Religious News from The Hinterlands

I could not resist pointing out to friends and acquaintances and family who might read this blog: in Saturday's Gazette, 20 August 2011, under the headline School district rejects groups' offers to buy land for seminary—note the neat apostrophe after the plural noun indicating possession, right?—there was a short little entry courtesy of the Associated Press, so be careful now:

In Draper Utah the school district won't be selling land next to a new high school to either the Mormon church or the religious group called Summum. The school district 'wants to save the space for future expansion. . . . The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had planned to use it for released-time religious instruction . . . Summum is a religious organization . . .[which] practices meditation and mummification.' [my emphasis in bold]

They did not say for what purpose Summum planned to use the land. Now that I think about it for a few minutes, isn't 'meditation and mummification' what many of us ordinary Christians do? Not all we do but at least a part, right? It seems to me there is some connection between prayer and meditation, and of course, embalming and mummification seem connected as well. Maybe I'm missing something.

Saint Patrick's Co-Cathedral Billings in Ordinary Time

From Wikipedia—Ordinary Time is a season of the Christian (especially the Catholic) liturgical calendar. The English name is intended to translate the Latin term Tempus per annum (literally "time through the year"). Ordinary Time comprises the two periods — one following Epiphany, the other following Pentecost — which do not fall under the "strong seasons" of Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter.

How do we get "Ordinary Time" from "time through the year"? I'm not sure: perhaps having something to do with being numbered? I didn't realize that this is one of the unintended consequences of Vatican II. I think a better explanation is given here.

A mild touch of irony here is that the usual liturgical color for ordinary time is green. I didn't notice that until after I uploaded the picture.

A Father Writes To His Children

My friend Bill McNamer has been writing this nice little book for several years now. It was worth waiting for. It is part Apologia Pro Vita Sua, an apology or defense of one's life, with a touch of Baltimore Catechism thrown in, and in closing, a sincere, thoughtful and sensitive invitation to his children and really all of us younger folks who have tended to drift away from Mother Church, wittingly or not, to re-think the situation.

Here is the blurb from McNamer's book website:

"Keep the Faith is a series of letters from a Catholic father to his five young adult children, and by extension to all young adult Catholics who are at risk of losing their faith, or who have dropped out. The author presents the theology underlying Catholic teaching at a level appropriate for thinking adults, addresses the common hangups to faith, and concludes with an extended treatment of Catholic spirituality.

In Keep the Faith, the author meets the problem of belief and doubt with understanding and common sense, questions the adequacy of secularism as a philosophy of life, and insists that both faith and reason -- and a little poetry, beauty, and prayer -- are necessary to live a life of meaning and purpose. These can be found in the Catholic faith."

There are defenses of this and explanations of that as a lawyerly way of laying the groundwork for his final summation which is the Great Commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Maturity has not blunted his ironic wit: “The sacrament of Reconciliation was formerly known as Confession to you regular sinners. But we don’t hear much about sin and Confession anymore. Somehow, sin has [had] done a [total] makeover so it’s hard to recognize. Or else we’re all getting holier as we grow older.”

In addition to the Scriptures and Joyce, a little Blake and Belloc leaven the whole thing, and in addition he makes good use of some of the dissenting 20th century Scribes of the Church, though he mercifully puts those references into some compact endnotes. This slim book is worth more than a quick read as I found on my second reading. Highly recommended.

Word of the Day for 25 November

Catherinette

From our friends at Shrine of the Holy Whapping

This is St Catherine of Alexandria, a little earlier than St Catherine of Siena, and a little less documented as well. That is an instrument of torture behind her which she is said to have broken when placed on it. So she was beheaded instead.

THE END IS NEAR

The Gospel reading for this Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the liturgical year, from St Matthew 25 always reminds me of my freshman course in General Chemistry, among other things of course.

My favorite professor in college was Arthur A Sunier, who had been a professor of chemistry for many years, and more than a little hard of hearing, always had a "sheep from goat separator" test about half-way through the semester, just in time in case one wanted to drop the course. Very thoughtful.

From the Biblical reading one gets the idea that in the real world we really don't have that option.

A detail from the Ghent altarpiece by Jan van Eyck to the right. From our friends at Wikipedia.