Yellow Blog Journalism

My Loves; Hand in Hand

Coinciding with my love of ancient liturgy, I also love old churches. In fact, a bit of "Tim Trivia", I used to want to buy an old abandoned church, renovate it and live there.

I was reading the coolblog yesterday when I saw this picture of an old abandoned church, which led me to a google image search. I wish that we still built churches like this. I've decided that our ugliest churches are little more than hate crimes, Immaculate Heart of Mary is our local criminal parish. It was built in a very "Modern"(for the times) style and has since been nick-named "Our Lady of Leftist Leanings". That was the site f my "Multi-cultural mass experience" conducted in three languages, leaving everyone confused.

Fortunately there are dozens of churches in the area built with an eye towards worshipful archetecture. I am not forsaken.

During my google search, Jenn and I both marveled at the abandoned Russian Orthodox Churches. They are unmistakable in a good way. They are physical buildings that act as embassies for the Kingdom of Heaven, here on earth. And as civilization retreats, they become emptied, again and again. The church used to cut across cultural lines, now Starbucks owns more property in Manhattan than the Catholic Church. I suspect that it is no different off the island as well.

Not to fear, as society decays in on itself yet again, the Church rediscovers it's monastic identity, becoming once more a time capsule of civilization.

This is why I love abandoned churches. Abandoned Churches, like ancient liturgy speaks from the past, even in this very moment. Though fallen into neglect, one day they will be filled again, even if it takes a Francis to fill them.

My Dessert Blog, Thomas Merton and Dealing Fairly With Those I Would Rather Write Off

Cakes and Pies continues today with a characteristically "Tim" scene. A mess. Be sure to check out my brilliant observation that I do indeed have a face, whereas Twinkies do not.

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I don't have my own quote journal, but I take my inspiration from those who do, and lay the blame squarely at their feet. I took the last week to read back through Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and found a quote that sums up my feelings on beginning to discover for myself the Liturgy of the Hours.

Yes, and from the secret places of His essence, God began to fill my soul with grace in those days, grace that sprung from deep within me, I could not know how or where.But yet I would be able, after not so many months, to realize what was there, in the peace and the strength that were growing in me through my constant immersion in this tremendous, unending cycle of prayer, ever renewing it's vitality, it's inexhaustible sweet energies, from hour to hour, season to season in its returning round.

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I'm at a cross roads with myself at the moment. I've been talking with a former employer lately who is in a bit of a crunch, one that I can help him out of. In the past, I left embittered and insulted by dealing with this person, and had been holding onto a resentment that I've struggled to let go of. The advice I was given in dealing with the resentment was to pray for this person in the same way that I would pray for myself. Give them the benefit of the doubt and pray for their success, and not curse them to their ruin.

I've taken that advice, and it has worked for a great deal of the resentment that I need to let go of. Now I'm faced with doing them a favor. I'm tempted to turn them down flat. It's an ego thing. I don't like being screwed over, but I would do this for a stranger if asked. How can I pray for someone's success and happiness and then contribute against it, even if by omission.

The answer that I am considering is to do the favor, through which we both benefit, and call the account settled. The relationship can be considered amended from it's former broken state, and I'll have had a chance to put my ego aside for a moment and actually put my "high ideals" to practice despite a still lingering desire to flatten this guy's tires.

I'm going to need some help on this one. I really need to start praying more.

I Climbed Reason To The Holy Plateau

Religion, so say some Atheists, is the plight of the desperate and irrational and atheism is that of the reasonable and mentally healthy. All the profound religious convictions of the past and present, the great Saints and conversions are all, so they say, explained away by nothing more than a common quirk of psychology, chronic ignorance or group think.

I plead guilty on all three counts, we Religious often have quirky psychology, are not at all immune to ignorance and group think. However even discounting the hypocrisy of the accusation there is one inherent aspect to religion that redeems us from all these human failings, a strong and sane imagination, something atheism lacks.

The Scientific Method is the Penny Catechism of Atheism. Collect data and judge theories according to it, discarding or modifying those which disagree, a perfectly sound principle formed and propagated by those religious or no. The point of derivation is that due to a pathological lack of imagination Atheists limit the data to purely material things that you can swish around in a test tube while the Religious see a much grander vision of it which all truly reasonable people should acknowledge.

For instance to the Religious the conscience of man is meaningful data, whereas to Atheists it's an arbitrary adaptation evolved over millions of years for some selected benefit. Yet more data is the fact that everyone acts like there is morality, even those who do think that it's merely an arbitrary instruction from a mindless material process. No matter what rhetoric we fill our minds with, what we teach or what we do we can't quite shake the pull of our conscience and even it's authority over others (try and find an Atheist who thinks child rape is permissible for anyone).

Why do Atheists acknowledge the authority of their conscience if it's no more authoritative than the patterns formed from the erosion of rock, which could easily be something different? Morality in this instance would be an illusion, so why do they participate in it? The answer is that we act according to our true beliefs, therefore those who acknowledge their conscience believe in a universal moral law, ergo we all stand in testament to something which Atheism contradicts.

Atheism certainly doesn't fit all this data, I wonder what we should do with the theory then?

My Monastic Exercise

Did you know that they deep fry Twinkies now? I'm betting that they don't have that at the Grand Chartreuse Monastery.

Speaking of Into Great Silence, I've watched it a few times on the Netflix Instant View and completely forgot to take it off the family queue. It's arrival was perfectly timed this week as I have spent most of the last month focusing on what prayer, how to go about it and how to recover from what my prayer life has become. As David puts it, I'm in the process of a spiritual CPR.

Beyond just feeling the interior desire for more silence in my life (maybe this is a parent thing?) I also envy the way that they live. Simplicity. In every part of their life they have simplicity.

Jenn and I were talking about the day to day reality of the monastic life, how different it is from our own. I love marriage and I'm starting to stumble into more of an understanding of what a vocation is, now that I have cannon-balled into one with all of the glee of an eight-year-old aiming to soak his parents. As much as I love what they do, I would have made a miserably bad monk... The monks probably feel the same way about marriage and the family.

I talked about an idea for a project that I have been toying around with for quite a while, copying the whole of scripture into notebooks by hand. I decided that if I was going to talk about it, I had better start doing it. After hitting up the Borders on Ponce, I've got the first five notebooks that I am going to try to fill. I'm sure it'll take at least twice that. But for now, I've started. Deus Providebit.

My Friend's Suggestion

I've been discussing the Pelosi scandal for the last day or so with David, a good friend, and at his suggestion I've decided to send a thank you note via email to His Excellency, Abp. Chaput. Apparently he checks his own email. Feel free to let him know of your support. It takes courage to stand up against evil, even more so when you are doing it alone.

My Pelosi Frustration

Nancy Pelosi has an annoying habit of trying to claim moral high ground in political debates by applying not only "special" interpretations of her faith, but also scripture. Up to this point she has avoided much in the way of an authoritative scrutiny, but it looks like those days have come to an end. The Bishops have decided to cock their mitre, roll up their sleeves and bish. Even the Red Hats have gotten involved.

Also encouraging is the response from fellow legislators (Download pelosi_letter.pdf) , including Phil Gingrey, the hometown congressman, pointing out that Catholics don't believe what she says we believe.

Someone asked me once about why I am no longer protestant. The best answer that I had was that I do not believe what protestants believe. It would make no sense for me to continue worshipping as one. Ms. Pelosi might want to consider if she believes what is required to be Catholic. If not, she can either change her opinions to match the faith, or she can change her faith to match her opinions.

*UPDATE: Ms. Pelosi also took time on Sunday to announce that Natural Gas isn't a Fossil Fuel... So many areas of expertise. Small wonder she is the most powerful woman in DC.

My Moleskein Bible

This is one of my kookier ideas that I toy around with; getting a box of Moleskein notebooks and taking a year or two to transcribe the whole of scripture into notebook form. Start with Genesis, move through the OT including the Deuterocanonicals (aka the "apocrypha" to some) then the NT to the Revelation of John.

I haven't decided about things like whether to retain the chapters and verses or to simply transcribe the text itself. As far as editions go, I would use an NAB or Douay Rheims. I also think that just for the fun of it to, I would use a red colored pencil to underline the words of Christ.

It would be an interesting project. One that once started I may never finish... one more for the pile.

My Mother's Assumption

Being the Solemnity of the Assumption, I was reading a homily in the office of readings from Isaac of Stella and I was reminded again of the fall of man when he said:

"...at once virginal and fruitful"

With a strong background in reformed theology, owing to being raised in Mennonite and Plymouth Brethren communities by parents who did their jobs well in instilling the faith at an early age, I often have to re-focus my point of view. It's easy to have the myopic focus on simply the justification of a soul in Christ. It's easy to ignore the process of sanctification. It's even easier to forget that at one time, before there was defect, sanctification was the actual state of man and nature. Sanctification is the natural state of man and nature even today, but nature has been usurped by sin and man does not live as God intended. Man is not what he was created to be.

One of my favorite points of Marian Theology is the recognition that there is disorder that has been introduced into the natural state, that there is a "knot" to be untied. Redemption covers nothing with snow. Redemption, instead, uncovers and returns the soul, the man, to his original state; holy, untouched and fruitful. Man in his virginal state.

God uses Mary in a very interesting way. His will for her is to be untouched; by sin and by man. He also causes her to be fruitful--and the coup de grace--Mary submits to God, stark contrast to Eve. New Adam, new Eve, new covenant. Each a fulfillment of the former shadow. Virginal and fruitful, she walked with God, Jesus, the New Adam, actually untying the knot of sin and allowing man a way to return to that state of sanctification.

My Quasi-Retreat

I'm heading out to the beach with JP3, a good friend who is your friendly local Youth Minister and 14 teens to have a quiet leadership beach retreat. I cant wait to go, but at the same time, I can't wait to get back to my lovely wife. I need a retreat, badly. This one will hopefully do me some good as well as the teens and also act as another band-aide until I can get on a good silent retreat.

I may have a computer at my disposal, or it might just be a few posts that I put up retro-actively, copied from my trusty Moleskine. In any event, pray for me and be sure to check out two of my favorite reads:

What Does the Prayer Really Say?

Happy Catholic

My Afternoon Read

David, a good friend, sent this article to me earlier today. It marks the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae's promulgation by Paul VI. Besides being an amazing historical witness of the greatest hemorrhage of the church since the Reformation, Cardinal Stafford stands as a witness that the love and redemption of Christ is intentional, selfless, sacrificial and fruitful and our response to it, if we are serious about following Him, should be the same.

Humanae Vitae

The Year of the  Peirasmòs - 1968

By Cardinal James Francis Stafford

“Lead us not into temptation” is the sixth petition of the Our Father.  Πειρασμός (Peirasmòs), the Greek word used in this passage for ‘temptation.’, means a trial or test.  Disciples petition God to be protected against the supreme test of ungodly powers. The trial is related to Jesus’s cup in Gethsemane, the same cup which his disciples would also taste (Mk 10: 35-45). The dark side of the interior of the cup is an abyss. It reveals the awful consequences of God’s judgment upon sinful humanity.  In August, 1968, the weight of the evangelical Πειρασμός fell on many priests, including myself.

It was the year of the bad war, of complex innocence that sanctified the shedding of blood.  English historian Paul Johnson dubs 1968 as the year of “America’s Suicide Attempt.”  It included the Tet offensive in Vietnam with its tsunami-like effects in American life and politics, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee; the tumult in American cities on Palm Sunday weekend; and the June assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in southern California. It was also the year in which Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical letter on transmitting human life, Humanae Vitae (HV). He met immediate, premeditated, and unprecedented opposition from some American theologians and pastors. By any measure 1968 was a bitter cup.