Art plays its part exclusively on earth, where today it feels – though vaguely – the want of something else that went with the loss of God, namely the loss of the Devil. —Barzun, The Use and Abuse of Art, “Art the Redeemer”, p. 91
phobia: an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear Merriam-Webster
phobia: a persistent and irrational fear APA
Unpopular opinions about postures during Mass:
- The Great Amen at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer is better sung standing than kneeling.
- The Agnus Dei is better sung kneeling than standing.
- The people should remain kneeling when the priest sits after giving Communion.
The Evangelists, and probably Jesus, quoted the Septuagint. One can be Catholic in English.
Although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to little ones. —from today’s Gospel reading
Clever people blind themselves to the word of God. —Fr. Julian A. Davies, OFM, in his homily today
The educated have much to unlearn.
Everyone I know got the shot. If friends and family depended on agreement, I’d be alone.
Controversy should be permitted on controversial issues.
My sins are, I hope, all forgivable.
Toward the end of her life she said: “The Gospels alone are enough for me. I no longer find anything worthwhile in other books.” Before she entered Carmel she read a few books, but most of them were of no great merit. —John Beevers, Saint Thérèse the Little Flower: The Making of a Saint, “Gospels alone”
A fellow customer at the car wash asked me what “dubia” meant. Born in Israel, he had just returned from a visit there. I mentioned that I heard that Israelis weren’t polite because in Hebrew “toilet” and “service” were the same word. Of course he knew the word and laughed.
A sleeping person remains a person, I hope.
Egg, nymph, adult: one praying mantis.
Assigning sex seems a bad use of the word “assign”, since the assignment doesn’t make a person male or female. What would be a better word?
At the northern end of the Tomhannock Reservoir.
HABITUAL GRACE: Constant supernatural quality of the soul which sanctifies a person inherently and makes him or her just and pleasing to God. Also called sanctifying grace or justifying grace. —Catholic Dictionary
In social and cultural relations the law rarely intervenes effectively; the protection of rights and feelings only comes from decency and self-restraint. —Jacques Barzun, Race: A Study in Superstition
Judas may be in heaven, but art cannot put him there.
Rodney Stark: Myths too precious to surrender
I am competent to reveal that the Crusades were legitimate defensive wars and that the Inquisition was not bloody. I am not competent to explain why the pile of fine research supporting these corrections have had no impact on the chattering classes. I suspect that these myths are too precious for the anti-religious to surrender. Interview with Rodney Stark
Are there any of us who have not heard it said or implied some time somewhere that the people’s Communion is the high point of the Mass? —Philip Trower, “The Divorced — Remarried. What Can the Church Do About It?"
What Mr. Trower wrote here also applies to other people than the divorced-remarried.
We have eaten and drunk in thy presence. Luke 13:26
The Eucharist will not save you, if you do evil.