I've Seen This Argument Before

So my university is hosting a debate. The theme is: "The pain and suffering in the world indicate that the Christian God does not exist." It's being hosted by the University Christian Center, so I'm fairly sure it's rigged. These things usually are.

I've seen this argument so many times that when I saw the poster taped to the glass door of the science building this morning, I literally said, "I've seen that before," and walked in.

I'm just going to quote Boethius from The Consolation of Philosophy here:

We cannot raise the question, “How can there be evil if God exists?” without raising the second, “How can there be good if He exist not?”

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Peter Kreeft on Faith

The Faith is not selling well.


Faith is selling well – extremely well: faith in general, faith as an attitude, faith as positive thinking, faith in faith. Also selling well are many strange new faiths: faith in cults, faith in UFO’s, faith in ICBM’s, faith in the Force, faith in ancient astronauts, faith in astrology – faith in almost anything. We are an incredibly credulous age.


The reason for this is probably that "nature abhors a vacuum" spiritually as well as physically. Our modern Western civilization is ready to believe in almost anything to fill the vacuum left by the de-Christianization of the last four centuries.


- Peter Kreeft, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven, p. 193


This reminds me so very much of Hogfather, from the Discworld series of novels by Terry Pratchett, where people ceasing to believe in the Hogfather (Discworld's analogy for Santa Claus) leaves a lot of 'extra belief' sloshing around. As a consequence, anthromorphic personifications like the Verruca Gnome, the oh God of Hangovers, and the God of Indigestion are created out of all that spare belief. I can't help but wonder what sorts of things we have created with our spare belief when our society turned away from Christianity...


Slenderman, maybe.


O.o.


Then again, we may deserve it for everything we've done.


In Pace Christi,


Elyse

We're Enantiomers

'Enantiomer' is my go-to chemical simile when I'm trying to describe two things that are alike and yet opposite. If you've taken organic, you know why. If you haven't, don't worry.


My latest comparison to enantiomers is atheists versus Christians. We're both human, and yet our outlooks are totally different. As evidence, I submit this thing I found on either Catholic Memes, Catholic Anime, or Catholic Gag (I can't remember which). I'm retyping it here since Google is still broken as far as posting pictures goes.

An Atheist's View on Life

I will live my life according to these beliefs

God does not exist

It is just foolish to think

That there is a God with a cosmic plan

That an all-powerful God brings redemption and healing to the pain and suffering of the world

Is a comforting thought, however

It

Is only wishful thinking

People can do as they please without eternal consequences

The idea that

I am deserving of Hell

Because of sin

Is a lie meant to make me a slave to those in power

"The more you have, the happier you will be"

Our existence has no grand meaning or purpose

In a world with no God

There is freedom to be who I want to be

But with God

Everything is fine

It is ridiculous to think

I am lost and in need of saving

A Christian's View of Life

(read this bottom to top)

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

And Yet More Music

Here we have, "Good To Be Alive," by Jason Gray. This is another example of a clever lyrics video done officially, not by some teenaged geek who happens to be good with Photoshop or Windows Movie Maker. (Obviously, I do not belong among said teenaged geeks. I don't even belong among the teenaged crowd anymore. *sigh*)

Casting Crowns regularly has good songs (they're up there with Third Day in my books), so here's, "All You've Ever Wanted" by them:

In fact, let's just go ahead and make it a Casting Crowns sort of day. Here's, "Praise You In This Storm":

Now, to demonstrate why I love Third Day, here is, "Need a Miracle."

Jeremy Camp, "Let It Fade":

Laura Story, "Blessings":

Steven Curtis Chapman, "Love Take Me Over":

TobyMac, "Speak Life":

Another lyrics video that's fun to watch without (hopefully) sending you into a seizure.

And today on the radio I heard, "Breath of Heaven," by Amy Grant. Nothing like a good Christmas song to listen to as you drive home. :)

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Some More Beautiful Music

I have a long list of songs I've been meaning to share, so I'll knock a few off right now, if you don't mind.

First up: 'Starry Night', by Christ August:

Next we have 'Strong Tower', by Kutless:

Here is 'Glory Defined', by Building 429 (honestly, I do not understand the names of some of these groups, but whatever):

And lastly we have  'I Celebrate the Day', by Reliant K. The interesting thing is I actually recognized this group as I heard the song come on the radio, despite the fact that I have only ever heard one song by them before. It was 'When I Go Down', which I heard in (of all things) a video tribute to Boromir on YouTube. I was listening to this new song on the radio and kept thinking (apparently randomly) of lines from that other song, and finally figured out that the voices sounded the same. So I waited until the song finished and its name and artist would be called out, and, sure enough, it was Reliant K.

I love it when my memory doesn't play tricks on me. XD

Anyway, so here is the song. I couldn't find any really good lyric videos, so we'll just have to do with something that looks like I could have made it (my video-making skills are about nil). The song is addressed to the Infant Jesus.

Christmas is coming... and today is the feast day of St. Francis Xavier. :)

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Let Me See Redemption Win

I found this incredibly beautiful and symbolic painting of the Redemption on Tumblr, although I can't seem to find who painted it.

It reminds me of a song I've heard several times on the radio now:

"Let me see redemption win / Let me know the struggle ends / Because You can mend a heart that's frail and torn / Because I'm worn."

The Redemption, the ultimate purpose of the Incarnation and the Nativity, is a good thing to remember and reflect upon as we head into Advent.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Briefly Interrupting the Hobbit Spam

...to bring you Catholic memes. It is all part of our grand scheme to evangelize the world, don't you know. And Phase 1 is already in place. See?

*rubs hands evilly* Time to get to work.

G. K. Chesterton for the win. His quotes are always so amazing, so applicable, and so *right* that you could slap them on pictures from just about any fandom and it would be perfect. We need more GKC in our modern world.

This is just a reaction meme graced by Pope Benedict XVI, not intended as a commentary on my previous statement about the world needing more GKC.

If I am ever in a position where I need to use this one, I shall immediately follow it up with lots of Catholic spam. Because I am a troll that way. XD

I love this one. Who knew Fullmetal Alchemist and a line from "The Magnificat" would combine so perfectly? See, Catholics know how to do humor concerning their faith without also doing irreverence. Protestants can't always do the humor part since they're so hung up on the reverence part (and even then... sometimes their priorities are skewed) and modern culture is so hung up on thinking humor comes only from irreverence that most of the time their end result is all irreverence and no humor.

Just sayin'.

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD, your God, is giving you."

Although... well... Van Hohenheim isn't the best dad. I can understand why he had to go off to save the world by creating his second array that canceled the Homonulorum Father's array. I can understand how he wanted to learn how to stop being a Philosopher's Stone (long story) so he could grow old and die with his family.

BUT! You can't just leave your family with no explanation for ten years and then show up again. And have the gall to be surprised that your wife has died, your kids have grown up, and your house has been burned to the ground. Seriously.

I was reading that part in the manga when Hohenheim turns up again and I was chanting to myself under my breath, "Punch him, Ed! Punch him in the face! Punch him with your right arm!" (Context: Ed's right arm is made of metal.)

So... yeah... Hohenheim may be a good person, but not always the best dad.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

All Souls' Day

Yesterday I was discussing with my sister about how we have no fear of graveyards. The stereotypical ones with the blackened, wrought iron railings, cracked tombstones with gargoyle faces on them, hostile owls peering down from dead trees, and long grass are never the ones you see, anyway. Ours is a very well-kept place (albeit the ground is rather squishy due to a mole problem) and it is not creepy at all.

In our parish, every Sunday closest to the Feast of All Souls we process to the cemetery and pray the Stations of the Cross out there for our departed brethren. It's very calming, actually. The words of the Stations are familiar, the rhythm of the Stabat Mater a cappella is familiar, the rustle of the wind in the trees is familiar, the sight of the graves is familiar. Nothing is in the least bit frightening or hostile. Why should it be? We go merely to greet those who have gone on before us, to assure them of our continued love and devotion. We pray for them and we ask them to pray for us.

Why is it that so many people fear or ignore the dead? One of the saddest Protestant mindsets I have ever encountered is their persistent belief that the dead are cut off from us, that we cannot help them (or should not!) and that they cannot help or hear us. They ask their living family and relatives to pray for them, but they will not ask their family and friends who have passed on before them to look down upon them from Heaven and put in a good word for them with our Heavenly Father.

It just makes no sense to me. The Communion of Saints is one of the most beautiful and consoling of all Catholic doctrines, in my opinion. What could be more comforting that the knowledge that those who have died before you are still truly with you? It turns what pagans thought of as an irreparable loss into merely an absence. Our departed brethren have not passed into the Void and can hear us no longer. They are still very much alive, and, God willing, we shall see them again one day.

The belief in the Communion of Saints, in addition to the familiarity of the All Souls' Day service, must really be what makes a graveyard such a calming place for me. It's a family reunion that transcends time and space. While waiting on the priest and the servers to arrive, we find the graves of our great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents and wait there until Stations begin. We do not have some superstitious fear about walking over graves, since we mean no disrespect. We are there to greet them and pray for them, and I think any soul whose body is buried in our cemetery is glad to see us gathered there.

Catholics have no fear of death. It is only a passing thing. We know that those who have gone through it are alive in Christ, on the other side, and we know that our day, too, is coming. What they have endured, we shall endure also. It is an heartening thought. We do not walk this life alone. We have the wisdom and prayers of all the saints before us to lead us on our way.

And now, because I found this gif and want to use it:

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

"It is a departure from biblical Church teaching to refuse to acknowledge the devil's existence; to regard him as a self-sustaining principle who, unlike other creatures, does not owe his origin to God; or to explain the devil as a pseudo-reality, a conceptual, fanciful personification of the unknown causes of our misfortune."

Pope Paul VI

November 15, 1972

In other words, be mindful of what you're dressing up as and invoking tonight on this feast day of All Hallows' Eve (also, apparently, the feast day of St. Wolfgang).

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Music Fix For The Day

Apparently it's a thing now where every so often I share the latest songs I have heard and liked on the radio. It's not my fault that I listen to a Christian station and so the songs that I share are all Christian. If you want weird rap songs, go look them up yourself.

"Help Me Find It", by Sidewalk Prophets:

"Steal My Show", by TobyMac:

"Build Your Kingdom Here", by Rend Collective:

I'll be back in a few more weeks with more songs... not that anyone listens to them, anyway.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

500th Post

 

"Peace I leave to you;
My peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives it do I give it.

Do not be worried or afraid...

If you find that the world hates you,

know that it has hated Me before you.

If you belonged to the world,

it would love you as its own.

The reason it hates you

is that you do not belong to the world.

But I chose you out of the world...

All these things they will do to you because of My Name,

for they know nothing of Him Who sent Me."

 

John 14 : 27, 15 : 18-19, 21

 

 

In Pace Christi,

 

Elyse

Our Lady of the Rosary & the Battle of Lepanto

Today is October 7th, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. This feast day was instituted by Pope Pius V, now St. Pius V, a Dominican. It was Pope Pius V who sounded the alarm in Europe over the encroaching Muslim armies and navies. Time and time again, he called for the nations of Europe to take up arms against the invaders before the Christian nations were overrun.

Finally, the call was answered. Don John of Austria was placed in command of the Holy League, and a great naval victory was won in 1571 at Lepanto, off the shores of Greece. While still in Rome, the Holy Father had a vision of the victory. To thank the Blessed Mother for her intercession in obtaining this victory, he instituted today's feast.

Why is this important?

Well, for starters we are all speaking English. Also, we are not kneeling facing Mecca five times a day. Christendom was saved out of great peril, and for that reason we should all say a Rosary today in honor of the Blessed Mother.

In addition, I took the opportunity to read Lepanto, a poem by G. K. Chesterton. If you have not read it, you should. It has the brilliant smash and glitter of words that is a hallmark of GKC's writing, and it insightfully portrays the differences between the Christian outlook on the world and the Muslim one.

Here are two of my favorite lines (8-9), which have haunted me ever since I first read them:

"And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross."

Also, here is some commentary on the poem by Dale Ahlquist, a noted Chestertonian scholar, who has this to say about the disregard shown Lepanto by modern literature critics: "But all those tributes, as well as the poem itself, have been forgotten... So the problem with the poem is that it is a defense of the Catholic Church, of the Crusades, and of war: three things not generally looked kindly upon in today's English literature classes; of course, neither are rhyme and meter. The only twentieth century poetry that is permitted to be studied is that which clashes with everything: with the ear, with history, and with common sense."

Unfortunately, that is very much true. In literature class, I had to read poems fetishizing decaying bodies and glorifying some of the... nastier... aspects of Greek mythology. I was subjected to strange and uncomfortable interpretations of relatively straightforward works. 

Read a poem commemorating a Christian naval victory? Good heavens, no. Of course not.

We have been silent too longer. We need not walk in shame. Glory shines in our past. It is up to us to ensure that glory shall shine in our future, as well.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

What I Heard On The Radio Today

Okay, okay, so all I listen to is Christian radio. The music can be quite good.

The refrain in this one really does sound a bit like a heartbeat (oh, boy, that's going to remind me of When We Stand Together, by Nickelback, which is actually a good song), and the imitation heart monitor blue lines going across the screen help.

I like videos with lyrics, since they tend to load faster. Also, they help you understand the song quicker, and they can be quite creative. For instance, check this next one out:

The name stickers work really well for this video. Kudos for the clever idea!

It makes for nice music to listen to when you're doing physics homework. Not that the homework was terribly complicated. All you have to do is resist the urge to try 'shortcuts' and just work it out, logically and in order.

After all, as Pippin says, "Short cuts make long delays." XD

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

You Are, I Am

You Are I Am, by MercyMe (a group probably most famous for I Can Only Imagine).

Every time I have turned on the radio the past couple of weeks (granted, it has always been to the same Christian station each time), this song has either been playing or came on as I was listening. And that is no exaggeration. It really has been every time.

I don't think it's a coincidence. I really don't believe in mere 'coincidences'. I believe in Providence.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

So I Had to Deal With a Bunch of Idiocy Today...

I was reviewing some books (not for the church library, for once, but for a similar matter) and it is apparent the author has no grasp of logic whatsoever. She also needs to brush up on her history.

My reactions went as follows:

In other news, our final grades came in and my are all very nice indeed, including the calculus one that I was (semi) worried about, which makes me feel a bit better.

Of course, I have to finish reviewing the book tomorrow (less than 1/3 to go, less than 1/3 to go...)... and then there's another one. Gah.

Maybe I should find that meme picture labeled, "I don't want to live on this planet anymore"... It seems like this would be an appropriate occasion...

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Easter Triduum

The services in the Roman Catholic tradition for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil on Saturday evening are referred to collectively as the Easter Triduum, or the 'three days', approximately. The congregation is not officially dismissed on Holy Thursday or Good Friday, and it is not officially welcomed at the Easter Vigil, in order to emphasize that they are a continuous whole.

Of course, they are long services (last night for Holy Thursday it actually took a little over a whole hour, but then we have a very speedy priest who normally gets us out of there in about 40 minutes... how could you possibly object to a priest who loves to give short sermons??? XD).

The Passion is read on Palm Sunday and Good Friday- if memory serves me correctly, the Passion according to the Gospel of John is always read on Good Friday, while the one read on Palm Sunday alternates from Matthew, Mark, and Luke depending if the liturgical readings are in Year A, B, or C. (I think we're in C right now... It's terrible that I can't remember, but then I haven't been playing the responsorial psalms for the past couple of Masses, and that's when I see the little marker.)

Today there are actually two services: the Stations of the Cross around 3:00 instead of the usual late in the evening, and then the Veneration of the Holy Cross later. That one takes forever because there is a period where various intentions for various groups of people are read and the congregation has to kneel and pray, then stand up for the next intention to be read, then kneel again... It goes on and on seemingly ad infinitum.

Oh, well. I've been going for as long as I can remember, so it's become unthinkable for me not to go. I hope the choir sounds as good tonight as it did last night, because last night they rocked. (Sounded kind of sketchy on Palm Sunday; only a few of them turned up apparently... Of course, it was the Vigil Mass, but even so...)

For Stations earlier today I had to play the Stabat Mater, which I've never done before. However, I was pleased that it went off well, without me flubbing it horribly or something. It's a really beautiful song and if you start me off on any verse I can finish it for you. I can't sing it all the way through necessarily, but so many years of attending Stations has paid off...

I should find a video of it and post it. Because I feel like posting things today. Posting-itis it is, then!

No singing, but it gets the tune across. If it works. Google hates me, you know. I want to strangle it on a regular basis.

I should also mention the beautiful hymn Pange, Lingua that is traditionally sung on Holy Thursday. The last two verses out of the six are better known as the Tantum Ergo/Humbly Let Us Voice Our Homage. Humorously, I know the Pange, Lingua in Latin (all six verses! This is what happens when I am bored and am playing the piano...) but not in English, so I was left fumbling around for the book and trying not to finish a verse with, "Rex effudit gentium."

Lol, the problems of a Latin nerd.

Ooh, I should post a video of Pange, Lingua as well!

Basically I've been singing that song, all six verses, in Latin, throughout Lent this year! Whenever I'm just doing dishes or helping cook or something else in the kitchen, I don't know why but I just start singing stuff, and it's usually Latin songs. I just love the sound of them so much (I honestly love Gregorian chant; it's so soothing and I don't find it creepy in the least). Luckily, most Latin songs are also pitched low enough for me not to have a problem with them, since my voice doesn't really go high... at all...

The fact that I do actually know what I am saying when I sing them helps, too.

Semi-amusing story: I went to Midnight Mass for Christmas last year for the first time (yay!) and the opening hymn was Adeste Fideles. They sing it in English as O Come, All Ye Faithful for the children's Mass, but keep it in Latin for Midnight Mass. I was delighted and was happily singing it along with the choir while the rest of the congregation was fumbling around for the books, messing up the Latin words, or having other similar issues.

Oh, and then after Communion one of the choir members sang Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht (in German, naturally). I knew it (at least the first two verses, and that's all he did), so I was pretty much the only member of the congregation who was singing along that time!

The weirdest thing is that I don't find this unusual in the least... I've been taking German and Latin for so long that when I realized today that sooner or later I might as well slap the label "trilingual" (especially as I think I'm going to shoot for a German minor) on my forehead I was actually surprised.

Lol.

I really don't know where I'm going with this blogpost; I'm just sort of celebrating Latin stuff and my faith and having fun along the way.

Oh, and just to prove that Catholics have a better sense of humor:

I just think that picture is hilarious. I giggled like anything when I saw it. From the fact that Dwalin is staring off at nothing to the fact that Gloin is Judas... just, you name it.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse