One night in Bethlehem

       Centuries have passed, tears of incredible sorrows have washed the earth, joys and wonders have abounded, nations have risen and empires fallen, through it all there is a story, a legend, a myth that has remained... or perhaps, it is more than that. In the midst of all the ancient pagan cults, the gods of Olympus, the cults of Saturnalia and Baal, the gods of Egypt, the human sacrificing cult to Pan, there is a story that rises and befuddles the consciousness of all believers in such things. A story so strange, so bold, and at first glance so... pathetic comes upon the scene.

G.K. Chesterton on Santa Claus | Besides the Bible

G.K. Chesterton on Santa Claus | Besides the Bible

The God debate

       So as we approach Christmas (only three days away now!) I wanted to share with you all concerning a conversation over that wonderful social networking tool, Facebook, I had with a self-professed atheist.

Discussion about Rick Santorum

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  The first post is my original post on my facebook page hoping to drum up support for Rick Santorum.

  
  

  Patrick 

  
  

  On Being A Consistent Conservative and Winning:
  
  "This is not about what you say at the debate. In 1994, I was not supporting an individual mandate. I authored Medical Savings Accounts because I believe in a bottom up approach and I have never strayed. The record is important and what the question is was who is a consistent conservative. I would agree with Michele, but she's been fighting and losing. I have been fighting and won. I won and passed Welfare Reform. I was the leader on pro-life and pro-family issues. I went out and fought on national security, and imposed sanctions on Iran. I was there in good times and in bad. I was there, I led, and I won... I was in the minority and along with Jim Nussle we formed the Gang of Seven, and we won. We exposed the House Banking scandal and sent the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee to jail. We figured out how to win, even though we were in the minority."
  
  On Fidelity:

Voices Empower

http://www.voicesempower.com/rick-santorum-profile-in-courage/

Check this post on Rick Santorum's support of Spector back in the day and why he did what he did.

The American Catholic

The American Catholic

Check out this blog...

Rome oh sweet home!

       For some reason today, memories of my time living in Roma, Italy washed over me like a pleasantly warm breeze. Those days remain vividly in my memory no matter how much time passes. Having been blessed to travel to Roma on three separate occasions, I have a wide range of memories stemming from each stint in the Eternal City but none more vivid than the last two trips I took; one for three months and the other for a month and a half. There is something so enthralling, so evocative, transcendent, and even sacred about spending time abroad

Feast of Saint Nicholas

December 6, has always been one of my favorite days of the year because it is the feast of Saint Nicholas. Growing up in a Catholic household we held to the tradition of leaving a shoe out by the front door on the eve of this feast, and sure enough, the next day they would be filled with some kind of treats. Never considering the possibility that the tasty treats might be affected by the lovely aromas and remnants of sweat, mud, and grass, they were all greatly enjoyed. Not only did the sweets make a nice impression on me as a child, but I knew that that Advent was well on its way and that Christmas was coming soon. And what child does not look forward to the coming of Christmas?

The Christmas Question

       This morning as I sat in my office sipping my second cup of coffee and skimming through the numerous emails that accrued after a day out sick, I saw one from a student asking me to respond to this question for an editorial in the school newspaper. The question he posed was, "In your opinion as a religion teacher, how can we keep Jesus' birth and the religious aspect of Christmas alive now that it's become so detached?" I am sure the student did not envision any sort of problem with the question itself, but even before I even began to ponder how to answer it,

Blessed Chiara Luce Badano

This is a picture of a young Italian girl, sure she looks like any other girl yet there is something special about her... She is one of the Blessed in heaven with our Lord! Blessed Chiara Luce Badano, pray for us!
1971-1989



http://www.misyononline.com/new/sep-oct2010/saint-who-failed-math

In Thanksgiving to Christ the King

       Sitting by the light of a candle relaxing in the evening of this marvelous feast of Christ the King, I was in the mood to write something here... yet I think I will just leave this page mostly blank to allow you the time to reflect on everything you have received in your life. Seriously, take some time, close your eyes and think of all you have been given, the incredible blessings that this life is made of... as I am writing I hear the words "Come thou font of every blessing" playing from the radio and it is indeed an applicable phrase of praise to give to our Lord, the King of kings. He is the font of all blessings. He gives us only what is good. So take some time and give him thanks and praise. Truly, our whole lives ought to be made up of thanksgiving to Christ our King!












May the peace of Christ be with you!

Wisdom of Chesterton

"Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."
-Gilbert Keith Chesterton

"Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously."
-Gilbert Keith Chesterton

      It seems to me Mr. Chesterton hit the nail on the head in the brief line I quoted above. In short I think it can be said that fairy tales are often more real than the reality in which we live. Of course this sounds a preposterous claim but if for a moment you leave off being an adult and thinking as an adult it might appear more reasonable. So let us co

Art of Culture

School of Athens

The Thinker

Forget Me Not

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYQwVZIr6iE

Check out this song from "The Civil Wars"

A time to win, a time to lose, a time to give thanks!

       In a short week and a half Thanksgiving will be upon us once again. As always time passes swiftly from year to year and even more swiftly as the years go by, it really is a curious phenomenon, this passing of time. However interesting it might be, time does not hold the focus of these few lines although I suppose it is related since all I know and understand is within time.
       The holiday of Thanksgiving will soon be upon us again and then of course shortly afterwards, the wonderful season of Advent followed by the celebration of the birth of our Savior. Of course, capitalist America has already begun its advertisement campaigns lest we forget about the holiday of Christmas. While I love Christmas, I am also an advocate for being properly prepared to receive the breathtaking gift of God become man, so logically I am a fan of the season of Advent. Unfortunately that season is so often missed, forgotten, or completely ignored but that is another topic for another time. Even before Advent is upon us, we have this wonderful holiday of Thanksgiving. Now this began as simply an American civil holiday yet it is certainly interesting that the origin of 'holiday' is in the Church's celebration of Holy Days, special feast days of saints or events in Salvation History with integral importance. Even though Thanksgiving is not a day set aside by the catholic Church, the universal, international Church, I maintain that it is in fact, a Holy Day.
       A day set aside for the sole purpose of giving thanks accomplishes something most important that is often lost on modern man. For one day, we are encouraged, by our culture, by our civil society in the United States to be thankful for what we have received. When one places himself in a posture of thanks, he is naturally looking outward not toward himself; he thanks somebody else beside himself. One does not pour himself a glass of milk and then say "Thank you my good sir!"... if he did he would be considered odd indeed and possibly even worse an object for scientific study. So on Thanksgiving, we are encouraged to remove ourselves from the center of our lives. We are encouraged to allow ourselves to revolve around something or someone else at least for a few hours. What a relief this is for many! What a relief and relaxing time it is to not be at the center of the universe controlling everything. Funny isn't it, when we set time aside to do nothing at all besides be thankful, we are then most at peace and filled with the most joy. We are not concerned with the world turning just so and our clothes wearing without wrinkles. In fact, we are concerned with the weather, food, drink, laughter, tears, and good company. Yes, we are concerned with leisure, with celebration and festival... dare I say we are concerned with worship? Worship in the form of festival or celebration is the highest form of leisure, the very basis of culture. So I encourage you, make a trip to morning mass at your parish whether you are Catholic or not and spend thirty to sixty minutes in worshiping the Lord your God, our loving Father who gave us all that we know. Praise God for life and for Holy Days!

St. Francis de Sales on accepting and carrying your cross

"The everlasting God has in his wisdom foreseen from all eternity the cross that he now presents to you as a gift from his inmost heart. This cross he now sends you he has considered with his all-knowing eyes, understood with his divine mind, tested with his wise justice, warmed with loving arms, and weighed with his own hands, to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with his holy name, anointed it with his grace, perfumed it with his consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage and then sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all-merciful love of God."

Ave Maria - John Jerome Rooney

Excerpt...
Thy poet, Lady, I would be
To sing thy peerless praise;
Thy loyal bard, I'd bring to thee
Heart-music from all lays.

Soft melody, outpoured in June
By God's dear feathered throng,
Would mingle with the organ's roll
To glorify my song;

And Dante's voice and Petrarch's strain
And Milton's matchless line
Would lend to my poor minstrel note
A harmony divine.

Personal Favorites

Food, movies, plays, poems, etc. will all be posted here so that you can possibly receive the enjoyment I have from some of my favorite things.

Cultural Antipasto

Here I will post little tidbits, preparatory dishes aimed at creating a sense of culture, and recognizing the importance of things based in the transcendentals. For example, poems, pieces of art, photographs, musical compositions, stories of cultures, and experiences are all possible topics that I will post here. Hopefully it ignites in you with a desire for those things that are good, beautiful, and true.

Education

I claim the right to write! As a teacher, however inexperienced I may be, I would like to open up a forum for my thoughts on education in the modern world and especially difficulties and troubling trends in our American education system. I hope here to give valuable insight to the rightly ordered way of education based on the writings of others, traditional philosophies of education, and my own experience.

Ah, what good craic!

No, I am not championing the use of illegal substances here... 'craic' is the common Irish expression for fun. I wanted to dedicate a whole section of this blog to 'good craic', to fun! What is necessary for a good time? What are some of the fondest memories we hold, and what place of importance do they hold in our lives? So sit back, relax, and let's a have a pint to celebrate good ole Irish craic! Cheers!

Festival and Celebration

Festival and celebration are some of the highest forms of culture according to Josef Pieper. This section will be dedicated to discussions pertaining to festivals and celebrations including holidays, feast days, meals, and the like. Buon appetito!

"I wanna talk about.... you?"

       Relaxing with a couple friends and a glass of beer the other night, someone started humming a Toby Keith tune (which in my convoluted mind brought back into that part of the brain that continually retains the lyrics and tunes to songs for indefinite periods of time) the words to another Toby Keith song; "I Wanna Talk about Me". Bascially, if you have not experienced this ditty, the basic gist is a man frustrated with talking about the, shopping, gossip, and clothes of, dare we presume his wife, and he wants to talk about me, my, number one. While the song is truly catchy, humorous even, it seems to me that it gives a particular insight into perhaps the single most disturbing issue of our modern era. It is not that people are selfish, that is news almost as old as human existence, but rather that this selfishness is glorified in our culture.

       In the first year or so of our current President's term of office his wife was asked about motherhood and what is most important. Her response at first glance might strike some as deeply profound yet a closer look might reveal something quite disturbing just as the formerly mentioned song. She answered the question, if my memory serves me well, that it is most important for a mother to take care of herself first, take time off, pamper herself, so that she does not end up being another burnout mother like the painted character of a pre-feminism movement woman of America. 

       If one's first inclination is to look inward, it shows a certain prioritization. Usually that which is most important is addressed first and everything else follows after. Those things both important and urgent are generally given the highest priority and dealt with prior to those necessities of lesser importance. Both the President's wife and Toby Keith illustrate albeit unintentionally this theme I find so disturbing; the public affirmation and even glorification of selfishness. The world today says what is important is that we give ourselves first priority... just a thought, but it does not seem to me like Toby Keith, Michelle Obama, or Patrick Jacobeen at the center of the universe is a good idea. In fact, I am fairly certain that any human at the center of things is a bad idea if only because of our frail, limited natures. I imagine that the center of life, the heart of culture ought to be found outside of an individual and that individuals in fact exist not for their own good but for something outside themselves. Perhaps I ought to write a song titled, "I wanna talk about you" to change the focus from a self interest or self obsession to an attitude of giving. I think within everyone there is a sense, and inkling whether understood or not, that it is best to give of one's self rather than to take.

Welcome!

       Whether it was due to my deficiency of technological skill or my fear of the fast paced nature of the modern world, I never imagined I would be one to post on a blog, much less to create one of my own... yet here I am doing just what I never expected. It is certainly ironic how often I find myself doing just that, the unexpected and yet I have a sneaking suspicion this phenomenon is actually quite common place in all of our frail human lives. We predict and plan and worry, waste, and save and to our abhorrence there is always the unexpected awaiting around the unexpected bend. Life certainly is full of surprises, in fact as a mentor and friend once put it, "Life is a continual surprise party." But I digress... yes I am creating a blog. Creating perhaps is too strong of a word and not quite apt here, but however one ought to put it in proper technical jargon, I have committed myself to one of them now, yes a real and what I hope will be a worthwhile blog. To what end, one might ask, have I entered this venture? For laughs perhaps, for giggles, perhaps even out of a tinge of pride thinking that perhaps others beside me might actually read what I write. Time will tell I suppose.
       On a mite bit more serious note, I suppose I ought to mention the title and its significance or lack thereof. In our day and age, we have lost a centrality to life, we have no focal point thanks to secularism, relativism, and atheism. It is my hope to comment and to incite discussion about those aspects of life related either positively or negatively to that center. It is my hope to discover or to lead you readers to discover and discuss just what that center of life ought to be. So here we go, grab a hold and come along for the ride! Blessings!