The Holy Spirit is the third Person + Hoyas

Summa Contra Gentiles, Book IV, chapter 18

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Subsistent = existing by virtue of its own proper, independent existence. As opposed to an accident = existing by virtue of being a part, in some way, of some subsisting thing.

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Update from the most-fun annual sporting event in the history of the world…

A strange Big-East tournament, to be sure, without the usual crowd noise. (More crowd noise than last year, anyway.)

But it’s a great year. UConn has returned to the family, after wandering like a prodigal, and:

Yesterday, the Georgetown Hoyas got their first win in the tournament in five long years! Setting up a face-off with top seed Villanova at high noon today.

We believe in miracles.

St. Patrick, the Irish, and the Faith

St. Patrick window in St. Andrew’s transcept

The Kingdom of God will be given to a people that will produce its fruit. (Matthew 21:43)

A people that will produce the fruit of the Kingdom of God. Maybe the Lord referred here to the sons and daughters of Ireland.  Who have peopled the ends of the earth with Guiness-drinking U2 fans.

St. Patrick’s Day is not a bad day to spend watching four or five college basketball games in a row.  But, of course, the best thing is: to consecrate ourselves anew in our alliance with God–which is what we do when we celebrate Holy Mass.

newly renovated St. Patrick’s in New York

The triune God made an irrevocable covenant with the sons and daughters of Abraham, based on one simple thing:  Abraham’s pure faith.

Before Moses–and way before they renovated St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York–God established this covenant of faith.  Abraham, full of faith, awaited the Messiah.  And he rejoiced when the Christ finally came.

St. Patrick expressed the pure faith of Abraham and the mystery of Christ with an eloquence that made Ireland a fertile ground for Christianity.

And the faith has spread from Ireland to the four corners of the earth. It’s no fluke that we have a large stained-glass window of St. Patrick in our church. If Irish men and women hadn’t come to Roanoke in the late nineteenth century, we wouldn’t have a St. Andrew’s.

We can rest assured that St. Patrick takes a great interest in helping us get to heaven, one day at a time. Today he himself died, 1,524 years ago. St. Patrick is more interested in helping us get to heaven than he is in turning anyone’s beer green. I guess he is mildly interested in helping the Notre Dame basketball team. His help got them past Princeton yesterday. We’ll see how interested St. Patrick is tomorrow, against West Virginia.

Anyway: faith. St. Patrick lived and died for the Christian faith. Let’s live that faith patiently and lovingly, in his honor. We never got a dispensation from Bishop DiLorenzo, so we have to live our faith today by abstaining from corned beef, and sticking to tomato soup with soda bread instead. Praised be the Lord!

Our Long National Nightmare

(photo credit: @casualhoya)

…of no college basketball is over.

Hoyas keep scheduling warm-up games against local southwest-Virginia faves. Today the Radford Highlanders square off against Georgetown at Verizon Center. Yeah, buddy!

We present a homily for the penultimate Sunday of the liturgical annum. I wrote it long before Friday the 13th turned into a nightmare in Paris. But hopefully it will help us a little–to pray soberly… (Esta disponible en español tambien! Haga clic aqui.)

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7:45pm CBS

NCAA Tournament Update. Georgetown Hoyas in the Round of 32…

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In Utah, this is Coach K. Larry Krystkowiak.

In Utah, the Ute tribe officially supports the use of the tribe name by the U.

In 2005, the first picks in both the NFL and NBA drafts were Utah Utes. No other school has ever had this distinction in a given year.

…In Hamlet, Act V, Laertes says that killing Hamlet “practically runs against his conscience,” because his nemesis has such magnanimity and noblesse. I might say the same about the Utah Utes: the state has such soul-elevating grandeur, I hate to beat their team.

That said, they going down. Let’s go Hoyas!

Vs. Cobble Hill/Brooklyn-Promenade College

Hoyas @GeorgetownHoops pulls away and takes down the terriers 83-62. @LJPeak1 was a force in his first game in a gray jersey

— Hoya Blue (@hoyablue) November 15, 2014

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Season opener against St. Francis College Brooklyn! Takes me back two decades to walks along Brooklyn Promenade and hanging out on Amity Street…

Alonzo Mourning’s son and Reggie Williams’ son both on the court at the end of the game.

Yeah, buddy! Season off to a great start.

Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

Let’s imagine a Lebanese vineyard, with vines sagging with grapes for the harvest. The cool mornings of fall have arrived.

The owner of the vineyard has arisen before dawn. He, all his family, and his trusty steward have worked hard through the summer. The good weather has yielded a rich abundance of ripe grapes. Now an enormous amount of work needs doing, in short order. All the grapes must be picked and gathered, pressed, and trod.

So the owner is walking the road to the town square before sunrise. He meets a large group of men who themselves are on their way to the square. In the dim light, the owner stops the men and offers them the customary wage for a day’s work.

The owner hopes these men will work hard, and they do—but not quite as hard as he imagined they would. So, when the time comes for the workers’ first break of the day, the owner marches down the road again, to the square.

This is It

(Georgetown Hoyas fans are hands-down the cleverest of all fans.)

***New single: Always Be Hoyas*** The @GeorgetownHoops version of Lorde's "Royals" http://t.co/hT6g2CeJVh

— nodak89 (@nodak89) March 4, 2014

2:00pm in Philadelphia.

We beat ‘Nova, we’re in. We lose…ignominy.

(I will be in the confessional shriving the wee ones getting ready for first Holy Communion, so please cheer for the Hoyas on my behalf.)

Can the

Georgetown Hoyas beat the Rock Chalk Jayhawks tomorrow, in the Kansas hills? Or will the eerie chant arise in Lawrence early in the second half, signaling our disgraceful doom?

The battle of the big men: Can human tank Joshua Smith run over the mighty Cameroonian, ginormous Joel Embiid?

I think he can! I think Smith can dominate! Smith has a 100-pound weight advantage!

Go Hoyas!

Scheduling my Realm Getting Weird

“Evangelization consists mostly of patience.” –Pope Francis

Triad rules!

…It happened last year: the Georgetown Hoyas played not one but two somewhat obscure universities located within the greater Mark-White-hinterlands area.

Guess what? They will do it again over the course of the next two weeks. High Point University? Elon University? Have driven past both of these NC-Piedmont institutions recently for one reason or another…

…In honor of “Strong As I Am” by the Prime Movers, and Walt Whitman, I have made some minor format changes here. Please do not be alarmed.

Godly Bravado

If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

I think we hear this kind of calm bravado in the words of Christ, when He responded to the threat of Herod’s plan to kill Him.

Christ did not fear. He declared His divine mission. He had come to Jerusalem in the name of the Lord.

He said that His mission would occupy today and tomorrow, and on the following day, it would be complete.

Today: trick or treating–with zombies and monster that we do not fear. The ancient pagans of the northern latitudes went so far as to offer human sacrifices on this dark night, when the gloom of winter arrived, so deep was their fear of death. But we Christians just eat candy and laugh with the children.

Tomorrow: All Saints Day.

The following day, maybe we can rest up and get over our colds.

The day after tomorrow, actually, is way too far in the future to worry about now. We trust our Lord Jesus. The day after tomorrow lies altogether in His hands. He will make it wonderful. The day after tomorrow might as well be the eternal day of resurrection. It lies in the great unknown future.

We believe in the day when everything will be complete, the holy Third Day. We hope for it. The day of resurrection and life, of health and peace and sunshine and a springtime that never ends.

The third day. In God’s hands.

Meantime, our business lies with today. Today we march on with faith. With the bravado of faith. Goblins, ghosts, skeletons, witches, creepy night-frighting things: we fear you not! Death and hell: We mock you. Our city lies above.

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P.S. Now that the baseball season has ended, we can move on to the really important business of life. Big East basketball.

I know I whined like a spoiled child when the conference re-alignments began a couple years ago. But: Providence remains in the Big East. In more ways than one. In truth, I believe that the Lord has arranged for the best Big East ever. (Teams named for colors or for wolf-like dogs never added much anyway.)

Creighton may not be in the East. But they have a fun team. And what could be more exciting than having Butler in our conference? (Even if they don’t really have a good team this year.)

You know what I think the big story of Big East 2013-14 will be? St. John’s. The St. John glory days are coming back. And if someone other than the Hoyas have to win in Madison Square Garden, if it’s the Red Storm, I will not complain. I promise.

The one question I have is: Why do the Hoyas have to go back to Asia for another basketball game? Don’t they remember what happened the last time?