Category Archives: Faith

Faith, Music

“Wake, Awake! For Night Is Flying!”

On the Last Sunday of the Church Year — or the Last Sunday in Ordinary Time, depending on your liturgical calendar — there’s no better musical commentary than Johann Sebastian Bach’s cantata #140, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Wake, Awake, For Night Is Flying)!  In this vividly dramatic work, written for the Divine Service at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, Bach sets all three stanzas of Philipp Nicolai’s Lutheran chorale from 1598, along with recitative and aria texts based on Matthew 25:1-13, Christ’s parable of the ten virgins.

Enjoy a performance of the complete cantata by the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Chorus, directed by Ton Koopman, below.   For the German text and a parallel English translation, click here.

— Rick Krueger

 

 

Faith

The Vatican obfuscates even while preparing for February meeting on abuse – Catholic World Report

1 Comment

As I read more and more about the abuse scandals of and within large segments of the Catholic Church, I am often struck (in a humbled way) by how little people understand about the nature of sexual abuse.

Abusers almost ALWAYS work in packs. They are predators, and they exchange information with one another. One of the main goals of their abuse is to bring new members into the pack. They are, essentially, grooming.

Please don’t forget this: all abusers are predators. Individuals in terms of lust, yet, part of a tine-mind when hunting.

Thus, it’s hyper critical that even the well-intentioned do NOT cover for these abusers, even out of a) ignorance and b) lack of diabolical imagination.

I believe the current pope is innocent of any direct wrong doing, but he is, nevertheless, encouraging abusers by his very ignorance and lack of diabolical imagination.

Thus, today’s news is even more shocking for those of us who want so desperately to love our Church.–Brad

The Vatican obfuscates even while preparing for February meeting on abuse – Catholic World Report
— Read on www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/11/23/the-vatican-obfuscates-even-while-preparing-for-february-meeting-on-abuse/

Faith

The Catholic Worker on Leviathan

Dorothy Day (from CRISIS Magazine)

“People go to Washington asking the Federal Government to solve their economics problems.  But the Federal Government was never meant to solve men’s economic problems.  Thomas Jefferson says, ‘The less government there is the better it is.’  If the less government there is the better it is, the best kind of government is self-government.  If the best kind of government is self-government, then the best kind of organization is self-organization.  When the organizers try to organize the unorganized, they often do it for the benefit of the organizers.”

—The Catholic Worker (Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin)  Quoted in Maisie Ward, Unfinished Business (Sheed and Ward, 1964), 176,

Faith, History, Philosophy, Politics

Christopher Dawson, BEYOND POLITICS (1939)

Inspired by Gleaves Whitney and Winston Elliott, I first read Christopher Dawson seventeen years ago, this Thanksgiving break.  To celebrate that first reading–which changed my life–here is the full PDF of Dawson’s 1939 book, Beyond Politics.  Enjoy.

cd beyond politicsDownload
Faith, History, Politics

The Rise of Viktor Orbán, Right-Wing Populist ~ The Imaginative Conservative

To secular and leftist Europeans, Hungary’s Fundamental Law came as a shock. The preamble set the tone—it is the opening line of the Hungarian National Hymn (anthem): “God, bless the Hungarians.” That was already too much for The Guardian. A writer for that left-wing British newspaper noted that the new constitution’s “preamble is heavily influenced by the Christian faith and commits Hungary to a whole new set of values, such as family, nation, fidelity, faith, love and labour.” It was enough to point this out: further criticism would apparently have been superfluous.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/11/viktor-orban-hungarian-resistance-lee-congdon.html

I consider myself an anti nationalist, but I found this article absolutely fascinating–BB.

Faith, Music, Poetry

Ad Fontes

From Lutheran Service Book’s Daily Lectionary for November 22:

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.” (Revelation 19:6)

Or, to put it another way (especially if you’re George Frederic Handel (and his librettist Charles Jennens):

But wait, there’s more …

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, “Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.” (Revelation 19:17-18)

Or, to put it another way, if you’re Genesis with Peter Gabriel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhRYRNuyGVI

 

— Rick Krueger

Faith, History

Harmony and Order: Giving Thanks ~ The Imaginative Conservative

Of course, I do not want or desire to conflate that which is sacred with that which is profane. The Sabbath does not exist for the right of association. Yet, as we pause and reflect on the many great and grand blessings bestowed upon us as Americans, we would be foolish to ignore the tradition of self-governance, of community building, and of the right to association. Once again, it is healthy to remember what we should cherish. Plato, after all, told us we must love what should be loved and hate what should be hated. In rough times, we too readily remember the hate part but forget the love part. As you celebrate your time with your family, eat turkey and mashed potatoes, and watch, for the 1000th time, Home Alone, don’t forget to give thanks—to all of those who came before us and, especially, to He who created us in His image to know, to serve, and to love Him.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2018/11/harmony-order-thanksgiving-bradley-birzer.html

Faith, Republic of Letters

Crisis in the Catholic Church

Fewer things in the world could be more depressing than reading this article (linked below), explaining how the majority of the Catholic leadership sidestepped a real and meaningful movement toward exposing the darkness now in dwelling in Christ’s house.

US bishops punt resolution encouraging Holy See to release McCarrick documents
— Read on www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/us-bishops-punt-resolution-encouraging-holy-see-to-release-mccarrick-documents-75688

Ugly and, frankly, evil. The decision has more the stench of Satan than of incense.

Continue reading Crisis in the Catholic Church →