John 6:53-6:65 for Educated Catholics.

So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? That's OK. It doesn't work so well for many of us today. As you indicate in your question, we don't think like Aristotle, nor do we live in a world that lives comfortably with Aristotelian terms. What is most important for you believe, however, is that I am present to you in the church, and in the eucharist, in a way that gives you the spiritual food you need on your life's pilgrimage. "

[Second link via Bill Cork.]

Yeah, but do they eat any pudding?

"Ang Lee's tale of love between two cowboys set in the western United States in the 1960s has taken the Venice Film Festival's top award."

[Link via Mark Shea.]

Return Engagements.

Good news--Hilary (note the new address), Steve, Lane and Mark have returned--in that chronological order.

In related news, the GDP slowed a slight drop this week...

Headline: Man Who Wrote "Wang Dang Sweet P------g" Proves To Be Surprisingly Inept Commentator On Things Religious.

Ted Nugent goes ballistic on Popery, army of decerebrated fans bays its approval.

While there's the makings of a good point or two in the Nuge Loogie, the blinkered pig-ignorance those points are encased in ensures that they die a'borning.

Ah, well--Fred Bear still rules.

[Via Mike Inman, whose sentiments I heartily join with a "Pucker up, buttercup."]

Now hear this!

A diversion from the hurricane-blogging:

The Protector's War is out today. For those of you unfortunate souls who have no idea why this is significant, it is the sequel to Dies The Fire (reviewed here). A review that got a response from the author himself [cue sound of man patting self on back].

Moreover, we have it on good authority that the sample chapters for the final book of the trilogy, A Meeting At Corvallis, will be up on the official website soon.

Take--read. A review of TPW will probably appear by the weekend. Of course, earlier, non-spoiler-laden reviews are welcome here.

Many thanks!

To the gracious Fr. Stanley, a long-suffering fellow Lions fan (yes, that is redundant, but there you have it) for his warm welcome. We got a tour of the beautifully-renovated parish (Todd would approve--the acoustics were a conscious concern and addressed), and even better, both Maddie and Dale passed their first catechism lesson, each being able to point out Jesus on the carving of the Last Supper on the altar.

The only glitch was Dale's attempt to blow out one of the votive candles in front of Our Lady of Guadaloupe. Given that the Spanish language Mass was ten minutes from starting, and the youth musical group was rehearsing forty feet away, his timing could not have been worse. Fortunately, he failed and Heather shooed him away.

If you get over by that area, make sure to stop. You will be glad you did. The people of St. Charles Borromeo are blessed to have such a decent, solid man as pastor--they seem to recognize it, too. They sure answered the call this weekend--the donations in both the gym and the Church were evidence of their great generosity to people in need.

How to respond.

After the week-long, numbing horror of watching a mega-storm devastate nearly 90,000 square miles of the nation, I have a partial answer: stop staring into the abyss.

Go out and do something. And make that more than an electronic donation--actually physically participate in some way. Our family did this on Sunday, responding to a call from Fr. Brian Stanley's magnificent parish in Coldwater, Michigan for bedsheets, blankets, towels and related items for the people being transported to Fort Custer in Battle Creek. We collected items on that list and went off-list, too. If the last week has taught us anything, it's that there is bound to be a snafu somewhere along the way. What you donate will get used.

Also consider this: however the government did or did not perform can be remedied by our efforts now. What you do to help can take some of the poison out of the bloodstream, so to speak.

Go forth and do. It will make a difference.

Blogging shall recommence.

Tanned, rested and ready!

OK, I'm one of the three, so expect fits and starts.

Katrina and the Problem of Evil.

There is no satisfying answer. If there were, the theodicists would be out of business.

For my money, David Hart's commentary in the January WSJ about the tsunami is still wise.

When confronted by the sheer savage immensity of worldly suffering--when we see the entire littoral rim of the Indian Ocean strewn with tens of thousands of corpses, a third of them children's--no Christian is licensed to utter odious banalities about God's inscrutable counsels or blasphemous suggestions that all this mysteriously serves God's good ends. We are permitted only to hate death and waste and the imbecile forces of chance that shatter living souls, to believe that creation is in agony in its bonds, to see this world as divided between two kingdoms--knowing all the while that it is only charity that can sustain us against "fate," and that must do so until the end of days.

RTWT.

A few times.

Blogging for Relief Day.

OK, something a little more constructive than raging at the collapse of civilized norms of behavior. N.Z. Bear has a superb page set up for bloggers and their recommended relief agencies. It looks like a very complete list of donation choices.

In addition to the Red Cross, I also recommend the Mercy Corps.

Go forth and act.

Return fire.

There is no excuse for this--none. Nor is there any for this. No "necessity" defense applies here. If people behave like jackals, then they should be treated like them.

The Romans had a saying: "What do civilized men owe barbarians? Nothing."

Make no mistake: people who need to be--and could be--rescued are going to die because personnel have to be diverted from search and rescue missions to put down scumbags trying to feast on the corpse of a city. If that's the way they want it--fine. Let them have it--at a muzzle velocity of 3000 feet per second.

Let me paraphrase the Romans: "What do civilized men owe people getting their rocks off by potshotting rescue helicopters and terrorizing a children's hospital?"

You fill in the blank.