A Momentary Taste of Being

I will readily confess a deep interest in the Amish way.  Not the romanticized Witness and television drama version of Amish living, but in the witness the Amish offer of the possibility of another way of life--of being separate, apart, and yet whole. Reading this wonderful book offers insights that go beyond what one might encounter in many books about the Amish.  It does not offer the usual proverbs, sayings, and superficial picture of buggies, bonnets, and barns.  Instead, we are offered a glimpse of Amish worship and how the Amish make meaning. What is fascinating to me about all major faiths is the way that the emphasize a particular truth of the Gospel (often, I must say, at the expense of representing the fullness of the gospel).  What the Amish show, and represent powerfully is the notion of salvation within community--certainly a theme of Jewish Spirituality--but the main theme of the Amish way.  Everything is about keeping the community as Chu...

I loved these passages from Armstrong's book: from Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life Karen Armstrong Building on the insights of the Pharisees, the rabbis of the Talmudic age were able to transform Judaism from a temple faith into a religion of the book. Hitherto to the study of the Torah (the teachings and laws attributed to Moses) had been a minority pursuit; now it would replace temple worship. In the course of a massively creative intellectual effort, the rabbis composed new scriptures: the Mishnah, completed in about 200 CE, and the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds, completed in the fifth and sixth centuries respectively. Compassion was central to their vision, as we see in a famous story attributed to the great sage Hillel, an older contemporary of Jesus's. It is said that a pagan approach Hillel and promised to convert to Judaism if he could recite the entire Torah while he stood on one leg.  Hillel replied: "What is hateful to yourself, do not to your fello...

Meatless Fridays for Catholics in England and Wales While there is a standing obligation to perform some form of penetential recognition of the day, I know that I often do not do so--more often than not.  Not because I'm unwilling but because the law itself is too nebulous to be of help.  When it is expected of all (Ash Wednesday, Good Friday,  and the Fridays of Lent) it is relatively easy to observe. A moment out to remember what we are about as a people is salutary.  Perhaps the obligation should be more other-focused--but that is hard to do without serious interference in daily life.  For example an obligation to serve at a food station for the homeless, or to take a home-bound neighbor to the store, a doctor's appointment, or other needed or desired destination.  These would be the penance not of "sack-cloth and ashes"  but of "liberating the poor, the lonely, those imprisoned unjustly" etc. But this sort of penance would suffer from the pre...

The longevity and power of the KJV What we often forget is that the KJV is the truncated version of the Authorized Version that included the deuterocanonical books and fragments.  The article includes a snippet/reference to Adam Nicholson's magisterial and readable God's Secretaries , one of my very favorite books of recent years.

The Rage Against God

And for my own commonplace book: “To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda or even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery; it means to live in such a way that  one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist .” -- Cardinal Emmanuel Célestin Suhard , Archbishop of Paris 1940-1949

Literature and literalism, finding the happy medium in the interpretation of Scripture.

Morality without Religion--is it possible?  Depends on what you mean?  Is it sustainable--not sure that's been tested.

Christians are gaining in numbers, not atheists (and I ask, is it really a numbers game?  Who cares how many?  If someone is wrong, they are no more right with many people agreeing, and if right, they are right if they are the only one to hold the view. Not that this really has anything to do with a very interesting article--just seemed a place to say it.) Ignorance of C.S. Lewis Ayers's near death experience

Probably too much ink has been spent writing about Ms. Rice's relgious convictions and opinions. Nevertheless, I like this piece greatly--it echoes some of my own thoughts and it portrays a phenomenon too common in Christianity. From "Nice Anne Rice" So Anne now 'follows Christ', but what Christ? It will be the loving, sympathetic teacher, gentle Jesus who is, well, somewhat effeminate really. Anne was a flower child in college, so her Jesus will be the kind of hippie Jesus we're all familiar with from that generation--a long haired, groovy kind of beach bum who meditates on mountaintops, mixes with down and outs and delivers a real cool anti establishment, John Lennon kind of sermon. Then when Anne or her son is 'persecuted' by the hard hearted, hypocritical religious leaders she'll understand how Jesus was persecuted too. That's a real nice Jesus, and that kind of Jesus isn't unknown to the gospels, but remembering that her...

Will the new translation of Mass make celebrations more reverent? The summary, "I doubt it said the carpenter and shed a bitter tear. . . "

The Argument from Reason

Further considerations of the Supernatural from a Catholic viewpoint

The X-Men's Nightcrawler And the story that goes with it

"Big Questions Unsatisfactorialy Answered"

"The Metaphysical Foundation of Natural Law" via Edward Feser For those who may think that there can be no morality without religion--this is a good palliative.  The question is not whether there is a moral foundation available outside of institutional religion but whether such a foundation is sustainable in the absence of an organized presence and way to pass it on.  Revealed religions are not the sole source of morality, but they certainly have functioned as better custodians and guardians for passing it on than any established Atheist regime from the time of the French Revolution on.

The lovely antiphon for the Ambrosian Rite Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (Today)

Mass media and the eucharist via Books Inq.

Superstition and the Supernatural An interesting discussion of the difference between superstition--the manipulation of the material world for spiritual gain--and supernaturalism--belief in and reliance on grace.

Silence by Shusaku Endo reviewed If you're anything like I was, I had heard about the necessity of this book for years before I picked it up.  Having picked it up, I feel like I will never put it down.  It has become emblematic for me.  I push it upon anyone who will listen long enough for me to get through my spiel. But, I do know, if you want to split a roomful of Catholics faster than lightning--toss this book in the room and then ask them whether what the protagonists does at the end was right or wrong.  Guaranteed, you'll split that room--perhaps not right down the middle--but there will be at least two groups each adamantly holding to their point.  I know, been there, done that.  I'm with the group that agrees with the Priest and with the voice from the fumie .  But to quote an American Literary Figure recently in the news, "without you having read it, you ain't gonna know what I'm talking about."  If you haven't done so, this is one...