Byzantine, Texas: NBC to air Orthodox Paschal service

It will not be shown in the SF Bay Area. But it will be shown in SLO.

More links for Fr. Ramirez

Santiago Ramírez, O.P., su vida y su obra
Edicion de las obras completas de Santiago Ramírez, O.P.
A bio (in Spanish).

Éditeur Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas CSIC / Instituto «Luis Vives» de Filosofía
CSIC

Klubertanz and Ramirez by Tom Osborne

I used to have a bookmark at BAC? for books by Fr. Ramirez, but his books appear out of print now? The bookmark is on another hard drive, so I can't look it up now. Maybe someone over at the Thomism YG or Ite Ad Thomam would have more info.

Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions, edited by Michael J. Christensen and Jeffery A. Wittung (via 8th Day Books)

The frailties of men

Could Byzantium have been saved?

The First Crusade, the true story

Why was there a sudden need to recover the city where Jesus Christ lived and was crucified? The answer, writes Peter Frankopan, lies in the imperial capital of Constantinople.
By Peter Frankopan *

Harvard University Press & Random House UK

A review in The Tablet.

Tristis est anima mea - University of Utah Singers

Catholicism Producer Speaks About the Friars

Catholicism Project: Filmmaker Mike Leonard from Province of Saint Joseph on Vimeo.

Fr. Robert Spitzer, SJ: Creation and the New Cosmology
(via this link)

The Shocking Truth about Christian Orthodoxy - John Behr

Thomistica.net: Hypothetical Disqualification of Dogma? by Christopher J. Malloy

Metaphysics, the Middle Ages and the Birth of Protestantism - a review of Brad Gregory's The Unintended Reformation (via The Smith)

One might think that a committed Protestant would have a stake in showing that the Protestant Reformers were not determined in their teachings by their acceptance of bad medieval metaphysics, but I think that the claim in the critique that the metaphysical views of the Reformers were widely divergent (not all were followers of Ockham or Soctus) is something we should attend.

A new book on the way from Dr. Rao

An interview with Dr. John Rao - The Remnant: Black Legends and the Light of the World (New Blockbuster History Book on the Horizon)

For Palm Sunday...

Alleluia: O Pimenon - Ensemble Organum

Has Wolfgang Smith gone too far?

I only noticed that he had written this book today: Christian Gnosis

From the description:

Smith maintains that Eckhart has not in fact transgressed a single Trinitarian or Christological dogma; what he does deny implicitly, he shows, is none other than the creatio ex nihilo, which in effect Eckhart replaces with the Kabbalistic creatio ex Deo. In this shift, moreover, Smith perceives the transition from ‘exoteric’ to ‘esoteric’ within the integral domain of Christian doctrine.

Pope's Homily at Mass for the 400th anniversary of Our Lady of Charity

More notes on the virtue of religion

You can see evidence for the evolution of my answer to the question of whether the virtue of religion is possible if one is not in the state of grace and in possession of the virtue of charity on the blog. In my most recent post addressing this question I maintain that one cannot have the virtue of religion without charity. Now it is clear that Aquinas maintains religion is a moral virtue and not a theological one. Is it also an infused virtue? (It seems that this ordering is required both respect to the will and practical reason. One must first know and will the end [God] before one can will the means [the acts of religion] to that end .)

If religion is not an infused virtue, but an acquired virtue, can one not still have the acquired virtue even if the infused virtue of charity is lost? Yes, but I would maintain it would not be exercised (or strengthened) when one is ostensibly performing the acts proper to it. One can perform those acts out of a sense of duty, but it is motivated by his concern with what is right/fitting (and ultimately self-love), and not out of the supernatural love of God. There would be something missing in the ratio of those acts to render them something than true acts of religion. I hesitate to call them acts of some counterfeit habit. Quasi-acts of religion?  "Paying lip service." Rendering what is due to God without the proper spirit seems futile, since acts of religion are not required for God's benefit but ours. This realization would be a reminder to us, if we are in a state of sin, that we should be converted unto Him instead of resisting.

Still, maybe I will switch back to my previous position after some more thought.

It reminds me that I should peruse Anscombe's Intention. (IEP entry on that topic)

An Anscombe bibliography.

Rome excommunicates four bishops in Ukraine- Constantinople deposes two bishops in America

Doctrinal Congregation Statement on "Greek-Catholic Bishops of Pidhirci"
"These priests continue to challenge ecclesiastical authority, causing moral and spiritual damage"

Catholic Culture
CNA
Fr. Z

Would there be any Orthodox objections to this action or to the ecclesiology it represents?

wiki

Zenit: Vatican Approves Blessing for Child in the Womb

Iraq: Our land Is a Land of Abraham
Chaldean Archbishop of Erbil Speaks About His Suffering Church

Does the Rhine Flow into the Tiber, Bosphorus, or Both? An Interview with 2 Former Lutherans