January 2012
30 posts
With Christ I become critical
Read the Introduction
Read Part One
Read Part Two
You may recall, a few weeks ago, that I began telling my story about my journey to Christ. Instead of “searching” for God, God was searching for me. Instead of finding God, God found me. After this discovery, a lot changed.
The major consequence of my walk with Christ had begun to put me at odds with the status quo of the prevailing...
Consecrate your Kindle Fire or Android
Maybe you got one for Christmas, or you got some cash. You might want to consider some of these awesome Catholic apps for your Android or Kindle Fire.
I picked up a Creative Ziio, and have been using Amazon Appstore, and have purchased almost all of these apps, and could easily recommend them. Links to Amazon Appstore.
iMissal You get the entire Roman Missal and several Catholic prayers. The...
2011 Some of the good films
Overall, I must admit, 2010 was a spectacular year for film. King’s Speech, The Fighter, Inception, Social Network, Black Swan, Blue Valentine, and Scott Pilgrim. As far as performances go, 2010 was one of the best years of recent memory for film. 2011 had plenty of awesome comic book movies (which I unashamedly purchased and enjoyed). If I were, however, to list my favorite films, as far as...
2011 Cool Books list
Here is a collection of several books that I read and enjoyed and would recommend. In no particular order, I included a brief description. Most of these books are new this year, or at least new to me personally.
Jesus Books
Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew by Eric Sammons. Jesus viewed through each of the titles given him throughout Matthew’s Gospel.
...
December 2011
58 posts
“He lies in the manger, but contains the world; he nurses at the breasts, but...”
– St. Augustine
(Sermons 190,3,4)
Is the "Vocation Crisis" anything new? →
Jennifer Fulwiler on the National Catholic Register deals with this question from a historical perspective.
Certainly, there were more priests and consecrated religious per capita in, say, St. Frances of Rome’s time than in our own. But was that because there were more people back then who sought God’s will for their lives and discerned a call to a religious vocation? Or was it because there...
uCatholic: Feast of the Holy Innocents →
ucatholic:
Herod “the Great,” king of Judea, was unpopular with his people because of his connections with the Romans and his religious indifference. Hence he was insecure and fearful of any threat to his throne. He was a master politician and a tyrant capable of extreme brutality. He killed his…
Simply Orthodox ☦: About Eastern Orthodox... →
simplyorthodox:
For a better understanding of Hesychasm, it is essential to draw a distinction between loneliness and solitude. The word ‘monk’ is of Greek origin and is derived from the word μόνος (to be alone). However, the life of the monk is far from being an unbearable state of isolation or an…
There are a lot of people I have met, that are mistaken that my life of monastic...
3 tags
Rapper? White Female? →
NY Times has an article about the phenomenon of white female rappers. So far, it just has not happened. I think it is an interesting question, and I have thought about it myself…
There is nothing about the skills required to be an M.C. that makes it impossible for white women to rhyme. It’s not that their mouths can’t do it. The true barrier to entry is that there is an essence at the...
“He who walks in love can neither go astray nor be afraid: love guides him,...”
– St. Fulgentius of Ruspe (via grngrsblusky)
Happy Christmas everyone!
Don’t forget Christmas is an Octave, meaning there is too much grace and glory to be contained in a twentyfour hour period. Oh, and Christmas just began yesterday!
uCatholic: St. Stephen →
ucatholic:
St. Stephen was martyred in Jerusalem about the year 35. He is consider both the first Christian martyr (the protomartyr) and one of the first deacons of the Christian Church. All that we know of the life, trial, and death of St. Stephen, is found in the Book of Acts, Chapters 6 and 7. In…
1 tag
“Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day...”
– St. Augustine
2 tags
Some more ill Positive Hip Hop for 2011
Here are four selections of some of the illest positive hip hop albums this year, which unfortunately, due to the limited explicit content on these albums I cannot link to. I do believe, their positivity is more pronounced then a few explicits, and are worth considering.
Strange Fruit Project “A Dreamer’s Journey”
Be on the lookout for Symbolic One of Strange Fruit Project,...
Innocent and Pretty versus "hot" and "sexy" →
Pat Archbold at the National Catholic Register suggests the “Death
of Pretty” in his latest article.
By nature, generally when men see this combination in women
it brings out their better qualities, their best in fact. That special
combination of beauty and innocence, the pretty inspires men to protect and
defend it. Young women today do not seem to aspire to pretty, they
prefer to...
My struggle to follow the Christ
Read the Introduction
Read Part One of this story
By the 8th grade, we studied world religions, and suddenly I became infatuated by Buddhism and Islam. At least in the way it was presented, I believed that there were many people of deep conviction out there, while my Church lacked deep conviction. I would soon find this overly ambitious as my high school classmates in public school who were...
3 tags
Native Lungs in Braille
Native Lungs sees Braille with another Humble Beast album for free download on their site. You can always give a donation, but its not about the money. Native Lungs, however, takes Weapon Aid, and even my favorite emcee, beyond what I have come to know. Another remarkable album.
With his previous albums Cloud Nineteen and Weapon Aid reviewed on this site, I could not pass up another...
The Hobbit Trailer!!! Some commentary by Steve... →
Steve Greydanus, film critic at the National Catholic Register, unleashes a brief commentary on the new Hobbit trailer.
Be sure to take a peak at the trailer there as well.
The all consuming fascination for me in the Middle Earth saga is the
character Gandalf, and McKellan always managed to give an exceptional
performance. I once heard they approached Sean Connery for the role, as
cool as he is,...
For Times Such As These: The Radical Christian... →
Angered by the poverty and violence, Shane recalls: “I threw my hands up at God and said, ‘why do you allow this?’ And then I felt God ask me the same question.”
Galvanized by the experience, the mostly middle class and white students made the decision to leave the comfortable culture of mega-churches and malls that had dominated their former lives, and dedicate themselves to ‘living simply...
5 tags
Pontifex is Ordained
Pontifex, part of the Phatmass crew, came out with his long awaited album, and he does not disappoint. I heard him years back on several of the Phatmass compilations, and I was impressed. I know I would get in trouble for saying this, but there really has not been a priest that can actually flow. (No offense to musically talented Fr. Stan Fortuna, but he does not have an ill flow). You can check...
My perception of the Christ in my youth.
Read the Introduction
I was baptized Catholic at an early age, and brought up by Irish and Italian parents, in a predominantly Hispanic cultural setting. It is nearly impossible for me to identify how any characteristic cultural images of Jesus in any of these cultures actually effected me. I chose to go to Mass with my Dad earlier, to have more time to play with the neighborhood kids who did not...
1 tag
“O Love, ever burning, never extinguished, O Charity, my God, set me on fire! You...”
– Saint Augustine, The Confessions, X.29 (via versolalto)
It's Offical, the Pope to Canonize the first... →
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha is set to be canonized by the Pope with several
other saints. Here you can read the story about the boy who was healed of a flesh eating
bacteria. Kateri was a Mohawk-Algonguian living near New York
between 1656 and 1680. Kateri was adopted the Village Chief, who was her
uncle, when her family was wiped out in a smallpox outbreak. As the Chief’s
adopted daughter,...
Christology and my journey with Jesus: An...
To Saint Maximus the Confessor, the Theologian is primarily to be a Lover of God. For a Christian of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, it would make little sense to pursue theology, without their whole life being fully enveloped in as a disciple to Jesus the Christ. Christology, follows this same reasoning. Unlike other sciences, which claim to demand an absolute disinterest of the scientist, the...
Another Woman doctor of the Church: Hildegard of... →
Rome Reports: Pope Benedict is set to name Hildegard of Bingen as a
doctor of the Church. She was an amazing woman, I did some research on
her in my undergrad year, studying Medieval Mysticism. There has been a lot
of good research thanks to several Feminist Church Scholars, who, I found,
gave a thoroughly fair assessment of her without overly politicizing
it.
I have been sorting through and...
A conscientious objector to the 'war on Christmas' →
Mark Shea, of Catholic and Enjoying articulates my sentiments on the aggressive and
un-Christlike campaign to ‘restore’ Jesus as the Reason for the Season.
Restore is really an ambiguous term. Many people have a misplaced nostalgia
for an imaginary time when Christ was really the center. There has always
been times in this country to diminish the religious significance of...
“It is a gross error to think that whatever displeases us displeases God.”
– St. Augustine
(Exposition on the Genesis Against the Manicheans 2, 16)
1 tag
Discovery of unknown Caravaggio painting of Saint... →
He altered the course of Western art with a completely new approach to light and form, yet barely 50 works created by Caravaggio during his 38 years have survived. Now scholars claim that one more, a previously unknownpainting, has been discovered in a private collection in Britain.
The oil on canvas depiction of Saint Augustine, an expressive, mature work dated to around 1600 – when he was 28...
2 tags
Fr Martin Laird OSA discusses contemplative prayer... →
Fr Marty is a good friend of mine, and has helped initiate me into a distinctly Augustinian contemplative tradition. Unfortunately we took Ignatian, or Thomistic Discurssive contemplation as the standard and forgot our own. Fortunately Fr Marty and several other Friars have worked to recover this since the our reforms after the Second Vatican Council.
Also be sure to look up his two books on...
Ephrem’s hymns on Virginity are moving me to tears. This is not fair! I am trying to write a final paper here.
The most likely culprit of teenage depression is... →
In Health news, Teens are more depressed, anxious, and paranoid then
ever. If I were to describe my life as a teenager, I would say I was
depressed, anxious, and paranoid. I do not know the degree by which it can
be measured, or if it was strong enough to merit medication.
Many of the assumptions behind this, is that the economy is effecting
young people in a negative way. Perhaps it is, perhaps...
According to a new study, people can't tell the... →
Jezebel, which is the sexy feminist sex online mag, is shocked and
flabbergasted at oversexualized sexy “lad mags” like FHM, and the like…
because, well, they don’t have the moral courage comparable to a rapist.
Check out the article here.
There has been this narrative, which has become an unquestionable
infallible dogma in our society, whereby which, all naysayers will...
Requiem in aeternum
Father Patrick Keane, OSA
March 14, 1926 - December 11, 2011
Everyone, say a prayer for Father Pat
Father Pat Keane, may be on his last hours, so pray for him.
I had the pleasure living with him last year. He was relatively immobile,
but I took him to the gym a few times. We went to the Barona Indian Casino
a few times, and had a blast each time. I taught him how to do netflix. He
was also part of our Martini club at the Monastery. I will miss him, the
seriousness of this loss has not hit me...
“Let my soul take refuge, beneath the shadow of Your wings: let my heart, this...”
– St Augustine
Wearing Pink Today
crusadermaximus:
Like a boss.
The Immaculate Conception, from St. Ephrem of... →
Taylor Marshal writes on the “journey” of the Feast of the Immaculate
Conception from Syria to Rome his canturbury tales blog.
The Church in Syria began to celebrate a feast in honor of
the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the fifth century. The
assigned date for this feast was December 9th. This should come as no
surprise since some of the most beautiful verses about the...
Nativity FAIL →
The Haute Sphere is on tour, and should be making it’s rounds at my home
Cathedral, Our Lady of the Angeles, in LA.
Katrina Fernandez of “More than Mortal Beauty,” commentator on beauty,
and critic of our fascination with ugly stuff inside of churches, takes on
the Haute Sphere in her blog. She makes this claim which should make us rethink
some of the silly modern abstract art...
1 tag
I don’t wanna leave here the way I came: God,... →
Valerie Schultz, writing for America Magazine’s blog, In All Things, reflects on a prison ministry experience. One of the prisoners, a rapper, wrote the lyric “I don’t wanna leave here the way I came.” The lyric stuck in her head, and had implications for everyone, not just this prisoner. Namely, let us hope to be converted to Christ, be converted to the Gospel.
“Blessed Virgin, immaculate and pure, you are the sinless Mother of your Son, the...”
– Saint Ephrem of Syria (306-373) Doctor of the Church, Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (via radioteopoli) 