Important SCCB News Items

Erin Manning/Red Cardigan has a couple of news items everyone should be aware of. First of all, her lawnmower died. So if you have an extra one, please ship it to her primary residence immediately.

Secondly—and she begins this one with the word "CAUTION", so pay attention—she is going on sort of a summer blogging partial semi-hiatus vacation kind of thingy. So I'm designating myself to pick up the slack for And Sometimes Tea here at Est Quod Est. If you've been reading her blog and you need an extra dose of blogginess, kick in on over here where we're just getting started with Summer Party 2013, 24/7.



So "clench up" everybody!

Refresher course.

What a Wonderful World

That's what WWW stands for. What a Wonderful World.



This tune came out in October 1967. I was four months old, man.

For no reason that I'm aware of...

Space Mosquito by Los Straightjackets.



They possess a sort of crazy genius, IMHO.

"Pray to your Father in secret."

I found today's Gospel commentary from Daily Gospel edifying.

Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy « Sacrosanctum Concilium », § 10-12
"Pray to your Father in secret"
The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows... From the liturgy, therefore, and especially from the Eucharist, as from a font, grace is poured forth upon us; and the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of God, to which all other activities of the Church are directed as toward their end, is achieved in the most efficacious possible way.

But in order that the liturgy may be able to produce its full effects, it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions, that their minds should be attuned to their voices, and that they should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it in vain (cf 2 Cor 6,1). Pastors of souls must therefore realize that, when the liturgy is celebrated, something more is required than the mere observation of the laws governing valid and licit celebration; it is their duty also to ensure that the faithful take part fully aware of what they are doing, actively engaged in the rite, and enriched by its effects.

The spiritual life, however, is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy. The Christian is indeed called to pray with his brethren, but he must also “enter into his chamber to pray to the Father, in secret” and yet more, according to the teaching of the Apostle Paul, he should “pray without ceasing” (1 Thes 5,17) . We learn from the same Apostle that we must “always bear about in our body the dying of Jesus, so that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodily frame” (2 Cor 4,10-11). This is why we ask the Lord in the sacrifice of the Mass that, "receiving the offering of the spiritual victim," he may fashion us for himself "as an eternal gift" (cf Eucharistic Prayer III).

View from my Desk Chair

Working lunch today, people. And now I'm blogging during my digestion time. Isn't that efficient of me?

The sandwich is sliced ham and orangish-yellow cheese and green lettuce on some kind of wheat bread. The tiniest bit of mayonnaise topped it off. (Warning: you might vomit if you read that link with a full stomach.)

The yogurt is Oikos brand Greek Yogurt with some type of fruit flavor. The color was orange so I think the flavor was as well.

Topped off with a Lake Erie Highball on the rocks.

So... what are all y'all eating? Keith, I'm hoping nothing strange has flown into your mouth recently, no antelope heart tartare or perhaps Iron Man's kneecap?

Eternal Vigilance

After reading this horrible, but unfortunately accurate, description of one of the books on the required summer reading list for Saint Ignatius High School, I sent the following email to both the President (Father William Murphy) and the Principal (Daniel Bradesca). The private Catholic grade school which my children attend currently has a 100% acceptance rate for its Eighth Grade boys who apply to Ignatius.

Dear Father Murphy,

I have always considered that St. Ignatius High School would be a great place to send some or all of my sons – I have six of them – assuming any or all could get accepted there. That was before I read this article in Catholic World Report, which literally sent chills up my spine. I question the judgment of a Catholic educator who would assign a book like this over the summer, a time during which a young person may not have a chance to discuss the moral implications of the many problematic passages with a responsible adult.

I also question the choice of the book altogether, seeing that there are many books to choose from which do not contain such infantile blasphemy, praise for the act of self-abuse and tolerance for the deviancy of homosexuality. This assignment of Alexie’s book is an example of why many people whom I know and trust conclude that certain faculty members at St. Ignatius are actually intentionally leading young people toward a modernistic view of religion and morality.

I realize that many of the classics contain adultery, fornication, prostitution, sacrilege, murder, bad language, prejudice, etc. – I’m neither a prude nor a naïf. Most of these same books show the consequences of such sins. When you read critically the quote page for Alexie’s book, you realize that this man has a relativist and cavalier attitude toward morality which epitomizes the hellish maxim, “If it feels good, do it.” I realize that the book won an award, but that is meaningless to anyone who believes in the possibility of gaining the world and losing one’s soul.

Please consider dropping this book from your list and replacing it with something more worthy for a young Christian man to read. Also please consider having someone trustworthy verify the choices made by the person or committee which assigns books like The Privileges and The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. The Pope—who is also a Jesuit—recently attacked a tendency he said was rampant in our world which he called “adolescent progressivism”. These books seem to be illustrative of this tendency and assigning them to high-school kids over the summer can certainly endanger their souls. And those assigning them should not be teaching in a Catholic school.

I remember talking to a respected Catholic theologian who said to me "There is only one institution which is guaranteed by Christ to stand, and that's the Papacy—and it will barely stand." Then he quoted Luke 22:32, "... when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." Saint Ignatius High School is an institution which appears to have a lot of good things going for it, but it needs to be pruned to be healthy. If you check out the English faculty page, you can pick out the professor who teaches the obligatory "multicultural" course. My sources say that he is one of the culprits behind material like The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie being assigned at St. Ignatius.

I advise anyone with concern for St. Ignatius to write an email to the President and the Principal of the school. See, I'm making it easy for you by linking their emails. And, of course, pray that the malevolent forces would be pruned out of our institutions. To protect what is good, beautiful and true in the world requires eternal vigilance.

Photos from the Filming of Captain America 2

I am so awesome that Marvel decided to shoot scenes from the upcoming Captain America 2: Winter Soldier movie just a block from my house. The Lorain Road Bridge--better known as the "Green Awesome Bridge" in my family--is the scene of some heavy stuff. But I couldn't stand around all day, and the place was filling up with whiners, for lack of a better word. I did get some shots of a dude on a motorcycle dressed like Captain America, but I assume it was a stunt double and not Chris Evans. Still, sort of cool shots. I had to be about 200 feet or more back and I used a 300mm zoom for these.

UPDATE: More awesomeness!

Chris Evans did show up later around 7:00pm, and my kids having camped out for almost 2 hours got some autographs. Here he is signing my son Gideon's hand.

Chris Evans seems like a really nice guy. He had come over to sign a bunch of autographs earlier, so I cynically thought "He's done, he's not coming back." But he did, and he signed tons of stuff. The kids were in their glory, even as I was getting a bit bored. Here's an autograph on the back of our copy of The Avengers Blu-ray.

Chris was also signing the back of these Captain America shield pins with a standard Sharpie marker. Kind of an amazing feat I thought, but I guess stars have a lot of practice. Just about everybody had one, even Justin, our 1-year-old.

I liked this, too, it's basically a model of a fighter jet that they were holding against the giant green-screen. Seemed cheesy, but I suppose they'll just edit out the dude's hand.

The good folks from the Emerald Necklace Inn were serving making sure no one dehydrated by setting up a tent and serving water, lemonade, and soft-drinks and were being very generous with parking spaces.

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Why don't they ask the Imams to declare Islam a "religion of peace"?

Jihadwatch has the scoop. Let me paraphrase it for you. Here's what Al-Azhar—the foremost, most prestigious and influential Islamic institution among Sunni Muslims—is saying: "Hey, Pope Francis, we like you so far. Please declare Islam a religion of peace and we won't get violent. But please don't ask us to meet and talk with Jews and Israelis; we hate them."



Here's a better idea. Why don't that request that all the Muslim Imams—both Sunni and Shia—declare that Islam is a religion of peace and decry all religious violence? The Pope is just a kafir anyway, an idolater who believes in the Trinity.