Given my great love of literature, art, music, and so many other of the humanist, liberal studies which delight others in the academy, I sometimes sadden a bit that my own chosen field, physics, is less immediately delightful and often merely frustrating. But this morning I remembered this poem by George Meredith and was reminded that, in studying natural Philosophy, I at least am concerned with an arena that is wholly God’s, where His will is being worked out in all its delightful precision and beauty; and that is a consoling thought.
Continue reading

God’s Face like a countenance beaming forth from the darkness: in order to see it we throw everything we possess into the fire — the world, our joys, our hopes. The flame leaps forth, consumes it all, and in its glow the beloved Face lights up. But the flame dies down, and we feed it with what little remains to us: honor, success, our will, the intellect, our temperament, finally our very self: absume et suscipe — “take and receive.” This is not simple self-giving but, increasingly, the knowledge that I am being taken, that I must surrender. Grace is everything: the moment of God’s appearing; grace also every sacrifice the fire snatches from me.

We have a question that I has hoped some of our readers might be able to help us with. It is perhaps known to some of you that a Nuptial Mass is forthcoming with regards to certain persons associated with this blog. What we’re interested in is the status of the Solemnization of Matrimony ceremony that appears in both the Angelus and Baronius Press 1962 Missals. Our FSSP priest offhandedly claimed that this ceremony was authorized only for use in Britain, and not in the United States. Indeed it is a much nicer ceremony (more ornate, more genteel, more English(?)) than the one found in the famous white Nuptial Mass Booklet Missals put out by the Ecclesia Dei Coalition. My question is simple: is this, in fact, correct? Is this form of Solemnization of Matrimony not approved for use in the US? And if so, isn’t it strange that the Baronius Missal (i.e. the FSSP’s “official” pew missal), which carries the Imprimatur of the Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, contains a ceremony that cannot be used in his diocese? Obviously, we will use the American ceremony if it is the only one permitted, but we just wanted to make sure that is the case.

As a Mardi Gras gift to our readers, I thought I would post for them a recipe for a real Louisiana Chicken and Sausage Gumbo [pdf][doc]. But, of course, the most important thing about today is that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and it is imperative that Catholics take the season of Lent seriously. As Iosephus observed to me one time, it isn’t sensible to have a daylong bacchanalia to introduce the season where you don’t eat chocolate. Which is why I would like to encourage our readers to listen rather to the Church, whose traditional Fast for Lent is an excellent means of mortification of the flesh. It also has the benefit of being externally prescribed: one tends to be less inclined to spiritual pride when being obedient to the Church’s ideas about what makes for a fast, rather than constructing a fast for oneself. Anyway, here is the fast. Each day of Lent, a “fast and partial abstinence,” which means: two small meals: one ~4 ounces (= a bagel, two pieces of toast); one ~8 ounces; and one full-sized meal, with meat taken only at the full meal. On Fridays, the same fast proportions, but with no meat at all — full abstinence. Simple and effective. Give it a try! (A note: women often have commented to me that they eat less than this anyway. Fine! Just, for Lent, keep it up, but make sure you do it every day, and with partial abstinence and no snacking. It’s about obedience, not losing weight. In this vein, you may also want to read Iosephus’ fine words on Fasting from last Lent.)

Generally speaking, the conventional wisdom about outsiders being able to see things that insiders cannot, fails to hold in matters of the faith. From St. Augustine’s time and before (though St. Anselm is generally credited with the insight) it has been recognized that faith is often a prerequisite to understanding. Many aspects of it will appear arbitrary or even crazy until the sensibilities are properly trained.

Nonetheless, it can be interesting at times to see what vestiges of truth penetrate the warped sensibilities of those who are entirely hostile to the faith. In this spirit, I offer a little excerpt from Bertrand Russell, one of the twentieth century’s rock star atheists. His book, Why I Am Not a Christian, is on the whole a disappointing read if you pick it up hoping for an invigorating challenge. Maybe some day I’ll get around to writing a post making fun of him. But he did have a way with words, and the book is peppered with memorable phrases. His essay On Catholic and Protestant Skeptics hones in on a point that I have made before in another form: the seeds of truth are often planted much more deeply in the soul than we ever expect. Even for those Catholics who are trying to lose themselves in the woods, the compass is still calibrated.

Continue reading

A photograph of our pilgrim, Armel, with his family, at his brother’s ordination (FSSP).

I meant to post this on St. Valentine’s Day, but this whole new blogger business was giving me problems. Ambrosius ended up putting up a very appropriate post for the Day of Love, but now that the kinks are worked out I thought I’d offer mine as well… I could save it for next year, but by then I’ll be married myself and my husband might regard it as a personal criticism of him. This year I’m presumably safe.

I should warn you all at the outset that this does not come from an authoritative source. In fact, if anything, it comes from an anti-authoritative source; not only is the author an Anglican priest (or “priest” if you prefer), he is a hypocrite as well. In his book on marriage, from which I am about to quote, he says a number of nice things, including declaring divorce to be “a metaphysical impossibility”… but, after having six children with his wife and writing a book about it, he divorced her and remarried. Go figure. So take this or leave it as you like, but I found it thought-provoking nonetheless.

Continue reading

Omnibus et praecipue Stanfordensem, Connecticut colentibus: Word has come to us there will be a Solemn Pontifical High Mass at St. Mary’s Church, Stamford, on the First Sunday of Lent, February 25, 11:30AM, to be celebrated by Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, auxiliary of San Diego. Bishop Cordileone has been described to us as “one of the very soundest of our bishops”. If there is a good turn out for this Mass, it may well send a message to the bishops in the area that the old rite is here to stay and worthy of their patronage. We were also told that the Mass should be “glorious”. I hope that it is and we look forward to seeing the pictures!

Directions to the church:

Continue reading

One way in which human love manifests itself is delight in another person’s particularity: the peculiar joy experienced when a friend or relative does something so typical of himself, so expressive of his personality and even foibles, that we are reminded to recall to conscious consideration why it is we liked or even came to love this person in the first place. We may then ask: is this sort of delight shared by God? Is this a reflection, a human manifestation, of God’s delight in man?

At first, one is tempted to deny it. This sort of reminding is something that God does not need: He cannot forget, as we can, nor is His attention divided, as ours is. Continue reading

Listening yesterday to an interview with Dick Keyes on the latest CD of the Mars Hill Audio Journal (an excellent audio journal, albeit from a chiefly Protestant perspective) discussing contemporary cynicism and its poisonous effect on Christian life. Though the interview entire was quite good, Mr. Keyes made a fine side point that I thought worth sharing here.

Cynicism, in his estimation, is part and parcel of a contemporary unreal idealism that arises from a media culture celebrating convenience and selling perfection, coupled with a widespread loss of understanding of the effects of Original Sin. No better place, he went on, could this contrast between today and previous, more healthy, cultures be seen than in attitudes towards love and marriage.

Continue reading