not of this world

i posted this passage from Dubus a year or more ago, but having come across it again, and given the recent communication from Pope Benedict signaling that a renewal of liturgical ritual is to once again take the proper priority in the Church’s mission within the world, wanted to quote it again.

plus, it’s just beautiful:

At St. John’s, Father Paul and five or six regulars and I celebrate Mass. Do not think of me as a spirtual man whose every thought during those twenty-five minutes is at one with the words of the Mass. Each morning I try, each morning I fail, and know that always I will be a creature who, looking at Father Paul and the altar, and uttering prayers, will be distracted by scrambled eggs, horses, the weather, and memories and daydreams that have nothing to do with the sacrament I am about to receive. I can receive, though: the Eucharist, and also, at Mass and at other times, moments and even minutes of contemplation. But I cannot achieve contemplation, as some can; and so, having to face and forgive my own failures, I have learned from them both the necessity and wonder of ritual. For ritual allows those who cannot will themselves out of the secular to perform the spiritual, as dancing allows the tongue-tied man a ceremony of love.

-Andre Dubus, from A Father’s Story

for anyone who’s interested, here’s an audio link to a recent interview with fr. fessio on the papal motu proprio on the mass

UPDATE:

an english translation of the text

and the accompanying letter to the bishops

…[the Arctic Monkeys] wonder why anyone would be interested in the opinion of rock stars on a complex scientific issue like climate change.

“Someone asked us to give a quote about what was happening in Sheffield and it’s like ‘who cares what we think about what’s happening’?” added Helders.

“There’s more important people who can have an opinion. Why does it make us have an opinion because we’re in a band?”

The group, whose first record was the fastest-selling debut album in British history, will clock up thousands of air miles — in normal airliners not private jets, they say — during their tour to Asia and Australia in the next few months.

They are not the only stars to take a cynical view of Live Earth, which aims to raise awareness about global warming but which will require many longhaul flights and thousands of car journeys to and from the music venues…

Roger Daltrey, singer from 1970s British rock band The Who, told British newspaper The Sun in May that “the last thing the planet needs is a rock concert.”

And the singer from 80s pop sensations The Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant, attacked the arrogance of pop stars who put themselves forward as role-models.

keep reading stars slam global gig

and speaking of credibility, or lack thereof, on this issue, from the Chicago Sun-Times:

A cooperative and productive discussion of global warming must be open and honest regarding the science. Global warming threats ought to be studied and mitigated, and they should not be deliberately exaggerated as a means of building support for a desired political position.

Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, ”An Inconvenient Truth,” have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims.

For example, Gore claims that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking and global warming is to blame. Yet the September 2006 issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate reported, “Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame.”

Gore claims the snowcap atop Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro is shrinking and that global warming is to blame. Yet according to the November 23, 2003, issue of Nature magazine, “Although it’s tempting to blame the ice loss on global warming, researchers think that deforestation of the mountain’s foothills is the more likely culprit. Without the forests’ humidity, previously moisture-laden winds blew dry. No longer replenished with water, the ice is evaporating in the strong equatorial sunshine.”

keep reading Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny

It’s easy now, in a nation awash with complaints about what our Founders did not do, what imperfect humans they seem to 21st century eyes, to overlook how startlingly bold their views and actions were in their own day and are, in fact, even today. Who else in 1776 declared, let alone thought it a self-evident truth, that all men were created equal, entitled to inalienable rights, or to any rights at all? How few declare these views today or, glibly declaring them, really intend to treat their countrymen or others as equal, entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

keep readingwonderfully spared

though Hamas is playing up securing the release of a BBC reporter today to clean up their reputation, it’s worth keeping in mind the kind of quality children’s propoganda educational programming they and their fellow militant brethren have long been behind, ensuring generations of hate filled, victimologized aggressors to come:

A Mickey Mouse lookalike who preached Islamic domination on a Hamas-affiliated children’s television program was the victim of a pretend beating death in the show’s final episode Friday.

from CNN’s story on the program

click to view a clip of the dramatic finale

or here for the extended version