Nows The Time

I love that time in a class where you can start to insert snarky lines in your lines in your assignments because your going to get an A even if you don't turn the assignment in, you don't care about the course material, and the teacher knows that the material is hardly worthy of being taken seriously. Today I had to write about the various ways in which addiction affects the wellness dimensions. My treatment of the ways in which drug addiction harms "environmental wellness":

And lastly, environmental wellness is damaged because the addict is likely to drive great distances in order to satisfy his addiction, causing large amounts of fossil fuels to be burnt, to the detriment of the Earth. Furthermore, his stupored state causes him to be wholly uninterested in planting trees, offsetting his carbon foot print, or eliminating trays from the cafeteria, all but negating his positive contributes the environment.


In celebration of liberal stupidity, lets preserve a truly endangered Bird! I'm glad bass solos have become more sophisticated over the years...

Recomended Movies for Health Class

Back in high school we'd watch really cool movies, because I had really cool teachers.

In college we watch really stupid movies, because I have really stupid teachers.

The recommended viewing list for UWEC Health Class includes SICKO - Michael Moore and An Inconvenient Truth - Al Gore. Aside from the fact that being sick is a necessary prerequisite for socialized health care, and the fact that breathing poluted air can cause respiratory problems, how do these movies even remotely relate to the class?

I'm inclined to think they only relate to the professors liberal agenda!

And I Quote

"To enjoy spiritual wellness is to possess a set of guiding beliefs, principles, or values that give meaning and purpose to your life, especially in difficult times. The spiritually well person focuses on the positive aspects of life and finds spirituality to be an antidote for negative feelings such as cynicism, anger, and pessimism."

-'Fit and Well' - Fahey et all.


If they only knew!

God and Math

A while ago I challenged a friend to a math duel. The rules: we send original proofs back and forth, each trying to refute the other's, and at the end of the school year present them to our former math teacher, who will judge which is the 'coolest' proof and also the 'most impressive'. For the opening proof I went big:

Prove Euclid's definition of a point: 'that which has no part'.

I'll save you the infinite series notations, and explain this in a pseudo-philosophic way. Take a line segment, from 0 to 1. Now remove the middle third, inclusively, such that you have two line segments, from 0 to 1/3, and 2/3 to 1, including all end points. Now remove the middle third of those two, and keep doing that infinitely. Lets define the term "length" to mean the total "unremoved" portions, so at the beginning it is 1, then 2/3, and next 4/9. (This is called the 'Cantor Set', after a certain Georg Cantor, who did a lot of work with infinity, and such). The length becomes infinitely smaller, until it reaches 0 (this can be proven with an infinite series). Yet there are also an infinite number of points, since the end points can never be in the middle third, thus 0, 1/3, 2/3, and 1 are four of the infinitely many end points. This means that there is infinitely many points within 0 and 1, but infinitely little length. Therefore, a point has no part.

I thought that was cool enough, but then I encountered another Greek, Zeno of Elea. He cleverly pointed out that if a point has no part, no matter how many of them you stick together you will never get anything of substance (a line). So in the first place we have proven mathematically that a point does not have any length, yet that means that infinitely many points of no length somehow constitute length.

And people say there is not a God?

Mahler Symphony No. 2 - Text

Mvt. IV

Primeval Light (Urlicht)
O red rosebud!
Man lies in deepest need!
Man lies in deepest pain!
Oh how I would rather be in heaven.
There, I came upon a broad path;
There, came a little angel and wanted to send me away.
Ah no! I would not let myself be sent away!
I am from God and want to return to God!
The loving God will give me a little light,
Which will light me into that eternal blissful life!

Mvt. V

Rise again, yes, rise again,
Will you My dust,
After a brief rest!
Immortal life! Immortal life
Will He who called you, give you.
To bloom again were you sown!
The Lord of the harvest goes
And gathers in, like sheaves,
Us together, who died.
O believe, my heart, O believe:
Nothing to you is lost!
Yours is, yes yours, is what you desired
Yours, what you have loved
What you have fought for!
O believe,
You were not born for nothing!
Have not for nothing, lived, suffered!
What was created
Must perish,
What perished, rise again!
Cease from trembling!
Prepare yourself to live!
O Pain, You piercer of all things,
From you, I have been wrested!
O Death, You masterer of all things,
Now, are you conquered!
With wings which I have won for myself,
In love’s fierce striving,
I shall soar upwards
To the light which no eye has penetrated!
Its wing that I won is expanded,
and I fly up.
Die shall I in order to live.
Rise again, yes, rise again,
Will you, my heart, in an instant!
That for which you suffered,
To God will it lead you!

On The Eucharist

Every now and then I wish I was a parish priest. This never occurs out of any reasonable desire for such a life, but mostly because I with the parish priests we do have were better at their jobs, a job which I as a layman am incapable of fulfilling.

Understanding that, if I were a parish priest next Sunday's homily would be on the Eucharist. It's relevant for a few reasons: one, it means thanksgiving, and my parishioners would be fresh off their Thanksgiving festivities, likely to enjoy left over turkey after mass. Such a topic is a sermon on it's own, but more to the point, I'd address what's going on in Rhode Island, with our pro-abortion supposedly-Catholic Congressman Patrick Kennedy. If you haven't heard, here's the long and short of it: Bishop Tobin reminded Congressman Kennedy that his pro-abortion stance is in fundamental disagreement with the Church's teachings. Kennedy said "that doesn't make me any less Catholic"; Bp. Tobin said "well, actually it does... being Catholic means you assent to Catholic teaching. Because of this, it isn't proper for you to receive the Eucharist".

So today I went to the dreaded (unfortunately!) Newman Center, giving it one last chance to redeem itself by presenting Church history in a positive light, or impressing the necessity of the sacraments, or faithfully teaching Church teaching. Unfortunately I was let down on all three fronts. What got me most worked up was the comment "I have largely ignored the Bishops and The Pope. I have no time for anybody who is going to say that you cannot receive The Eucharist".

I have no doubt that this gentleman speaks out of an understanding of the love and community of The Church, which is a fundamental message of the Gospel, no doubt. I don't think he is as much of a schismatic as he professes, I think he's just uneducated. And furthermore I think the majority of Catholics are just like him; the majority of non-Catholics no doubt simply do not understand the Church. So as a parish priest I would rectify the situation.

See, The Eucharist is The Body of Jesus. That is central to the whole thing. He said "this is my body", and that explains it quite well... that fact, as you might have guessed, has some implications, to put it mildly. Firstly, The Eucharist ought to be treated with extreme reverence: its God after all. I would encourage my parishioners to receive the Eucharist on the tongue, rather than holding Jesus in their hands. It's curious that we will use a fork so that our mashed potatoes and gravy doesn't touch our hands, but we won't take a simple measure to avoid The Eucharist touching our hands. But more to the point, the individual receiving The Eucharist must be in a state to do so! It's not as if we can ever merit receiving Jesus, or merit anything he did for us, or merit the fact that he existed at all, but what we can do is at least show a little respect.

Perhaps a whimsical example would illustrate the situation: imagine a average looking high school nerd right around prom time. By some miraculous event he ends up going to the prom with the best looking (read "most modest"), nicest (read "most Christian") gal in the school! In preparing for the prom he surely realizes that he is not worthy of such a wonderful date, nor is anything he does in the duration of the night going to earn him any merit, so is he going to show up in jeans, without having showered? No! He's going to dress himself up nice, clean his car and use a spray of cologne! That's what the Eucharist is like! It's not as if you are ever going to impress upon God the necessity of him giving you Jesus; he gives it to you out of love, just like the girl goes with the boy out of love, not out of any self-interest.

Make sure that you are in a worthy state to receive, lest you offend the God who so lovingly gave himself to you. Bp. Tobin isn't being a jerk; he's actually being all the more loving: he doesn't want Congressman Kennedy to have the grave sin of a sinful communion on his soul! And it truly would be sinful, lest we believe that The Church does not express the will of God in it's teachings, at which point you're really unprepared to receive the Eucharist anyways.

Recently I convinced an (now former!) nonpracticing Catholic to being going to Sunday mass with me. Unfortunately he did not go to Confession before. Now, time comes around to receive the Eucharist, and he gets in line! I said "wait! Did you go to confession?" and he said "No..." with a mostly-confused, slightly-angered look on his face. Thanks be to God he did not receive the Eucharist, and he later thanked me for reminding him. But what's going on! I haven't been Catholic for a whole year yet, and somehow these kids who were raised in The Church aren't aware, or at least it's not a pressing issue, that they need to be free of mortal sin, as a bare minimum, to receive the Eucharist? I'm proud to report that he went to confession for the first time in 5 years and became the second person I have had a meal with at Eau Claire who is in full standing with the Roman Catholic Church! He confessed to 82 year old, nearly miniature, Monsignor Klimick, who, so the penitent reported, dropped his Bible when he reported that it had been 5 years since his last confession. I made sure to find an extra loving priest for his return confession, and aside from his slippery fingers, I'm sure Monsignor Klimick fit the bill: the crusty priests are the real softies.

Hopefully you could walk away from mass understanding why it is that The Eucharist is not fit for reception by anybody who is not in full communion with The Church. It's not an elite club, and it's not a superiority thing: it's an issue of gratitude for what you are doing, and ultimately the Church hierarchy is only interested in protecting it's members, and it's non-members, from grave sin, nothing more, nothing less. Like everything else in life, you have to do a little work to reap the rewards of The Eucharist, and what a reward it is!

UGH!

How could any young Catholic boy not feel like they're missing out on something getting married?

Would you have some decency please!

ORA PRO NOBIS, SANCTO AUGUSTINUS HIPPONENSIS!

So last night I showed up to what I thought was going to be a rather innocent residence hall association meeting, only to soon learn that the next activity set for planning is "Sex in the Dark". Initially I figured "can't (and surely don't) people have sex in the dark on their own accord... what do we have to plan this for." I found out soon enough that the idea is to gather in a hall basement, turn off the lights so that nobody can see each other, and ask "experts" (anonymously, read without consequence) questions about sex. I quote experts, because I doubt anything real like this, or even this will come up (by the way, isn't New Advent the best thing since sliced bread? I verified this humorous bit on just that website today).

BEATUS VIR QUI NON ABIIT IN CONSILIO IMPIORUM

ET IN VIA PECCATORUM NON STETIS

IN CATHEDRA DERISORUM NON SEDIT!!

After the meeting I went to get my now-traditional ice cream cone (a tradition that may soon be stopping, due to the weather) when I ran into some people I knew. I have come to quite enjoy eating by myself, because I don't really enjoy the conversations that occur, and, unlike high school, where I suffered the same thing, it is quite possible to live your whole college life talking to nobody, with anybody caring to disrupt that situation. But alas, sometimes you get wrapped into it, and I didn't have the conviction to decline their offers. Once again I was sorely disappointed as one gentleman, and I use that term extremely loosely, went on to discuss his sex life, quoting his girlfriend as saying "well, if we got the parts we mind as well use them". He further dismayed me by "assuring" me that they rolled out of bed and went to mass together the next morning, where the priest, in hopes of preventing the swine flu, promoted a fist bump approach to the sign of peace, right before the sinful couple was going to frivolously receive the Eucharist.

MEMORARE, O PIISIMA VIRGO MARIA!

So, I was pretty well disgusted with it all when, much to my dismay, I walked past the pro-choice club meeting today. Now, I don't mean to disparage their existence, because, while they are misguided and wrong, that doesn't negate their right to have a club, in the same way that it wouldn't be right to deny advocates of another Jewish Holocaust the right to organize (right?). But it was their sign that set me off. I should point out that groups usually don't have signs, much less a larger piece of presentation board with condoms all over it. Now, please tell me, what does the pro-choice movement even stand for now? It used to be, "this poor woman was raped, she should not have to give birth to the resulting kid", which is a tragic circumstance indeed, and it is at least understandable how a misguided person, poorly trained in ethics (and it's difficulties) might have lapsed.

DOMINE DEUS MEUS IN TE SPERAVI

SALVA ME AB OMNIBUS PERSEQUENTIBUS ME

ET LIBERA ME!

But it's just sex all the time now! Sex, sex, sex! Lets have sex without consequence (good or bad I might add)! Lets have sex without cares (for ourselves our the person we "love", if we are even that noble)! Lets have sex for no reason at all! If you got the parts, you mind as well use them, right?

AUDITORIUM NOSTRUM IN NOMINE DOMINI

QUI FECIT CAELUM ET TERRAM!

College

Rapture

As you know, I'm reading St. Theresa of late. I couldn't help but laughing today. After treating 4 stages of prayer she treats rapture. She says offhandedly: "sometimes my whole body has been affected, to the point of being raised up from the ground," and continues "but once, when we were together in choir, and I was on my knees and about to communicate, it caused me the greatest distress. It seemed to me a most extraordinary thing [no kidding...] and I thought there would be a great deal of talk about it [understandable]; so I ordered the nuns not to speak of it. On other occasions, when I have felt that the Lord was going to enrapture me (once it happened during a sermon, on our paternal festival, when some great ladies were present), I have lain on the ground and the sisters have come and held me down, but none the less the rapture has been observed.

I didn't think I'd ever be provoked to laughter reading about rapture, but God is just too weird to let anything he does be normal.