10 mistakes conservatives make in art and entertainment (via A conservative blog for peace)

I'll have comments on this soon specially since I spent the weekend in Paris and saw the Lourve, Sainte Chapelle and Notre Dame.

Hopefully I will have time tomorrow night.

my blog is near the top on a Yahoo web search for the terms: excuses to avoid the in-laws

Posting from London BTW ... I have had an interesting trip so far. I wish work was less interesting. I will feel better when the details are worked out. I finally understand what is meant by the phrase "the devil is in the details". All of the major hurdles seem cleared. Its these little nuisances that seem to be interrupting things.

Hopefully I will post later. I ran into an article that is worth sharing.

Actually, I may end up posting more provided I can get a decent connection to the Internet at night. For a few days though, I am out.

I had some thoughts tonight that I wanted to capture....

Catholics are free to believe in true love. You know the kind that movies are made about that always end with the line "and they lived happily ever after". The reason this is so is because Catholics realize that in Christ one can attain perfection. Not a covering of a permanent imperfection but perfection made complete in Christ. One realizes that as each year of marriage ticks by you always have a choice. You can listen to what the world says is going to happen tomorrow in your marriage or you can listen to what your heart really tells you about marriage. Happily ever after is attainable. The answer, as it is to every important question in life, is Jesus Christ.

The path however is a most unexpected one to the young "happily ever after" mindset. Sacrifice. It is what Christ did for us and it is His greatest example as to what extent our love must take for others. "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13). I heard the following this week when I mentioned that I get up at night frequently to help the kids get back to sleep: "You work long hours and your wife stays at home all day. Why should you get up with the kids?" ... at the time I was lost for words. Since then I have had a little time to reflect upon it.

I hear about how men are supposed to have their thumb on the relationship. Its about control. Failing to exhibit "authority" is failing in your marriage as "the man". This is an incomplete viewpoint. To these real men, I simply respond that rightful authority is granted by love. Submission in spiritual matters is much easier when the man has demonstrated a firm grasp of sacrificial love to his wife. It has nothing to do with a "right" that men should or shouldn't have in a relationship. That right would not exist if not granted by God Himself and demonstrated most perfectly in the sacrifice of Christ Himself. Men love to trot out Ephesians 5 with pride and flamboyance: "wives submit to your husbands" (v22) yet it amazes me to regularly hear the quotations stop there. Why are so many men failing to read the words aimed directly at them? "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her". (v25) -- GAVE HIMSELF UP -- It is about sacrifice. I get up with the kids because in the language of love an action of sacrifice says "I love you" louder than any box of candy, flowers or late night stroll ever will. It is the least I can do for the sacrifice my wife makes in performing the jobs of day care, cleaning and cafeteria personnel on a daily basis. It certainly isn't in the category of giving up my life which is the extent to which a Christian husband is expected to love his wife.

It seems exceptional marriages consist of couples who believe that there is a happily ever after. The difference is that they understand that its meaning is wholly contrary to that which is peddled in our culture. So men, read the parts directed at you. Make the real effort. Love your wife.

I didn're realize that National Review had an article about the Black Legend back in June. Here it is: The Real Inquisition - Investigating the popular myth.

Personal notes:

I am going to be staying in London for two weeks for work. My wife will make it for one of the weekends while I am there. I have asked the question on DCF about what places Catholics shouldn't miss. Here is the short list so far:

London Oratory Church

"This flamboyant Italianate church is a monument to the English Catholic revival of the late-19th century. The Brompton Oratory was established by John Henry Newman, who was later to become Cardinal Newman." - (source)

As a Cardinal Newman fan myself, I figure this needs to be on the short list of places I visit.

Tyburn Covent

Home of the Tyburn Tree which is where many criminals were executed in England over the centuries. From the website: "More than 350 Catholic Martyrs [who] witnessed to their faith by dying for it" here.

On my own I figured out that I would be close to Westminster Cathedral which offers a daily mass that I should be able to attend. I noticed also that there will be a concert on one of the nights that I am there so I am pretty sure I will be spending a great deal of time in church there.

If anyone who reads this has been to London and has any further suggestions, let me know.

Comments are available just below ;)

On a personal note -- tonight I bowled my first sanctioned 700 series. As noted in the title it was a 726.

The bad news -- It was week one ... I set a 242 average. I have never averaged 200 before over a whole league for any period even in a short summer league. In fact, I have only bowled five or so sanctioned 600 series in my life.

The nine strikes in a row straddling games 2 (3 in the 10th) and 3 (6 in a row) are also a record for me in league. I had a string of 6 in a row in all three games.

Anyway ... I am thrilled. WOO HOO!!!

Right to Life Act

This is an interesting angle at sinking Roe v Wade. Sadly, many in the pro-life camp will immediately note that using the birth control pill would become illegal. That is why I place the likelihood of passage of this bill next to nil. With God, however, all things are possible.

State of US Catholic Church at beginning of 2006 - There is good news and there is not so good news. I pulled some choice quotes and I encourage you to read the rest.

For example, Catholics in the US make up six percent of the global Catholic population, but 12 percent of the bishops in the Church and 14 percent of the priests. The US alone has more priests than the top three Catholic countries combined (41,000 in the US to 37,000 in Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines combined). This makes talk of a "priest shortage" in the US almost laughable, at least in comparison with many countries struggling to care for much larger Catholic populations.
...
The only religious congregations showing signs of life and attracting many vocations are strongly faithful and evangelizing men's congregations like the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and the Legionaries of Christ. Similarly, among women, congregations that wear full habit and have a strong prayer and community life are drawing many vocations — the Nashville Dominicans and Mother Angelica's Poor Clares being outstanding examples. The traditional Carmels also continue to attract a steady stream of young vocations.Full Circle: not to mention the fact that the dioceses that are producing the most vocations are the most orthodox ones
...
Over the last 30 years or so, a dozen or more new Catholic colleges have been founded, partly in reaction to the increasing secularization of the nominal Catholic institutions. Most of them are flourishing, though many are not large institutions. Franciscan University of Steubenville, the University of Dallas, and the newly founded Ave Maria University stand out among the larger faithful institutions, while Thomas Aquinas College and Christendom College stand out among the smaller schools. All have a required core curriculum for the liberal arts, including theology and philosophy.
...
More distressing is the American custom of reception of Holy Communion by virtually every layperson who attends Mass on Sunday. Given the dramatic decline in the reception of the Sacrament of Penance and the drop in belief in the Divine Presence in the Eucharist, there must be many objectively sacrilegious communions. Much catechetical work needs to be done.
...
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Catholics tend to contracept at the same rate as the rest of the world. Hence the number of children per Catholic family is not significantly different from that of non-Catholics.

On conversion and rejection, or lack thereof

I think part of this has to do with the public school system actively pushing relativism. My entire generation is overwhelmingly infested with it, myself 10 years ago included. For example, it was quite clear to me when I first started reading the New Testament on my own that there were quite a few things that didn't quite jive with the "ho hum all is OK" theology that I was being fed at the church I was attending at the time. In reality, the brand of Christianity I was being taught was "let people in on this Jesus gig" and let them be after that. Focus on Jesus (Whatever your idea of that may be) and all of those frightening warnings from Paul and all of those other "divisive" teachings were just that ... divisive. The fact is the differences are important.

After my conversion I noticed that my friends divided into three camps.

1. Those that were vocally opposed to my conversion on doctrinal grounds
2. Those that were silently opposed to my conversion on doctrinal grounds
3. Those that thought it was A OK that Christ was doing such a wonderful thing in my life which happened to be strikingly opposed to what Christ was doing in their life.

In all honestly I initially felt most grieved by those in camp 1 because they dared to make a stink about my conversion. After a long time of thinking about it though, the ones in camp 3 disturb me the most. Those in camp 1 generally get upset because you challenge their comfort zone by telling them that what they believe to be true might have severe flaws. We all went through that in our own conversions. That said, truth matters and they know it. It wouldn't have upset them otherwise.

John 14:6a Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life."

Vatican City

I am sure if I had looked at "famous places" I would have had an easier time. I am familiar with Italy now though :)

Mark Shea had these linked the other day ... they really are worth the time to watch. Everyone at our office is yelling WOOOAHHHHWWW!!! I am sure that will last a couple of weeks.
Terry's World
Draft Day
OSPN Office Athlete of the Year
Sensitivity Training
Terry takes a vacation

They are also saying "True dat" and DOUBLE TRUE courtesy of
The Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia

CVSTOS FIDEI: Europe May Force Priests To Marry Homosexuals

I can see this happening even in this country in the name of individual rights trumping freedom of religion. In fact, I have an inkling that arguing that religions preventing the free exercise of "personal" versions of said religions is a violation of freedom of religion might be part of the argument used to drive this.

I guess I have little faith in legal authorities in this country having any sympathy for the Church. Call me a pessimist. Catholic Charities is already being legally required to provide contraception to its employees. How much of a stretch is it to require that the Church dispense the sacraments to whomever wants to have them? After all that seems to be the argument the pro-Kerry receiving communion camp was running with when it came to pro-aborts receiving communion. Isn't it a right?

My pessimism aside this is an area where I think prayer is needed.

And I still get visitors, most of them by way of common spelling errors directing people my way AND from the pictures I have linked of the destruction of Holly Beach by Hurricane Rita. Some people have even decided to stay and read my blog. Thanks.

Whether you are delighted or appalled, WELCOME.

Back to my regularly scheduled "not enough time to post things to my blog"

I have a few things I would like to comment on ... hopefully soon ...

I hate to be brief and offer little more than links to other interesting things to read but work calls these days ... Enjoy anyway

NCEA president impressed by work of Catholic schools in New Orleans
Saying "I Don't Believe in Organized Religion" is Sort of Like Saying "I Don't Believe in Organized Biological Systems"
Did Jesus exist? Court to decide

My question on this is simple. Since the Catholic Church preserved a great deal of the documentation they have of history from time periods prior to Christ, does that mean we should jettison all of history? I mean, from what I have read the documentary evidence for some quite significant political figures is scanty compared even to Christ yet few people doubt their existence.

Of course Christ existing doesn't prove He was God ... Different matter.

The Myth of the Ancient Baptists
Complaints about fundamentalism mainly aesthetic?
WMD

In theory, the issue is uncomplicated: western societies as a group are becoming de-populated, and Muslim immigrants, who have been brought in to close the economic gap created by declining European numbers, have high birthrates.

Major Anglican Group Prepares for Full Communion With Rome



and also Yes, Aquinas, There Is a Santa Claus - a defense of Santa Claus done in the style of St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa. HT to The Curt Jester

I had to pick a Top 5 for stories of the year ... at least as far as I was concerned.

5. Post-tsunami cleanup
4. Everything Iraq
3. Terri Schiavo
2. Death of JPII, Naming of Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI
1. Katrina and Rita

On Katrina and Rita ... in terms of major news stories I don't think any have had the impact on my life personally that these two had. Things are still far from normal but as time progresses the New New Orleans will take shape.

I also decided to do a quick timeline of this past year for us on the home front

Jan 19 - decided to sell old home, contracted to buy new home
Mar 30 - moved out of our old home, move into apartment .. deal falls through on selling old home which subsequently causes the new home deal to fall through
Jul 6 - Signed a contract on a second new house - "We are buying a new house"
Jul 26th - closed on old home
Nov 30 - closed on new home [see link above]

I have decided that it does little good for me to look back and complain about the many ills those events caused us. From our narrow perspective the first deal looked ideal: New neighborhood, larger homes, friends in the neighborhood AND it was within walking distance of a Regnum Christi school. At the time it seemed as if the hand of God was walking us into the perfect situation for raising our kids. Didn't happen. The second deal looked far less ideal: Far away from homeschooling parents, no Catholic school in the vicinity ... smaller than the first new house we intended to buy, but certainly nicer. It was close to work and at least we knew that if life forced us to use the public schools they were ranked "second in the state" ... whatever that means. It is what happened. So God has us here, in Livingston parish. We are starting to see the advantages. We are getting a vague idea of what God may have had in store for us and 10 minutes drive time to work regardless of traffic snarls elsewhere in town is NICE. It is time to really set up our domestic church. That is our plan right now. Focus on Christ and pray that the rest of this mess keeps falling into place.

Four Arrested in Stolen Explosives Case

You see, when I looked at this headline I thought that we had discovered a race of tiny people and that we managed to open an explosives case to find four of these tiny people being arrested.

Maybe its just me ....

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL We have really enjoyed Advent this year. We tried to do the Jesse tree and the Advent wreath every night. We failed miserably. We fail miserably a lot. It just lets me know I have a LONG way to go.

I have decided that I am going to try and blog a tiny bit over the next week. My personal life has taken a tremendous amount of time in recent weeks so I have not been reading blogs all that much.

The short of what has been going on

First off, my job has demanded my full attention.
Second, we FINALLY managed to navigate our way through all of the legalese, paperwork and heinous treatment by insurers that accompanies buying new home and moving to a new town. We are now mostly settled and thus thrilled. Payment numero-uno is due on the first of the year. We are less thrilled about that. Moving, of course, was the big time factor. I could write a years worth of posts on what has happened to me in the past month regarding this house but I won't bore anyone with the details. We are just glad to be settled.

Today's audience

There is one thing I wanted to touch on for my own sake. I am currently skimming the Catholic Evidence Training Outlines. They are very interesting from an apologetics standpoint but to me the MOST interesting thing is the practical advice given for "todays audience" ... "Today" however means several decades ago. Still, much of it applies to audiences of today.

Now, it seems logical for a convert or revert from Protestantism to assume everyone is in the position he was in before his own conversion. Thus, for me, the thought of standing up and giving a the best argument against sola scriptura that has ever existed seems to hit at the core of what everyone believes. It would rock the masses to the core and mass conversions of the average Joe, like me, would make headlines.

However, in my reading I came across the idea that a message has to be carefully delivered, keeping very much in mind the audience. Quite simply, the audience is NOTHING like me. With sola scriptura, for example, you need to take great care to not let people get the idea that Catholics do not revere Sacred Scripture. A lot of ignorance about Catholics and Scripture almost certainly stems from poor apologetics efforts on the topic of sola scriptura. There is a lot of foundation that needs to be set otherwise your words sound like

blah blah blah Catholics don't believe the Bible blah blah blah

A Protestant with a lot of background in dealing with Catholics might have a decent idea of where Catholics are coming from and UNDERSTAND that the second "blah blah blah" up there would be "is the sole rule of faith". The qualifications MUST be explained and the context has to be thoroughly understood. What those are depends on the level of understanding about a myriad of other topics.

I have noticed the same in reading discussions on the dogma "There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church". The immediate defensiveness of non-Catholics requires the touch of a truly patient person. -- BTW Happy Catholic has a good entry on this today -- and my thoughts on EENS

I guess all I am getting at is the simple fact that most of us want to rush in with our swords drawn killing everything in sight ... souls be damned. Bible zinger here. Early Church Fathers there. Ooohhh Wahhh -- A logical victory!!!

We need to start in a manner completely opposite of that mindset. Prayer -- Prayer puts us in the mode of listening. It requires patience and humility. Those are the qualities, I have noticed, of a good apologist. They trust their opponents to God first. We have to go there first because after all, our rampant slaying of arguments isn't what saves. God's grace is. Our frustration with people not "getting" what seems plain to us offers nothing of worth to us. It is only the seed of hatred.

I have had a problem with this type of frustration. I stay up at night irritated at people who seem to hate the Church. I think Fulton Sheen was correct in his estimation that there a maybe 100 people who hate the Catholic Church. The key in calming my anger is entrusting people to God's mercy and trying to understand that the thought processes of others are very difficult for us to comprehend .... dare I say .... impossible.

I have tried to get to my blog and post something. It will happen sooner or later. Until then enjoy these

Teach philosophy in schools This would be an EXCELLENT thing.
All that ID stuff = "The Church of Materialism must be separated from the State if we are to remain consistent in our law." Speaking of ....
Rationalism and Materialism
Re-Enchanting the Mass - How beauty affects belief by Pontifications.
The Perfect Child Myth
Conspiracy theories - Hey Secret Agent Man ... an RSS feed would be nice :)
Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist - Oh this is a huge shocker to most of us. Seriously ... the results are interesting.
Mary = Homegirl? Ave Maria University students wear religious beliefs on their T-shirts Young and Catholic ... I'm married with 3 kids. Can I still be part of this? You bet so!
You've Got Big Ratings, Charlie Brown

I am not really back ... that will happen when I have Internet service at home.

Still I wanted to post this link so that I would never lose it. I have Ott's "Fundamentals of Dogma" which this references ... It is an excellent book which covers the declarations of dogma in the Church and spells out what is absolutely required for belief. This page has an excellent summary.

Dogmas of the Catholic Church. (Fundamentals)

Closing on our new home is coming up and that means MOVING and a ton of housework. Hopefully closing will happen on Wednesday. If so, we will at least have a small bit of stuff in for Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I likely will not post for much of that time since I won't have the Internet connection that I have here.

Please pray for me and my family. Thanks and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Contemplating the Laundry Interesting blog that keeps coming up in my daily reading.

Blogworthies -- sorry not much commentary today ... I wrote an essay on the loss of art in the Church last night in case you missed it. :)

Catholicity and the Ne Plus Ultra in Anglicanism from The Sacred Weblog of the Universal Inquisition
Gay priests struggle with church that considers them 'disordered'
Tortured Interpretation of Scripture - Dealing with the parable of the talents (gospel reading from this past weekend).
Could the Church Catholic Ever Sanction Homosexual "Relationships" as a Legitimate Development of Moral Theology?
Fr. Bryce Sibley is now podcasting
Why the Second Vatican Council Was a Good Thing & Is More Important Than Ever
Republican betrayal of pro-lifers? Is there any question?
Points to Ponder: (On "Ignorance" and "Education")

When Anglicans, Catholics switch churches, what happens to dialogue?

"Anglicans who become Roman Catholic generally become very conservative Roman Catholics, while Roman Catholics who become Anglican tend to become very liberal Anglicans,"

like I said here:

You know, I hate that anyone would leave the Catholic Church but it is becoming more and more clear the dynamics of what is happening. You have devout mainlines and evangelicals finding their way into the Catholic Church. You have liberal Catholics finding their way into the mainline Protestant denominations. I see it as the Holy Spirit at work.

Now bring on that permanent Anglican (Use) Rite.

another work in progress ... comments would be appreciated

A few years ago my wife and I attended a local parish that was collecting for its building fund. Donations from us and the rest of the parishioners were lacking. The project was slated to cost quite the hefty sum and was to be traditional in design – a vast improvement over the current church building which essentially looked like a converted cafeteria. The church had great difficulty raising even a third of their goal and decided to settle for a modest unattractive homage to the current cafeteria looking church. Instead of a step in the right direction, we end up with another generation of flying saucer churches with forms devoid of much meaning and art that struggles to direct worshipers to Christ. What went wrong?

Part of the problem is a general American mentality. I call it the Wal-Mart/Fast Food mentality. For example, Wal-Mart sells cheap furniture that is mediocre looking, highly functional and made of the latest in Franken-wood-plastic materials … and cardboard. There is always cardboard. All around you feel like you are getting a good deal – unless you are the guy that gets to spend all day reading 20 pages of multi-lingual instructions and getting an education in the latest twisting-locking patents. You have to have furniture and you could better drop the remaining cash in three easy installments on some other utilitarian cost and time saving device. In fact, the furniture is so cheap that in five years you can buy another one just like it. We might as well call it disposable furniture. On the other hand, buying a hand crafted, solid wood heirloom would require two things:

Money and Patience

Church buildings are the same way. Many churches are opting for the disposable church for a variety of factors. Most of it has to do with people needing or wanting the church in next to no time because they waited until scores of folks were standing in the streets trying to figure out when to kneel and stand instead of anticipating growth. Finally, it’s just easy for groups of American bean-counters to apply their Wal-Mart furniture mentalities to the “problem” of needing a larger worship space. After all, they can leave the next generation with the same problem in 20 years.

You see, cheap and functional are amongst the highest prizes in our nation because if you can keep costs down, you can maximize shareholder wealth. You can also save time, which means you can squeeze a few more moments out of those 40-80 hours that your employer owns you during the week. Everyone profits when you go with cheap and functional …but is that the way Catholics are supposed to build their churches?

Lets look at history …

The finest examples of cathedral architecture took, at a minimum, decades to build and required the labors of entire towns to complete. People literally gave their lives to make these masterpieces of architectural history. Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris took hundreds of years to complete. The same also holds true in the United States with many fine examples, in the northeast especially, of churches that took generations to build. As Catholics, we have to develop a sense of the long term and root out the plague of money centered mentality that we have come to value. Ultimately this patience and willingness to seek out the best will be required to build and pass on memorable churches for our children.

Devaluing art itself

We also have a problem of devaluing art in this country. It makes me shiver to think how many seemingly sensible fathers squashed the dreams of the next Michelangelo by telling him that “you will never be able to support a family as an artist”. Sadly, the sensible dad is right. The way we operate as a nation is hostile to artistic talent unless you want to craft witty logos and slick advertisements for a living. We have created a huge void where our European neighbors have managed to hold over their support of art in the form of tremendous state subsidies … Neither of these is an ideal way to support art. Still, the true subsidy of art in the case of American Catholics should come from the pews. The market is developed by creating and working on spectacular churches for future generations and taking the time to raise the funds and do the work to make it something future generations will marvel at. Art history and its development is supported by solid foundation of religious art. Any student of art can tell you a joke about the number of Madonna and Child paintings they had to thumb through in their art texts. Art is our Catholic heritage and our Catholic faith is the heritage of art.

Another problem affecting art is what it, as a culture, has become. Artists have developed a twisted culture of self-affirmation regardless of whether talent is present or never will be. The question is does this stuff really sell? Based on what the average new home looks like, I would say no. Many newer homes reflect a tapestry of new ideas and traditional arches, adorned lamps and exquisite gardens reminiscent of many eras past. We want beautiful homes rooted in tradition but pushing the envelope with the new methods of today. Why would we want any less for God? Finally, shouldn’t WE CATHOLICS, the ones who understand and love our faith be the ones designing and building our churches? Its bad enough that most churches simply find “a firm” and hire out the job to the lowest bidder. It is a tragedy. Hiring the best secular architecture firms to design and build churches is quite simply, wrong. Catholics should build Catholic churches.

When Mother Angelica built her church in Alabama she was fortunate to be bankrolled by some generous benefactors. It takes money … I am not immune to that reality. It is, however, truly an American tragedy that she had to import artistic talent from Europe in order to complete the project.

What we can do

We have to develop a vibrant, and profitable Catholic art culture. I have but a few suggestions to try and address the problem in a positive way:

- If you have artistic talent, give it to God. Create religious art.
- Support art styles you LIKE, even if it is secular in theme.
- Seek out Catholic writers, artists and musicians and GIVE to their cause. If you find a good choir at another church, give to them.
- Make a point to support building projects in your diocese that understand the purpose of a church. Make it known why you support this over Bobs Metal church buildings. Be active in the process.

Having babies is a smart thing to do!

I will try to verify this later. Regardless, I am sure my wife is thrilled to know that she is getting smarter. I have always thought it to be true.

Massive pro-family rally in Madrid to protest new education law Unfortunately, it appears, the socialist government in Spain is making big strides in rapidly advancing the culture of death. This article simply demonstrates that it appears more and more like it will not happen without a fight. Praise God for pro-family groups.

Sitting on the fence is painful, but necessary. This is an excellent read about being a middle of the road Catholic. Not too traditional. Not too "spirit of Vatican II". One finds that over the course of Catholic history a pendulum swings from indifferentist heresies to over-emphasis of a doctrine that was particularly ignored during the previous time period. It is always important to not overemphasize or deemphasize particular teachings of the Church. Excellent read. I highly recommend.

"Are Catholics Allowed To Read The Bible": An Article by Francis J. Ripley

Pre-reformation literature is saturated with Bible quotations. Much that is left to us consists either of books of the Bible or breviaries which are almost wholly made up of Scripture. The sermon literature of the Middle Ages was a mosaic of Scripture texts. Preachers used the Bible much more than is customary today in any pulpit. Half an hour’s perusal of the sermons of a Bernard or a Bonaventure shows us that the preachers almost thought in Scripture texts. For those who could not read, the Church moreover, provided a knowledge of the Bible by means of mystery plays, illustrated editions of parts or the whole of it the paintings, sculptures, and stained glass windows of her churches: the statuary of one great cathedral is known as the Bible of Amiens. Of the Bible in pictures, the Synod of Arras (1025) said: "The illiterate contemplated in the lineaments of painting what they, having never learnt to read could not discern in writing."
To the man of the Middle Ages the Bible was a living reality.

A perfect example of this would be looking at the wealth of Bible one would get from looking just at the windows in Chartres Cathedral. I took one of the pages of the diocesan web page dedicated to the cathedral to literally illustrate the point. I have linked to The Passion and the Resurrection window. Using the links on the page you can review the images. The point is that on just on ONE of the hundreds of windows you have 14 Bible stories.

Meanwhile, I have picked up another stained glass image from Chartres that I may add to the right. Here it is:


Weeding Out the "Unfit" Unborn - New Threats From an Old Ideology from Katolik Shinja Pro-lifers don’t like to rail on Margaret Sanger because she was supposedly a proto-feminist. They rail on her because she wanted to use birth-control, euthanasia and the like to breed out the undesirables.

Cardinal Arinze on the synod and the Mass

(further clarification of politicians holding to pro-choice stances and receiving communion) Suppose somebody voted for the killing of all the members of the House of Representatives, "for all of you being killed. I call that pro-choice. Moreover, I am going to receive Holy Communion next Sunday." Then you ask me, should he be given communion. My reply, "Do you really need a cardinal from the Vatican to answer that question?" Can a child having made his First Communion not answer that question? Is it really so complicated? The child will give the correct answer immediately, unless he is conditioned by political correctness. It is a pity, cardinals have to be asked such questions.

Need I tell anyone here that Cardinal Arinze is totally awesome?

and now for something completely different … some weather

Caught On Tape: Tornado In Woodward ... OK. This is an incredible video, but I have to ask. What possesses someone to RUN OUTSIDE when a tornado is in such close proximity to ones home?

OK, I found my favorite way to do a blogroll, mainly because I could load my OPML file in and sort out my favorites.

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?id=weunice&folder=1_Favorites"></script>

Now all I have to do is maintain my blogs on Bloglines. Here is my current blogroll .. (it even adapts to the CSS properly) ...

Warning Issued for Birth-Control Patch Let me see. I thought these side effects have been known for years? I also thought these side effects were also known with most variants of the pill as well?

"I wish I had known," she said. "It's quite likely I would never have used it."

Then you should do some research on the pill while you are at it -- especially if you are pro-life.

Science, Faith, and the Catholic Way of Reading the Bible

This is actually one of the most appealing things about the Catholic faith, however, as a Protestant I held to similar thoughts on the matter. I didn't see the contradiction that people see between faith and reason. I still don't. It was never something I had to get over. I know quite a few Protestants who feel the same way.

The Cantus Project via The New Liturgical Movement: The Cantus Project - WOW!!! A gorgeous blog about a supurb topic. I plan to read this far more frequently than I have.

A couple of items from the Catholic League:
Catholics NOT Turning to Anglican Church
Wal-Mart Bans Christmas, Boycott Launched

I am not sold on this reason for a boycott of Wal-Mart (in fact, within minutes of my posting this Wal-Mart responds appeared on Southern Appeal). I don't shop at Wal-Mart for a host of other reasons. There are far better reasons why a Christian should avoid Wal-Mart. Working conditions for employees ... pay etc. Even the environmentalist in me has issues ... For example, their treatment of tropical fish is attrocious. They use, at least locally, third-rate breeders and they hardly clean the tanks and they put fish who are hostile to each other in the same tanks resulting in injury. Its called common sense and it is the main reason I will always buy fish from people I KNOW care about the well being of them.

Traditional Anglican Communion - Traditional Anglican reunion with Rome? I think I post a link to this every other day. I am so pumped about this possibility.

Hamlet for First Grade via Bettnet - Musings from Domenico Bettinelli, Jr.

See Hamlet draw his sword. See Hamlet stab.

Stab, Hamlet, stab.

The Bad Catholic's Guide to Good Living - It seems to be good stuff. I kid you not. Click on the link ... read the quotes and get yourself a copy. I plan to.

Check out the cool LAUNCHCast thingie on the right ... Now you can know how totally off the wall my tastes are WITHOUT having to bother with being aurally offended by all of the bleeps and blips on my station. My wife says it sounds like crickets.

A Hard Pill to Swallow - Christianity Today Magazine via Amy Welborn - This speaks for itself. If you have Protestant friends who are friendly towards this Catholic teaching, send it to them. Sometimes Protestants will listen to other Protestants. It takes a while to get to the point of even hoping to give the Catholic Church a fair shake on anything ... at least it did with me.

I am also very glad to see that the birth control pill being an abortificient is sufficient enough grounds to get people seriously thinking about the issue of contraception. See the Contraception portion of my conversion story for details on how this issue affected my life.

classic_cartoons - We have had a hard time giving up TV. Gabe dressed up as Superman for Halloween ... I HAD to let him watch a couple of the old Superman toons.

Pope to Bishops: Don't Water Down Church Teachings and sadly, of course, we all know this happens too often. I got the distinct imporession watching the Journey Home the other night that people do not come into the Catholic Church expecting people to tell them that all is OK with where they are and that nothing is expected of them to take their relationship with Christ to the next level. It actually takes the wind out of your sails when every week you hear of large numbers of priests telling their congregations essentially to "be good", live and let live.

Study finds live-in boyfriend puts kids at risk - Not only that but 48 TIMES more at risk. Folks, this is a strong association and this is very much worth being concerned about. You are used to seeing weak associations, or what amounts to "hot air" about every topic from things that cause cancer to global warming as NATIONAL HEADLINES. Lets see if actual alarming statistics cause a rethinking of shacking up.