Another year gone by already! All in all, this was a pretty good year, closing somewhat on a limping note, although I've been expecting that, and haven't been too worried about it. This New Year's Eve will be a rather quiet family affair, probably capped by some champagne at midnight in the living room.

New Year's Resolutions aren't exactly my strong suit (I believe I only recently accomplished 1 of the 3 items from 2003's list, and that's only if memory serves...), but it never hurts to try again. Since the spiritual and mental houses are finally in order as this year begins, I can work on some smaller projects.

New Year's Resolutions for 2006

- Read the entire Bible this year
- Exercise regularly
- Practice some moderate self-denial

These are pretty modest, and should be within reach, although they are going to require a little bit of effort. I have specific targets in mind for items 2 and 3 to determine success/failure, although I'm keeping those to myself for the moment. If I hit them, I'll post about them later.

Happy New Year!

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Taking their cue from the group of British historians who drew up a list of the 10 worst Britons of the second millenium in which St. Thomas Becket was featured, sharing company with Jack the Ripper, an international group of historians has drawn up a list of the 10 worst people in history, and Jesus Christ came in at the top.

Asked for comment, a representative of the group, Dr. Ivanna Klue said "When you look at it, nobody has been responsible for more conflict, bitter division, and bloodshed than this man and the religions that he spawned. Even today, the conflict continues, most noticeably in the present war on gays and war on Christmas now being fought."

The top 10 list:

1 - Jesus Christ
2 - George W. Bush
3 - St. Ignatius Loyola
4 - Tomas de Torquemada
5 - Christopher Columbus
6 - Klemens von Metternich
7 - Moses
8 - Constantine
9 - Charles Martel
10 - Ronald Reagan

N.B. - This is a parody. Do not be like the Los Angeles Times and try to pass this off as genuine.

Posted by Justice at 8:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Helpful hint to the Boy Scouts when sending out fundraisers - it sends mixed messages when you try to promote the strength of your organization in the mailing but get weak-kneed and can't bring yourselves to use "Christmas" instead of "holiday season". Ditch the PC language, most of those who insist on it are already against you anyway.

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If anyone happens to have the 2006 St. Joseph guide for the Liturgy of the Hours (4-volume set), I am in need of the entries for January 1 to January 15, as I've left my copy in Steubenville. Please e-mail me if you can help.

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It seems about 1500 people showed up for Mass at the infamous St. Stanislaus parish in the St. Louis Archdiocese. Among the brilliant quotes from those present:

"I'm not worried about mortal sin," said worshipper Matt Morrison, 50. "I'll take a stand for what I believe is right."

"It was magic," said JoAnne La Sala of St. Louis, a self-described lapsed Catholic. "You could feel the spirit of the people."

Sounds about right - the spirit of the people, not the Holy Spirit. Possibly the spirit of the devil, who is quite good at imitating the authentic spirit, although the important part is recognizing the spirit isn't one from above. Obedience is always a telltale sign - if there's no obedience to the Church, they're deluded in thinking they're in the right. Some of this may be ignorance, as nobody in their right mind would risk mortal sin for any cause, unless they didn't really understand it.

In a rather odd twist for the parish, even though this is all supposedly for the people, they're not acting much like the community of the People of God, seeing as they're trying to operate under different rules than everybody else in the archdiocese, going so far as to "hire" their own priest. That's a fiefdom, trying to be its own little sovereign territory within the Church - and that makes it impossible to be in union with the rest of the Church. They can complain about Archbishop Burke being heavy-handed with excommunications all they want, but the fact is, they had already cut themselves off from the Church and Burke is simply acknowledging reality.

HT: Zorak.

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One odd feature of the Liturgy of the Hours is that the hymns occasionally use lyrics that I've never seen in any other arrangement. Among the Christmas songs, there are some interesting alterations.

In O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, the refrain's wording is reordered:

Rejoice! Rejoice! O Israel
To thee shall come Emmanuel!

I've sung this one a few times and actually prefer it over the normal arrangement. Granted, Emmanuel comes first in the Latin (in the Liturgy as well), but this just sounds better in English.

In a much more interesting example, What Child is This? does not have a refrain. Instead, the following lyrics are used:

What child is this, who, laid to rest,
On Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste to bring him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Why lies he in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear, shall pierce him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you:
Hail, hail, the Word made flesh,
The Babe, the Son of Mary!

So bring him incense, gold and myrrh,
Come, peasant, king, to own him;
The King of Kings salvation brings,
Let loving hearts enthrone him.
Raise, raise the song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby:
Joy, joy, for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary!

Reading that one this afternoon (it's the assigned hymn for the Office of Readings for Christmas) sure was a surprise, since I've sung that one plenty of times and never recalled hearing about a Cross.

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"What was the first gift of Christmas?"

So asks Mrs. Parkin in The Christmas Box, a neat little movie I first saw several years ago. Associated with this is her indignant retort that this "is not a trivial question!" In that movie, Richard first gives what is probably a typical answer for many - love. Mrs. Parkin isn't satisfied with this reply - only at the end does he find the answer she is looking for, the obvious and yet often missed answer - a child.

The meaning of Christmas is often missed, substituted with a confused vision of love. Louis Bouyer says it well in a book unrelated to Christmas, "charity that is not concerned with justice, nor with justice applied in the concrete, is merely a mockery of charity."

Amy Welborn has a good article on the meaning of Christmas, one of the best I've read in a while, as well as an inspiration for this post, in addition to the Liturgy of the Hours, which also offers a poignant reminder of exactly why Christ was sent to earth in the first place:

Second Reading from the Office of Readings for Christmas Eve:

Awake, mankind! For your sake God has become man. Awake, you who sleep, rise up from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you. I tell you again: for your sake, God became man.

You would have suffered eternal death, had he not been born in time. Never would you have been freed from sinful flesh, had he not taken on himself the likeness of sinful flesh. You would have suffered everlasting unhappiness, had it not been for this mercy. You would never have returned to life, had he not shared your death. You would have been lost if he had not hastened to your aid. You would have perished, had he not come.

Let us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time.

He has become our justice, our sanctification, our redemption, so that, as it is written: Let him who glories glory in the Lord.

Truth, then, has arisen from the earth: Christ who said, I am the Truth, was born of a virgin. And justice looked down from heaven: because believing in this new-born child, man is justified not by himself but by God.

Truth has arisen from the earth: because the Word was made flesh. And justice looked down from heaven: because every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

Truth has arisen from the earth: flesh from Mary. And justice looked down from heaven: for man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.

Justified by faith, let us be at peace with God: for justice and peace have embraced one another. Through our Lord Jesus Christ: for Truth has arisen from the earth. Through whom we have access to that grace in which we stand, and our boast is in our hope of God's glory. He does not say: "of our glory," but of God's glory: for justice has not proceeded from us but has looked down from heaven. Therefore he who glories, let him glory, not in himself, but in the Lord.

For this reason, when our Lord was born of the Virgin, the message of the angelic voices was: Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth.

For how could there be peace on earth unless Truth has arisen from the earth, that is, unless Christ were born of our flesh? And he is our peace who made the two into one: that we might be men of good will, sweetly linked by the bond of unity.

Let us then rejoice in this grace, so that our glorying may bear witness to our good conscience by which we glory, not in ourselves, but in the Lord. That is why Scripture says: He is my glory, the one who lifts up my head. For what greater grace could God have made to dawn on us than to make his only Son become the son of man, so that a son of man might in his turn become son of God?

Ask if this were merited; ask for its reason, for its justification, and see whether you will find any other answer but sheer grace.

- St. Augustine

The opening sure sets the tone - eternal death, sinful flesh, and the mercy of God. This reveals one of the fundamental truths of the Christian faith - Christ was sent to a world in dire need of Him, that could not be saved without Him, and yet the world never deserved such a merciful and loving act.

This love is not the sort of goodwill we try to show toward others, a temporary and ephemeral benevolence that passes away once the decorations come down. It is the mercy and love of a father who sees his children in danger of death and who will go to any length in order to save them - and that's where the Christ child comes in. Christ is much more a life-preserver, intended to keep man from drowning in the sea of sin, than he is a cute babe from on high meant to inspire good cheer. The situation was and is a lot more serious than the current celebration lets on - not for nothing is Christ called the light that pierced the darkness.

The world might have been able to accept Christ, but it cannot accept the reason He was sent - that there is something wrong with the world as it is, that man is fallen, a sinful race with no hope of salvation unless God sent His only Son to take on the sins of the world and offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice, to atone for a debt that could never be paid. To accept the gift of Christ, man must first acknowledge he has a need for it - and that means realizing that he is in actuality in the freezing, dark sea of sin, desiring to get out of that sea, and the realization that Christ is the only thing that can achieve that end.

All too often, we reject that gift, preferring the apparent pleasures found in the freezing sea, failing to realize they are delusions brought on by the frigid waters, and that in reality we are dying there. There is a sense in which the maxim "ignorance is bliss" plays a role here - because when man suddenly realizes where he is, the gravity of the situation causes panic as he looks for a way to save himself, desperately searching until he finds God's rescue through Christ. God will not save us without our participation, just as a life preserver cannot rescue if nothing is done with it - we have to take an active part in the process.

Recognition of being a sinner and trying to get out of sin is not fun - and the world in general cannot stand the accusation that it is in sin and in need of a savior, still less that it has to do something about it. But this is what the gift of Christmas is - God sends us Himself, in Christ, as a means of salvation to a dying world. The meaning of this gift will make no sense to anyone who doesn't understand why God did this - both because man is a sinner and because God loves all of us, and desires to save us from our sins.

UPDATE: The priest giving the homily for the daytime Mass actually touched upon the theme of the darkness of sin and the light of Christ in the homily, making good use of a story to boot. Very cool.

Merry Christmas!

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One of the more annoying features of courses that are offered cyclically is that if you ever get behind, you essentially lose a year of time. I'm looking at that situation now, given my original choice of courses for the master's program, and the reality of how the future offerings stack up.

In order to avoid taking an extra pre-requisite (since this class is not offered again until Spring 2008, beyond my intended stay), I would need to take graduate Sacraments now. The trouble is, doing so would force me to drop one of my current 4 courses, and I'm loathe to drop any of them, given 2 are foundations, 1 is a pre-req, and 1 is an elective I really want to take, the theology of Benedict XVI. I basically have four options - stay the course, and either stay through Spring 2008, take Sacraments as a night class (where it doesn't count toward graduation) or in summer school, or bump one of 3 courses (one of the foundations will not be dropped because doing so would give me all T/R classes and an insane 7.5 hours of class on Tuesday) and hope I don't get messed up by the course cycle.

The idea of lengthening my stay to Spring 2008 is starting to look appealing - I was already considering the idea of staying until Fall 2007, since I did not want to kill myself with 4 grad courses a semester in 2006-2007. It also makes it far easier to consider entertaining either the catechetics concentration or studying in Rome, since the former would already require that, and the latter is virtually certain at this point to require at least staying until Fall 2007 anyway.

Man, I wish I would have been more familiar with this stuff earlier. My "logical" choice of taking 3 pre-reqs and a foundations course already seems to have pinned me in a corner. Not that I wouldn't mind staying an extra year at this point, I just object to feeling trapped into doing it after my first semester. =)

I expect God is laughing at me over this dilemma, not only because I find it funny on several levels, but because it also would be among the most bizarre ways imaginable of God following through on making me share in a friend's suffering (Mother Angelica and the guardian angel both remind me to word prayer requests more carefully in the future).

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I can't think of a piece of writing anywhere which epitomizes the idea of Mary as co-redemptrix as much as today's second reading from the Office of Readings. Today's reading is proper to the 20th of December, and comes from St. Bernard (of Clairvaux, I'm pretty sure):

You have heard, O Virgin, that you will conceive and bear a son; you have heard that it will not be by man but by the Holy Spirit. The angel awaits an answer; it is time for him to return to God who sent him. We too are waiting, O Lady, for your word of compassion; the sentence of condemnation weighs heavily upon us.

The price of our salvation is offered to you. We shall be set free at once if you consent. In the eternal Word of God we all came to be, and behold, we die. In your brief response we are to be remade in order to be recalled to life.

Tearful Adam with his sorrowing family begs this of you, O loving Virgin, in their exile from Paradise. Abraham begs it, David begs it. All the other holy patriarchs, your ancestors, ask it of you, as they dwell in the country of the shadow of death. This is what the whole earth waits for, prostrate at your feet. It is right in doing so, for on your word depends comfort for the wretched, ransom for the captive, freedom for the condemned, indeed, salvation for all the sons of Adam, the whole of your race.

Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel, or rather through the angel to the Lord. Answer with a word, receive the Word of God. Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breathe a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.

Why do you delay, why are you afraid? Believe, give praise, and receive. Let humility be bold, let modesty be confident. This is no time for virginal simplicity to forget prudence. In this matter alone, O prudent Virgin, do not fear to be presumptuous. Though modest silence is pleasing, dutiful speech is now more necessary. Open your heart to faith, O blessed Virign, your lips to praise, your womb to the Creator. See, the desired of all nations is at your door, knocking to enter. If he should pass by because of your delay, in sorrow you would begin to seek him afresh, the One whom your soul loves. Arise, hasten, open. Arise in faith, hasten in devotion, open in praise and thanksgiving. Behold, the handmaiden of the Lord, she says, be it done to me according to your word.

That had to be an awesome homily when delivered, all the more impressive given the whole thing is written as if St. Bernard were present at the Annunciation, personally pleading with Mary to accept the will of God as made known by the angel Gabriel. Communion of saints and co-redemptrix all mixed into one in this twelfth century homily.

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I'm surprised I didn't pick up on this before, but apparently some of the "candles" used in Mass aren't really made of wax. Instead they're hollow tubes with a wick stuck inside a bunch of lighter fluid (which explains why they always seemed to be the exact same height). This was revealed when the sacristan over at Franciscan's chapel decided to unscrew the tops of the chapel's 4 candles to fill them up with lighter fluid before a Mass last week. Now that I know what I'm looking for, I've also noticed them being used in Masses back home.

What gives? That just seems so tacky.

Incidentally, Franciscan also uses real candles when candle bearers are used, which I know personally, having slightly burnt my hand by blowing hot wax on it as I blew out a candle one time as candle bearer.

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The Buffalo Diocese's "Christmas" cards have come out this year, surprisingly with no mention of Christmas in them at all. I know this, not because I received a card, but because the local paper published the faux pas in today's Local page in the column of quirky news on the front of that section.

Card Front - Image of an angelic violinist, with the words "Love, Peace, Hope"
Card Inside - "Wishing you a Beautiful Holiday Season and a New Year of Peace and Happiness."

What brilliant explanation did the diocese offer for this?

Apparently, the guy in charge of this decision said they were focusing on the message of peace. Right, who would ever want to focus on the message of Christ when you can focus on such an overused cliche as your message, particularly if you're supposed to be the witness of Christ on earth?

I don't buy the explanation that they weren't trying to avoid using Merry Christmas. What's left out is often just as telling as what's said, and if you can't find space in a Christmas card to make some mention of Christ, something tells me Christ is being left out of quite a few other things down in the chancery (which may be why you guys are looking at shuttering so many parishes in the near future - just a thought).

Adding insult to injury, the man added that the card was picked out in September, which he says was before some Christians got hot and bothered about Christmas being removed from seasonal advertising. Um, where has he been the last few years? This is hardly the first year of such protests.

Stunning ecumenical move guys - I'll bet all the committed Christians around the area are utterly thrilled at the message you sent this Christmas.

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It figures that in picking up the Liturgy of the Hours again after a little exam and paper induced absence, St. Augustine would answer a question that's been vexing me for more than a month over the issue of what it means to "pray without ceasing" (the idea of praising constantly that arose among the university students was not one I particularly liked, simply because there are times that that just isn't going to happen, like at funerals).

UPDATE: Full text of the reading inserted.

From the Second Reading of Friday of the Third Week of Advent:

In the anguish of my heart I groaned aloud. There is a hidden anguish which is inaudible to men. Yet when a man's heart is so taken up with some particular concern that the hurt inside finds vocal expression, one looks for the reason. And one will say to oneself: perhaps this is what causes his anguish, or perhaps such and such has happened to him. But who can be certain of the cause except God, who hears and sees his anguish? Therefore the psalmist says: In the anguish of my heart I groaned aloud. For if men hear at all, they usually hear only bodily groaning and know nothing of the anguish of the heart from which it issues.

Who then knows the cause of man's groaning? All my desire is before you. No, it is not open before other men, for they cannot understand the heart; but before you is all my desire. If your desire lies open to him who is your Father and who sees all in secret, he will answer you.

For the desire of your heart is itself your prayer. And if the desire is constant, so is your prayer. The Apostle Paul had a purpose in saying: Pray without ceasing. Are we then ceaselessly to bend our knees, to lie prostrate, or to lift up our hands? Is this what is meant in saying: Pray without ceasing? Even if we admit that we pray in this fashion, I do not believe that we can do so all the time.

Yet there is another, interior kind of prayer without ceasing, namely, the desire of the heart. Whatever else you may be doing, if you but fix your desire on God's Sabbath rest, your prayer will be ceaseless. Therefore, if you wish to pray without ceasing, do not cease to desire.

The constancy of your desire will itself be the ceaseless voice of your prayer. And that voice of your prayer will be silent only when your love ceases. For who are silent? Those of whom it is said: Because evil has abounded, the love of many will grow cold.

The chilling of love means that the heart is silent; while burning love is the outcry of the heart. If your love is without ceasing, you are crying out always; if you always cry out, you are always desiring; and if you desire, you are calling to mind your eternal rest in the Lord.

All my desire is before you. What if the desire of our heart is before him, but not our groaning? But how is that possible, since the groaning is the voice of our desire? And therefore it is said: My groaning is not concealed from you. It may be concealed from men, but it is not concealed from you. Sometimes God's servant seems to be saying in his humility: My anguish is not concealed from you. At other times he seems to be laughing. Does that mean that the desire of his heart has died within him? If the desire is there, then the groaning is there as well. Even if men fail to hear it, it never ceases to sound in the hearing of God.

Thanks, St. Augustine, that resolves my difficulty quite nicely.

N.B. - Attention Catholic Carnival readers - Theology for Beginners by Frank Sheed is currently being offered for free. Drop me an e-mail if you would like it.

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For those who like good tasting food on the quick and cheap, here's my mashed potato recipe from tonight's party, which I'm told was good.

- 1 box of Hungry Jack instant mashed potatoes (20 serving size)
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 half gallon of buttermilk
- 2.5 teaspoons of salt
- 5.75 cups of water

It essentially follows the recipe on the Hungry Jack box, but I never like using imitation products like margarine and skim milk that try to be "healthier" for you. Because buttermilk is so thick, it took more like 5 or 6 cups worth to actually get the mashed potatoes to stop being lumpy. The result is pretty sweet, as the mashed potatoes have just a hint of the buttermilk flavor while not being overpowering. Just watch out for those who can't eat heart attack potatoes, since these suckers are loaded.

Posted by Justice at 12:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tonight was GNT's last gathering of the semester, a pretty large Christmas party (~ 50-60 people), in which we had a pretty large "White Elephant" gift exchange going on. Once again, my gift was the source of laughs, as, at Nate's suggestion, I put my gift in a big box, and then filled it with peanuts before wrapping it. The girl who initially opened the box was so energetic with the peanuts, the CD inside got thrown out into the air without her even realizing it. For a minute, she thought she had an empty box until the CD could be passed back around.

All in all, it was a blast, as has been the semester, academically, socially, and spiritually. The courses went fine, I got to know lots of people (probably in the neighborhood of 50 or more if I don't hold myself to actually remembering their names), and there sure was some spiritual kick.

Time to go home for now.

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Not only are glasses useful for reducing eye strain while reading (my primary reason for having them, being far-sighted), they are also quite handy for when clothes hangers attack. Today while packing, I was pulling a shirt off a hanger and suddenly there's a loud crack, as the thing whipped off the rack and squarely hit the left lens dead center. The lens doesn't seem that much the worse for the wear, but I don't think my eye would have been doing nearly as well had it been hit.

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Yesterday, I found a copy of Frank Sheed's Theology for Beginners in the "freebie" bin in the bookstore, where people ditch used books they don't want anymore (incidentally, I was right there when it was dumped, because this title wouldn't last long here).

I'll mail the book for free as a Christmas present to the first person who leave me an e-mail claiming it (e-mail address is on the sidebar). Please ask for it only if you don't already have the book.

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We went off to see the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe tonight, and overall, I think it was quite good. The only point that I would have liked to see in the movie that wasn't there was some mention of the Emperor, who is the one who wrote the law of the deep magic that required Aslan's sacrifice, and I didn't quite like how they folded the deeper magic into the deep magic, but these are relatively minor complaints, the basic message of that sequence stayed intact.

Now I'll be waiting for the next installment in the series.

Posted by Justice at 2:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

One of the students I tutored this semester was very kind and baked me an apple pie now that the course is over. That was quite touching, and also happens to be the first time I can remember anyone baking something for me, family excepted. I'm hoping the final exam went well, although I suppose receiving a pie is a good indication that it did.

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I've been meaning to do this for some time, but I'm doing a little house cleaning on the blog. A lot of posts have been sitting in some pretty odd categories, particularly the oldest of the bunch. I've created a bunch of new categories for the sake of clarity - right now, these new categories only contain the most ancient of my posts. As of now, the July and August 2004 posts have been reviewed and kicked into the appropriate categories.

New categories so far are Humor, Literature, Philosophy, Western New York, and World. National News may be suppressed, since I only used it for Katrina, and I don't tend to post on the subject much without having it end up in Politics or Society. My goal is primarily to reduce the reliance on the Miscellaneous category, which is where 1 in 5 posts has ended up.

In changes to the links, I've linked to the new St. Blog's Parish Directory, and also rejoined that list. I've also added a few new blogs, Zadok the Roman and The Discernment Dilemma.

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I'll admit, I have mixed feelings over the death penalty in general, but I think this call with Stanley Williams went in the right direction. The basic facts of the case aren't in doubt, and there doesn't seem to be much repentance on his part. Also, I cringe seeing how much influence a gang leader who killed four people has over so many major personalities and the media. That by itself tips me in the direction of thinking the Catechism's exception in 2267 is fulfilled here with regard to the people's safety. I respect John Paul II's idea that if the state can contain a person from causing harm, they should be spared the death penalty - but in this case, the man has been so constantly pumped up in the media, I'm pretty sure he could cause harm with the media's complicity, particularly given the gang connection. If the man hadn't been heard from in the last 24 years, I'd feel differently about it.

I'd be willing to support ending the death penalty, but in return I'd like some provisions like no interviews, no book deals, no TV, no internet or computer, no communication of any sort with the outside world other than unrecorded person to person meetings for people like this. Just give them a windowless cell and let them read books. Then I could feel pretty confident they couldn't cause harm to the outside world. So long as they're allowed access to the media frenzy though, I think there can be a justification for using the death penalty so long as guilt is certain.

UPDATE: Why must the anti-death penalty crowd latch onto the absolute worst possible cases to make a stand over? Out of all the possible people to make a plea for, why on earth was it a case where the guilt was not in doubt, the man was unrepentant, a gang founder, and any reasonable person could see this was being played from both sides? Why not a case that would win genuine sympathy like this one? All I kept hearing was all this talk of reform, and then the dimwits who witnessed the execution had the gall to say the man was innocent, along with Williams himself - HOW CAN SOMEONE REFORM IF THEY HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG?! Can we use a little logic? It's almost like you're trying to convince the public that you're a bunch of hysterical maniacs who don't deserve to be taken seriously.

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The fall semester is mercifully over, after a brutal final month, although that was largely due to my procrastination much earlier on. The last exam tonight, an essay exam on moral principles, went very well, as I was prepared to answer 3 of the 4 questions given, and only had to answer 2.

Oddly enough, the conventional wisdom regarding the exam questions we'd see went only 1 for 3. We had 9 questions that we'd been given, of which 4 would be picked for the exam, and 2 would have to be answered. Of the 9, 4 were based on the Catechism (cardinal virtues, sin, 5th commandment, 6th commandment), one was on moral methodology (deontology versus teleology), one was double effect, one was material cooperation, one was the Church as mother and teacher, and one was about conversion.

Conventional wisdom in the study groups held that the methodology question would appear, one of the commandment questions would appear, and the question on sin would appear. We were only right on our first guess. The methodology question did appear, along with the double effect question, the conversion question, and the mother and teacher question. That was fine with me, I'd prepared for the methodology question, certain it would be asked, and I was fully ready to tackle the one about conversion. The only thing I found truly odd was that of the 4 questions based on the Catechism, not one of them appeared on the final.

Anyway, it was a good finish. In the next three days, I'm going to tackle the project of cleaning my room, tossing junk, getting ready for the GNT Christmas party, and then going home on Friday for Christmas. Over the break, I plan on doing the reading that was assigned this semester, but didn't quite get finished, either because it wasn't actually required, or because I ran out of time. Once I get it all finished (The Vatican II book excepted), I plan on putting up small book reviews for all of it, since there were at least two truly awesome readings given this semester, both from Biblical Foundations.

If I feel really industrious, I might actually listen to the 100 or so lecture recordings I compiled and plug the gaps in my notes, which range from the pathetic/non-existent some days to very thorough other days.

Posted by Justice at 11:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

It turns out Musicland is planning on closing all its Media Play stores, one of which has been in my hometown for probably a decade or so. That's unfortunate, since it's been one of the places my family liked to shop, but I honestly haven't had any love for them since the company charged my debit card for a Replay membership renewal, but subsequently "lost the paperwork" or whatever and refused to do anything about it.

That's when I just started shopping at Amazon for all my book needs, definitely making up the $15 lost with the card fiasco. Cheaper prices, no register screw ups, no fifteen minutes waiting in line, and definitely no deceptive advertising (Media Play was notorious for having its salesmen not know what the store's special sales were, and often you'd have to argue a bit after pointing them out before they would give you the deal).

Posted by Justice at 3:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Today's Gaudete Mass in St. Peter's Church in Steubenville was quite good. The priest wore rose, the deacon violet, and there was a wonderful homily on joy and praise, one which certainly sat well with the student body in attendance, as the main theme had been touched on earlier in the semester in group discussions.

Incidentally, the pastor showed up today to quiet rumors of his impending demise during the announcements, as he's been on the prayer list for the sick the last two weeks. In a rather unusual bit of fashion, he came in wearing a red stole - I suppose because the sacristy was out of violet ones. So for a few moments, we had a priest in red stole, a violet dalmatic, and a rose chasuble. The colors of sacrifice, penance, and joy all in one.

Posted by Justice at 7:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A philosophical musing that came to mind earlier today:

Everything we know or believe in is based on faith, the main difference is the former category is based on faith we don't question. I think that's why Socrates could say he knew nothing, since he questioned everything.

I wonder if that means that Socrates would have said that he believed in certain things but that he just couldn't know for certain? In the same way, I wonder if that means faith passes from belief to knowledge once we cease to question it?

Any thoughts?

Posted by Justice at 2:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Well, I took my old bike in to the shop at Dick's to see how much it would cost to repair it. The price tag was $58 minimum, based on a spot inspection the repair guy did with me. We both agreed the rim of the rear tire was pretty well shot ($20), there was rust that would need to be cleaned ($18, though he thought the chain and gears were salvageable), and my own note that the derailleurs would definitely need readjusting ($20). Since the bike itself was originally only $70, I didn't think it was worth the money to repair it.

Now, I went in with a pretty clear strategy if the bill was too high for me to agree to the repairs. I was going to go to Wal-Mart and pick up one of the cheap steel-frame bikes that can always be found at department stores for under $100. I was originally going to do that Tuesday when the bike failed, but because Wal-Mart didn't think I was important enough to send someone to the bike department to get down a bike in a timely manner (5 to 10 minutes, I think), I left.

The salesman, however, grabbed my attention before I left, pointing me to the "clearance" rack on which they had a 21-speed Schwinn bike with an aluminum frame for only $170...and in a color pattern I liked besides. Now, the salesman obviously couldn't have known, but I've been wanting to get an aluminum frame for some time, only I always found them priced a bit high for me to stomach. Since I've priced bikes before, my gut told me this was a good deal, and since I was already in for a major purchase, I decided to buy it instead of going cheap again.

Now I admit, getting myself talked into the 3-year, $50 extended warranty that covers everything but tire wear and the seat may have been a bad decision. On the other hand, I have also busted 2 rims within the last 3 years, meaning $40 of the $50 price would be made up even assuming nothing else goes wrong if my track record holds. And since the last bike was something of a lemon (Magna bike from Target that I swear never changed gears properly as long as I had it), I went along with it.

First impressions were quite awesome - I heard a sound I haven't heard in a long time...just tire riding smoothly on pavement. The gear-shift is the smoothest I've ever had - sometimes, I didn't even hear it shift, I just noticed the change on the pedals. And they worked great on the smaller hills on the route (I'm still not going to attempt to bike up the big one here, I just don't have the endurance to tackle it as yet). Honestly, if it keeps riding as well as it did on the way home, I think I made an excellent purchase.

Sidenote - having just checked online, it seems $220 is the cheapest this particular model sells for, meaning the $170 clearance at the store really was a sale price (incidentally, the retailer's online price is $220), especially if that $250 list price is ever what stores charge for it. It's almost like getting the $50 warranty for free.

By the by, the picture given in the first link is the actual color scheme.

Posted by Justice at 10:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

My UB e-mail address will lapse one week from today, as I am no longer affiliated with the school. I'm not sure if they let mail-forwarding continue indefinitely, but anyone who is still using the buffalo.edu address should use the one listed in the sidebar to reach me.

Posted by Justice at 9:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I'm being facetious. Once again, for probably the fifth time this semester, I am going to be waking up on the due date of a paper having not finished it in the first place. The humorous part of this go-around is that I have two papers due the same day, and the paper I expected to be done is not, while the paper I expected to be ripping my hair out over at the present time of night is already neatly stapled in its final draft and ready to be handed in tomorrow morning. At the present time, I have 5.5 pages written of the 10 I need, so it should be relatively easy to finish, given the paper's not due until 6 at night. Then again, I also have a final to study for, conveniently also at 6 at night.

I suppose it's progress that one paper was done before the actual day of - and 11:30 at night still qualifies! That class's papers have been an exercise in torture all semester, yet oddly, this particular paper literally wrote itself with a minimum of stress. Whether that's due to my liking the main reading the paper was based on, or due to actually being conscious through the entire last third of the class I don't know.

The paper I expected to be a piece of cake, a 10-page book review on one of von Balthasar's shorter books, has been a nightmare. I figured out why sometime last night - I don't understand the book. Obviously, this has implications when trying to write a book review...such as glossing over some 30 pages of text in a mere sentence or two because they don't fit in too well with the overall framework of the review. Likewise, some small sections of text have been greatly expanded upon because I happened to get them...in theory.

Oddly enough, a 15-page book review on one of de Lubac's books that I wrote last week (essentially in under 24 hours, due to my awesome time management skills) turned out very well in my opinion. That's in part because, as I skimmed through it again while writing the paper, the whole thing clicked.

The irony in all this is that, although de Lubac's book is longer, is foot-noted up the wazoo, frequently uses untranslated Latin, and required the longer review, the result is far and away superior to the shorter review on the shorter book that rarely employs Latin and is hardly foot-noted at all.

Conclusion - French theologians are easier to understand than Swiss theologians, even though the former try their darndest to make the task as difficult as possible. Perhaps this really means that French obfuscation is every bit as lousy as French military planning...

Or it could just be I'm tired and feel like poking fun at theologians to get a good laugh out of it before I go to bed. And honestly, it worked.

Posted by Justice at 3:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I'm quite thankful that when my bike, which has been riding very rough over the last month, finally decided to stop working, it was while it was parked. During the ride out this morning, the tire seemed worse than ever, and pretty much everything with the rear tire was off. After a brief stop, I came out to find the tire rubbing against the brake badly enough to stop it from moving on its own, though it could still turn with the downward force of me being on the bike.

Since I wasn't in a position to have an emergency repair done, I actually made use of my cell phone to get my friends to help me get myself and the bike back home. I might get a price estimate on repairs, but given the bike was caught in the rains of both Katrina and Rita, and got quite a bit of rust off it, it may not be worth it. The bike itself was only $70, and given experience, fixing the rear tire's problems will cost a minimum of $20, more if the rims need replacement (likely). That makes a $100 model at Wal-Mart look especially appealing, and even the $60 models might do (though why anyone would want a seat NOT vertically connected to the frame is beyond me).

Posted by Justice at 9:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Catholic Carnival now has its own page on Blog Carnival, and most of the previous editions are presently linked there.

Posted by Justice at 1:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Gas prices have been wildly erratic the last few days. The price went from $2.01 on Thursday to $2.19 on Friday, dropped a bit to $2.17 over the weekend, was $1.99 this morning, and $2.25 as I was coming home tonight.

Posted by Justice at 9:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

You Are a Religious Republican

You make up the conservative, Christian, dedicated core of the Republican Party. You believe it's important for religious people to stand up for their beliefs in politics. And for you, this means voting your conscience - which almost always means voting Republican. Your pet causes include the sanctity of life, school vouchers, and prayer in school.

For the sake of nuance, the more appropriate category is just plain conservative, with religious issues being the swing factor, although you would be hard pressed to get me to vote for any Democrat in the Rust Belt, so Republican works out well enough...for now.

Posted by Justice at 11:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Grad school can apparently make you sick. One of my friends has been hospitalized the past week with anemia, which doesn't at the moment seem to have any cause except being overworked. That explains why he's been dragging so bad the last couple months.

He should be fine, but prayers are still requested, he'll be in the hospital until Monday.

Posted by Justice at 10:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack