02 November 2011

Coffee Bowl Browsing

The Ten Commandments of Atheism. . .not one of these commandments contradicts or conflicts with Christian teaching.  In fact, most of them are rooted in the Christian moral tradition.

Law prof denied tenure b/c his students whined about his Socratic Method of teaching.   Those ninnies wouldn't last a week at U.D.

A list of organizations and individuals who have publicly supported the OWS movement:  Communists, Nazis, Black Panthers, B.O., Nancy Pelosi, Hugo Chavez, Louis Farrakhan, ad. nau.

Nothing and No One is safe in the Occupiers Squatter Camps:  deaf man raped.

Aight. . .two OWS links. . .now for a palette cleanser:  Cute Pug Puppy!

Dissecting a WaPo story on the new English translation of the Missal.  Lots to dissect.

Could a single Marine unit take down the Roman Empire?  Can't wait for the movie!  (Exit question:  will there be any aliens?)

B.O. cuts funding to Catholic groups fighting human trafficking.  No, B.O. doesn't support human trafficking.  This is about moving the Church further out of the public square.

Catholic Zombies!  Now they have gone too far. . .too far indeed.

Southerners are losing their manners.  Say it ain't so!  (NB.  Southern manners can often mask contempt, but polite contempt is better than open hostility, right?)

Wow.  Someone recruit this guy to run for U.S. President.  I'd almost be willing to amend the Constitution if he'd run.

This reminds me of that movie where all the good-looking 20-something's cheat death in a plane crash and then get killed off one by one via bizarre accidents

On booze and the distinction btw the correlation of facts and the cause of events.

These thieves must be Mississippi rednecks. . .

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

01 November 2011

New Assignment

As regular H.A. readers know, I am leaving Rome and heading back to the U.S. for reassignment.

I will be serving the Good Folks of St. Dominic's Church in New Orleans, LA as parochial vicar.

This assignment will be very good for my preaching. . .and very bad for my waistline.  Oy.

Leaving Rome on Dec. 7th.

Pray for us all, please!

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

31 October 2011

Bishops Cut $$$ for CCHD condoms

Credit where credit is due"The U.S. bishops' social justice arm has cut funding to a New York-based AIDS charity after the group was discovered to have lied about its adherence to Catholic teaching."

If I had to guess, I'd say that the bishops are honestly trying to purge CCHD of its dissident habits.  This whole scandal is probably a case of The Church Lagging Behind the Curve when it comes to staying current on rapidly evolving controversies.  


In other words, I doubt very seriously that the episcopal portion of the Catholic hierarchy in the U.S.  is conscious of the errors of the CCHD and supports these errors despite Church teaching.  It is more than likely that the bishops in charge are playing "catch-up," that is, they are scrambling to keep current with the problems, sifting through the various and sundry perspectives to get at the Truth of the Matter.   They must be bombarded with "facts" on a daily basis. 

The stability of the Church--though not her ultimate fate--rests on the shoulders of the bishops.  If you aren't praying/fasting/sacrificing for them, you should be! 

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

Coffee Bowl Browsing

No "global warming" in the last 11 years.  Prepare for a flurry of excommunications from Pope Gore.

Explosion on Uranus!  (Skip the scat puns, please. . .) 

Childhood obesity is becoming a weapon in custody battles.  Poor kids.  Parents' divorcing, fighting, lawyers, and now the prospect of having to eat tofu hot dogs and sprouts.

Occupiers now targeting Catholic worship services. . .

"Erasing Hate". . .former Neo-Nazi endures 16mos. of intense pain to remove hateful tattoos from his face, neck, and hands. 

The "urban myth" of razors in your kids' Halloween candy. . .of course, if lefty icon, Bill Maher, had his way, your kids would get illegal drugs in their treats.


Vestigial human parts. . .sounds gross, probably is.

5 Things You Didn't Know About Edgar Allan Poe. . .coincidentally, EAP's critical nemesis was also one of Walt Whitman's earliest haters, describing Leaves of Grass as "a mass of stupid filth." 

A "mock" Halloween Zombie invasion in OH. . .yea, sure, it's all "fake."

31 weird facts. . .I can testify to the truth of no. 20. 

This is what happens when a woman doesn't listen to her husband

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

Dogs of the Lord in Madrid!

Dominicans at World Youth Day 2011!  Fantastic video. . .



H/T:  Connor McDonough via Facebook

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

All the Saints Mass Intention

Tomorrow is All Saints Day. . .I will be concelebrating Mass with the other friars of the priory. 

As always, I will keep H.A. readers in my prayers. . .tomorrow--most especially--I will offer my intentions for all my Book Benefactors.  Without your help I would've never made it this far in my studies!

God bless you all. . .Fr. Philip, OP

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

30 October 2011

Breaking 400!

WooHoo!  402!
My suffering is ended.  Thank you, folks. 

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

Coffee Bowl Browsing

Proof that the Tea Party movement is racist, violent, etc.  A must read.  Really, read it.  

Don't be too quick to blame Muslim students at CUA for that ridiculous lawsuit.   Looks like the work of yet another media driven anti-Catholic bigot with a law degree and tenure.

USCCB doubles down on Sr. Johnson's book.   The Good Sister claims that the bishops never met with her.  Crdl. Wuerl says he offered to meet with her three times and she never responded.

The so-called "Arab Spring" is a real horror story for young women.  Remember. . .B.O.'s Smart Diplomacy got them there.  Caution:  the subject matter is a bit gruesome.

Home foreslocure law firm throws a homeless-themed Halloween party. . .stir the tar, fluff the feathers, boys!

How the concept of "experience" is used by modernist Catholics to undermine the Church.  We were fed bucketsful of "experience theology" when I was n seminary.

Deo gratis!  Catholic diocese loses its bid to purchase the Crystal Cathedral.  Maybe the next bishop of Orange will build a Catholic church for his cathedral.

Evangelical convert to the Church explains how the deformed Protestant concept of sola scriptura led him back to Rome.

My fav soup. . .can you throw in a side order of The Wailing of Their Women, please?

Surprisingly, these are not road signs here in Rome.  Though it does help explain Italian bureaucracy.

Hmmmm. . .maybe we should consider this sign for Sunday morning's "family Mass."  (ducks, runs)


Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

29 October 2011

End my suffering

Aight. . .I've let this go now for a couple of weeks b/c I'm not one of those bloggers obsessed with traffic numbers and popularity (*coughcoughwheezecough*).  But I gotta bring this up. . .

Traffic for H.A. is pretty stable, hanging in there with about 420 views a day and 918 page views.  Not bad.  It's not Fr. Z. or Mark Shea level traffic, but I'm happy with that, considering we've been going at this for almost six years. 

So, what's bugging me?  That Follow Me number over there -----> 398.  It's been bouncing up and down for weeks now but never quite reaching 400. 

End my suffering, please. . .

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

Picturing the Coffee Bowl

A faithful H.A. reader asks, "What is a coffee bowl?"

 The Coffee Bowl with which I Browse!




We have a large espresso machine in the refectory.  Though this might look like a large cappuccino, it is actually what the Italians sneeringly refer to as a "cafe Americano"--one part espresso and three parts steamed milk. 

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

OCCUPY Coffee Bowl Browsing!

The OSW rap sheet. . .child prostitution, heroin dealing, rape, death threats, anti-Semitism, Nazis (no, real Neo-Nazis) marching in camo with guns, rioting, public masturbation, and on and on.

Some pigs are more equal than others:  OccupyLA's "Peoples' Assembly" (or whatever) suffers a coup over the central committee's fascist ways.  Heh.

No.  Jesus would NOT be among the OWS crowd. . .except maybe to convert them from their hypocrisy and licentiousness.  

OWS protesters meet the Real World:  "[OWS cooks are] angry about working 18-hour days to provide food for 'professional homeless' people and ex-cons masquerading as protesters."  Apparently, freeloading from people who work for a living is a Bad Thing.  Who knew?

A little philosophical history of the OWS movement:  Academic anarchist promotes chaos.

KKK Poo-Bah marches with OWS in Phoenix. . .Crickets solemnly chirp in the MSM.

OWS finance committee member "redistributes" $20,000 into her own account.

"Instead of hope and change, the Obama presidency has delivered decline and despair on a scale not seen in America since the dying days of the Carter administration."  And W. had his hand in this decline as well. 

The left's Official Propagandist is caught lying. . .again.   Seriously, he claimed he wasn't among the 1%.  He's worth $50m and he's "one of the 99%."  HA!

Well, the Great Unwashed of the OWS get one thing right. . .

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

A question about Coffee Bowl Browsing

They say that curiosity kills the cat, but can it wound a blogging priest?  Let's see. . .

I'm curious:  Coffee Bowl Browsing is a mainstay of HancAquam.  Basically, it's nothing more than me "flipping through" the internet and grouching about the news.  Why "grouching"?  Well, the caffeine from the morning's coffee hasn't circulated yet!  That's my excuse anyway.  I always end CBB with a few humorous links. . .by then my Bowl O'Stimulants has done its job. 

So, here's the question:  thinking about the typical content of CBB, what do you find to be the most and least appealing topics covered?  Site Meter allows me to track "out clicks," so I have a pretty good idea about what folks find worthy of their time.

Also, include any other observations about CBB.  Format?  Length of entries?  Sources of news?  Special editions?

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

27 October 2011

A house becomes a temple

Hey, look!  A homily!  Remember those?

Ss. Simon and Jude
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Ss. Domenico e Sisto, Roma

We are no longer strangers and sojourners. We are fellow citizens with the holy ones. Members of the household of God. A family built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets. And Christ Jesus himself is the capstone. If this is all we were, if this were the sum total of what it means to be a follower of Christ, we could call it a blessing and spend our days giving thanks to God for adopting us as His children, for taking us in hand and giving us a holy place in His creation. But if who and what we are in Christ were to stop here. . .if we were to say, “It is enough that we are a family—thank you, Lord; it is enough that we are a happy community—praise Jesus”. . .if we were settle for this great blessing, we would be settling for something much less than all that the Father has to give us. Yes, we are citizens with the holy ones. Yes, we are brothers and sisters in the family of the Lord. Yes, we are a community of praise and thanksgiving. BUT we are also growing as a temple sacred in the Lord; we are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. 

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul describes who and what the church in Ephesus is AND he tells them who and what they can become. They are a household of the Lord built on the teachings of the apostles and the prophets; however, they are also becoming a temple, a dwelling-place for the Spirit of God. Our household is becoming a temple; our family is becoming a church. How does this happen? How do we move from being a household to being a temple, from being a family to being a church? Paul uses two key verbs: to grow and to build. To grow a plant, you first sow its seed; then, you nurture it; prune it; and harvest its fruit. If you plant wheat seed, you get wheat. If you plant rice, you get rice. A seed can only grow into what it was made to be. Wheat seed cannot become rice. If the Lord's household generously plants itself as the seed of His Word, we grow and grow and we become that which we were made to be: His Word made flesh. To build, we start with a well dug foundation—solid, concrete; then, we frame our structure—sturdy, durable; then, we protect it with a waterproof roof and make the inside welcoming, warm. If our building is to become a dwelling-place for the Lord, our foundation must be the apostles' teaching; our frame must be the Church's Tradition; and our roof will be the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, our protection against the hostile elements of the world. If we invite the Lord in; if we bring Him in with us to dwell among us and give Him the place of honor as Father and Lord, then our house will become a temple.

It is an enormous blessing to be a loving community of believers; to be an international family vowed to justice and peace. How much more of a blessing is it to be a living, breathing temple for the Lord? How much more is it to be one in whom the Spirit of God dwells? And to be one among many and more who can lay claim to having been built up from an apostolic foundation and grown from the seed of His Word?

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

Coffee Bowl Browsing (Catholic Edition)

Jesus would be an atheist:  latest idiotic blather from anti-Christian celeb Dawkins.   Make no mistake. . .Dawkins is an anti-Christian bigot not simply an atheist. 

Archbishop Gomez on the erosion of religious liberty in the U.S.  One of the lessons here:  Catholic charities shouldn't take state money.

Sacked Aussie bishop throws a tantrum 'cause his episcopal colleagues support the Holy Father.  Note the usual screeching about "not being heard," "not being consulted," ad. nau. 


Yet another failure of the "Spirit of Vatican Two."  How can you be "comfortable in the faith" but uncomfortable with Church teaching?  This works only if you are a Protestant.  Thus, the failure.

Fr. Z. has more on the recently published "peace and justice" paper.  Apparently, the lay Italian economist responsible for the "world authority" nonsense is a socialist.  Big surprise.

Yup:  "The Church has magisterially stated, again and again throughout history, that she does not and cannot offer particular, concrete solutions to political, social or economic problems."

WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!  One of my fav scary prank videos.

You'll be glad to have one of these when you run out of ammo during the Zombie Apocalypse. 

Speaking of the Zombie Apocalypse. . .It's Begun!!!

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->

25 October 2011

TV tech exposes Occupy London charade

And yet more fraud from the Occupy _____ Movement.  This time it's Occupy London.

A Telegraph TV crew used thermal imaging tech to demonstrate that only about one in ten of the tents pitched outside St. Paul's Cathedral were occupied overnight

From the article:

On Monday the revelation was described as a "charade" and pressure was growing on the church and other authorities to evict the camp.

"It is like a phantom camp – a big charade," said Matthew Richardson, a Corporation of London councillor, who is calling for action to be taken. 

NB.  the TV folks are quickly surrounded by Occupy goons and escorted away from the empty tens.

Best comment on the Telegraph blog:  "Tents have rights too!"  HA! 

Follow HancAquam & Check out my Wish List --------->