From the Corner:
Bianca Jagger [Jack Fowler]
lobbies for expansion of Tridentine Mass in England. She’s one of a number of Latin Massers signing a petition prompted by the lack of clerical enthusiasm for Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 apostolic letter (Summorum Pontificum) advocating greater use of the once-universal rite.
From Sunday’s New York Times magazine is this article about a Pentecostal preacher who is also running the Democratic National Convention: (emphses mine)
F.I.A. has also financed the faith outreach of state parties, sometimes in striking ways. In Alabama, the pro-life party chairman was given F.I.A. money to publish a “Faith and Values Voters Guide” in local newspapers just before Election Day in 2006. The 12-page insert provided the religious narratives of statewide Democratic candidates — “I was richly blessed in my life with parents who raised me in a Christian home. . . .” — and concluded with a Democratic “covenant for the future.” The covenant pledged to “require public schools to offer Bible literacy as part of their curriculum” and made at least two vows that run counter to positions of the national party: to “pass a constitutional amendment confirming that all life is a gift from God and should be protected; and that life begins at conception” and to “defeat any efforts to redefine marriage or provide the benefits of marriage to a same-sex union.”
Daughtry sounded surprised when I read her these vows. Though she is a biblical literalist who sees no problem with teaching creation theory side by side with evolution — “For me, the Bible is history” — she, following the teaching of her father’s church, is also pro-choice. “God allows us to choose in the biggest matter,” she said, “whether to accept Him in our lives. How then can we take away choice on other profound issues? We don’t believe the government should interfere.” Hearing Alabama’s covenant, she said right away that F.I.A. has not vetted everything the state parties have done with its money. Then she leaned heavily on the poles of the big tent: “The wonderful thing about the Democratic Party is that we have room for all kinds of opinions.”
Does anyone else see the massive,inherent contradiction here?
“[s]he is a biblical literalist……[who] is also pro-choice.”
Um, isn’t one of the commandments, “Thou Shalt Not Kill”?
I fail to understand how people can put the well being of animals and plants above the well-being of a baby. It just fails me.
From NRO, via Time:
The Virgin Mary got support of a sort from two embattled females at Washington’s Catholic University last week. Ti-Grace Atkinson, mighty mouth of Women’s Liberation, told an audience of students, priests, nuns and laymen that in the Virgin Birth poor Mary had been more “used” than if her Son had been conceived normally. “I can’t let her say that!” yelled Patricia Buckley Bozell, the managing editor of a rightist Catholic magazine, Triumph, and sister of right-wing Columnist William Buckley and Senator James Buckley. To the podium stormed Patricia; she aimed a hefty slap at Ti-Grace, who managed to ward it off. Hustled outside, Pat shouted, “To hell with Catholic University!” then knelt to say the Rosary in protest, together with a group of students that included one of her ten children, Cathy, 19. Ti-Grace, considerably shaken, cut her speech short. “That face,” she said later, “I’ve seen it in so many churches—the hysteria, the desperation. I felt for her. It’s outrageous that it’s the women who are the sufferers.”
I found this little post today over at The Happiness Project:
Until I started my Happiness Project, I didn’t think much about rituals and whether they made me happy.
But when I reflected on them, I realized that I find rituals both calming and energizing (this is no paradox, and in fact, is a very desirable, happy state).
For example, In my high school, exams were taken VERY seriously, and the process was always the same. When everyone was settled at a desk, the teacher would pass out the papers, and we’d lay them face down. She’d return to the front of the classroom, look at the clock, and say quietly, “It is now 9:10. You have two hours. Be sure to read all instructions carefully”—then a dramatic pause—“you may turn over your test paper and begin.”
This familiar, grave, quiet formula made the start of an exam into a little ritual that helped put me in the right frame of mind to face a stressful exam.
I was astonished when I went to college to find a completely chaotic exam-taking process. People would hurry to the professor’s desk, grab a paper, and shove each other out of the way to sit down. When the end of the exam was announced, some people would keep writing for ten or fifteen more minutes before a TA snatched away their blue books.
This lack of ritual left me rattled and distracted – just the opposite of how I’d approached exams in high school.
Along the same lines, the Little Girl just started “camp,” and I’d braced myself for a dismissal when they’d all rush out of the door helter-skelter as we adults pushed amongst ourselves to try to scoop up the right kid. Intead, after singing a good-bye song, the children stand in a circle in the classroom, while the grown-ups wait in a line outside the door. The counselors call the children’s names, one by one, and the child comes to the door to get a big hug and to leave. The orderliness and deliberateness of this process keeps everyone calm and cheerful.
Whenever I sit down to work, in my office or at a coffee shop or at New York Society Library, I run through a series of updates, checks, synchronizations, and switching on of various devices and programs. It’s both soothing and energizing to perform my machine ritual.
So think about rituals in your life. Take a moment to savor the enjoyable ones. Think about opportunities to heighten the experience of an ordinary occasion by treating it with special deliberation—particularly if it’s a stressful or emotional experience. Discussing a child’s report card. Giving a performance review. Packing for a trip. Getting ready for a date.
Studies show that family traditions and family rituals encourage children’s social development and boost feelings of family cohesiveness. But they’re not just important for children.
We are steeped in ritual, as Catholics. The Liturgy is the same all over the world, in every country. I don’t know about you, but that gives me great comfort to know that, wherever I go, the Mass is the same. Sure, the songs might be a bit different than what your parish normally does, but in general, it is comforting and relaxing for me to attend Mass.
And when the ritual is disturbed, things seem quite…off, don’t they? Like when we changed the Mass so that we stand before the priest says “Pray then, my brothers and sisters…” That still feels wrong to me. I feel like I should be sitting. Or when we got rid of “This is” before “The word of the Lord” after the readings.
What part of the Mass is your favorite?
