tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76680006264511753962024-03-05T11:43:22.036-05:00Unpleasant AccentsAuthentically Catholic. Totally Orthodox. Genuinely Sarcastic.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07047501237589816058noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-46227074178964264512016-02-29T19:30:00.000-05:002016-02-29T19:30:17.824-05:00Department of Corrections<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here at Unpleasant Accents, we're no strangers to <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/2014/10/lean-stupid-msnbc-tackles-catholicism.html">shredding idiotic media coverage</a> of the Church, nor to <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/search/label/Evelyn%20Waugh">the works of Evelyn Waugh</a>, whose <i>Brideshead Revisited</i> is the source of our humble blog's name.<br />
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Sometimes, however, the jokes write themselves.</div>
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From <i>The Federalist</i>: <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2016/02/25/time-evelyn-waugh-is-one-of-the-most-read-female-writers-in-colleges/">TIME: Evelyn Waugh Is One Of The Most-Read Female Writers in Colleges</a></div>
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Um, yeah, <a href="http://time.com/4234719/college-textbooks-female-writers/">about that</a>:</div>
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<i><b>Correction:</b> The original version of this story included Evelyn Waugh, who was a man.</i></blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"I will not stand for being called a woman in my own house…"</i></td></tr>
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Cheer up, Evelyn. Maybe <i>Glamour</i> can <a href="http://www.glamour.com/inspired/women-of-the-year/2015/caitlyn-jenner">name you Woman of the Year</a>!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07047501237589816058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-83916694301391033892016-01-28T15:00:00.000-05:002016-01-28T15:00:27.248-05:00Consecrated Conversations: Sister Colleen Clair<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>In a return to our interview series, we focus on a topic that many people, especially those outside of the Church, don't know much about: the consecrated religious life. Sister Colleen Clair was kind enough to answer our probing-but-educational questions. Today marks the seventh day of the <a href="http://db2015.salesians.ie/prayers/">Novena to Saint John Bosco</a>, founder of Sister's order. His feast is Sunday, January 31.</i></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sister Colleen Clair, SDB (pictured, at right)</i></td></tr>
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<b style="text-align: justify;">Tell us a bit about yourself! </b>
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I’m a Salesian Sister – our official title is “Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.” When I first entered, some friends took bets on how long it would take before I would be “kicked out of the convent.” The longest bet was six weeks! It’s been almost 26 years between formation and profession, and I love religious life. I always say, being a Salesian was the smartest and bravest thing I ever did!</div>
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<a name='more'></a><b style="text-align: justify;">First things first: Could you clarify the difference between a "sister" and a "nun"? Are the terms interchangeable?</b><br />
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Sisters and nuns are both called “Sister,” but there are a few differences! A woman religious who lives a contemplative cloistered life of prayer and meditation is a nun. A Sister, instead, lives an active vocation of prayer and service, often to the needy, sick, poor, and uneducated. A nun usually leaves mainstream society in order to live a life of prayer and contemplation in a monastery, a cloister or a convent. Her work is often a craft, or an art, or farming, or some other work that can be done in silence, since many make vows of silence and only speak for a few hours a day. Sisters, instead, are with people all day, teaching, helping, guiding, and befriending those in need. Nuns live in a cloister and have rules about when they may leave, usually only for medical needs, emergencies, and if their local bishop allows it. Essentially, nuns usually live and work within their monastery, while Sisters go out into the world.</div>
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<b>And which word best describes your vocation? </b></div>
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Because most Catholics are not familiar with these little nuances, and realize religious are called “Sister,” whether they are actually nuns or Sisters, the two terms have, in colloquial English, come to be used interchangeably. Very few Sisters would correct someone! (Though some Sisters, as educators, love to let people know.) As ministers to the young, and lovers of fun and noise, games and all sorts of sports, Salesians make very great Sisters, but don’t really fit the bill for nuns. We are Sisters and love working with youth!</div>
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<b>Could you tell us a bit about the order you joined and why you felt called to that particular one?</b></div>
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When I was 5 years old, I told my mother I was going to get married and have 17 (yes, that’s seventeen) children. You see, I’m from a family of 16 children, and since I loved kids, I wanted to have one more than my mother! In fact, before I started discerning religious life, I always thought I would grow up, get married, and have a lot of kids. When I started to feel that little nudge from the Lord to give myself totally to Him, I only ever thought about the Salesians. They were in my school. They were fun and funny, they loved kids, they were holy, and they were real, strong, and intelligent women. It was really a no-brainer!</div>
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<b>How old were you when you began discerning the consecrated life, and when did you finally decide that this was the </b><b>right decision?</b></div>
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The first time I ever thought of religious life, I was in sixth grade. We were in the church, and I don’t even remember what we were doing there (obviously, I wasn’t paying too much attention), but I remember a moment when I looked at the Tabernacle, and I felt God was saying to me, <i>“Maybe you should be a Sister.”</i> Unlike Mary, I didn’t say, “Yes!” right away. I said, <i>“What? I’m way too cool</i></div>
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<i>to be a nun!”</i> And then I didn’t think about it again until I was a freshman in high school and saw so many great Sisters. I finally decided to enter when I was a junior in high school. I had wrestled with my vocation more seriously through high school, and after meeting a 34-year-old woman who admitted she had thought about being a Sister and still wondered if that was what she should have done, I was afraid of being like her. I wanted to give Jesus a real chance to steal my heart!</div>
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<b>Did you have any preconceived notions about the consecrated life that scared you? And if so, how were they </b><b>overcome?</b></div>
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When I was in first grade, my older brother Kieran told me that nuns were bald! I didn’t still believe that by sixth grade, but I did think Sisters maybe couldn’t get a date, and so never married, or that they were social misfits of some kind. Once I met the Salesians, I knew this was not at all true. I knew that they were so normal, so fun, and funny, and full of life, but that Jesus had really become the center of their lives. I saw young, beautiful nuns, who certainly could have gotten a date, but who had chosen the best husband any woman could have!</div>
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<b>Was your family supportive of your decision? </b></div>
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For my whole life, I can remember my parents saying, “It’s a great honor to have a priest or religious in the family.” I never felt pressure at all from them, but I knew that entering would be just fine with them. Of course, when I wanted to enter after high school, they hesitated, feeling I was too young, but I had an intuition that because I love to get involved in stuff and am so easily distracted that if I went on to college, I would forget all about my vocation, and never really discern what the Lord wanted of me.</div>
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<b>What did you expect your life as a sister would be like before you joined the Salesians, versus how it is in reality? </b></div>
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Since so much of what people (not the Sisters, but laypeople) talked about was suffering, offering, and sacrifice, I had this idea that I was headed into a hard time. I remember almost measuring myself and my weak will with the resolve of a lifetime of sacrifice and wondering if I would be able to fulfill this apparently difficult path to which the Lord called me. What I didn’t realize at all is that Jesus was not lying or even exaggerating when He promised His followers that they would be repaid one hundredfold. I have received so much more from religious life than I could ever ask or imagine!</div>
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<b>What do you think is the best way to encourage and reach young people who might be considering a vocation in the </b><b>consecrated life today? How important is social media in this outreach, as opposed to being seen in real life and </b><b>being concretely visible and available to people?</b></div>
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Certainly, young people are very present in the “virtual world,” and they are online so much, that using social networks is very important, but I think young people also love to connect, so as much as possible, meeting them in person can make all the difference. One thing is to email some Sister far, far away… it’s another thing if she calls and asks if she can stop by one evening after dinner!</div>
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<b>Do you have a favourite Saint or any other Catholic figure who serves as your model of faith?</b></div>
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My favorite Saint is <a href="http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=63">Saint John Bosco</a>. He was such a great man, and so able to reach the young. He remains an icon and a model educator, 200 years after his birth!</div>
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<span style="background-color: #fefdfa; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18.2px;">Editor's Note: This interview was conducted via email and was edited only for grammar and punctuation, not content. Since this interview, Sister Colleen has gone to Egypt to do mission work, which is appropriate, since the seventh day of the Novena is dedicated to missionaries. Godspeed, Sister!</span></div>
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<b>Check out the Salesians on the Web:</b></div>
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<a href="https://salesiansisters.org/">Salesian Sisters of Saint John Bosco</a> (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Salesian.Sister">Facebook I</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/salesiansistersdevelopment">Facebook II</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/happynun">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/happynun">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/happynun/">Pinterest</a>)</div>
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<a href="http://www.salesianmissions.org/">Salesian Missions</a> (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/FindYourMission">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/SalMissions">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/salesianvideo">YouTube</a>)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07047501237589816058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-88746962438454753652015-12-25T22:00:00.000-05:002015-12-27T20:39:32.227-05:00We Are So Blessed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I doubt very many of you are reading this, and that's a good thing.</div>
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It's not because I don't want people to read my writing. (That's sort of my <i>job</i>; I think I'm a journalist, or something.) But today isn't really a day for reading blogs, even Christian ones. And I trust you already know that.</div>
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I say the following with no presumption of knowing anyone's lot in life, so beg forgiveness of those who cannot in conscience look upon this day with the joy that I do. But I would be lying if I did not say how I truly feel, that I am so, so blessed.</div>
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One of many terms that wore out its welcome in 2015 was <i>privilege</i>. Everything was about <i>checking one's privilege</i> and grossly micromanaging one's everyday actions to as not to offend someone, somewhere. Any action, no matter how well-intended, if it somehow perceivably harmed someone, somewhere, was <i>problematic</i> (another addition to the Banned Terms 2016 list).</div>
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That having been said, the notion of <i>privilege</i> is not inherently <i>problematic</i>. At the <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/2015/01/je-suis-chretien.html">beginning of the year</a>, I mentioned that we too often confuse our <i>rights</i> with our <i>gifts</i>. In that same vein, we too often confuse our privilege with our blessings.</div>
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Our blessings don't fall out of the sky on a whim. They have to come from somewhere. Some are material, such as wealth. Some are immaterial, such as intelligence. But they all come from somewhere or Someone. Dwelling on the advantages of privilege distracts us from putting our blessings to work in the world around us. Remember, being a Christian is about <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2%3A14-26&version=KJV">faith <i>and</i> works</a>. Prayer without action is like a construction worker without tools. One does not work without the other.</div>
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Christmas in New York has been unseasonably warm this year, but a thought that crosses my mind every Midnight Mass is, <i>What about the homeless?</i> I am one of many people in this building, happy and warm and soon to be fed, and at the end of the night, I will go home and be happy and warm and eventually fed, many times over. But how many people can't say the same?</div>
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Any resident of New York City who walks the streets sees them. War veterans. Young mothers. Teenagers exiled by their families. Many sit crouched with their heads hung in shame as the sunlight reflects off of jewellery in shop windows onto their cardboard signs; others huddle in the doorways of great Gothic churches, as if hiding in the shadow of Christ Himself. We scurry past them and avoid their sad gaze, <i>but they are still there</i>. They will be there when we wake, when we work, when we sleep, and yes, they are there when we sing carols in church and share holiday spiced wine with loved ones at the party after.</div>
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G.K. Chesterton once remarked that <i>"Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home."</i></div>
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How insightful he was.</div>
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The mere fact that Jesus took on human form <i>at all</i> was an act of condescension unto Himself. And it would have been so had He been born to the wealthiest family on Earth, let alone become a child of a poor family, of a subjugated people, in an obscure, backwater province under the bootheel of a pagan empire.</div>
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When people seek to make churches more "humble" by denuding them, my first thought is how astoundingly elitist, how <i>privileged</i> such an attitude is. Do not the poor deserve beauty? How many souls, who have nothing and no-one else to comfort them, have sought refuge in God's house, because they had no house of their own? And yet we hide the Sacrament from them in a side closet. We throw out the loving images of Jesus and His Mother — who is <i>our</i> Mother, and <i>their</i> Mother! — and of all of the Saints who lived every day of their lives for Him. And we turn the Mass into a show for our entertainment, rather than His glory.</div>
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Is it all for the impoverished people amongst us? Or for our impoverished egos?</div>
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I ask that you remember this Christmas those who believe they cannot celebrate this day. The gifts we give one another are not really for Him, yet He is the gift for us, and for <i>those people</i>, too.</div>
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Merry Christmas, all of you. For the next twelve days, even when your neighbours throw their trees in the gutter, even when the stores put up their Valentine's Day decorations obscenely early, even when your awkward cousin Brian stumbles down the basement stairs on New Year's Eve — <i><b>Merry Christmas</b>.</i></div>
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Never forget why you are so blessed as to be born to celebrate this day, because He <i>chose</i> to be born, to love us, to die, to defeat death. For me. For you. For them.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07047501237589816058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-84799983431430103442015-12-08T12:00:00.000-05:002015-12-08T12:24:41.979-05:00When Mary Was Mixed Race: Mary and a Catholic Approach to Social Justice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Praised Be Jesus!</div>
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I hope that everyone is doing well and navigating the crazy change of weather — Jersey has been a mess! As we journey on now that the <a href="http://www.ewtn.com/synod/family/index.asp">Synod of the Family</a> has drawn to a close, and we will soon see what the Holy Father plans to do with the challenges facing the modern family. Many of the issues in the modern world do fall into the realm of Catholic social teaching and how we are to respond to the many cultural and justice issues in our day-to-day lives.<br />
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I was listening to one of my favorite songs recently, "La Guadalupana," which recounts the <a href="http://www.catholic.org/about/guadalupe.php">apparitions of the Virgin Mary</a> to Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill in Mexico. There's a line in the song that states "her face was Mexican," which seems like something very minor — after all, the image is from Mexico — but in a broader context, this simple fact has deep implications. The Apparitions of Mary at Guadalupe came at a very tenuous time in the history of Mexico. It was a time of great strife, the Spanish had little success in colonizing and converting the Aztec people, and the Aztec people were fiercely resisting the Spanish's efforts to colonize and evangelize.</div>
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And then came the miraculous image, and then the largest mass conversion happened in all the history of the Church. There is something striking about the image itself that tends to get overlooked by other facts about the image, and especially by the fact that the conversions largely ended the worship of Aztec gods. But the fact the the Virgin is biracial tends to escape our modern conversation about the image and the impact it had. The image pictures Mary as offspring of the the native Aztec and Spanish settlers, but interestingly enough, the image has more Aztec symbolism than it does Spanish: Mary comes as an Aztec princess, with the constellations in her mantle, pictured in the blazing sun with the crescent moon under her feet, and in her womb she is bearing child, as indicated by the black sash.</div>
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In a sense, Mary is reaching into the culture and a history of a people: She is in solidarity with them, she knows their pains and trials, their joys and what they hold dear and value, but at the same time, Mary calls all to unity in their diversity, for she herself is of mixed blood. She is both Spanish and Aztec. Mary reaches beyond the breach of culture and racial identity and seeks to make them one, without destroying one or the other.</div>
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There seems to be a breakdown in the modern social justice movement. We hear of social justice in the realms of modern feminism, the gay rights movement, and many forms of outreach to help the poor and impoverished. Many Catholics find themselves at odds with the idea of social justice because it appears in conflict with the Church, and so they never give the Church's actual social teaching a second glance. What the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe teach us is God's plan for unity and justice among people in a way that takes no side, as well as how to serve Christ in all people.</div>
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The first striking detail about the Guadalupe's image is that she is of mixed race, she is Mestizo, a mix of the native Aztec people and the Spanish, so in her becomes infused the people who are at odds with each other. In many cases, the Spanish thought those whom they were evangelizing (and outright colonizing) were beneath them, savages who needed to be Europeanized to be considered civil. Mary puts an end to this: She assumes in herself what is considered inferior and makes it a part of her identity. She becomes God's vision for a unified society, a society where no one is considered less-than, but has equal dignity as children of the Creator, Our Father in Heaven.<br />
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Mary becomes a palpable symbol of what Saint Paul <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+3%3A28&version=DRA">writes to the Galatians</a>: <i>"</i><span style="background-color: #fdfeff; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #001320; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><i>There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus."</i> How many times have we looked </span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">upon</span></span><span style="color: #001320;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"> someone who is in need, someone who is hurting and refused to help him or her because he or she either </span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;">didn't</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"> live the same way we did, or saw the world in a manner that was different from us? Have we </span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;">sought</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"> to serve Christ beyond the </span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;">differences that we see or perceive?</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320;">Another striking aspect of the image is what our Lady is that she is wearing traditional Aztec dress. It is in this gesture that Our Lady takes on the identity of a community. She takes on a community's culture, their history, their joys, and pains, she does not sublimate a people but instead affirms and shows proudly who they are, and seeks solidarity with an oppressed people. Are there people in and around us whom we seek to want to hide from? Do we go out of our way to pretend people wouldn't exist so that we wont feel criticized by our peers? Solidarity is a striking element of Catholic social teaching. Solidarity seeks within itself to identify with The Other, as Christ stood in solidarity with the widowed, the orphan, and many times with sinners, so too do we need to stand with those who have been marginalized in society — and sometimes even in our own Church. Pope Francis is constantly urging us to seek out who is invisible in our own backyards: Who are the people we consciously ignore? These are the people who need us the most and need to be shown Christ's face in us.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fdfeff; color: #001320;">And last of all, Our Lady in the image is a pregnant woman; in her womb, she is bearing Christ Jesus for all humanity. Before anything else, we are to be a new <a href="http://orthodoxwiki.org/Theotokos">Theotokos</a>, bearing God to all of humanity. Mary's maternal mission becomes our mission, as Christ is once again made flesh to others in each and everyone of us, it is by bringing Him and His light into society that we have true justice. It is in Him the we have true union. It is the message of the Gospel which "sets captives free" and seeks to reconcile all humanity, no matter where people find themselves in life. And it is always our mission to serve Christ in others, no matter who they are or what their dispositions are. There is a beautiful part of the <a href="http://www.legionofmarytidewater.com/news/news06/november/handbookstudy.htm">Legion of Mary Promise</a> that states that through us "the person of our Lord may be once again seen and served by Mary his mother" and that person of Christ is our neighbor, it is the outcast and it is the marginalized, and this is the Christ we are called to serve.</span><br />
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Michael Thérèsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07692731600968451784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-83261959406523669332015-11-10T14:00:00.000-05:002015-11-10T14:00:25.276-05:00SAINTATHON 2015: Saint Expedite<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Praised Be Jesus, everyone!</div>
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As we continue on with our celebration of saints for November, I want to highlight a mostly unknown saint in our part of the world, who's also one of my favorites, <b>Saint Expedite</b>. Very little is known about Saint Expedite, but he is greatly associated with the armies of Armenia. As his legend goes, Saint Expedite was a Roman solider who was converting to Christianity. On his way to be baptized, Satan appeared to him as a crow (or a snake, depending on the legend) and tried to convince him to convert the next day. In a flurry of zeal, Expedite crushed the bird beneath his feet and proclaimed, <i>"I will follow Christ today!"</i> and proceeded to be baptized — and not long after, martyred.</div>
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In his iconography, Expedite is pictured as a young Roman soldier with a crow beneath his feet saying the Latin word <i>Cras</i>, which means <i>tomorrow</i>, he holds a cross in his hand with the Latin word <i>Hodie</i>, which means <i>today</i>. Saint Expedite is patron of causes that need a speedy answer and is known for his quick intercession before the Throne of God.</div>
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Expedite teaches us something very important about God, that God answers our prayers immediately and fully. Even if it seems that we are waiting months or even years for a certain prayer to be answered, God always answers. Also, Expedite teaches us that we cannot truly put off spiritual matters: We have only one time to follow Christ, and that time is now. There may not be a tomorrow to do the good work we want to do, to do penance. We only really have today to pray. We only really have today to be Christ to one another.</div>
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Expedite causes us to pause and really think about our lives and what our priorities are. Do we really put Christ at the forefront? Or is He a constant afterthought for another day? This is also why Saint Expedite is the patron saint of procrastinators, those who constantly try to put things off for the next day. We can ask Saint Expedite to help us to prioritize our lives, with God at the forefront, and be able to fulfill all our other duties.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">Prayer to Saint Expedite </span></strong><br />
Our dear martyr and protector, Saint Expedite,<br />
You who know what is necessary and what is urgently needed.<br />
I beg you to intercede before the Holy Trinity, that by your grace <br />
my request will be granted.<br />
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_<i>___________ (Clearly express what you want, and ask him to </i><br />
<i>find a way to get it to you.)</i><br />
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May I receive your blessings and favors.<br />
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.</div>
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<b><i>Saint Stats:</i></b></div>
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<b>Born:</b> Third Century, A.D.<br />
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<b>Died:</b> A.D. 303<br />
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<b>Beatified/</b><b>Canonized:</b> Pre-Congregation</div>
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<b>Feast Day:</b> April 19</div>
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<b>Patronage:</b> Emergencies, expeditious solutions, against procrastination, merchants, navigators</div>
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Michael Thérèsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07692731600968451784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-90142114515009846022015-11-05T12:00:00.000-05:002015-11-05T12:00:00.095-05:00SAINTATHON 2015: Dem Bones: The Power and Mystery of the Holy Relics<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The major relics of Saint Maria Goretti on tour in Philadelphia</i></td></tr>
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Praised Be Jesus!</div>
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In recent weeks, the Catholic world has been abuzz, first and foremost for Pope Francis' visit to the U.S. and the effects it had on believers and nonbelievers alike. But a curious, little-known event coincided with the Holy Father's visit to the U.S. On Monday, September 21, the skeletal remains of <a href="http://mariagoretti.com/">Saint Maria Goretti</a>, the youngest canonized saint in the modern history of the Catholic Church, made their first stop on their tour of the U.S. This tour is in honor of the <a href="http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-mercy/">Year of Mercy</a>, which Pope Francis will proclaim later this year. Also in recent news, it was made known that the remains of Saint Thérèse and her parents would be exposed during the whole of the Synod on the Family.</div>
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But why? Many people ask this question. What is so special about the bones of the saints who have already entered eternal glory? Isn't the practice of relics something that was stopped after the Second Vatican Council? </div>
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Sadly, the veneration of relics has greatly declined after the Second Vatican council, especially in the U.S., and the practice of their veneration has become a somewhat obscure oddity to many faithful. The practice and preservation of relics is one of the most venerable and treasured practices of the Church. In the early years of Christian persecution, it was upon the bones of the early martyrs over which which early Christians said Mass, connecting those who were already experiencing the beatific with the worship of the Church still upon Earth. In the scriptures, a man was revived to life <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kings+13%3A21+&version=DRA">by touching the bones</a> of the prophet Elisha.</div>
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It is normal when someone who we love has passed to want to keep a part of him or her near us, maybe a favorite watch, a prayer book, some piece of jewelry, an old shirt. These items keep us forever connected with those who have gone to their eternal reward and keep their presence close to us. In a same way, the saints' special presence is with us through their relics.</div>
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For a good part of human history, it has been the tendency of humans to keep some remains of the deceased as a connection to the world beyond, and to keep that person's presence ever close. A good example of this is the Victorian practice of keeping strands of the deceased's hair in a locket. In a very real way, this is the role the sacred relics of the saints play in the life of the Church.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>A private collection of relics</i></td></tr>
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I had the opportunity, when the major relics of Saint Maria Goretti came to Philadelphia, to bring along a few of my coworkers to venerate the relics. (Mind you neither of these coworkers is Catholic!) I had told Maria's story to them before, and to be honest, it seemed strange to them, something foreign; how could a little 11-year-old girl forgive her attempted rapist and murderer and than want him to be with her forever in heaven?</div>
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Well, we headed over to the church, and while we were waiting in line, they asked me to tell Maria's story again, and while we were before Maria's small body, something changed, and the experience deeply impacted one of my coworkers. It was like in an instant, Maria had touched her heart, communicating her profound suffering, and than her tender compassion and mercy. It was as if my coworker had sat down with Maria herself and Maria had given her an insight that was all her own. My coworker said to me, "I'm just so impressed that someone that young would be able to be that mature to forgive someone who would do that to her." From that moment, she took Maria as her favorite saint, and to this day tells people about Maria's story and her experience with her relics.</div>
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I give complete credit to this to Maria's intercession and an enlightening of the Holy Ghost in her soul, to have such an insight was truly a beautiful and enlightening gift to behold and deeply impacted me, solidifying in myself the power and importance of relics. I have had my own experience with relics: After praying to Saint Thérèse in choosing a confirmation name, the relic of Saint Thérèse brought the night of the end of my novena, giving me the answer to my prayer to choose her as my patron. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>My relics</i></td></tr>
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The ministry of the saints does not end with their death. It is a fundamental teaching of the Church that the saint continue to minister to the Church in the glory of the beatific vision, The Communion of Saints truly is a ministry of Christ making himself present through all the levels of the Church. The Saints continue to be a part of our lives, and they want to be active participants in our lives, continuing to make Jesus Christ known through their presence, intercession, and ministry for us. The relics play an integral part of this ministry, The saints want to be so much a part of our lives, a part of our journey, that through the wisdom of the church, the saints continue to their mission physically through their own bodies to the entire Church. It is well known that Saint Thérèse of Lisieux wanted to be a missionary more than anything — hence why she is patron of the mission — but she passed before her community sent her to the convent in Vietnam. In God's providence, Thérèse has become a missionary to the whole world through her relics, which have visited every continent in the world, where she continues to make Christ ever more present in the lives of millions of people.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Relic of Saint Thérèse</i></td></tr>
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Think of the holy relics, and think about how those in heaven want to be so much a part of our lives, both physically and spiritually, and are always waiting and willing to minister to us to bring Christ to the forefront and center of our lives.</div>
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<i>Almighty God,</i></div>
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<i>your saints are one with you</i></div>
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<i>in the mystical body of Christ: </i></div>
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<i>give us grace to follow them </i></div>
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<i>in all virtue and holiness </i></div>
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<i>until we come to those inexpressible joys </i></div>
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<i>which you have prepared for those </i></div>
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<i>who truly love you; </i></div>
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<i>through Jesus Christ our Lord,</i></div>
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<i>who is alive with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, </i></div>
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<i>one God now and for ever. </i></div>
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<b><i>Amen.</i></b></div>
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Michael Thérèsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07692731600968451784noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-58624055770340368872015-11-04T12:00:00.000-05:002015-11-10T12:52:50.882-05:00SAINTATHON 2015: Blessed Chiara Badano <div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Welcome, one and all, to Unpleasant Accents' second annual Saintathon! To commemorate our anniversary, which falls on All Saints Day, our team is posting about their favourite Saints throughout the week. This year, Tani starts us off with <b>Blessed Chiara Badano</b>:</i></div>
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Human beings have always had a strange relationship with suffering. In A.D. 524, the philosopher Boethius wrote, "Finally, and this is the last straw, the judgement of most people is based not on the merits of a case but on the fortune of its outcome; they think that only things which turn out happily are good." Perhaps that is why Blessed Chiara Badano so confuses, and yet so captures the imagination of, many people around the world.</div>
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<a name='more'></a>Bl. Chiara is a very recent arrival in heaven; in fact, most of the writers here at Unpleasant Accents were young children at the time of her death in October of 1990. Chiara herself was only 18 when she passed away in a haze of almost unbearable suffering and almost incomprehensible peace. Her life may have been short, but it was marked with the quiet holiness that always sets saints apart. </div>
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Chiara was born in Sassello, Italy and was an only child to parents who had prayed for over a decade for a baby. Like every child, she could be mischievous; this was no perfectly behaved saint-in-the-making! At age 9, she joined the <a href="http://www.focolare.org/usa/">Focolare movement</a>, an ecumenical movement of peace and holiness. She went to Mass regularly and prayed constantly. Chiara also enjoyed tennis, swimming, pop music, and going out with her friends. Life was good for this bright, cheerful teenager. </div>
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In 1988, Chiara was 16 years old when a terrible pain in her shoulder forced her into doctor's office after doctor's office. Finally, the diagnosis: terminal bone cancer. The active teenager would soon become bedridden, her once strong body would waste away, and pain would be her constant companion. It would have been very easy for young Chiara to lose hope, to become angry at God, and to descend into despair. But she never let her faith be shaken. She saw her pain as a gift that she could give to God to make up for sins, and she offered a daily sacrifice of joy to Him, praising Him constantly for His goodness and mercy. When people around her were tempted to despair, she would encourage them to be strong. Her love for the people around her was incredible, and she is quoted as having said, "I have nothing left, but I still have my heart, and with that, I can always love."</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bl. Chiara, shortly before her death</i></td></tr>
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For two years, she wasted away, without ever losing her <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13&version=RSVCE">faith, hope, and charity</a>. Finally, the end was near. Chiara requested to be put in a wedding dress to meet her Bridegroom. Her last words were, "Good-bye. Be happy, because I am." Her funeral was attended by hundreds of people, and she's still much beloved in my Catholic teenage girl circles. To the world, her life is a tragedy, the story of a beautiful young woman who died young, without making any money or becoming in any way famous. But we can look at her story and see a beautiful young woman made even more beautiful by her love and courage, whose fame is in her ability to answer prayers and give inspiration to us when we suffer.</div>
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For me, <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/2014/07/how-sickness-and-spirit-taught-me.html">living with suffering every day</a>, Bl. Chiara is a great comfort. She's proof that suffering doesn't have to steal faith or joy. Just a few months younger than me when she died, I can look to her as a peer in heaven. Her example gives me strength and courage. To the world, her story didn't end happily, but we know that in heaven, she's perfectly joyful and at peace.</div>
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Bl. Chiara Badano, pray for us!</div>
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<b><i>Saint Stats:</i></b></div>
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<b>Born:</b> October 29, 1971</div>
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<b>Died:</b> October 7, 1990</div>
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<b>Beatified:</b> September 25, 2010</div>
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<b>Canonised:</b> TBD</div>
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<b>Feast Day:</b> October 29</div>
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<b>Patronage:</b> World Youth Day (<a href="http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/blessed-chiara-badano-an-excellent-model-for-world-youth-day/">Read more here!</a>)</div>
Tani Federoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02112956068243761963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-22609537459038776372015-10-27T16:00:00.000-04:002015-10-27T16:00:02.972-04:00I Am a Bride of Christ<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena</i></td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Praised Be Jesus!</span><br />
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As autumn rolls on, there are a great many feasts honoring many a woman who dedicated her life to serving Christ as a spiritual Bride of Christ. Whether they be virgin martyrs or cloistered nuns, we have come to know those who identify with brides of Christ as those women who have made some commitment to the religious or consecrated life. So it may come to many a surprise that spiritually, I identify as a spouse of Christ, even though I am male and I have not taken any formal religious vows.</div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="text-align: justify;">First, let us back up and take a visit to my RCIA class in 2008, and in the midst of the instruction we had one guest speaker come in to teach us about Charismatic prayer, and I remember at some point during her presentation she said, "I am a Bride of Christ." I instantly took note: "I may be a married woman, but I consider myself a Bride of Christ," and after that I cant quite remember how the rest of the presentation went, but I remember saying to myself that I wanted to become a Bride of Christ also.</span><br />
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So, from that time forward, that's how my spirituality started to form as a spouse of Christ. Most male spirituality focuses on friendship with Christ, spiritual warfare (such as that of a Solider of Christ) or some other manly imagery. All of these images are good and fine, but for some, they lack. As I have <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/2014/02/let-him-kiss-me-with-kiss-of-his-mouth.html">stated previously</a>, the soul seeks intimate union with Christ, and Christ desires the soul as if it were his beloved, his one and only love, and we as beloved are to seek complete union and sublimation into the person of Christ.</div>
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As Luis M. Martinez, the late Archbishop of Mexico, writes, "To love is to disappear, to efface oneself to the point of transformation into and fusion with the Beloved." And this is how deep Christ's love is for each individual soul, and how much our souls should delve into Christ's love and affection. As Scripture states, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+10%3A8&version=DRA">the two become one flesh</a>. At the root of every Christian is union with Christ; it is that deep intimacy with Christ. Scripture uses the imagery of a wedding to describe this deep union, we see this union foreshadowed in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Song+of+Songs+2%3A8-10&version=DRA">Song of Songs</a>, and then shown in glory at the wedding feast of the Lamb in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+19%3A5-9&version=DRA">Book of Revelation</a>.</div>
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But even at the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus first chooses to manifest Himself <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+2%3A1-11&version=DRA">at a wedding</a>, a foreshadowing of His heavenly wedding to His Bride, the Church. In the mystical Tradition of the Church, this union is the first union of Christ with the whole body of the Church, but also extends itself to the individual soul which is seeking perfect union with the Trinity. We can see this individual union best exemplified in the person of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who in herself is the model for the whole Church and in a sense is a Bride of Christ. </div>
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It is in Mary's pure and unspotted love with Christ, and the deep union that she shares with the whole Trinity due in virtue to her most Holy and Immaculate Conception. But this union continued to deepen as Mary journeyed through life due in virtue to her humanity, Mary had to feel the Dark Night: She had to journey with complete trust in God, not knowing all the answers. She had to endure many pains on the road to her personal Calvary as she accompanied her son to His Calvary, and through it all, the perfect was made even more perfect, and Mary grew closer in unity with the Trinity, the Trinity whose depth of mystery knows no end.</div>
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As Mary is the model of the Church, but more important, the model for each individual soul, all that happens in the life of the Virgin Mary is the ideal of what will happen to each of us individually. Mary truly grew in love and union with Christ and the whole Trinity, until "the two became one flesh." As Mary journeyed through life, she continued to be even more immersed in God's mystery.</div>
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We share in this mystery by virtue of our baptism, as Brant Pitre points out in his book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Bridegroom-Greatest-Love-Story/dp/0770435459">Jesus the Bridegroom</a></i>, Baptism is synonymous with the Jewish cleansing ritual before a wedding, In Baptism, we are born anew; we become, in a sense, an "Immaculate Conception," a new creation each individually prepared to meet our groom Christ, and this preparation is constantly being consummated in the Sacraments, especially and most poignantly in the Eucharist, which is truly the wedding feast of the Lamb.</div>
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All Christian life points to this mystical union. It is the reality of the Christian life, not some strange far-off concept. This is the corner stone of the Christian mystery, so I can truly say that I am a Bride of Christ.</div>
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<i><b>O my God! I offer Thee all my actions of this day for the intentions and for the glory of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I desire to sanctify every beat of my heart, my every thought, my simplest works, by uniting them to Its infinite merits ; and I wish to make reparation for my sins by casting them into the furnace of Its Merciful Love.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>O my God! I ask thee for myself and for those whom I hold dear, the grace to fulfill perfectly Thy Holy Will, to accept for love of Thee the joys and sorrows of this passing life, so that we may one day be united together in Heaven for all Eternity. Amen.</b></i></div>
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<i><b>—Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face</b></i></div>
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Michael Thérèsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07692731600968451784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-52252945218038334102015-09-22T16:00:00.000-04:002015-10-02T23:02:30.715-04:00So, You've Decided to Report on the Catholic Church: A Journalistic Primer<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Welcome to America, Pope Francis! To celebrate <a href="http://www.usccb.org/about/leadership/holy-see/francis/papal-visit-2015/">your arrival</a>, all of the U.S. press have been instructed to watch this educational film so that your visit is covered accurately and fairly. We hope you enjoy your stay!
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Well, hello there! If you're watching this short film, then you're about to start a promising career in the world of journalism. In this profession, you are tasked with bringing the news to the people, free of bias or prejudice. In today's lesson, we're going to cover the <b>Do's and Don'ts of Reporting on the Catholic Church</b>. Let's get started, shall we?</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-3Px7NAvtfX1SE0x3Xp7ezjV8c2KsX5b5nKz1j8jcT_32smKtY1WXwBXhlvlBM9lyHAk3uYar6ANLRaYYyoyHTy_RVjChO79smjDMs5NP6lol-dPg1pxBRo9zI5QlaFVyXF4ukHdDNlL/s1600/Newsie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-3Px7NAvtfX1SE0x3Xp7ezjV8c2KsX5b5nKz1j8jcT_32smKtY1WXwBXhlvlBM9lyHAk3uYar6ANLRaYYyoyHTy_RVjChO79smjDMs5NP6lol-dPg1pxBRo9zI5QlaFVyXF4ukHdDNlL/s320/Newsie.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"But mister!"</i></td></tr>
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Why, if it isn't our old pal, Newsie! What is it, young friend?</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-3Px7NAvtfX1SE0x3Xp7ezjV8c2KsX5b5nKz1j8jcT_32smKtY1WXwBXhlvlBM9lyHAk3uYar6ANLRaYYyoyHTy_RVjChO79smjDMs5NP6lol-dPg1pxBRo9zI5QlaFVyXF4ukHdDNlL/s1600/Newsie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-3Px7NAvtfX1SE0x3Xp7ezjV8c2KsX5b5nKz1j8jcT_32smKtY1WXwBXhlvlBM9lyHAk3uYar6ANLRaYYyoyHTy_RVjChO79smjDMs5NP6lol-dPg1pxBRo9zI5QlaFVyXF4ukHdDNlL/s320/Newsie.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"The Catholic Church is </i><b>so</b> <i>big and complicated. Can't we just cut out all the boring stuff and report a Cliff's Notes version of what she teaches?"</i></td></tr>
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But of <i>course</i> not, Newsie. That would be "journalistic malpractice". And we don't want to violate our sacred trust with the public now, do we?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"But what if we just outright </i><b>make up</b> <i>the news? Y'know, insert our own biases real subtle-like?"</i></td></tr>
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<i>*Chuckle*</i> Shut up, Newsie. Why don't you go play in traffic for the duration of the film?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Aw, rats!"</i></td></tr>
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Now, then. Let's get started on <b>Do's and Don'ts of Reporting on the Catholic Church</b>:</div>
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This is Pope Francis. Cheerful fellow, isn't he? He's got a very important job. You see, he's the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics and—</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Golly gee! That Pope Francis feller sure seems like a swell guy! He's so progressive, unlike the last guy..."</i></td></tr>
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Whoa, whoa, Newsie! You're not very bright, are you? Well, that's non-Catholic education for you. But it's actually good you said that, because this brings us to our list of <b>Do's and Don'ts</b>!</div>
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<b>Do:</b> Remember that the Pope is not a politician, able to enact his own personal views as policies. His job is to uphold Church teaching. He may have a different emphasis in his ministry, but that doesn't mean he's contradicting his predecessors.</div>
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<b>Don't:</b> Pit the current Pontiff against the ones who came before him.</div>
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<b>Terms to Avoid (if used to contrast Francis with Benedict):</b> warm, open, progressive, teddy bear-like</div>
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<b>Terms to Avoid (if used to contrast Benedict with Francis):</b> cold, professorial, conservative, Emperor Palpatine</div>
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<b>Do:</b> Avoid confusing personal opinions with unchanging doctrines. Remember the broader picture when covering the Pope when he addresses a controversial issue.</div>
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<b>Example Reporting:</b> "Although Francis has made overtures towards post-abortive women, he has not changed the Church's longstanding opposition to abortion and is actually the first Pope to attend Italy's March for Life."</div>
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<b>Don't:</b> Speculate that the Pope's pastoral tone means that a broad overturning of centuries of Church teaching.</div>
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<b>Example Reporting:</b> "Francis famously declared, 'Who am I to judge?' in reference to gay people, leading some to speculate he could reverse the Catholic Church's stance against same-sex marriage."</div>
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<b>Do:</b> Remember that the Church is not a democracy and that groups that dissent from her teaching are not officially recognised as "Catholic" in any way, shape or form.</div>
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<b>Don't:</b> Present dissenting groups as "the other side" regarding Church doctrine. If you wouldn't give equal time to Creationists when discussing evolution, then you shouldn't pretend that these groups have an actual say in determining Church teaching. (<b>NB:</b> This does not mean that you ignore these groups entirely. The issue is misrepresenting them as having undue influence on the Church herself, as opposed to misleading the faithful.)</div>
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<b>Example Groups:</b> Catholics for Choice [<i>sic</i>], DignityUSA, Women's Ordination [<i>sic</i>] Conference, literally any mainline Protestant clergyman who claims to be an "expert" on Church matters</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"But mister!"</i></td></tr>
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<i>Mother of Mercy...</i> <b>WHAT!</b><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>...is it, Newsie?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Isn't it the press' job ta' avoid </i></td></tr>
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proselytising for the Church? Ta' be all neutral-like?"
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You make a fair point, Newsie, despite your precocious illiteracy. The issue is when the media forget to present the Church in her proper context, as if she is just one of many competing voices in a democratic exchange of ideas. In our liberal, secular American context, she is, for better or worse. But <i>within the Church</i> there are two sides on most issues: the Truth, and then every other position. The sooner you, the media, understand that when covering the Church, especially during the Holy Father's visit, the better off — and better informed — we'll all be.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Golly-gee, mister! I didn't know all that! So, are you sayin' that the media like ta' twist the facts to suit their agenda?</i></td></tr>
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<i>*Chuckle*</i> Of <i>course</i> not, Newsie. Of <i>course</i> not.
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07047501237589816058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-54790242552889496132015-09-14T10:00:00.000-04:002015-09-14T10:00:02.004-04:00Tani Trashes Terrible Christian Movies: Christian Mingle<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<i>[<b>WARNING:</b> This review contains spoilers, but that's only because I watched this movie so you don't have to.]</i></div>
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Here at Unpleasant Accents, we have a long and rich history of <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/search/label/Drunken%20Book%20Club">drunk book reviews</a>. In that vein, I have decided to start writing high Christian movie reviews. Don’t worry, folks; it’s a totally legal high on my painkillers for EDS, which is good, because to get through <i><a href="http://www.christianminglethemovie.com/">Christian Mingle: The Movie</a></i>, I had to take a few extra ibuprofen. It’s that bad.</div>
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The first problem here is the sheer attractiveness of all the people in Christian Mingle. I actually have a Christian Mingle account (through no fault of my own... my friend Em got one for me as a joke), and let me tell you, besides me, there are no really attractive people on that site. You know what kind of people there are? Old people. Really old people. People that you wonder if they’re really just corpses with beer bottles taped to their hands, they look so old. It’s a gathering ground for widows and widowers who want to find someone to live out their remaining years with, praying and praising Jesus together. Which is a cute idea, to be sure, but it doesn’t really fit in with the hip, young, inexplicably perfectly made-up folks in this movie. </div>
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But back to the movie. </div>
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If you can even call it that.</div>
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It’s more of a commercial for the Christian Mingle dating website, using people grabbed off the street as actors, who are presumably more drugged than I am. At least, that’s the only explanation I’ve got for the hilariously wooden acting and badly delivered lines. And while we’re at it, the writers were probably high, too, because in what universe is it funny to shove a guy in a sea captain’s uniform randomly into the story, and just explain it away as him being an eccentric boss? Newsflash: If you dress like a sea captain when you are not currently a sea captain, and crack jokes about bad coffee and baldness, you will not be in charge of a successful advertising company. You might be in charge of a high school production of <i>The Pirates of Penzance</i>, but anything more than that is a major stretch. </div>
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Main character (and basically agnostic) Gwyneth is bummed about her lack of dates that revolve around anything but stinky cheese (I kid thee not). She decides to join Christian Mingle after seeing their commercials on TV, so that she can find a nice guy. The sequence where she signs up perfectly shows how very easy it is to join Christian Mingle, and how in-depth their profile creating tool is. Somehow, a guy instantly sees her profile and wants to meet — impressive, seeing as she created a free profile, but if you actually have Christian Mingle, you’d know that you can’t communicate in any way with anyone else on the site unless you buy a paid membership, which can be pretty pricey. You pay $30 for a single month, or $83.94 for six months, for the privilege of talking to old Baptists about how much Jesus has changed your life. But this movie is unabashedly Protestant, and hey, since when have Protestants actually taught the whole truth?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Not since 1517!</i></td></tr>
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At about fifteen minutes in, I realize that <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000327/">Gwyneth is really Gretchen Wieners</a> from <i>Mean Girls</i>, and then I realize that I’ll have to use <i>Mean Girls</i> GIFs as reactions for the rest of the movie, for the sake of geeky integrity. So, here we go.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>How many popular but impertinent Christian rock songs can we shoehorn into this movie?</i></td></tr>
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Back in <i>Bland White Christians Find Romance: The Movie</i>, Gwyneth begins dating perpetually flannel-clad Paul. Paul was brought to Jesus through cheese (cheese can’t help if this movie is obsessed with it), which is a metaphor for God’s love. It’s about as subtle as a school bus to the face. Gwyneth BSes her way through Bible studies and saying grace. Paul’s dad says things like, “Well, alrighty then, let’s steak and cake it!” and, “Alrighty to the Almighty!” with a smile on his face and a terrible deadness in his eyes, and it hurts to watch.</div>
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Paul and Gwyneth go to Mexico to minister together. Loud, cliché mariachi music alerts you to her arrival, because that’s literally all Mexico is about. The cute little brown Mexicans are so happy for the help, so grateful for having the enlightened white people give them Jesus, totally ignoring that Our Lady of Guadalupe pretty much did that in 1531. And hey, the Mexican actors actually manage to deliver their Spanish lines in a stiffer fashion than the white actors. Probably because they’re too dang pale to be real, ethnic Mexicans.</div>
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In Mexico, Gwyneth’s duplicity is discovered and she and Paul break up, and she goes home, throws away her Christian swag, and watches more Christian Mingle commercials that highlight how Christian-y and mingle-y the site is. One commercial finally triggers her realization that she needs to believe in God. She gets her Bible back and opens it to the sound of the whimsical chimes that always play during the magical parts of movies. Magically, she now has perfect faith, because that’s how faith works: instantaneously, and only from reading the Bible. </div>
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Gwyneth then explores relativism with the belief that her new Pentecostal church is just as truthful as Paul’s Episcopalian-ish church, even though they believe totally different things, because religion is about making ourselves comfortable.</div>
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She cries during a rainstorm over losing Paul (duh) and then asks Jesus into her life and is officially saved (duh, again.) A little brown child in a tiered skirt and sombrero writes her a letter that is narrated in the absolute worst Mexican accent I have ever heard in my entire life. I am highly offended, and want to bomb this entire movie, because it is the Taco Bell of Christian movies: It's what white people think Mexican life is. In the end, Gwyneth goes back to Mexico to teach and is killed by a drug cartel.<br />
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Wait, no, just kidding. She gets Paul back and lives happily ever after. </div>
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The movie then, mercifully, ends.</div>
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Damian asked me to write this for him, and I hate him, but:</div>
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<i>~Tani</i>Tani Federoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02112956068243761963noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-25238549948664347242015-07-30T14:00:00.000-04:002015-07-30T14:00:03.391-04:00Do All Dogs Go to Heaven? How Losing a Pet Challenged My Views on the Afterlife<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I love dogs. I love all animals, really, but dogs hold a special place in my heart. Anyone who grew up with a pet can easily understand why animals can hold such an important and profound place in our lives.</div>
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Pets do a tremendous service to mankind that comes in all forms. We often hear heartwarming stories of service dogs giving people with disabilities a sense of independence. Military veterans who suffer from severe PTSD are given a chance to heal through service animals. Stories about cats and dogs helping children with mental disabilities circulate through social media on a regular basis. Beyond that, every pet owner has a story about some act of joy his or her pet brought into his or her life. Many of us cannot think of our pets without smiling or remembering something they did recently. </div>
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I often read these stories, cry for an hour, and have to tell people at work that my eyes are red from allergies and not from reading sweet animal stories when I should be answering client emails. Reading about the tremendous love our pets have for us and seeing it with my own pets proves just how much God loves us.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The Church teaches that animals do not have immortal souls, and therefore do not have a place in Heaven. It is statement that many Catholics, myself included, struggle to accept. It is not stated anywhere in the Bible that the soul of an animal goes to Heaven after its time on Earth is complete, although Scripture does make multiple references to animals, many of them metaphorical.</div>
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For the past four months, I've been thinking a lot about this topic. Back in March, I said goodbye to my little Yorkshire Terrier, Tiger. Tiger had been a huge part of my life for sixteen years. That's sixteen years of fetch, butt-wiggles, cuddles, kisses, silly antics, and so much love packed in a little, eleven-pound dog. When he was a puppy, Tiger would greet me every morning with a series of happy little sneezes and paw dance and then roll over for a belly rub. In the last two years of his life, he would weakly raise his head from his blanket and wag his tail as you came over to him to say hi. All his life, he loved to lie on my chest and tuck his little head under my chin and just sleep. I would read a book, and he would snooze on my chest. He would only do that with me. Every little glance, even when he was annoyed, was always filled with love.</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGiA5Im6zE3LMAY3mlNbKv71KKE2RLtgfJE8fBc1TXb8i0cWXtoQZOC5IlXDXttfbnI7rii7cAgTfVC7Kf94i4-1Lo1Q7as2MLTI0KRYR6qyPwVj-VLC8V68R_2_Hot1mDrIz95i8n_lrC/s1600/2011-05-26+17.12.34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGiA5Im6zE3LMAY3mlNbKv71KKE2RLtgfJE8fBc1TXb8i0cWXtoQZOC5IlXDXttfbnI7rii7cAgTfVC7Kf94i4-1Lo1Q7as2MLTI0KRYR6qyPwVj-VLC8V68R_2_Hot1mDrIz95i8n_lrC/s400/2011-05-26+17.12.34.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>How can you not see the love in his sweet eyes?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He was my first pet, and the first real loss of family that I have ever experienced. When he grew a large lump on his neck that turned out to be aggressive lymphoma, my family made the decision to not prolong his suffering. We were all broken up about it. To be honest, the weeks that followed are a complete haze. I just know that every night I watched a dog movie and I went on a first name basis with the liquor store guy.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Once the initial cloud of grief cleared, I found myself wondering if I would ever see Tiger again. It seemed cruel that God would create these amazing creatures that enrich our lives, but our time with them is so short. You can argue that my time with Tiger was the gift from God, which I can agree to, but it almost seems to fall short. Tiger was such a big part of my life; he was closer to me than anyone outside of my immediate family. How is it possible that someone I loved so much won't be there to greet me when my time to come home to the Lord comes?<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Animals are different from people in the sense that they truly have nothing to hide. They run on their base emotions and don't have an ulterior motive. In the case of dogs, their entire world revolves around their family. Take one look into your dog's eyes, and you can almost physically <i>feel</i> the love they have for you. Honestly, that to me is as much proof of God's love as anything.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He put these amazing creatures onto His beautiful Earth and gave them the ability to love humans, His greatest creation. This is an animal that is completely different from us, but God chose to give us all the common gift of love. How incredible is that?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When I spoke about my whole dilemma with a priest at my parish, who is also an animal lover, he directed me to <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+3%3A18-21&version=RSV">Ecclesiastes 3:18-21</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>"I said in my heart with regard to the sons of men that God is testing them to show them that they are but beasts. For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?"</i></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To paraphrase the priest: "We don't know what exactly waits for us after we leave this world. The only thing we know is that we will be greeted by the warmth of God's love. Who's to say for sure that the animals who taught us that love won't be there as well?"</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He's absolutely right. We have no idea what exactly awaits us when our time on Earth ends. That thought is as comforting as it is frightening.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the end, I'm going to choose to believe that I will see Tiger again. That when my time comes, I'll see him running across the <a href="http://cats.about.com/od/lossandgrieving/a/rainbowbridge.htm">Rainbow Bridge</a>, along with any other pets that I will know and love. That belief may not make me a perfect Catholic, but I'm okay with that.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tiger, I'll see you soon. You're a good boy.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'll leave off with what the Catechism <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a7.htm">states about animals</a>:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><i>Respect for the integrity of creation</i></b><b><i><br /></i></b><i>The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity. Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man's dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Animals<i> are God's creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his own image.</i></blockquote>
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtF_z-QNHXSqasM9LhY7hKs2CXWr1GuIakC76ET5kv0tshhamtp0Sf7fE9zY_UPw6pdKL1sr8BMMh_0yMcsthA8LbDeFpp-ltVTd9gHicMmkRujSjHnALJWBIJTH9GkhOHdVe2o76zQ4zd/s1600/IMG_20150728_185315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtF_z-QNHXSqasM9LhY7hKs2CXWr1GuIakC76ET5kv0tshhamtp0Sf7fE9zY_UPw6pdKL1sr8BMMh_0yMcsthA8LbDeFpp-ltVTd9gHicMmkRujSjHnALJWBIJTH9GkhOHdVe2o76zQ4zd/s320/IMG_20150728_185315.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bonus: This is a picture of Tippy, my Staffordshire Bull Dog/Pit Bull Mix. Everything she does is full of love.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18208338932147656418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-76400691840281082742015-07-09T10:00:00.000-04:002015-07-09T10:00:01.024-04:00The Corruption of the Privacy of Marriage<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A guest post by Daniel Michel</b></div>
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<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
It's a good time for churches in USA to separate civil ceremonies and church ceremonies to clearly show the difference.</div>
— Fr. Jonathan Morris (@fatherjonathan) <a href="https://twitter.com/fatherjonathan/status/614759560906178561">June 27, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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Within just a few days of the Supreme Court's decision on same-sex civil marriage, those on the victorious side of the case began calling for new discriminatory laws and policies to be put into place. One columnist suggested <a href="http://time.com/3939143/nows-the-time-to-end-tax-exemptions-for-religious-institutions/">scrapping the longtime tradition</a> of tax-exempt status from religious institutions — and even polygamists <a href="http://time.com/3944579/montana-polygamy-gay-marriage/">feel emboldened</a> by the decision. Other radical ideas are sure to come about.<br />
<br />
It already looks bleak for many of us who support traditional marriage: the true definition, nature, and substance of what marriage, in fact, <i>is</i>. This issue over marriage and same-sex unions has obviously become divisive, and outside of the legal realm, there appears no end in sight to this debate. This is why it may be time to take a new, or rather old, way of dealing with this issue: privatizing it altogether.<br />
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What privatizing marriage means in this context is that it would completely be handled by private hands, including institutions and individuals outside the state. What this would look like is churches would be in control of marriages as they see fit, of who can or cannot be married, how the couple should conduct themselves, etc. It may seem this happens already today, but appearances can be deceiving. How much the state has already invaded the sanctity of marriage is more than one can comprehend.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
They are already involved in contracts regarding how the couple will manage their property, who gains what if the marriage fails, the benefits they receive once married, and the higher legal status it earns them in American society. This is quite a recent phenomenon, starting in the late 19th to early 20th century when the first state-sanctioned marriage laws were coming into place. The benefits of these laws were much appealing at the time, and they were easily accepted. Like any other state program, however, it grew and grew and festered into a monster one could not see the consequences of at the time. We have now seen that monster's true face.</div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Local Orthodox Christian priest protests same-sex marriage, won't sign civil marriage licenses <a href="http://t.co/yDNw8RlF9e">http://t.co/yDNw8RlF9e</a> <a href="http://t.co/HINcZHTZAr">pic.twitter.com/HINcZHTZAr</a></p>— Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) <a href="https://twitter.com/chicagotribune/status/616937516374081536">July 3, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Before this new manifestation came into society, the norm was religious groups were the keepers of this institution. It was the culture, it was of no contestation, it was the way of life. Marriage was not defined by the state, and those of the state would dare not touch it. What marriage was at the time to many was second nature, and like most in history, the general culture thought it was going to be like this until the Second Coming, but sadly, this culture would not last. Today, many on the traditional side of marriage want that culture to return, but by means of the state.<br />
<br />
Those who lost in this ruling will clamor for the old laws that discriminated what marriage is, what marriage is not, and how other forms of unions shall be treated. It will not work. That culture is gone. The older generation has failed to keep that culture alive, and now a new one has taken its place. The state has turned to this new culture as its new power source and is profiting from it.</div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Letting the state manage marriage was a mistake that has now come back to haunt us. It has taken a while, but now we face its consequences. This is why those who see this new ruling as a defeat are absolutely correct in one sense, but tragically wrong in another. The ruling was indeed a defeat showing what today's society has fallen to, but it is wrong to think that the state would revive the traditions of the old. These traditions, like those of old treasures, must be handled with care, and in responsible hands. Those of the state absolutely do not have these hands, for they would drop anything, no matter how important, for the sake of keeping their security, their power. They have done just that, and we have let them do so.</div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><i>Daniel Michel is a recent graduate from <a href="http://www1.villanova.edu/main.html">Villanova University</a>, where he studied history and economics. He writes about the impact of current events on everyday life and how Catholics can respond to our modern culture.</i></i></div>
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</i></div>Guest Contributorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08094181161846169452noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-69022287540053450262015-07-06T10:00:00.000-04:002015-07-06T11:00:36.624-04:00Not O.K., Takei: On Defining Dignity<div style="text-align: justify;">
By now, any of you with an Internet connection and even a mild interest in pop culture has heard about George Takei's <a href="http://twitchy.com/2015/07/02/unrepentant-racist-george-takei-shredded-after-referring-to-clarence-thomas-as-clown-in-blackface/">unfortunate remarks</a> about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In short, Takei, who is in a civil marriage with another man, took issue with Thomas' dissent in the <i><a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf">Obergefell v. Hodges</a></i> decision, which found that there is a Constitutional right to civil marriage for same-sex couples. Much of the media focus has been on Takei's racially-charged remarks and not on the merits of his criticism of Thomas. Takei finally <a href="https://www.facebook.com/georgehtakei/posts/1299475283415255">apologised</a> for being "uncivil" in his remarks towards the Justice (after <a href="https://www.facebook.com/georgehtakei/posts/1298698736826243">explaining</a> that there is <i>totally</i> nothing racist about saying that a black person is a fake black person, because famous actor, or something), but he stands by his critique. The problem is, his critique is as baseless as his racist remarks are offensive.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_3aa-lySPKYNmaCOOAbPQDHCgyGnMOcc-U4UE5mKlHMyWjUD_jF8FnVlljyafL_CnlpNUVx15kDGbsFbnGrJSTrQqtSC5m221iH814sxxKrTKXppKiVPi13XJHv1JmvaO-vIvcBfqOsP/s1600/OH+MY.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_3aa-lySPKYNmaCOOAbPQDHCgyGnMOcc-U4UE5mKlHMyWjUD_jF8FnVlljyafL_CnlpNUVx15kDGbsFbnGrJSTrQqtSC5m221iH814sxxKrTKXppKiVPi13XJHv1JmvaO-vIvcBfqOsP/s400/OH+MY.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Don't worry, George. This won't hurt. Much.</i></td></tr>
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In his dissent, Thomas took issue with Justice Anthony Kennedy's assertion that denying same-sex couples the right to civil marriage was a denial of their "dignity in the eyes of the law." From Thomas' dissent:</div>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify;">
<i><b>Human dignity has long been understood in this country to be innate.</b> When the Framers proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," they referred to a vision of mankind in which all humans are created in the image of God and therefore of inherent worth. That vision is the foundation upon which this Nation was built.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The corollary of that principle is that human dignity cannot be taken away by the government. Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government allowed them to be enslaved. Those held in internment camps did not lose their dignity because the government confined them. And those denied governmental benefits certainly do not lose their dignity because the government denies them those benefits. <b>The government cannot bestow dignity, and it cannot take it away. [Emphasis added.]</b></i></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is what set off Takei, who <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmYtLpxx8-I">said in an interview</a>:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>He is a clown in blackface sitting on the Supreme Court. He gets me that angry. He doesn't belong there. <b>And for him to say, slaves have dignity. I mean, doesn't he know that slaves were in chains?</b> That they were whipped on the back? If he saw the movie </i>12 Years a Slave<i>, you know, they were raped. And he says they had dignity as slaves or— My parents lost everything that they worked for, in the middle of their lives, in their 30's. <b>His business, my father's business, our home, our freedom, and we're supposed to call that dignified?</b> Marched out of our homes at gunpoint. I mean, this man does not belong on the Supreme Court. He is an embarrassment. He is a disgrace to America. <b>[Emphasis added.]</b></i></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Takei, who is Japanese-American, then <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/george-takei-clarence-thomas-denying-our-rights-denies-our-dignity">wrote an opinion piece</a> in which he discussed his own family's experience in an internment camp during World War II:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><b>To say that the government does not bestow or grant dignity does not mean it cannot succeed in stripping it away</b> through the imposition of unequal laws and deprivation of due process. At the very least, the government must treat all its subjects with equal human dignity. To deny a group the rights and privileges of others, based solely on an immutable characteristic such as race – or as in </i>Obergefell<i>, sexual orientation – is to strip them of human dignity and of the liberty to live as others live. <b>[Emphasis added.]</b></i></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And here is where Takei is wrong. Although Justice Antonin Scalia is perhaps the most vocally Catholic member of America's highest court, he is but one of six Catholics on the Court today. All four of those in the minority of <i>Obergefell</i> are Catholic, but it was Thomas' opinion that most clearly invoked Church teaching, albeit not on marriage itself.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The <i>Catechism of the Catholic Church</i> <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p6.htm#356">defines</a> the <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p6.htm#364">concept</a> of <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s2c1p6.htm#369">dignity</a> quite <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c1.htm">clearly</a>. Dignity is not an earned quality, afforded from our treatment by our fellow men. Rather, it is part of our very nature as creatures uniquely created in the image and likeness of God, creatures uniquely willed by God into existence. What's more, the <i>Catechism</i>'s definition of dignity conveniently dovetails with the Church's understanding of the roles of male and female:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Man and woman have been </i>created<i>, which is to say, </i>willed<i> by God: on the one hand, in perfect equality as human persons; on the other, in their respective beings as man and woman. "Being man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and willed by God: <b>man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator.</b> Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity "in the image of God". In their "being-man" and "being-woman", they reflect the Creator's wisdom and goodness. <b>[Emphasis added.]</b></i></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is worth noting that Takei is not a Catholic — or any sort of Christian, for that matter — but even a cursory understanding of Christian teaching and philosophy should have given him the wisdom to understand Thomas' argument. The Justice was not saying that mistreatment of a fellow human being is not <i>undignified</i>. He was saying that it is impossible to <i>take away dignity</i> as much as to take away one's humanity.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No-one would credibly argue that American slaves were, in fact, less human by virtue of their legal status as property, and no-one can credibly argue that those slaves possessed less inborn dignity than their masters. Although, apparently, Takei believes that one's race can be taken away, given his black-splaining of Justice Thomas.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisG9Tal09skdV8IkNDgVkyMMK2bF_GyPm0VzbWaSaMkWZRU0qpY20Efn-UwMzNrYax-FsB0amGU1YYJdmsxHxTEsIEwbGswhrX6RTx0CJbii7jWGkAmNQieKCPn8mnH6-EmaNrreKa8uXk/s1600/NONE+OF+SULU%2527S+BUSINESS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisG9Tal09skdV8IkNDgVkyMMK2bF_GyPm0VzbWaSaMkWZRU0qpY20Efn-UwMzNrYax-FsB0amGU1YYJdmsxHxTEsIEwbGswhrX6RTx0CJbii7jWGkAmNQieKCPn8mnH6-EmaNrreKa8uXk/s400/NONE+OF+SULU%2527S+BUSINESS.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>...but that's none of my business.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Anthony Kennedy did not redefine marriage. As I <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/2014/02/liberty-is-liberty-and-love-is-love.html">said last year</a>, that happened years ago with the advent of no-fault divorce and the socially accepted serial polygamy that followed. He merely took that redefinition to one logical conclusion. Kennedy did, however, redefine dignity itself, and this deserves our correction.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The dignity we as human beings possess does not come in degrees. There is no hierarchy of dignity, any more than there is a hierarchy of humanity. The Culture of Death would have us believe that this innate trait should be viewed as a utilitarian quality, rather than as an absolute, but our culture is wrong.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The dignity of the slave is equal to the dignity of the slaver.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The dignity of the rape survivor is equal to the dignity of the rapist.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The dignity of the murder victim is equal to the dignity of the murderer.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Every person, from the teacher to the terrorist, is granted the gift of dignity by God. He or she cannot be denied it as a fabricated right of the State. We are united in our humanity, for all of our many faults, and we are further united through Christ, no matter who we are, where we come from or whom we love. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+3%3A28&version=KJV">For all are one in Christ Jesus.</a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07047501237589816058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-9183541416289482092015-06-30T10:00:00.000-04:002015-07-04T12:19:55.537-04:00Reporting from the (Lawn) Chair of Leisure As Culture<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2FhBuQwLwO3m2yO_9uI0q-tfvYwYUhp1zuuqmTQ3RYbtq1u3NMEFChJkMpYQNXmQxlbtjwR5y3QdjOoZs3Rakm5MFwSn6pxO2QYWurp6sJGZFpBPXam732E6QINSO10poeAC-jrV8bg8D/s1600/BOOKS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2FhBuQwLwO3m2yO_9uI0q-tfvYwYUhp1zuuqmTQ3RYbtq1u3NMEFChJkMpYQNXmQxlbtjwR5y3QdjOoZs3Rakm5MFwSn6pxO2QYWurp6sJGZFpBPXam732E6QINSO10poeAC-jrV8bg8D/s400/BOOKS.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Here at Unpleasant Accents, we value literature. And also stock images.</i></td></tr>
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The Honorary Chair of Leisure As Culture humbly suggests you, dear reader, consider these summer reading recommendations. First is a bit of modern German fiction, recently translated into English. Following that is a dystopian black comedy set in an England where procreation has been outlawed and cannibalism may be on the verge of breaking out. On a pleasanter note, our next selection is a comedy of manners featuring a happy, well-adjusted, single Englishwoman. Finally, on the nonfiction front, a revisionist history of the good old USA proposes that many of the political problems civic-minded Catholics face can be traced back to the philosophy behind the Founding. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaNm64gUHG2-kYujmHlDlkH7_83j0NrBV7vLEPQmdpJly2OVxwFN1i5AcXMtnH3HHvc-cDV_3oQZCqHSAdQorLJoooQzoPG5Uu9cKQZ3FgHXNJZ94T9m78Hj_JeIObwhbdF0lxjRrRC2Tx/s1600/What+Was+Before.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaNm64gUHG2-kYujmHlDlkH7_83j0NrBV7vLEPQmdpJly2OVxwFN1i5AcXMtnH3HHvc-cDV_3oQZCqHSAdQorLJoooQzoPG5Uu9cKQZ3FgHXNJZ94T9m78Hj_JeIObwhbdF0lxjRrRC2Tx/s320/What+Was+Before.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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At a talk in New York City this past May, Martin Mosebach declared he thought it infantile to seek to identify with a character in a novel. He sought to write characters because they interested him by their contradictions. Now, having read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/What-Was-Before-Seagull-Books/dp/0857422146"><i><b>What Was Before</b></i></a>, I can see what he means.</div>
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The mostly faceless narrator functions as the proverbial outsider, observing a loosely knit inner circle of aimless sybarites and unhappy <i>petite bourgeoisie</i>. From the neurotic, to the daydreamer, to the womanizer, each major character is the subject of perhaps not inaccurate analysis as the narrator tries to imagine why they do what they do. The story itself is not overly dramatic: Characters' previous conceptions of the lay of the land shatter, and the pieces gradually reassemble, though not in the same way as before. </div>
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Mosebach is a practicing Catholic, but he does not dump buckets of holy water on the reader. As befits the moderns he describes, religion is not part of their lives. The reader may gaze critically at these carefree pagans but should not dismiss their problems as something religion must easily cure. </div>
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<b>TL;DR</b> - I've wanted to read something good and German for a while now. The imagery Mosebach's words create more than make up for the general absence of a compelling plot. [<i>Some adult situations. Mature teens and up.</i>]</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwL54Ez7vhVPietcg1YWEuYvk6UbcY6DhTlHCxew9tvZ0pV5TnNZCiSQ3C2RqFayyryNbj5oZnBiC87XTANesIuhTKOLRQ5PrygdZ6oDgcNpoCY63FZjI1IO0oz77djBHJzBGk-dKAGRbQ/s1600/The+Wanting+Seed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwL54Ez7vhVPietcg1YWEuYvk6UbcY6DhTlHCxew9tvZ0pV5TnNZCiSQ3C2RqFayyryNbj5oZnBiC87XTANesIuhTKOLRQ5PrygdZ6oDgcNpoCY63FZjI1IO0oz77djBHJzBGk-dKAGRbQ/s320/The+Wanting+Seed.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>
<b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wanting-Seed-Norton-Paperback-Fiction/dp/0393315088">The Wanting Seed</a></i></b> by Anthony Burgess is a remarkably engaging dystopian black comedy. Set in a future some think is not so far away, it proposes a society that has outlawed war, but due to fears of overpopulation has ceased to have children. Our protagonists are Tristram Foxe, schlubby academic, and Beatrice-Joanna, his plucky wife. After their infant son dies, a second pregnancy is the last thing Tristram needs, what with eunuchs and younger preening male colleagues getting promoted before him. Beatrice-Joanna leaves Tristram to have the child (who's technically the offspring of her brother-in-law, a high ranking "homo" in the Ministry of Infertility) out in the country. Before Tristram and Beatrice-Joanna can get together again, of course there must be a societal upheaval with procreative sex, cannibalism, and war becoming quite popular.</div>
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<b>TL;DR</b> - Burgess describes life, death, babies, and barbecue with ebullient charm. [<i>Some adult situations. Mature teens and up.</i>]</div>
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<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Excellent-Women-Barbara-Pym/dp/0452267307">Excellent Women</a></b></i> is a foil to both Mosebach's pagans and Burgess's cannibals, for our protagonist is a devout Anglican, and no one is eaten for supper in Barbara Pym's clever and charming novel of 1950's England. The idea of the "excellent woman" is an unintentionally backhanded compliment to single Englishwomen of average looks and a certain age. Mildred Lathbury is an introspective youngish church lady more than happy to live quietly by herself, always able to help out her friends since she lacks the concerns of managing a family. Religion in the story was handled with both humor and seriousness as the situation demanded.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzYWFvLb_NKS48MCNpU_oqT64uQyQsJPOjcwpr-DX6Mhr7lLNmiJRqe0NT71IN2QeAIYG0GplrZjGU3b9odH5zUi3NeVpYeokxGnI29Mb2hqWz06p0F5MTE0K5_ti4i_5ItwucicaycOm/s1600/Excellent+Women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijzYWFvLb_NKS48MCNpU_oqT64uQyQsJPOjcwpr-DX6Mhr7lLNmiJRqe0NT71IN2QeAIYG0GplrZjGU3b9odH5zUi3NeVpYeokxGnI29Mb2hqWz06p0F5MTE0K5_ti4i_5ItwucicaycOm/s320/Excellent+Women.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
<b>TL;DR</b> - If you ever come across an Excellent Woman in a bar, be sure to silently buy her a drink and then disappear. [<i>Anyone and everyone <b>must</b> read this book!</i>]</div>
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Christopher Ferrara's <i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-God-That-Failed-Constructing/dp/1621380068">Liberty, The God That Failed</a></b></i> is partly responsible for a radical shift in my understanding of a Catholic's relationship to a modern liberal state such as our own. It began after hearing a <a href="https://youtu.be/A7TVoyVrEVQ" target="_blank">lecture</a> by <a href="https://sancrucensis.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Pater Edmund Waldstein</a>, who declared that modern liberal democracies abandoned the Aristotelian-Thomist tradition of the common good. Ferrara builds on this premise, deftly demonstrating how Enlightenment philosophers Hobbes and Locke influenced the Founders to construct a nation with the stated goal of preventing Catholicism from becoming too influential. (This reader does have sympathy for the Founders, as they were but children of their confused age. If I must blame anyone for the follies of the Founding, it must be the old houses of Christendom, which failed to prevent the tide of radical liberalism from taking root.)</div>
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From there, Ferrara examines some of the more sordid details of our past that overly patriotic "conservative" histories may prefer to forget and bitter "progressive" histories may emphasize for the wrong reasons. As July 4th rolls around the corner, one may learn how Sam Adams changed from a ne'er-do-well revolutionary to a despot once he received political power in Boston. Or how Washington crushed tax rebellions by war heroes with the iron might of the army once he was President. Or perhaps Jefferson's general bloodthirstiness, fond as he was of the atheist radical French. Most eye-opening for me was Ferrara demonstrating how an ideal of "limited government" by Constitutional originalists is an absurdity doomed to failure. Once one reads how our Founders threw off the rather small and unobtrusive government of King George III to embrace a state that answered only to the fickle desires of 51 percent of the population, it's impossible to believe in a "conservative" American revolution. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjivCF7_doALc03xa3xZvlWUagGao6aHB0Nr0LaGP_ZCvRNfKg3KZd1pUgMoMhRX8IAmJx8gHRpb0Hd-uxW9qINLlr8hGE9tSqztCw17OK-6Rl2WIxeSVmBzatdUO3SX7KwwkgTeXBhWFpy/s1600/Liberty%252C+the+God+That+Failed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjivCF7_doALc03xa3xZvlWUagGao6aHB0Nr0LaGP_ZCvRNfKg3KZd1pUgMoMhRX8IAmJx8gHRpb0Hd-uxW9qINLlr8hGE9tSqztCw17OK-6Rl2WIxeSVmBzatdUO3SX7KwwkgTeXBhWFpy/s320/Liberty%252C+the+God+That+Failed.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
Ferrara has a reputation as an extremely partisan "traditional" Catholic, but his energy is keenly focused here. His history of the nation's early days skirts past the tired arguments of Left versus Right and even calls a pox on both the houses of North and South when he spends a good deal of time covering the Civil War. Ferrara left me convinced Catholics who call themselves "conservatives" must seriously reconsider how effective their political allegiances are to securing autonomy for the Church and the common good. Catholic Leftists ought not rejoice too quickly at that, for Ferrara sees little good coming from the continued operation of this government, regardless which party holds power. Is there hope for America? One might dream that the USCCB would step up their game with stronger catechesis of the faithful, both at the parish level and from their pulpits. Maybe then the Catholic vote could once again mean something. But even that would be hamstrung by a Constitution — while a finely written document organizing our government — that enshrines secularism as the official religion of the land.</div>
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<b>TL;DR</b> - If the thought of a 600-page tome is too intimidating, but you're curious about that which has been termed "illiberal" Catholic thought, read <a href="http://thejosias.com/2014/11/01/theses-and-responses-on-antiamericanism/" target="_blank">this brilliant essay</a> by a dear friend hosted by <i><a href="http://thejosias.com/">The Josias</a></i>. </div>
Paul Schumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07437938879992564150noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-11557325882124233072015-06-24T10:00:00.001-04:002015-06-24T10:00:00.757-04:00A Theology of the Selfie<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A guest post by Tatiana Lozano</b></div>
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<i>The vanity.</i></div>
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<i>The posing.</i><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYRmOVaUAWFBcxMdOD-a03qnBFjDJnN9dS53ebbho4jBi3a0L_xWeJl0NCwuNBQDfZ1Ycjgj8pEqc3cMzqBCPy1Xj1cFkRkyF9KIRuIWgkE9qZKpMMCSBdhZ1WJ3WZaMYaPNgtNFzJnpYN/s1600/DUCKFACE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYRmOVaUAWFBcxMdOD-a03qnBFjDJnN9dS53ebbho4jBi3a0L_xWeJl0NCwuNBQDfZ1Ycjgj8pEqc3cMzqBCPy1Xj1cFkRkyF9KIRuIWgkE9qZKpMMCSBdhZ1WJ3WZaMYaPNgtNFzJnpYN/s400/DUCKFACE.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The infamous duckface.</i></td></tr>
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Such is the prototype of the ever-notorious selfie. But this is not just fun and games. These images have fed into the stereotypes of our youth — supposedly brimming with <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/millennial-generation-study-fame-money_n_1354028.html">greediness</a>, <a href="http://www.wetfeet.com/articles/bad-reputation-exploring-millennial-stereotypes">sloth, and entitled behavior</a>. The selfie is therefore not merely another trend.</div>
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It has become the Anti-Icon of the Millennial Generation.</div>
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But what exactly do I mean? I'm not defining "icon" in the way we speak of celebrities or American apple pie. The Church has icons of her own, particularly in the East — a tradition of paint, wood, and gold passed down through the centuries. They, however, do not exist solely as objects of art.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizhcEuESrIVGg_7jWLTkuN-zAaLmq2t5R2nEaUf-X0AE-3kncSnjT61-VBw-ZAPx2c93OorhId-qvw1ZrGxdcravkFxA2p7rS1Tf6V33alXFrHNo7IVyTZvgJlxPRePJLV12XngbNPkEDV/s1600/LEGIT+ICON.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizhcEuESrIVGg_7jWLTkuN-zAaLmq2t5R2nEaUf-X0AE-3kncSnjT61-VBw-ZAPx2c93OorhId-qvw1ZrGxdcravkFxA2p7rS1Tf6V33alXFrHNo7IVyTZvgJlxPRePJLV12XngbNPkEDV/s400/LEGIT+ICON.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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The icon is an aid, a catechesis, and a reflection of the Christian life. The Church Fathers recognized this in the <a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.xvi.xii.html">Second Council of Nicaea</a> (A.D. 787) insofar as "the incarnation of the Word of God is shown forth as real and not merely phantastic, for these have mutual indications and without doubt have also mutual significations." And Eastern Christians like <a href="https://mospat.ru/en/2011/02/06/news35783/">Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev</a> continue to stress its relationship to the Life to Come on a "theological, anthropological, cosmic, liturgical, mystical and ethical" level.</div>
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The selfie — as Anti-Icon — must accordingly be its opposite. Its guidance is neutral, its moral aim not inherent. Its content may be beautiful yet become vain at its worst. And it certainly portrays not the Incarnation of God. Rather, it only reveals mortality — the flesh and bone of Man. </div>
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In writing this, I do not mean to say that we should completely condemn all selfies. It's as absurd as banning mirrors from a clothing store or barring self-portraits from a museum.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqw6Gz8d8GgoHxy8DEiOSi-pYxptdwUzDFn0yVJKJoLwr9Zo1rraoWVNvSmV6qZDEI6NFvSt7kvsq6SSwLIngIrcdKPX1YT4ux-YCy0XknLNAku-nF8-JeqEq0h1e8c8_xt-jpuFCTLPTA/s1600/PAPA+SELFIE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqw6Gz8d8GgoHxy8DEiOSi-pYxptdwUzDFn0yVJKJoLwr9Zo1rraoWVNvSmV6qZDEI6NFvSt7kvsq6SSwLIngIrcdKPX1YT4ux-YCy0XknLNAku-nF8-JeqEq0h1e8c8_xt-jpuFCTLPTA/s400/PAPA+SELFIE.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>(The selfie — </i>nihil obstat<i>: Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome)</i></td></tr>
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Even so, this demonstrates the power of the image in the Age
of the Internet. It is true that the canvas reflects the trends of any society.
(And lolcats are exempt from this as much as a Botticelli painting.) But in a
world driven by memes, follows, and shares, it's no wonder that many elders
assume we think only in terms of viral popularity. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>So, what, whom, or Whom are we reflecting anyway?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Man undoubtedly reflects the Image of God (cf. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1%3A27&version=DRA">Genesis 1:27</a>).
Yet, in this culture, do we merely reflect the times? What society thinks of
us? What one thinks of society? Do they show anything about the way we view
ourselves? How is God reflected in the mundane, and does the mundane continue
to reflect God?</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Or do they hint that
our thought is too caught up in an individualistic point of view to even care?</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">P.S. As I was writing, I stumbled upon <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/cosmostheinlost/2015/06/02/does-the-internet-have-a-theology-a-review-of-spadaros-cybertheology/">this review</a> of Father </span>Antonio Spadaro's <i>Cybertheology</i>.<span style="text-align: justify;"> This looks like a good starting point for anyone
who wants to go more in-depth into this topic (although I'm not sure if Spadaro
covers selfies </span><i style="text-align: justify;">per se</i><span style="text-align: justify;">!).</span><br />
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<i>Tatiana Lozano is a fourth-year student at the <a href="http://www.virginia.edu/">University of Virginia</a>, double-majoring in Religious Studies and Political Philosophy, Policy, and Law (how's that for a mouthful?). She is also a writer by trade and is an Associate Editor of </i><a href="http://thevirginiaadvocate.com/">The Virginia Advocate</a><i>. When not doing her usual Latin-traddie things, she sings, doodles, and is the Energizer Bunny incarnate.</i></div>
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<i>To find more of her work, visit <a href="http://thevirginiaadvocate.com/author/tbl4eh/">her page</a> or message her on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tatiana.lozano.3110">Facebook</a>.</i></div>
Guest Contributorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08094181161846169452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-84315967417969942262015-06-22T10:00:00.000-04:002015-06-22T10:00:02.559-04:00Real Compassion Is Never Violence<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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I was checking my email this morning (yes, I'm a teenager who prefers email to text messaging; <i>don't judge</i>) when I saw an email from the petition site change.org with the subject line <a href="https://www.change.org/p/president-obama-change-the-helms-amendment-to-ensure-that-women-and-girls-raped-by-terrorist-captors-can-get-access-to-abortion-services">"War Crimes against Women and Girls."</a> Because I'm a pretty cool Catholic feminist (remember, no judging!) I immediately clicked and read. I'm expecting a petition asking for clothes, shelter, food, or even protection for the women raped and abused by ISIS and Boko Haram, concrete forms of help to comfort, protect, and heal these poor ladies. But what did I get?</div>
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<a name='more'></a><i style="text-align: justify;"><i>"Women raped and impregnated by terrorist captors are being denied overseas help to get abortions because of federal red tape in the US government."</i></i><i></i><br />
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Let's talk about how utterly unhelpful this is for a sec. These women have been through hell. They have been kidnapped, many have seen their male relatives murdered in front of them, and then they were taken and <a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/qa-probing-islamic-state-s-sex-atrocities-united-nations-1064004421#.dpuf">repeatedly raped and tortured</a> (warning, graphic link) by captors who don't even see them as human. They have been broken physically, mentally, and spiritually, and nobody can deny that they need help. But abortion won't actually help them. It's probably safe to assume that the people who want to send American abortionists to these women are not the type who would be willing to send soldiers instead to actually take out the rapists themselves, because war is mean and stuff. No, we won't touch the rapists. We'll let them have free rein of their regions, let them continue to rape and murder and destroy, while only women pay the price, because the best form of aid we can give women is abortion.</div>
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Where's the message in my inbox asking for me to send medicine, doctors, or even midwives? Where's the email about their need for housing and clothes? Can I sign a petition asking for them to be sent priests and therapists, to help them come to terms with their abuse and to heal their minds and souls? Is sending them free abortion, as though it will undo the rape and make them forget the abuses ever happened, really the best we can offer?</div>
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It's our general national mentality that abortion is the best thing people can do to "fix" rape. When a woman is raped, she's offered the morning-after pill by every doctor she meets. No woman could possibly ever want to keep a child of rape, right? (Well... not right, but I digress.) Abortion is supposedly empowering, a sign of free womanhood. But giving rape victims abortions, as though it will make everything O.K. again, is disrespectful and condescending. Abortion doesn't heal rape. It just tells the world that someone's entire life can be defined by rape, and that being an unwilling participant in a sexual act can sometimes merit death. Regardless of who the parents of an unborn child are, he or she has done nothing to deserve to be killed. Every victim of rape, whether the person raped or the person created by rape, has a right to live on and not be defined by the crime that was perpetrated on him or her.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhUK-hV72uO3CsT_-opk7wUUwQIu1bPQywyE3tcN_rUwPQOnCLitsXkeOS8Bp3Q3hkQEEh7gu3CqMoSfph-Brg_CQpym6ozgp78TLu9nGh-e42sWDG9UiEWXFM58PyGjpQa_MHKl2loQ/s1600/tweet.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhUK-hV72uO3CsT_-opk7wUUwQIu1bPQywyE3tcN_rUwPQOnCLitsXkeOS8Bp3Q3hkQEEh7gu3CqMoSfph-Brg_CQpym6ozgp78TLu9nGh-e42sWDG9UiEWXFM58PyGjpQa_MHKl2loQ/s320/tweet.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Members of the <a href="http://www.savethe1.com/">"Save the 1"</a> campaign</i></td></tr>
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Pope Saint John Paul II once said that we are all called "to respect and defend the mystery of life always and everywhere, including the lives of unborn babies, giving real help and encouragement to mothers in difficult situations." Helping the mothers shouldn't mean killing the babies. If we want to empower and heal these women, let's not send abortionists — let's send teachers to empower and educate them! Let's send them doctors, people to teach them good ways to farm, and people to build homes for them and their children! Let's teach these women that no, rape isn't the end, they still have so much more to offer and so much more to give, starting with life for their children, who can bring about a new age of peace if they only have the chance to live! To quote the last line of that odious petition... <i>We cannot add to the suffering of these women and girls. They need our help. </i></div>
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Love to all!</div>
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<i style="text-align: justify;"><i>~Tani</i></i><i></i><br />
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</i>Tani Federoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02112956068243761963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-49624572523742735262015-04-27T10:00:00.000-04:002015-04-27T10:00:01.177-04:00CAPTION THIS: When Benedict Met Beer<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"You know, guys, I really could have used that drink <b>before</b> I resigned. But anyway, </i>danke<i>."</i><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>(Full story <a href="http://www.news.va/en/news/abp-ganswein-benedict-xvi-prayerful-at-88">here</a> and <a href="http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-celebrates-his-88th-bir">here</a>. Picture c/o: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/news.va.en/photos/a.917372188326799.1073742390.171224532941572/917372298326788">News.va English</a>)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">The Pope Emeritus' birthday was back on April 16, but we just couldn't resist the opportunity to have some fun with this picture. Thanks to all who participated in our </span><a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/2015/02/caption-this-when-rome-met-alexandria.html" style="text-align: justify;">last caption contest</a><span style="text-align: justify;">. And now to announce...</span><br />
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<b>Matthew Ogden</b> and <b>Wyatt</b> basically submitted the same caption, and as Saint Genesisus is our patron, we are shameless devotees of bad puns, so here are their respective entries!</div>
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<i>"Don't try to Copt a feel. Eh? Eh?!"</i></blockquote>
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<i>Copts in unison: "Get it? GET IT?"</i></blockquote>
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<i>Pope: "yes, your 'copt a feel' joke was...funny..."</i></blockquote>
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Thank you to everyone who participated! You can leave your captions for our current contest in the comments below. Bottoms up!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07047501237589816058noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-58618975023798153262015-04-13T10:00:00.000-04:002015-04-13T10:00:05.380-04:00A Catholic Woman in Saudi Arabia<b>A guest post by Anonymous*</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIpUXlqfPz1zje3eRCVU084KCcxTZ2K0gcYThMIjbz07cQ8ZW5JR6uh-c7I5TFb4AA2arOo05RjpEEULZHrwzdWLqrmAOa4qJy5fKvcGnw2CEJ4JrcVCvGRZsms7Qk9kC5FoK40Elf8Cb3/s1600/Flag_of_Saudi_Arabia.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIpUXlqfPz1zje3eRCVU084KCcxTZ2K0gcYThMIjbz07cQ8ZW5JR6uh-c7I5TFb4AA2arOo05RjpEEULZHrwzdWLqrmAOa4qJy5fKvcGnw2CEJ4JrcVCvGRZsms7Qk9kC5FoK40Elf8Cb3/s1600/Flag_of_Saudi_Arabia.gif" height="333" width="500" /></a></div>
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<i>(Disclaimer: This piece was done by an amateur who was foolish enough to grant Damian a favor. Here it goes...)</i></div>
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Imagine yourself being shipped out into the middle of the desert... ALONE. Then, it actually happens. At first, I complained. Often I prayed, <i>"LAWRRD!!!! Of all the beautiful places of Your Creation, why not Paris? Why not Italy? Why here? Why meeeee?!"</i> Then, I would make THAT pouty face trying to act miserably cute... for a 30-year-old. (Well, not really 30... but I will be... soon. T.T)</div>
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It all started a couple of months ago, when I reluctantly accepted a job here in the Middle East. It's not that I WANTED to work here; it's just that I HAD to. (Long story... <i>*skip* *skip*</i>) The first time I traversed from Riyadh to Ta'if, the sight was so depressing that I literally sank into my car seat. Nine whole hours of travel and there was almost nothing to see... except sand, some patches of green maybe, some camels... and then more sand. IT JUST DROVE MEH CRAZEH!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pictured: Literally <b>anywhere</b> for 250,000 square miles.</i></td></tr>
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Anyways, the scenery wasn't really that much of a concern. What <i>is</i> of concern, however, is that Saudi Arabia (as y'all probably know) has a notorious reputation when it comes to freedom of religion. In this country, practice of any religion other than Islam <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2122.html#sa">is prohibited</a> and punishable by Law. So, basically, it's a crime to be Catholic in this part of the Gulf. I guess that wouldn't come as a surprise considering this happened to be Muhammad's homeland and the birthplace of Islam. Many citizens here even consider the whole country a mosque!</div>
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I remember some time during my Pre-Departure Orientation, one instructor told the class about a group of foreign Evangelicals who got arrested in a raid. Their offence? Conducting a Bible study and possesing religious articles against the practice of Islam... <i>in their home</i>. Now, I'm not sure how true that story was, but we were strongly advised not to participate in any discussion or gatherings concerning religion. Apparently, that story stuck to me, because every time I feel the itch to be apologetic when I hear something, I try to bite my tongue, otherwise, I'm actually gonna lose my tongue... or head.</div>
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Furthermore, I've had to give up lots of things ever since arriving here. I can no longer attend Mass (OBVIOUSLY), and I swear I could hear my parish's pastors cracking up at a joke or two every I pass by a mosque. I can't make the Sign of the Cross in public. People almost always gave me that weird face every time I mention, <i>"I'm Christian."</i> Plus, I always feel the necessity to pull a disappearing act (usually to hide in the bathroom) just so I don't get stares when I pray.</div>
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I felt like a fish out of water. Everywhere I look, the culture is so different from what I grew up with. My family is away, and the language sounds like Klingon. In other words, I felt alienated and lonely, which is ironic, since I'm Asian and a friend said, <i>"Klingons are like fuzzy Asian aliens from </i>Star Trek<i>."</i> The funny part is, every time I leave the house, I must wear this baggy black overall called an <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/01/economist-explains-20">abaya</a> with a matching veil to cover my head. It makes me look like one of those <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQO__28XlOw">baddie ninjas</a> from a '90s <i>Mortal Kombat</i> movie. (In case y'all wanna visit, please note that all Saudi women traditionally cover themselves from head-to-toe outside their homes.) Some women even cover their faces in black cloth that might cause an unsuspecting fool to mistake them for <a href="http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Nazg%C3%BBl">Nazgûls</a> in <i>Lord of the Rings</i>. (Not to fear, though! Some of them are actually nice... I mean the Saudi women... not the... you know.) Joking aside, it can be quite a drag to be a foreign woman living here, let alone a Catholic woman.</div>
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Nevertheless, everything is grace for God's little children. All I need is to trust in God's plan if I am to survive for the next two years of my contract. Besides, Jesus Himself <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+4:1-11&version=DRA">went into the desert</a> before the start of His ministry. Perhaps He plans to prepare me for something in the future. Or, perhaps it's to teach me to appreciate that which I long took for granted. Who knows? I guess I just have to wait and see to find out.</div>
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<i>*Due to the sensitive nature of this post, our contributor's identity has been withheld.</i></div>
Guest Contributorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08094181161846169452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-27776210445340932192015-03-31T14:00:00.000-04:002015-03-31T14:00:07.516-04:00Consumerism and the Family<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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I am a BuzzFeed fanatic. When I’m not doing homework (which I do do occasionally, <i>mom</i>) you can usually find me scrolling endlessly down the feed, looking at quizzes and pictures and lists. This is why, when blog overlord Damian sent me <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/lynzybilling/this-is-what-it-looks-like-when-men-are-allowed-to-take-60-d#.kt3zyRxyMb">this post containing pictures of dads in Sweden with their kids</a>, I clicked instantly.</div>
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Looking at the pictures, those fathers look so happy to be with their kids. Their kids look secure and happy to be with their dads. Sweden has mandatory sixty-day paternal leave and 480 days of total leave time for both parents. (In contrast, the U.S. has a suggested 12 weeks' maternity leave and neither suggested nor mandatory paternal leave!) The Swedish government is <a href="https://sweden.se/society/10-things-that-make-sweden-family-friendly/">actively</a> trying to promote the family, perhaps to combat the fact that Sweden has the <a href="http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/the-biggest/10-countries-with-the-highest-divorce-rates/2/">second-highest divorce rate</a> in Europe. But the dissolution of families, who are the very foundation of society and civilization, is a worldwide problem, especially in our own backyard. And no, I don’t mean Canada.
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In the mid-nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution swept through America, bringing with it the poisonous ideologies of consumerism and materialism. Those pretty much mean that the acquisition and use of objects for personal gain are more important than actually being a good person. People began to see each other as objects to use for gain and acted accordingly. This led to major human rights abuses in the world of business, but also the beginning of the downfall of the American family. Now that making money and getting possessions was the ultimate end of a person’s life, everyone started working more. The family-centered agrarian existence that had dominated the American psyche since the Pilgrims first landed become obsolete as people decided that they’d all be much happier if they just had a few more dollars in their pockets and moved to the cities to find better-paying work. That mindset stuck and refused to leave and sticks around to this day, where mom and dad work eight to ten hour days to afford the three cars and the big house for their cookie-cutter two children and the pills that ensure there won’t be a number three.</div>
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And of course, consumerism caused that, too. A few decades after the Industrial Revolution started, contraception came roaring into the public square. Church after church, seeing how popular the idea of not having children was, capitulated and allowed it among their members. Except, of course, the Catholics, who rightly saw contraception as the next step in human consumerism. Sure, at the time, Protestant leaders said that contraception was only to be used by married folks, but it was increasingly used by the unmarried ones to prevent the natural consequences of messing around. Pope Paul VI saw what the effects of contraception would be on society, and wrote about them in his famed encyclical <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html"><i>Humanae Vitae</i></a>. If you can excuse the rather long quote:</div>
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<i>“Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection. Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective?”</i></blockquote>
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While the Pope was laughed at at the time for his seeming paranoia, I think we can all agree that every one of these predictions came true. Fornication and adultery are commonplace and shown on television now like they’re normal and desirable things. The same goes for teens having sex. All of our Internet anger about catcalling and workplace sexism definitely shows us that men are treating women like sexual objects now, more than they ever did, even and especially in the middle and upper classes. And the government is definitely pushing their preferred methods of contraception when they give money and public adulations to Planned Parenthood.</div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;">And all of this happened because we decided to start treating people like objects to be used for pleasure, instead of people to be loved. Marriage and family slipped into obsoletism even more. In 1969, no-fault divorce was introduced. Weakened by materialism, shrunk and put on shaky ground by contraception, no-fault divorce knocked the legs out from the idea of the strong family that we’ve built all human civilization on. First marriages crumbled, and then, the children who saw the brokenness and pain of their shattered families decided not to marry at all while still enjoying the sexual benefits that should have been available only to married folks. Out-of-wedlock birth rates have been soaring ever since, as have abortion rates.</b></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;">And the funny thing is, us using each other hasn’t made any of us more successful. As my dad said this morning, fornication drives poverty harder than globalism, technology, offshoring, or loss of jobs. It destroyed the middle class because it shot their families all to hell. Single parents, especially women, have to do all the child rearing and bring in all the money to run the home. They often don’t work the best-paying jobs, or, if they do, they give their kids to daycare centers to raise for them so that they can work. They bring in less money, and their own social status, and by extension that of their children, falls. The children have less chances for good education and good jobs themselves and are more likely to have a child out of wedlock themselves. It’s a vicious cycle of poor into poorer. Or, as Maggie Gallagher said in her book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Abolition-Marriage-Destroy-Lasting/dp/0895264641">The Abolition of Marriage</a></i>, “When divorce and illegitimacy become normal, when single parenthood begins at first to compete with and then to displace marriage, when not just a few, but many or most parents begin to adopt a risky pattern of child rearing (<i><b>Writer’s Note</b>: Risky here refers to the instability of families, with parents coming and going</i>), the result is not just a bit more suffering for a few more children, but the impoverishment of society and the none-too-slow erosion of American civilization.”</b></div>
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But nobody sees any problems with that. No, the real threat to marriage is the gays, say the people who come home from their jobs after eight hours, to their large, almost empty houses, to plug themselves into their fancy electronics for the rest of the evening and morning, avoiding their own families because the shiny status symbol is so much less annoying. The rallying cry of the gay marriage advocates is true. They aren’t hurting the sanctity of marriage at all. </div>
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We’ve already killed it ourselves. </div>
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<i><i>~Tani</i></i></div>
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Tani Federoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02112956068243761963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-5220424690028407952015-03-12T12:00:00.000-04:002015-03-12T12:00:01.947-04:00 The Rosary, Veganism, and Boycotting Pants<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A guest post by Thomas Sundaram</b><br />
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<i><i>Sometimes, you really want to write a guest article, but you just stiffed Our Glorious Leader Damian out of a really sick paper on Penance and you get a case of writer's block. But out of necessity arises genius, which in my case consisted of asking Damian to give me three themes about which I should write an article.</i></i></div>
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<i><i>Genius is sometimes hard to recognize at first glance.</i></i></div>
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<b><b>Veganism. Why?</b></b></div>
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People actually abstain — willingly! — from all animal products out of some sort of notion that this is a good thing to do! They even judge other people for using them! I can guarantee you it isn't because of the flavors, whatever people tell themselves. I've tried vegan food out of a mistaken desire to broaden my mind about other people's lifestyle choices, and the conclusion of that experiment was that veganism likely originated out of a particularly odd brand of German vegetarian pious mortification of the kind you saw in small monasteries where people didn't really talk to each other. (It wasn't the most scientific methodology, but I'm a humanities major! La la la!)</div>
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Joking aside, veganism is an interesting phenomenon, arising out of a peculiar view of the dignity of animals, and therefore of the notion of dignity by nature. In the development of behavioral science, animals are (according to Aristotle and everyone else forever) by their very nature sentient and able to take in nutrients on some level; as such, some of the most basic criteria for animal life are sentience of a properly sentient sort (not simply, for example, the tendency to grow toward the Sun, which applies to plants and is properly a response to the natural motion granted by something else) and vegetative digestion. The most important is perhaps the ability to move, in a certain way, according to instinct. However, there have been variations in the view of what else is characteristic of animal life since then, especially in the wake of Darwin and the notion of the material continuity of speciation (which, for those of you who don't read this stuff for fun, means that the division between reason and instinct becomes muddy). Some have claimed, for example, that animals only differ from human beings by mode of communication.</div>
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Without judging such a view, where the difference between animals and human beings is thus blurred to a near similarity in thought, this leads to the idea that animals deserve the same treatment, or at times better treatment, than human beings. If we are of equal dignity, if our human by-products ought not to be harvested, why should we harvest cow milk? By what right do we colonial species-ists appropriate the products of other beings as though it is not their property? Such considerations certainly played into the early development of veganism, and while vegan thought is in no way monolithic, it does share a basically different apprehension of the mode in which animals are said to have dignity than that characteristic of classical thought. Because most of our thinking was originated and conditioned by classical thought, the result is that veganism looks <i>weird</i>. Is it wrong? Depends on the correct notion of nature. Which brings me to my next question.</div>
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<b><b>Boycotting pants. Why?</b></b></div>
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People actually abstain from wearing pants out of some sort of notion that this is a good thing to do! They even judge other people for wearing them! I can guarantee you it isn't because of the feeling, whatever people tell themselves. I've tried not wearing pants out of a mistaken desire to broaden my mind about other people's lifestyle choices, and the conclusion of that experiment was that this boycott likely originated out of a particularly odd brand of German poverty-driven pious mortification of the kind you saw in small convents where people didn't really talk to each other.</div>
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Now that I have demonstrated the engine of my conceit, which is that people don't do these things — becoming vegan or boycotting pants — except that they are preceded by a peculiar sort of notion of nature, let's look at the notion of nature at hand here. The reasoning behind the prohibition of pants is really very simple. Much as we don't like to mention it in our enlightened Christian culture, women have, occasionally, noticeable butts. Fun fact: Men do, too, and women have noticed them for decades, centuries even! (I realize this is a shock to some of our male readers, but bear with me, guys, while I let you join me on this magic carpet ride.) However, owing to a number of interesting and mildly confusing anthropological developments, while women are expected to be totally free of showing any sexual attraction to men in all of their polite outward social conduct, at least since the Victorian era, the social expectations about men have (through a combination of evolutionary reductionism, more licensed thinking about sexuality, the advent of the Birth Control Pill, and mass media) largely been reduced to insisting that women be overcome with gratitude if the man in the house remembers to leave the toilet seat down. Let's get serious for a moment — I say this knowing that the beloved readership cringes at such a preface, but what the hell — while women ostensibly have much more control about their bodies, men have proportionately much less material responsibility, and this is not helping a conception of men largely based on Homer Simpson and <i>Mad Men</i>.</div>
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As a result, the entirety of the responsibility for men not behaving in a way beyond acting on impulses seen as primal and chaotic is placed squarely on the shoulders of women, usually in the form of a shirt with a turtleneck collar and a long, flowing homemade skirt. (This is deliberately an exaggeration — I am aware of modesty chic — but the thing about modesty chic is that if it wasn't chic, a lot of the modesty crowd would still be satisfied for the simple fact that it isn't pants, making its aesthetic appeal irrelevant to the question.) </div>
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Is this wrong? Obviously, the decision to take that on oneself is not totally worthy of censure, considered as a voluntary mortification out of humility, <i>recognizing</i> that God made the natural beauty of the female form and recognizing that He meant it to be beautiful, representative (in the Gospel of John, for example) of the personhood of one further representing the Church. Obviously, if someone <i>knows</i> that will keep someone from sin, and does it, and for that reason, that's a very respectable thing to do. But if one is doing it as a sort of judgment of male degeneracy or a prideful desire to be the one who is more considerate than others, or in a way that attempts to claim universal moral import for every woman, then one has some problems. Pants are not evil, the female form is not evil, men should cultivate virtue, and they should be in all cases held to a worthy standard. In any case, though, the result is that boycotting pants can be <i>weird</i>. Is it totally wrong? Depends on the operative notion of nature. Which brings me to my last question.</div>
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<b><b>The Rosary. Why?</b></b></div>
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People actually recite 150 <i>Hail Marys</i> out of some sort of notion that this is a good thing to do! They even judge other people for not doing it! I can guarantee you it isn't because of the feeling, whatever people tell themselves. I've tried joining the Dominican Novitiate out of a desire to pursue my possible vocation, and the conclusion of that observation was that this devotion actually originated out of a particularly odd brand of Dominican and pre-Dominican perfection-seeking pious duty of the kind you saw in small monasteries convents where people didn't really talk to each other. <i>(See what I did there? They were vegetarian too, AND they didn't wear pants. OH. SNAP. DAMIAN.)</i></div>
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You've seen the gas, you've seen the engine, and now you get to see the prestige of my little symposium. Veganism proceeded from the notion that all animals have a dignity that demands certain obligations to them, upon which are founded rights, like human rights, which animals in vegan thought have as a result of their dignity. We, too, have dignity, and this represents itself in a curious phenomenon that we see as on the very edge of representing that dignity — the need to be solicitous to keep others from sinning, but to do so out of humility, not out of pride and judgment, recognizing the good of those things (like the expression of the beauty of the female form), which we offer up as a sacrifice for a greater good. This proceeds from our dignity as human beings, which we have by our nature. But our dignity, like our nature, broke a little in the Fall. By natural justice, for our sins against God, we deserved death, but in the fullness of time Christ became man so that man could become like Him — the new Adam to renew us from the sin of the old. </div>
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And He did this by being born of a woman, Mary, “our tainted nature's solitary boast.” To her, as source of our theological dignity as baptized Christians, we ought to offer our devotion from the same consideration with which vegans offer piety to animals, and with even greater passion. Vegans tend to be feisty people on the Internet, one tends to observe, and become very impassioned in argument out of a conviction about their position — yet Catholics very often shy away from discussing Mary, who, not merely someone of equal dignity to us, is the Mother of the Love Who moves the Sun and the other stars. Those who strenuously argue for boycotting pants we see taking this ostensibly vital moral issue very seriously, as though it were the first step to braking the roaring hot-rod of our society before it flies off into the rapidly approaching embankment — yet Catholics often shy away from the principled insistence upon our concrete duty of veneration to Mary as a vital part of our Catholic life. (I want to note here that I am not actually insisting on this devotion or that devotion. Rather, I am referring to the imperative to venerate our Theotokos by our constant imitation in all things, and not to impose this only on women, for example. It is not simply that Mary is for everyone — it is that if men do not imitate the humility and active passivity of Mary to the Divine Will, we are failing.) The Rosary, even, often gets swept under the rug of evangelization. Why? I'll tell you why. Devotion to Mary, like the Creed, the Eucharist, the Church, and salvation itself, is <i>weird</i>. Weirdness, my friends, is the sign of the conviction that one has discovered meaning. </div>
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And so we reach the denouement. We have the weirdness of veganism, the weirdness of boycotted pants, and the weirdness of the Rosary. I do not agree with veganism, but I recognize in it the conviction about something about reality having a dignitative aspect demanding a response in our lives: truth. I do not agree with the boycotting of pants, but I recognize in it the desire to move from some (indeterminate) principle to a moral act for the sake of the betterment of humanity. I do agree with the devotion to the Rosary, because it takes the Truth Himself, born of a human woman; it recognizes the good of salvation which we must seek to provide; and it coalesces that truth and goodness into an expression of the two which moves <i>ad extra</i> and contains both virtually: beauty. But if the Rosary expresses the perfection (and correction) of the truth which vegans claim to espouse so passionately it conditions their entire lives, and if it expresses the goodness which some (perhaps mistakenly) attempt to espouse in their lives with such passion (and, frankly, sacrifice) by the boycotting of pants, should we not outdo these things in fervency and in allowing our very lives to reflect the beauty which the Rosary expresses in itself? Then the purpose of veganism, the good treatment of Creation, and the purpose of clothing, to express the glory of God in the ornamentation of the human form, will follow, if only we learn to seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness.</div>
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<i>Tom Sundaram has an MA in Philosophy and an MA in Theology from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, and is currently pursuing a Licentiate in Canon Law at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce in Rome, Italy, because he's an overachieving nerd going for the trifecta.</i></div>
Guest Contributorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08094181161846169452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-83054191444594705922015-02-26T10:00:00.000-05:002015-02-26T10:00:00.769-05:00Confessions of a Black Catholic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Praised Be Jesus!</div>
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I hope this post finds everyone well and that everyone is keeping warm in these cold times (and to all those in warm climates, I have some uncharitable things to say, but in charity, I will leave them out).</div>
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Every February, the secular world celebrates <a href="http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/">Black History Month</a>, a month to remember and celebrate the contributions and history of African Americans and other people of color. So, in honor of Black History Month, I wanted to share my experience of being both Black and Catholic. This is neither the story of my conversion, nor about the sociological implications of what it means to be Black and Catholic (even though I may touch on these things) but just my personal experience and my outlook.<br />
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When most people hear the words Roman Catholic, usually the image that comes to mind is not that of a young, handsome African American man, as opposed to, say, an Irish or Italian person. I usually get the question, "Black and Catholic, how does <i>that</i> work?" It seems to perplex people that you can be both Black and Catholic, so I've always wanted to give my own personal outlook. I had began practicing the faith from when I was about 12, and I officially entered the Church when I was 18. I was raised in a black Baptist church, and my earliest experience of religion was your typical idea of African American spirituality: high energy worship, inspiring sermons, Bible study, and the <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markdroberts/series/the-seven-last-words-of-christ-reflections-for-holy-week/">Seven Last Words of Jesus on Good Friday</a>.</div>
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I have to say, my earliest understanding of spirituality is still a big part of my faith. My Baptist roots prepared me for what it means to have a relationship with Jesus, what it means to pray, and what it means to be rooted in Scripture. I like to consider myself a "Trad-Charismatic." I am completely in love with the traditional liturgy and rituals of the Church. After I entered the Church, I became a member of <a href="http://www.materecclesiae.org/">Mater Eeclesiae</a>, one of the first parishes in the United States after Vatican II to <a href="http://articles.philly.com/2002-02-03/news/25333463_1_tridentine-latin-mass-tridentine-rite-altar-servers">offer the Latin Mass every day</a>. It was here that I served and solidified my faith in the Church's tradition, and her past. I had been on a journey of deepening my faith, and my experiences at Mater and other Latin Mass communities (shout out to <a href="http://www.stagneschurchnyc.org/">Saint Agnes</a> in New York and <a href="http://roma.fssp.it/english/home.html">Santissima Trinità</a> in Rome!) really solidified in me a Catholic identity. It was here that I learned to be quiet and to see the beauty and wonder of Catholic worship in all of its splendor.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXbN-jxhMbs8IB38zjO7IvUXZCiHGzLNLf3TYdUAt7tPMbm3CDY7oNPc-Ew2lPmH5hmTBqKuycXQOWxzv8tkm46kf9pEM_Mlnj_Q8UQc-JEwcKFzPxl6flfjaNFiQWwD0Wssl1FsdG2-k/s1600/23426_378427544271_7162489_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXbN-jxhMbs8IB38zjO7IvUXZCiHGzLNLf3TYdUAt7tPMbm3CDY7oNPc-Ew2lPmH5hmTBqKuycXQOWxzv8tkm46kf9pEM_Mlnj_Q8UQc-JEwcKFzPxl6flfjaNFiQWwD0Wssl1FsdG2-k/s1600/23426_378427544271_7162489_n.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Now, with that being said, I still am very true to my roots, and charismatic gospel music, let's-praise-dance-down-the-aisle is still very much apart of my spirituality. I have had the pleasure of being able to go to Mass and even serve in historically black churches, where my heritage is integrated into Catholic life. The music of my heritage and the understanding of the worship of the Black Church is very dear to me. African American worship integrates the experience of our lives, our struggles, and our joys into our act of adoration. We use our bodies and voices to praise and worship our Creator. In a way, this type of spirituality connects us with our own unique past and heritage. It's what has been handed on to many of us through generations and has given hope to our people.<br />
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I know this will make more traditionally-minded Catholics cringe, but I don't see the harm in incorporating this type of worship into a Catholic context. In the correct context, this is a part of the religious and spiritual heritage of a multitude of African American Catholics. It is a legitimate spiritual expression. I know there has been a movement in the Church against a type of emotionalism, or the idea that this type of worship is just Protestantism creeping into the Church, that this is what is destroying the traditional moorings of Catholic liturgy. I have to disagree; for the African American community, worship and music are undeniably sacred. This is not just entertainment. This is a community bringing together its collective experience to God through our many gifts.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOPN0ItV2jYrm0TS_DeDO4emvnF3sXy-wz5kedWr-Tfqg4q_irOXM6gWwfdXhTb6urmZfJ8H4PEnqt_JOfFybQvnXQsawvXVbLMR7AZrwmdqtZlAWKNOI7oE4VQDAaefmAdgmJd-yDbNo/s1600/10399692_256877335397_1468009_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOPN0ItV2jYrm0TS_DeDO4emvnF3sXy-wz5kedWr-Tfqg4q_irOXM6gWwfdXhTb6urmZfJ8H4PEnqt_JOfFybQvnXQsawvXVbLMR7AZrwmdqtZlAWKNOI7oE4VQDAaefmAdgmJd-yDbNo/s1600/10399692_256877335397_1468009_n.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>On Pilgrimage in Medjugorje</i></td></tr>
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It can be difficult to hold on to a black identity and be Catholic. The Church is universal, yes. The Church is the one true Church and the Church for all people, but at the same time, for the large bulk of us, the Church in America is overwhelmingly European. It can be difficult to identify with when you see very few people like you in your parish. Even the Saints — with the exception of a few images of <a href="http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-martin-de-porres/">Saint Martin de Porres</a> — are almost exclusively white. Even Saints that are of African heritage are portrayed as Europeans. This can be an isolating experience for anyone of color. It can be hard to feel like you belong in a Church where you can seem and feel out of place. It takes a lot of research and reading to find out about the deep Catholic roots of Africa, and the thousands of African Saints, to know the stories of great Catholic figures, such as <a href="http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-catherine-of-alexandria/">Catherine of Alexandria</a>, <a href="http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-josephine-bakhita/">Josephine Bahkita</a>, and <a href="http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-moses-the-black/">Moses the Black</a> — not to mention American Black Catholics, such as Venerable <a href="http://saints.sqpn.com/venerable-pierre-toussaint/">Pierre Toussaint</a>, and <a href="http://saints.sqpn.com/father-augustus-tolton/">Father Augustus Tolton</a>. They are of great worth to those of us who are looking to find our face in our Faith.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPpeI_PLCZ4dkagKQgIDVJBXyo-gjkDJzRTzxvCI1th-KAIqyzPwprzWsKa66szCbmohO-EtZIFhCgrzPANx1TMISUPO4SBYf_Jmfkyf6noC6Ilfk3DtzxeChIvvG6i1LI5SNbo_vUB5k/s1600/1383524_610503105673640_1802930209_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPpeI_PLCZ4dkagKQgIDVJBXyo-gjkDJzRTzxvCI1th-KAIqyzPwprzWsKa66szCbmohO-EtZIFhCgrzPANx1TMISUPO4SBYf_Jmfkyf6noC6Ilfk3DtzxeChIvvG6i1LI5SNbo_vUB5k/s1600/1383524_610503105673640_1802930209_n.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>And in my free time, I moonlight as Saint Michael the Archangel</i></td></tr>
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It can be difficult to relate to the Faith when what is seen as "good Catholicism" is predominantly European, that what is considered good liturgy is influenced by those "dead white men" of the past — such as Masses composed by Bach and Mozart — and that these things are what is considered the pinnacle of Catholic Culture, when the liturgical heritage of the Church of Africa is almost dismissed and completely relegated to the every-now-and-then concert performance. Sometimes, I feel that there's still a very strong push to assimilate in Catholic culture, the leftovers of colonization to basically make everything European and expunge diversity. The sad part of this is that it is so contradictory to the essence of the Catholic Faith, the Catholic Faith that embraces all people, all cultures, and all those expressions that go along with that, the one Faith that unites all people in their diversity.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIcAbxu_gv9Bphm6eL5JZ5AfJ_5y0V3pQI3TetPxScuABRy84e3buyohvpbYalIsYqrAB9mktyFHYCKpKuYJ_V030PqIM238GLx3XpslYdpJwEJ7KGz6xLEw27-UXyvADY9kswlPLigmw/s1600/546655_10150690762964272_367285710_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIcAbxu_gv9Bphm6eL5JZ5AfJ_5y0V3pQI3TetPxScuABRy84e3buyohvpbYalIsYqrAB9mktyFHYCKpKuYJ_V030PqIM238GLx3XpslYdpJwEJ7KGz6xLEw27-UXyvADY9kswlPLigmw/s1600/546655_10150690762964272_367285710_n.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>My mother receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation</i></td></tr>
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This Faith is everything to me. It is the wellspring of my life. Catholicism colors my day-to-day patterns. I am that black guy you'll see on the train with his rosary, and on another day rocking out to some <a href="http://www.yolandaadamslive.com/site/">Yolanda Adams</a>. The Faith has brought me so much closer to Our Lord, and I would have never had been here in the Church with my Jesus truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, if my past experience in the Black Church hadn't prepared me for it. This faith has colored so much of my life, even to the point where my mother decided to enter the Church. Catholicism is my everything! And I can proudly say that I am both Black and Catholic.</div>
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<b>Prayer for Black History Month</b></div>
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<i>Father of Creation </i></div>
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<i>Whose Son Jesus incarnated in time </i></div>
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<i>And whose Spirit enlivens our lives today </i></div>
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<i>May we honor the height of your creation, the Human Family </i></div>
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<i>In every hue that you chose to give each person of our family human </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Jesus, brother of us all </i></div>
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<i>Your prayer to the Father "that they all may be one" </i></div>
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<i>Through the Holy Spirit </i></div>
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<i>May we witness this Unity of One </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Each people with its history of your love </i></div>
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<i>Each people created in your earthly garden seen from above </i></div>
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<i>A people's story woven in struggle and triumph </i></div>
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<i>Tears of pain and shouts of joy </i></div>
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<i>The journey of a people in its history's flow </i></div>
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<i>The divine weaver's loom hand does show</i></div>
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<i>Spirit of God in the month of appreciating </i></div>
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<i>The gift of your children of African descent </i></div>
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<i>May we be inspired to see your kingdom mystery </i></div>
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<i>In one facet of the jewel of our Human Family's descent</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Unity the prayer of your incarnate Son </i></div>
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<i>Disciples praying the Our Father that we may all be one </i></div>
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<i>One in love of the family human </i></div>
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<i>One in hope for the family human </i></div>
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<i>One in faith in the family human </i></div>
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<i>This month, next week and every day </i></div>
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<i>Henceforth. </i></div>
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<i>Amen.</i></div>
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Michael Thérèsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07692731600968451784noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-75703867032357361862015-02-09T10:00:00.000-05:002015-02-09T12:09:00.217-05:00When God Speaks My Love Language <div style="text-align: justify;">
Readers, I have a confession to make. </div>
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I have an addiction. </div>
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An addiction…</div>
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To adoration!!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXFcQgJj5n_d8Z3tqXt1_0FGw5Qz6Satn2qCgQIRluszrMHyyKtHLY1TQnNKDDdmGqtNnxTQZHQVSnTbYSl4VkBonBESW3ymxNkqjPkNz1eVG76tvvaxQIhJE27-Ks0BsW6TGOG49Hdw/s1600/tumblr_lfrw5ncr0N1qd5525o1_500.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXFcQgJj5n_d8Z3tqXt1_0FGw5Qz6Satn2qCgQIRluszrMHyyKtHLY1TQnNKDDdmGqtNnxTQZHQVSnTbYSl4VkBonBESW3ymxNkqjPkNz1eVG76tvvaxQIhJE27-Ks0BsW6TGOG49Hdw/s1600/tumblr_lfrw5ncr0N1qd5525o1_500.gif" height="208" width="400" /></a></div>
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That was awful. I'll never joke again. So, on to all seriousness: Eucharistic Adoration is probably my favorite thing in the whole world. It wasn't always, though. As a kid, I remember being dragged along to Adoration and feeling that it was the most boring thing anyone could possibly do. I didn't actually believe in the Real Presence back then. I couldn't tell that Jesus was there using my senses, so I couldn't really believe. Why would someone spend an hour in silence staring at a piece of bread, when she could be out climbing trees or playing kickball? </div>
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That attitude got worse as I grew older. Due to some awful family problems when I was a young teen, I had all but lost my faith by the time I was fourteen. I didn't know if God existed, and I honestly didn't care — for all I could tell, He was distant and cold, and didn't care abut me, either. I didn't know how anyone could have faith in Someone that was unseen, untouchable, and silent. God's love was an abstraction. I stopped receiving Communion, which was, in retrospect, a terrible idea, since that meant abandoning the one physical link to God that I had. As a person whose <a href="http://www.5lovelanguages.com/">love language</a> is physical touch, I didn't feel loved by our spiritual God at all, so I assumed that if He were real, He just didn't love me. </div>
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That all changed in March of 2011, when I (with the totally noble intention of proving to my crush how Catholic I was because he was into that stuff) went on a retreat with a local Catholic youth group. The time for Eucharistic Adoration came along, and I was prepared to be bored out of my mind for an hour, but I had a profound experience of the Real Presence instead. I saw a man's face in front of the monstrance, crystal clear and in all three dimensions. I was later able to compare the face to a painting of Christ that a girl made when she died for a few minutes and claimed to have visited Heaven. To my surprise (though probably not to anyone else's) it was the exact same face! It was my Saint Thomas moment: I finally believed because I had seen for myself that Christ was truly there, and I could call Him my Lord and my God.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL8loGPyo3FP-18BUIGbdFoDmnODAnNudqwz3qOnwsAkmtYaC7HzW9L4uLb5hSOAJM1lwhtCnUcsA4MgKtu3dG3QnDd4JdMxFAv7d3bMHf9EFuWP45V4plR7i1mbbhOBINgqBS3s89gw/s1600/25763f1fc2d3b52b7052724a0e5ef4c0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL8loGPyo3FP-18BUIGbdFoDmnODAnNudqwz3qOnwsAkmtYaC7HzW9L4uLb5hSOAJM1lwhtCnUcsA4MgKtu3dG3QnDd4JdMxFAv7d3bMHf9EFuWP45V4plR7i1mbbhOBINgqBS3s89gw/s1600/25763f1fc2d3b52b7052724a0e5ef4c0.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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That moment was a catalyst for me, and I started voraciously reading everything about the Eucharist that I could get my hands on. I took on a monthly Holy Hour and learned to love the Mass, especially Consecration and Communion. Receiving Communion was like getting a hug from God, a special time when I knew He loved me so much that He'd become man, then become bread, just to be physically present with me. I might not have known how or why Jesus was present in the bread and wine at Mass, but I knew He was. For the first time in years, I felt grounded and loved. The Eucharist quickly became my center; no matter how good or how bad I was feeling, I was able to take it to the Eucharist and just talk to Jesus about everything, now that I knew He was really listening. My entire life, everything I felt and saw and thought and did, became like the rays of a monstrance: shooting out from the center point of the Eucharist. I was peaceful and joyful, living out the words of Saint Peter Julian Eymard when he said, "Happy is the soul that knows how to find Jesus in the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in all things!" </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCFG7BKKGRvQ8kzXA6yTaZ41LesrusozQuX_NKDXW1RlqPmwl7kJZdlBfuNjzyTyKzZCttQeS55jH5ETUy68halBs04dYXfptknIAYDb8mFaLnHJ5fgU41B6-XMdyMWb0Ze3GU-uYFxg/s1600/giphy.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCFG7BKKGRvQ8kzXA6yTaZ41LesrusozQuX_NKDXW1RlqPmwl7kJZdlBfuNjzyTyKzZCttQeS55jH5ETUy68halBs04dYXfptknIAYDb8mFaLnHJ5fgU41B6-XMdyMWb0Ze3GU-uYFxg/s1600/giphy.gif" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>And there's nothing happier than happy Catholics.</i></td></tr>
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A lot of people feel distant from God these days, and that's heartbreaking. Not to bash anyone, but I honestly don't know how non-Catholics survive without the physical, tangible presence of God in the Eucharist. All of our love languages are present there: He is physically touching us in Communion, speaking words of love through the Bible, serving us through His sacrifice on the Cross, giving us the gift of His body, and spending time with us when we just sit there together. It's one of the greatest things about being part of a universal Church — the Eucharist appeals to us universally, no matter who we are. The spiritually omnipresent God becomes physically present on the altars of every Church, ready to meet us and love us. All we have to do to claim that is visit Him there.<br />
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<i>~Tani</i></div>
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<i>"We all know that Jesus is everywhere. But isn't it nice to know that he is <b>some</b>where?"</i><br />
<i>—Charles Alfred Voegeli, Episcopal Bishop of Haiti, 1943-1971</i></div>
Tani Federoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02112956068243761963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-44163584260773242012015-02-05T10:00:00.000-05:002015-02-05T10:27:30.182-05:00CAPTION THIS: When Rome Met Alexandria<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_jCQk2jMT7oMk-oWZgNLhT39a3v9PaaJDgq1zaLPaHv7XK5bljkFWcELBUnAL3fk_vJ5Kt55YsnfBlCoK-fiPqzTd32cxF-XsfkCagWTaccXwOxmP3mJdfW2tWcjMg5P-7yVjCCE_IrVZ/s1600/COPTIC+SMIRK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_jCQk2jMT7oMk-oWZgNLhT39a3v9PaaJDgq1zaLPaHv7XK5bljkFWcELBUnAL3fk_vJ5Kt55YsnfBlCoK-fiPqzTd32cxF-XsfkCagWTaccXwOxmP3mJdfW2tWcjMg5P-7yVjCCE_IrVZ/s1600/COPTIC+SMIRK.jpg" height="333" width="500" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Coptic Bishop: "Papa! Papa! Look what we drew!"<br />Francis: "Oh, how lovely! This is going <b>right</b> on the fridge." *slips into drawer*<br />(Full story <a href="http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/01/27/oriental_orthodox,_catholics_work_to_finish_joint_document/1120264">here</a>, <a href="http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/01/30/pope_to_oriental_orthodox_common_witness_of_suffering/1120739">here</a>, <a href="http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/01/30/pope_francis_spirit_of_fraternity_with_oriental_orthodox/1120750">here</a> and <a href="http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/01/31/oriental_orthodox-catholic_meeting_concludes_in_rome/1120902">here</a>. Picture c/o: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/VaticanRadioEnglish/photos/pcb.936149666396638/936149409729997">Vatican Radio English</a>)</i></td></tr>
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It's our first caption contest of the year! Joy! Mega-thanks to everyone who participated in our <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/2014/12/caption-this-when-peter-met-andrew.html">last caption contest</a>. Without further ado, the winner is...<br />
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<a name='more'></a><b style="text-align: justify;">Matthew Ogden</b><span style="text-align: justify;">, for this bit of snark:</span><br />
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<i><i>"It feels good to admit you're wrong, doesn't it?"</i></i></blockquote>
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<i><i>"Wait, what?"</i></i></blockquote>
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Thank you, everyone! Let's try and boost the number of entries from last time. Come on. That smirk <i>demands</i> your captions. Leave them in the comments below!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07047501237589816058noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-10655808402396214402015-01-29T14:00:00.000-05:002015-01-29T14:03:19.340-05:00The Myth and Distraction of Liberal and Conservative Catholicism<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Haters gonna hate."</i></td></tr>
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<i><span class="reftext"></span>And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me; <span class="reftext"></span>That
they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they
also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me. <span class="reftext"></span>And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one: <span class="reftext"></span>I
in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the
world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast
also loved me. <span class="reftext"></span>Father,
I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with
me; that they may see my glory which thou hast given me, because thou
hast loved me before the creation of the world. <span class="reftext"></span>Just Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee: and these have known that thou hast sent me. <span class="reftext"></span>And
I have made known thy name to them, and will make it known; that the
love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I in them. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+17%3A20-26&version=DRA">—John 17:20-26</a></i></div>
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<a name='more'></a>Praised Be Jesus!</div>
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I pray and hope that the joy of the Christmas season is still burning brightly in you, and that you are continuing the celebration in your hearts!</div>
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We hear it from our pastors. We hear it from our Bishops. We hear it from a multitude of Catholic media outlets throughout the Internet and beyond: The debate between those who espouse either "conservative" or "liberal" interpretations of the Faith. There is not a day that goes by in Catholic media where we do not come across articles, comments, blog posts, and so on that either raise up one side or lambaste the other. In these moments, I wonder: Does any of this have anything to do with the Gospel? Does being "conservative" or "liberal," at the end of the day, make us holy? Do these debates help us in serving each one of our brothers and sisters in love?</div>
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The truth of the matter is, the resounding answer to these questions is <i>NO</i>. In the end, holding exclusively to either view doesn't have much to do with Catholicism, nor does it have much to do with following Jesus. I'm not denying that people within the Church do not hold to one or more of these political views, but when we bring them into the realms of our theology, and what it means to follow Christ, have we become distracted about the true meaning of our Christian calling and baptismal vows?</div>
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Let's get one thing straight first: Jesus was concerned about truth, he even said, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A6&version=DRA">"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life."</a> Jesus came to witness to the Truth and to reveal the Father to humanity. His divine mission was for the salvation of souls for all people! We have to ask ourselves: Is this our mission?</div>
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Truth has no label. Truth is truth plain and simple, and as Christians, we believe that Truth is not just some abstract idea, but that Truth is a person: The Person of Jesus Christ. We can look at the life of Jesus and see His concern. The Pharisees were orthodox in their observance of the Jewish law, following it without wavering, but this was the group that Jesus criticized the most because their strict observance was for show, and the real meaning of the law, that interior conversion of heart, did not take root. In the same breath, Jesus criticized sin and hastened souls to deep conversion. As Catholics, are we seeking the Gospel in our practice of the Faith?<br />
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To self-described conservatives: Does our staunch adherence to doctrine serve as a way to draw closer to Christ, and live in loving relationship with God and our neighbor? Or do we use Church doctrine to shut people out? Does our observance of the Faith serve as a way of distinguishing ourselves from those people we find undesirable?</div>
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For those who support a more liberal interpretation of the Faith: Does your interpretation seek to bring people to holiness? Are you using your interpretation to push your own personal agenda? Are you intentionally hiding the truth?</div>
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Ultimately, we should be focusing on one thing, one person: Jesus, and His Truth, and His Truth is neither conservative nor liberal. Jesus' Truth is that of love and salvation. In his talk, <a href="http://www.lighthousecatholicmedia.org/store/title/discerning-god-s-will">"Discerning God's Will,"</a> Father Larry Richards explains that at first, the Christian is not a moral person to begin with: The Christian person <i>becomes</i> moral as he or she grows in relationship with Jesus: The Christian becomes a person of love.</div>
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Everything in the Christian walk has to be based on love, whether we serve, whether we admonish, whether we do good works, whether we seek to welcome others. If we seek to correct others, our main point should be out of love, and if it is not with love, it should not be done at all. We can all learn a great deal from both the conservative and liberal points of view and actually build up the Church instead of tearing it down, as long as we keep our focus on Christ, on growing into more intimate relationship with Him, and growing in His truth and love. We can learn from each other how to be more orthodox in our practice but also how to reach the outcasts among us and how to be pastoral with others; we can better learn to reach all people with Christ's love.</div>
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The reason I think so many people are annoyed with our Holy Father, Pope Francis, is that he's not our usual model of what we have become used to what a Pope is. Pope Francis doesn't play the liberal-versus-conservative game. His concern is not that of appeasing certain factions of the laity or hierarchy. What Pope Francis is concerned about is that Truth of Christ and being able to reach those who have been shut out with the love of Christ. I thank the Holy Father for this great example to all of us, an example of balance in our witness to the Faith.</div>
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May we all pray that we are transformed by the love and truth of Christ, and may we continue to break down the walls that divide us.</div>
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<b>Prayer for the Church</b></div>
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<i><i>Heavenly Father, look upon our community of faith which is the Church of your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to witness to his love by loving all our fellow creatures without exception. Under the leadership of the Holy Father and the Bishops keep us faithful to Christ's mission of calling all men and women to your service so that there may be "one fold and one shepherd." We ask this through Christ, our Lord.</i></i></div>
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<b><b>Amen.</b></b></div>
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Michael Thérèsehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07692731600968451784noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7668000626451175396.post-75569484809132285812015-01-26T17:00:00.000-05:002015-01-26T17:00:01.671-05:00Pro-Life and Post-Abortive: Women Impacted by Abortion Tell Their Story, Continued<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Last week marked the forty-second anniversary of the </i>Roe v. Wade<i> decision, as well as the annual <a href="http://marchforlife.org/">March for Life</a>. Too often, when discussing abortion, we are quick to forget the perspective of those most affected by the procedure: the women who have them and live with that decision for the rest of their lives. This post is continues our series of <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/2014/01/pro-life-and-atheist-secular-case-for.html">interviews</a> <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/2014/02/pro-life-and-atheist-secular-case-for.html">addressing</a> <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/2014/04/pro-life-and-feminist-protecting-both.html">abortion</a>, with a focus on <a href="http://unpleasantaccents.blogspot.com/2015/01/pro-life-and-post-abortive-women.html">women who have had abortions and now oppose it</a>.</i></div>
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<b>Béatrice Fedor</b> is a French woman who used to support abortion rights. She had a change of heart after she married her husband and faced her demons. She is now a <a href="http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/">Silent No More Awareness</a> Campaign regional coordinator. She writes about the journey to healing after abortion and reflects on ways we can change our culture to make abortion unnecessary at <a href="http://400wordsforwomen.com/"><i>400 Words for Women</i></a>. Her essays and poems have been reprinted in several online publications and in <a href="http://www.feministsforlife.org/taf-2/" style="font-style: italic;">The American Feminist</a>, <a href="http://www.feministsforlife.org/">Feminists For Life</a>'s magazine. Béatrice lives in South Carolina with her husband and four children.</div>
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<b><b>Can you discuss the circumstances of your pregnancies and why you chose to end them?</b></b></div>
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I was 18, in France, at the university. I became pregnant, and I thought that my boyfriend would marry me, but he told me to "get rid of that." I was shocked — I had never thought about that issue before, but now that I was pregnant, it was obvious that I was against abortion. I thought my boyfriend would change his mind with an ultrasound, but he wouldn't, so I rationalized the situation and took the RU486 pill to please him, against my better judgment.</div>
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After our developing child was flushed down the toilet, I sank into depression. I became pro-choice to cope with the situation, to convince myself that I had made the right decision. </div>
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A year after the abortion, my ex-boyfriend told me that he regretted it, that we should have a little girl, but we killed her. That made me extremely angry at myself, at him, at the whole world.</div>
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Seven years later, I got pregnant again. The father was abusive and twice my age. I didn’t want to go through abortion a second time, though I supported other women’s right to abort. I registered at the hospital to give birth; I chose a preschool for my son. </div>
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But I was ambivalent about the child because I was scared of the father, and I needed to get out of an abusive situation. A voice in the back of my head said: <i>"You could still have an abortion."</i> And so I made the second most horrible decision of my life out of fear and despair. This time, it was a surgical abortion. When I woke up after the procedure, I broke into tears: What had I done? How was I going to live with myself now?</div>
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More years of depression and thoughts of suicide followed, but I didn't understand that my anger, self-hatred and despair came from my abortions. I had to make that paradox exist in my mind: Abortion wounded me in my very soul, but I had to defend my decisions and be pro-choice to be able to survive. I have a secular background, and I couldn't question my "values," because that's all I knew. What else was there for me to believe in, to cling to?</div>
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<b><b>What changed your mind about abortion and inspired you to speak out against it publicly?</b></b></div>
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Four years after the second abortion, I met a pro-lifer for the first time. He was Catholic, and I was an angry, pro-choice atheist, but he loved me anyway. I moved to the USA, and we got married.</div>
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I became pregnant with our first child, and I was crying every day. Deep in that pit of depression, I had my pro-life conversion: I wasn't feeling worthy to carry a "wanted" child because I had aborted two "unwanted" ones in the past. I realized that the notions of wanted and unwanted don't mean anything. The truth hit me: I was grieving two children; this is what I had been doing for thirteen years.</div>
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At that time, I was gradually turning to God. In a women's discussion group about forgiveness, to my surprise, I said: "I can’t forgive myself for my abortions." My church friends cried with me and told me about a counsellor from the diocese and <a href="http://www.rachelsvineyard.org/">Rachel’s Vineyard</a>. Healing from this kind of trauma is a long process. and I'm thankful that I was able to start that journey eight years ago.</div>
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Also, in a rally, I saw <a href="http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/">Silent No More</a> women holding "I Regret My Abortion" signs. I registered on their website to get their newsletter, but I wasn't ready to hold signs or share my story. Then, I learned that a friend's daughter had a pregnant classmate who was pressured by her family to have an abortion. She didn't really want an abortion, but her grandmother decided to "fix the problem" and took her to a clinic where she was given the RU486 pill.</div>
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I realized that I should have spoken up and shared my story. Maybe if I had talked to her family about my abortions and how they affected me, they wouldn't have put her through that. Maybe we could all have worked together to help her have her baby and finish high school. That's how I became a Silent No More regional coordinator in 2008, because I wanted to prevent this kind of tragedy.
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<b><b>How important is it for men, whether they are fathers or not, to support pregnant women and their babies?</b></b></div>
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An unmarried pregnant woman needs to know that her partner will be there for her and their child, but instead of: <i>"It’s going to be O.K.; we will make it work together,"</i> he can easily say: <i>"It's YOUR choice"</i> and <i>"I can’t tell you what to do with your body."</i> Her partner's message is clear: "I'm not getting involved." So, it’s either abortion, or she is on her own to raise a child already rejected by his father. Some choice! When you think about it, abortion has benefited irresponsible men, not women.</div>
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Until we change that mentality, pro-life men can counsel young fathers in pregnancy resource centers and in sidewalk counselling to help them to choose life for their families.</div>
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Also, let’s not condemn single mothers who fell victim of the hook-up culture (or perhaps were raped and courageously chose life). When we judge and shame single mothers, we are fuelling the wrong side of the abortion debate. What is done is done, and a child was created. Now, how can we deal with the situation without adding any more harm?</div>
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Lastly, fathers of girls: Support your daughters no matter what. Let them know that you will be there to support them emotionally and financially should an unplanned pregnancy happen.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><i>"When you think about it, abortion has benefited irresponsible men, not women."</i></span></div>
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<b><b>What would you say to a woman who has had an abortion but still does not regret it?</b></b></div>
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Abortion is a traumatic event that creates complicated emotions. It's typical for women to go through several years of justification of their abortion, as I did. </div>
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I would tell her what I always say to post-abortive women, whether they express a regret or not: that I'm sorry she had to go through that and that she is not alone. I'll be there for her if she wants to talk. I would let her know that I had two abortions and they were the worst decisions I made in my life. I would simply share the truth in a non-judgmental way and listen, if she has something to share as well.</div>
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Healing comes in stages and on people's timing, but sometimes, women are stuck in the rationalization stage their whole life. It doesn't mean that they are not struggling with eating disorders, that they are not self-medicating with alcohol so they don’t have to deal with that dark event of their life.</div>
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The pro-choice movement is built on the lie that the child to be born is not a person; therefore, abortion is O.K. It is when a woman recognizes that, yes, she was carrying a child and that abortion destroyed that child that she can start to heal. But it's not a truth that you can push on people by using a bullhorn and call them "murderer."</div>
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I never want to give up on people. If I changed, anybody can change. Some women are not ready to hear the truth yet; I share it anyway, or little bits of it, in a gentle manner.</div>
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<b><b>How did you get involved in post-abortive ministry?</b></b></div>
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Before joining Silent No More, I read dozens of heartbreaking abortion stories on pregnancy message boards and such, and I started to answer some of the posts. Many were similar to mine: coercion, feeling that they didn't have any other choice. There was also a pro-choice site with several stories that ended like this: <i>"This whole experience sucks, and I don’t recommend it to anyone, but abortion was the right choice for me."</i> To me, all those stories were cries for help, and I wanted to give them hope.</div>
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As a Silent No More coordinator, I’m not a counsellor in post-abortion programs, but I refer people to them. Some people prefer a ten-week Bible study, others are more comfortable attending a one-weekend retreat or using a book at home, others prefer online support groups. Some people attend several programs. Abortion recovery programs are usually religious, and Rachel's Vineyard uses Scriptures but is open to non-Christians. I think there is a need for a secular program.</div>
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Through Silent No More and <a href="http://400wordsforwomen.com/">my blog</a>, I’m constantly in touch with women, Christian and non-Christian alike, who need to make sense of the grief, to understand how they came to the point where they accepted abortion as a valid option when they were younger, etc. Healing is a work in progress for many of us. Thank God we have resources available and the Internet to connect and encourage one another.</div>
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<b><b>What can the pro-life community do to reach out more to the post-abortive community? Have you ever felt judged by fellow pro-life activists, or is that merely an unfortunate stereotype?</b></b></div>
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Post-abortive women are everywhere: in the workplace, in your school, within your family. We are sitting next to you in the pew each Sunday.</div>
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What can be helpful is to find out what post-abortion programs are available in your area and keep that information handy. Make sure that this info is available in the confessional. It is needed there.</div>
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If you engage in discussions online with post-abortive women, be compassionate, open-minded and sometimes, guard your tongue. Tell women that they are not alone and invite them to read abortion stories on Silent No More's website.</div>
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There are people (not many, thankfully) who told me that I should have known better after the first abortion; that they don't understand how I could be so selfish; why wasn't I abstinent; why wasn't I courageous and loving enough to choose adoption.</div>
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Those remarks don't help anyone, but they can alienate women who need help and make others feel that they don’t belong in the pro-life community. </div>
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It's not like we don’t want to go back in time and change the past. We do. It's not like we never beat ourselves up with "what ifs," "I should have done that..." We do, especially at the time of abortion anniversaries.</div>
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But as Christians, we need to see beyond the ugliness of the sin. We need to see the sinner and her need for redemption and healing. How can we be a vessel of that redemption, of that healing? Our society denies abortion grief. If not us, the Church, who will validate it and lead women to a safe place where they can be restored? </div>
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Let us give women room to grieve their aborted children. Let's not focus so much on Justice as some people do — leave that to God — but let's focus on Mercy. </div>
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<i><i>"Neither do I condemn you."</i> —Jesus to the woman caught in adultery, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8%3A11&version=KJV">John 8:11</a>.</i></div>
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<i><i>Editor's Note: This interview was conducted via email and was edited only for grammar and punctuation, not content.</i></i></div>
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<b><b>Post-Abortion Healing Resources</b></b></div>
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<a href="http://400wordsforwomen.com/">400 Words for Women</a> (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/400-Words-for-Women/411764862242107">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/BeatriceFedor">Twitter</a>)</div>
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<a href="http://www.abortionrecoveryinternational.org/">Abortion Recovery International</a> (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ARINInc">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/joinARIN">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Abortion-Recovery-InterNational-Inc-3680388">LinkedIn</a>)</div>
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<a href="http://hopeafterabortion.com/">Hope After Abortion</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.rachelsvineyard.org/">Rachel's Vineyard Ministries</a> (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/rachelsvineyard">Facebook</a>)</div>
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<a href="http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/">Silent No More Awareness</a> (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/silentnomoreawarenesscampaign">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/regretabortion">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/SilentNoMoreCampaign">YouTube</a>)</div>
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<a href="http://www.sistersoflife.org/"></a><a href="http://www.sistersoflife.org/">Sisters of Life</a>: <a href="http://www.sistersoflife.org/hope-and-healing-after-abortion">Hope and Healing After Abortion</a> (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Sisters-of-Life/744252612301648">Facebook</a>)</div>
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