Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Holy WHAT?!?!?

Remember this guy, Michael Baigent? Yeah the guy who wrote Holy Blood, Holy Grail. The book that is supposedly started the fact to end all facts that led to the Da Vinci Code. But, wait it gets better. Apparently there's more than just Jesus being married and whatever other nonsense he contrives in the book. That's right. He has another book coming out entitled Jesus Papers. Apparently Jesus survived the crucifixion and other facinatingly absurd claims he makes in order to bring out the "truth" about Jesus. What a nut! Let's see, for anyone that could bore themselves through the excerpt of that book, his conclusive documents are on papyrus and mummy writings kept in 2 wooden boxes in a London bank, these documents are owned by a Jordanian and apparently the Vatican is attempting to purchase for $5.6 million and would then (as the author puts it) vanish into limbo.

Okay, to review. He is in London, a really foggy and rainy city - therefore humid; he's in a bank conference room with frosted windows, no apparent climate control or means by with which to perserve the authenticity of the documents; The people with which he is meeting wants him to take pictures for the sell, but they are planning on just sending the negatives of through Wal-Mart or where ever; he talks them into letting him developing them, I'm sure they wouldn't expect him to make a copy for himself AT ALL; he takes his only set to a museum to find out what they are about and the guy he knows well isn't there, so he just hands them over to some expert there he doesn't know (good job, way to think); the guy with his set of the photos disappears and the museum couldn't give a flip.

Raise your hand if you find something TERRIBLY WRONG with any of this. Yeah, thought so, you can put your hands down now. I have a feeling that I won't be reading it. The only reason I read DVC was so I would know what others are talking about. How can you argue (def. - intelligibly create a series of premises and not just taking up a contrary position). If people really start taking off on this bull, I'll have to suffer through it to be able to talk with them about it. Otherwise, have a great life Mr. Baigent and I'm glad I'm not you when you pass on.

Paix du Christ!

Sad news from home

This past weekend, I found out that a family friend, Andy Zagar died suddenly from a massive heart attack. Andy was only 49, and a middle school teacher. During his years in E-town, he has taught choir at both middle schools and a high school, he directed school and community plays usually all done with students for actors. He was very dedicated to children and teaching them the joys of the arts especially singing. His funeral today is starting in about 1/2 an hour. He will definitely be a missed member of the community. His wife runs a dance school and they have adopted 2 children both under the age of 11. Please keep his family in your prayers as they go through such a hard time to figure out how to piece their lives together in order to carry on in the best possible way.

Paix du Christ!

Bishops in town

Yesterday the parish of St. Joseph celebrated the feast of St. Joseph ^_^ Yes, I keep hearing from everyone that the date is supposed to be the 19th, but since that fell on a Sunday this year the bishops moved the optional celebration to Monday. Well, St. Joseph's parish has had a novena for the past nine days (of course) culminating with a Mass on the 20th with Bishop Emeritus Foley. Although the congregation was a little on the lite side for having the Bishop in town (about 60 people), it was a nice celebration. Granted, there was a combined choir which hadn't practiced all of the songs, which kinda got hairy once or twice. I had two different rythms in my ears once and neither of them were correct, so I just concentrated, belted it out and tried to plough through with anyone else that might have been on the right track. The bishop had quite a few nice things to say about the church's adoptive father. At the end of Mass, before he closed us out he said that he was sure if Joseph was here he would make sure to remember Mary since he was such a humble man and for us all to say a Hail Mary together. Bishop Foley also has a great and strong singing voice during the Eucharistic prayer. He gave us an update on the search for his successor. Basically, they are working on it. We heard how the Nuncio had retired so they had to wait for a new one to be appointed, and how Italian paperwork usually moves pretty slowly in the first place. Hopefully he'll get some reprieve soon, it looked like he was thinking sometime this summer or fall possibly. Just keep the selection in your prayers that Birmingham will receive a strong leader and one who cares about the youth and the future of the church.

Paix du Christ!

Slow posts and heavenly parties

Sorry about the slow posting recently and not getting anything up last week. Alot started happening last week between getting the Youth Group ready to go on their mission trip to Bayou La Batre to do some manual labor to help the hurricane victims, not having power at work for a whole day, trying to catch up after the power outage, my apartment complex loosing water pressure, hearing about some all-of-a-sudden deaths from back home, and playing some of Empire at War (a present) I haven't had much extra time recently. So, I do appologize.

Fortunately, a lot of great things happened this weekend. The youth group actually left for the gulf coast to help out. There's about 12 people (including drivers) on the trip. Keep them in your prayers.

I went to the Ceili Rain concert at Bellarmine University in Louisville. An excellent group as always! Although I've ripped all their CD's to my computer (yes, I have legal copies of them all), I lost one of their CD's during my move. So, I had to buy it to fill the hole in my CD case. Plus the cover makes a great place for signatures. If Ceili Rain is ever within driving distance, I highly suggest dropping everything else and going. I've never seen a concert price higher than $10. They are charged with extremely high energy even if it's just a small turn out like this weekend. It's all great christian music (and some people wouldn't know that if you didn't tell them). They have an awesome sound.

And most importantly, I heard from some old and great friends. After the concert, as I was going to bed, I was shocked to see a text message from a girl that used to be in high school plays with me. I finally was able to call her back on my way down to Huntsville. Since she lives in Nashville now, she told me to stop by. How cool is that. While I was there, my best friend from elementary school calls her cell phone so she surprises us both by having me answer it. Another friend that I have tried to keep in touch with was at church and I actually got to tell her happy birthday on her birthday! We've tried to keep in touch sometimes, but most of our contact information is old, but we actually got to update it this weekend. It really is exceptionally wonderful to hear from those golden friendships and I really hope I can do better to stay in touch with them.

Paix du Christ!

Celebrating

Due to St. Aloysius' and my birthday, I'm postponing the rest of my RVM posts to resume next week.

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Most Recent Morning News

There were some updates in the local television news this morning about the arsonists. Apparently the first night of fires with the first five churches were the "prank." The four about a week later were a diversion to cover their tracks. Which makes sense with the students being from Birmingham. Since Bibb county where the first five where is just south and right outside of Birmingham, and the other three counties are further east it would lead the investigation out that way. Hey, I was suspecting students from UA, with the pattern. They aren't saying what leads helped them to the culprits, but the reporters did mention that they were able to match the tire tracks at one of the crime sense to one of the boys' vehicle. Hopefully, the congregations will be able to rebuild and go on with their lives. I know it will be hard as the secretary here said that one of the churches was where her cousin goes and it has helped in causing her cousin to have a stroke. So, there are still huge impacts past the property damage that these people will have to overcome. I also pray for the reconcilliation of these three kids with God.

Paix du Christ!

Alabama Church fires a thing of the past

Apparently the church fires were all a hoax. No, they did happen, but 3 college students have been arrested and say they just started doing it as a prank. So much for the FBI profilers, remember they said that it was 2 males in their late 20's to 30's. But these kids are only 19. They could face up to 20 years in prison for their actions. I guess the joke's on them. I will mention that my main prediction was that it was probably a couple college kids with nothing better to do. But that guess was just because all of the counties involved seemed to center around Tuscaloosa; however, these kids apparently go to Birmingham-Southern College.

I went around work to show people the story and to ask their opinions. Well, generally people think that there's something more than it just being a prank and think that's the story so they can possibly get out of an hate crime convictions. Their are a few fishy elements to the prank story that will probably have to be worked out. Like why continue to 9 churches over a couple weeks if it was just a "prank?" Also, why were all the churches Baptist churches? I'm sure there are plenty of other rual denominations in central Alabama instead of simply cherry picking Baptist churches.

Paix du Christ!

Terse Verse - Matthew 9:36

At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.

The first part of this verse appears at the top of the lenten message from Benedict XVI. In his message, the Pope says that this Gospel text is his theme for the season of lent.

This verse appears in Matthew after Jesus has performed a series of Miracles and Jesus is going around preaching in the synagogues. The crowd at which he shows pity are those who are coming to hear Jesus speak. These souls are troubled and have either been abandoned by the pharisees and priests, or they themselves had abandoned their religion becase their faith was waning. These people were streaming in to hear Jesus so that he might be able to give them some hope and maybe re-kindle their beliefs. They needed someone to follow as a guide like a shepherd prods his sheep in the right direction. Christ seeing their desire for faith had pity on them included them among the "ripe for harvesting." In today's world, Jesus still has pity on the people longing for faith that come to him no matter how troubled we are. Sheep constantly are straying away from the shepherd looking for food, but that search can always be dangerous when you get away from the flock. But, the shepherd always searches to bring the lost sheep back to the flock and on the right path. We too will continue to stray away from Christ, but Christ always has pity on us so that He goes looking for us to bring us back to the crowd.

Paix du Christ!

Theology Thursday - RVM 9-17

Every follower of Christ delvs into Christian contemplation. What is Christian contemplation? "To look upon the face of Christ, to recognize its mystery amid the daily events and the sufferings of his human life, and then to grasp the divine splendor definitively revealed in the Risen Lord, seated in glory at the right hand of the Father." The best role model for Christian contemplation is his mother Mary. Mary was the first to look upon the face of Christ with so much joy, Mary was the first to recognize and accept His divinity when as she said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word." The rosary is centered on the events in Christ's life and is therefore a Christocentric prayer. When we enter into the christian contemplation upon praying the rosary we are reflecting and contemplating upon any of 20 events in Christ's life, but we try to imagine what it would be like to view His life through the eyes of His mother, the very first and best model of Christianity.

Some people chastise others for saying the rosary because it's just a meaningless repitition. Which, for some people some of the time, is unfortunately true. But, without the contemplation on Christ's life, the rosary is essentially a "body without a soul." St. Louis Grignion de Montfort writes that "one Hail Mary said well is worth more than one-hundred and fifty said badly." (The Secret of the Rosary, 116)

Christ is the supreme Teacher, and we must strive to learn and understand what he taught. As Christians, we strive to be like Christ; in order to be Christ-like, we must learn and understand Christ himself and not just solely his teachings. Spiritually, the Holy Spirit is our guide down this path, but as humans, we typically need something concrete or experiences to learn from. Who better to be our teach on the subject of Christ than Mary? The first miracle performed by Jesus at the wedding in Cana, Mary shows that she is a teacher of Christ as she convinces the servants to do what Jesus commands. Most likely, she continued being a teacher after He died with His apostles. So too, we should go to Mary to learn from her teaching.

Paix du Christ!

Ashes, ashes...

If you haven't already done so, I encourage you to follow the link in the title to view the Holy Father's message for the season of lent 2006. It's only a couple of printed pages long and he has quite a few good points to make.

There are two types of poverty in the world: physical and spiritual. One comes from an inabitlity to meet basic material and social needs and the other is a lack of fulfillment of the profound desires of the hears. It is impossible to seperate the two.

However, evil, espcially poverty, is imposed a divine limit, which is called mercy. Christ has a mercy for each individual person no matter who they are that he defends us at at the cost of his own life. This "gaze" of Christ's compassion continues to fall upon us all today. Lent is a a spiritual pilgrimage towards Christ. As we strive to move closer to Christ, we should also look with compassion upon those around us and show the same mercy of Christ's love.

Paix du Christ!