Vehige

But what makes the French Revolution the first fascist revolution was its effort to turn politics into a religion. (In this the revolutionaries were inspired by Rousseau, whose concept of the general will divinized the people while rendering the person an afterthought.) Accordingly, they declared war on Christianity, attempting to purge it from society and replace it with a "secular" faith whose

Steven over at Book Reviews and More tagged Woodward and me with a book meme.The Rules: Pass this on to 5 blogging friends. Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56. Write the 5th sentence, as well as two to five sentences following that.There's already a problem. The book that happens to be sitting closest to

In his “Introduction” to Liberal Fascism, Jonah Goldberg seeks to clarify what is meant by fascism. He offers two, complementary definitions.Fascisms differ from each other because they grow out of different soil. What unites them are their emotional or instinctual impulses, such as the quest for community, the urge to “get beyond” politics, a faith in the perfectibility of man and the aut

In an attempt to bring this blog back from near dormition, Woodward and I have decided to read and blog about this book:Why this book? you ask. For two reasons.First, Woodward was going to read it anyway because he's both a Jonah Goldberg fan as well as a history buff.Second, because since the election of Barack Obama, I am suddenly very interested in something I've never been interested in before

When I was an undergraduate, I had to give a presentation on Edward Schillebeeckx’s Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God. Schillebeeckx is one of those theologians who went off the deep end in the post-Vatican II era. But back in the late 50’s and early 60’s, when Christ the Sacrament was written and published, he was one of the young lights of Catholic theology -- along with Karl

Your result for The Who Would You Be in 1400 AD Test...The Monk You live a peaceful, quiet life. Very little danger comes your way and you live a long time. You are wise and modest, but also stagnant. You have little comfort, little food and have taken a vow of silence. But who needs chatter when just sitting in the cloister of your abbey with The Good Book makes you perfectly content.Take

Sara over at Pur Autre Vie has just discovered Flannery O'Connor. It got me thinking about the pleasure I've had reading great Catholic literature . . . and it got me wondering about all the great Catholic literature I have yet to read.So what I thought we could do -- yes, we, meaning me and anyone who reads this post -- is to start a list of our favorite Catholic novels and short fiction. Genre i

Since we've been tagged twice over (by Maclin Horton and Steven McEvoy), I should probably play along. I'll refer you to Woodward's post for the rules and regulations. Here it goes:1. I hate McDonald's. I rather go hungry than eat anything from McDonald's. Yes, that includes their shakes. Especially their shakes.2. I’m obsessive about fonts. I’ll spend fifteen minutes deciding on a font before

It's called the St. Peter Canisius Apostolate.I know that for long-time readers there's going to be a roll of the eyes. Vehige's staring yet another new blog. Yeah -- we'll see how long that lasts.All those other blogs were attempts to engage in the apostolate as I saw fit -- not as God saw fit. I could explain in great detail my rationale for starting each one, but why? All I'll say is this: "If

Good video. Note how the reporter says that girls going into convents must "give up sex" whereas the young sister interviewed said she had to "give up having children." The world just doesn't understand. The world will never understand.HT: Love2Learn Blog

Mortimer Adler’s Truth in Religion treats a difficult topic. Our scientific worldview has taught us that material and/or experimental proof is the only valid test for truth, and our pluralism tells us that we must be tolerant of other’s views. Since religious truth is improvable by scientific methods, and since the plurality of religions makes it difficult to hold that one religion might posse

1. Seneca2. Quintilian3. Lactantius4. St. Jerome5. St. Augustine6. Peter Abelard7. John of Salisbury8. St. Thomas Aquinas9. Dante10. Petrarch11. Desiderius Erasmus12. Martin Luther13. Philipp Melanchthon14. The Jesuits15. Michel de Montaigne16. John Locke17. David Hume18. Immanuel Kant19. Friedrich Schiller20. Thomas Jefferson21. John AdamsAnd I limited this list to those names that should be reco

Reading Aristotle can be terribly difficult because not all of his works were written to be read; that is to say, some of his works are nothing more than lecture notes. Trying to make sense of them can be very frustrating. Hence, I almost gave up reading On Interpretation. Chapter 10 made no sense to me, and either did Chapter 11 or 12. I closed the book in frustration and put it on my shelf. Then

I played guitar all through junior high and high school. One of my favorite bands was Cream, and one of my favorite songs by Cream was their version of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads." Back then there was no Amazon.com or online shopping, so I had to search high and low for a Robert Johnson tape, and when I finally found it, it was nothing like I expected. But I listened to it over and over and even

The most important chapter in the Categories is Chapter 2, in which Aristotle outlines his fourfold classification of being. The phrases he uses “to predicate of” and “to be present in” are strange enough to trip up the casual reader–if Aristotle actually has casual readers.I know that when I first read the Categories as an undergraduate (perhaps undergraduates are the casual readers of

Cicero begins Book Five of "Discussions at Tusculum" with the following observation:That is why the first philosophers who ever existed dismissed all other considerations into the background and devoted themselves entirely to the search for the best way to live. The reason why they decided to dedicate all their care and concentration to this quest was because they believed it would reveal how happ

From In Conversation with God, Volume 3, Seventh Week, Monday.In our apostolate, we should be aware that often the great hindrance to many souls accepting the Faith, recognizing their vocation, or leading a consistent Christian life, is provided by personal sins unrepented of, disordered affections, and a lack of correspondence with divine grace. Man, influenced by his prejudices or stirred up by

In what might be my favorite new blog (new for me, at least), The Roving Medievalist Jeffrey Smith (gotta like anyone with the first name of Jeff) had this to say about a recent discussion I've seen on some other blogs about "why Christian art is so lame."The other item is about the question "why is Christian art so lame?" Never mind that every generation for the last thousand years has asked that

The novel, that is, not the movie. This is when Peter, Susan, and Lucy first meet Aslan. Edmund is still with the White Witch.His voice was deep and rich and somehow took the fidgets out of them. They now felt glad and quiet and it didn't seem awkward to them to stand and say nothing."But where is the fourth?" asked Aslan."He has tried to betray them and joined the White Witch, O Aslan," said Mr.

As a Catholic stay-at-home dad who is homeschooling his children, my circle of friends and acquaintances is rather . . . circumscribed. I find myself moving within a group of people who more or less see the world as I see it. I'm not sure this is entirely a good thing. It's good for my emotional state; I don't feel I have to constantly defend my life choices. And it's good my children, because the

I'm rereading this . . .. . . so I can read this for the very first time . . . .. . . so that I can take my son to see this movie . . .. . . which I hope and pray will be better than this one . . .. . . which my son has not seen and will not see so long as I can help it.

Woodward wrote a very interesting piece on the Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hears a Who, which, in turn, prompted the following anonymous comment:This is a nice perspective when it comes to all books but one. Unfortunately, too many practice their faith in this manner, but that isn't the point of your post, and I am a bit off topic.It seems to me that the book to which the writer refers is the Bible. Wo

It's amazing what you can find on YouTube. When I was in high school, this was one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands.

As for the other so-called "good" things, it is erroneous to describe or regard them as good, since it is perfectly possible to possess them in abundance and still to be miserable all the same! Imagine a man who is favored with excellent health, great physical strength and extremely good looks, and whose senses are all vigorous and active. Then throw in wealth, distinctions, great offices of state, power and glory. But suppose also that the person thus endowed is at the same time unjust, intemperate, cowardly, and slow-witted or downright stupid. You will surely have to admit that he is an unhappy man. Well, then, if someone can be loaded with all those worldly honors and still be exceedingly unhappy, it would be quite wrong to classify him as good.Cicero has a lot to say about happiness i

As for the other so-called "good" things, it is erroneous to describe or regard them as good, since it is perfectly possible to possess them in abundance and still to be miserable all the same! Imagine a man who is favored with excellent health, great physical strength and extremely good looks, and whose senses are all vigorous and active. Then throw in wealth, distinctions, great offices of state

Reading The Aeneid, the one thing that struck me was Virgil's notion of "fate" or "destiny" -- espeically when compared to that of Homer. In Homer's Iliad, the notion of fate has a nihilistic tone to it. It is so-and-so's fate to die in this battle. Fate has to do with the eternal decree of one's time of death.For Virgil, however, fate bespeaks doing something great. It was fate that brought Aeneas to the Latin shores, and Aeneas himself seems aware of a destiny he has to fulfill. In fact, it's this awareness that compels Aeneas to act. Here's Aeneas speaking to his mother Venus:I am Aeneas, duty-bound, and knownAbove high air of heaven by my fame,Carrying with me in my ships our godsOf hearth and home, saved from the enemy.I look for Italy to be my fatherland,And my descent is from all-hi

Reading The Aeneid, the one thing that struck me was Virgil's notion of "fate" or "destiny" -- espeically when compared to that of Homer. In Homer's Iliad, the notion of fate has a nihilistic tone to it. It is so-and-so's fate to die in this battle. Fate has to do with the eternal decree of one's time of death.For Virgil, however, fate bespeaks doing something great. It was fate that brought Aenea

Let me begin with an except from Fr. Francis Fernandez's In Conversation with God from a few days ago:The presence of the three divine Persons in our souls in grace is a living presence, which is open to our friendship: they are inviting us to get to know them and to love them. It is up to us to correspond. Why climb the mountains or go down into the valleys of the world looking for him who dwells within us? St. Augustine asks. But St. Gregory tells us: As long as our mind is giddy with carnal images it will never be able to contemplate . . . because there are as many obstacles blinding it as there are thoughts pulling it hither and thither. Hence, for the soul to contemplate the invisible nature of God, the first step must be: let it be recollected within itself.Let's pause here. In Catho

Let me begin with an except from Fr. Francis Fernandez's In Conversation with God from a few days ago:The presence of the three divine Persons in our souls in grace is a living presence, which is open to our friendship: they are inviting us to get to know them and to love them. It is up to us to correspond. Why climb the mountains or go down into the valleys of the world looking for him who dwells

Part 1: My New Blog I have a new blog. Schooling Myself in the Classics. Go there and have a look around. Leave a comment if you’d like. And if you really like it, please put it on your blogroll. Part 2: Why I Have a New Blog Without a doubt, the unforeseeable difficulty I faced when I became a stay-at-home dad was that I would no longer have any tangible long-term goals to pursue. I didn’t realize how much of a goal-oriented person I was until then. In the waning months of graduate school, I started writing a novel for fun; it only seemed natural, then, once I became an at-home dad to take writing more seriously. Besides, I had two childhood dreams -- becoming a writer and/or become a rock star. Since becoming a rock star was out of the question, becoming a writer took

Part 1: My New Blog I have a new blog. Schooling Myself in the Classics. Go there and have a look around. Leave a comment if you’d like. And if you really like it, please put it on your blogroll. Part 2: Why I Have a New Blog Without a doubt, the unforeseeable difficulty I faced when I became a stay-at-home dad was that I would no longer have any tangible long-term goals to pursu

Since I'm not in school, whenever I sit down to read a Great Book, I tell myself that I'm reading it for myself, that I don't need to remember or understand everything in the book, and that the only parts that are important are the parts I deem important for me.With that in mind, the most important aspect of the Phaedo (for me) is Socrates argument that life must be lived in view of death. Indeed, this is a major Christian theme and one that has been embraced by saints from the very beginning of the Church. Does not our Lord say, "What profit a man if he gain the whole word but looses his soul?" But sometimes those words strike me as bland and stale; I've heard them, and words like them, my whole life.If there's one reason to read philosophy -- and there's more than one, but in the grand s

Since I'm not in school, whenever I sit down to read a Great Book, I tell myself that I'm reading it for myself, that I don't need to remember or understand everything in the book, and that the only parts that are important are the parts I deem important for me.With that in mind, the most important aspect of the Phaedo (for me) is Socrates argument that life must be lived in view of death. Indeed,

Peggy Noonan has written a nice article about the differences between Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, differences that can be summed up in the following passage:John Paul made you burst into tears. Benedict makes you think. It is more pleasurable to weep, but at the moment, perhaps it is more important to think.Of course, I never met John Paul and probably won't meet Benedict XVI, so I can't verify if upon meeting John Paul one spontaneously breaks into weeping . . . but I do know that thinking about John Paul, even when he was still with us, always brought tears to my eyes.Yet, since my proximity to John Paul has been through is work, I can say that his was an intellect to be reckoned with, and both his and Benedict's work have brought an altogether different kind of tears to my

Peggy Noonan has written a nice article about the differences between Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, differences that can be summed up in the following passage:John Paul made you burst into tears. Benedict makes you think. It is more pleasurable to weep, but at the moment, perhaps it is more important to think.Of course, I never met John Paul and probably won't meet Benedict XVI, so I ca

The first time I read the Iliad, I thought that the two most important characters were Achilles and the wife of Hector, Andromache. Perhaps important isn't the best word here; perhaps the word is "interesting" in the sense that I wish I could read more about each. This is obvious in the case of Achilles. The will of Zeus was bent to give honor to Achilles, and the man is hardly in the story. But my interest in Andromache comes from the fact that she suffers from the wrath of Achilles more than anyone else -- even Priam.Why do I say this? Because Achilles not only kills her husband, Hector, but also killed her father and her seven brothers before the Illiad opens. The shadow of Achilles looms over the death of everyone she is close to, save her mother -- who, if not already dead, was undoub

The first time I read the Iliad, I thought that the two most important characters were Achilles and the wife of Hector, Andromache. Perhaps important isn't the best word here; perhaps the word is "interesting" in the sense that I wish I could read more about each. This is obvious in the case of Achilles. The will of Zeus was bent to give honor to Achilles, and the man is hardly in the story. But m

I’ve decided to read Aristotle’s Organon—that is, his works on logic—and I thought I’d pass on some of the things I’ve learned as I tried to wade through these texts without the help of a teacher. Here’s Tip Number 1: Read aloud, and read slowly This was something I learned in graduate school when I took a class on Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Throughout the semester, the professor read everything aloud and very slowly before lecturing on it. Not once did he read Aristotle silently the way my other professors would scan a text before commenting on it. At first, I thought he was doing this for the sake of his students, but as we moved through the Metaphysics and Aristotle’s ideas became more obscure, I realized he was doing it for his own sake as well. He was stil

I’ve decided to read Aristotle’s Organon—that is, his works on logic—and I thought I’d pass on some of the things I’ve learned as I tried to wade through these texts without the help of a teacher. Here’s Tip Number 1: Read aloud, and read slowly This was something I learned in graduate school when I took a class on Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Throughout the semester, the

My, oh my, oh my . . . how did I miss this? Robert Gotcher of Classic Catholic tagged me a few moons ago about who would make my personal litany of saints. Not one to pass up free blog posting ideas, I would have jumped on this had I seen it. Alas, I did not see it until yesterday. Here’s my list: 1. St. Joseph—that I may have the obedience to the word of God that he does (see Matthew 1-2). 2. St. Augustine of Hippo—that my conversion may be as perfect as his was. 3. St. Thomas Aquinas—that I may be as dedicated to the truth as he was and possess the intellectual virtues as he did. 4. St. Thomas More—that I may be the example to my own children as he was to his. 5. St. Ignatius of Loyola—that I may implement in my life the discipline of prayer that he implem

My, oh my, oh my . . . how did I miss this? Robert Gotcher of Classic Catholic tagged me a few moons ago about who would make my personal litany of saints. Not one to pass up free blog posting ideas, I would have jumped on this had I seen it. Alas, I did not see it until yesterday. Here’s my list: 1. St. Joseph—that I may have the obedience to the word of God that he does (see Matthew 1-2)

An excerpt from Fr. Roch Kereszty's Jesus Christ: Fundamentals of Christology:If the story of the empty tomb had been a later legend, it would have not been linked to the women, but to one of the apostles, "the official witnesses."Moreover, even the Jews themselves do not deny the fact of the empty tomb in the fourth quarter of the first century; they merely try to explain it as part of a fraud committed by the disciples (Matt 28.11-15).We must also conclude to the historicity of the empty tomb from the fact that the message of the Resurrection was preached in Jerusalem. In the words of Althaus: "The Resurrection kergyma could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned." If the

An excerpt from Fr. Roch Kereszty's Jesus Christ: Fundamentals of Christology:If the story of the empty tomb had been a later legend, it would have not been linked to the women, but to one of the apostles, "the official witnesses."Moreover, even the Jews themselves do not deny the fact of the empty tomb in the fourth quarter of the first century; they merely try to explain it as part of a fraud co

In the “Introduction” to Good New, Bad News: Evangelization, Conversion, and the Crisis of Faith, Fr. McCloskey and Shaw this observation:The most important thing about conversion is, of course, that it’s God’s work and God’s alone. Others, including the converts themselves, only respond to divine initiatives, only cooperate with grace.If we’re ever lucky to talk about the Catholic Faith with anyone who’s not a Catholic -- or with any lukewarm/fallen away Catholic -- these are important words to remember. It’s too easy to think another person’s conversion is up to us.This reminds me of a story about St. John Vianney, the great parish priest of Ars, France, who is now the patron saint of parish priests. A fellow priest came to him lamenting he’d done all he could to c

Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth, without a doubt. Before you go off thinking that I'm an Oprah fan, I first heard of this book on Amy Welborn's blog, Charlotte Was Both. That didn't set me out to buy it right away, but it sounded good. While on vacation over Thanksgiving, realizing that I'd forgotten to pack any fiction, I ended up buying it while we were picking up some odds and ends

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway) "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner) This is exactly why the late John Gardner exhorted the late Raymond Carver to read as much William Faulkner as he (Carver) could and then read as much

Okay, Woodward, we need to get on it around here. We're only at an undergraduate level. HT: Happy Catholic

Last night, I started listening to this: Not knowing how good it would be, I checked it out from the library. I sat down with my headphones, opened the play, and followed along. It's phenomenal -- a great way to experience Shakespeare. It looks like Arkangel has done all 38 of Shakespeare's plays. I'm not sure I'm interested in reading all of them, but I will be buying the audiobooks for his

I've never read a L. Ron Hubbard story or novel before, but yesterday I started Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000. Only thirty pages into it, I'm hooked . . . but I still have over 1,000 pages to go. I'll keep you posted.

With a post entitled "Some errors about St. Thomas’ doctrine of Predestination," I have to wonder if this guy (or gal) is reading Thursday Night Gumbo. What I find particularly interesting is this statement: Failure to determine what light one follows in the discussion of predestination. For St. Thomas, the explication of predestination belongs formally to natural theology, that is, to that

Our will is the power within our soul by which we desire (what we perceive to be) the good. We must keep the word "perceive" in the definition because sometimes what we perceive to be the good isn't really the good. For St. Thomas, this is the only way we can sin -- by perceiving what is evil to be good. If I tell a lie, it is because I perceive the telling of the lie to be better than not

When it comes to human freedom, contemporary Catholic thinking makes three distinctions. (1) Political freedom -- which is pretty much what we're used to here in the United States. (2) Natural freedom -- the basic choice to choose A over B, or B over A. When we think of the free will, we typical think of "natural freedom" (3) Authentic freedom -- the freedom to do good and avoid evil. You see,

I'm a third of the way through Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange's Predestination. I'll have more about the book when I finish it, but for now I just want to list some of the things I've learned. 1. I've been a Semi-Pelagian for nearly all of my adult life. As I understand it, Semi-Pelagianism states that God gives equal amount of grace to all, but then steps back and is a mere spectator of how we use

I teach the baptism class at my parish, and today from our one-and-only deacon I received this email: In your research about Baptism, I am interested to see if you can find out why Catholics no longer follow the tradition of choosing a Saint's name, (as either the first or second name), for their child to-be-baptized. Historically, this saint chosen would/could have been a role model for the

I'm always on the lookout for good books, so whenever I see a book list entitled Books that have changed my life, I tend to pay attention. Most of the time I make a mental note of the books I'd like to read someday, and on occasion I'll hop on over to Amazon.com and buy the book. Only rarely, however, will I actually read the book before I've forgotten why I bought it in the first place. Happily,

A t-shirt I should buy and hang above my computer. Unless, of course you're John Scalzi. HT: The Sci-Fi Catholic.

I'm breaking my silence because I want to direct everyone's attention to a series of riveting posts entitled The Lost Tools of Living written by Rick Saenz of Dry Creek Chronicles. Here is the link to his "Useful Posts" page. Scroll down a bit and you'll see links to the posts in the series.He finished up today, and in his conclusion he states something that I found very intriguing: "I think that we took a wrong turn when we began to look at entertainment as something to be purchased rather than something we produced for ourselves." In other words, can we truly relax by becoming passive?At any rate, get over to Dry Creek Chronicles and read Rick's posts on the lost tools of learning. You might not agree with everything he says -- in fact, you probably won't -- but he'll make you think, which is a precious gift indeed.

I've decided to take the rest of the month off from blogging. There's nothing going on. I know people stop blogging for a while because "something big" is happen. There's nothing like that.The problem is that whenever I get on the Internet to blog, I end up wasting a lot of time. So I want to step back, mortifying my addition to the Internet, and focus on the more essential things in life.See you in November.Maybe.

From here on out, the Vehige side of Thursday Night Gumbo will follow the rule of Classic Catholic. And I quote:I do not intentionally link to commercial bookstores on this site. Why should I give them free advertising? I presume anyone reading this will know how to find a book at a library or a bookstore.I'd also like to add that adding links to Amazon.com is a huge waste of time on a blogger's part, as well as an annoying activity that has, in the past, deterred me from writing a post. So if you had an option, which would you chose: Posts without links, or no posts at all?On second thought, don't answer that.

It's quite amazing that pictures of my home town -- Flint Hill, Missouri -- are actually up on someone's blog. But, then, it's a blog about the Dioceses of St. Louis, and the pictures are of St. Theodore's Catholic Church. Here is the link to "Rome of the West."We moved from Flint Hill to Apple Valley, California, when I was 7, so I don't remember too much of St. Theodore's. I went to first grade at St. Theodore's Elementary (the last picture). My teacher, Sister Barbara Rose, was also the principle -- not a good thing.I'd have to agree whole-heartedly with the first comment: The banners have got to go. They ruin an otherwise beautiful church.

From the General Directory of Catechesis, no. 30:It is necessary, however, to examine with particular attention some problems so as to identify their solutions: – the first concerns the conception of catechesis as a school of faith, an initiation and apprenticeship in the entire Christian life of which catechists do not yet have a full understanding. – with regard to the fundamental direction of catechesis, catechetical activity is still usually impregnated with the idea of 'Revelation': however, the conciliar concept of 'Tradition' is much less influential as an inspiration for catechesis: in much catechesis, indeed, reference to Sacred Scripture is virtually exclusive and unaccompanied by sufficient reference to the Church's long experience and reflection, acquired in the course of her two-thousand-year history. The ecclesial nature of catechesis, in this case, appears less clearly; the inter-relation of Sacred Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium, each according to "its

Here's a good essay from one of the campus ministers at my alma mater, the University of Dallas, about what must be done to get young people interested in the Church. I agree with everything he says (of course), but I particularly like the way he explains how the Church's so-called "social teaching" should be presented to the youth.H/T: Running River Latin School

I live in a very populated area, so if my own parish were to suddenly become priestless, there are many other parishes close to me; hence, I don't have to worry about waking up on a Sunday morning and worrying about getting to Mass. Or about being inconvenienced.But that's not true for all Catholics. Scott Danielson, for example, lives in the Idahoan outback, and does not have a priest at his parish. He has recently written a post about some of the possibilities he and his fellow Catholics have.

How can one possibly decide which novels he’d take with him to a deserted island? On the one hand, there’s all the great novels I’ve read that I want to reread. On the other hand, there’s all the great novels (or so someone has told me they’re great) that I have yet to read. What’s a guy to do?Yes, that’s right – make two lists.But first, let me say one thing. When choosing novels, the criteria is fundamentally different from when you’re choosing nonfiction. With nonfiction, I was looking for those books that would never cease to engage me intellectually. Sure, I’d much rather be reading Chesterton than Plato, but Chesterton would get old. Fast. Plato would only get better.With fiction, however, I’m not sure the requirement is primarily intellectual. Rather, it’s joy. Which stories have given me the most delight, the most fun, the most joy? This is the requirement for fiction, I think, because a novel or story that works for me won’t work for Woodward, and v

Because of this post by Julie over at Happy Catholic, I decided to try out Francis Fernandez's In Conversation with God. No, I didn't buy the complete set, just one volume for now. Coincidentally, this Sunday, September 16, is the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time -- which is the exact Sunday Volume 5 begins. So I have a full book to test the waters.I really hope In Conversation with God does it for me. Last year I went overboard (like I usually do) and bought The Liturgy of Hours. I prayed it faithfully for several months, but then the monotony of the prayers set it, as well as the ordinary grind of everyday life, and it lost its charm. But In Conversation with God doesn't seem too burdensome in terms of time. I am a layman, after all, with secular duties. It looks like there's three meditations for each day; if the books are as good as I've heard, I should be able to find fodder for reflection and prayer.Unless, of course, this is the beginning of the dark night of the soul for me, i

As far as I know, Weird Al broke in when I was a kid with his song, "Eat It." Can't say I've followed his career, but this video is hysterical.

The book is packed away, but if I recall correctly, in How to Read a Book Mortimer Adler suggested that if one were to take seriously the exercise of deciding which books one would take to a deserted island, one would discover which books were most important to them. So at the risk of sounding complete pretentious, I give you my list.1. Plato: Complete Works.2. The Basic Works of Aristotle.3. The Confessions by Saint Augustine of Hippo.4. The City of God by Saint Augustine of Hippo.5. Summa Contra Gentiles by Saint Thomas Aquinas.6. Summa Theologiae by Saint Thomas Aquinas.7. The History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill.8. Art: A New History by Paul Johnson9. Science: A History by John Gribbin.10. Asimov's New Guide to Science by Isaac Asimov.Why these?It's simple, really. The first six -- from Plato to St. Thomas -- cover, in my opinion, all of the worldly and divine wisdom, the whole of philosophy and theology, that one could ever wish to know. The next three

Just wanted to direct everyone's attention to a new blog -- Random Thoughts on Faith and Reason. It looks like Keith Rickert, Jr., is going to provide us with some interesting reflexions. I'll have to say right now that I love the picture in his sidebar of Cardinal Ratzinger slugging down huge glass of beer. It reminds me of the scene in The Fellowship of the Ring when the hobbits arrived in Bree. Merry sits down with this huge goblet of beer, and Pippin's eyes grow wide as he exclaims, "It comes in pints?"

What—another one?!?! Well . . . yes and no. Let me take a moment and catch everyone up to speed. Last time I talked about a new blog, it was a blog devoted to science fiction novels. Around the same time, it came up that I had another blog—one devoted to Catholic catechesis. Both of those blogs are gone. I discovered that even though I like science fiction, I don’t like it enough to maintain a science-fiction blog, so I yanked it. And though I do like catechesis, that’s what I do at my parish, and I could never find the energy to transform my talks into posts. And after several months of posting nothing, I yanked it. So, what’s the new blog about? Simply, it’s about St. Thomas Aquinas. When I was headed off for Ph.D. work in theology, I decided to make Thomas’s thought the center of my academic work. When I decided not to pursue a Ph.D., I suddenly found it very difficult to read theology. Graduate school had robbed me of my love of theology;

When we changed templates, we lost our blogroll. This happened because we went from one sidebar to two sidebars. Even though Thursday Night Gumbo has been up since January, I've been blogging for almost a year now, and, frankly, I find blogrolls to be virtually useless. Only when I first started blogging did I work my way through other blogger's blogrolls. Nowadays I eschew blogrolls completely and follow the links provided in a blogger's "Shared Items." If I blogger doesn't have Shared Items, I happily ignore his blogroll. Since I cannot believe I'm the only one who does this, I finally got off my keister (it helps, too, that I'm loaded up with good coffee and a the energy of a good movie), signed up for Google Reader, and have stared my own Shared Items list. Hope you enjoy it.

Well, as you can see . . . we've changed our look. This is pretty much it, but some things will be changing over the next few days. With two sidebars, we're each going to have our own. So now you'll be able to see just exactly what Woodward likes and what I like.So our good and faithful readers, whaddaya think?Update 1: Changed the color on the sides from a dark green to a light green. We live in Texas, after all, not the Black Forest.Update 2: I don't think this is the final version, but Woodward's banner is much better than the one I put it. When I asked Woodward in an email what he thought of it, he didn't reply -- always a bad sign. I may be the one-man IT department, but Woodward is the one-man art department.

If you haven't read this post, then I suggest you do. Here's an excerpt:Of all religions and philosophies, Christianity provides the most thorough and complete explanation of the facts of the human condition, and is simultaneously the answer that most satisfies my sense of the fitness and order that ought to be. My pessimistic temperament says that it is probably not true. But my ability even to have such a concept as truth must arise from the existence of a real external world and my consciousness of a possible gap between what I believe about it and what is in fact the case. I’m certain that truth exists; why not Truth? And must not the explanation that best accounts for the facts be true, or at least more true than others? Christianity, then, the most wildly improbable of systems, remains, paradoxically, the most reasonable, and (therefore) the one that commands my assent.

It never fails to happen. About every six or eight months, my reading tastes change drastically. During those six months, I can't seem to get enough of the kind of book I crave. Around the fifth or sixth month, I start to feel a kind of mental indigestion -- like I do after I really gorge myself on pizza or Oreo cookies. The sign is that every novel and story the genre that has consumed my life for half a year is now suddenly as boring as watching paint dry. I've found that the best thing is to dismiss completely my view of the books I read during this waning period. Unfortunately, those books are tainted for me for several years.The last time this reading shift happened was last February when I read Keith Strohm’s Tomb of Horrors. It had been well over a year since I’d been a chronic reader of fantasy and sf, and Strohm’s novel awoken in my just how much I loved it. Before that, I’d spent almost ten months reading nothing except theology and spirituality. Before tha

From “Character: Casting Shadows,” by Brandi Reissenweber in Writing Fiction, edited by Alexander Steele.When I taught creative writing on a pediatrics ward at a hospital I met a long-term patient, a thirteen-year-old girl who had been in and out of this hospital since she was two years old. She was sharp and witty but rarely ever wanted to write with me, no matter how enticing the writing project. She eyed me from the corner of the hospital playroom as I wrote with other young people, but every time I’d approach her she would send me away, telling me that, after all, the hospital wasn’t school.One day, I found her reading a book in her room. I sat down and asked if she would read to me, which she did. That afternoon, I learned that she loved to read books, so we talked about some of our favorite stories. I asked her, thinking it was a simple question: “Why do you enjoy reading?” She looked at me, scratched her shortly cropped hair, and then opened her book again. I

Decided to get fancy and use Library Things to highlight the five most recent books that have graced my bookshelf. Scroll down and check it out.Update: Changed it from my"five most recent books" to what I'm actively reading.

From Ken Burn's Baseball:Part 1Part 2

Mr. Woodward writes: "For the rest of the list, Vehige and I part ways. He is a trained student of theology and understandably thinks that every Catholic should read some theology. I'm not so sure." He makes it sound that I expect every Catholic to be rigorously trained as a theologian, and that somehow his own list is more accessible to the general reader. Let's examine this insinuation.First, let's take a look at Woodward's list.1. This Tremendous Lover**2. The Lord**3. The Confessions**4. The Way of Perfection5. Abandonment to Divine Providence6. Journal of a Soul7. The Waters of Siloe8. Theology and Sanity9. Kristen Lavransdatter10. Love and ResponsibilityOf these ten books, the first three -- the one with the double asterisks -- I also recommended. So, excluding those three, here's my list of the last seven books. Yes, I know I recommended authors, not books, but let's limit it to seven books.4. Chesterton, Saint Thomas Aquinas5. Greene, Brighton Rock6. Pieper, Leisure,

You've got to be kidding me! Make sure you watch the video!

A few weeks ago, Woodward and I had a conversation about whether or not we reread our favorite novels. It really wasn't much of a conversation -- neither of us are big rereaders.For me, so far, there are only two stories (four novels) that I reread ever four or five years. The first is a Dungeons & Dragons fantasy trilogy -- The Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I read these novels (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning) when I was in the seventh grade. As I mentioned before, I was something of a D&D wannabe when I was in junior high -- I had the books and the dice but not a group to play with. So the first few D&D novels really captured my imagination, and, strangely, I can still read them with immense enjoyment. They're pure mind candy, but I love them. In fact, I just started rereading the trilogy a few days ago.The other novel I can reread with immense delight is Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

A reader of this blog (our only one?) asked if Woodward and I would list the 10 or so books/authors we think Catholics should read. I haven't told Woodward about this; he'd then post before I would, and that would make my job all the more difficult.Anyway, in no particular order, here are the 10 authors I think all Catholics should read. (Sorry there aren't any links; don't have that much time.)1. G. K. Chesterton. Given that one of his greatest works, Orthodoxy, will be 100 years old next year, one could ask, "Why Chesterton?" Chesterton has a common sense that's to be admired, a a common sense that took on the modernistic ideas that are still in vogue, a common sense that is desperately needed today. Especially recommended: Orthodoxy, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and The Everlasting Man.2. Eugene Boylan. A chemist, priest, and Cistercian monk, Boylan penned what I think is the greatest spiritual book for the layperson: This Tremendous Lover. It's sane, it's practical, and it s

. . . my absence. At least part of it. Last week, the week of July 4, we took a family vacation. I promised myself I wouldn't turn on the computer, and I didn't it. That explains why I didn't post last week.But I've been back since last Friday, and I don't really have a reason for not posting anything since being back. I think I've hit one of these lulls where nothing seems interesting enough to write about.Then again, maybe I just need to start writing. Joyce Carol Oates once said that when she often sits down to write her soul feels as thin as a playing card, but that the act of writing is enough cure her of that ailment.Anyway, I'm going to let Woodward run a few legs of this race while I sit down and let the tank fill back up. (I don't know if that's a mixed metaphor or not, but hopefully you get my meaning.)I will say that I've read a few books over the past two weeks, two of which I'd highly recommend. To you lovers of mystery/dark suspence, you're not going to find a

Pope Benedict writes in Jesus of Nazareth:At the heart of all temptations, as we see here, is the act of pushing God aside because we perceive him as secondary, if not actually superfluous and annoying, in comparison with all the apparently far more urgent matters that fill our lives. Constructing a world by our own lights, without reference to God, building on our own foundation; refusing to acknowledge the reality of anything beyond the political and material, while setting God aside as an illusion -- that is the temptation that threatens us in many varied forms.Now, an excerpt from a catechetical essay I wrote on original sin:It’s generally accepted that the account of the fall as described in Genesis 3 is clothed with religious symbols. But that does not mean that the fall did not happen. Stripped of this clothing, we have basically the following facts: our first parents had been given a divine command, and the devil tempted them to go against God. But their disobedience was

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words: * dick (13x) * abortion (4x) * hell (3x) * dead (2x) * sex (1x)I think my post on Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle really did us in.H/T: Happy Catholic

As I've noted in previous posts, I'm a life-long Stephen King fan. I have read much of his new stuff; it's not very good, I think. And as much as King himself hates to hear it, his best stuff is his old stuff.Why is that? Because when he was just starting out -- even after the success of Carrie, Salem's Lot, and The Shining -- he still had editors he had to please. I know that many writers hate having editorial boundaries, but those boundaries usually improve a piece of fiction. Case in point is The Stand, King's fourth novel.In the mid-70's, when he didn't have the clout that he has now, the editors at Doubleday made King cut -- get this -- 150,000 words from The Stand. Folks, a 150,000 words is 600 correctly formatted manuscript pages; it's a novel in-and-of-itself. And that original version of The Stand is a fine novel; it may be his best work.But King wasn't happy with it. In fact, on his web sight, he calls that original version "incomplete." Perhaps from King's

Hey, Woodward, are you gonna incorporate this into the Woodward Academy's Latin curriculum?

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick falls in the sub-genre of alternate history, and shows what the world might look like had the Allies lost World War II. Philip K. Dick presents this reality through the lives of a half-dozen individuals, individuals taken from different parts of society. So what Dick gives us primarily is a character story — the best kinds of stories, I think.I won’t attempt to explain the back story. You’d have to have read the novel at least two or three times in order to do that, and you’d also have to do it with a map. Instead, I’ll point you to this article, which certainly helped me, and provide you with this map of Dick’s alternate post-WW II world:Focusing on the United States, you see it is not divided into three sections. The lime-green on the Western coast is now Japan’s (this is where most of the action takes place); the red on the east and southeast, all the way to Texas, is now the Nazis. And the spread of blue in the middle is wh

Woodward and I shop at the same used bookstore chain, so we often talk about our finds. Though we've never spoken of it in terms of competition, I know whenever he announces a good deal I feel a twinge a jealousy. And though he's never said anything about my own good finds, I can tell by the way he tightens his lips that he's not too pleased that he missed it for himself.Well, today I think I can declare myself king of this mountain.Sitting on the clearance section were all six volumes of Winston Churchill's history of World War II. A full, matching set. In hardback. In good condition. Each costing a grand total of one dollar. Yes, that's right, I bought the set for a whopping $6.I'm giddy!

The baptism of Jesus, as Pope Benedict notes in Jesus of Nazareth, is difficult to understand. If Jesus is without sin, why did he need to be baptized? If he is truly the Son of God, then what is the significance of the heavens opening, the voice of the Father, and the descent of the Holy Spirit? These are the two primary questions, but they are difficult and challenging.The Pope answers them, so I won't belabor the point. What I want to highlight, however, is how the Pope closes the chapter. He notes that so-called "liberal scholarship" (which should not be confused with liberal politics) has tried to interpret Christ's baptism as a personal revelation, a personal epiphany, on the part of Jesus. Simply, that through his baptism, he had a spiritual awakening, understood his special relationship with God, understood his vocation, and at that moment set out upon fulfilling his task.As the saying goes, there are no new heresies. The early Church endured a similar notion -- adopti

All of us home schoolers have pretty much the same reasons for home schooling, except that we perhaps rank them differently. For me, academics is first and foremost; the reasons for this are various, and maybe I'll explain them later.But a close second is the desire to allow my children the love and space to grow and develop into the persons God intended them to be -- or, to state negatively, to keep my kids from the negative influence of the herd. (We all know what this is like, so let's not deny it.)Now I've been home schooling for a year . . . long enough that it's easy to forgot exactly why I'm doing what I'm doing. It becomes routine, sometimes even a drag. But this beautiful post by Scott Lyons over at The Glory of Everything reminded me why I'm home schooling in a most profound way.Even if you don't home school, read it. It's bound to touch you.

This is the first real post of our summer/autumn project -- reading Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth and writing about it. We're taking one chapter a week. I'll post Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, and Woodward will post sometime over the weekend.And now . . . .I didn't learn how to really read a book until I was a graduate student in theology when I took a course called "Recent and Contemporary Theology." We read almost every major theologian from Immanuel Kant forward. It was intense, to say the least.But it was during that class that I learned how to read a book -- that is to say, learned how to read beyond the words and understand the author's motives, learned how to see his theological presuppositions.So when I opened the Pope's book and read the first two sentences the Introduction, I knew exactly from where the Pope was coming. All that was left was to see his brilliance in action.Here are the first two sentences.The Book of Deuteronomy contains a promise that is