AETERNA LUX TIBI
Thinking of death in connection with Robin Luse makes it all the more clear that men and women were not meant to die. She will be missed by many. We pray for her and fully expect that she will pray for us.
We commemorate all the faithful dead who have died in the true faith... We ask, we entreat, we pray Christ our God, who took their souls and spirits to Himself, that by His many compassions He will make them worthy of the pardon of their faults and the remission of their sins.
Syr. Lit. S. Jacobi, ed. Hammond, p. 75
Please pray also for her fiance, family, and many close friends.
Original Sin
So I ran across this person who says she doesn't believe in original sin.
Fine.
But what I want to know is, what does she call it? What does she call that yearning toward hate, that reverse heliotropism? What does she call the damage that all of us bear from the time of our earliest memories? Is it that she genuinely believes in Good People vs. Bad People? There must be some explanation for the fact that so many of us would rather have five million things other than goodness--even when we know goodness will make us happy. There's a--maybe it's Garfield?--a cartoon about how absurd we find "the things people would rather have than money"--but when I look back upon my life, from age three to ten a.m. this morning, it's hard not to think how absurd and pathetic are the things I'd rather have than wholeness.
Something has gone wrong. Calling it original sin, with the narrative that implies, is by far the most hopeful description I've ever run across.
Nearly all of the people I've met who don't believe in original sin seem to me awfully naive. Eve is right, of course. Can one know one self so little as to miss it? Indeed--I once did, but I've forgotten how.
Hero of the Week
Mexican woman performs own Caesarean to save baby.
Guidelines Posted
As I try to get more done in my own life but still help out others, I am having to draw boundaries. If you want my help with a web project, please see How to Make it Easy for Me to Help You.
A Koan
The rabbit said, "We all have skeletons in our closet. Who is any of us to judge what another may do?"
But the mouse said, "Who are you to judge whether or not others may judge?"
The Book I'm Not Reading
I finished the last Chesterton book on my Palm. Of course there are some more out there, but not many more unread. Regardless, I needed reading material and I was not at my laptop, so I opened my file of The Imitation of Christ, a text I admit I had been avoiding for the wholly inadequate reason that I expected it to be boring. I do not know if it is boring or not, because I have not continued reading it. You see, Thomas à Kempis himself told me I ought to stop reading it on the first page:
"He who follows Me, walks not in darkness," says the Lord. By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ.
The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna.
So back to the primary sources. Instead of Thomas, I am reading Matthew. When I finish John, I may read them all again. Only then will I come back to Thomas: when I have done the required reading for the course and am ready to benefit from the help of a teacher.
The Newsroom Must Have Been Rolling
Bush told his senior aides Tuesday that he "didn't want to see any stories" quoting unnamed administration officials in the media anymore, and that if he did, there would be consequences, said a senior administration official who asked that his name not be used.
Found Objects: Star Trek and Lobster
Visiting a thrift store yesterday, I found a complete VHS boxed set of the six Star Trek original series motion pictures for $6.96. Beat that, Ebay. Only The Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country are out of their original shrink wrap, so I guess someone received the set as gift, watched the two best movies as they were told, and decided the series was no good. So much the better for me--gets me new videos and the opportunity to plug my favorite Trek movies.
There was an added bonus inside the box that I did not find until today: this charming note to Joe the Lobster.
Tacos and Pizza
I have finally found the secret to making good tacos (out of cheap ingredients, no less). Key components are as follows:
- Taco meat, seasoned with a little extra of the regular taco seasoning mix. When you brown the ground beef/turkey, though, splash on some Worcestershire sauce, Italian dressing, and ground red pepper.
- Shredded cheddar cheese. For some reason, shredded cheese is actually cheaper per ounce than cheese in bars at our discount grocery store.
- Fresh lettuce.
- A light application of homemade salsa (the secrets of which shall be revealed later).
- Put it all in crunchy taco shells, toasted! I feel dumb now, but toasting the shell was the biggest change I made this time. It turned our anemic-looking white discount taco shells into light, golden, crispy Wonder Shells.
Pure taco joy.
If anyone knows how to home-make a good pizza crust, though, I am still trying to figure it out. Mine have only been adequate thus far.
Feast of Christ the King
Last night we attended mass at the school chapel. It was the last Sunday of ordinary time; next Sunday will be new year's day in the Church. The Scripture translation was poor (it's not the correct version; we seem to have a Canadian lectionary or something); the homily was weak; most of the songs were well-sung but poorly written. All of that was more than made up for, however, by the presentation of our RCIA candidates.
There were only eight candidates, but the number didn't matter much to me. What moved me almost to tears was the fact that there were young men and women leading other young men and women to Christ and His Church and the wonderful ceremony of blessing in which the sponsors made the sign of the cross on the candidates' forehead, ears, hands, feet, and heart. Some of the sponsor/candidate pairs looked like they might have been boyfriend and girlfriend (nothing wrong with that!), but the pairs who inspired me even more were the ones for whom the Spirit is using friendship for its best purpose: iron sharpening iron.
On the Scripture translation issue, the reading was Daniel 7:13-14, which begins in the New American Bible:
As the visions during the night continued, I saw
one like a Son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
The translation we heard instead made a truly unfortunate choice for political correctness over accuracy. Instead of "one like a Son of man," Daniel saw "one like a human being." Surely they don't also translate Jesus' self-references as "human being." "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the human being has nowhere to lay his head." Right.