Paperlessworld's Weblog

The Who

paperlessworld — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:33:45 +0000

Signs of endings.

The markets. I am absorbed by the markets. At this point in time. Based upon the state of the world. When everything seemed liable to crash in the time of a megabyte.

In Russia. It looked like it was all over in a revolution. It seemed a lot more real at this point of history, one hundred years after the 1906 revolution.

In Spain in a civil war. I heard this Federico Garcia Lorca presentation Wednesday night, with an ending when I was required to get the flowers to give to the Master of Ceremony to present at the conclusion off the show. I barely made it with the flowers for the performers.

Endings. Oprah. When Comcast wants NBC Universal. Time Warner. Disney. Viacom. News Corp. Those who control people’s lives, as measured by minutes. How did you spend your time? All powered by cable networks. What is the meaning of the hegemony? In this hegemony with all the change. Where the world was headed, without Oprah. The changing paradigm. When people thought they were supreme.

Endings. The Amanda Knox trial in Europe which has dragged on for more than eight months. On Friday there was the closing argument by the prosecution, lasting seven hours. Meredith Kercher, a Leeds University student who came to Perugia to learn Italian and to pursue her European Studies degree. Her American roommate, Amanda Knox who “hated” the British Ms. Kercher, her roommate for complaining about her personal hygiene, and for suggesting that she was promiscuous in her habit of bringing men back to the house they shared, the jury of six lay people and two professional judges was told, and Ms. Know murdered her in “an unstoppable crescendo of violence.” Today lead prosecutor Giuliano Mignini read from ancient Roman jurist Eneo Domizio Ulpiano. The Latin phrase about justice. “Iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius suum cuique tribuendi. Iuris praecepta sunt haec.” Justice is the constant and perpetual will to render to every man his due.

The end of the year. What were you thankful for? What had you seen? Where had your eyes taken you? Who had you touched? Where had I found the truth? This year?

Signs of endings. The times you shared. At this point in time. Who you met. Jobs. Who you worked for. What you did. Life. Who you married. The things shared. The community ties, greater than any of the 12 tribes of Israel.

The end of life. It was the Feast of Christ the King today. And just as only Mary really knew who was responsible for his birth, only Jesus and Mary seemed to know on that Friday who was responsible for his death. Who could believe him? The divine? So God was gonna learn through a new point of view a bit more about pain. Who could believe in His silent presence at Calvary? The divine. Almost silently, God had visited. And it was over. The humanness of Jesus. On the same earth that I walked on. Almost silently to the world. As quiet as a faith. The Gospel reading not about the Final Judgment, but with Pontius Pilate. The end of life. Where the world judged Jesus of Nazareth. Ancient Roman law. When Judaism is a comprehensive way of life filled with practices that affect every aspect of life, from morning til night. Personally. When Judaism was not based on any evangelical door to door knocking. When Judaism was based on bloodlines, on sacrifice, on suffering. When Pilate said to Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

The romance between God and His people. Concerning that blood in the Jewish tradition, as in royal lines. Judaism is all about awareness that affect every aspect of life, from morning til night. The awareness in relationships of the human. And the recognition of the divine. Concerning that blood and the pain. And the proper way to worship. Religion was not just a recognition of, an awareness, about God, man, woman, and the universe. It was about everything. Judaism was more about action than words, a religion about bindings and being moved to sacrifice. About all the pain. And trying to work on becoming more worthy. In sacrifice. In kinship to the God who cannot die. And passing on that kinship. Like Abraham. “Are you the King of the Jews?”

Here since the time of Abraham was the awareness of the conflict in the story. God’s awareness of the conflict. When in the Akedah story, Abraham challenged the meaning of his life, challenging God for all that He had given to him. And slowly all of the blessings had been taken away. In old age. In death. There was no mention of a Resurrection. Was Abraham really asking God in the Akedah if he really had been chosen? By asking him to sacrifice his son? Abraham with all of his awareness, at his end with a loss of vitality, with the suffering in old age, was the actual mystery in the harsh godless profane pagan world? Had Abraham in the first place ever been worthy? Worthy of life? It was the “Why me?” question. Why did I have all this? And why was I losing it?

Reflecting on the meaning of making some kind of an offering to God, when your relationships, based so much in sacrifice, with God and his Chosen People, with a kinship that involved not only blood but love. And God feeling so unworthy? Seeing the pain and the suffering. Every year? When Pilate said to Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” As God was the artist in the time of Noah, wanting to destroy his own creation. Not at all unlike Abraham? What He had seen reflected in Abraham and his struggle. All that time spent. Trying to pass on a tradition. Beyond just the DNA. And the like watching television from above. On High.

Finally deciding on the who. A Chosen People, in kinship to the God who cannot die. In kingship. In royal lines, passing on a way of life. The Christ, the King, and the end, at the end of a year. The divine. Always and everywhere. A human had redeemed humanity. When the divine learned what it really meant to be human. Signs of endings? The Resurrection and what it did ultimately mean for God to become human? This was his attempt to pass on tradition? Through a human. Passing on ‘everlasting life.’ Resurrection.

Almost silently, God had visited. Passing on a way of life. To those made in the image and likeness of God. Me. You. Amidst all of life’s pain, amidst all of the change, it was the end of another church year. What Larry Gillick calls “God’s continuation syndrome.” Where God is “always beginning over and over again to share over and over divine love” with you and me. Facing once more the call of God “to allow ourselves to be loved, and still do something about this world.

Those feeling of always being unworthy. The love lesson. God in His incredible subtleness, day in and day out. Until you eventually figured some things out. About Jesus of Nazareth. About Thanksgiving. About Christ, the king. About me. A lesson of that love is available if you believed in the stories of, the life of Jesus of Nazareth. To “live His ways of reverence, generous availability and non-apologetic graciousness.”

http://www.homeboy-industries.org/donate.php

On Faith and Morals

paperlessworld — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:49:54 +0000

The age of terror started in the southern hemisphere years before September 2001. The twentieth anniversary of the killing at the University of Central America (UCA) in El Salvador of a housekeeper, her teenage daughter, and six Jesuit priests is next Monday. “Be a patriot! Kill a priest!” was an infamous slogan at the time, to terrorize the current generation into submission.

The United States Army School of the Americas (SOA) based at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia then and now trains Latin American soldiers in combat and counter-insurgency. The School of the Americas (SOA) changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC)in January 2001. The name of Archbishop Oscar Romero is included in the litany of the dead and disappeared, along with four American Maryknoll nuns, the El Mazote Massacre of 900 civilians at the Rio Sumpul, and tens of thousands of Latin Americans massacred, tortured, raped, or “disappeared” at the hand of SOA alumni. Or forced into refuge. Graduates of the SOA are responsible for the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. And Bishop Robert Morlino of the Madison, Wisconsin Diocese since 1999 has been allowed to serve since 2005 as an adviser to Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, on their advisory Board of Visitors. (Bishop Robert Morlino was one of eighty bishops who said he would not have allowed President Obama to speak at the graduation at Notre Dame.)

The annual vigil of prayer and protest against the School of the Americas very much involves the Catholic community. The time of protest outside of Fort Benning is once again at hand as students, religious, labor, human rights and social/global justice groups in solidarity with the people of the Americas, asking on November 20th through November 22nd in nonviolent action exactly what kind of country sponsors the School of the Americas, under any name. The current struggle of a nation coming to grips with the closing of Guantanamo Bay detention camps has precluded any self examination of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, which has continued under Clinton, Bush and Obama. In November, 2004, there were 16,000 outside of Fort Benning, protesting the continued support. After his election to president, Obama has resisted pleas to shut the school but he has promised to end torture.

On the eve of the week of Thanksgiving, with the National Conference of Bishops meeting in Baltimore this week voting on matter of the nature and purposes of marriage, I have to wonder about the Catholic part of Bishop Robert Morlino of the Madison, Wisconsin Diocese. If it is the responsibility as bishop to encourage Catholic institutions to “give public witness to the fullness of the Catholic faith,” as stated by Bishop D’Arcy of Fort Wayne about his pastoral presence at Notre Dame, I have to wonder how in the age of terror Bishop Robert Morlino of the Madison, Wisconsin Diocese can justify his participation in the existence of United States Army School of the Americas. If he is in communion with the faithful, his public witness to the fullness of the Catholic faith gives foundation to those that massacre, torture and force into refuge. How in the name of God could you lend support to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation? And then speak out with credibility on any other moral issue? How is he not censored by the National Conference of Bishops? Or by the Vatican? How is he allowed to speak at any Catholic institution?

With the massacred, tortured, raped, or “disappeared”at the hands of SOA alumni, I am uncertain about Bishop Robert Morlino of the Madison, Wisconsin Diocese ability to judge right from wrong. Why would anyone look to Bishop Morlino for any moral guidance? He also wrote at one time that only he, not his flock, should read The Da Vinci Code to be able to understand it. In a university town.

From the late 1970s into the early 1990s, in another age of terror in the southern hemisphere, the United States supported the Salvadoran government armed forces throughout their civil war, with ongoing persecution of clergy and repression of movements for social change. The November 16, 1989 Jesuits martyrdom in the El Salvador civil war was hardly the only instance of repression. It was no different sponsoring the School of he Americas than being a sponsor of Al-Qaeda.

Since September 11, 2001, the age of terror was a lot more personal. In the southern hemisphere years before September 2001, the tax dollars of the American people were used to terrorize a generation into submission, in places where the number of victims well exceeded that American number of dead on September 11, 2001. Away from the lights of New York.

In solidarity with the people of the Americas, on November 20th through November 22nd the protesters will reveal the radiance of their own discovery, no thanks to Bishop Morlino. It was Joseph Campbell who said that preachers “err by trying to talk people into belief. Better they reveal the radiance of their own discovery.”

That Was the River, This Is the Sea

paperlessworld — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:34:30 +0000

Sailing in a strange boat, heading for a strange shore,
We’re sailing in a strange boat, heading for a strange shore,
Carrying the strangest cargo that was ever hauled aboard.

Karen Armstrong was on “Speaking of Faith” eight days ago. She mentioned in an interview that the one thing the time spent in a nunnery does is help you concentrate on what is being asked of you. Although at the time she entered the convent, there was no focus by nuns in training on theology and theologians. In formation. “You go through a process of deconditioning. And then comes a form of reconstruction. You become oriented over time to something within.” Disciplined practice. It sounded a lot like the U. S. Marines. Ritual. Formation. Some of it came from religious practice.

Seasons and cycles that spur us on to change. To move. A Catholic education. I had one. The cost these days was beyond comprehension. The collective moment toward God.

There is a discomfort in the developed world over prayer. Or just to beg? Animals that we are, with the communal nature of prayer. Was there discomfort in letting the divine nature overcome the animal within? When half the populace did not worship on any given weekend. In the communal part of prayer. Prayer and begging.

I was at a silent auction on Friday night for the St. Joseph Worker Program, a one year volunteer experience for women….Turning flesh and bodies into souls. At a silent auction on Friday night there were 10 women from Grinnel College, Luther College, St. Olaf College, and the University of Minnesota. Of Catholic universities, there was one from Loyola and one from the College of St. Catherine.

November. Seasons and cycles that spur us on to change. To move. In search of the divine. Building up an institution through donated people and money. The need for young nuns and young priests in the world. And for the St. Joseph Worker. The program placed the women into places addressing the needs of the poor and marginalized. Payment included of room and board plus $100 a month. It seemed for these lay women the start of the begging part. Of prayer.

Formation. In search of the divine. And the personal nature of prayer, in a collective moment toward God.

The financial cost of the formation of all the young…..building up an institution…when the institution had so much conflict with the real world. Classical music in the age of divorce. Formation. Helping you concentrate on what is being asked of you. When I can’t get there on my own.

We’re sailing on a strange sea, blown by a strange wind
We’re sailing on a strange sea, blown by a strange wind
Carrying the strangest crew who ever sinned

I was out with two cousin after the silent auction. I heard Theresa’s story on Friday night. About selecting a high school, and the choice she was given about high school. And when she made the wrong choice, she was commanded where to go. By a father.

Twenty-four hours later there was a story from a different Theresa, on Saturday night. About selecting a college. A niece of this friend had not been talking about her college selection process. People do not change, I said. I never sought counsel about the choice of a college. Of those life decision, I told the story of my own announcement where I was going to a college out of state. My own choice when announced was not that well received. By my dad. It was German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer who said that the first half of life “gives us text, and what follows supplies the commentary on it.” Since I was paying, I did not need to seek parental approval in the last stage of formation. When Judaism or Christianity is a comprehensive way of life, a well formed choice like a well written prayer is part of the lifetime search of the divine. I believe that parents in such a family should not select the college. Fourteen years later my father saw the affect of my college decision which added some chapters to his life story. It was the beginning of an answer to a prayer that was ongoing for almost the next 14 years. That college decision had decided a lot. If you believed that life involved movement toward God than a parent had to let a child select the college, based upon financial considerations and talent.

Those life decisions one day soon woul make a difference. You become oriented over time to something within. That was a mystery in the search of the divine.

After that silent auction on Friday night I heard another story from cousin Theresa . She had two children born in the most affluent time in world history. It was not their fault when they were born, but her children did not share in the affluence. One had a new addiction to the worst drug out there. I heard the news around Halloween. There was a 6 month wait to get into a treatment center. When in all probability her daughter would not live 6 months with her heroin addiction.

Treatment centers. Formation. Where you go through a process of deconditioning. And then comes a form of reconstruction. And a lot like Karen Armstrong, you become oriented over time to something within.

I learned by the age of 32 how much my prayers can make a difference. And it was not just my prayers. Prayer and begging. In search of the divine. And the personal nature of my prayer, in a collective moment toward God.

Regarding this addiction, there had to be some heavy weight praying going on, knowing her family. Having heard the news her daughter had been accepted into treatment this week, leaving the restaurant at the end of the night, cousin Theresa said as she reached her car the song playing as we went out the door was the song that her daughter heard that made her choose to go into treatment. It was a lot like that moment in “It’s A Wonderful Life,” when the bell rings. When you become oriented to something happening. Only a lot more real than that Frank Capra movie and a lot like those words of Michael Scott:

We’re living in a strange time, working for a strange goal
We’re living in a strange time, working for a strange goal
We’re turning flesh and body …into soul.
- “Strange Boat” written by Michael Scott of The Waterboys

Connections

paperlessworld — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:11:53 +0000

A girl without any real religion background in her family life. It was not her fault. It was the way the cards were dealt. What she had written about her boyfriend could just as well had been addressed to God. Because those relationships really were not much different. When you felt as if you might be understood about 33 percent of the time:

“I wonder why I desire. For Him to know about me. I wonder why I desire His pity, for Him to feel sorry for me. I wonder why I desire for Him to have pity. And in that way, help me. It is a bit sickening to me. For this desire is not me. For it is not truly like me to desire so crazily.”

“It is okay that I am just releasing just a thought. The thought may be a feeling of insecurity. It is me stripping away delusions. They say it stems from low esteem.”

“Love and that strange mixture of enmity and esteem.” This girl acknowledges her desire stems from low self esteem. “Because in the end all that is necessary is connection. Because you cannot make anyone feel anything, you cannot make anyone do anything. Every soul makes a decision for itself. Connection is not about giving or taking. Connection is about everything. Connection is about extending. The decision is to extend, to connect. That is the choice. That is the purpose.”

Exposed to the secrets within, God did not understand true expression? God did not understand her prayer? When all that she asked was this connection. She was asking for His connection to her? From what she called low esteem which once had been named humility. “Why don’t you do it first? And I will follow.”

To have a claim to God. Through a tradition. “I have come here to love. It is now the time. The time to release myself. To release myself from all the hurt and anger, the pain and sorrow. It is time to commence life. Because I have a need to love and be loved.”

See http://trpimir.blogspot.com/2009/10/stripping-away-delusions.html)

Hooking Up

paperlessworld — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:53:57 +0000

Seasons. Ritual.

Kids. The step progeny. Those one sport specialists. In this specialized world.

The specialized world. The specialist working at the Board of Trade. During the hockey season. The never ending hockey season. Or name the sport. And then hockey camp. Traveling teams and these one sport specialists. Hockey moms. Married to hockey dads. For a while.

In a world without relationships. It had now become a world of polygamy, just without the vows. Awesome. With a generation which did not know how to place adverbs. Or where. Those step progeny.

“I didn’t marry nearly as many times as I could have.”

The state of the world as described in Tom Wolfe’s Hooking Up. These grown kids. The conflict in a megabyte world that kept moving fast. The desire to stay. The attraction. The urge to go. Into such a profane world. In the specialized profane hockey world. Or the real world. Of relationships. Or lack thereof.

Seasons. Ritual. Stirred or bored.

Stirred in relationship. Not for money. For others. Mr. Law. Allan Law.

Cared for. Mostly just those with a blood relationship. Or those in one way adopted. Mr. Law. See
http://www.startribune.com/local/west/69486467.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ

Stirred or bored. By the seasons. The choice to either ritualize the seasons or to one day face snowballing boredom. The choice to ritualize in relationships.

Hooking Up. The specialized world was in recovery. The specialist. Even plumbers and repair people. Paying for all those $30,000 to $50,000 weddings, for kids of mostly common people. Or not. Tom Wolfe. Hooking Up.

Tom Wolfe. Back to Blood was the working tile of Tom Wolfe’s book scheduled to be released in 2009.

The desire to stay with an author, or to move on. By a reader. His literary agent. His publisher. Somewhere in the last few years, Tom Wolfe was unable to agree on terms for a new novel with his publisher of 42 years.

To write. For the profane world. Stirred to express an understanding. Stirred in relationship. When hooking was no longer a two minute penalty.

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On Those Preferential Choice Ballots

paperlessworld — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:26:21 +0000

The news.

Newspaper publishers. Airlines. Book publishing. Financing it all. Running out of money. Bankruptcies. And now time and deadlines. Reorganization.

Affection. For books. Those public displays of books. And a concern about the future of the book business. Heading toward a future where it may be impossible for writers to earn a living. A future which looks more and more where publishers will have the same difficulty to survive as a newspaper.

Consciousness. Sleeping. Recognition. How consciousness changes by sleep, per a BBC test. Photos. Memory. Results. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/tmt/instructions_1.shtml

The results. Knowing who I had never met, I scored a perfect 100 percent. Forgetting the part when I had met 29% of the people, whether Part I or Part II. And forgetting 22% of the people I had seen in this test.

Consciousness. When consciousness changes. The recognition of, an awareness of all of this. The holiness of shared experience. In imbibing wine. In breaking bread. I had attended a college class re-union at the 25 year mark. People I had shared freshman year with had told stories late into the night. My roommate from that year was in rare form. A friend who live 2 doors down was unable to make it. I sent him a note, telling him how many people commented upon how much he was missed. He sent me a letter with a Christmas card. It was the last time anyone from college had heard from him. He died around St. Patrick’s Day 2007.

The letter. His letter expressed how college had been the best years of his life. Who he had met. College. When the consciousness level changes. From studies. From imbibing. The changing consciousness level was the holy part of youth. It was all about my first emergence into the world. It was about the world. And learning of the need to change the world. And the “how.” It was only in deciding the how.

Vanishings. Newspaper publishing. Airlines. Book publishing. Banks. Finance. Running out of money. And now bankruptcies. Time. Dealing with deadlines. Vanishing traditions. The “how now” question. It was deciding “the how” now.

Vanishings., There was an election today in St. Paul. And in Minneapolis. St. Paul voters were asked to decide whether we should have preferential choice elections. Minneapolis already had it. Voting with a number, one through three, for our favorites. Minneapolis had witnessed the end of the 2 party system. There was not a Republican on the ballot among the 12 mayoral candidates. The Republican Party had died there over the past 40 years. It happened in all of the big cities. When the electorate did not feel a party was responding to the needs of the people. This preferential choice election issue reminded me a lot about the state of he Christian world. Last night I watched the leader of the Orthodox Church in a world of 300 million Orthodox Eastern Catholics on The Charlie Rose Show. He gave the history of the break up of the Orthodox from the church of Rome. On this eve of an election when political parties and religion factions had lost to a large degree their meaning to the working stiff.

When levels of consciousness change. When there was too many choices, the affection was lost. Like the affection for books. Those public displays of books. The changing level of consciousness when reading. Or at work. Losing a sense of time. Losing my sense of self. The holiness of it all was a level of prayer. The “how” now. How I shared myself at work. How I shared myself with others. In such a small way. Today.

The affection level. Of consciousness. And a concern about the future of the book business. And education. The holiness of it all. Reading. Writing. So that I was not just a commodity. Running out of money. Like a newspapers dying. Beyond 2012. Consciousness of the future, with a fear that the year of nothing seemed to be fast approaching.

Consciousness. Reading. Writing. The holiness of it all. So that I was not just a forgettable vanishing commodity. Books as public displays of affection. We all wrestled with the internal and the external manner of public display of affection.

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On The Day of The Dead

paperlessworld — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:09:45 +0000

In the world of Chinese Astrology, the Mayan long calendar will come to an end on December 21, 2012. It is a pretty big deal when any 26,000 year astrology cycle (the Precession of the Equinoxes) comes to an end.

The primary purpose of Chinese astrology was fortune telling, with a focus usually on what will happen to people in various stages of their lives, on a particular day or in a certain month or in a certain year. In this case those Chinese astrologers were suggesting a transition period was believed to be coming, a lot larger than the Y2K problem.

The intrigue. Just when I was coming to grips with the intrigue over the transition to Y2K that seemed to involve the age of terror and the conflict of the western world with followers of Mohamed. Now comes the Chinese and the intrigue over the coincidence that the Year of the Dragon and the end of the Mayan calendar fall within the same year. 2012. The real question was whether after the Year of the Dragon, in 2012, whether the world end?

All of us where I lived had come out of schools where the purpose was to teach us how to think, to piece together all the fragments of life until they worked to form a picture, like on the old game show “Concentration,” where you could figure out the puzzle. Somehow the pieces seemed smaller and smaller, and to figure out the big picture was much more difficult and taking this generation more time. And the puzzle was a lot larger than I ever comprehended.

I had never studied ancient Maya. I now come across some internet expert who tells me of these dedicated stargazers. During the 26,000 year astrology cycle (the Precession of the Equinoxes), the Earth moves approximately 2166 times through each of the twelve zodiac signs. I did not ask who was doing the counting. But this expert indicates that it was the belief of the Mayans, the Sumerians, Tibetans, and Egyptians that the coming of a new world begins on December 21, 2012. Large monuments as a warning were left to society that people might prepare for the transition. Their calendar ended on December 21, 2012, if not the world.

The good news was that no documentation, at least from a Chinese astrology perspective, indicates in 2012 the world will end, after the Year of the Dragon. The year of the Dragon is the grand Karmic sign, typically a year of positive developments. Or large disasters. So what does this all mean in the world of astrology? Or to me?

Chinese astrologers believe that a person’s time and place of birth set parameters, boundaries within which a person has more or less freedom. What happens within these boundaries is influenced not only by “free will” but also by external factors such as financial status of the family, the culture, and the local economy. Though not a strict determinist, balance plays a central role in Chinese thought. A Chinese astrologer will address a specific duration of time, or what people should do. A Chinese astrologer does not believe a person’s fate is sealed in stone at the moment of birth.

The struggle from generation to generation of off-spring. With the external and the internal world. To have the courage to write the story for these times. To raise a family in these times. In the quest for a Living God, I was fortunate enough to have had a good tour guide.

Significance. Meaning. The life of a Chinese astrologer as a tour guide was not going to be as easy in 3 years. Those Chinese astrologers who had relied on the Mayan calendar were going to be the ones in transition. Somehow I expected this was not going to be very funny the sooner the date approached.

When we are all in exodus. In exodus, from our origin, trying to recapture a past. To explore what may occur in 2012 – The Year of the Dragon – when “2012 could be a most auspicious year indeed,” states one webmaster.

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Voting in the Age of Spin

paperlessworld — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:40:48 +0000

Having read the news from Catholic Review of Baltimore which was reporting that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) would vote at their November general meeting in Baltimore on 4 items pertaining to the Roman missal, I wondered how much truth there was in the Roman Catholic Church in the age of spin. The Catholic Review of Baltimore was reporting in this edition that the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments was expected to “to give its ‘recognitio,’ following the U.S. bishops’ vote on the Roman missal, the ritual called the language of the Mass.

I would suggest that Mark Pattison do a bit more research when he writes the Roman Missal has not yet been given final approval for use in the United States. This BINDING revised Order the Mass was announced more than a year ago. Your parish priest has been practicing all of the changes. The Catholic Review of Baltimore should checkout the website:

http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/missalformation/OrdoMissaeWhiteBook.pdf.
http://www.adoremus.org/Arinze_June08.html

In advance of a vote, former chairman of the U.S. bishops’ liturgy committee, Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pennsylvania, sharply criticized what he called the “slavishly literal” translation into English of the new Roman Missal from the original Latin during a lecture on October 22nd at Catholic University of America in Washington. Someone should tell Bishop Trautman the horse is dead that he is beating. The race was fixed.

There had been quite an internal debate within the United States Conference of Bishops that dates back to 2006. Until the release of the BINDING revised Order the Mass by the US Conference of Bishops in 2008 which had been withheld for two years. This is a done deal. In 2011 the Mass was changing as some kind of nostalgia from Rome for the old ways, as if the old ways, like old wine in new wineskins, would work to bring the youth back into the fold. With the release of the news of the revised Order the Mass, English speaking Catholics are going to have to learn to pray in a new way.

In his speech last week, The Catholic Review of Baltimore reported Bishop Donald W. Trautman said the “sacred language” used by translators tends to be “elitist and remote from everyday speech and frequently not understandable” and could lead to a pastoral disaster

I wondered if the Catholic Press was always this sloppy on historical accuracy as the Catholic Review of Baltimore, in their report of what would transpire at meeting of The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The 2008 announcement of the revisions was: “Recently the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was granted the recognitio for the new English–language translation of significant parts of the Ordo Missae as found in the Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia, including most of those texts used in every celebration of the Holy Mass. The recognitio was granted in response to the request of the USCCB by Bishop William Skylstad, then President of the Conference, who informed Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in a letter dated July 29, 2006, that we, the Latin Church Bishops of the USCCB, approved the translation of the Ordo Missae at its plenary meeting on June 15, 2006.”

Someone in charge of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Francis Cardinal Arinze, had issued his binding orders long ago. The debate had already taken place. In June 2008, arguing that the new translation of prayers and other texts for the Mass is too awkward to be proclaimed effectively in parishes in the United States, Auxiliary Bishop of Milwaukee, Richard Sklba, said. “If I have trouble understanding the text when I read it, I wonder how it’s going to be possible to pray with it in the context of worship.”

Bishop Donald Trautman then used the example of the translation of the Latin “patibulum,” to translate the English “gibbet” as jut one oddity in the new text. In the end, The International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), the translation body responsible for the Proper of Seasons, failed to gain a two-thirds vote from the bishops to approve the Proper of Seasons in Orlando. It did not matter. The collegiality of the Holy Sea however was missing when it came to the revision in the Order the Mass which was BINDING.

In his recent speech, Bishop Trautman talked of how Vatican II compelled the church to produce a translation of the missal that is accurate, inspiring, referent, proclaimable, understandable, pastoral in every sense – a text that raises our minds and hearts to God,” to be true to the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. “Why do we now have a reversal? The Aramaic and Latin texts have not changed. The scriptural arguments have not changed, but the insistence on literal translation has changed.”

It is the re-translated version of the Nicene Creed that is sacrilegious, changing a communal prayer into some kind of Bull Durham “I believe.” Bishop Donald Trautman also objected to this in his recent speech to this change and opined that vocabulary used in BINDING revised Order the Mass is not readily understandable by the average Catholic, where the vast majority are not familiar with words of the new missal like ‘ineffable,’ ‘consubstantial,’ ‘incarnate,’ ‘inviolate,’ ‘oblation,’ ‘ignominy,’ ‘precursor,’ ‘suffused’ and ‘unvanquished.’

Bishop Trautman opined: “Since this is a creedal prayer recited by the entire assembly in unison, the use of ‘we’ emphasized the unity of the assembly in praying this together as one body. Changing the plural form of ‘we’ to ‘I’ in the Nicene Creed goes against all ecumenical agreements regarding common prayer texts,” he said.

Bishop Trautman quoted the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, which said rites and texts “should radiate a noble simplicity. They should be short, clear, free from useless repetition. They should be within the people’s powers of comprehension, and normally should not require much explanation.”

In Rome, the Constitution is not sacred, the press is not free, and elections are not fair. The race was fixed. The monarch of Vatican City was in charge.

Spinning

paperlessworld — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:03:34 +0000

“Honestly, I want love. That is the truth inside.” I once heard the female proclamation. It came with a foreign accent. What happened to a women over time? The truth inside?

About that mate. The soulmate that those women magazine stories were about. The “soulmate.” What most impressed you about him/her? What was he/she after? What did she/he see in me? What did I really have to offer him/her?

In the way of plagiarism, with full disclosure, I was reading some stranger’s blog. I cannot immediately find the blog again, to give a proper attribution. The piece left the wafting scent like I had gotten on an elevator where a young woman had left. I had copied and pasted what she wrote, in her own e e cummings style, to interpret what was between the lines. And here is that translation. My translation of the temporal gap between the sexes.

“I have come here to love. It is now the time. The time to release myself. To release myself from all the hurt and anger, the pain and sorrow. It is time to commence life. Because I have a need to love and be loved.

“I wonder why I desire. For him to know about me. I wonder why I desire for him to have pity. I wonder why I desire his pity, for him to feel sorry for me. And in that way, help me. It is a bit sickening to me. For this desire is not me. For it is not me truly to desire so crazily. It is just a thought. It is okay that I am just releasing a thought. The thought may be a feeling of insecurity. It is me stripping away delusions. They say it stems from low esteem.”

This girl concludes that her poem is acknowledgment of desire which stems from low self esteem. “Because in the end all that is necessary is connection. Because you cannot make anyone feel anything, you cannot make anyone do anything. Connection is not about giving or taking. Connection is about everything. Connection is about extending. Every soul makes a decision for itself. The decision is to extend, to connect. That is the choice. That is the purpose.”

Love and that strange mixture of enmity and esteem. Exposed to the secrets within, he did not understand true expression? When all that she asked was, “Why don’t you do it first? And I will follow.”

This connection. She was asking for his connection to her? Low esteem that was once named humility. Call me Stingo but her poetic voice sounds a lot like Merle Streep as Sophie, in Sophie’s Choice, with a Polish accent.

The relationship? “This relationship. Why can’t I be a leader? Why must it be like this? Why can’t I be a leader and a follower equally?” About the extension needed in a connection.

“When you extend nothing can be taken away. If hearts connect, then your being is heading in the right way. Negative emotions are also not devastation. You are wrong (how you do it) but you need not feel like a complete failure because of that. Accept your short comings. Not the whole world will hate you because of that.”

“You know imperfect you are, so there is a problem when you cannot be perfect in every way? This all comes back to humanity’s purpose. And everyone out there.”

Humanity’s purpose. Humility? Recognizing humility? Now called low esteem.

And then her lover speaks. Or the object of her desires.

“You don’t get to have love. So stop whining like a bitch.”

“I am not whining. I just don’t feel well. That is the reality. It might not be real in the ultimate sense. But I feel this way and I don’t feel I can quite make it.”

Despite that this is a lie in some way, she writes. The relationship? When hypocrisy is a charge leveled when someone fails to live up to the virtuous standards being expounded. When she settles for less?

“I know I will be okay.”

“It may be true that I will never need love, sexual expression, happiness, and everything else that is part of the healthy development for a human being. I guess that ultimately I am not asking for anything. For in truth, I have everything. It is only that my perception of everything is a bit messed up. Spinning. That spinning feeling which comes from the emotions felt.”

“They may go someday. The spinning. The emotions. And maybe one day one feeling, only love in me. Love. I desire for that to be love. I desire that feeling called love.”

Connection. “Would be love.”
(from http://trpimir.blogspot.com/2009/10/stripping-away-delusions.html)

Call me Stingo. For overhearing all of this. And providing the translation.

http://www.homeboy-industries.org/donate.php

Opening Doors

paperlessworld — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:45:02 +0000

Thomas Merton related that a Tibet monk is to have replied to the question about how they train and form their novices in contemplative prayer that for the first year they are taught how to close doors. Those 365 days seemed a long time to learn all about closing doors, writes Larry Gillick this week.

Contemplative prayer. I continue to read this month that story of Abraham and Isaac. Over and over. The same biblical account that is read at the start of the Jewish High Holy Days. Year in and year out. As God wanted a stake in His Chosen People, in the human race, so Jews needed a stake in the world and all of its problems.

Wanting a stake. Have you ever had to tell a girl you loved her? And in a case when there was a darn good chance she did not believe you. And to tell a lover like God that you loved Him? I always expected the same response. From God. From the girl. And if by some miracle you feel like you have developed some knowledge of this God, or the girl…well, I still did not feel real confident in my profession of love. I somehow always feel like I have fallen short. In what I have done and what I should have done. That was the human condition. That was the male condition in any relationship. To feel you have come up short. And say some pretty dumb things.

When there was pain in sacrifice. Made in seeking a stake in the world, through a girl. The girl seemed more interested in seeing something. Maybe with little real understanding how hard the business world was. The hours that went into buying a diamond. And having to listen to all of her small complaints?

What a struggle of every young guy, trying to communicate something. The ongoing struggle to profess an authentic love. And then to have your credibility judged.

Those professions of love. Like the struggle of every young guy, trying to communicate something, God seemed to have His own doubts. It seemed part of the struggle every person, guys from Mars any way, has with belief in each other. Doubts about the love professed.

Those professions of love at the end of life, to God, to loved ones. Abraham, the farmer. The nomadic farmer. In the pain of old age. Approaching a major sacrifice. If the theme of my life, like Abraham’s life, was all along all about passing on a way of life. In sacrifice. The ultimate sacrifice. The little real notice of sacrifice along the way…but one ultimate sacrifice like the great fireworks display, like a diamond, as the ultimate profession of love.

Doors. Opening and closing doors for contemplative prayer. For these times. Opening and closing doors to focus on meaning in our lives, With training to form the next generation in contemplative prayer “With a little more attentiveness to what we are shutting in and shutting out…a little more open to surprises and also the unsurprising,” writes Lary Gillick.

Of the two parts of being a rabbi, a Tibet monk, or a priest, there was the caring and comforting people, and shaking them up and moving them to another place. The prophet role. When the experience of young people forms their ideas. In schools where they share experiences with strangers and become bound. When ideas which nourish then sustain an identity.

So what had I set out to say in this piece of art called life? Who was going to try to interpret my work of art? How would I be judged?

Rabbi Max Shapiro, the senior rabbi from 1963 through 1985 at Temple Israel in Minneapolis, the 10th largest Reform congregation in the world, who challenged people within and outside his congregation to fight anti-Semitism, racism and poverty, died on October 16, 2009 at his Minnetonka home. The obituary of Max Shapiro states that he was a lifelong member of the NAACP, and he served on a city civil rights council and the Urban Coalition. Under his leadership, the social action committee at Temple Israel sent a delegate to walk with Martin Luther King, Jr., resolved not to trade with any business with discriminatory hiring practices, and became the first in the area to teach a black history course. In an a 1964 sermon, he explained his philosophy of religion and civic duty, of staking a claim in a city through professions of love: “It is not enough for us to applaud or even support civil rights legislation. Judaism instructs us to do more. It tells us to take the needy into our employ! It tells us to train him for a job! … It is a religious duty! And it is imperative! For no community, no city, no nation can long endure so divided — half affluent, half despairing.”

So who was worthy of this inheritance? Of his religious tradition? In old age. Of those living in the harsh godless profane pagan world? In the present moment? With different degrees of hunger.

Death and the Akedah story. When asked to sacrifice Sarah’s son? Was the actual mystery in the Akedah story about Abraham challenging the meaning of his life, challenging God for all that He had given to him? And slowly was taking away? Slowly taking away all of these blessings. This was a profession of God’s love? Had he really been “chosen?” Was Abraham really asking God in the Akedah if he really had been chosen? By asking him to sacrifice his son? Was this in a sense a Last Judgment Scene? In the Akedah story was Abraham really asking God “Why did I have all this? And why was I losing it?” It was the “Why me?” question!

Had Abraham in the first place ever been worthy? As Isaac might have finally wondered, might have asked his father the same question. And with the strange professions of love by Abraham, in his life, in the Akedah, Isaac might have finally wondered, ‘Who in the name of God do you think you are?’

Abraham. All that time spent. Reflecting on the meaning of making some kind of an offering to God, when your relationships, based so much in sacrifice, with God, with your kin, involved not only blood but these strange profession of love. Professions made in seeking a stake in the world, through a girl. When the girl seemed more interested in seeing something. Than hearing something.

Sacrifice. God. A spouse. And feeling so unworthy.

Wanting a stake. Trying to tell God you loved Him? I expect that even at an old age, there was a good chance, a darn good chance, that Abraham did not believe God believed him. Even after all the things that they had shared. That feeling, somehow always that feeling, like I have fallen short. In what was the human condition. Feeling no confidence in a profession of love through your spouse and kids. The male condition in any relationship. To feel you have come up short. On the anniversary date, those performance reviews. Having done some pretty dumb things. The Akedah. Was the Akedah story really about Abraham’s feeling of always feeling unworthy?

Religion was not just a recognition of, an awareness, about God, man, woman, and the universe. It was about everything. These strange professions of love. Religion was about bindings. It was more about action than words. As was said of Rabbi Max Shapiro, in passing on a way of life, “He created the most wonderful community.”

Wanting a stake. Those strange professions of love at the end of life. To God, to loved ones. As God wanted a stake in His Chosen People. Being moved to sacrifice. And trying to work on becoming more worthy. In sacrifice. In kinship to the God and passing on that kinship. In these strange professions of love.

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