A Night of Fire, By Blaise Pascal

The famous 17th century mathematician and scientist had a dramatic, supernatural conversion experience one night, and afterwards wrote this poem and changed his life.  Read the full story here. 

The year of grace 1654,

Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology. Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others. From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight,

FIRE.

GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob
not of the philosophers and of the learned.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
GOD of Jesus Christ.
My God and your God.
Your GOD will be my God.
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD.
He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Grandeur of the human soul.
Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have departed from him:
They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.
My God, will you leave me?
Let me not be separated from him forever.
This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.
Let me never be separated from him.
He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:
Renunciation, total and sweet.
Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on the earth.
May I not forget your words. Amen.

The Virgin Tomb of Christ

I had never thought of this before.  From "Shameless Popery".

Both St. Matthew and St. John take pains to specify that Christ’s Tomb was never-before used. Matthew 27:59-61 says,

And Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the sepulchre.

And John 19:41 is even more explicit: “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid.”  But why do they both specify this seemingly-mundane detail?

Because it shows that the Tomb is holy. Certain things are given to God alone, and we don’t touch them. That’s the original meaning of the Greek word hagios, used nearly 100 times in the New Testament. Strong’s Concordance defines it as meaning “set apart by (or for) God, holy, sacred.” A thing is holy by being given over to God in a unique way. There’s a good example of this in Ezekiel 44:1-3, in a prophetic vision of the New Temple:

Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut. And he said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut. Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.”

The Temple Gate is God’s alone – nobody else gets to pass through it, because God has passed through it. The Tomb of Christ is similarly God’s alone. Nobody else is buried there because it was set aside by God (even if not by Joseph of Arimathea) for His Son Jesus. And of course, the Apostles are able to continue to point to the reality of the Empty Tomb (Acts 2:29-31, 13:29-31) precisely because no one would ever be laid in that Tomb again.

If you understand this – if you can see why it mattered to the Jews that nobody else had gone (or would go) through the Temple Gate, and why it mattered to the Evangelists that nobody else had been buried (or would be buried) in the Tomb – then you should be able to see why the early Christians were so insistent upon the Virgin Birth and upon the perpetual virginity of Mary.
It’s not about marital sex being sinful or dirty. Matthew & John aren’t insulting burials when they emphasize the newness of the Tomb. Ezekiel isn’t demeaning entering the Temple. And the early Christians aren’t bashing the union between husband and wife. All of those things, in contrast, are good and holy. What all of them are instead emphasizing is that some things are holy, in that they belong utterly and only to God. In fact, some of the earliest Christian commentary on Ezekiel 44 makes it clear that the Virgin Mary is the Temple Gate of Ezekiel 44. For example, St. Gregory the Wonderworker (213-270) proclaims:

The Holy Virgin is herself both an honourable temple of God and a shrine made pure, and a golden altar of whole burnt offerings. By reason of her surpassing purity [she is] the Divine incense of oblation, and oil of the holy grace, and a precious vase bearing in itself the true nard; [yea and] the priestly diadem revealing the good pleasure of God, whom she alone approacheth holy in body and soul. [She is] the door which looks eastward, and by the comings in and goings forth the whole earth is illuminated.

That language makes some Protestants uncomfortable, but it shouldn’t. St. Gregory is saying is that the Virgin Mary, like the Temple of Old, or the Tomb in which Christ lay, is wholly and permanently consecrated to God. And who can deny this? Or who can imagine that this sort of total consecration to God somehow dishonors or diminishes His Glory?

The perpetually-virgin Tomb & the perpetually-Virgin Womb run parallel to one another, and they both tell us something about Who Jesus Is: namely, that He is God, Who alone can command these sorts of radical consecrations. In both His Incarnation and His Resurrection, Jesus emerges into the world in a radical way, and these “portals” between time and eternity are consecrated to Him absolutely and completely.

Oh, how I love C.S. Lewis. He Gets It.

"And let me make it quite clear that when Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being ‘in Christ’ or of Christ being ‘in them’, this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them; that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts-—that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body. And perhaps that explains one or two things. It explains why this new life is spread not only by purely mental acts like belief, but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion. It is not merely the spreading of an idea; it is more like evolution—a biological or superbiological fact. There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it."

Quote of the Day: What I need to Remember always

"Keep the joy of loving God in your heart and share this joy with all you meet, especially your family. Be holy."

— Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The Lorica of St. Patrick, in honor of his feast day, ca 377 AD

Oh, how I love this.  I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through a belief in the Threeness, Through confession of the Oneness Of the Creator of creation. I arise today Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism, Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial, Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension, Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom. I arise today Through the strength of the love of cherubim, In obedience of angels, In service of archangels, In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward, In the prayers of patriarchs, In preachings of the apostles, In faiths of confessors, In innocence of virgins, In deeds of righteous men. I arise today Through the strength of heaven; Light of the sun, Splendor of fire, Speed of lightning, Swiftness of the wind, Depth of the sea, Stability of the earth, Firmness of the rock. I arise today Through God's strength to pilot me; God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me, God's hosts to save me From snares of the devil, From temptations of vices, From every one who desires me ill, Afar and near, Alone or in a multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and evil, Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul, Against incantations of false prophets, Against black laws of pagandom, Against false laws of heretics, Against craft of idolatry, Against spells of women and smiths and wizards, Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul. Christ shield me today Against poison, against burning, Against drowning, against wounding, So that reward may come to me in abundance. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me. I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through a belief in the Threeness, Through a confession of the Oneness Of the Creator of creation St. Patrick (ca. 377)

The Words I Need for Today

"Realize it, my brethren; —every one who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random; . . . God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, He lodges it in the body, one by one, for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us. He has an end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him. As Christ has His work, we too have ours; as He rejoiced to do His work, we must rejoice in ours also."
— Blessed John Henry Newman

My Life-Long Goal. Working on it.

"It is not that I want merely to be called a Christian, but to actually be one. Yes, if I prove to be one, then I can have the name."
— St. Ignatius of Antioch

Motto for our Upcoming Trip

“How well it is for the Christian soul to behold the city which is like a heaven on earth, full of the sacred bones and relics of the martyrs, and bedewed with the precious blood of those witnesses for truth; to look upon the image of our Savior, venerable to all the world, to mark the footprints in the solid stone, forever worthy of the worship of the nations, to roam at will from tomb to tomb rich with the memories of the Saints; to wander at random through the basilicas of the Apostles, with no other company than good thoughts.”

Petrarch

Rest In Peace, Justice Scalia

The Big Picture: It All Comes Down To This. May We Never Forget It

"Each of us must come to the evening of life. Each of us must enter on eternity.  Each of us must come to that quiet, awful time, when we will appear before the Lord of the vineyard, and answer for the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or bad. That, my dear brethren, you will have to undergo. ... It will be the dread moment of expectation when your fate for eternity is in the balance, and when you are about to be sent forth as the companion of either saints or devils, without possibility of change. There can be no change; there can be no reversal. As that judgment decides it, so it will be for ever and ever. Such is the particular judgment. ... when we find ourselves by ourselves, one by one, in his presence, and have brought before us most vividly all the thoughts, words, and deeds of this past life. Who will be able to bear the sight of himself? And yet we shall be obliged steadily to confront ourselves and to see ourselves. In this life we shrink from knowing our real selves. We do not like to know how sinful we are. We love those who prophecy smooth things to us, and we are angry with those who tell us of our faults. But on that day, not one fault only, but all the secret, as well as evident, defects of our character will be clearly brought out. We shall see what we feared to see here, and much more. And then, when the full sight of ourselves comes to us, who will not wish that he had known more of himself here, rather than leaving it for the inevitable day to reveal it all to him!"

— Blessed John Henry Newman

Thought Of The Day: Love

"Love is a strong force — a great good in every way; it alone can make our burdens light, and alone it bears in equal balance what is pleasing and displeasing. It carries a burden and does not feel it; it makes all that is bitter taste sweet. ... Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing higher, nothing stronger, nothing larger, nothing more joyful, nothing fuller, nothing better in heaven or on earth; for love is born of God and can find its rest only in God above all He has created. Such lovers fly high, run swiftly and rejoice. Their souls are free; they give all for all and have all in all. For they rest in One supreme Goodness above all things, from Whom all other good flows and proceeds. They look not only at the gifts, but at the Giver, Who is above all gifts."

— Thomas à Kempis

THIS

"In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course."

I need to remember this....

 

"It is not by the extraordinary, but rather by the ordinary, things that we shall sanctify ourselves and help others. The saints become saints by using the opportunities we neglect and even despise. Without going to seek out our neighbor, we can still find many opportunities of exercising fraternal charity in the course of our day’s work. In everyone with whom we come in contact during the day, Christ can be found, Christ can be loved, Christ can be served. Faith, of course, is required, and so is courage. But so also is prudence. Christ is to be served in each of our neighbors according to the particular circumstances of our relations with each one."

— Dom Mary Eugene Boylan

Quote Of The Day

"A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love."

— St. Basil the Great

On Pilgrimage, During the Jubilee Year of Mercy

"The practice of pilgrimage has a special place in the Holy Year, because it represents the journey each of us makes in this life. Life itself is a pilgrimage, and the human being is a viator, a pilgrim traveling along the road, making his way to the desired destination. Similarly, to reach the Holy Door in Rome or in any other place in the world, everyone, each according to his or her ability, will have to make a pilgrimage. This will be a sign that mercy is also a goal to reach and requires dedication and sacrifice. May pilgrimage be an impetus to conversion: by crossing the threshold of the Holy Door, we will find the strength to embrace God's mercy and dedicate ourselves to being merciful with others as the Father has been with us."

— Pope Francis

If Only ISIS Knew This

"And above all, be on your guard not to want to get anything done by force, because God has given free will to everyone and wants to force no one, but only proposes, invites and counsels."

— St. Angela Merici

Thought For The Day: Spiritual Battle

"The life of prayer calls for continuous battles. It is the most important and the longest effort in a life dedicated to God. This effort has been given a beautiful name: it is called the guard of the heart. The human heart is a city; it was meant to be a stronghold. Sin surrendered it. Henceforth it is an open city, the walls of which have to be built up again. The enemy never ceases to do all he can to prevent this. He does this with his accustomed cleverness and strength, with stratagem and fury . . . he succeeds all along the line to distract us and entice us away from the divine presence. We must always be starting again. These continual recoveries, this endless beginning again, tires and disheartens us far more than the actual fighting. We would much prefer a real battle, fierce and decisive. But God, as a rule, thinks otherwise. He would rather we were in a constant state of war."

— Dom Augustin Guillerand

On Grief

Among our happy Christmas preparations, we were hit suddenly and unexpectedly by GRIEF.  The world is full of grief, I've lost several family members in the past few months, I see grief around me everywhere.  But for our children, for my husband, this one hit the closest to home.  Little pup Fergie died, accidentally plowed into a snowbank by my husband.  We're guessing she died of hypothermia.  And the family is devastated.  Rob - in addition to losing a dog he truly loved - feels guilty.  I have reassured him it was an accident, but that doesn't make him feel any better.  The kids go in waves - one minute they're fine, the next they're crying for 45 minutes solid.  It hits them suddenly, when the dog they assume will be there suddenly isn't, and they remember why.   

 

We had a little "laying to rest" service for this pup.  We had the kids spend some time alone with her before hand, to say their goodbyes.  They pet her, and cried.  We all cried.  We shared memories, and cried some more. 

My mom said "kids are resilient, they'll be just fine.  Just don't let them wallow in it and make it a big deal."  My mother in law said "we wouldn't have handled it like this when I was a kid.  My dad would just have thrown it in a hole out back and be done with it."  When they were younger, the last dog we lost, we didn't let them see her.  Rob just quietly buried her out in the woods and was done with it.  But this dog is different, and we wanted to handle it differently.

We wanted them to grieve.

In this world of easy violence - video games and movies, and sterile "choices" that do not equate to PEOPLE DYING FOR REAL - we wanted them to see death.  We wanted them to know that death is a part of life.  We wanted them to know that death hurts, and people FEEL IT.  A dog doesn't just disappear into the woods and is gone.  She is dead.  Know what this is.  Don't wallow and perseverate.  But we wanted them to feel what death feels like to those left behind.  It's part of being human, to hurt because of love for another.  And we didn't want to take that away from them, even in the interest of "sparing their feelings".   And Fergie allowed us that opportunity in a way that was very, very sad, but not overwhelming.  They didn't lose a grandparent or a sibling, or a parent.  They lost a dog.  They can process her loss, learn from that process, and move on.  They can learn how to grieve, and not be scarred by it, but better people for it.  Because now they KNOW that death doesn't just mean "disappearing" like it does in the movies or on the videogame.  They know what death looks like, and feels like, for real.

Through experiencing death, they learn the value of life.

So thank you, Fergie, for giving that opportunity to my children through your death. 

Rest In Peace.

Pondering on Beauty

Last night, my daughter and I went to Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker".  I wasn't sure how her limited attention span would handle two hours of ballet and NO TALKING.  But I needn't have worried.  She loved it, and was in rapt attention the whole time. 

"Why aren't they talking?" she whispered at the start of the opening act.  "There's no talking.  They're telling the whole story with their dance.  See?  You know what's going on because they're dancing!"  And she did.  Understood the whole story through costumes and movement and facial expression.  As she cuddled up next to me, and oohed and aaahed, I was happy. 

The set design was fabulous.  The dancing was fabulous.  The costumes were lush and fabulous.  The music was beautiful.  And the thought crossed my mind.  "LOOK WHAT HUMANS ARE CAPABLE OF!!!"   Look at what beauty can be created when the best and brightest of ourselves is put to such tasks.  I very nearly teared up several times, swept away by the  beauty of it all. 

THIS is the image of God.  All that is love, and good, and beauty.  THIS is what draws us towards our Perfection.  Why we spend so much time and effort on the ugly parts of ourselves, why Hollywood glorifies the ugly parts of ourselves, why the world wallows in depravity, I don't understand.  We shouldn't ignore our weaknesses, but we shouldn't glorify them either.  We should strive towards the best of ourselves.  That part which truly IS the image and likeness of God. 

Beauty. 

There is God in beauty.

I'm Learning This

"Be a Catholic: When you kneel before an altar, do it in such a way that others may be able to recognize that you know before whom you kneel."
— St. Maximilian Kolbe

What I Needed to Hear Today: From Pope Benedict XVI

"If you stay united with Christ, each one of you will be able to do great things. This is why, dear friends, you must not be afraid to dream with your eyes open to important projects of good, and you must not let yourselves be discouraged by difficulties. Christ has confidence in you and wants you to be able to realize all your most noble and lofty dreams of genuine happiness. Nothing is impossible for those who trust in God and entrust themselves to Him."

Eye on the Prize

It astounds me how fragile I am.  Astounds and frightens me.  How easily overwhelmed I get with things that are not, in the big scheme of things, all that tragic or devastating. 

My boys have started middle school, and it has thrown our world asunder. 

The addition in our lives of excessive homework, and activities, and GIRLS, electronics,  sassiness, and short attention spans - general pre-puberty -  has thrown my delicately balanced world out of whack, and our family is firmly now in uncharted territory.  I have subsequently turned into a parent that I don't recognize and certainly don't like.  My current approach of barking, yelling, screaming, crying, and punishing makes life fun for no one, and furthermore... doesn't WORK.  I saw a quote on a t-shirt the other day that summed up my attitude succinctly.  It said "The beatings will continue until morale improves".  Yes.  That is what I'm doing.  I've become completely unraveled.

I think it's a reaction partly to feeling out of control.  I can't make good decisions for them.  I can't get into their heads and make them care about things they just don't care about, even though I want to so badly.  As their responsibility level increases dramatically, my control level decreases dramatically.  And left to their own devices, I see one boy struggle,  drowning in the sea of it, and one boy swim.  One flails his arms and keeps his head just barely above water, and one gives up and sinks without a fight.  And I.... I take it all on myself.  My failings as a mother, that I have not instilled the proper sisu in this child for him to live up to his potential.   And he has SO MUCH potential.  What am I doing wrong?

Of course, I know what I'm doing wrong.  I'm not supporting him in a way that I would want to be supported, that he deserves to be supported.   I am being an anchor, not a life ring.   I am berating him.  And punishing him.  And humiliating him, in an effort to try to get him to CARE.  I AM being a horrible mother, pushing him in all the wrong ways.  Yesterday, he looked at me and said "I get it Mom.  I'm a failure".  NO!!!  No you're not!!!  You are an awesome kid, and I'm so sorry I'm making you feel like you're a failure, but you're NOT, and I want you to realize you're not and ACT like you're not!!!  So I've failed not once, but twice... once for not preparing him for this challenge in life, and once more for making him feel horrible about his failure. 

We tear each other down far too readily, instead of building each other up.  In the grand scheme of things, the ultimate goal is not to pass the sixth grade.  The ultimate goal is to grow these children into virtuous Christian men who are strong enough, and humble enough, to accept the gift of Salvation.  The goal is to get these children to "the other side".  This sixth grade thing is a blip on the radar screen, a challenge to grow from, not be conquered by.  And I am letting it effect our entire lives, my entire sense of self-worth as a mother and wife, and the tension is literally tearing our family apart.    Good GRIEF.  Sixth grade. 

What would happen if something truly devastating happened to us???  That scares me, because I see how poorly I'm handling this situation.  This petty-in-the-big-scheme-of-things problem. 

Time for an attitude adjustment, and a new approach, because this family is stronger than the sixth grade.  And it is far more important than the sixth grade, too. 

Quote of the Day: Discerning God's Will

There is a defect here that needs to be recognized and avoided: finding ourselves in darkness about God’s will on an important question . . . we spend so much time searching and doubting or getting discouraged, that we neglect things that are God’s will for us every day, like being faithful to prayer, maintaining trust in God, loving the people around us here and now. Lacking answers about the future, we should prepare to receive them by living today to the full."— Fr. Jacques Philippe

A Thought on Purgatory, for All Souls Day. By C.S. Lewis

Our souls demand Purgatory, don't they? Would it not break the heart if God said to us, 'It is true, my son, that your breath smells and your rags drip with mud and slime, but we are charitable here and no one will upbraid you with these things, nor draw away from you. Enter into the joy'? Should we not reply, 'With submission, sir, and if there is no objection, I'd rather be cleaned first.' 'It may hurt, you know' -- 'Even so, sir.'   

  C.S. Lewis From "Letters to Malcom: Chiefly on Prayer".

This is Very Cool: C.S. Lewis Doodle-ized

Quote of the Day, Because Padre Pio knows what I need to hear.....

"Don't spend your energies on things that generate worry, anxiety and anguish. Only one thing is necessary: Lift up your spirit, and love God."
— St. Padre Pio

Quote of the Day: Tertullian, Circa AD 200

"The Law found more than it lost when Christ said, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven’ (Matthew 5:44-45). This most important commandment summarizes in a word the universal discipline of patience, since it does not allow us to do evil even to people who deserve it."
— Tertullian

St. Ignatius of Antioch, on Faith and Love

From his letter to the Ephesians:

None of these things is hid from you, if ye perfectly possess that faith and love towards Christ Jesus(10) which are the beginning and the end of life. For the beginning is faith, and the end is love.(11) Now these two. being inseparably connected together,(12) are of God, while all other things which are requisite for a holy life follow after them. No man [truly] making a profession of faith sinneth;(13) nor does he that possesses love hate any one. The tree is made manifest by its fruit;(15) so those that profess themselves to be Christians shall be recognised by their conduct. For there is not now a demand for mere profession,(16) but that a man be found continuing in the power of faith to the end.

Quote of the Day: Faith and Love

"Faith and love are like the blind man’s guides. They will lead you along a path unknown to you, to the place where God is hidden."
— St. John of the Cross

Quote of the Day, Benedict Edition

"Our first duty, therefore, precisely in order to heal this world, is to be holy, configured to God; in this way we emanate a healing and transforming power that also acts on others, on history. . . In this regard, it us useful to reflect that the Twelve Apostles were not perfect men, chosen for their moral and religious irreproachability. They were indeed believers, full of enthusiasm and zeal but at the same time marked by their human limitations, which were sometimes even serious. Therefore Jesus did not call them because they were already holy, complete, perfect, but so that they might become so, so that they might thereby also transform history, as it is for us, as it is for all Christians."

Quote of the Day: JP2 - Because I love this.

"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know Himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves."
— Pope St. John Paul II

and one more quote today, because I NEEDED to hear this....

"We live in a fallen world. We must therefore work out our destiny under the conditions created by sin. Did we but realize this truth, we would accept each of life’s trying changes in the same spirit in which we accept the penance from the confessor. Were we truly convinced that our hope of pardon, and consequently our salvation, depends upon repentance, we would willingly undergo all the sufferings of life’s warfare."
— John A. Kane

The World We Live In

Last year, I wanted to take a six year old to meet a Disney Princess.  There are LOTS of Disney Princesses, in several different places, all that accommodate thousands of people per day.  And yet, even though I began six full months in advance, it took me months and months of daily checking to book a reservation for an hour long dinner costing hundreds of dollars.   Inside a park I'd already spent hundreds of dollars to get into.  All to see some random woman dressed up like a make-believe princess. 

This morning, I was given a reservation to stand in the presence of THE Apostle Peter, the actual bones of the man who stood in the presence of THE Christ, incarnation of the everlasting GOD OF THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.  It took one email, and $30 for the two of us, to be one of only 250 people per day allowed to do such a thing.  UNBELIEVABLE.

I'm so excited to crawl under the Vatican into the ancient catacombs to see the burial place of the man who holds the keys to Heaven.   It still seems surreal that this whole thing is going to happen!!!





CONFIRMATION of the VISIT of the Necropolis under the Basilica of St. Peter.

{giubileo2016}

Aho Monica
The visit takes place beneath the Vatican basilica at the tomb of the Apostle Peter; the itinerary of the visit, besides offering cultural and historical information, is a pilgrimage to one of the holiest sites in Christendom.
The rules written under NOTICES must be respected, even if they are different from other places in the Vatican.

DAY OF THE VISIT
Protocol / Reference No. 77851 Guest Aho Monica
Visit Saturday, June 04, 2016
Receipt No. 34176

_______________________________________________________

hour 09:00 - Visitors / Visitors No. 2 - Language: English


WOOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!

A Moment

So, faith formation starts tomorrow, and I'm taking over the Kindergarten/1st grade combined class.  I stopped by the church to set up the closet classroom.  Luckily, the church was unlocked, so the kids and I barged inside, in the un-quiet way that we always do.    And then we STOPPED.

There, lying prostate on the floor, in front of the altar, deep in prayer adoring Our Lord in the form of a consecrated Eucharist, was Deacon Tom.  All by himself.  I shushed the kids and hurried them down the stairs before we could interrupt him further.

Such an intimate moment.  But this is why I LOVE St. Anne's. 

These people are for REAL.

There's no show of devotion.  It's not a performance.  It's not that we respect this space during "show time", when there's mass on Sunday, and then the rest of the time it's just a building.  It's SACRED, this house of God.  ALL THE TIME.  Because Christ is here, in a very special way, in this place.  Yes, He's everywhere.  But here.... He's here in a very physical, tangible way.  It's HIS house.  Holy.  And everyone treats it as such. 

I noticed that as I was being given a tour by last year's faith formation teacher.  We were walking back and forth in the sanctuary, getting from the classroom to the fellowship hall several times.  And EVERY TIME, every single time, she blessed herself with holy water and then genuflected in front of the tabernacle.  And we must've gone back and forth like 5 times.  I followed suit, but honestly only because she did.  I would've probably done it once, and figured that I'd done my job.  But she didn't.  It was automatic for her, but also reverent.  She acknowledged His presence continually, because He was there.  And it's His house.

This is new to me, being surrounded by people who really KNOW what they're doing and why.  Who really SEE what actually happens, not just on a physical level, but a spiritual one as well.  Surrounded by people of such deep faith.  I've been to many churches filled with good people.  People of faith, who love God.  I've never been surrounded by so many HOLY people.  People who recognize the sacred.  It's a whole different thing, this feeling of sacredness.    Reverence.  We don't see that much in today's society.  We really don't.  And I'm still getting used to it, because it's palpable in every square inch of this church.

Such a small parish, and yet two of it's young men are looking into the Priesthood.  One, at 18 years old, is applying for seminary right now.  Given the shortage of priests, the fact that two are from THIS place is rather astounding.  But the very first time I was there, I knew that kid was going to be a priest.  Just watching him worship, even though nothing he did was for show.  I could tell because of his REVERENCE during mass.  How he never took his eyes off the alter.  He never fidgeted, never looked around at the people.  People aren't why he's there. Just totally living every single moment of the mass, soaking up it's holiness, with every inch of him.  You can see it outwardly.

 There was a young college student a few years back that I remembered celebrating Mass like that, too, and I told Rob at the time "that kid is going to become a priest".  Sure enough... six years later, he's in seminary.  They nearly glow, these young men being called.  It radiates from them outwardly, unmistakably. 

It makes me think that we might not be in the presence of merely good people, which we are.  But that we might honestly be surrounded by SAINTS, and that's something on a whole different level.  And crazy to think about. 

A Confession, and a really, really long rant.

The world is changing quickly.  Relativism is in full, unadulterated swing.  Promiscuity, pornography, hedonism is "normal and healthy".   "Tolerance" means being accepting of anyone's harmful behavior, instead of loving them in to health.  The purpose of life is to either get the most stuff, or to have the most fun.  Nature is god, instead of a reflection of THE GOD.   Gender is a choice rather than a biological fact.   Marriage is just "living legally with whoever turns me on".  Abortion is a medical procedure removing a few cells.  People who believe in the historic definition of family as it has been defined for millennia throughout all of human history are now classified as "bigots".  The world has been turned on its head.  Right is wrong and wrong is right.  It's head-spinning and mind-blowing, and I feel like I'm constantly on the defense to keep myself and my family's feet on the ground and right side up.  To teach them to see the world through eyes that KNOW right from wrong, good from bad, love from hate.  To not buy into what the world is throwing at them.  Because it is death.  And through all of that, like a drowning woman at sea, I have clung to the one thing that does not change with the storm: Christ and His church.  That  unchanging, solid rock that sees the TRUTH, and unashamedly preaches TRUTH, and reaches out with TRUTH as a beacon to the world.  When all the world goes mad.  It truly feels like we're on the defense against encroaching darkness, and that those who are brave enough to fight with us are dwindling. 

Enter Pope Francis, who has been visiting the United States.  Everyone's all excited, and at first I was, too.  He would be here to encourage us and lead us, and let us know that HE knows what we're fighting.  HE knows that we're standing strong.  And that he supports us and will lead the charge.  That was my expectation.  He was finally speaking directly to us, in English - without the filters of media and translators.  He couldn't be taken out of context, twisted, mistranslated.  FINALLY.  Here was Papa to set things straight, I thought as I brought C-Span up on my computer to follow anxiously along.  FINALLY.

And instead, during that speech to Congress, we got vagueness.  And climate change.  And immigration.  And abolition of the death penalty. Not unimportant things, but not THE IMPORTANT, FUNDAMENTAL THINGS.  No the fundamental reality of the world that puts everything in perspective.   And I was so so so disappointed. 

What I was thinking when the Pope mentioned the value of human life, and then proceeded to talk about capital punishment:  Thirty-two people were executed in the US in 2014.  32.  Guilty people, murderers, who spent anywhere from 8 to 30 years fighting to overturn their sentences, given a trial and a chance.  And then given an injection so that they could painlessly "fall asleep" in the most humane way possible. Whether you are for or against the death penalty, I cannot fathom how that compares to the wholesale slaughter of abortion, which murders over 1,000 INNOCENT children EVERY DAY.  Every damn day.  Over 805,000 abortions every year in this country alone.  And not given a peaceful demise, but skulls smashed in, limbs ripped off, horrific dismemberment, and then parts sold afterwards.  Innocent children - not given a trial, a voice, or a chance.   Yet the Holy Father only vaguely implied the life is sacred at every stage of development, and then spent several minutes decrying capital punishment. 

What ran through my head when he talked about immigration: He spoke about the US being a nation of immigrants, and of course it is.  EVERYONE is for immigration.  The discussion should be whether there should be a system for immigration to be done legally and efficiently instead of illegally (as it is now). 

What I wanted to yell at the computer when he talked about climate change:  We are stewards of our planet.  And we need to be good stewards.  But if we don't allow the responsible use of resources, then we can't address another pressing issue facing our country, and that is poverty.  People, and the dignity that comes through honest work and self-sufficiency, need to be part of the equation.  There needs to be a balance there, because stifling regulations on business protects trees over people, and unfettered capitalism protects people over trees.  And let's face it.  Jesus didn't die for nature.  He died for US.    The planet is the gift that sustains us, but the thing that was purchased in Christ's blood was humanity.

What made me just want to cry :  Vague implications on the "value of the family".  And that's it.  That's IT.  Didn't we just have some kind of MAJOR redefinition of something pertaining to family just recently here???  And why was there an openly gay and famous man doing the first reading at a PAPAL MASS celebrated in front of thousands and televised the world over????

I'm not trying to nitpick what the man said.  It's not like I'm wanting him to champion only my specific causes.   But I just felt like these struggles in the culture war got ignored, and he focused on things that, while important, aren't THE IMPORTANT FUNDAMENTAL THINGS.  Family.  Life.  The purpose of humanity.  If you're not allowed the gift of life, and knowing what that life is for, then those other things are secondary.  How can we even talk about the environment or poverty, when people aren't even allowed to LIVE?

So, the result?  I was in a funk.  A colossal funk for days.  A disheartened wretch who had troubles sleeping, couldn't watch anything pertaining to the rest of his visit, and was generally miserable to myself and my family.  Papa, do you not see us?  We're trying to stand strong.  We're trying to be faithful.  We're trying to raise our children to see light and truth in this crazy, darkening world... can't you SEE us?  Can't you speak for US?  Champion US?  We need you!!  And we need you to be strong, and clear and unafraid!!  We're here, and we're fighting in our own little ways, a thousand battles every day, and sometimes - a lot of times - it feels like we are losing ground.   We're not "conservatives".  We're not "traditionalists".  We're simply people who actually believe what the Church teaches, and try to live it out in our daily lives.   Doesn't that just make us... I don't know.... Catholic?  And aren't you the vicar of Christ on earth?  Aren't YOU the head Catholic??  Then why are you catering to THEM instead of US? 

 And so, on Saturday night, stewing in my funkiness, I knew I couldn't attend Mass in the morning until I had resolved these feelings, until I got right with God again.  So I prayed.  And cried.  And prayed some more.... that God would help me understand, and get rid of these feelings of being abandoned and let down. 

And God, in His goodness, answered me. He always does, when I ask.  And, as He usually does, He answered in a way that was startling and humbling.  Amongst my inner rantings and churning emotions,  I very clearly heard these words: "‘Son, you ^[j]have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.’”

Oh.  The words jolted me into quiet, as I processed that. 

Pope Francis is Christ's representative on Earth.  And Christ is not Catholic.  God is not the Father of just me and ours.  He is the Father of all.  The Father of humanity.  And He is reaching out, searching, trying to draw in to Himself anyone in darkness, anyone confused or lost.  Reaching to them where they are right now, to draw them closer.   So yeah, that might mean for the time being that ignorant people rejoice that the "Pope is no longer Catholic".  They'd be wrong, so I need to not worry about their misconceptions.  But they're listening to him.  They're paying attention to him.  They're SEEING A MASS, in front of thousands of people at Madison Square Gardens, televised for all the world to see, and being awed by it's ancient beauty.  Maybe, just maybe, this Pope gets them to search a little bit deeper about what this Christ guy is all about.  Maybe, once they search, they FIND.  

Once again.  It's not about me.  Go figure.

And God still loves me, too.  I'm not abandoned.  But I'm also not lost. 

Quote Of The Day

"Keep to the ancient way and custom of the Church, established and confirmed by so many Saints under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And live a new life. Pray, and get others to pray, that God not abandon His Church, but reform it as He pleases, and as He sees best for us, and more to His honour and glory."
— St. Angela Merici

Quote of the Day: Silence. Don't forget the Silence.

"The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace."
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Chesterton, on Motherhood

"How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the arithmetic, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness."--G.K. Chesterton

Quote of the Day: Jerome LeJeune on Down's Syndrome

Jerome Lejeune is the geneticist who identified Trisomy 21, Down's Syndrome.  92% of children with Down's Syndrome are aborted.  NINETY TWO PERCENT.  Innocent children slaughtered, as the result of one single test.  Because they are not perfect.  In light of recent legislation in Ohio seeking to ban abortions when a diagnosis of Down's Syndrome is made in utero, I think it's appropriate to hear from Dr. Lejeune himself.  With this, I whole heartedly, 1000% agree.

“It cannot be denied that the price of these diseases is high—in suffering for the individual and in burdens for society. Not to mention what parents suffer! But we can assign a value to that price: It is precisely what a society must pay to remain fully human.”

and further....

“It is not medicine we should fear, but the folly of mankind. Every day, the experience of our predecessors increases our ability to change nature by using his own laws. But using this power wisely is what each generation must learn in its turn. We are certainly more powerful today than ever before, but we are not wiser: Technology is cumulative, wisdom is not;”

“We need to be clear : the quality of a civilization can be measured by the respect it has for the weakest members. There is no other criterion.”

Not one of us is perfect.  Not a single one. And yet, it is through our imperfections that the love of Christ is made whole.  Through those in need that others learn to give.  What happens to our humanity when no one needs another?    When we're all perfect and self-sustaining?  Humanity is a tribe, an interconnected organism, even though we are individuals.  What does it do to our humanity, our ability to love, unconditionally, when we participate in a genocide to wipe out those that are imperfect?  And then tell ourselves we're doing it "to be kind", to "put the child out of it's misery?"  I've mused on this before at length here.

Heart breaking.  These are HUMAN BEINGS.  Precious children of God, who deserve a right to life as much as any other child.

Boiling it Down, Bonaventure Style

THIS.... is clarity.  St. Bonaventure and St. Paul.  Thank you.

"Three things are necessary to everyone: truth of faith which brings understanding, love of Christ which brings compassion, and endurance of hope which brings perseverance."
— St. Bonaventure

Third Quote of the Day!

One more. Quote of the Day:

"A river must be happier than a swamp because it has banks and boundaries; a swamp is a valley of liberty that lost its shores and became liberal. Liberty is no heirloom. It requires the daily bread of self denial, the salt of law and, above all, the backbone of acknowledging responsibility for our deeds."
~Archbishop Fulton Sheen

Chuckle of The Day. Bacon.

Quote Of The Day

Quote of the Day

"The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness."
Pope Benedict XVI

Quote Of the Day

"I will glory not because I am righteous, but because I am redeemed; I will glory not because I am free from sins, but because my sins are forgiven me. I will not glory because I have done good nor because someone has done good to me, but because Christ is my advocate with the Father and because the blood of Christ has been shed for me."
— St. Ambrose

Quote Of The Day

“Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.”  
St. Augustine of Hippo

Quote Of The Day

“In an age that has thrown off all tradition, the only rebellion possible is orthodoxy.”

 Dr. Peter Kreeft

Quote of the Day: Abundantly True

On what was a completely normal Sunday yesterday, feeling perfectly fine, my uncle Mike took the garbage out for his wife, and then walked into the bathroom.  Then he fell to the ground, dead. 

This was the quote for today for my morning offering, and it couldn't be more true:

"Act as if everyday were the last of your life, and each action the last you perform."
— St. Alphonsus Liguori

Because it very well could be. 

Struck

"All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle."

-St. Francis

Sometimes a thought blind-sides you. 

At church today, Father Ben was doing on homily on marriage, in response to the recent ruling by the Supreme Court on Obergefell vs Hodges.  He was talking about the difference between legal and moral.... ever-increasingly, these are not the same thing at all.  And how we as Christians have an obligation to know what true marriage is, and live it to it's fullest, as a beacon to our ever-darkening world.  The family is being attacked from all angles.   He mentioned how the Supreme Court once upheld slavery as constitutional.  Obviously, the Supreme Court can be immoral and wrong, as it was also in Roe vs Wade.   Father Ben read a short message from the Bishop, which stated the following:  "We will continue to proclaim the truth about marriage. God created men and women to be different but complementary; this fact is at the heart of marriage. It is through the one-flesh union of marriage that children are brought into the world to, preferably, be raised by their own parents. Marriage is the safeguard of families, which is the smallest, but most important unit of society".    The Church needs to be strong.  Christians need not be afraid to live according to the only law that really matters.

So, later, we said the Nicene Creed, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. We were taking an oath. All of us together, in unison, standing firm.  Together, against the gathering darkness of the secular world.  WE BELIEVE.  It felt like that moment in Dead Poet's Society, where the kids all stand on their desks saying "O Captain, my Captain".  Something like that - only more profound.  I felt such unity, such a sense of brotherhood with my fellow Christians, who all over the world, were professing on this very morning this same Creed.  We are children of God.  We have not forgotten.  We know to Whom we belong.  We are not afraid.    I was so struck by the thought, it hit me so hard, that I cried through the entire creed.  I've said the words thousands and thousands of times.  Today, I felt the words like never before.  We are followers of Christ, and we will stand strong. 

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God;  begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven,  and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried;  and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life;who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins;
 and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

 Amen.

Coincedence?

Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage on a national level.  Today's gospel reading is this:

Today's Reading: Luke 10:13-20

13 "Woe to you, Chorazin! woe to you, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it shall be more tolerable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. 16 "He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me."
17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" 18 And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."



We have some heavy repenting to do as a nation.  Lord, have mercy on us. 

Quote Of The Day: St. Thomas More

"The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest."
— St. Thomas More

Just Want to Remember

A few things lately, that I just want to write down and remember:

Little Miss Reagan, sitting on my lap after dinner with Father Ben, shyly asking him if he would bless our house and do the rosary with us at our prayer table.  Then, later, over a piece of blueberry cheesecake, declaring loudly that "THE DEVIL CAN'T SCARE ME!  JESUS IS STRONGER!"  And Father Ben, stopping mid-sentence in his unrelated conversation with Rob, turning to her and saying "Not only is He stronger, but He's already won!"

So sweet.

--------------------------------
My aunt out of the blue sent me a care package not so long ago.  It contained my grandmother's pearl necklace, my other aunt's letter "M" necklace, and my grandfather's rosary.  Both my aunt Margie and my grandpa Carl had died long before I was born, and grandma died when I was 5 or 6.    I was so touched that my aunt would send these precious items to me of all people; we have a very big family, plus Aunt Mary has two kids and several grandkids of her own.  And yet, she shared these things with me,  the niece she rarely sees or talks to.  Just really nice and thoughtful.


I don't know a whole lot about my grandpa.  I know he was a miner, and played the fiddle.  I know his rugged face with it's sharp angles, because of the faded black and white picture that hung on our walls growing up.  I know that he was tall and thin, and was in a band, and that he liked to laugh and tease.  He was a hard-drinking smoker, who died too early of lung disease caused by a hard life in the mines and mountains of north Idaho.  "But Dad was very devout," my mother told me.  "I remember him going to church by himself, and then coming back home to pick up the rest of us, and going again.  I remember him on his knees leading the rosary with our family every night during lent.  And going to midnight Mass on Christmas eve." 

  So during first Friday adoration last weekend, I took my grandpa's rosary to use.  It's black and silver, obviously old, but well-made.  It has a little brown pouch to hold it.  It was Saturday, so I was meditating on the Joyful mysteries, about Jesus' birth and childhood.  And I just felt so close to this man I'd never met.  I had this distinct image in  my mind's eye of Grandpa Carl and I both kneeling in front of the manger, adoring the baby Jesus.  And it was so nice, to be there together with him, sharing the experience.  Such a cool thing, "being" with him, a man I'd always wondered about but had never met. 

Just a really cool experience, "meeting" my grandfather this way, and I want to remember it. 

Wrapping My Brain Around Suffering

"To love God’s will in consolations is a good love when it is truly God’s will we love and not the consolation wherein it lies. Still, it is a love without opposition, repugnance, or effort. Who would not love so worthy a will in so agreeable a form? To love God’s will in His commandments, counsels, and inspirations is the second degree of love and it is much more perfect. It carries us forward to renounce and give up our own will, and enables us to abstain from and forbear many pleasures, but not all of them. To love suffering and affliction out of love for God is the summit of most holy charity. In it nothing is pleasant but the divine will alone; there is great opposition on the part of our nature; and not only do we forsake all pleasures, but we embrace torments and labors."
— St. Francis de Sales


I have struggled with the idea of suffering - why it happens, why it's needed, how it purifies a soul. In my limited brain, I have to make things analogous in order to understand.  So, I think of the suffering of childbirth (grit and bear it, but it's worth the child in the end).  I think of the suffering of boot camp (grit and bear it, and end up strong and prepared).  I think of suffering as disciplining the spirit, just as a painful run and weight lifting might discipline the body.  But still I struggle with the concept.

I read the quote above by St. Francis De Sales  today, and that helps me.  It's about following God's will.  When we follow God's will, and He's filling us with the Holy Spirit, and we're loving life and all it's beauty, when we're steeped in love and awe... we follow His will, but we get something back.  We feel good.  We get the spiritual high.  We get the warm fuzzies.  We're still following His will, but we get something out of it, too.  It's a win-win.  So that's easy.  We want more, because it's so dang great. 

Then there are rules and precepts like the Ten Commandments.  We follow God's will, but sometimes it's a little hard.  There's not an immediate return.  In the long run, those rules help us to make choices that are in our ultimate best interests as well, but at the moment the choice is made.... no reward.  In my analogous mind, this is like dieting.  I deny myself the ice cream sundae, but in the long run I can fit into my swimsuit. I still get something out of it, but it requires discipline before gratification.  It's a different animal.

Finally, there is suffering.  We follow God's will, and it's ALOT hard.  It takes the ultimate self-discipline, the ultimate sacrifice on our part, and yet... there is no reward in this world.  Cancer.  Chronic pain.  Martyrdom.  We do God's will,  we bear God's will, solely out of LOVE OF GOD.  Without any reward for ourselves.    It is self-sacrificing, to the ultimate. Just as Jesus's act of redemption on the cross is self-sacrificing to the ultimate.  If we don't focus on the love of God during our suffering, than it is nothing but horror.  Jesus' murder is nothing but ugliness, evil, and horror if we don't see His love.  That transforms the ultimate ugliness into a thing of beauty - a dying, beaten, bloodied man on a cross is our redemption. If, in our darkest hours, we train ourselves on the bright light that is the love of God, the darkness fades.     This side of heaven, suffering means nothing to us. It useless.  It is horrible and ugly.   THAT side of heaven, however, it means everything.  That we were willing to give, to do, to be ANYTHING out of love for God, to follow His will wherever it brings us, without a thought of ourselves.... that is a purifying of our soul that makes us ready to stand in His presence.  That type of suffering prepares us for Heaven greater than anything on earth.  The great saints knew this.  Some even desired suffering, because they so desired to be ready for Heaven, out of love for God.   Just as Jesus desired the cross for Himself out of love for us. 

I'm trying to understand.

"It is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls. Suffering, more than anything else makes present in the history of humanity the powers of the Redemption."
— Pope St. John Paul II

Quote of The Day. No one says it Like Chesterton

The difficulty of explaining “why I am a Catholic” is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true. I could fill all my space with separate sentences each beginning with the words, “It is the only thing that…”

G.K. Chesterton, Why I Am a Catholic

 

The rest of the essay is worth reading.  Click on the link!

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Christian couples should be aware that they are called to sanctity themselves and to sanctify others, that they are called to be apostles and that their first apostolate is in the home. They should understand that founding a family, educating their children, and exercising a Christian influence in society, are supernatural tasks. The effectiveness and the success of their life — their happiness — depends to a great extent on their awareness of their specific mission.”

St. Jose Maria Escriva

Shroud of Turin National Geographic Article

The Shroud is being displayed in Turin right now, and will be for the next 7 weeks. This Shroud fascinates me, as I'm sure it does many billions of people.   National Geographic Italia recently wrote an article about it. 

 

Why Shroud of Turin's Secrets Continue

to Elude Science

As the venerated relic goes on public exhibition, its origin remains a mystery wrapped in an enigma

 

By Frank Viviano, National Geographic

PUBLISHED April 17, 2015              

 

The 53-square-foot rectangle of linen known as the Shroud of Turin is one of the most sacred religious icons on Earth, venerated by millions of Christians as the actual burial garment of Jesus Christ.

It is also among the most fiercely debated subjects in contemporary science, an extraordinary mystery that has defied every effort at solution.

Over the 117 years since a photographic negative of the linen unexpectedly revealed the image of a tortured body, ranks of physicists and chemists have weighed in on the fabric’s age and the image’s composition. Forensic pathologists, microbiologists, and botanists have analyzed its bloodstains, along with specks of dirt and pollen on its surface. Statisticians have combed through mountains of data.

The sum result is a standoff, with researchers unable to dismiss the shroud entirely as a forgery, or prove that it is authentic. “It is unlikely science will provide a full solution to the many riddles posed by the shroud,” Italian physicist Paolo Di Lazzaro, a leading expert on the phenomenon, told National Geographic. “A leap of faith over questions without clear answers is necessary—either the ‘faith’ of skeptics, or the faith of believers.”

On April 19, the shroud goes on public display at Turin’s cathedral for seven weeks, its longest exhibition in modern history.

   

 To readers of the New Testament gospels, the mysterious man of the shroud evokes the slain Christ, complete with signs of scourging, crucifixion, and puncture wounds caused by a crown of thorns. 

The Scientific Record

Scientific inquiry into the shroud began in 1898, with the startling image captured by Italian amateur photographer Secondo Pia. Under normal conditions, only the vague sepia blur of a human body appears on the fabric. But when Pia examined the reverse negative of his photographic plate in the darkroom, he discovered the detailed likeness of a bearded man with visible wounds on his body.

For seven decades, indirect analyses of the image were conducted by researchers, most aimed at determining whether it had been painted onto the linen or produced through contact with a human corpse. It wasn’t until 1969 that scientists were allowed to examine the fabric directly, with the task of advising on preservation techniques and future testing. This set the scene for the establishment of the U.S.-led Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP), which was granted an unprecedented five days of continuous access to the shroud itself in 1978.

The project’s 33 members ran the gamut of scientific disciplines, and their credentials included high-level posts at 20 major research institutions. They arrived in Turin with seven tons of equipment and worked in shifts 24 hours a day. An associate team of European scientists acted as expert observers.

Their analyses found no sign of artificial pigments. “The Shroud image is that of a real human form of a scourged, crucified man. It is not the product of an artist,” the project’s 1981 report declared. “The blood stains are composed of hemoglobin and also give a positive test for serum albumin.” But the report also conceded that no combination of “physical, chemical, biological or medical circumstances” could adequately account for the image.

The Shroud of Turin, the STURP team concluded, “remains now, as it has in the past, a mystery.”

The Carbon-14 Bombshell

In 1988, the Vatican authorized carbon-14 dating of the shroud. Small samples from a corner of its fabric were sent to labs at the University of Oxford’s Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (RAU), the University of Arizona, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. All three found that the shroud material dated to the years between 1260 and 1390, more than a millennium after the life and death of the historical Jesus. 
The labs assessed the reliability of their estimate at 95 percent. To make the case even more convincing, the dates closely coincided with the first documented appearance of the Shroud of Turin in 1353.

Since their release 27 years ago, the carbon-14 dating results have become the focal point of the shroud controversy, with a stream of critics taking aim at its methodology and conclusions.

Among the most innovative critiques were those published in 2010 by statisticians Marco Riani, of the University of Parma in Italy, and Anthony Atkinson, of the London School of Economics. In a recent interview with National Geographic, they noted that the laboratories conducting the carbon-14 tests were in full agreement on the ages of control fabrics from an ancient Egyptian mummy, a medieval Nubian tomb, and a medieval French ecclesiastical vestment. Yet raw data from the same tests on the shroud yielded results that differed by more than 150 years.

The published carbon-14 findings were the mean results drawn from the combined data of the three labs. It was assumed that the data were “homogeneous”—near-identical age estimates based on repeated measurements of the samples, each of which had been divided into four segments for testing.

But when computers crunched through all 387,072 ways to cut the samples, they identified a marked pattern of variations. “The dating which comes from a piece at the top edge [of an uncut sample] is very different from the date which comes from a piece taken from the bottom edge,” Riani explains.

“Our research does not prove that the shroud is authentic, nor that it is 2,000 years old,” he cautions. But it does call into question the carbon-14 report’s assertion of “conclusive evidence that the linen of the Shroud of Turin is medieval.”
The Oxford lab insists that the 1988 conclusions were accurate, and rejects arguments that the test samples were flawed.

The Question of Questions

Looming above all other issues is what physicist Paolo Di Lazzaro calls “the question of questions”: how the image was produced, regardless of its age. Every scientific attempt to replicate it in a lab has failed. Its precise hue is highly unusual, and the color’s penetration into the fabric is extremely thin, less than 0.7 micrometers (0.000028 inches), one-thirtieth the diameter of an individual fiber in a single 200-fiber linen thread.
Di Lazzaro and his colleagues at Italy’s National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) conducted five years of experiments, using state-of-the-art excimer lasers to train short bursts of ultraviolet light on raw linen, in an effort to simulate the image’s coloration. The ENEA team, which published its findings in 2011, came tantalizingly close to approximating the image’s distinctive hue on a few square centimeters of fabric. But they were unable to match all the physical and chemical characteristics of the shroud image. Nor could they reproduce a whole human figure.
The ultraviolet light necessary to do so “exceeds the maximum power released by all ultraviolet light sources available today,” says Di Lazzaro. It would require “pulses having durations shorter than one forty-billionth of a second, and intensities on the order of several billion watts.”

If the most advanced technologies available in the 21st century could not produce a facsimile of the shroud image, he reasons, how could it have been executed by a medieval forger?

For believers, the radiation thesis suggests that a “divine light” in the tomb might have seared the crucified form of Jesus Christ onto the shroud. “One could look at hypotheses outside the realm of science, a sort of miracle,” says Di Lazzaro. “But a miracle cannot be investigated by the scientific method.”

Read the rest by clicking the magazine cover above.