A Poem with many esses

One of the Psalms, ps 119, has a canto for every letter of the Jewish alphabet.  Each strophe in a given canto begins with that letter.  It is a psalm in praise of the Law of God.

A few years ago I wrote poetry for a few letters of the English alphabet.  Many, but not all, of the lines began with that letter.

I wrote one poem for the letter 'S,' and I titled it using a Jeopardy category scheme.  This is pronounced like eschatology (see eschatology).

The readings from Mass for the last few weeks of the Liturgical year focus on the end times, as they do during the early part of Advent when we are reminded of the two comings of Christ.

I was reminded of this poem repeatedly over the last several weeks, and thought today would be a good day to post it on this blog.

Peggy Noonan and the left's response to the San Bernardino assault

Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal writes an excellent article involving the assault in San Bernardino, the response by members of the political left and its' implications for our 1st amendment freedoms.

Near the end of the article she writes:

Why doesn’t some thoughtful candidate on the Republican side address the issue of shaming and silencing? Why doesn’t someone give a deep and complete speech on what the First Amendment means, how it must be protected, how we pay a daily price for it in terms of anger, hurt, misunderstandings and crudity, but it’s worth it. Why doesn’t someone note that you fight bad speech with better speech, you don’t try to tape up the mouths of an entire country.

You should read the entire article.

Archbishop Chaput and The Year of Mercy

Charles Chaput, the archbishop of Philadelphia, has written an article at First Things about The Jubilee Year of Mercy.


He writes:

We should not read Christ’s mercy as a judgment against all judgments. Evil exists. Sin matters. The damage it does can be bitter and not easily undone—adultery being a perfect example. But the story does remind us that, apart from God’s grace, all of us are misshapen by the distorted desires of our hearts. 

Cast All Your Cares on Him

The readings from today's Mass include a parable by Jesus about a dishonest judge.  Our priest today, Fr Dan, spoke about how God desires for us to turn to Him in our needs.  That God would much prefer us to 'pester' Him about what's happening in our lives than that we never turn to Him.

I was reminded of a passage from the first letter of St Peter:

Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.

Let us this day and everyday cast our cares upon the Lord, for He has shown us clearly, in his passion, death, and resurrection how very much he cares for us.

Cardinal Dolan and his report on the Synod

In the Newspaper for the Catholic archdiocese of New York, Cardinal Dolan writes a column relating to his experience and insights from the recently concluded Synod on the Family, of which he was a member.

He addresses his experiences with the Holy Father, the universal nature of the Church and the Synod, the witness of Family Life, two challenges from the Synod, as well as several other points.

I was struck by his relating Cardinal Collins' intervention about Emmaus (Luke 24).  Cardinal Dolan writes:

Cardinal Collins takes us through it well. Jesus drew near. He accompanied them with His loving presence. He asked them about their situation. He listened to their experience. He rebuked them for their mistakes. He taught them about the truth of the Scriptures. He revealed Himself in the Eucharist. He thus restored their hope and led them to conversion.

It is a lengthy column, much longer than his blog posts during the Synod, and well worth reading.

Sanders and the Free Exercise of Religion

David Marcus at The Federalist has written an article about Bernie Sanders' debt to Religious Freedom.  After noting Sanders' draft status during the Vietnam war, he writes:

In the 1965 Seeger decision the Supreme Court extended conscientious objector status to pacifists whose beliefs were not based on any orthodox religion.

All this leads to an intriguing question: if Sanders didn't have to fight in Vietnam because of his beliefs, why do business owners have to participate in Gay weddings in spite of theirs?

That is a most serious question to be posed to the rabid advocates for so-called marriage equality.

It also brings us back to my point made several times in this blog:  without the design established by the Creator, there are no human rights.

There's no one here to save -- a song

In my previous post, I wrote about an upside down perspective that is quite common in our culture today.  Specifically the view that God is looking for an opportunity to send us to Hell.

It is coupled with the perspective that "we don't need no saving."  It's often stated as "I'm okay, you're okay."  I think this perspective is captured in this song by Sara Bareilles which was popular about 5 years ago.

Sara Bareilles  -- King of Anything