Eew.

One Sunday morning, while stationed at Osan Air Base in South Korea, I was in line for breakfast and noticed that the cook behind the counter looked kind of harassed.

After I gave him my order, he asked me how I wanted my eggs. Not wanting to burden him further, I said cheerfully, "Oh,whatever is easiest for you."

With that, he took two eggs, cracked them open onto my plate, and handed it back to me.

Posting slowly going is.

Sorry. It's just that I spend so much time emailing, and now typing at work, and doing laundry, and writing a calendar, and revising old bios, and reading, that I can never come up with anything to post about.

Maybe if I lose my mind later this week I'll post a little about the inaugural ball I went to this weekend. It was interesting, but it really made you appreciate dress code. Any dress code. I'm telling you, man. Some of those outfits wouldn't have stood up to a stiff wind, much less an RA.

Ouch. Offended my eyes, it did. Maybe I'll put more on later. For now, I'm giving up on Whimsey calling, and going to bed. I'm exhausted. All this Pentecosting is wearing me out.

Blessed Feast! Happy birthday, Church!

New Job!

Yup. I'm actually employed, at last. I go down and work three days a week for thie nice guy who runs a music instruction studio. Tuesday I sorted through a couple hundred defunct registration sheets.

Yesterday I spent four solid hours in Microsoft Excel, entering name after name after address after address after instructor after home phone after cell phone after zip code after age after instrument after instrumtn.

Today will be even more interesting, I'm sure. Will keep you posted--sorry about not blogging much lately.

Last post, I promise

It's that time of the decade. I'm going to quit posting for the day.

It just occurs to me that "Midnight Radio" doesn't make sense anymore. I don't ever post at midnight these days, and the idea of the radio show got lost in the shuffle of school stress, etc. Oh well. I like it too much to change it.

Besides, Bishop Sheen is still over there, watching over everything. I guess all is right with the world. Ciao, Ambrosio, wherever you are.

(Would it be totally cheesy at this point to say 'signing off!'? Yes. It would. What a revolting idea. Ugh. How cheesy is that? Like, for real.)

Patriotism swells in the heart of the American bear*

Hmm. Says a retired (ostensibly) Lieutenant Commander per the Iraq thing:

"I would be over there in a minute if I had the youth, the strength, and a complete, functional set of arches in my feet."

I thought that was a beautiful sentiment.

*See Muppets. No connection to the post. Just me being, well, me.

Cause for Canonization opened for USMC Chaplain

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- With the permission of the Vatican, the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services has begun an inquiry that could lead to the canonization of Maryknoll Father Vincent R. Capodanno, a U.S. Navy chaplain who died in 1967 while serving with the Marines in Vietnam.

Msgr. Roland A. Newland, chancellor of the archdiocese, made the formal declaration of the opening of Father Capodanno's cause May 21 during the 12th annual Memorial Day Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.With the declaration, the New York-born priest also receives the title "servant of God." A tribunal set up by the Archdiocese for the Military Services will gather information about Father Capodanno's life and virtues for eventual presentation to the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes.

Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, head of the military archdiocese, was the main celebrant for the Mass, attended by more than 1,500 people.In his homily at the Mass, Father Louis V. Iasiello, a rear admiral who is chief of Navy chaplains, said Father Capodanno "is more than a person of extraordinary military accomplishment. ... He is also a Christian who lived an exemplary life of extraordinary virtue, a person who, through the testament of his life, offers all believers a model of faith to inspire them to live, more deeply, their own Christian vocation.

"Father Iasiello said it was fitting that the chaplain's canonization cause be opened around Memorial Day, when Americans "take time and honor their dead with flowers, flags, memorial speeches and, of course, with prayer.""It is no mere coincidence that today, at yet another time of national emergency, and at a time set aside to honor America's heroes, that at this particular time, the church would single out one of these heroes and celebrate their unique
contributions to both their country and to us, the people of faith," he added.

Although many veterans left Southeast Asia "with physical, psychological and spiritual wounds," Father Iasiello said, others left "with some positive memories, especially the loving memory of having known a very special chaplain and priest, one who day and night, both in and out of combat, reflected the love and mercy of God in their midst."

Born Feb. 13, 1929, on Staten Island in New York, Vincent Robert Capodanno studied at Maryknoll seminaries and was ordained to the priesthood June 7, 1957. He served for the first eight years of his priesthood as a Maryknoll missionary in Taiwan and Hong Kong.Commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Dec. 28, 1965, Father Capodanno asked to serve with the Marines in Vietnam and joined the 1st Marine Division in 1966 as battalion chaplain.According to a biography on the Web site of the military archdiocese, "Marines affectionately called Chaplain Capodanno the 'grunt padre' for his ability to relate well with soldiers and his willingness to risk his life to minister to the men." "Grunt" is slang for a member of the U.S. infantry.He extended his one-year tour of duty in Vietnam by six months to continue serving with his men.

Fatally wounded by enemy sniper fire Sept. 4, 1967, he was posthumously awarded the nation's highest military honor, the Medal of Honor, "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty."Memorials to Father Capodanno include chapels, a boulevard, military buildings, a scholarship fund and the USS Capodanno, commissioned in 1973 for anti-submarine warfare and decommissioned 20 years later.

Que?

(That does mean why, right, in addition to what?)

Why is this blog so boring? Why can I never seem to find time or energy or inclination to post anything on it? It's Memorial Day weekend, there are so many things I could blog about, and patriotism and America and the military are among my favorites subjects, yet I sit and read or (worse) play minesweeper.

This is sad. I should do something about it. It just seems that blogging is the sort of thing you have to be interested in. Jalsevac says that's not true. Writing is something you have to force yourself to do sometimes, something that you have to discipline yourself to do, even on the days ("especially on the days") when you don't feel like it. Whatever. I don't feel like blogging.

So I'm not going to blog. I'm going to go back upstairs, curl up with the cat, and read more of my book about a priest in Russia. Then, later, I'm going to leave with me mum to play for a wedding of two people I don't know from Adam's Housecat (thank you, Addy, for a great new expression to use). The rehearsal last night was a trip, to be sure. As usual, the bride's family (including but not limited to the bride) is not Catholic and has no idea of decorum within the Church. Also as usual, no one has any idea what the primary function of clothing is--to clothe--and instead run around in brightly-colored items which apear to be beach towels, with pencils or something strapped to their heels by numerous thin strings. These, I'm told, are called sandals. They look like something from Communist Russia's torture chambers to me. Or maybe a back brace for a paralytic ferret.

Anyway, the rehearsal was nice, and mom and I have our fingers crossed that the dresses used in the actual ceremony this afternoon (it's a Mass, and we can't decide if that makes it better or worse. I guess it makes it better) aren't overly deficient in things like fabric. I tell you what, though. If some of the women wanted to sit in the choir loft and get our view of the wedding party as it mills around right below us, they'd think twice about wearing their tube top.

That was probably uncharitable of me to say. Oh well. It serves her right. It just seems to me that women who parade and complain about equality and 'equal intelligence gets equal rights' should try and exhibit a little intelligence before they get their 'rights' (whatever that means).

Dang. This is why I hate writing. This post was great, up until the paralytic ferret. However, I can't seem to be able to end it, and the quality and coherence are rapidly dwindling into non-being. Why does this happen to me?? The post shoudl have ended just over a paragraph ago, yet I'm still sitting here. It's very frustrating to never be able to rise above the level of semi-garbage. (I'm going to get an email from Ambrose, I'llbetcha, in approximately 23.6 seconds, informing me that I should never be self-deprecating like that when it clearly isn't true. You watch.) But that's where I'm stuck. Using too many parentheses and probably mispelling tons of stuff up through there because mom put a different (wierd) keyboard no the computer which has all the buttons in the wrong place, and being to lazy to go back and proofread.

The Riddler, the Joker, and

Sorry about that last post. After looking at it all morning, I've finally decided that it needs a teeny bit of explaining, otherwise it just looks somewhat odd.

I think we, as a nation specifically, are two-faced. That's all. I'll betcha that Planned Parenthood and all its evil stepchildren will jump all over this 'new initiative' in order to advance the impression they put out there of themselves as concerned about women and children's health.

Makes me ill.

Washington Post report tells all women to 'think Pregnant'

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves -- and to be treated by the health care system -- as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control.

Read the whole article...

Getting back into the shuffle of things...

Yes, yes. The major general comes...

Actually, it's just summertime. Time for me to kick back, spend way too much time on the couch, and blog about all things. If you all want to wait until I get my company sent home, I'll promise to post something interesting next week.

Dat dere wallflower...

Well, folks, it has happened. Twenty years of Christendom College history have gone up in flames. According to a reliable source, I've been informed that The Wallflower has been burned to death in Kelly's Field, and it now no more.

Once upon a time, a particularly hideous and unique bit of artwork surfaced at Christendom, which became dubbed 'the wallflower' as young men would dress up and bring the oversized print with them to dances, as their 'date', and sit by the wall with it rather than dance. At some uncharted point, the ladies of the campus stole the flower. The gentlemen stole it back. So on and so forth. Somewhere back along those twenty years the idea was conceived to sign the back of the painting, if you were lucky enough to get possession of it, and hide it for the nect generation to unearth.

The wallflower last legitimately surfaced at homecoming of this year, when two alumni hid the thing in the attic crawlspaces of Regina Coeli. A freshman, aspiring to the class presidency for next year, unearthed it and included it in his campaign. Several property abductions, two fights, and a cut finger later, some unidentified individual decided that the Wallflower wasn't worth the fuss it was causing, and burned it.

So much for that.

Be reverent at Mass, says bishop

LONDON The head of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments urged Catholics to be reverent during Mass and to venerate the Eucharist properly.

During a talk in Westminster Cathedral April 1, Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze called on priests to restore tabernacles to central positions in churches and for Catholics to rediscover the tradition of reverent genuflection in the presence of the Eucharist.

He also called for an end to adding details to and subtracting them from the approved rites of the Mass and for an end to soft background music during Mass and other times when people were trying to pray in church.

"This is doubtless well intentioned, but it is a mistake," said the cardinal. "People enter churches to pray, not to be entertained."

The cardinal told about 400 audience members that Mass was the "supreme act of adoration, praise and thanksgiving which humanity can offer God."

"Man is not the center of reality. God is. By adoring God through the holy Eucharist, we pay this due tribute to God's transcendence," he said. "Those who refuse to adore God must not decorate themselves with the apparently nice title of liberal intellectuals."

The cardinal said that a person who refused to give God the adoration he truly deserved was like a child who refused to respect his parents, and as a result harmed his or her own best interests.

"Would it be wrong to call him stupid?" asked the cardinal.

He said Christians must not allow themselves to be "misled by the errors" of a secular mentality "which lives as if God did not exist."

He said attention had to be paid to the roles of every Mass participant, especially the priest, who must act "in such a way that his faith and devotion shine out."

Cardinal Arinze said the October Synod of Bishops stressed that the tabernacle should be the "center of our attention and prayer."

But, he said, some "misguided" people still relegated tabernacles to obscure corners of their churches, where it sometimes was difficult for visitors to locate.

"A do-it-yourself mentality, an attitude of 'nobody will tell me what to do,' or a defiant sting of 'if you do not like my Mass you can go to another parish' is not only against sound theology and ecclesiology, but also offends against common sense," he said. "Unfortunately, sometimes common sense is not very common, when we see a priest ignoring liturgical rules and installing creativity -- in his case idiosyncrasy -- as the guide to the celebration of the Mass."

The talk, titled "The Eucharistic Mystery Calls for Our Response," was the key event of an afternoon dedicated to "thinking about and celebrating" the church's liturgy. Three English prelates -- Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, Archbishop Kevin McDonald of Southwark and Bishop Thomas McMahon of Brentwood and Auxiliary Bishop Mark Coleridge of Melbourne, Australia, were among those who attended.

from Catholic News Service, via mom. (-: Thanks, mom!

Dewm

Please start praying for everyone, as finals begin tomorrow.

Laura and I put almost all of our belongings in storage today, so hopefully that will give us extra study time. Have a great one....

St. Mark

The second Gospel was written by St. Mark, who, in the New Testament, is sometimes called John Mark. Both he and his mother, Mary, were highly esteemed in the early Church, and his mother's house in Jerusalem served as a meeting place for Christians there.

St. Mark was associated with St. Paul and St. Barnabas (who was Mark's cousin) on their missionary journey through the island of Cyprus. Later he accompanied St. Barnabas alone. We know also that he was in Rome with St. Peter and St. Paul. Tradition ascribes to him the founding of the Church in Alexandria.

St. Mark wrote the second Gospel, probably in Rome sometime before the year 60 A.D.; he wrote it in Greek for the Gentile converts to Christianity. Tradition tells us that St. Mark was requested by the Romans to set down the teachings of St. Peter. This seems to be confirmed by the position which St. Peter has in this Gospel. In this way the second Gospel is a record of the life of Jesus as seen throuhh the eyes of the Prince of the Apostles. His feast day is April 25. He is the patron saint of notaries.

Therefore, my brethren...

I have done it. For the first time in at least six years, I have engaged a Protestant friend in a discussion about the various passages in Scripture which deal with faith, works, salvation, and the various combinations thereof.

This is the first time in any number of years that my friend has been even remotely charitable and helpful in the midst of said discussion. Very bad memories of harsh, biting repartee and scornful derision on the part of Protestants are now (happily) being replaced by lucid, kind, Christian dialog. This is nice. I don't think the two of us are going to come to an agreement, perhaps we will, but at least there aren't nasty words and sharp accusations flying around.

Ubi caritas? Thanks, Liz.

Jack shall have Jill....

Oh my goodness. This has been one of those days.

Overdrew my checking account, I found, much to my dismay, shock, upset, concern, confusion, disconcertment, and general "huh"ness. I was not amused. I've got it all straight now, but its really depressing to see just how much living costs.

Very annoying. I have to go write a paper. Pray for me, friends.

Please, Mr. Postman

This text is the actual body of a spam message the blog received yesterday morning. I found it just too amusing to keep to myself:

"Greetings,

I discovered a dormant account in my office, as Group finance director with Lloyds bank London. It will be in my interest to transfer this fund worth Twenty Million Pounds Sterling (£20,000,000) in an account offshore. If you can be a collaborator/partner to this please indicate interest immediately for us to proceed. Remember this is absolutely confidential, as I am seeking your assistance as the beneficiary of this unclaimed funds, since we are not allowed to operate a foreign account, Your contact phone numbers and name will be necessary for this effect, I have reposed my confidence in you and hope that you will not disappoint me."

Sniff.

My blog makes me sad. Nothing is happening on it right now.

It is depressed.

I am exhausted. No more stage managing plays, ever ever ever.

The Scottish Play

If any of you are familiar with a certain work of Shakespeare and the various and sundry myths and legends associated with the putting on of a production thereof, you will understand the following statement.

Given the number of disasters, and their magnitude, which have occurred since this play began, it is safe to say that we might as well be producing Macbeth. We really might. From the beginning days, way back when this play was still the Miracle Worker, some bad karma (I use the term very loosely, not intending any inappropriate religious or philosophical connotations whatever, but rather as a figure of speech amounting to 'jinx' and I intend no resemblance, real or imagined, to any character, event, place, or phenomenon currntly in existence in the world today) has been out to get us.

I'm sick of Midsummer Night's Dream. I want problems to stop happening and the stupid ass' head to quit giving me issues and falling apart, and I want the actors to chill, and I want the curtains to be up, and I want the theatre to be clean, and I want the costumes to fit, and I want the lights to work.

And I want Donna to please help me understand when to cue the lights, because she will certainly not be able to do it once the show is really underway and she is out in the audience. ARGH.

The Month of the Military Child

This month the military will recognize the importance of a very special segment of the military population - military children. One might ask "why is it so important to observe month of the military child?" Children are the future of our nation, and in many cases our military children are the future of our Armed forces.

Military service is predominantly a family business for many families. Many Soldiers have a variety of family ties to the Army. Therefore it is important for the military to place great interest in our military children.

For those of you who did not know just how prominent children are in the military community, here are some interesting facts that show the impact that children and families have on the military:

· In the U.S. military, 90,000 babies are born each year. · Nearly one-half of the military force is 25-years-old or younger, and most families have their first child before this age.

· There are 1 million military children under the age of 11.

· More than half of the active-duty workforce is married, approximately 53 percent.

· Six percent of military service members are single parents.

· One out of every four junior-enlisted service members (grades E-1 to E-4) is married; one of every five has a child.

· Military families move an average of every three years.

· Almost two-thirds of military spouses are employed or seeking employment, including 87 percent of junior-enlisted spouses.

· The Department of Defense has the largest employer-sponsored childcare program in the country, serving more than 200,000 children (ages 12 and under) daily.

· According to a year-long study conducted by the Peabody Center for Education Policy at Vanderbilt University, students enrolled in Department of Defense schools outscore their public school peers on standardized tests.

(courtesy of mom~thanks!)