Fizzled Out

I understand that the "alternative" World Youth Day has fizzled out. Good.

In the meantime, my new Archbishop kept busy celebrating Mass and hearing confessions. Even better.

They've been busy already

Last Saturday, the Usual Suspects were handing out condoms to kids coming in for World Youth Day. How nice. You know, some condoms make excellent water balloons.........

Seriously, the site for Challenge the Church's alternative Youth Day speaks of "spontaneous activity". Given that this lot is led by a bunch who like to get loud, nasty, and destructive (one of the featured speakers helped trash the Montreal cathedral some years back), I wonder what kind of fresh hell has been "spontaneously" planned.

Most People Would Agree With This....

Take the High Yield Killing Method Test Now!!

OK.......

Take the "What *NSYNC Hairstyle are you?" Quiz

Interesting......

You aren't a very bright person, but since you always mean well
and you're so likeable, people don't really care.

Take The "Which WWF Wrestler are you?" Quiz.
Created by Potman

An Apology to Readers

I just discovered a motherlode of quizzes. Getting them out of my system. Thanks to Zorak for all the fun stuff.

AWWW

Take the Purrsonality Quiz!

YIKES

Take the What High School
Stereotype Are You? quiz, by Angel.

Weird World Youth Day Alternative

The Usual Suspects are offering their own alternative to World Youth Day in Toronto. The programs are the usual tired items: "oppression of women" because they can't play priestess; "silencing of dissenters", even though the dissenters are very often in charge of parishes and dioceses, and unafraid to crush any sign of disagreement with their policies; "Sexuality and the Church" -- never mind that it's their attitude towards sex which has helped put the Church into the current mess; "Reproductive Rights", an outright endorsement of baby killing; and finally "Global Justice", featuring a show trial and some antiglobalist malcontents who like going into Catholic churched and smashing them up.

Go on and read the whole sordid thing. Pray that at least some of the kids subjected to this stuff will truly "question authority", "make a paradigm shift", and see this for the diabolically-inspired BS that it is.

Requiem aeternam

Please pray for the repose of the soul of Neal Fischer, the father of a friend of mine, who died suddenly last Saturday.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he, and all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

On A Relic from the Past

Picked up something really interesting a few days back -- The Johannine Hymnal from 1970, the forerunner of the American Catholic Hymnal. It paints a very interesting picture of Catholic liturgy and hymnody as the new rite was introduced (I was around then, but a babe in arms).

Some of those things:

1) The name of the hymnal. The Introduction explains that the hymnal was named after two Johns: John XXIII and John Kennedy, since "because of these two men, the name Johannine has come to mean newness of life, vigor, and reform."

2) A few pleasant surprises. There are some pieces adapted from the Eastern Rites which are perfectly useable for the Latin Liturgy -- psalms, antiphons, and a few Kyrie settings, as well as the Prayer Before Communion ("Lord, I believe and profess that You are indeed the Christ..."). And in the Order of Mass, they recommend praying the Kyrie in the original Greek. Lastly, there is a setting of the Reproaches from Good Friday.

3) Hymn rewrites. Many of the classic hymns (including GKC's O God of Earth and Altar) have been contemporarized. For example, Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain becomes Come You Faithful, Raise the Song. Thou/thee/thy/thine is replaced by you/your/yours, with the exception of Holy God, We Praise Thy Name. This practice has been continued in the current ACP.

4) Lots of explanations and instructions. Lots and lots of them. I don't know if it was a common practice in that era, but whoever edited this hymnal was somewhat anal-retentive. For example, it is noted that in the offertory prayers, blessed must be pronounced blest.

5) Little Latin. The only piece which uses Latin is a setting of the Trisagion (also in Greek and Slavonic). Otherwise, it's all English, nearly all the time, with some catchy Hebrew choruses thrown in for variety.

6) Only a few bits of strangeness. There's nothing heretical in the hymnal. Even though there are lots of references to brotherhood (gender inclusion not yet a concern), the songs of that age seem to try to keep God at the center. The only strange choice is Chet Powers' Everybody Get Together, and even that's not a bad song. But no Blowing in the Wind, no Lennon/McCartney collaborations, none of the odd selection you'd find in other songbooks of the time.

My final word on the Johannine Hymnal, 1970 edition? Not bad for its time, but definitely outdated by its insistence on being up-to-date.

On "Birkenstocked Burkeans"

Ah! Some time to blog..........

Rod Dreher has a great article on conservatives who actually like things such as natural foods from co-ops, music on NPR, urban neighborhoods, and all sorts of other goodies associated with "enlightened" liberal types. And there are a lot of us out there.

What makes us different from the Bobo Boomer poseurs who give this sort of thing a bad name? We tend to like these things because they are part of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. They like it because it makes them feel good, true, and beautiful; while in fact they are profaning the very thing they hold up with consumerist pretension, turning it into a mere fashion statement, a thing that is "correct" to do or have.

Then again I've known some people who have known this for a long time.......

On Baseball

Just got done watching the All-Star Game. Strange. It's being played in my home town, and I'm not excited about it.

I used to be a major baseball fan. At one time, I could name the starting lineups and pitching rotations for every team. I memorized entire rosters, followed trades and signings and other moves, and, in short, knew the game inside and out. And, of course, I loved my Brewers -- Yount, Molitor, Gantner, Cooper, and the rest of them. From the late 70's to the early 90's, I was a "student of the game".

The beginning of the end came when the owners forced Faye Vincent to resign as commissioner. His crime: he cared about the game. Then, after an excellent 1992 season, the Brewers did not re-sign Paul Molitor, and fell to the cellar in 1993. They haven't finished above .500 since.

The final straw for me was the 1994 strike. It broke my heart. Since then, I've attended a few games, but nothing has really gotten my interest. Neither interleague play nor a new league nor a new stadium seemed to do it for me. All I could see was a franchise made lousy, and destined to be nothing more than a glorified AAA team if it ever became good again -- because good players usually don't last long on small-market teams.

And the players' union becomes more and more arrogant and out of touch with the average fan. They don't seem to realize that baseball is losing ground to soccer and other sports. They see what the NFL has done to maintain competitive balance, and want no part of it. They want more and more money paid out to them by obliging owners like George Steinbrenner, and care nothing about the long-term health of the game.

On My Dinner With Karen

As mentioned in my last blog, Karen Marie Knapp and I had dinner at Noodles and Company>
(BTW, if you've got one of these restaurants near you, check them out. They're worth it.) We arrived at the same time, and talked for well over two hours. Her account of our meeting is found here. We found that we know some of the same people, and that we agreed on quite a bit. And we both hope to meet up again before too long.....

.....speaking of meeting up in "real life".......

If anyone visiting this page is coming to Milwaukee, drop me a note. I'd love to be able to meet you.

Tomorrow's Dinner

After work, I'll be celebrating a few things with Karen Marie Knapp:

1) The appointment of a new Archbishop here in Milwaukee,

2) Karen's 25th anniversary of her vow of celibacy.

3) The Feast of St. Thomas

4) Independence Day

We'll be meeting at Noodles & Company. I'm excited to meet another member of St. Blog's in "real life"......

Prayer Request

Please pray for my sister's nephew, who was run over by a drunken driver while on a camping trip. He is paralyzed from the chest down, and may never walk again in this life.

On People Not Getting It

Speaking of Mark's excellent blog......

As you might know, David Alexander has been a voice of sanity on the VOTF message board. And why not? The Dissenting Element got very good at infiltrating the institutions, so why not a solid Catholic trying to subvert a group of dissenters?

But someone doesn't seem to get it. Read the comments for this post. in Mark Shea's site. Someone seems to think that anyone who attempts to talk with these people is going to instantly turn them into a Call to Action firebrand. Included is this chestnut:

I have made the common sense conclusion that any association whatsoever with VOTF would be suspect to at least partial agreements with their uncatholic positions. Which David has yet to reveal.

To which I say:

Ma'am, you will have to wait a very long time for David to reveal them. I've known him via cyberspace for a number of years, and he is one of the most solid and commonsensical Catholics currently surfing the Net. The likelihood of David becoming a modernist dissident is about the same as my chance of posing nude in Cosmopolitan (which would be considered a sign of the Apocalypse, in most people's opinions).

I also notice that you offer to eat a Veggie Tales book in Boston Common should Mark persist in defending David's actions after you explain a few things about VOTF.....

Think of it as good roughage......

On Being Miserable from the Heat

It's been hot and muggy in Milwaukee the last few days. My computer is in my room, and the window A/C in the living room doesn't quite get here. This means that I don't blog if it's too hot.

Right now, I'd love to be in Seattle.....71 degrees. Sigh. Hey, Mark! What say you let me stay with you a few days? I don't eat much, and all I need is a corner in the basement to sleep in........