Musical Oberservations While Packing

As I pack for college and listen to Brahms, I can't help but wonder if there is a necessary connection between higher education and drinking: his Academic Overture is a potpourri of drinking song!

As an aside, I have decided that this blog needs far more Latin, with English translations a click away. Today your click comes in the form of a Wikepedia article. One such drinking song is Gaudeamus igitur (a more inebriated example was not available, sadly):

Maria's Music does not support the views or opinions expressed here in (the fifth verse especially), but simply wishes the world would sing drinking songs more often in this day and age.

Gaudeamus igitur juvenes dum sumus.
Post jucundum juventutem, post molestam senectutem
Nos habebit humus.

Ubi sunt qui ante nos in mundo fuere?
Vadite ad superos transite in inferos
Hos si vis videre..

Vita nostra brevis est brevi finietur.
Venit mors velociter rapit nos atrociter
Nemini parcetur.

Vivat academia vivant professores,
Vivat membrum quodlibet vivat membra quaelibet,
Semper sint in flore.

Vivant omnes virgines faciles, formosae.
Vivant et mulieres tenerae amabiles
Bonae laboriosae.

Vivant et republica et qui illam regit.
Vivat nostra civitas, maecenatum caritas
Quae nos hic protegit.

Pereat tristitia, pereant osores.
Pereat diabolus, quivis antiburschius
Atque irrisores.

Well, this all led to a YouTube search of drinking songs. It's quite a popular thing among colleges I guess... MIT does a good one (catch the quote around 4:30?), and the same tune here again (and again)... U of Michigan Ann Arbor...

Spiritual Growth

Fundamentally there are two types of people in the world: those who reconcile themselves to human nature, and those who reject it. After that, the only way people distinguish themselves is by how willing they are to pursue that. A school friend of mine recommended I read "Prayer: Living With God" by Simon Tugwell (she was recommended the book by another Dominican). Being quite willing to pursue my humanity, understanding my condition to the full, I checked it out, and it has paid off.

Tugwell makes the claim (by his admision copying Aquinas) that humility is rooted in the proper understanding of our humanity, and central to that is the fall of man. There he goes to St. Irenaeus (not St. Augustine), who claimed that man was born immature, and God intended for him to grow up slowly, but man was too hasty, and suffers the consequenses. This is reasonable enough. By eating the apple man grew up too quickly: he took knowledge that he wasn't ready to handle. It's the reason why we don't tell our 4 year old children there are souls burning in hell for all eternity. They aren't ready to handle such a reality.

Here is the amazing part: God, knowing that his beloved 4 year old now knew far too much about himself than he was able to handle made him mortal! He ended his sufferings. Man truly does know God's mind, in the small way that our mind is capable to handle such things. It's not any of our buisness to about sin, heaven, or hell. Why? None of it has anything to do with us really. Oh how I wish the world knew this: the saints do not preach fire and brimstone! Their message is one of love! Jesus is a burning funace of charity. Every drop of water in the ocean would not account for our sins, yet all that water would not cause any hesitation to the fire which is God's love for us. We messed up, but God loved us too much to let it really hurt.

Being a saint is not a matter of not sinning. It's not a matter of aeseticism. It's not a matter of anything! You just have to be yourself. Of course, this is wildly difficult in this day and age. I'm wasn't the kind of guy to play music. It's not that music is bad: God creates people who can play music, but not me. There are different religious orders because everybody is called to do different things. It would be misery for some people to contemplate God in silence all day, and, so too, some people simply could not contain themselves if they had to live with (not in) the world each day.

All you have to do to be a saint is be yourself. You have to understand your human nature. That's no easy task, be so warned. No easy task at all: confronting yourself never is. Crosses and pennences, spiritual reading and prayer, these are all just ways to understand your human nature. Of course they are good for other things too; don't missunderstand me, prayer is not all about us. But at the course of the spiritual life is the pressing desire to reconcile yourself to yourself. (To continue St. Irenaeus' understanding) to do this is to grow up.

True Atheists and True Theists

A new blog was brought to my attention: Quantitative Metathesis. The writer just recently became a Passionist nun, so she's done posting. I began reading her blog from the beginning and have been thoroughly in awe on a number of occasions. She is such a good writer.

At any rate, I've always been annoyed with Atheism these days. You get this contingent of kids who for whatever reason don't profess the existence of a God, but they leave their philosophizing there (I saw many such kids at my Catholic high school). Then these kids grow up, in bodily age only, and operate in Christian civilization uninterruptedly while still denying a Christian God. They accept an innate understanding of right and wrong, not explicitly, but implicitly, never admitting to themselves that their sermons on "equality" and "fairness" assume that equality and fairness are rights owed to man. The real atheists knew you can't deny God and accept a moral law not stemming from socialization. Quantitative Metathesis girl puts it much better:

When we begin denying the legitimacy of our natural inclinations, we simultaneously begin denying the legitimacy of our selves. In effect, we deny that we have the ability to know good from evil, truth from falsehood, happiness from grief. We deny that there is more to the world than its face value, that there is something other than physical reality. That these distinctions must exist is among the most basic of our gut feelings – even the most hardened materialist and cynic would like them to be true, and is driven to despair and/or madness when he convinces himself that they are not. He denies the truth his heart professes and, in doing so, destroys himself. His self cannot deal with the rejection of truths it knows to be true, even though he is the one who has rejected them, and it wilts within the barred walls of its logical prison.

As you no doubt caught on, this was written in the midst of a post discussing natural inclinations, in fact, the natural inclination Chesterton had towards God. What I think she is identifying is the initial irrationality of so many Christian doctrines. There are so many things that Christians believe that you aren't going to be able to explain to anybody. They may make perfect sense once your in the door, but until then, it's a mystery. That's why the Church calls the Sacraments the Sacred Mysteries! I think God gives us the inclinations that QM talks about in order to get us in the door, and once were in there then he can start to explain it all to us.

Take not that the explicit theology of the Epistles is not in the Gospels. Look at the Gospel for today: Jesus says (last week) "whoever eats my body and drinks my blood inherits eternal life", at which point the crowd responds "this is a hard teaching, who can believe it", and Jesus says "if you wish to leave, go". Jesus knew full well that he wasn't going to be able to insist on the grave, central and incredible nature of the Eucharist in the Church he was establishing. Even after centuries of theology we can hardly put two and two together.

A Thesis

Modesty is the virtue of limitation which influences all actions. Often we understand modesty to be the wearing of sufficient clothing, but modesty really goes much farther. Mark Twain said “modesty died when clothes were born”. Twain identified an acutely American problem; not the immodesty resulting from too little, but the immodesty of too much. American today suffers under the weight of too much. Austerity (modesty applied to personal possessions), humility (modesty applied to actions) and self-awareness (the modest understanding of one’s self) are all lacking in American society. These lack of these three interconnected virtues is a contributing factor to growing personal debt, increasing health care needs, the widening wealth gap, increasingly centralized power, and a pervasive entitlement mentality. These problems are both problems themselves, and the causes of further problems, most concerning among them the problems we begin to face as the people’s understanding of government’s role becomes more socialistic in nature.

Psalm 94:7-8

As long as were on the Liturgy side of things: at my favorite high school, back when Father M was around, we'd say "If today you hear his voice / O harden not your hearts", I believe as the psalm antiphon, but possibly as the alleluia verse; I wasn't as attentive to the mass back then. At any rate, in my study of the Liturgy of the Hours, Latin style, I encountered that very verse in Psalm 94, used in the Invitiatory!

Utinam hodie vocem eius audiatis:
Nolite obdurare corda vestra

As seems to almost always be the case, I'm more fond of the Latin rendition. "Utinam" means something to the effect of "if only", "would that" or "oh, that"; it is an adverb of longing. "Nolite" comes from the verb "nolle", and is in the imperitive form. It's the subtulties that did me in: what an opportunity you have to hear his voice today! Don't you dare harden your heart.

I should have been born in 1922, Part 2

On account of my 7am Calculus II class in the coming months I'll have to follow the wonderful liturgy The Church has without being a part of it. As a side note, isn't it awesome that the Catholic Church has daily mass? And not only can you go to mass everyday, but there are different prayers, antiphons, readings and prefaces for each day. There are different masses for every saint, common masses for different types of saints, and masses for different occasions. So yes, I don't want to miss out on all of that cool stuff even though I'm going to be in a lecture hall instead of a chapel, so I went out and got myself the Vatican II Weekday Missal.

Today, August 6th, The Feast of the Transfiguration, I was rather excited to use my missal for the first time, only to find out that those crooks over at Vatican II make you buy their Sunday Missal if you want to follow the Transfiguration, so, lacking such a Sunday Missal I turned to my much prized, if rarely useful in the modern era, Catholic Missal a la 1943. Check this out:


The modern priest says: Blessed are you, God of all Creation, for it is through your goodness that we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become the bread of life.

But from 1943 to 1962(?) it was: Accept, O holy Father, almighty, everlasting God, this stainless host, which I, thine unworthy servant, offer unto thee, my God, living and true, for mine innumerable sins, offenses, and negligence, and for all here present; as also for all faithful Christians, both living and dead, that it may be profitable for my own and for their salvation unto life eternal. Amen

And then: We offer unto thee, O Lord, the chalice of salvation, beseeching thy clemency that, in the sight of thy divine majesty, it may ascend with the odor of sweetness, for our salvation, and for that of the whole world. Amen.

I Quote Exactly

I'm learning it's tough to learn utter crap. I think the reason I never studied any to much in high school was because it all made so much sense. The only things I had to learn were the things that I couldn't make sense of except by memorizing them: trigonometry identities and biology vocab come to mind. All of my teachers were so good at making sense. That's because they were teaching me how to think more than they were shoving knowledge down my throat. Well, in Sociology 242, Modern Social Problems, this is the stuff I'm memorizing. I think the individual statements are ridiculous enough, I'll forgoe the commentary. I quote exactly:


"The powerful, by making and enforcing the laws, create and define deviance."

"In essence, the largest corporations control the world economy"

"Capitalism generates inequality"

"Thus, the candidates tend to represent a limited constituency - the wealth"

"The law does not exist as an abstraction"

"The schools, for instance, consciously teach youth that capitalism is the only correct economic system. This indoctrination to conservative values achieves a consensus among the citizenry concerning the status quo.

"Whenever the interest of the wealthy clash with those of other groups or even of the public at large, the interest of the former are served"

"The poor, being powerless..."

"Foreign policy seems to be carried on in the light of the needs of the munitions makers, the Pentagon, the CIA, and the multinational corporations"

[My favorite] "Religious beliefs, such as the resistance of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and of fundamentalist Muslim regimes such as in Saudi Arabia to the use of contraceptives, are a great obstacle to population control. However, religion is not an insurmountable barrier. Despite the Catholic hierarchy's resistance to family planning, some nations with overwhelming Catholic majorities have extremely low birthrates"

[My other favorite] "Malnourishment also causes a low level of energy. [Footnote:] Although low energy levels are a result of poverty, many persons have blamed poverty on an inherent lack of energy, or "drive" in the poor - a classic example of blaming the victim"

Deviance

"A guiding assumption of our inquiry here, however, is that norm violators are symptoms of social problems, not the disease itself. In other words, most deviants are victims and should not be blamed entirely by society for their deviance; rather, the system they live in should be blamed."

'Social Problems' - Eitzen, Zinn and Smith

A wise history teacher of mine once made the claim that liberals have a problem with human nature. I didn't completely understand what he meant (I had actually just finished saying liberals were complete idiots... his refined analysis caught me off guard), but now I think I do. If we can't accept our nature, that we have free will, that there is evil/wrong and good/right actions, and that our free will can choose evil, then you get the above quote. Get this: if we say that there are deviants and there are non-deviants, and the deviants are victims of a society of which they are not a part of, that means that non-deviants cause deviance. How's that work?

The Obligitory Monthly End of the World Political Conspiracy Post

The bottom of my UWEC tuition bill:

The Legislature and the Governor have authorized $1,189,756,579 of state funds for the University of Wisconsin System and its students during the 2008-09 academic year. This is a tuition subsidy of $8,041 per student from the taxpayers of Wisconsin.

If only the government paid for 1/3 of my home, or 1/3 or my heating bill. If only, if only.


Socialism is comin' folks.

Liturgica Horarum!

I've been using the Liber Usualis for all of my chanting needs for the past few months (in which time I also picked up a copy of Wheelock's and began translating the Psalms from the Vulgate). I think I'll explain my predicament in economic terms:

Concerning the goods market, the supply of the Liturgica Horarum is extremely low, provoking a high price level (and I suppose a low national output for the Vatican). The demand for the Liturgica Horarum has been steadily increasing for a number of reasons, despite it being completely unnecessary and totally expensive. Mainly, a recent influx of M1 money (as a result of graduating high school... who knew?) caused what I guess would be small time inflation in my wallet.

I should add that I was extra inspired by an article about Padre Pio which reported that he slept 4 hours at night with two 2 hour naps during the day and ate 3 grams of food a day. And also by St. Isadore who had 2 angels help him work in the fields so that his boss didn't get mad at him for always being late because he was at mass. Seems to me that God will allow you to get beyond your little human weaknesses if you ask him (well... not that kind of teasing asking). I figured the books were a bit expensive to have sitting on my book shelf, as nice as they would be employed in such an instance. I always wanted to chant in college, both as a way of getting all the music in me focused on something that will get me to heaven, and as a way of reminding myself (as I lock myself in a small soundproof room) that Christians are called to a life completely different than the rest of the world.

Warning, Long Digression: On that note, I want to start a red cardigan society at Eau Claire: red because that's the color of martyrs, and cardigans because they are wildly different, but horribly practical at the same time, just like the martyrs. The members of The Most Noble Chapter of the Red Cardigan Society of Eau Claire would wear red cardigans to class when the weather was fit for such attire. We'd never advertise what were doing; we'd act as if cardigans are it, because they really are! It'd be intended as a way of encouraging those kids who have an inkling that Christians are somehow called to something outside of this world to completely embrace it, and be encouraged by the "cool" guy walking across the lawn in a red cardigan.

The decrease in supply and increase in demand probobly did not lead to a lower price level (because the Vatican no doubt hopes to avoid bidding wars for such books, the competition over them being so high), but the real GDP of the Vatican increased by $400.

More to follow for sure, but for now a page (actually, my favorite page in the whole book. Pay special attention to the Heth, Teth and Jod bits from the book which was free, but just a bit too usual:

***** This is from the Good Friday Matins. I consider myself supremely lucky that on the day of my first Holy Eucharist and Confirmation I prayed Matins and Lauds at the beautiful St. Agnes . Throughout the two hours candles are put out one by one, until only one remains. This one candle is then hidden behind the alter for a while, and then all those chanting pound on their books until the candle is brought back out. (Watch Father Stromburg of Holy Family during the entrance: when everybody is ready to kneel he pounds on his hymnal, and the whole procession kneels.) I'm also glad I didn't have to sing a song after the festivities as so many poor children are forced to do these days.