The Ark and The Dove

Needed: Lawful Good Clerics

Given the rapid approach of my upcoming nuptials, I'm in the middle of thumbing through JP2's Familiaris Consortio. Early in the text, he discusses the dire need for wisdom in an age becoming overwhelmed with its own sophistication:

The following words of the Second Vatican Council can therefore be applied to the problems of the family: "Our era needs such wisdom more than bygone ages if the discoveries made by man are to be further humanized. For the future of the world stands in peril unless wiser people are forthcoming.(17)

Mace-wielders rejoice, for your hour is at hand!

Indeed, we are in the Age of the Mage, are we not? It is the epoch of the magic user -- the Harry Potter -- where we praise intelligence for its awesome power and seek after impressive abilities. We want to be able to cast magic missles, but we don't always ask whether or not we should be casting it any given time.

A glimpse at the headlines on any given day show the loss of wisdom pretty clearly, and it seems as though most of the debates are between people claiming what we can do versus people asking whether we should.

The Choir Show

At my local parish, Mass pretty much always runs about one hour and fifteen minutes.
By my calculations, we could shave off at least fifteen minutes if we cut out choir performances. The choir could only sing for as long as it took for the priest to reach his chair, purify the vessels*, or do whatever else he had to do. We could also recite the Gloria rather than sing it (which would also probably increase the number of people praising God).

*Why do we talk about purifying the vessels when he wipes them down? It makes it sound as if containing the Body of Christ makes them impure

Out of Sight, Out of my Mind

Sometimes I think that my news-reading habits and my idle hobbies create some kind of perverse cycle.
The more I read the news, the more depressed I get. The more depressed I get, the more I goof off to take my mind off of the news. The more I goof off, the more guilty I feel. The guiltier I feel, the more I read the news to at least bear some kind of intellectual solidarity with those who are oppressed in the world...which makes me more depressed...and so on and so on...

Gearing Up

Downloading random .pdfs from Early English Books Online has got to be the early modernist's academic equivalent to level grinding on World of Warcraft.

I'm like a level 217 Orc Bibliographer now.