Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Christstollen
I made stollen (German Christmas bread) for the first time on Christmas Eve. It turned out excellent. I love the fact that you soak the candied fruits (cherry, citron, dried currants, almond slices, sultana and golden raisins) in dark rum overnight. I put marzipan in the center of three of them.
I can eat fruit cake; I can appreciate it, but typically it's just too overbearing. Stollen though is pitch perfect; more evocative than those hefty fruit bricks. Is it cake or is it bread? I guess one would call it a sweet bread.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Christmas Prose Poem
Wood and rock-hearted pagans, unless transformed
by the child in the blooming desert, cannot change
their own hearts to flesh. Only the child does this.
No development but newness can deal our fullness,
and the newness brought to the shepherds in the night
is the new that is not comparatively new;
is the new that makes no sense and makes all sense;
is the new that makes of the old an unknown precedence:
Every heart is of wood and rock, and to hear the news
of the child in the blooming desert is to be stricken dumb
and emptied, as the soul becomes a cosmos that holds the child;
a desert that painfully blooms, and tenderfully, in the night.
by the child in the blooming desert, cannot change
their own hearts to flesh. Only the child does this.
No development but newness can deal our fullness,
and the newness brought to the shepherds in the night
is the new that is not comparatively new;
is the new that makes no sense and makes all sense;
is the new that makes of the old an unknown precedence:
Every heart is of wood and rock, and to hear the news
of the child in the blooming desert is to be stricken dumb
and emptied, as the soul becomes a cosmos that holds the child;
a desert that painfully blooms, and tenderfully, in the night.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Support Dappled Things
The following is a letter from Dappled Things who are in financial need to the tune of an Al Gore luncheon. Surely we can muster up that much. If you are familiar with Dappled Things, surely you would not want to see it go under.
And if you are not familiar, go there and familiarize.
Dear Friends,
No doubt at this time of the year many organizations are approaching you with appeals for your financial assistance. I will be brief, therefore, in explaining why you should support the work of Dappled Things today. This year, more than ever, we are in special need of your help.
The current economic crisis has left no one wholly untouched, but its effects have been particularly severe on us. Our work depends primarily on donations and advertising revenue, but our income from these categories has declined significantly this year. Almost as a rule, companies are slashing advertising budgets and it is uncertain when they will be able to expand them again. Many individuals are likewise limiting their charitable giving. Since we are still a fledgling organization in terms of our financial resources, these developments have placed our work in serious jeopardy.
But why should you give to us in particular? For better or worse, Dappled Things is the only nationally (and internationally) distributed magazine that not only speaks about the importance of transforming culture through the riches of the Catholic faith, but actually tries to do so with creative work informed and inspired by the Church’s tradition. A concrete image or story has greater power to affect a life than an abstract philosophy. Consider that Jesus spoke in parables, not syllogisms. Yet the stories our culture tells itself today are increasingly defined by narcissism and despair—is it any wonder our civilization turns increasingly desperate and narcissistic?
Dappled Things seeks to tell a different kind of story. Do not let it remain untold. If we do not receive enough support during this campaign to ride out the storm, it is a real possibility that Dappled Things may founder. Yet all we need is $10,000. Please help us continue our work by giving today. A gift of $75, $50, or $25 would go a long way in supporting our activities. Think of it as a Christmas present to our impoverished culture. Even $15 or $10—the cost of a visit to McDonald’s—would be a big help.
In a year when your ability to give may be limited, a donation to Dappled Things is an excellent way to make a serious difference with little money. Despite our small budget, new readers consistently tell us how impressed they are with the magazine’s design and production value, not to mention its content. We can do so much with so little because Dappled Things is produced entirely by volunteers. All our resources go to printing and promoting a journal that, even in its physical design, reflects our commitment to spreading the True, the Good, and the Beautiful amid a culture in which falsity, evil, and ugliness abound.
Financial difficulties will keep many from giving this year. We will need larger donations to make up the difference. If you can, please consider supporting us as a Saint Francis De Sales Society donor. A donation of $1000, $500, or $250 would make a crucial difference to Dappled Things. Members of the Saint Francis De Sales Society will receive a high-quality, autographed, limited-edition print of Matthew Alderman’s Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles, with an Attendant Angel, a sublime illustration featured in our Mary, Queen of Angels 2008 edition.
Please contribute today to this vital campaign. You can make your secure online donation via PayPal by visiting www.dappledthings.org/donate.html. You can also mail a check or money order, payable to Dappled Things Magazine, to:
Dappled Things Magazine
c/o Katherine Aparicio
2876 S. Abingdon Street, C-2
Arlington, VA 22206
I thank you in advance for your generosity, at whatever level you can give.
Wishing you a blessed Advent and Christmas,
Bernardo Aparicio García
President, Dappled Things
And if you are not familiar, go there and familiarize.
Dear Friends,
No doubt at this time of the year many organizations are approaching you with appeals for your financial assistance. I will be brief, therefore, in explaining why you should support the work of Dappled Things today. This year, more than ever, we are in special need of your help.
The current economic crisis has left no one wholly untouched, but its effects have been particularly severe on us. Our work depends primarily on donations and advertising revenue, but our income from these categories has declined significantly this year. Almost as a rule, companies are slashing advertising budgets and it is uncertain when they will be able to expand them again. Many individuals are likewise limiting their charitable giving. Since we are still a fledgling organization in terms of our financial resources, these developments have placed our work in serious jeopardy.
But why should you give to us in particular? For better or worse, Dappled Things is the only nationally (and internationally) distributed magazine that not only speaks about the importance of transforming culture through the riches of the Catholic faith, but actually tries to do so with creative work informed and inspired by the Church’s tradition. A concrete image or story has greater power to affect a life than an abstract philosophy. Consider that Jesus spoke in parables, not syllogisms. Yet the stories our culture tells itself today are increasingly defined by narcissism and despair—is it any wonder our civilization turns increasingly desperate and narcissistic?
Dappled Things seeks to tell a different kind of story. Do not let it remain untold. If we do not receive enough support during this campaign to ride out the storm, it is a real possibility that Dappled Things may founder. Yet all we need is $10,000. Please help us continue our work by giving today. A gift of $75, $50, or $25 would go a long way in supporting our activities. Think of it as a Christmas present to our impoverished culture. Even $15 or $10—the cost of a visit to McDonald’s—would be a big help.
In a year when your ability to give may be limited, a donation to Dappled Things is an excellent way to make a serious difference with little money. Despite our small budget, new readers consistently tell us how impressed they are with the magazine’s design and production value, not to mention its content. We can do so much with so little because Dappled Things is produced entirely by volunteers. All our resources go to printing and promoting a journal that, even in its physical design, reflects our commitment to spreading the True, the Good, and the Beautiful amid a culture in which falsity, evil, and ugliness abound.
Financial difficulties will keep many from giving this year. We will need larger donations to make up the difference. If you can, please consider supporting us as a Saint Francis De Sales Society donor. A donation of $1000, $500, or $250 would make a crucial difference to Dappled Things. Members of the Saint Francis De Sales Society will receive a high-quality, autographed, limited-edition print of Matthew Alderman’s Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles, with an Attendant Angel, a sublime illustration featured in our Mary, Queen of Angels 2008 edition.
Please contribute today to this vital campaign. You can make your secure online donation via PayPal by visiting www.dappledthings.org/donate.html. You can also mail a check or money order, payable to Dappled Things Magazine, to:
Dappled Things Magazine
c/o Katherine Aparicio
2876 S. Abingdon Street, C-2
Arlington, VA 22206
I thank you in advance for your generosity, at whatever level you can give.
Wishing you a blessed Advent and Christmas,
Bernardo Aparicio García
President, Dappled Things
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
The Desert Fathers
XVIII. A brother asked a certain old man, saying, "There be two brothers, and one of them is quiet in his cell, and prolongs his fast for six days, and lays much travail on himself: but the other tends the sick. Whose work is the more acceptable to God?" And the old man answered, "If that brother who carries his fast for six days were to hang himself up by the nostrils, he could not equal the other, who does service to the sick."
Monday, December 14, 2009
How Cold Is It?
My Friend John writes the following:
Edmonton −60°c
The forecast for Edmonton was about −40° celsius, −50° Celsius with windchill. Today Edmonton reached −48° Celsius without windchill, −60° Celsius with windchill!
Let’s discuss that for a moment, shall we? How cold is −60? Edmonton’s temperature, −60 Celsius, is the Eutectic Point for all biological life. The Eutectic Point is the point at which all entropy (activity) stops in molecular biophysics. All activity stops in biological molecules. That includes decomposition. That includes oxidization. That means whatever biological material is −60 will no longer be alive, but also not decay or change in any way due to internal activity (there is none). Commercially, it’s the lowest temperature used by mankind in practical application. It’s used for “superfreezing” foods. It’s so cold that meat a foot thick will “freeze to the bone” quickly. Super-frozen foods don’t discolour and look as fresh as when they were super-frozen once thawed. That’s not subjective, it’s fact. There will have been no ability for any decomposition, decay or oxidization to change the biological matter. Science uses temperatures lower than −60, but they are uncommon and not commercial in nature. Most frozen foods are actually done much warmer than −60 as well. −60 is the premium of flash freezing.
For all intents and purposes, −60 is as good as anything colder. Anything colder really makes absolutely no difference to any form of life. Activity in molecules stops and from there it only effects atoms. That’s cold! Finger skin starts freezing at −10° Celsius. At −30° Celsius, any exposed skin freezes in 20 minutes or less. If a person’s core temperature reaches 23° Celsius, they will have a heart attack, respiratory failure, pulmonary edema and die. Edmonton is very cold! I’ve been there at −30 or so (without windchill). I can’t imagine −50!
--John Taschereau
Edmonton −60°c
The forecast for Edmonton was about −40° celsius, −50° Celsius with windchill. Today Edmonton reached −48° Celsius without windchill, −60° Celsius with windchill!
Let’s discuss that for a moment, shall we? How cold is −60? Edmonton’s temperature, −60 Celsius, is the Eutectic Point for all biological life. The Eutectic Point is the point at which all entropy (activity) stops in molecular biophysics. All activity stops in biological molecules. That includes decomposition. That includes oxidization. That means whatever biological material is −60 will no longer be alive, but also not decay or change in any way due to internal activity (there is none). Commercially, it’s the lowest temperature used by mankind in practical application. It’s used for “superfreezing” foods. It’s so cold that meat a foot thick will “freeze to the bone” quickly. Super-frozen foods don’t discolour and look as fresh as when they were super-frozen once thawed. That’s not subjective, it’s fact. There will have been no ability for any decomposition, decay or oxidization to change the biological matter. Science uses temperatures lower than −60, but they are uncommon and not commercial in nature. Most frozen foods are actually done much warmer than −60 as well. −60 is the premium of flash freezing.
For all intents and purposes, −60 is as good as anything colder. Anything colder really makes absolutely no difference to any form of life. Activity in molecules stops and from there it only effects atoms. That’s cold! Finger skin starts freezing at −10° Celsius. At −30° Celsius, any exposed skin freezes in 20 minutes or less. If a person’s core temperature reaches 23° Celsius, they will have a heart attack, respiratory failure, pulmonary edema and die. Edmonton is very cold! I’ve been there at −30 or so (without windchill). I can’t imagine −50!
--John Taschereau
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Twilight Series
"Here, then, is the embedded spiritual narrative (probably invisible to the author and her audience alike): You shall be as gods. As with Harry Potter, you shall be as nice gods. You will overcome death on your own terms. You will be master over death. Good and evil are not necessarily what western civilization has, until now, called good and evil. You will define the meaning of symbols and morals and human identity. And all of this is subsumed in the ultimate message: The image and likeness of God in you can be the image and likeness of a god whose characteristics are satanic, as long as you are a “basically good person.”From The Twilight of the West, by Michael D. O'Brien.
In this way, coasting on a tsunami of intoxicating visuals and emotions, the image of supernatural evil is transformed into an image of supernatural good."
Friday, December 11, 2009
Chapters: get some real books
The "Christianity" book section at the Chapters store I visited today has finally triumphed (the last time I visited was around a year ago) in being rid - as far as I could see - of anything remotely resembling actual Christianity and its plenitude of literature. Last year there was at least something like one third of the section that was reasonably solid. By lord, there was even Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth - and faced to the front!
Going over the section with wrathful scrutiny, my eye took in nothing but that which is new and already old: clichéd controversy, leftist garbage. Paul Was Not a Christian; Jesus in the Lotus; The Gnostic Gospels; With or Without God, with the ridiculous subtitle: Why The Way We Live Is More Important Than What We Believe. As if the two were ever at odds.
Why What We Believe Determines The Way We Live more like it. Oh, what lameness! like the one that blurbs about its title, Paul Was Not A Christian: because there was no verifiable religion at that time called Christianity! Wow, you mean the first followers of Christ hadn't yet adopted the name Christian? My mind has been blooooown awaaay! What a bunch of pathetic, perfumed rat shit.
There are a whole lot of variations on the same tired post-worn post-this and post-that titles: how to be "spiritual" without, you know, a church. As if a church is there to make you "spiritual".
But C.S. Lewis is still there. They don't mind having him in prominence, and Thomas Merton. There's just enough - just enough - in those two writers to lend themselves to the abovementioned Give Me Jesus Without The Church Please. Oh, and please can Jesus also be left-wing?
Just enough - together with a lot and a lot of twisting and outright ignoring by said I-won't-have-no-church ignorant reader - or I should say, just enough in Old Merton (this cheese is starting to get to me...hey look, zen!), whereas in Lewis it is more like merely enough.
Going over the section with wrathful scrutiny, my eye took in nothing but that which is new and already old: clichéd controversy, leftist garbage. Paul Was Not a Christian; Jesus in the Lotus; The Gnostic Gospels; With or Without God, with the ridiculous subtitle: Why The Way We Live Is More Important Than What We Believe. As if the two were ever at odds.
Why What We Believe Determines The Way We Live more like it. Oh, what lameness! like the one that blurbs about its title, Paul Was Not A Christian: because there was no verifiable religion at that time called Christianity! Wow, you mean the first followers of Christ hadn't yet adopted the name Christian? My mind has been blooooown awaaay! What a bunch of pathetic, perfumed rat shit.
There are a whole lot of variations on the same tired post-worn post-this and post-that titles: how to be "spiritual" without, you know, a church. As if a church is there to make you "spiritual".
But C.S. Lewis is still there. They don't mind having him in prominence, and Thomas Merton. There's just enough - just enough - in those two writers to lend themselves to the abovementioned Give Me Jesus Without The Church Please. Oh, and please can Jesus also be left-wing?
Just enough - together with a lot and a lot of twisting and outright ignoring by said I-won't-have-no-church ignorant reader - or I should say, just enough in Old Merton (this cheese is starting to get to me...hey look, zen!), whereas in Lewis it is more like merely enough.
An Erasmus Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, the world's true sun, always rising, never setting, whose life-giving warmth engenders, preserves, nourishes and gladdens all things in heaven and on earth, shine into my soul, I pray: scatter the night of sin and the clouds of error; blaze within me, so that I may go on my way without stumbling, taking no part in shameful deeds done in the dark, but ever walking as one born to the light. Amen.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Advent Prayer
Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to life immortal. Amen.
Monday, December 7, 2009
The Desert Fathers
XIII. The abbot Agatho said, "If an angry man were to raise the dead, because of his anger he would not please God."
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Advent Prayer
Grant the will, we beseech you, almighty God, to your faithful people, that, running to meet the coming of your Anointed with the gift of good works, we may be found worthy to be gathered at his right hand and thus possess the heavenly kingdom. Amen.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Listen Up
Shall not Lebanon in a very little while become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest?
On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.
The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
For the tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall cease to be; all those alert to do evil shall be cut off—
those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit, who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate, and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right.
Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: "No longer shall Jacob be ashamed, no longer shall his face grow pale.
For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
And those who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will accept instruction." --Isaiah 29: 17-24
On that day the deaf shall hear the words of a scroll, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.
The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
For the tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall cease to be; all those alert to do evil shall be cut off—
those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit, who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate, and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right.
Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: "No longer shall Jacob be ashamed, no longer shall his face grow pale.
For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
And those who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who grumble will accept instruction." --Isaiah 29: 17-24
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The Desert Fathers
I. The abbot Anthony said, "There be some that wear out their bodies with abstinence: but because they have no discretion, they be a great way from God."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)