Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving dawned clear and bright here in the Eternal City.

We stealthy Americans knew what the locals didn't, that today was a day of major good foodness and festivity. Even in a pasta-rich environment, we still were able to rustle up the real stuff: turkeys and pumpkins. The outstanding community of sisters that cooks for us here at the house raised the bar yet again--pulling out all the stops as they prepared one of the best dinners of the year.

Archbishop Burke came to celebrate our midday Mass. I had made it to classes that morning, perhaps without sugarplums dancing in my head, but a profound awareness of the goodness of cranberry sauce. His homily was very good--looking back to family, friends and country, while grounding us in the gratitude that is fundamental to the Christian identity.

Our huge feast lasted well into the afternoon--followed of course by cigars out in the courtyard; a good time was had by all.

Gratitude is one of the strongest of outlooks. We often think there is greater intensity in something like desire or effort, but to have gratitude is to see things in their true perspective. Human proclivity is to look past what we have to what we still want--things which possessed quickly themselves are overlooked for new desires. This spontaneous blindness to what is closest to us obscures whole panoramas of our world. The grateful person, in contrast, is able to still see the beauty in what is close, what has been given. The grateful person recognizes that generosity already experienced is confirmation of providence yet to come. To see things as they really are, this is the privilege of the grateful person.

Speaking of being able to see things, that clear, bright weather of Thanksgiving made for some of the most spectacular views of the year in the city of Rome: Father Bill, going for a run up on Janiculum Hill was able to see the snow-covered mountains of some 70 miles away:

Photo by Father Bill Anton

An Attitude of Gratitu--

OK, the title is over the top, so we'll quit hoping you'll still read the remainder of this message. The (partially) aforementioned attitude has its big day tomorrow, and you can be sure it will be celebrated in force, even here in Italy, where cranberry sauce requires endeavoring to be tracked down.

Speaking of force, one of the best ways to express gratitude is to express it--so Hallmark has created a web page for mailing thank you cards to our troops, the forces who will be celebrating Thanksgiving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Click over there to take a few moments to drop a note in the mail for one of our family members who can't be home for the holiday this year.

Thomas Aquinas and the New Evangelization

This is a bit long, so I apologize in advance. Well worth the read though--from the informative InForum Blog of Sheila Liaugminas, this account takes you to Serbia, where within the former Eastern Bloc, abortion was a commonality.

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Just like America’s famous Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a Serbian former abortionist has become a pro-life advocate. With help from St. Thomas Aquinas…

Stojan Adasevic, who performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day, is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia, after 26 years as the most renowned abortion doctor in the country.

“The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue,” the newspaper reported. “Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 80s, but they did not change his opinion. Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares.”

In describing his conversion, Adasevic “dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. ‘My name is Thomas Aquinas,’ the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn’t recognize the name”

“Why don’t you ask me who these children are?” St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream.

“They are the ones you killed with your abortions,’ St. Thomas told him.

“Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions,” the article stated.

However, there’s another twist to the story, before it concludes. Know that bumper sticker we’ve seen for years…”Abortion stops a beating heart”? It was a beating heart that finally stopped Adasevic.

“That same day a cousin came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend, who wanted to get her ninth abortion—something quite frequent in the countries of the Soviet bloc. The doctor agreed. Instead of removing the fetus piece by piece, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a mass. However, the baby’s heart came out still beating. Adasevic realized then that he had killed a human being,”

After this experience, Adasevic “told the hospital he would no longer perform abortions. Never before had a doctor in Communist Yugoslavia refused to do so. They cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university.”

After years of pressure and on the verge of giving up, he had another dream about St. Thomas.

“You are my good friend, keep going,’ the man in black and white told him. Adasevic became involved in the pro-life movement and was able to get Yugoslav television to air the film ‘The Silent Scream,’ by Doctor Bernard Nathanson, two times.”

40 Hours

The End is Near.

Thought you should know.

The Final Exam of the World has been the theme in our readings in the liturgy for a few weeks now, as we come up on the end of days this Saturday. Saturday night the year will close and we'll begin the new year with the First Sunday of Advent.

Thinking about a meeting with the Maker fits with the opportunity we had here at the Casa this last weekend. If you look at the number 40 in the Bible, you'll find it lines up a lot of times with big encounters: 40 years bringing Israel into Canaan, 40 days bringing Moses to God on Mount Sinai where he's given the 10 Commandments, 40 days bringing Jesus to lay the smackdown on Satan, to utilize a colloquialism.

And so it was fitting that we commemorated 40 hours: a classic form of prayer where the community comes together for Eucharistic Adoration for 40 consecutive hours, with different members switching off with time to pray before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

I don't know when was the last time you felt pure joy, but to encounter Christ face-to-face and rediscover his love for you brings you to heights that a day's occupations can't match.

A good way for you to conclude your year.

Thoughts in Solitude

You've perhaps seen this before but it is well worth returning to: Merton's prayer which speaks of our confidence in God's guidance in our lives:

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that
I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in
the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me
to face my perils alone.

Who Misses PanAm?

Here's a great article by David Brooks looking at some of the responses to the current recession. Clearly written and concise, it is a reminder of the dynamism that makes our economy possible.

Outward Bound

Cecilia has updated her blog and moved it to a new link--check it out here!

"For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it."
Luke 9:24

Absolutely Nightmarish

Oxford does the work so we don't have to, and with scrupulous research they've compiled a list of the top ten most irritating phrases in English. It always pays to be forewarned in what will annoy you, so without further ado--

The top ten most irritating phrases:

1 - At the end of the day

2 - Fairly unique

3 - I personally

4 - At this moment in time

5 - With all due respect

6 - Absolutely

7 - It's a nightmare

8 - Shouldn't of

9 - 24/7

10 - It's not rocket science

I personally must say, though, at the end of the day it's a nightmare to think scholars worked 24/7 on this, and they absolutely shouldn't of spent so much time on this at this moment in time. The results are certainly fairly unique, but with all due respect, it's not rocket science.

More Norris

A friend, after reading the post on Chuck Norris, added the following:

"They tried to abort Chuck Norris. That's when he invented cesarean--from the inside out."

True Love Reaches Out

Long before the sun I rose and shone this morning--setting out on a mission to an unfamiliar destination. I had the privilege of celebrating Mass at 6:30 for the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa's infatigable sisters, but since it was my first time, I was relying on a vague printout to trace a route to their house.

Walking through the early darkness to the metro station, under skies that thankfully were not releasing the heavy downpours of the day before, I came to a virtually abandoned station. I had almost the entire platform as I waited--too long--for a very late train to come.

Riding it to the end of the line I was able to immediately catch the bus that would take me to my destination.

Should take me to my destination. My bus driver professed ignorance of the road and stop I showed him on the map, and so we (he) puzzled over it till the end of the line, at which point he said I should take the next bus back to find the stop.

I'm glad that one of the virtues that religious sisters cultivate is patience. After my return driver (who had the same surprising ignorance of the names of his own stops) was trumped by a fellow passenger who knew which stop I should get off at, I walked the two blocks to where two habited nuns waited out on the street for the absentee father.

The readings happily were perfect for the morning and the community--Jesus reaffirming that it is in the relinquishing of possessions that one is united to him. This house serves pregnant women: these sisters who have given up everything serve mothers who have almost nothing. Meanwhile, back in my home country, voters decided that their own money was more important than those expendable unborn. The happiness I witnessed this morning indicates that the sisters may have made the better choice.

I returned home in the brilliant sunshine through a freshly washed city. A once-trodden path is much more easily followed, so my next visit should be much simpler. But hopefully just as beautiful.

Photo taken in Iskenderun, Turkey.

Sam Is Wise

Americans have chosen as their leader one who as state senator already voted in support of infanticide and as Democratic presidential nominee promised to strike down all legal limits to abortion. These lines of Samwise Gamgee help give perspective:

"I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.... That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for."

Pray, Pray, Pray!

Today marks the culmination of many, many prayers as growing numbers of Americans realize how many unborn lives are at stake in this election. Take this opportunity to join again in asking God for his grace for the United States, and for the conversion of the hearts of all who go to the polls, that they would recognize their responsibility to protect the rights of the unborn. We have stated that life is an unalienable right--it is necessary that we defend it.

“If they [my daughters] make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

Barack Obama

“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”

Mother Teresa

Right Back to Rickenbacker

Friends of mine were blessed with a beautiful daughter 5 years ago (I can't believe it's been 5 years already!) who suffers from Downs--she was able to have a face-to-face chat with another mother of a Downs baby: caught here in this photo from Ohio yesterday.

T'was the Night Before . . .

One of my former high school students shared this article . . . it's a clear, concise synopsis by the Maverick himself.