SCIENCE
>>Genetics
German Strong Boy, 1
German Strong Boy, 2
Blue Rose
>>Biology & Evolution
Red Queen
NPR & Darwin, 1
Corpse Flower
Hirsute Eagles
Tropical Hibernation
Aping Plantinga
>>Astronomy & Physics
Space Elevator
Light News
>>Archeology
New Skull Alert
>>Anatomy & Physiology
Furey’s Strength
Obesity and Ghrelin Spikes
TV Rushes Puberty
>>Medical
ESCR, 1
ESCR, 2
ESCR, 3
Baby Clock
Atkins Sex
New HIV test
Leeches
New Fetal Scanning
Puff the Carcinogenic Dragon
>>Miscellaneous
Bulletproof -- and Stylin'
BIOETHICS
>>Contraception
Contraception, 1
Verily, Vatican Condemns Condoms
>>Abortion
Reagan on abortion
>>Euthanasia
Watson the Ogre, 1
Watson the Ogre, 2
>>Cloning & Gene Therapy
ESCR, 1
ESCR, 2
ESCR, 3
German Strong Boy, 1
German Strong Boy, 2
Monday, October 3, 2005
Theology & Philosophy
THEOLOGY
>>God
Mission and Procession
>>Salvation
Cross & Crucifix
>>The Church
The Pillar
Paradosis
Biblewreckers
Worship Old and New
Ma Church and My Life
Calvin’s Gay Marriage
>>Evangelism & Apologetics
The Da Vinci Code, 1
The Gospel for Today
Caught By the Mind
>>Miscellaneous
Evanjewism
Lectio divina
I’m a putz
Contraception, 1
PHILOSOPHY
>>Metaphysics & Ontology
>>Epistemology & Philosophy of Mind
Relativism
Aping Plantinga
>>Moral Philosophy
Torture
>>Philosophy of History
>>Philosophy of Science
>>Cultural Studies
>>God
Mission and Procession
>>Salvation
Cross & Crucifix
>>The Church
The Pillar
Paradosis
Biblewreckers
Worship Old and New
Ma Church and My Life
Calvin’s Gay Marriage
>>Evangelism & Apologetics
The Da Vinci Code, 1
The Gospel for Today
Caught By the Mind
>>Miscellaneous
Evanjewism
Lectio divina
I’m a putz
Contraception, 1
PHILOSOPHY
>>Metaphysics & Ontology
>>Epistemology & Philosophy of Mind
Relativism
Aping Plantinga
>>Moral Philosophy
Torture
>>Philosophy of History
>>Philosophy of Science
>>Cultural Studies
Tending the barn
I'm reworking my ancient plan to file my posts thematically. Obviously, with over a year of unfiled posts behind me, I don't intend to get it in tip top shape any time soon )or perhaps ever); but now's the time to get back on the horse. Unfortuantely, as happened the first time, I must post a series of ungainly lists to anchor the filing cabinet system. I know some posts are duplicated in different cabinets, but oh well; some posts just get around more than others.
Just relax, this'll all be over in a minute. ;)
Just relax, this'll all be over in a minute. ;)
This has always fascinated me
"The Incorruptibles" -- bodies and relics of saints that seemingly remain impervious to natural decomposition.
Since becoming Catholic (or really, since becoming-a-becoming-Catholic), I have had not the slightest qualms about relics and other such "morbid" "medieval" devotions. In fact, I love the idea of them. Relics are unliving tokens of living grace. Relics are concrete "tags" on the wall of history with which God signals his ongoing solicitude. They are tangible (and for some, all to tangible!) artifacts that pin the supernatural life at work in God's holy ones with the natural life of other less attuned or open to grace. They are enduring signs of a grace-punctured and life-punctuated world seemingly made only of loss and death. For example, at the church I attend for early morning Mass, they have a bit of St. Therese of Lisieux in an orb standing before a statue of her. I love this. The same Little Therese who was so magnificently filled with grace in body and soul is with us not only in her soul in the mystical unity of the Church as we worship but also quite vividly with us in token form as a tiny tombstone of divinized flesh.
From the same church, shortly before leaving for Europe, I bought a rosary that includes a small ampule of water from Lourdes, and which, only a day or two later, led me to have one of the more powerful spiritual encounters with God I've ever enjoyed. The water in that ampule had reached me all the way from France, and was carried on the holy little hands of my brothers and sisters in the Body. More important, the power of that water was an artifact signaling divine grace having broken through to our world even today and having reached me all the way in Taiwan, all the way into my tattered life. That little ampule was and is a tiny estuary capturing some of the grace which pours like blood and water -- as any and all grace does -- from the pierced side of Christ our Savior. Perhaps I should say it is an estuary within an estuary, since I, as a Christian, am a much larger and more complex estuary of the same divine grace. The grace filling His pierced heart flows into us not merely psychologically (or neurologically), as Evangelicals would have it, but also in ways as embarrassingly mundane and diverse as we are. This is quite simply what Chrsitianity, what the Incarnation, means -- God dwelt among flesh as flesh -- and is exactly what relics protect: the unending, unfading pierced presence of God in His Body in real human bodies.
Anyway, a reader recently directed me to a widely reported Marian appartition in an Oriental (Coptic) Orthodox church in Zeitoun-Cairo. On the same webpage I found a really cool page about saints' incorrupt bodies and wanted to share it with you. You may also want to take a gander at this historical and biblical primer-defense about relics.
Thoughts? If not, I still treasure your prayers. ;)
Since becoming Catholic (or really, since becoming-a-becoming-Catholic), I have had not the slightest qualms about relics and other such "morbid" "medieval" devotions. In fact, I love the idea of them. Relics are unliving tokens of living grace. Relics are concrete "tags" on the wall of history with which God signals his ongoing solicitude. They are tangible (and for some, all to tangible!) artifacts that pin the supernatural life at work in God's holy ones with the natural life of other less attuned or open to grace. They are enduring signs of a grace-punctured and life-punctuated world seemingly made only of loss and death. For example, at the church I attend for early morning Mass, they have a bit of St. Therese of Lisieux in an orb standing before a statue of her. I love this. The same Little Therese who was so magnificently filled with grace in body and soul is with us not only in her soul in the mystical unity of the Church as we worship but also quite vividly with us in token form as a tiny tombstone of divinized flesh.
From the same church, shortly before leaving for Europe, I bought a rosary that includes a small ampule of water from Lourdes, and which, only a day or two later, led me to have one of the more powerful spiritual encounters with God I've ever enjoyed. The water in that ampule had reached me all the way from France, and was carried on the holy little hands of my brothers and sisters in the Body. More important, the power of that water was an artifact signaling divine grace having broken through to our world even today and having reached me all the way in Taiwan, all the way into my tattered life. That little ampule was and is a tiny estuary capturing some of the grace which pours like blood and water -- as any and all grace does -- from the pierced side of Christ our Savior. Perhaps I should say it is an estuary within an estuary, since I, as a Christian, am a much larger and more complex estuary of the same divine grace. The grace filling His pierced heart flows into us not merely psychologically (or neurologically), as Evangelicals would have it, but also in ways as embarrassingly mundane and diverse as we are. This is quite simply what Chrsitianity, what the Incarnation, means -- God dwelt among flesh as flesh -- and is exactly what relics protect: the unending, unfading pierced presence of God in His Body in real human bodies.
Anyway, a reader recently directed me to a widely reported Marian appartition in an Oriental (Coptic) Orthodox church in Zeitoun-Cairo. On the same webpage I found a really cool page about saints' incorrupt bodies and wanted to share it with you. You may also want to take a gander at this historical and biblical primer-defense about relics.
Thoughts? If not, I still treasure your prayers. ;)
A swell weekend
Except for no typhoon day-off tomorrow. Merp, snerk, waaa!
Annual Wei Dao teachers' banquet Friday night. I won a new Okiwap camera cell phone, but since I already have a camera celly, I went to the store the next day to exchange it for other goodies. With my store credit I got a new Epson scanner, new Altec Lansing speakers and 50 CD-Rs. Net cost to me (excluding travel, misc, etc. costs)? About $NT900. What a blessing from Him from Whom all good gifts descend!
True thankfulness, I believe, should stir us to true compassion for those leat inclined (by antural lights) to have it. Our blessings can and should propel us in joy to an equally gleeful compassion for the poor and the "unblessed" -- since, after all, theirs is the Kingdom. So, at the risk of "trumpeting" "my" "piety", I will say I intend to divert the money I saved on these purchases to the good of others in need. Any ideas, dear reader (or readerette[1]) about good recipients?
Saturday night, after hosting a friend from out of town for the day, I watched _The Motorcycle Diaries_ at a friend's new apartment. It was really enjoyable, albeit with frequent bursts of vulgarity (uh, handy Spanish practice for me?). While there is clearly an edge in the film against clerical pharisaism, the film does not embarrass itself with any anti-religious bumptiousness. (As a matter of fact, perhaps without even meaning to, it strikes that deeply Christian chord that rings out against clerical pharisaism!) _TMD_ is a visually stunning, intellectually articulate, well acted film that presents an honest young man's journey through complex realities. See it. (Of course, how historically accurate the film is, I don't know.)
Went to a small parish in Taiping this (Sunday) morning. The fathers are Argentine missionaries with the Order of the Incarnate Word, and they "run" a very nice Mass. The faithful reply robustly and alertly; the lectors actually chant the responsorial hymn and alleluia; and they seem to be devotionally active outside the "Mass box" (e.g., small Rosary group afterwards, blessing and distribution of scapulars today at the end of Mass, etc.). I'm hoping to go again, especially if next time I don't get lost for an hour in the rain like today. Zoinks! Afterward, hung out with an Orthodox friend and his family in Taiping. Then came back to Taichung and relaxed in a little park. Since the typhoon had passed through the previous night, Saturday was pretty much just nature cleaning itself up in a breathtaking way: since the wind had scraped away the clouds and pollution, the air was clear and cool and breezy. Saw an amazing full rainbow, including the "rainbow echo" effect.
A swell weekend, yes, but last week was, on the whole, very hard: struggles with lust, anger, bitterness (by the way, bitterness about being bitter is the most nefarious peril!), and a mild case of acedia. Thank God, I was able to confess today, albeit after Mass. It was a true episode of reocnciliation, a true burst of new life in my all too easily ragged and cranky heart. It was capped, best of all, by Fr. Alberto offering me the Blessed Sacrament back in the chapel. Now, even though it's late and I need to get to bed, I intend, with the abundance of grace poured anew into my heart, to "keep my hand to the plow" and rebuild virtue out of the damage sin wrought by doing my penance and shaking off the silly cloying embrace of acedia. (I can't wait for early Mass tomorrow morning!) God in heaven, it's an amazing liberation to know not only that I'm forgiven in love, not onlt that love Himself awaits me in the future, but also that grace alone has brought me this far and even now propels me into that love-suffused future.
Annual Wei Dao teachers' banquet Friday night. I won a new Okiwap camera cell phone, but since I already have a camera celly, I went to the store the next day to exchange it for other goodies. With my store credit I got a new Epson scanner, new Altec Lansing speakers and 50 CD-Rs. Net cost to me (excluding travel, misc, etc. costs)? About $NT900. What a blessing from Him from Whom all good gifts descend!
True thankfulness, I believe, should stir us to true compassion for those leat inclined (by antural lights) to have it. Our blessings can and should propel us in joy to an equally gleeful compassion for the poor and the "unblessed" -- since, after all, theirs is the Kingdom. So, at the risk of "trumpeting" "my" "piety", I will say I intend to divert the money I saved on these purchases to the good of others in need. Any ideas, dear reader (or readerette[1]) about good recipients?
Saturday night, after hosting a friend from out of town for the day, I watched _The Motorcycle Diaries_ at a friend's new apartment. It was really enjoyable, albeit with frequent bursts of vulgarity (uh, handy Spanish practice for me?). While there is clearly an edge in the film against clerical pharisaism, the film does not embarrass itself with any anti-religious bumptiousness. (As a matter of fact, perhaps without even meaning to, it strikes that deeply Christian chord that rings out against clerical pharisaism!) _TMD_ is a visually stunning, intellectually articulate, well acted film that presents an honest young man's journey through complex realities. See it. (Of course, how historically accurate the film is, I don't know.)
Went to a small parish in Taiping this (Sunday) morning. The fathers are Argentine missionaries with the Order of the Incarnate Word, and they "run" a very nice Mass. The faithful reply robustly and alertly; the lectors actually chant the responsorial hymn and alleluia; and they seem to be devotionally active outside the "Mass box" (e.g., small Rosary group afterwards, blessing and distribution of scapulars today at the end of Mass, etc.). I'm hoping to go again, especially if next time I don't get lost for an hour in the rain like today. Zoinks! Afterward, hung out with an Orthodox friend and his family in Taiping. Then came back to Taichung and relaxed in a little park. Since the typhoon had passed through the previous night, Saturday was pretty much just nature cleaning itself up in a breathtaking way: since the wind had scraped away the clouds and pollution, the air was clear and cool and breezy. Saw an amazing full rainbow, including the "rainbow echo" effect.
A swell weekend, yes, but last week was, on the whole, very hard: struggles with lust, anger, bitterness (by the way, bitterness about being bitter is the most nefarious peril!), and a mild case of acedia. Thank God, I was able to confess today, albeit after Mass. It was a true episode of reocnciliation, a true burst of new life in my all too easily ragged and cranky heart. It was capped, best of all, by Fr. Alberto offering me the Blessed Sacrament back in the chapel. Now, even though it's late and I need to get to bed, I intend, with the abundance of grace poured anew into my heart, to "keep my hand to the plow" and rebuild virtue out of the damage sin wrought by doing my penance and shaking off the silly cloying embrace of acedia. (I can't wait for early Mass tomorrow morning!) God in heaven, it's an amazing liberation to know not only that I'm forgiven in love, not onlt that love Himself awaits me in the future, but also that grace alone has brought me this far and even now propels me into that love-suffused future.
[1] Or "lectionite" for the gender-sensitive.
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