Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Monday, June 26, 2017

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Aristotle and the Garments of Skin

James Chastek: The Point of Sexual Desire

Aristotle's reflections on the end of reproduction, on the "natural" level remind me of what I read from St. Maximos the Confessor on the garments of skin and the fall of Adam and Eve and the consequences of that fall.

The intensity of our desire for coitus is a result of the fall?

Aristotle can be used to support a Patristic view on the 'garments of skin' rather than John Paul II's Theology of the Body?

Friday, June 23, 2017

A Forgotten Devotion in the West?

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (EWTN)

Fr. Tim Finigan: The healthy notion of reparation

That we can seek to make up for our sins is only possible because of our participation in Christ and the satisfaction of God's righteousness that He is able to make -- and the latter part is meant not in a Latin/legalistic way but an Eastern one.

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Red Bull Music Academy Daily: Devotion: The Architecture of Medieval Churches
Emma Warren explores the transcendent impact and contemporary relevance of medieval acoustic treatments

A New book from Fr. Thomas Joseph White

With a Western image of the Transfiguration on the front cover...

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Pretty Please?

CWR Dispatch: Four cardinals to Pope Francis: “Faced with this grave situation…”

“…[we] ask humbly and respectfully for an Audience.” But they likely aren’t going to receive an audience or an answer.

Original blog post by Edward Pentin.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Way Behind...

Still haven't caught up.


The snippet offered below could be understood as a defense of patriarchy (in conjunction with what St. Paul wrote), but I don't think that's how it will work out.







Friday, June 16, 2017

Can't Say I Find This Appealing



Too abstract/cartoonish...

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

The Proposed Trinity Dome Mosaic

for "America's Catholic Church," the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Apparently, there was a special collection held on Mother's Day 2017 in Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States to help fund the dome.

It is a product of its time but it does represent an attempt by the Latin churches in the United States to re-write American history and re-define American [Catholic] identity.

The procession of saints includes, among others, St. Juan Diego (the first canonized male Native American), St. Kateri Tekakwitha (the first canonized female Native American), St. Teresa of Calcutta (an honorary American citizen), St. Francis Cabrini, M.S.C. (the first U.S. citizen to be canonized), St. John Paul II (the first pope to visit the National Shrine), and St. Junípero Serra (declared a saint by Pope Francis at the National Shrine in 2015 for the first canonization ever to take place on American soil).

Is there a single political entity that is the United States? That is the nationalist myth that arose 1865. Then again, only a basilica built in the seat of the Federal Government would pretend to be a national Catholic symbol. And then there is the inclusion of two modern popes...

As for the quality of the mosaic itself -- I don't think it looks very good, but it goes well with what else has been installed in the upper basilica. The depiction of the Most Holy Trinity is uncanonical; did the artist not consult anyone traditional authority on this question? The figures themselves look like the "naturalistic" representations of saints that are done in modern stained glass windows -- they don't look like mosaics at all. Maybe it's because of the distance and the resulting resolution, but I think the mosaic loses something as a result. As for the representation of the "Immaculate Conception," I find that I cannot relate to Western depictions of the Theotokos these days.

Then again, that sort of ambition and desire to create such a large mosaic for a very large temple reflects the triumphalistic hubris of the American [Latin] Catholic Church, which didn't go away with Vatican II. "This was the best they could do, and they thought it was great?"

Perhaps it is a good thing that the Greeks didn't attempt to recreate a version of Hagia Sophia on American soil.









Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Christopher West

will be in the area in August; time to finally do some extended reading of his work and the original catechetical series by John Paul II? His workshop will be based on his 2013 book Fill These Hearts. (I have probably forgotten he was here back in 2014.)










part 2

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Saturday, June 10, 2017

For Pentecost

Transformation in the Holy Spirit


O Heavenly King


The Promise of Pentecost

What Future for Russian Catholics?

RISU: Feeling Abandoned, Russian Catholics Appeal to the Pope

How much new Russian blood are the Russian Catholic parishes receiving? What is the alternative to "uniatism" for the Russian Catholics?

Then there is the Latin trad perspective on Russia...
De Mattei's double article: "Russia will be Catholic"

Friday, June 09, 2017

Psalm 50

Схиархимандрит Серафим (Бит-Хариби) и Хор монастыря 13 Ассирийских отцов "Псалом 50"

Thursday, June 08, 2017

Tuesday, June 06, 2017

Crisis in the Patriarchate of Rome

But what are individuals and families to do?

Monday, June 05, 2017

Sunday, June 04, 2017

Saturday, June 03, 2017

Has it made a difference in Denver?

Changing the order of Sacraments in 2015...

NCReg: Making Benedict XVI’s Dream Come True in Denver by Peter Jesserer Smith