The Arrow's Path

Is it just me, or has everyone in American leadership "done lost their minds" as my grandmother used to say? The Cerberus guarded the entrance to the Underworld In the rush to "do something" over the ISIS/ISIL extremist acronyms running amok in the Middle East, we have apparently decided (by "we" I mean the nutters in D.C. of both parties) have followed the President's lead and unleashed the three-headed Cerberus of classic American foreign policy: they may be SOBs but they're our SOBs, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and dropping bombs solves everything. I have tried to remain open to the logic of this military action, but it escapes me. Arming rebels in Syria, many of whom are as crazy as ISIS (remember the rebel leader who ate the heart out  of one of Assad's soldiers in front of his soldiers?), is just folly. When ISIS is bombed back into the stone age, whom do you think they are going to turn these weapons on? There are three ...

I know people whose real marriage has disintegrated just like this , and because this issue has become the political  cause célèbre , it is pretty much tough cookies to anyone harmed by a former spouse 'coming out.' Of course, we can't even discuss such things because no one can be bothered to actually look at the social fabric that is completely unraveling in this country. Well, God is still the judge, folks. No matter how much 21st century Christianity wants to turn Him into a fluff ball Santa. Don't forget that closing scene in the Shawshank Redemption...His judgment cometh, and that right soon...

I think you have to be from the South to understand this one:  

I signed up for a short mini-course at the local community college on Chinese Calligraphy. I do a bit of regular calligraphy on the side, so it interested me. The class is taught by a guy who is actually from China. He was telling us about his first semester at the University of Nebraska-Kearney (population: 31000) when the only thing he knew about America was what he had seen in movies. He was saying for like the whole first semester that he did not dare to walk off campus. Apparently some friends invited him to go off campus for a hamburger, to which he apparently said, "I better not. I don't have a gun to take." This comment completely mystified his Americans friends and they asked him why on earth he needed a gun to get a hamburger. To which he responded, "In case we get into a gun fight on the streets. Isn't that what Americans do all the time?" Ah, the things you learn from movies.

Tomorrow (Thursday), our brothers and sisters in Scotland are literally voting on their future: whether or not to secede from the United Kingdom and become a completely independent and sovereign nation again. While I have many personal opinions on the issue, I am not a Scottish citizen, so any words of mine would be largely pointless (nor is it really any of my business) other than to say, "Pray for Scotland."

Homily from Sunday, September 14 at Christ the King Priory (Schuyler, NE) The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Fr. Thomas Leitner We are called to follow Jesus on his way of humiliation and exaltation, of obedience and of forgiveness. Dear sisters and brothers in the Lord, most of us know the story of the Polish priest, Fr. Maximilian Kolbe who died in the concentration camp of Auschwitz, on August 14, 1941, after he had offered his life for another prisoner who had been selected to die, together with nine others, in reprisal for one prisoner’s escape from the camp. The one whose place Kolbe took, Franciszek Gajowniczek, was a young husband and father. The ten who were taken to the death bunker went through terrible days. From their underground cell, however, there continually arose the echo of prayers and canticles. Father Kolbe prayed and sung with the others, and he encouraged them saying that the fugitive might be found and then they would all be freed. After two weeks, only four...

My own creation. I think it turned out pretty well. I think it would make a great Fall/Halloween cake if you wanted to use some orange or red sugar or sprinkles and add a fake spider or something.

Excellent stuff this.

"Prior to an individual's encounter with the love of God at a particular time in history, however, there has to be another, more fundamental and archetypal encounter, which belongs to the conditions of possibility of the appearance of divine love to man." -Hans von Balthasar.

If marriage is not a sacrament , why does the Bible say, "God hates divorce?" If it is just a civic agreement for two people to live together, why does God care?