Coffee Bowl Browsing

Do your consumer brand choices match your partisan politics?  The top ten brands for the Dems and the GOP.

Bees beat computers. . .shows you how far we still have to go on the road toward artificial intelligence.

The New Elites and the Tea Party. . .self-affirming ideological homogeneity among our "Betters."   For the N.E.'s diversity is only skin deep. 

The Tea Party is more of an "attitude movement" than a strictly partisan, political organization.

Those leaked WikiLeak documents from the DoD reveal that Saddam did have weapons of mass destruction. 

Back when universities were first invented (by the Church, btw!), professors were paid directly by their students.  If a prof wasn't doing his job, he had no students and no income.  Maybe we should consider returning to this model of higher education.  Oh, and there was no such as tenure!

Astute observation on the faux tolerance of NPR:  Conservative FOX had no problem with Williams working for liberal NPR; yet, liberal NPR couldn't tolerate him working for conservative FOX.  My own experience in academia and religious life bears this out:  liberals are very tolerant of those who believe exactly as they do.

Catholic bloggers "aim to purge dissenters" from the Church?!  Wow. . .I had no idea that bloggers had so much power. . .I feel lightheaded, kinda woozy and warm!  There's no need for Catholic bloggers to purge dissenters from the Church. . .Mother Nature is doing it for us.

Undercover vid of New Jersey teachers' union bosses partying hearty.  If this goes viral, be sure to put yourself near something large and solid. . .it's gonna get messy.  (NSFW:  strong language)

Excellent news out of Dallas:  Bishop Farrell getting high marks for turning the listless diocese around!  Vocations are up, thanks to Fr. Rudy Garcia, vocations director.  U.D.'s School of Ministry gets a mention. 

Middle East Synod turns into anti-Israel rally.  I had breakfast with a member of the synod yesterday morning.  He spent the whole time regaling me with stories about Israel's mistreatment of Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular.   The final document of the Synod contains condemnation of Israel's West Bank occupation.

Notre Dame post-B.O.:  drop of $120m in donations.

10 Annoying Habits of the Smartsphone User.  Only 10? 

Hey, whaddya know?  Jesus does save!

So, two Russian cops and a goat are waiting for the bus. . .

It's What's For Breakfast

Job application. . .I'd hire him just to keep things interesting.

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Mercy is hard

30th Week OT (M)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Ss. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Our wounds are not healed by ideas or intentions alone. A gun shot wound really can't be healed by mercy as such. Neither can cancer, mental illness, nor addiction be treated by something as purely conceptual as love or forgiveness. Healing requires both intentions and acts. Imagine going into an emergency room with a broken arm and having the doctor stand over you while he intends to treat your arm! At some point, you're going to say, “Doc, are you going to do something?” How bizarre would it be for him to respond, “I am doing something. I'm thinking about healing you”? My guess is that you'd rather have his bad intention so long as he actually worked to fix your arm. In the abstract, mercy is easy. Doing merciful deeds is a little more complicated.

Jesus shows us how to be merciful by ridding a woman of a diseased spirit—an eighteen-year burden that has her bent over, making it impossible for her to stand erect. How exactly is this merciful? Relieving the sick of their diseases is in itself merciful. But Jesus goes one step further by healing her on the Sabbath. Rather than obeying a strict interpretation of the law that forbids work on the Sabbath, Jesus obeys the higher law of love and relieves the poor woman of her burden. Predictably, someone objects to this illegal act and calls Jesus out as a lawbreaker. Jesus' indignant retort to this charge humiliates his critic. He calls them hypocrites! Why shouldn’t this daughter of Abraham be set free on the Sabbath from Satan’s bondage? The gathered crowd “rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.” And so they should: Jesus lifts from this crippled woman’s back not only the burden of a crippling spirit, but the burden of Law without Mercy as well. 

Paul picks up this teaching in his letter to the Ephesians. He writes, “Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us. . .” This doesn't mean that we are to become lawless lovers of some abstract deity. It does mean that we love first and follow the law accordingly. If we can't love, we can't follow any law that's based on love. In much the same way that abstract notions like mercy, forgiveness, and charity become real only when enacted, our love for God must be embodied, made real through our whole humanity—word, thought, and deed and not simply limited to “good intentions.” Our psalmist this morning puts it succinctly: “Behave like God as his very dear children!”

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On St Dominic & the miracle of the cornbread

I've had a couple of requests for more info on the painting of St Dominic that appears above in the blog header.  I hate to admit it. . .but I just googled "Order of Preachers" and found it somewhere out there in the intertubes ether.  The "Please pass the cornbread" subtitle is just me being redneckish.

The Rev. Br. Lawrence Lew, OP of the English Province has a great post on the painting on his blog, Contemplata aliis Tradere.  Since I can't figure out how to link to this post, I will reproduce the story:

One of the most famous miracles involving St Dominic happened in the Refectory of San Sisto, which still exists, and the story is recounted in the Vitae Fratrum of the Order of Preachers and a painting of the event often adorns Dominican refectories:

"When the brethren were still living at the Church of San Sisto and formed a community of about one hundred, Blessed Dominic one day sent Brother John of Calabria and Brother Albert of Rome into the city to beg. From morning to noon, they went from house to house, but all in vain. As they were returning home without anything, they passed by the church of St. Anastasia where they met a woman who had a great love for the Order. Seeing that they had received no alms, she gave them one loaf of bread, saying, "I would hate to see you return empty-handed." They thanked her for the bread and continued on their journey home. Soon they were met by a handsome youth, who earnestly begged an alms of them. But they explained that having almost nothing for themselves, they could hardly give anything to him. As he continued to press them, they said to one another, "How far would a loaf of bread go with us? Let's give it to him for the love of God." No sooner had they given him the bread than he disappeared so quickly that they did not even know in what direction. When they reached the priory, the first one they met was Blessed Dominic who already knew, by a special revelation, all that had happened. He smiled and said, "I see you have nothing, my children," and they answered, "No, father." Then they hold him what they had received and of the beggar to whom they gave the bread. But he said to them, "It was an angel of the Lord. Nevertheless, the Lord will feed His servants. Let us go and pray." After they said a brief prayer in the church, he told them to summon the community for their meal. But they reminded him, "Holy Father, how can you tell them to come, when we have nothing to serve them?", and he answered, "The Lord will feed His servants." But when they continued to dilly-dally, he called Brother Roger, the procurator, and ordered him to call the brethren to the refectory, because the Lord would provide for His servants. So they set the tables and, when the signal was given, the community entered the refectory. After the blessing of the meal by Blessed Dominic, the brethren sat down and Brother Henry of Rome began to read. At his table Blessed Dominic joined his hands in prayer. Then the promise he had made through the Holy Spirit began to be fulfilled, for, in the middle of the refectory, there suddenly appeared two handsome youths from whose shoulders hung, in front and in back, two beautiful baskets filled with bread. Serving the youngest first, they began, one on the right and the other on the left, to distribute to each of the brethren one whole loaf of bread of marvelous appearance. When they reached Blessed Dominic and gave him a loaf, they bowed and disappeared. No one to this day knows whence they came or where they went. Then Blessed Dominic said to the brethren, "Come, brethren, eat the bread which the Lord has sent you."

Then he told the brethren who were serving to get some wine for the brethren. But they answered, "Holy father, there is no wine." Then filled with a prophetic spirit, Blessed Dominic told them to go to the wine-cask and draw off the wine the Lord has put there. They went and found the cask filled to the top with wine. Drawing some off, they served it to the brethren. And Blessed Dominic said, "Come, brethren, drink the wine which the Lord has sent." Thus they ate and drank as much as they needed that day and the next and the day after. When the meal was over, he ordered that all the unused bread and wine be given to the poor, because he did not want anything to remain in the house. But for those three days he sent no one out to beg, because the Lord was supplying them with bread and wine from heaven in abundance. Later the blessed father gave the brethren a beautiful sermon exhorting them never to lose their trust in God's providence, even in the direst need.

Later on, Brother Tancred, prior of the brethren, Brothers Odo and Henry of Rome, Brother Lawrence of England, Brother Gaudio, Brother John of Rome, and many others described this famous miracle to Sister Cecilia, who was living in the convent of St. Mary in Tempulo, and to other nuns. To them they gave some of the bread and wine, which they kept for many years as relics."

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

Former NPR news analysis, Juan Williams comments on his firing. But don't worry about Juan; he ain't hurtin'.  Oh, and it's OK to fire Juan b/c he was a "lawn jockey" for FOXNews. Oh, and there's a move afoot to defund NPR.  'Bout time too.

So, if Juan gets fired for speaking his mind as a news analysis, why didn't NPR fire Nina Totenberg for saying that God's justice could mean that Jesse Helms will get AIDS.

Wow. . .great political ad.  A Chinese professor lectures on the fall of great empires, including the USA.

League of Women Voters debate moderator upset that the audience "forced" her to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.  Very telling.

Greed eyed monster:  more reasons for women not to take The Pill.

New seminary for the Archdiocese of Washington!  Hey, I wonder if they could use a slightly used but still energetic English/philosophy/theology professor. . .hmmmmmm?

The "Muslim Dances on High Altar" vid has been making the rounds of late.  No doubt:  dancing on an altar is not something we can dismiss as a prank; however, it appears that the man is mentally unstable.  If so, then he can't properly be called a blasphemer. 

WaPo story confirms that Eric Holder's DoJ is refusing to pursue voting rights violations committed against white voters.  So much for a "post-racial" administration.

Some advice for those thinking about a graduate degree in theology.  Best advice:  don't let the shininess of a faculty star lure you into a blackhole.  Better advice.

With my luck, this will happen at my funeral.

Cute vid. . .caution:  likely to cause diabetes.

Movie cliches. . .yup, that's about right.

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On conscience and the magisterium

The relationship between an individual's conscience and the authority of the magisterium is often easily confused and intentionally distorted.   

Let's start with a definition:  "Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law. . ."(CCC, no. 1778).

Conscience "perceives and recognizes" moral truth.  Contemporary Catholics often seem to believe that conscience is the ability to choose freely among available moral options.  So long as I preface my choices with something like, "In good conscience, I believe. . .," I am safeguarded from error.  This is false.  Conscience is not the ability to magically turn an evil choice into a good choice.  Conscience is what helps us to perceive the Good and recognize that Good in making moral choices.

When I walk into a bookstore, I perceive and recognize items that we call books.  I do not walk into a bookstore and choose to perceive the books as squirrels and recognize them as squirrels.  If I do this, I am in error.  Announcing my erroneous judgment about the books with, "In good conscience, I perceive and recognize this collection of paper and cloth bound pages of printed material as squirrels," does not magically transform the books into squirrels.  

Catholic teaching holds that the morality of human acts is as real as the books in a bookshop.  Calling the intrinsically morally evil act of abortion "good" is the same error you make when you call a book a squirrel.*  Conscience empowers you to perceive and recognize abortion as evil.  If you do not perceive and recognize abortion as evil, then you are either ignorant and need to be instructed, or your conscience has been twisted into folly by sin and you need both instruction and confession.

The Church's role in conscience formation is to present the truth of the faith.  Ideally, a Catholic will immediately perceive and recognize the truth and act accordingly.  But because we have been mislead for a generation or two about the nature of conscience, many Catholics fail to perceive and recognize moral truth when they see it.  Basically, we have been told for decades now that conscience makes truth, or that conscience assigns truth value to moral acts according to subjective, private standards of judgment.  This is how we end up with pro-abortion Catholics, pro-same sex "marriage" Catholics, pro-torture Catholics, pro-women's "ordination" Catholics, ad. nau.  These Catholics have falsely perceived and falsely recognized moral truth and misused "conscience" as a defense of their errors.

To repeat:  conscience perceives and recognizes truth; it does NOT create truth. 

Tom Krietzberg at Disputations has a very good post on how Aquinas' thoughts on conscience have been misunderstood and misused to push the Free Choice notion of conscience.

*Of course, the eternal consequences of these two errors are not the same.

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Coffee Cup Browsing

Wards of the French Nanny State throw violent temper tantrums.  Poor things are being told that they have to work until they are 62!  Evil, evil Nanny State.  And now, they don't even get all those tourist dollars/euros/pounds/sheckels.  That should help the economy.

Speaking of tantrums. . .Pelosi's flying monkeys in the House are dousing any fantasy she may have had about being Speaker again.

The Anchoress on "The Credentialed Gentry and the Unpersuaded Yahoo."  This puts me in a terrible bind.  I'm a member of both the credentialed gentry AND an unpersuaded yahoo.  Oops.  I'm pretty sure the other members of the CredGen would kick me out if they could.

Excellent article on how materialists fundamentally misunderstand the notion of free will.  Take time to read the whole thing.

Damien Thompson wonders:  "Is this the start of a civil war in the Church of England?" 

Now we're talkin'!  Catholic pub opens in Rome

WaPo and the AP completely rewrite their O'Donnell Church and State story w/o issuing a correcction.  Predictably, the lefties wanted to hear her deny that there is a "wall between church and state," so when she asked her opponent if such a thing is found in the 1st Amendment, they jumped on her like a pack of rabid Credentialed Gentry hunting a wounded Yahoo. 

Prof. Jacobson fisks the original story for all he's worth.  Also, how did that wall btw church and state get there in the first place?  Interesting back story that includes the KKK!

More race-hustling from the NAACP.  BTW, the link has a list of links to all the black GOP and Tea Party backed candidates running for office in the mid-term elections.  For a bunch of racists they should do have a lot of black folks on their side.

Explaining what happened to Vatican Two btw 1965-85.  Good article.  In seminary we were told over and over again that the published documents were products of a liberal majority that (mistakenly) felt the need to compromise with reactionary factions.  Therefore, any "traditional language" could be dismissed b/c it was in the document only as a way of appeasing the ecclesial neanderthals.  Fortunately, none of us bought this ruse. . .but we kept our mouths shut just in case speaking up against the prof turned into a "formation issue."

Two kinds of human beings. . .which one are you?

Find a genie in a bottle?  Be careful what you wish for. . .

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Making known the inscrutable riches of Christ

29th Week OT (Wed)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

Ss. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Jesus tells his disciples that they must be prepared for his unexpected return. That's just a little strange. How do you prepare for an unexpected return? There is only one way: always be prepared! You might think that Jesus is warning us that he intends to pop out from behind the sofa while we party and yell, “Gotcha!” The threat of his sudden appearance is supposed to keep us on our toes, ever vigilant against a surprise inspection from Big Daddy in the sky. However, the parable he tells is more about faithful stewardship than it is about being constantly on guard for surprises. Think of it this way: you can be a faithful servant b/c you are scared of getting caught being unfaithful, or you can be a faithful servant b/c you ARE a faithful servant. This is the difference between being stunted in your spiritual growth and being spiritually mature. Peter asks Jesus if his initial warning is meant for the disciples alone or for everyone. Jesus answers with a parable about stewardship. As is usually the case with parables, the answer is not black and white. Yes, stewards are the ones left in charge of the household, so it's pretty clear that Jesus is talking to those he will leave behind to oversee his Church. However, in baptism, each of us is made a steward of God's grace for the benefit of everyone else. So, is the initial warning to always be prepared meant for the disciples or everyone else? The answer is both. All of us must always be prepared for the Master's return. In fact, we are charged with fulfilling the duties of the stewards of God's grace as if the Master never left us. The spiritually immature Christian await his return with some measure of fear, some sense of foreboding that a severe beating is on the way. The spiritually mature Christian knows that the Master never left, that he is with us always and all we do in his name is done in his presence. As sinners we have been entrusted with more than deserve. Having been made stewards of God's grace we are entrusted with the responsibility of preaching “the inscrutable riches of Christ. . .so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the Church to the principalities and authorities in the heavens.” No small task! But not a burden either if we do our work in the knowledge that Christ is always with us, always abiding in the Body as our daily bread, the hour to hour source of all that is good.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

The problem of evil as presented on a few popular TV shows.  Confession:  I'm a big fan of all things vampirish in the movies and on TV.  The Good vs. Evil plot lines resonant with my Catholic soul!

And speaking of evil. . .there are only six Catholic priests in the U.S. who perform exorcisms?

Handy summary and outline of the VC2 document, Gaudium et spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World).

The VFW fires its PAC board after the board endorsed Pelosi, Reed, and Boxer. 

Hypocrisy Alert:  Dems take twice as much foreign money as the GOP.  Of course, the Dem's hypocrisy here doesn't absolve the GOP.

CA firefighters who were forced to participate in a "gay pride" parade win their harassment case on appeal.  The decision of the appeals panel was unanimous. 

If this doesn't make you laugh. . .well, check your pulse.

Peace in our time!

A new terrorist threat:  Al-Gebra.  Bomb those @#$% back to the Roman numeral days!


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Stranger in the living room

Feast of St Luke

Fr Philip Neri Powell, OP

Ss. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Imagine: you're at home near the Sea of Galilee. . .quiet morning. . .you are building a fire in the oven, or sharpening your kitchen knives. . .the children are tending the few animals you share with the neighbors. . .you can hear some men down the street readying their nets for the day's fishing. . .it's going to be another very hot day. Just as you move toward the back garden to check on your children, an unfamiliar voice booms out from near the front door, “Peace be to this house!” Who could be visiting so early? No one was expected today. You turn the corner and see two middle-aged men, one is standing and one is squatting next to your youngest child, quietly talking. The men are obviously travelers: they are covered in dust, barefooted, no knapsack, nothing to indicate where they are from or where they are going. The one squatting stands to greet you, saying, “We are sent by the Lord as a lambs among wolves.” For just a second or two you stare, mouth open, eyes wide. . .what do you say? What do you do? 

Luke tells us that there are two possibilities for those who are greeted in this manner: receive the men, feeding them and offering them shelter; or, do not receive them, refusing them the hospitality that strangers customarily enjoy. Being a pious person, properly raised in the religious traditions of your people, you offer them food and water. They smile and the older man lays his hands on your head, offers a prayer for healing, and says, “The kingdom of God has come near to you!” You know instantly that these men are indeed sent by the Lord and that you have been blessed. But what do they mean when they say that the kingdom of God has come near to me? Has King Herod been overthrown by the Zealots? Have the Romans been driven out? Has the Temple in Jerusalem been destroyed? Maybe the prophet Isaiah has returned to proclaim the arrival of the Anointed One! Seeing your distress, the younger man says, “Peace be to this house.” Then you understand. . .peace now rests on your house; the Lord God does indeed rule. His kingdom has come near, and His peace rules.

When we go out as lambs among the wolves to proclaim the nearness of the Kingdom of God, we go as bearers of His peace. No fear, no anxiety, no concern for consequences or trials or persecution. In our words, our bearing, our deeds, in the way we think and pray and preach, we are the sons and daughters of the Lord's peace. When we proclaim the nearness of His kingdom, do we exude His peace? Do we look and sound as though we hold His peace? Live it, breath it, carry it with us wherever we go? When we enter a house, do we bring His peace with us? No worries. No fear, no concern for consequences. Reveal the kingdom of God and just rest wherever He sends you.

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Movie stars at the Angelicum

Yesterday after lunch, I went to the front of the university and watched Robert DeNiro and Monica Bellucci film a scene from an upcoming Italian movie, Manuale d'amore 3.  

The Church of Ss. Dominic and Sixtus is frequently used by movie companies for wedding scenes, e.g. When in Rome.  The director of the DeNiro/Bellucci film were using the official front entrance of the Angelicum to film a hospital scene. 

Filming was very slow.  They would film for about 20 seconds, then cut and stand around for ten minutes.  Repeat.  Deadly dull. 

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

ObamaCare closing down Catholic hospitals.  Can't say we didn't predict this.  Maybe this new book will become a best-seller by 2012.

No Brainer. Glenn Beck:  assault on teen in NYC was more than anti-gay; it is anti-human.  The imago Dei embodied by every human person is inviolable and must be respected.  Period.

From 2006:  The Myths of Hurricane Katrina. . .the article debunks many of the media myths about the causes of hurricane damage in NOLA and the gov't's response to the disaster. 

Sex crimes prosecutor reviews episodes of Law and Order:  SUV.  I quit watching L&O years ago b/c it became a vehicle for lefty talking points.  However, being a Legal Fanboy, I appreciate her analysis of the legal issues that the show brings up.

Fr. Z. dissects silly Newsweek article on St. Hildegard.  Be very suspicious anytime you hear a feminist lauding the courage of a female saint who bucked the authority of the patriarchal Church.  Among OP's this happens all the time with St. Catherine of Siena.  Nine times out of ten, the saint is being quoted out of context and the specifics of the alleged "bucking" are conveniently hidden. 

Siamo in Italia!  The Vatican's office of evangelizing cyberspace doesn't have internet access.  The procurator of the priory told me once that he hired a local company to repair some broken floor tiles.  When the workers didn't show on schedule, the procurator noted their tardiness to an Italian friar.  The friar responded, "Padre, it has only been three months!" 

CAUTION!  Bishop caught being a bishop.  DO NOT read near any Spirit of Vatican Two dissenters.  Have oxygen and smelling salts ready if they happen to glance over your shoulder.

A large mountain Jew

Border patrol kitty is on the job!

Ahhhhh. . .free hugs.

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The Smallest Dignity

Saint Teresa of Jesus

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Glory, grace, splendor, worth, nobility—all synonyms for “dignity.” We use words like person, individual, soul when we talk about humans beings. Human dignity then is something like the worth of the individual, the grace and glory of a soul, the splendor and nobility of a person. In Christian theology, we don't use this kind of language to describe the social standing of a person, his/her rank or class in society. When we talk about the dignity of the human person we do so only to reference the image of God that each of us bears, that reflection of the divine that each of us embodies as creatures of a loving God. Whatever nobility, grace, and grandeur we bear as His children, we bear it as a gift, an endowment from the Father's limitless abundance. When Jesus tells the disciples that nothing escapes the notice of God's providence, he is reassuring them that they are never alone, never abandoned, never lacking what they need. If He cares for the smallest sparrow, how much more does He care for us?

To say that nothing escapes the notice of God may seem threatening to some. It could bring on a sense of paranoia about being observed by the ever watchful eye of an all-powerful being. But Jesus isn't trying to scare us into obedience nor is he trying to warn us to be good boys and girls b/c God is watching and listening. Our Lord knows that preaching the Good News comes with dangers, first among these is the threat of persecution for his name's sake. He knows first-hand that opposition to the gospel is fierce, immediate, and often deadly. Yet he reassures his disciples that any opposition—no matter how fierce—can only touch the body, never the soul. God alone cares for both the body and the soul. Therefore, if we will set ourselves against either the world or its Creator, we are wise to choose to stand against the world and preach the Good News without fear, without hesitation.

Paul writes to the Ephesians that we are God's possessions. That we are sealed with the Holy Spirit promised to us. That we are chosen “so that we might exist for the praise of his glory.” We exist to praise His glory. And in praising His glory we are dignified, made glorious, made worthy. By preaching the Good News—with opposition or without it—we offer the greatest praise we can offer. Do not be afraid. If our Father loves the smallest sparrow, how much more does He love us?

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More server problems

The new university server decided yesterday that I cannot access my Yahoo email account.

So, if you've left a comment recently, it won't appear until the server changes its mind.

If I owe you an email. . .well, be patient.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing (in breve)

Annnnnd. . .we're back!  The university server came on-line late Tuesday night.  Last night a thunderstorm knocked it out.  And now. . .for now. . it is up again.  So, before we lose access again, here's a short CBB:

More reasons to send your kids to the University of Dallas!  Do UD'ers party?  I've heard rumors that they do (wink-wink). . .as a UD prof, I can assure you that they study as hard as they party.

What do hippies, hobos, and Tea Partiers have in common?  They all resist the evils of collectivism b/c they believe that human beings are best treated as innately free individuals.

Even as he fulminates about the Chamber of Commerce allegedly using donations from foreign companies, B.O. seems to "forget" that he did the same thing in 2008.  Memory is one of the greatest tools in fighting the faux-outrage of the hypocrites in our Ruling Class.

NY Election Board misses deadline for sending absentee ballot to our troops overseas.  As the Instapundit notes, "'Accidents' happen."  

P.S.  STILL no word on the French exam. . .sigh.

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Making the rules unnecessary

28th Week OT (Wed)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

SS. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

Our Lord is unrelenting in his condemnation of hypocrisy, particularly the hypocrisy of those who wield religious authority. He says to the Pharisees, “Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.” Not only does he accuse his opponents of being dead and rotting in the ground, but he also accuses them of leading their unwitting followers into uncleanliness, impurity. Thus the hypocrisy of each Pharisee is both a personal and a public failure. When spiritual leaders fall, those who follow them fall as well. Jesus concludes his indictment of the Pharisees and scribes with a pointed accusation, “You impose on people burdens hard to carry, but you yourselves do not lift one finger to touch them.” Here lies the kernel of their hypocrisy: though they follow the Law to the letter, they do so only for the benefits that come with being seen doing so. They do not intend to see justice done nor do they love God; their only purpose is to lift themselves up and bask in the admiration of their followers. Therefore, Jesus says to them three times, “Woe to you. . .”

How do we avoid the temptations of hypocrisy? Paul writes to the Galatians, “If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. . .If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.” Paul is not giving us permission to live lawless lives, wildly following every impulse, every appetite. He is challenging us to do something far more difficult than living the letter of the Law. Rather than scrupulously obeying every jot and tittle of the rules, we are called upon to fulfill the Law; that is, we are freed by Christ to live out the purpose of the Law, the underlying intent of the rules. For example, you can be meticulous in driving the posted speed limit and still believe that the other drivers deserve to be run off the road. You can come to Mass daily and still seek vengeance on your neighbor. You can quote canon law on the rules for fasting, follow those rules, and still remain a glutton in your heart. Despite a perfect driving record or a lifetime of perfect Mass attendance, you can still harbor hatred, anger, selfishness, and rivalry. Following the rules is no guarantee of a pure heart. But a pure heart makes the rules unnecessary.

Christ came to fulfill the Law. As his Body, the Church, we are vowed to preach his Word. So, we share the fruits of that Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If we will lead in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.

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