to live. The Hebrew word for wilderness midvar is derived from a Semitic root that means, "to lead flocks or herds to pasture." Eremos, the Greek word used to translate midvar, denotes a desolate and thinly populated area and, in a stricter sense, a wasteland or desert.

The term "wilderness" has two different but related meanings, referring to something judged to be wild and bewildering. It is probably the unknown (bewildering) and uncontrolled (wild) character of the place that earned it the name "wilderness." There is also another way of understanding the meaning of desert or wilderness.

A careful look at the root of the word midvar reveals the word davar meaning "word" or "message." The Hebraic notion of "desert" or "wilderness" is that holy place where God's word is unbound and completely free to be heard, experienced and lived. We go to the desert to hear God's Word, unbound and completely free.

The Spirit of God enabled the prophets to feel with God. They were able to share God's attitudes, God's values, God's feelings, God's emotions. This enabled them to see the events of their time as God saw them and to feel the same way about these events as God felt. They shared God's anger, God's compassion, God's sorrow, God's disappointment, God's revulsion, God's sensitivity for people, and God’s seriousness. Nor did they share these things in the abstract; they shared God's feelings about the concrete events of their time.

John the Baptist is the Advent prophet. His image is often portrayed in the finger pointing to the one who was coming: Jesus Christ. If we are to take on John’s role of preparing the way in today’s world, our lives also will become the pointing fingers of living witnesses who demonstrate that Jesus can be found and that he is near. John gave the people of his time an experience of forgiveness and salvation, knowing full well that he himself was not the Messiah, the one who could save. Do we allow others to have experiences of God, of forgiveness and of salvation?

John the Baptist came to teach us that there is a way out of the darkness and sadness of the world and of the human condition, and that way is Jesus himself. The Messiah comes to save us from the powers of darkness and death, and to put us back on the path of peace and reconciliation so that we might find our way back to God.

The late Jesuit theologian, Father Karl Rahner, once wrote: "We have to listen to the voice of the one calling in the wilderness, even when it confesses: I am not he. You cannot choose not to listen to this voice, 'because it is only the voice of a man.' And, likewise, you cannot lay aside the message of the Church, because the Church is 'not worthy to untie the shoelaces of its Lord who goes on before it.' It is, indeed, still Advent."

We may not have the luxury of traveling to the wilderness of Judah, nor the privilege of a week’s retreat in the Sinai desert this Advent. However, we can certainly carve out a little desert wilderness in the midst of our activity and noise this week. Let us go to that sacred place and allow the Word of God to speak to us, to heal us, to reorient us, and to lead us to the heart of Christ, whose coming we await this Advent.

[The readings for this Sunday are Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8]

* * *

Basilian Father Thomas Rosica is the chief executive officer of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation and Television Network in Canada. He can be reached at: rosica@saltandlighttv.org.

Andrew Cockburn, What's Wrong with the U.S. Military-- an interview with Winslow Wheeler, editor of America’s Defense Meltdown -- Pentagon Reform for President Obama and the New Congress.

What brought the U.S. to this sorry state of affairs?

WW: The fundamental reason, I believe, is that we are not interested in what works best in combat. Instead, our defense structure in Washington is interested in other things. In Congress they’re interested in jobs and campaign contributions. In the Pentagon they’re interested in various political and bureaucratic agendas. They’re not paying attention to the lessons of combat history. A bloated, declining military structure is the result.

Surely you’re not suggesting that our leaders in uniform, as opposed to those interfering civilians [sound of Wheeler laughing] aren’t interested in producing the most combat-efficient force possible?

WW: I was laughing because that’s the bilgewater that they keep on pumping – and believing, I’m sure – on Capitol Hill. If you look at the record, a lot of our military leadership is very questionable. During the 2003 march to Baghdad the commanders had to pause simply out of panic at the minimal opposition they were facing, coupled with some poor weather and a supply problem. None of the commanders warned the public, or the president, about the problems that we encountered in Iraq. People point to [former army chief of staff] General Eric Shinseki as the great hero who told us that we needed a larger invasion and occupation force and was ignored. That argument simply doesn’t work. The idea that more Christian, white American soldiers occupying an alien country would have prevented an insurgency is ridiculous.

See also CDI's Straus Military Reform Project.

via the Crunchy Con: The University Bookman Volume 46, Number 3 (Fall 2008)

Including Stealing Dorothy by Caleb Stegall, On the Fixing of Our Gaze by James V. Schall, S.J., and Donald Davidson and the South’s Conservatismby Russell Kirk.

FPJ: Joseph Stromberg, Who Needs One Big Market?

via the Western Confucian

Twitch: History Gets Goofy In Korea’s 1724 GEISHA HOUSE RIOT * UPDATE *

Hmmm... but Lee Jung Jae is in it, and the colors of the movie are pretty...

Rebellious Cute

Or is it cute rebelliousness? I am thinking of certain models and young women who think it is cute to flip the bird in candid photos, that sign of disrespect (or contempt of authority) being turned into a statement about themselves. Of course, it isn't cute and doens't really lead one to form a better opinion of the women who strike that pose.
Taking photos has become a form of self-amusement, as cameras are now more ubiquitous, with the development of cameras on cell phones and the availability of relatively inexpensive digital cameras. Still, anyone who thought themselves to be a lady would not have acted in such a vulgar manner, even if the photos were meant to be seen only by themselves and their friends. But this is an age when the lack of self-restraint is praised. (And image without substance prevails.)

Alma Redemptoris Mater

via NLM:

Asia News: The dangers of the computer, inability to concentrate and isolation in a virtual world, says Pope
Any reform, including university reform, requires we change ourselves first. The academic world must be free from outside pressures; it can only be truly free when scientific and cultural training favour the development of the social and civil community as a whole.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Benedict XVI warns against young people of two dangers new technologies pose, namely a lower capacity to concentrate and isolation inside virtual reality. Fortunately, this problem is not present in universities where a “virtuous balance” has been struck between “individual and group time, research and thought, sharing and open exchange with others, in a horizon that tends towards the universal.”

The Pope, a former university professor himself, took advantage of a meeting with students and faculty at the Università di Parma, to express his thoughts on the academic world.

He told his audience that the university “was for many years my workplace,” adding that even after leaving it I have never stopped following it and feeling spiritually connected to it.”

During the meeting he also discussed the issues of university reform and academic freedom, taking his inspiration from the figure of Saint Peter Damian, a man of letter closely associated with Parma’s university where he taught.

“In our age like in that of Peter Damian’s, the lack of unifying principles explains particularisms and uncertainties. University studies should undoubtedly prepare students for society, not only on the basis of narrowly defined scientific research but also more generally in providing young people an opportunity to mature intellectually, morally and as citizens, tackling the great questions that today challenge the conscience of men and women.”

Reminding his audience that Peter Damian was among the great “reformers” of the Church after the year 1000, the Holy Father asked: “What is the real sense of reform?”

“A fundamental aspect that we can draw from his writings and his personal witness is that every true reform must be spiritual and moral above all, i.e. it must start from our conscience,” he said.

For the Pontiff there is a lesson that applies to university reform, whereby “structural or technical changes are really effective if everyone, scholars, students, technical and administrative staff, examine their conscience,”

“If the human environment is to improve qualitatively and become more efficient, people must change themselves.” They can do so “by correcting what harms the common good or, at least, try to thwart it.”

“With reform comes the notion of freedom. The reforms that Peter Damian and his contemporaries pursued involved making the Church freer, first of all at a spiritual but also historical level.”

“Likewise university reform is based on freedom: freedom to teach, freedom to research but also freedom of the academic world from [the pressures of] economic and political power. This does not mean isolation from society, a self-referential attitude or the pursuit of private interests with public moneys—this is certainly not Christian freedom!” Instead it means that “people, communities or institutions are truly free in accordance with the Gospel and the Church if they fully respond to their nature and purpose.” In this sense “the Academic world’s vocation is to scientifically and culturally prepare people” to contribute to the “development of social and civil community as a whole”.

Fr. Francisco's homily for the first Sunday of Advent was very impressive -- while in the OF of the Roman rite the season of Advent is not as penitential as in the EF, Father did preach about the tragedy at Walmart and what is necessary to cure moral blindness (that afflicts our society, with its consumerism) -- repentance. We need to be vigilant, and that means praying, offering Mass, and going to confession. Father then told us that he would be hearing confessions after Mass. If only other priests were doing the same thing for the first Sunday of Advenrt. Professor Mahrt commented later that Father's listening to confessions filled an important gap, as it was apparent from the line of penitents that it is really needed at the parish. (Father was there listening to confessions for more than an hour and a half!)

Father's other admonition? We should avoid shopping for Christmas, and focus instead on the gift of love, and providing it to family and others. Certainly we should try to make time for corporal and spiritual works of mercy--how many Catholics can name them, or have the necessary familiarity with the Faith and the spiritual preparation that is needed?

After Mass, I chatted a bit with KK's prof, SC. I hope it wasn't too frustrating for him--it must have seemed like an excrutiating and painful experience, like having one's teeth pulled. He had to continue asking questions in order to get answers from me. Being evasive--I've had a lot of practice over the years. It's a 'natural reaction,' when one is in a (perceived) hostile environment and wishes to avoid negative consequences. The other thing is that I've developed a distaste for 'shop talk,' especially if I don't think I've been adequately prepared to speak about a particular topic. (There are other reasons which also explain why I am bad at oral exams. Alas, the rhetoric course I took at Cal was for writing, not speaking.)

He asked about my opinions regarding the new natural law theory of Grisez/Finnis/Boyle, and how it differed from the 'neo-Thomists.' Then he asked about the differences between the Laval School/Dominicans and the existential Thomists regarding metaphysics, who I thought were reliable guides and who were not. Since I am not yet a student of metaphysics, I didn't want to give an authoritative answer, preferring to explain my sympathies but without going into a sustained critique of other 'Thomistic' schools.

I brought up the question of whether a moral philosophy/natural ethics is possible. (I need to finish that post on Peter Hitchens and atheism.) I do think that even if a natural ethics is possible, it is not sufficient to guide us to happiness--we need Divine Revelation to tell us that our happiness consists of a supernatural union with God, and why there is something wrong with us. (While we know through Divine Revelation about original sin, I think it is possible for us to know by natural reason alone that there is something wrong with us--namely that we are unable to love God in way that is natural and proper to us, and that this is something that we should be able to do if all was right with creation.)

Maybe I should write a paper looking at Maritain's and McInerny's positions, using Fr. Wallace's book on moral demonstration to explain how ethics is a science. Christendom does not require that its students take moral philosophy, as there is a moral theology requirement instead. I tend to agree that at a Catholic liberal arts school, the moral science the students should be learning should be moral theology; if there is a place for moral philosophy it should be as a preparation for moral theology.

SC responded that it would seem that if one is to study [Thomistic] moral theology, one should nonetheless has to deal with the 'philosophical' issues that divide Thomists. But perhaps the alternative would be to study a different sort of moral theology--that of the monastic theologians, for example. It might not be scholastic, or Thomistic/Aristotelian in its understanding of the theology as a science, but perhaps it would just be as effective, if not more so, for your typical undergraduate.

We also touched upon the topic of Catholic education and its reform. (He remarked that St. Mary's and USF are 'failed experiments.') We agreed that what are needed are small Catholic liberal arts schools. We got to the topic of accreditation, but we didn't finish it. I would like his opinion about opening a Catholic college that would accept adolescents and prepare them for a BA by first giving them a liberal arts education, grounded in grammar, rhetoric, logic, and so on. (A two- or three-year program.) In the U.S. they should also be exposed to the different American political traditions, and the authentic republican tradition. (Would such a school be bound by state requirements governing public secondary schools? And can it be adjusted to satisfy UC and CSU demands?)

I look forward to continuing the conversation some time soon... this afternoon was a reminder of why I was drawn to education and philosophy in the first place. There are very few opportunities for such conversations here--it's not really something I could do with my friends from high school. SC seemed concerned that I might avoid talking with him in the future, since I seemed uncomfortable with answering his questions (at first). I hope this impression goes away the next time.

The Distributist Review: Remembrance of Things Past

Crunchy Con: Why Jane Austen matters

John Médaille: Chapter XIII: The Purpose of Government

From Asia Times: Military reform 30 years on
America’s Defense Meltdown edited by Winslow T Wheeler

Reviewed by David Isenberg

more reviews
advance preview

Telegraph: Disney accused by Catholic cleric of corrupting children's minds
(Christopher Jamison, the Abbot of Worth in West Sussex)

Last week, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, expressed similar concerns about the direction of society when he said that social cohesion has been eradicated due to "rampant consumerism and individualism".

In 2006, Lord Layard, the Government's "happiness Tsar", urged for a rethink of economic and social policy after concluding that the pursuit of financial success has led to a rise in depression and emotional impoverishment.

However, in Fr Jamison's new book, Finding Happiness, he suggests that many of the answers can be found by people living more simply.

The book, published this week, urges people to reject the superficial temptations offered by contemporary culture.

He criticises the obsession with celebrity, which he blames for creating jealousy and a society in which people are dissatisfied with their life.

Boycott Disney! The abbot's book, Finding Happiness (and Finding Sanctuary).

Finding Happiness by Abbot Christopher Jamison


BBC 'The Monastery'
Finding Sanctuary - The Monastery BBC TWO
Finding Sanctuary the Book- from BBC TV’s The Monastery

From CNA: Obama administration reveals plans to advance gay agenda

The relevant section of change.gov.

And from Market Watch: Tan Books and Publishers Acquired by Saint Benedict Press
(Tan Books and St. Benedict Press)

via Energy Bulletin:

The overoptimized society
Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights
The tight coupling and vast size of the globe's major economic actors, once hailed a triumph for economic efficiency, has now become an Achilles' heel.

Survivalism: For peak oilers and ecotopians too?
Jerry Erwin, culturechange.org
It seems that many of the peak oil heavyweights, including Richard Heinberg and Dmitry Orlov, in particular, despite their own ingenious contributions to analyzing our current predicament, seem to blithely dismiss survivalism. They apparently do not understand the basic technical constructs of survivalism...

B16: On God's Gift of His Time

On God's Gift of His Time


"A Gift That Man Can Appreciate or Squander"



VATICAN CITY, NOV. 30, 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!

Today, with the First Sunday of Advent, we begin a new liturgical year. This fact invites us to reflect on the dimension of time, which has always greatly fascinated us. Following the example of what Jesus liked to do, I would like to start from a very concrete experience: We all say "I don't have time" because the rhythm of daily life has become too frenetic for everyone. The Church has "good news" to announce about this too: God gives us his time. We always have little time. Especially in regard to the Lord, we do not know how to find him, or, sometimes, we do not want to find him. And yet God has time for us!

This is the first thing that the beginning of a liturgical year makes us rediscover with an ever new wonder. Yes: God gives us his time, because he has entered into history, with his Word and his works of salvation, to open it to eternity, to make it into a covenant history. From this perspective time is already, in itself, a basic sign of God's love. It is a gift that man can, like everything else, appreciate or, on the contrary, squander; he can grasp its meaning, or neglect it with obtuse superficiality.

There are three great "hinges" of time that span salvation history: At the beginning is creation, at the center the Incarnation-redemption and at the end the "parousia," the final coming that also includes the universal judgment. These three moments, however, are not to be understood simply in chronological succession. In fact, while it is true that creation is at the beginning of everything, it also continues and is realized along the whole arc of cosmic becoming to the very end of time. So also with the Incarnation-redemption, if it occurred at a determinate historical moment -- Jesus' sojourn on the earth -- nevertheless, its effect extends over the time that preceded it and all of the time that follows it. And the Final Coming and the Last Judgment, which precisely on Christ's cross were decisively anticipated, exercise their influence on the conduct of men of every age.

The liturgical season of Advent celebrates God's coming in its two moments: First it invites us to awaken the expectation of Christ's glorious return; then, nearing Christmas, it calls us to welcome the Word made man for our salvation. But the Lord comes constantly into our lives. How opportune, then, is Jesus' call, which is more powerfully proposed than ever this Sunday: "Be vigilant!" (Mark 13:33, 35, 37). It is addressed to the disciples, but also to "everyone," because everyone, at the hour that God alone knows, will be called to give an account of his own life. This entails a proper detachment from worldly goods, a sincere repentance for one's errors, an active charity toward one's neighbor and above all a humble and confident placing of oneself into God's hands, our tender and merciful Father.

The Virgin Mary is the icon of Advent. Let us call upon her to help us to become an extension of humanity for the Lord who comes.

[After praying the Angelus, the Holy Father said in Italian:]

November 30 is the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, brother of Simon Peter. Both had been followers of John the Baptist and, after Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, they became his disciples, recognizing him as the Messiah. St. Andrew is the patron of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and so the Church of Rome feels linked to the Church of Constantinople by a special fraternal bond. For this reason, following the tradition, on this felicitous occasion a delegation from the Holy See, led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has embarked on a visit to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. With all my heart, I offer my greeting and my best wishes to him and to the faithful of the patriarchate, invoking the abundance of heavenly blessings upon all.

I would like to invite you to join in prayer for the numerous people killed, wounded or in any way harmed in the brutal terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, and the fighting that has broken out in Jos, Nigeria. The causes and the circumstances of these tragic events are different but the horror and the disapproval of the explosion of such cruel and senseless violence must be the same. Let us ask the Lord to touch the hearts of those who falsely believe that this is the way to resolve local or international problems and let us all feel encouraged to offer an example of meekness and love to build a society worthy of God and man.

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

[Then, the Pope greeted the crowds in several languages. In English, the Holy Father said:]

I am happy to greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present for this Angelus prayer. I offer a special welcome to the participants in the Youth Meeting at the European University of Rome. Today, the First Sunday of Advent, the Church begins a new liturgical year. The Gospel invites to be prepared as faithful servants for the coming of Christ. May Advent be a time of preparation that leads us to a life centred on our Christian hope. May God bless you all!

© Copyright 2008 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Zenit: Papal Advent Homily

Papal Advent Homily


"In This Season the Whole Church Is Called to Be Hope"



VATICAN CITY, NOV. 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Benedict XVI's homily at first vespers for the First Sunday of Advent, which he celebrated Saturday in St. Peter's Basilica.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

With these vespers we begin the itinerary of a new liturgical year, entering into the first of the seasons that constitute that year: Advent. In the biblical reading that we just heard, taken from the First Letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul uses precisely this word: "coming," which in Greek is "parousia" and in Latin, "adventus" (1 Thessalonians 5:23). According to the common translation of this text, Paul exhorts the Christians of Thessalonica to keep themselves irreprehensible "for" the coming of the Lord. But in the original text we read "in" the coming ("en te parousia"), as if the coming of the Lord were, more than a future event, a spiritual place in which we already walk in the present, during the wait, and in which we are perfectly vigilant in every personal dimension. In effect, this is exactly what we live in the liturgy: celebrating the liturgical seasons, we actualize the mystery -- in this case the coming of the Lord -- in such a way as to be able, so to speak, to "walk in it" toward its full realization, at the end of time, but already drawing sanctifying virtue from it from the moment that the last times have already begun with the death and resurrection of Christ.

The word that sums up this particular state in which we await something that is supposed to manifest itself but which we also already have a glimpse and foretaste of, is "hope." Advent is the spiritual season of hope par excellence, and in this season the whole Church is called to be hope, for itself and for the world. The whole spiritual organism of the mystical body assumes, as it were, the "color" of hope. The whole people of God begins the journey, drawn by this mystery: that our God is "the God who comes" and who calls us to come to meet him. In what way? Above all in that universal form of hope and expectation that is prayer, which finds its eminent expression in the Psalms, human words by which God himself has placed and continually places the invocation of his coming on the lips and hearts of believers. Let us pause for a moment, then, on the two Psalms that we prayed a short while ago and that follow each other in the biblical text itself: 141 and 142, according to the Hebrew numbering.

"O Lord, I cry to you, hasten to help me; / give ear to my voice when I cry to you. / Let my prayer rise up to you as incense, / the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (Psalm 141:1-2). This is how the first Psalm of first vespers of the First Week of the Psalter begins: words that at the beginning of Advent acquire a new "color" because the Holy Spirit always makes them sound in a new way in us, in the Church on its way between the time of God and the time of men. "Lord ... hasten to help me" (141:1). It is the cry of a person who feels himself to be in grave danger, but it is also the cry of the Church in the midst of the many snares that surround her, that threaten her holiness, that irreprehensible integrity of which the Apostle Paul speaks, that must be maintained for the coming of the Lord. And in this invocation there also resounds the cry of all the just, of all those who want to resist evil, the seductions of an iniquitous well-being, of pleasures that are offensive to human dignity and the condition of the poor. At the beginning of Advent the Church's liturgy again cries out with these words and addresses them to God "as incense" (141:2). In the Church material sacrifices are no longer offered as they were in the temple of Jerusalem. Instead the spiritual offering of prayer is lifted up, in union with Christ's, who is both sacrifice and priest of the new and eternal covenant. In the cry of the mystical body we recognize the very voice of the Head: the Son of God who took our trials and temptations upon himself to give us the grace of his victory.

This identification of Christ with the Psalmist is particularly evident in the next Psalm, Psalm 142. Here every word, every invocation makes us think of Jesus in the passion; in particular we think of his prayer to the Father in Gethsemane. In his first coming, in the incarnation, the Son of God wanted fully to share our human condition. Naturally, he did not share in sin, but for our salvation he suffered its consequences. Every time she prays Psalm 142 the Church experiences again the grace of this com-passion, this "coming" of the Son of God into human anguish, his descent into its deepest depths. Advent's cry of hope expresses, then, from the beginning and in the most forceful way, the whole gravity of our condition, our extreme need of salvation. It says: We await the Lord's coming not like a beautiful decoration added to an already saved world but as the only way to freedom from mortal danger. And we know that he himself, the Liberator, had to suffer and die to bring us out of this prison (cf. 142:8).

In sum, these two Psalms protect us against any temptation of evasion and flight from reality; they preserve us from a false hope, one that would like to enter into Advent and set off for Christmas forgetting the dramatic nature of our personal and collective existence. In effect, it is a trustworthy hope, not deceptive, it cannot but be an "Easter" hope, as we are reminded every Saturday evening by the canticle from the Letter to the Philippians, with which we praise Christ incarnate, crucified, risen and universal Lord. We turn our gaze and heart to him, in spiritual union with the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Advent. Let us place our hand in hers and enter with joy into this new season of grace that God grants his Church for the good of the whole of humanity. Like Mary and with her maternal assistance, let us make ourselves docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, so that the God of Peace might completely sanctify us, and the Church might become a sign and an instrument of hope for all men.

Amen!

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

DWTS Final - Part 7 - Cody & Julianne


Julianne Hough and Cody Linley perform the jitterbug on the finale show - encore

ET with DWTS Julianne Hough will NOT be back next season
Boo! I hope her next album is better than her debut album.

Julianne Hough Behind the scenes video! The making of "Sounds of the Season ...
Julianne Hough - That Song In My Head acoustic
Access Hollywood with DWTS and the Houghs 5-21-08

The History of Advent (via Mere Comments)