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)

Tell Me It Ain’t So, by Dr. Wilson

Two things stand in the way of the consummation of American dictatorship (in fact if not in name). Certainly not elections, which are predetermined. Certainly not the complicit Republican Party and Big Business and mainstream churches. Certainly not the cowed press and military.

The first barrier to the total state is freedom of speech. Though everywhere threatened, freedom of speech and publication still flourishes in the U.S. to an extent remarkable in today’s world. This makes criticism of government policies and disobedience to rulers possible, as in the recent grassroots defeat of the illegal alien “amnesty.” Second, a large part of the American population is armed, something always frightening to rulers. Our rulers aren’t worried about criminals, jihadists, or Mexican fifth columnists, but armed Americans frighten them. Is there any doubt that the government already has in place arrangements for detention camps for recalcitrants?

Underlying these two factors is a fundamental condition. Freedom of speech and an armed citizenry are still valued by an indeterminate but very large part of the population—generally people who think the country should belong to those who made it rather than to the government and whatever alien population the government chooses to import. That is to say the obstacle is a portion of the population that is still actually American.

Last night I took a walk for the second night in a row. I hope to make a nightly walk a part of the daily routine, since I need the exercise. The pain in the back isn't as bad as it was before, but the right knee was bothering me again today. I don't know if it was the cold weather or if it was caused by last night's walk. A 30-40 minute walk doesn't exert too much--I could keep on going for an hour or two, but I would need better walking clothes and shoes, as well as the free time.

I haven't walked daily since I went into exile (the beginning of which should actually be dated before the time spent in St. Botolph's Town, when I first went to VA.) I didn't walk regularly in the part of Beantown where I was living--the neighborhood wasn't very interesting, and the weather could be more prohibitive. But I should have been exercising nonetheless.

It is better to take a walk in the suburbs than in Brighton -- less auto traffic at night, and it is probably safer. It is also a good way to become familiar with the neighborhood. Surprisingly, there are a lot of public parts in the part of Milpitas where I currently reside--perhaps even more than in Apple Country?

The other thing I need to work on is preparing, and then eating, a reasonable portion size for meals. For me, overeating is less for the sake of sensual delight than it is a compulsion to finish what has been prepared. No more sodas (what a misuse of aluminum!), and juices will also have to be reduced. Although it would be better to get in shape as soon as possible, I will have to take a more gradual approach, until the knee and back seem better.

Perhaps I have some sort of bias against a particular school district, but I reacted negatively to yesterday's job. The kids didn't behave any worse than the worst class I've had in the district I prefer, though there certainly were a lot of energetic boys in this class. The district does not perform as well as the one encompassing Apple Country on exams and such, and it probably isn't as well-off, but my 'preferential option' doesn't extend to that part of the South Bay. The first graders were generally bigger than the first graders at the school I sub at most often. Nutrition? Are they as spoiled as the students in Apple Country?

Maybe I have a bad impression of the city in which the district is located. If I were able to build up more of a rapport with the students, would my opinion of the district would change?

The boys... how can their energy be redirected? Or 'suppressed' some of the time? Or should there be a separation of the sexes even at the primary level, so that a different pedagogy can be applied to boys? It seems that one local private school does separate the sexes even at an early age.

The class is noteworthy since a husband-wife team is teaching it. I don't know what sort of arrangement was made, with regards to salary and such, but I suspect their having a baby had something to do with it. (I doubt they are paid the equivalent of two teachers' salaries.)

It was another occasion for considering teaching in a public school (at the primary or the
secondary level), and whether I would be satisfied with that job. I doubt it, and think eventually I would have to quit and find some other work. The distance between what can be accomplished under the conditions that obtain at California public schools and what should be normative seems to be so great that I would be frustrated and miserable in my dissatisfaction.

It is also the case that I would prefer to teach Catholics. Is this mere favoritism? Or a legitimate expression of the hierarchy of loves? Radical Egalitarians are mistaken in thinking that everyone deserves the same from all; just because bad results have not happened yet does not mean that God favors such an arrangment or culture of 'entitlement'--He does permit things to happen out of His mercy. (Or in some cases, out of His justice--the state of affairs is its own punishment.)

In much of contemporary American society, a public school curriculum has no place for religion, and one wishes that the Catholic students at public schools had more of an opportunity to learn about God and to exercise religion. How can teachers who are not Catholics not also be evangelizers? What greater truth can they pass on? The acquisition and use of the intellectual virtues must be subordinate to charity, and to fail to acknowledge this order can lead to perhaps the worst form of pride.

The MD is in the area for the weekend, so I'll be spending some more time in SF. I should see if there is a public park near KK, but I don't think there is, since they live on a hill.

Elephants: Involuntary Simplicity, by Sharon Astyk (original)

Zenit: Father Cantalamessa's 1st Advent Sermon

Father Cantalamessa's 1st Advent Sermon

St. Paul: "Model of True Christian Conversion"

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 5, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is the Advent homily Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household, delivered today in the Vatican in the presence of Benedict XVI and the Roman Curia.

This is the first of three Advent sermons the preacher will deliver on the theme "'When the Fullness of Time Had Come, God Sent his Son, Born of a Woman: Going With St. Paul to Meet the Christ Who Comes."

The next two sermons will be held Dec. 12 and 19.

* * *

"But Whatever Gain I Had, I Counted as a Loss for the Sake of Christ"
The Conversion of St. Paul: Model of True Christian Conversion

The Pauline Year is a great grace for the Church, but it also presents a danger: that of reflecting on Paul, his personality and his doctrine without taking the next step from him to Christ. The Holy Father warned against this risk in the homily with which he proclaimed the Pauline Year in the general audience of last July 2, stating: "This is the purpose of the Pauline Year: to learn from St. Paul, to learn the faith, to learn about Christ."
This danger has occurred so many times in the past, to the point of giving a place to the absurd thesis according to which Paul, not Christ, is the real founder of Christianity. Jesus Christ was for Paul what Socrates was for Plato: a pretext, a name, under which to put his own thought.

The Apostle, as John the Baptist before him, is an index pointing to one "greater than he," of which he does not consider himself worthy to be an Apostle. The former thesis is the most complete distortion and the gravest offense that can be made to the Apostle Paul. If he came back to life, he would react to that thesis with the same vehemence with which he reacted in face of a similar misunderstanding of the Corinthians: "Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Corinthians 1:13).

Another obstacle to overcome, also for us believers, is that of pausing on Paul's doctrine on Christ, without catching his love and fire for him. Paul does not want to be for us only a winter sun that illuminates but does not warm. The obvious intention of his letters is to lead readers not only to the knowledge of but also to love and passion for Christ.

To this end I wish to contribute the three meditations of Advent this year, beginning with this one today, in which we reflect on Paul's conversion, the event that, after the death and resurrection of Christ, has most influenced the future of Christianity.

1. Paul's Conversion Seen From Within

The best explanation of St. Paul's conversion is the one he himself gives when he speaks of Christian baptism as being "baptized into the death of Christ" -- "buried with him" to rise with him and "walk in newness of life" (cf. Romans 6:3-4). He relived in himself the paschal mystery of Christ, around which, in turn, all his thought will revolve. There are also impressive external analogies. Jesus remained three days in the sepulcher; for three days Saul lived as though dead: He could not see, stand, eat, then, at the moment of baptism, his eyes reopened, he was able to eat and gather his strength; he came back to life (cf. Acts 9:18).

Immediately after his baptism, Jesus withdrew to the desert and so did Paul, after being baptized by Ananias, he withdrew to the desert of Arabia, namely, the desert around Damascus. Exegetes estimate that there were some 10 years of silence in Paul's life between the event on the road to Damascus and the start of this public activity in the Church. The Jews sought him to death, the Christians did not yet trust him and feared him. His conversion recalls that of Cardinal Newman, whose former brothers of Anglican faith considered a renegade and Catholics looked upon with suspicion because of his new and ardent ideas.

The Apostle had a long novitiate; his conversion did not last a few minutes. And it is in this his kenosis, in this time of deprivation and silence that he accumulated that bursting energy and light that one day would pour over the world.

We have two descriptions of Paul's conversion: one that describes the event, so to speak, from outside, on a historical note, and another that describes the event from within, on a psychological or autobiographical note. The first type is the one we find in the three relations that we read about in the Acts of the Apostles. To it also belong some references that Paul himself makes of the event, explaining how from being a persecutor he became an apostle of Christ (cf. Galatians 1:13-24).

The second type belongs to Chapter 3 of the Letter to the Philippians, in which the Apostle describes what the encounter with Christ meant to him subjectively, what he was before and what he became afterward; in other words, in what the change in his life consisted existentially and religiously. We will concentrate on his text that, by analogy with the Augustinian work, we can describe as "the confessions of St. Paul."

In every change there is a "terminus a quo" and a "terminus ad quem," a point of departure and a point of arrival. The Apostle describes first of all the point of departure, that which was first:

"If any other man thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the Church, as to righteousness under the law blameless" (Philippians 3:4-6).

We can easily make a mistake in reading this description: These were not negative titles, but the greatest titles of holiness of the time. With them Paul's process of canonization could have been opened immediately, if it had existed at that time. It is as if to say of one today: baptized the eighth day, belonging to the structure par excellence of salvation, the Catholic Church, member of the most austere order of the Church (the Pharisees were this!), most observant of the Rule, etc."

Instead, there is a point at the top of the text that divides in two the page and life of Paul. It is divided by an adverse "but" that creates a total contrast: "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:7-8).

In this brief text the name of Christ appears three times. The encounter with him has divided his life in two, has created a before and an after. A very personal encounter (it is the only text where the Apostle uses the singular "my," not "our" Lord) and an existential encounter more than a mental one. No one will ever be able to know in-depth what happened in that brief dialogue: "Saul, Saul!" "Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus!" He describes it as a "revelation" (Galatians 1:15-16). It was a sort of fusion of fire, a beam of light that even today, at a distance of 2,000 years, illuminates the world.

2. A Change of Mind

We will attempt to analyze the content of the event. It was first of all a change of mind, of thought, literally a metanoia. Up to now Paul believed he could save himself and be righteous before God through the scrupulous observance of the law and the traditions of the fathers. Now he understood that salvation is obtained in another way. I want to be found, he says, "not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" (Philippians 3:8-9). Jesus made him experience in himself that which one day he would proclaim to the whole Church: justification by grace through faith (cf. Galatians 2:15-16; Romans 3:21 ff.).

An image comes to mind when reading the third chapter of the Letter to the Philippians: A man is walking at night in a thick wood in the faint light of a candle, being careful that it does not go out; walking, walking as dawn arrives, the sun comes out, the faint light of the candle turns pale, to the point that it is no longer useful and he throws it away. The smoking wick was his own righteousness. One day, in the life of Paul, the sun of righteousness arose, Christ the Lord, and from that moment he did not want any other light than his.

It is not a question of a point along with others, but of the heart of the Christian message. He would describe it as "his Gospel," to the point of declaring anathema whoever dared to preach a different Gospel, whether it be an angel or he himself (cf. Galatians 1:8-9). Why such insistence? Because the Christian novelty consists in this, which distinguishes it from every other religion or religious philosophy. Every religious proposal begins by telling men what they must do to save themselves or to obtain "illumination." Christianity does not begin by telling men what they must do, but what God has done for them in Christ Jesus. Christianity is the religion of grace.

There is a place -- and how great it is -- for the duties and observance of the Commandments, but then, as response to grace, not as its cause or price. We are not saved by good works, though we are not saved without good works. It is a revolution of which, at a distance of 2,000 years, we still try to be aware. The theological debates on justification through faith of the Reformation and onward have often hampered rather than favored it because they have kept the problem at the theoretical level, the texts of opposing schools, rather than helping believers to have the experience in their life.

3. "Repent, and Believe in the Gospel"

However, we must ask ourselves a crucial question: who is the author of this message? If it were the Apostle Paul, then those would be right who say that he, not Jesus, is the founder of Christianity. But he is not the author; he does no more than express in elaborated and universal terms a message that Jesus expressed with his typical language, made of images and parables.

Jesus began his preaching saying: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel" (Mark 1:15). With these words he already taught justification through faith. Before him, to be converted meant to "go back" (as indicated by the Hebrew term shub); it meant to return to the broken Covenant, through a renewed observance of the law. "Return to me [...], return from your evil ways," God said through the prophets (Zechariah 1:3-4; Jeremiah 8:4-5).

Consequently, to be converted has a primarily ascetic, moral and penitential meaning and it is affected by changing one's conduct of life. Conversion is seen as a condition for salvation; the meaning is: Repent and you will be saved; repent and salvation will come to you. This is the predominant meaning that the word conversion has on the lips of John the Baptist (cf. Luke 3:4-6). However, on Jesus' lips this moral meaning takes second place (at least at the beginning of his preaching) in regard to a new meaning, unknown until now. Manifested also in this is the epochal leap that is verified between the preaching of John the Baptist and that of Jesus.

To be converted no longer means to return to the ancient Covenant and the observance of the law, but to make a leap forward, entering into the new Covenant, to seize this Kingdom that has appeared, to enter it through faith. "Repent and believe" does not mean two different and successive things, but the same action: repent, that is believe; repent by believing! "Prima conversion fit per fidem," St. Thomas Aquinas would say, the first conversion consists in believing.[1]

God took the initiative of salvation: He has made his Kingdom come; man must only accept, in faith, God's offer and live the demands afterward. It is like a king who opens the door of his palace, where a great banquet is ready, and, being at the door, invites all passersby to enter, saying: "Come, all is ready!" It is the call that resounds in all the so-called parables of the Kingdom: The hour much awaited has struck, take the decision that saves, do not let the occasion slip by!

The Apostle says the same thing with the doctrine of justification through faith. The only difference is due to that which has occurred, in the meantime, between the preaching of Jesus and that of Paul: Christ was rejected and put to death for the sins of men. Faith in the Gospel ("believe in the Gospel"), is now configured as faith "in Jesus Christ," "in his blood" (Romans 3:25).

What the Apostle expresses through the adverb "freely" ("dorean") or "by grace," Jesus said with the image of receiving the Kingdom as a child, namely, as a gift, without putting forward merits, appealing only to the love of God, as children count on the love of their parents.

For some time exegetes have discussed whether or not one must continue to talk about the conversion of St. Paul; some prefer to speak of a "call," rather than conversion. There are those who would like the outright abolition of the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, as conversion indicates a detachment and a giving up of something, and a Jew who converts, as opposed to a pagan, must not give up anything, he must not pass from idols to the worship of the true God.[2]

It seems to me we are before a false problem. In the first place, there is no opposition between conversion and call: a call implies a conversion; it does not replace it, as grace does not replace freedom. However, above all we have seen that evangelical conversion is not about denying something or going back, but a reception of something new, a leap forward. To whom was Jesus speaking when he said: "Repent and believe in the Gospel"? Was he not speaking perhaps of the Jews? The Apostle referred to this same conversion with the words: "But when a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed" (2 Corinthians 3:16).

In this light Paul's conversion appears to us as the model of true Christian conversion that consists first of all in accepting Christ, in "turning" to him through faith. It is a finding, not a giving up. Jesus does not say: A man sold all he had and began to look for a hidden treasure; he said: A man found a treasure and because of this sold everything.

4. A Lived Experience

In the document of agreement between the Catholic Church and the World Federation of Lutheran Churches on justification through faith, presented solemnly in St. Peter's Basilica by John Paul II and the archbishop of Uppsala in 1999, there is a final recommendation that seems of vital importance to me. In essence, it says this: The moment has come to make of this great truth a lived experience on the part of believers, and no longer an object of theological disputes between experts, as happened in the past.

The Pauline Year offers us the propitious occasion to live this experience. It could give a shove to our spiritual life, a breath and a new freedom. Charles Peguy recounted, in the third person, the story of the greatest act of faith of his life. A man, he said (and it is known he was speaking of himself) had three sons. On a bad day all three fell ill at the same time. Then he did something audacious. Thinking about it again admiringly, it must be said that it really was a daring act. Just as three children are sometimes gathered together and hoisted, almost jokingly, into the arms of their mother or nurse, who laughs and says to take them away because they are too many and too heavy, so he, daring man that he was, had taken -- one understands with prayer -- his three sick children and had peacefully put them into the arms of him who has charge of all the sorrows of the world. "Look," he said, "I give them to you, I turn and run away, so that you will not give them back to me. I don't want them any more, you see it well! You must be concerned with them." (Apart from the metaphor, he had gone on foot on a pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres to entrust his three sick children to Our Lady). From that day on, everything went well, naturally, because it was the Holy Virgin who was involved. It is also curious that not all Christians do as much. It is so simple, but no one ever thinks of what is simple.[3]

The story is useful to us at this moment because of the idea of the audacious act; because it relates to what is being discussed. The key to everything, it is said, is faith. But there are different types of faith: there is faith-assent of the intellect, faith-trust, faith-stability, as Isaiah calls it (7:9): of what faith does one refer to when speaking of justification "through faith"? It is a question of an all-together special faith: faith-appropriation!

Let us listen to St. Bernard on this point who says, "What I cannot obtain by myself, I appropriate (usurp!) with trust from the pierced side of the Lord, because he is full of mercy. My merit, therefore, is God's mercy. I am certainly not poor in merits, as long as he is rich in mercy. If the mercies of the Lord are many (Psalm 119:156), I too will abound with merits. And what about my justice? O Lord, I will remember only your justice. In fact, it is also mine, because you are for me justice on the part of God."[4] It is written, in fact, that "Christ Jesus ... became for us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30) -- for us, not for himself!

St. Cyril of Jerusalem expressed, with other words, the same idea of the audacious act of faith: "O extraordinary goodness of God toward men! The righteousness of the Old Testament pleased God in the toil of long years; but what they were able to obtain, through a long and heroic service acceptable to God, Jesus gives to you in the brief space of an hour. In fact, if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord and that God has resurrected him from the dead, you will be saved and introduced into paradise by the same one who introduced the good thief."[5]

Imagine, writes Cabasilas, when developing an image of St. John Chrysostom, that an epic fight is taking place in the stadium. A courageous man has confronted the cruel tyrant and, with enormous effort and suffering, has beaten him. You have not fought, you have made no effort or suffered wounds. However, if you admire the courageous man, if you rejoice with him over his victory, if you weave a crown for him, stir and shake the assembly for him, if you bow with joy to the winner, if you kiss his head and shake his right hand; in sum, if you are so delirious for him as to consider his victory yours, I tell you that you will certainly have a part of the winner's prize.

But there is more: Suppose the winner had no need of the prize he won, but desires, more than anything else, to see his supporter honored and considers the prize of his fight the crowning of his friend, in such a case, will that man, perhaps, not obtain the crown if he has not toiled or suffered wounds? Of course he will obtain it! Well, it happens in this way between Christ and us. Although not having yet toiled and fought -- although not having yet any merit -- nevertheless, through faith we extol Christ's struggle, admire his victory, honor his trophy which is the cross and valuable for him, we show vehement and ineffable love; we make our own those wounds and that death.[6] Thus it is that salvation is obtained.

The Christmas liturgy will speak to us of the "holy exchange," of the "sacrum commercium," between us and God realized in Christ. The law of every exchange is expressed in the formula: That which is mine is yours and that which is yours is mine. It derives that, that which is mine, namely sin, weakness, becomes Christ's; that which is Christ's, namely holiness, becomes mine. Because we belong to Christ more than to ourselves (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20), it follows, writes Cabasilas, that, inversely, the holiness of Christ belongs to us more than our own holiness.[7] This is the thrust in the spiritual life. Its discovery is not done, usually, at the beginning, but at the end of one's own spiritual journey, when all the others paths have been experienced and one has seen that they do not go very far.

In the Catholic Church we have a privileged means to have a concrete and daily experience of this sacred exchange and of justification by grace through faith: the sacraments. Every time I approach the sacrament of reconciliation I have a concrete experience of being justified by grace, "ex opere operato," as we say in theology. I go out to the temple and say to God: "O God, have mercy on me a sinner" and, like the publican, I return home "justified" (Luke 18:14), forgiven, with a brilliant soul, as at the moment I came out of the baptismal font.

May St. Paul, in this year dedicated to him, obtain for us the grace of making like him this audacious thrust of faith.

* * *

Footnotes

[1] St. Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., I-IIae, q. 113, a.4.

[2] Cf. J.M. Everts, "Conversione e Chiamata di Paolo," in "Dizionario di Paolo e delle sue lettere," San Paolo 1999, pp. 285-298 (summary of the positions and bibliography).

[3] Cf. Ch. Peguy, "Il portico del mistero della seconda virtù."

[4] In Cant. 61, 4-5: PL 183, 1072.

[5] Catechesis 5, 10: PG 33, 517.

[6] Cf. N. Cabasilas, "Life in Christ," I, 5: PG150, 517.

[7] N. Cabasilas, "Life in Christ," IV, 6 (PG 150, 613).


[Translation by ZENIT]

E. Christian Kopff, Greek to Us: The Death of Classical Education and Its Consequences

Sacred Music Colloquium video


CMAA website; Colloquium 2009

Bad timing?

Or good timing?

Although I had done searches at Catholic Jobs before, I did not notice this one--or maybe it was posted after my last search. The position of principal is available at a certain school in Sacramento. It does require 2 to 5 years of experience, but even if that is the case I would think about making contact to see what sort of candidate they would be willing to consider. But at this point in time, this position would not be my number one choice. Maybe it should be, but I think I'll continue working on the main back-up plan. If my first choice doesn't work out, then I would look at teaching jobs and such... but I won't know that I should be considering the alternatives until it is clear that the first choice isn't right for me...

So tonight... I need to take a walk.

As for the particulars... I would consider moving to Sacramento, but would the pay be sufficient for a layman seeking to provide for a family? Probably, but everyone would have to be willing to do without a lot. There are some Catholic women willing to sacrifice, but there aren't many.

George Strait-All My Ex's Live In Texas

Hollywood as the guiding light for American culture--AICN: Obamanation!? Jack Black, John C. Reilly & More Hit The Nets With PROPOSITION 8: THE MUSICAL!!

What do we do in response? Avoid watching movies or buying DVDs of actors who not only hold but promote views that are counter to good morals rooted in the natural law? What about directors and producers? And other 'artists'? Giving them money not only supports their way of life but makes their advocacy possible by contributing to their perceived popularity by the studios or record companies, and so on.

It would seem that there are only a few artists we can actually 'patronize' enthusiastically--Jim Caviezel, Eduardo Verastegui... Others may endorse licentiousness (dressed up as 'progressive' morality, or in the name of tolerance), but do not see themselves as spokespersons for such issues and stay quiet. I think that many artists in the classical music world fall under this description, but I could be wrong--I have not really been paying attention to what they say and do in public.

We should avoid supporting the rest, who are vocal about changing our mores, and it isn't so difficult to abstain from watching movies or buying albums, is it? I don't think any sort of compromise is possible. If it is too difficult to look at what sort of positions artists are promoting, then the obvious solution is to avoid supporting any, unless one knows that they are upholding traditional morality in their speech, if not by their personal lives?

(Most Hong Kong artists in their 20s and 30s tend to be promoters of 'liberal' morality, whether in interviews or commercials and so on. It is disappointing to see how low Hong Kong has fallen in such a short time. Western countries, especially the United States, where many of the influential are educated, have played no small role in the moral decline of East Asia.)

The other part of the solution is to learn how to entertain ourselves. Half-way measures such as watching only "family-friendly" movies are not enough to sustain a culture or preserve a community... Which reminds me, on Thanksgiving, the family, the cousins and DR were playing Rock Band--on par with playing Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution, but better than nothing?

Robert George, One Man, One Woman: The case for preserving the definition of marriage.