From St. Iranaeus - Not On His Feast Day

Jan at Yearning For God has a lovely quote from St. Iranaeus which I will shamelessly steal:

It is not you who shapes God, it is God who shapes you.
If then you are the work of God, await the hand of the artist
Who does all things in due season.
Offer God your heart, soft and tractable,
And keep the form in which the artist has fashioned you.
Let your clay be moist,
Lest you grow hard and lose the imprint of God's fingers.

Irenaeus, 2nd Century Bishop

Jan, I hope that you don't mind.

On A Roll - Woof, Woof!

I'm sending you on lots of errands, but our friend, Clumber, an old dog, who's sometimes good, but sometimes gets into mischief, is a master at photoshopping. Don't ask me how he does it with his paws, but he does.

He is on a roll at Barkings of an Old Dog, if you'd like to indulge in a few irreverent laughs.

The Jena Six

Ormonde Plater at Through the Dust has a post today on the Jena six with a YouTube clip from NBC.

Feast Day Of St. Bartholomew

Image from the Catholic Forum.

Bartholomew was one of the twelve Apostles. In the Synoptics, his name is coupled with Philip, suggesting that they were friends. Some scholars believe he is the same person as Nathaniel, in John's Gospel.

Tradition holds that he preached in Armenia (or India) and that he was martyred by being flayed alive and then beheaded. Thus, in the painting above, he is shown holding a flaying knife.

I found a painting of the saint already flayed, his body a bright red color, but I could not use that one.

Information from James Kiefer at the Lectionary.

He is the patron saint of "Armenia; bookbinders; butchers; cobblers; Forentine cheese merchants; Forentine salt merchants; Gambatesa, Italy; Gharghur, Malta; leather workers; nervous diseases; neurological diseases; plasterers; shoemakers; tanners; trappers; twitching; whiteners" according to the Catholic Forum.

I find that I'm always intrigued by the patronage information.

PRAYER

Almighty and everlasting God, who gave to your apostle Bartholomew grace truly to believe and to preach your Word: Grant that your Church may love what he believed and preach what he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen

READINGS:

Psalm 91 or 91:1-4
Deuteronomy 18:15-18
1 Corinthians 4:9-15
Luke 22:24-30

UPDATE: I'm just realizing that in the picture I chose, Bartholomew's pose with the knife appears somewhat threatening, as though he's about to attack. None of the pictures that I found that were legal for me to use were completely satisfying, so there it is. He's not going to hurt you.

UPDATE 2: Padre Mickey has a much more exiting post on St. Bart involving idols and demons and all sorts of interesting stuff and a lovely old icon of a black St. Bart. I should know to leave the early saints to him and not try to compete, because he always wins the contest - even though it's not really a contest. He likes the early saints.

UPDATE 3: From our friend LapinBizarre, who has come through again for me with information on the picture at the top:

You'll be pleased to know that you've hit upon an artist known only as "the Master of the St. Bartholomew Altarpiece" Google reveals that he has been described as "the best painter about whom we know nothing". The full painting, originally in a church in Cologne, also includes Sts. Lucy & Cecelia and a donor. It's fun.

Here's the link to the Web Gallery of Art.

Location, Location, Location

From CBC.CA:

NEW YORK (AP) - The so-called Queen of Mean's last property is fit for a king.

Leona Helmsley, for years the imperious head of a multibillion-dollar real estate and hotel empire, will spend eternity in a $1.4 million suburban mausoleum with a magnificent view, alongside her beloved husband, Harry. She previously moved her husband's remains after becoming dissatisfied with his old neighbourhood.
....

The ornate granite mausoleum boasts about 120 square metres, with a dozen Doric columns and stained-glass windows re-creating the Manhattan skyline - including the Empire State Building, once the crown jewel of the Helmsley properties.
....

"You can't take it with you," the mayor [Philip Zegarelli] of Sleepy Hollow,said. "But this is certainly an image of the Helmsley style and elegance, the New York skyline, and her pieces of property."

Is it unseemly to build one's own monument? If it is, Leona Helmsley, God rest her soul, is not the first to do so. She is remembered for her comment, as quoted by a member of her staff, upon being convicted of tax evasion, "Only the little people pay taxes."

The mausoleum has a lovely view, and she's in good company in Sleepy Hollow, with Washington Irving, Andrew Carnegie, Brooke Astor.

From The Diocese Of Wenchoster

And all the while I thought they were processions.

At the link, there's a whole page of news and pictures from the Pharisaios Journal, the official journal of the diocese.

Land Of The Free And Home Of The Brave

From the Washington Post:

Not that they're worried or anything. But the White House evidently leaves little to chance when it comes to protests within eyesight of the president. As in, it doesn't want any.

A White House manual that came to light recently gives presidential advance staffers extensive instructions in the art of "deterring potential protestors" from President Bush's public appearances around the country.
....

But that does not mean the White House is against dissent -- just so long as the president does not see it. In fact, the manual outlines a specific system for those who disagree with the president to voice their views. It directs the White House advance staff to ask local police "to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in the view of the event site or motorcade route."

The protesters can protest, but the president must not see the protesters, for he must remain in his protective bubble, or else what? He will become discouraged, disheartened, reality will intrude into his Alice in Wonderland view of our country, of the people he works for, of the folks who pay his salary. What then? Will he be thrown off balance so that he will not be able to make his speech?

The manual demonstrates "that the White House has a policy of excluding and/or attempting to squelch dissenting viewpoints from presidential events," said ACLU lawyer Jonathan Miller. "Individuals should have the right to express their opinion to the president, even if it's not a favorable one."

This man with such tender sensibilities is our leader. Has he no sense of shame, of embarrassment? What about the folks who write these manuals and implement them? What's wrong with them?

Jeffrey and Nicole Rank wore anti-Bush t-shirts to an event in Charleston, West Virginia, and were arrested when they refused to remove them. They sued the federal government.

The federal government settled the First Amendment case last week for $80,000, but with no admission of wrongdoing.

White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, refused to comment because two similar cases having to do with the manual are pending.

How is such a timid, scared human being able to motivate his staff? Do they laugh behind his back when they are ordered to implement this sort of foolishness? Isn't there anyone on his staff with enough sense and courage to say, "You know, we really shouldn't do this"?

I guess not.

50 Years Ago Today....Part 2

Metropolitan Cathedral - Mexico City. Image from Wiki

At the end of part one of my story of our adventure to Mexico, I left M and me on the mountainous road headed to Mexico City, dreading the CAMINO SINUOSO road signs. As we made our way to the city, we noticed that the brakes on the car did not seem to be gripping normally. The condition gradually worsened, and there was no place that we passed through that seemed a likely spot to stop to have the brakes checked, so on we went. We shifted into low gear, which helped a good bit, although we took a few descending curves a little faster than we wanted to - driving like Mexican drivers.

As we reached Mexico City, the brakes were barely holding, so before going to our hotel, we drove to a large Chrevrolet dealership to have them check the brakes. We did not plan to drive the car in Mexico City itself, because the traffic was so wild and because taxi's were cheap, so we left the car there.

When we checked back with them about the problem, we were told that there was no brake fluid at all left in the car when we dropped it off. It was bone dry. God was with us.

From our hotel window, we looked down on the Zócalo, the old square. I see that the Majestic Hotel is still there, with the same name, operating under the Best Western umbrella. Other buildings situated on the square are the Metropolitan Cathedral, the National Palace, and city hall. AAA had found us a very nice hotel, indeed, at a reasonable price. I remember we ate at the roof-top restaurant there.

On Sunday, we attended mass at the cathedral. I was a Roman Catholic back then, and I remember liking the familiarity of the Latin mass in a foreign country. In those days, wherever in the world you went, if you attended a Roman Catholic mass, you found the same Latin mass as back home.

We did the usual tourist activities in Mexico City, visiting the cathedral, the art museum, the Tiffany glass curtain. We took a taxi out to the volcanoes, Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatepetl - I suppose our car wasn't ready yet. It cost us a good chunk of our money, and when we arrived at the site, the volcanoes were covered with clouds. We felt cheated, that somehow the taxi driver should have known about the clouds, and we argued a little with him, but we paid him, and he took us back to the city.

I really wanted to see them, because in one of my school books, I had read the legend of the two lovers, who came to an unhappy end and who gave their names to the volcanoes.

We had been warned about drinking at the high altitude, so we took nothing alcoholic for three or four days. We had decided we would splurge and eat one meal at a fancy restaurant while we were in the city, and we had chosen 123 - yes, that was the name - a restaurant recommended in our guide book. We decided that we were acclimated enough that we could have a drink along with our top-rated meal. We both ordered old-fashioneds. We ate our delicious meal and drank our drinks. About halfway through hers, M realized that her drink was having a rather powerful effect on her, and she stopped drinking. I drank the whole drink and soon began feeling really drunk. I got through the meal, by the hardest, without skidding my meat out of my plate onto the table or the floor, but as we neared the end of the meal, I told M, "I don't know how I am going to manage to get up and walk out of here?" She became a somewhat alarmed. We sat a little longer to see if the inebriated feeling eased up, but it did not. It was such an elegant place, and I could see myself falling flat and dying from embarrassment. Finally, we got up and began to walk out. M was eyeing me apprehensively as I walked very deliberately and carefully. On a couple of occasions, I had to steady myself on one of the tables as we passed. Yes, I did. I hoped the folks at the tables didn't mind, but what could I do?

Since this is not a travelogue, but an adventure story, I will give a list of the places we visited, either in Mexico City or within a day trip's drive.

Palace of Fine Arts - murals by the four great native artists, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and José Clemente Orozco - YES! Magnificent!
Tiffany glass curtain - Underwhelming. I think that the lighting was supposed to represent the sun rising and setting on a picturesque scene, but it didn't move me.

Chapultepec Castle and the lovely surrounding park

Bullfight at the Plaza del Toros - Yes, I'm ashamed to say I went. We did not really want to go, but people had told us that we could not go to Mexico without going to a bullfight. Despite all the pageantry, I did not like it at all. I pitied the bulls the entire time.

The Pyramid of the Sun - a marvel to see. We climbed the pyramid. I remember that going up was fine, but coming down the steps was frightening to acrophobic me - an adventure, indeed.

Xochimilco - the little Venice, with its canals and floating gardens instead of gondolas

Taxco - picturesque town with red tile roofs and wonderful silver bargains and extremely narrow streets to navigate in a car

Cuernavaca - Cortes' palace and old cathedral

Puebla

I believe that we covered the territory pretty well in the six days that we stayed in Mexico City. During these travels we had two more flat tires, but mercifully none on the road, plus we were informed at a service station along the way to somewhere, "La tubería de gasolina se gotea," which, of course, required another car repair.

On one of our day trips, we visited the shrine of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, which houses the image shown below of the Virgin Mary, which is said to have appeared miraculously on the cloak of Juan Diego, a humble peasant, at Tepeyac in 1531. The link gives the history of the area and the story of the apparitions of Mary to Juan Diego.



I was quite moved by my visit to the shrine. To see the numbers of people there, many ascending the rough steps on their knees, was a sight to remember. Whatever you may think of the many claims of appearances of the Virgin Mary, the people at the shrine were obviously full of faith and genuine in their devotions.

We did not attend a Mass of the Roses, but from its description, it sounds lovely:

The Mass of the Roses blends all of the Mexican cultures - Indian, Criollio, and Mestizo. The music is interspersed with the beat of native drums and dancing. The crucified Jesus hangs alone on his cross above the main altar, which is elevated on a platform. Behind the altar to the right is the tilma of the Virgin, underneath a large cross on the wall. The aroma of roses fills the air. Love and tears fill the faces of the people.

On the way home on the Pan-American Highway, we spent the night in Morelia, although the city was in the wrong direction for heading home. We wanted to visit because it was well-known as a beautiful old colonial city. Our hotel was lovely, an old, but well-cared for building, filled with antique furniture.

We headed home on the Pan-American Highway. As I look at the maps, the only city on the map that looks familiar is Cuidad Victoria. If we stopped somewhere between Morelia and Cuidad Victoria, I don't remember where, nor does my companion on the trip.

Altogether it was a grand trip. We marveled that in 18 days, we had only a couple of minor disagreements, which we quickly moved past. Since we were both strong-minded women, we were a little concerned that we might come away from our travels no longer friends.

M went off to Columbia University to study French. While she was there, I visited her in the tiny dorm room that she shared with her roommate. I believe that I slept on a cot or on a mattress on the floor, but I had another grand time in New York, a city that I still love and visit as often as I can.

Here endeth the story.

Gun-Shoe Exchange Surprise

From CBS News:

(AP) Police were hoping for a good turnout at their "Kicks for Guns" sneaker exchange Friday, but they weren't expecting to get a surface-to-air missile launcher.
....

He told the Orlando Sentinel that he found the weapon in a shed he tore down last week.

Riding The Bull

From the Daily Comet:

HOUMA -- Bursting out of the gates, dozens of young horseback and bull riders maneuvered the arena at the Houma airbase Saturday night for the Beauty and the Beast Bull Bash.

Along with bull-riding, steer-riding, calf-riding, and sheep-riding, the rodeo included a Saddle Tramp competition, in which men dressed as women parade on horseback around the arena.

Brushing his wig’s bleached-blond hair from his face and neck with the delicacy of a bear picking flowers, [David] Griffin was obviously not used to women’s wear.

His balloon-filled red-and-white checkered bustier tastefully covered his midriff with sheer red panels. Beneath his blue-jean cut-off shorts, Griffin wore both panty hose and fish-net tights, a wardrobe necessity because one had a run in it, he said.

Thanks to help from friends, Griffin topped off his look with thick, gold-glittered eyes and red glitter lips.

What's with this "help from friends"? Where are the guys from "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" when you need them?