Summa Peregrinationis for the Solemnity

Don’t forget to recite the Act of Dedication to Christ the King today. Click here.

…

Behold, He is coming amid the clouds, and every eye will see Him. (Revelation 1:7)

While we were in Israel, my fellow pilgrims and I saw many of the places and things referred to in the Bible. We saw the hometown of Jesus Christ, and the place where He was born. We saw the Sea of Galilee. We saw the Jordan River. We saw the desert where Christ was tempted by the devil. We saw the pathway on which He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. We saw the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Temple Mount and Mount Calvary. We saw the tomb where Christ’s body lay.

Tuesday Evening Quarterback

I have been on a nice, long hot-air balloon ride. Just got back, and I found my computer under a basket in the attic…

I.
Let’s go back to the beginning of September:

The first part of the Redskins’ season was supposed to be easy.

After a near-certain loss to the Giants in the season-opener, it was supposed to be five gimmees before the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday, October 26.

Now the waning days of October are upon us. A whole lot of people are crooning the Redskins Blues.

But let us call to mind these words of our Lord:

Weep not for me but for your children. If this is what they do when the wood is green, what will they do when the wood is dry? (Luke 23:28,31)

Green wood (Weeks 2-6): Rams, Lions, Bucs, Panthers, and Chiefs
Dry wood (Wks 7-16): Eagles, Broncos, Cowboys, Saints, Giants, etc.

3-13 is a rosy scenario for this Redskins season. Pardon me while I get back in the balloon…

II.
The Lord Jesus helped us out by explaining life in His perspicacious parables.

For example: The one about how we are like servants awaiting our master’s return. Here is how it begins:

Gird your loins, and light your lamps, and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. (Luke 12:35-36)

The Lord is urging us to be ready for the Final Reckoning, of course. But there is more.

I had always thought that the master could have been gone for any reason. Gone for a wedding, or gone fishing, or gone to find better football players on another continent, or gone on a weather-balloon ride–whatever. The point is that he is gone, and he could return anytime.

But of course it matters where he is. There are no throw-away lines in the parables of Christ.

The Master has gone to a wedding.

He took our human nature up to heaven. The angels rejoice. God has betrothed the human race to Himself. The Bridegroom stretched out His arms on the cross and won His Bride, and now the heavens are drunk with sober joy. They are dancing and singing the canticle which is too sublime for sound.

When He returns, He will be coming from the heavenly wedding banquet. He will bring the dew of angelic festivity with Him when He comes. He will be wearing the smile of the happy, chaste groom.

III.
A-Rod is OUT OF HIS MIND!!! (Click hot-link, and scroll down to 2009 post-season batting stats.)

All-Star Week & Keeping One’s Distance

Pope Benedict praying in Prague on Saturday

Just in case you missed it last fall: This week is All-Star Week at daily Mass! (Click the link for all the details.)

…The Holy Father went to the Czech Republic this past weekend.

He wanted to visit the relics of St. Wenceslaus, of course, and pray to the Infant of Prague.

(We have a Novena to the Infant at our parish every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., by the way!)

But His Holiness’ main reason for heading east this past weekend was to be as far away from Detroit as possible. He was basically on the other side of the earth. He was 4,355 miles away from Ford Field when the darkness descended.

St. Matthew

In honor of St. Matthew’s feast day, we present El Greco’s portrait of him:

This painting is in the El Greco Museum in Toledo, Spain.

As you can see, El Greco’s figures are elongated.

The museum guide in the Prado in Madrid told us that all the people in El Greco’s paintings are 13% taller than they should be.

By the by…El Greco was indeed a Greek. He was from Crete. (He was a Cretan, though hardly a cretin.)

The Spaniards could not pronounce his name, so they called him “The Greek.” (No relation to Jimmy the Greek.)

Jean Poyet was a late-medieval illuminator who produced the beautiful image of the Mass you see below. He also drew a magnificent St. Matthew.

The picture of St. Matthew is in the “Book of Hours of Henry VIII,” which is in the Morgan Library in New York. Alas, I cannot find the image of St. Matthew anywhere on the ol’ internet, so here’s Poyet’s picture of the Holy Mass instead.

Happy feast day to all Matthews!

…With bad luck like this (see below), you are going to lose to the N.Y. Giants, even if you are the Dallas Cowboys in the home-opener in your billion-dollar new stadium:

…These old Bests are retired:

Discovering El Greco

View of Toledo by El Greco

In January, 1929, Louisine Havemeyer gave her late husband’s art collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Havemeyer had made a fortune as the president of the American Sugar Refining Company, also known as Domino Sugar.

Henry and Louisine Havemeyer

The Havemeyers had travelled extensively in Europe to acquire paintings by artists that the other American collectors did not know about.

One of the countries they visited was Spain, and one of the artists they “discovered” was El Greco.

Their interest in El Greco’s paintings transformed him from an obscure sixteenth-century painter to one of the giants of the art world.

When I was sixteen, I had the opportunity to visit Spain. We toured the Museo del Prado, and I laid eyes on the paintings of El Greco for the first time.

El Greco

To say that they are ethereal is an understatement. To say that they are sublime is to say too little. To say that they are spiritual is true–but it sounds lame. El Greco is simply the greatest, in a class by himself.

There are some El Grecos in Washington, at the National Gallery of Art.

Any opportunity to see a painting by El Greco should be immediately seized.

…Speaking of greatness:

Fourth and two? Here is how you stuff that situation:

Making Some Noise in this Democracy

Yes, we won.

But I rest my case about #17. (Zero t.d.’s)…

Long-term readers will remember that, one year ago, Archbishop Wuerl insisted that we priests make certain points in our Sunday homily. He did it because prominent Catholic politicians had misrepresented the teaching of the Church.

His Grace had to insist again today that we priests within the city limits make certain points.

Faithful readers also may recall that P&BD recently published a Q&A about “same-sex marriage.”

It appears that the D.C. City Council will soon act on this matter.

Here is your humble servant’s homily for today…

“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me.” (Mark 9:37)

The Lord Jesus taught us that we must become like little children. We must depend on Him for everything, like a little child depends on his mother and father.

Ray, Jason, and St. Simon

I.
Not sure how to watch the “Golf Channel.” But if I could, I would definitely tune in for Raymond’s golf lessons…

II.
Let’s acknowledge the elephant in the room. Let’s stop taking around things. Let’s stop living in a fantasy world.

The problem has a name.

He is tall. He is handsome.

But he is not a good NFL quarterback. He never has been, and he never will be.

The problem IS: Number 17, Jason Campbell…

III.
In honor of Friday, the day our Lord carried the cross, we present a beautiful meditation submitted by an anonymous reader:

Simon says… Blood, Sweat, and Incense

A great gift was given to St Simon of Cyrene; a gift he didn’t want at first. He didn’t want to become involved in Our Dear Lord’s Passion. He probably would have preferred to be an anonymous face in the crowd. He was merely a strong man in the right place, at the right time. Simon was pressed into service; forced to assist our Dear Lord in His struggle. But, through this forced burden, Simon became a great saint.

Cato–or Laelius

I stand by what I said about Brett Favre: More power to him for wanting to stick it to the Packers. (Even though the Packers never did him any wrong.)

If ever there was a good reason to come out of retirement to play football, a personal vendetta is it.

Speaking of returning All-Pro quarterbacks: My heart goes out Michael Vick as he fights doggedly to get his reputation back…

…The Roman statesman and philospher Seneca wrote letters to a young friend to exhort the young man to live a virtuous life.

Seneca was a demanding moralist, much like his hero Cato. He urged his young friend to choose a role model.

We need to set our affections on some good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching us and do everything as if he saw what we were doing.

Excellent advice. Even more excellent, I think, is the way Seneca then tempered his advice:

So choose yourself a Cato–or, if Cato seems to severe for you, a Laelius, a man whose character is not quite so strict.

According to Cicero, Laelius like to go on holiday to the seashore and collect shells on the beach, “like a child.”

Strict role models are good. Not-quite-so-strict role models who are good men are okay, too.

(“Non Sequitur” by Wiley Miller)

Russell Files Closed: Veritas in Caritate

Baltimore Raven Michael Oher

The truth is: the Ravens head-butted the Redskins last night in the preseason opener–without charity, pity, or mercy.

23-0? Yikes…

…Ephesians 4:17-18 reads:

Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

Commenting on these verses, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote:

Existing without an expectation of eternal life, the pagans held for a mortality of the soul contrary to faith and hope.

In “What I Believe” (1925), Bertrand Russell wrote:

I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive…

It would be ridiculous to warp the philosophy of nature in order to bring out results that are pleasing to the tiny parasites of this insignificant planet.

We can conclude that Russell’s doctrine is perniciously erroneous.

As Father Mowbray said of his obtuse catechumen Rex Mottram in Brideshead Revisited, Russell’s darkness of mind is so extreme that it does not even “correspond to any degree of paganism known to the missionaries.”

Nonetheless, I promised to explain why the New York Supreme Court’s action against this enemy of God was unjust.

Charles Keating played Rex Mottram in BBC Brideshead

Judge McGeehan did NOT conclude that there is a standard of Christian truth that must be met by the doctrine of professors at public colleges. If he had, he would have articulated a fact that awaits clear legal articulation in this great land of ours.

As it is, the judge indulged in an untrue ad hominem* attack. He accused Russell of moral turpitude, for which there was no evidence.

It is true that purveyors of false doctrine usually teach their errors in order to justify their sins. But in the case at hand, the teacher’s sins were private–if he was in fact guilty of any. In order to keep dangerous error out of City College, Judge McGeehan libeled a world-famous philosopher who lived a perfectly respectable life.

The answer to error is not more error. And the answer to error is not force. The answer to error is truth, patience, the benefit of the doubt, and humble love.

The only way for us to conquer Bertrand Russell’s disciples (who run the show in this country these days) is by proposing the truth in love, patiently. Slow and steady wins the race. Actions speak louder than words.

(And Preacher’s aphorisms/bromides will stop at this point, until the situation demands more.)

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*Nota Bene: This link is very much worth clicking.

My Man! Plus, a vademecum to come

After a dozing former mayor-for-life woke up, a contentious debate ensued in the D.C. City Council chamber yesterday.

The question under discussion was: Should the District of Columbia recognize the “marriages” of a man with a man and a woman with a woman performed in states that permit this nonsense?

Only one man refused to jump on the “gay rights” bandwagon: Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry.

…Things are not looking good for no-defense Dirk and the Mavs. The Thuggets are dominating them…

…Recently I received this charming note from one of our young people, and I wanted to share it with you:

Dear Father White,

I loved the retreat. You helped out in so many different ways. I learned so much that I can’t remember it all.

Thank you!!

…This morning, the sports world is abuzz with the news that Brett Favre just might come out of retirement (again) to play for the Minnesota Vikings!

It is pretty clear that the man is petty. He would like to stick it in the Green Bay Packers’ eye. That would be the one motivator for his return to the rigors of professional football.

There has been general tsk-tsking over this. ‘He can’t be allowed to come back just to satisfy a personal vendetta. He would have to show full commitment to the team!’ etc.

Let’s take a step back from this.

Please do not moralize at me over football. Football is not a religion that requires ritual purity. Football is a game.

When the Lord said, “Forgive your enemies,” He was not talking about during a football game. Games are FOR vendettas. Games are for score-settling. You are supposed to want to kick your opponents butt, and it makes it more fun when it is personal.

This is my humble sports-blogger position: There is only one thing that would keep me from mocking Brett Favre for coming back from retirement yet again. That would be if he came back to settle the score with the Packers. (Who never did him any real wrong, by the way.) The pettiness and bitterness of sports is what makes them fun. Save the moralizing for serious things.

…Circumstances have arisen which have moved me to prepare a brief synthesis of facts regarding marriage. Hopefully this synthesis will serve to put at rest the minds of well-meaning people who do not want to be on the wrong side of the ‘struggle for civil rights.’

Barring any technical difficulties, I will publish the little vademecum in a few hours…