David Ancell / Tuesday, December 24, 2002 / Comments(0)
Here we are, 2.25 hours away from Christmas (Central Time, U.S.). I’ll be attending the 9 AM Mass tomorrow morning in my home parish. I’m blogging from my dad’s computer. I’d love to tell you that I have spent many hours in prayer preparing a place in my heart for the coming of the Lord. However, I have been busy beyond belief.
I have been traveling since mid-September. This is just about to come to an end (and then I can blog more). I have also been feverishly working on this web page. At least that is a good work for the Church. There was plenty of stuff going on. Much of it could not be helped. My work has been short-staffed.
Somehow, though, I feel that I could have been more in the spirit of this season. Somehow, I feel that I have missed something. I do hope that the Lord will accept the work I have done and help me to be ready for his real coming into my life. Maybe I just need to get away from the computer.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, December 24, 2002 / Comments(0)
I don’t know why scandals are on my mind at 9:45 PM on Christmas Eve, but a thought occurred to me, and I feel I need to share it. We may remember the statement made by Cardinal Law at his resignation:
“To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness.”
Now, we could scoff at him and say “Hey! Let’s see you do penance. Then we will see how sorry you really are.” The thought went through my own mind. Then, I realized that I need to take my own advice. If we expect him to do penance for his sins, we should be willing to do penance for our own.
Now, let’s continue to pray for the Archdiocese and pray for the ability to do penance for our own sins. A true reform of the Church will only take place as we reform ourselves.
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David Ancell / Tuesday, December 24, 2002 / Comments(0)
Surely this move by Bishop Lennon in Boston is nothing more than CYA for insurance purposes. I hope so. I hope that the Bishop doesn’t think the First Amendment covers illegal activity of this sort. If it does, then what’s to stop us from burning heretics at the stake by claiming religious freedom.
FYI, I don’t favor burning heretics at the stake. It is just an example.
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David Ancell / Monday, December 23, 2002 / Comments(0)
Well, actually, I’m not going to do anything but give you this link to Greg Popcak’s post. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
Unlike them, I won’t be closed until January 2. I’ll be around and blogging when possible. I’m headed to Missouri to see my parental units tomorrow and then back to work on Thursday.
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David Ancell / Sunday, December 22, 2002 / Comments(0)
I think Jeff Miller has had it with the political correctness more than I have. We need to fight this invasion of the Society to Neutralize the World, as I posted not too long ago here.
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David Ancell / Sunday, December 22, 2002 / Comments(0)
Mark Shea does it again. He hits the nail on the head when he says that celebrating a “holiday” without understanding the meaning is like mistaking whip cream for the main course. When we try to be politically correct, we cheat people.
I also think he uses a good degree of prudence. I’ve seen writers who say things like “Video games are evil.” “Throw away your television.” These guys are a bit extreme for me. Instead of throwing away forms of entertainment that can be used for good, why not just use them in moderation.
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David Ancell / Saturday, December 21, 2002 / Comments(0)
I just found this article from this post by Emily Stimpson. This is further proof that the PC movement (and I don’t mean personal computer) is headed towards ridiculous extremes.
I just love this quote from the article:
“We’re at this point where no one wants to offend anyone, but you know what, I’m offended when teachers don’t mention Christmas or pretend like it’s not there,” said Karen Holgate, director of policy at the Capitol Resource Institute, a pro-family public policy center based in California.
So, it’s wrong to offend anyone but Christians. I guess PC takes an affirmative action approach.
When I grew up in my small home town of Sikeston, Missouri, I never saw any of this. Now that I live in an urban area, I’ve seen plenty of oddities:
1. My company has a “Holiday Party.”
2. I was at one Thanksgiving celebration where a guy read a list of things to be thankful for and after each one said “Let us give thanks and praise.” No, I didn’t leave anything out. He didn’t mention anyone to whom we should give the thanks and praise. What’s the point?
Does anyone know how removing all references to one particular culture that people happen not to like is going to promote multiculturalism?
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David Ancell / Saturday, December 21, 2002 / Comments(0)
For some reason, I remembered a passage from an athiest’s web site as I was driving around Memphis doing last-minute Christmas shopping.
The statement went something like this:
“When something comes along that they can’t explain, they just say that God is greater than our understanding.”
Given the context in which this statement was made, it sounded like they were saying that we were just making excuses for God. Another thing they could be saying is “Since we don’t understand some things, God must not exist.” This can also translate into “If I don’t understand it, I won’t believe it.”
This bothered me when I first heard it. I know now that it is a foolhardy argument. I would hope that the one who created me would be more intelligent than I am. I would hope that he would see the big picture better than I can. Therefore, I hope that he would be doing things that are beyond my understanding. Of course God knows more than we do! Otherwise, he could never have made us.
There are plenty of things about the world that many, many generations did not understand. There are still many things that our scientists do not know. Yet, God has known them, and a whole lot more, from the beginning of time. If he didn’t, he couldn’t have allowed them to happen.
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David Ancell / Saturday, December 21, 2002 / Comments(0)
I had another thought about continuing to post item after item on the scandal. What does this say to people on the outside of the Church? Someone may be looking at these blogs to find some insight about the Catholic Church only to find nothing but scandal info. Such a person may decide that we are turning on each other. So much for evangelization . . . .
I do think that some posting about the scandal is useful and even necessary. If we ignore the subject, an outsider may view it as a failure to acknowledge the scandal. So, we need to acknowledge it and provide explanation for why we are still in the Church. Our reaction to the scandal is very relevant to our lives as Catholics. This is a message that many really need to hear.
The more I think about it, the weaker the argument for spreading the muck seems. There is one blog that I hardly ever go to, partly because I am so disgusted with what looks as though she is trying to find the sleaziest stuff possible on the Church. It’s too bad, because this particular parishoner of St. Blog’s is a very talented writer.
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David Ancell / Friday, December 20, 2002 / Comments(0)
In case you wondered . . .
Here is an article on where the idea of kissing under the mistletoe comes from.
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