The Spanish Steps and a Cleaner City

On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception Pope Benedict XVI crosses town to the Spanish Steps where a statue of Mary dating back to the 1800’s stands atop a 40 foot pillar above Moses, David, Isaiah and Ezekiel.  As the tradition goes, the Pope gives a crown to the youngest fireman of the Roman fire department, who goes up one of their extension ladders to place the crown on Mary’s head.

At yesterday’s event Benedict considered Mary’s message, integral for us today, in contrast to the sensationalism often found in today’s news.  Zenit provides a translation: 

[Often] evil is recounted, repeated, amplified, accustoming us to the most horrible things, making us become insensitive and, in some way, intoxicating us, because the negative is not fully disposed of and accumulates day after day . . .

[Though the] media tends to make us feel always as 'spectators,' as if evil refers only to others, and certain things could never happen to us, . . . we are all 'actors' and, in evil as in good, our behavior has an influence on others . . .

We often lament the pollution of the air, which in certain places of the city is unbreathable. It is true: We need everyone's commitment to make the city cleaner.  And yet, there is another pollution, less perceptible to the senses, but just as dangerous. It is the pollution of the spirit; it is that which renders our faces less smiling, more gloomy, which leads us not to greet one another, to not look at one another in the face . . . Persons become bodies, and these bodies lose the soul, become things, objects without a face, to be exchanged and consumed.

Support a Liberal Issue

In his article, 'The Liberal Case Against Abortion', Vasu Murti considers the history of U.S. legislation through the 1960's and notes that laws against abortion emerged from the medical field, not from religious groups. Quoting Dr. Bernard Nathansan he writes: "The U.S. statutes against abortion have a non-sectarian history. They were put on the books when Catholics were a politically insignificant minority...even the Protestant clergy was not a major factor in these laws. Rather, the laws were an achievement of the American Medical Association."

In 1970 the Journal of the California State Medical Association wrote: "The very considerable semantic gymnastics which are required to rationalize abortion as anything but taking a human life would be ludicrous if they were not put forth under socially impeccable auspices."

While often characterized as a religious issue, Murti points out that the basic principles identifying the beginning of human life are all secular. In the end, while the promotion of rights can be challenging, it is the task of a progressive society:

Recognizing the rights of another class of beings limits our freedoms and our choices and requires a change in our lifestyle—the abolition of (human) slavery is a good example of this . . . One could argue, therefore—apart from religion—that recognizing the rights of the human unborn, like the rights of blacks, women, lesbians and gays, children, animals and the environment, is a sign of secular social progress.

We Saw Warsaw

Just before Thanksgiving Father Derek and myself had time to squeeze in a trip to Poland and Latvia: we were tracking down his family’s farm and visiting a classmate from seminary.

Flying into Warsaw midday you quickly discovered that up north the sun sets promptly.

So our photos went from this:

To this:

To this:

By about 3:30.

Here’s the palace in the old city:

Warsaw was heavily damaged in World War II, and then had a little jaunt of about 45 years of Soviet occupation, so it’s impressive to see how restored the city center is.

Here’s the interior of the cathedral:

Where they had perpetual adoration. You can’t see from this angle, but all the pews were full on a weekday afternoon.

Mud Bowl

Intensity.

Passion.

Mud.

Now you can have it all in NBC4's recap of my seminary's annual Mud Bowl football game. It's been a few years since I was out on that field, but it looks like they're still having a good time.

For the URL for the video, click here.

Monte Cassino

You could say you were gambling in going to Monte Cassino Saturday.  With rain coming in all week, you didn’t know what weather you’d get.  We certainly were gamboling up the serpentine road leading up from the town to the ancient yet brand new monastery—where we discovered we were both above and inside the clouds.

Dating to the 6th century, Monte Cassino is ground zero for monasticism, with Benedict founding the first western order there.  It became ground zero again in the 20th century, when the Allies bombed it back to the stone age as they came north toward Rome.

So today’s structure was rebuilt after the war replicating the earlier layout.  But with electric lights.

Leave It Be

Hearing from friends back in North America about the splendid fall colors I was resigned to a cityscape of uniform grey, when happy coincidence brought me to mountaintop Assisi when the trees were at the turning point of the year.

You certainly don’t see this in the heart of Rome.

You can see why Saint Francis loved it here . . .

As do the rest of us who happen to pass by.

The Persuasiveness of Reality

Eight years of dedicated service took a turn last month when Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson handed in her resignation. Having confronted the actual procedure her organization provided, she knew she could no longer promote it. Many mothers encounter their child in a new way seeing them in an ultrasound; for Johnson it was watching an ultrasound of an abortion that opened her eyes to what she had been supporting. For the full story from Bryan, Texas, click here.

A Funny Thing Happened

One of the good things of having friends in town is you return to the places you hadn’t visited for a while . . . having been away in Israel all last semester, it’d been months since I’d wandered through the Forum.

The twilight caught some of the evening stillness.

Seeking Communion

Having gotten to know Dr. Steenson while he lived here in Rome, I appreciated his recent article regarding the surprising announcement from the Vatican regarding communion with the Anglican communities.  A former Episcopalian bishop who was living in Rome prior to ordination to the Catholic priesthood, Steenson showed a remarkable insight and gentleness which is reflected in his writing.

While this week's announcement was unexpected, Steenson's able grasp of the history of Anglican-Catholic relations indicates how this Constitution corresponds with the efforts toward communion developing over the centuries.  As witnesses of an significant step towards Christian unity, we have the opportunity to pray for continued breakthroughs in the path of reunification.

Stand By Me

I know your friends have already forwarded this to you, but it’s worth watching again. Produced by Playing For Change, this is a great cover of a well-known song:

Watching the song unfold gives a glimpse of what it means to be Catholic as well—each of us, around the world, is united by the Holy Spirit: what each contributes becomes a part of the harmonious whole.

Changing the Discourse

Lisa Harris published a significant and troubling article in Reproductive Health Matters Supplement in May 2008.  Entitled “Second Trimester Abortion Provision: Breaking the Silence and Changing the Discourse”, Harris breaks from what is commonly presented as the party line in recognizing some of the difficulties faced by abortion providers.  Harris is willing to confirm that abortion is not merely another medical operation: "Abortion is different from other surgical procedures . . . Even when the fetus has no legal status, its moral status is reasonably the subject of much disagreement. It is disingenuous to argue that removing a fetus from a uterus is no different from removing a fibroid."

As an OB/GYN who also performs abortions, Harris refers to the conflict in her work:

The last patient I saw one day was 23 weeks pregnant. I performed an uncomplicated D&E procedure. Dutifully, I went through the task of reassembling the fetal parts in the metal tray. It is an odd ritual that abortion providers perform - required as a clinical safety measure to ensure that nothing is left behind in the uterus to cause a complication - but it also permits us in an odd way to pay respect to the fetus (feelings of awe are not uncommon when looking at miniature fingers and fingernails, heart, intestines, kidneys, adrenal glands), even as we simultaneously have complete disregard for it. Then I rushed upstairs to take overnight call on labour and delivery. The first patient that came in was prematurely delivering at 23-24 weeks. As her exact gestational age was in question, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) team resuscitated the premature newborn and brought it to the NICU. Later, along with the distraught parents, I watched the neonate on the ventilator. I thought to myself how bizarre it was that I could have legally dismembered this fetus-now-newborn if it were inside its mother's uterus - but that the same kind of violence against it now would be illegal, and unspeakable.

Harris asserts that the pro-abortion argument has consistently denied and downplayed the reality of the procedure—what she refers to as “the violence and, frankly, the gruesomeness of abortion”.  This tactic has also ignored the experience of those participating in abortions as well.  Harris, reflecting on a procedure she carried out when she herself was 18 weeks pregnant, writes about carrying out the abortion on a woman whose fetus was also at the same stage of development.  "I went about doing the procedure as usual," she documents. "I used electrical suction to remove the amniotic fluid, picked up my forceps and began to remove the fetus in parts, as I always did. I felt lucky that this one was already in the breech position - it would make grasping small parts (legs and arms) a little easier."

With my first pass of the forceps, I grasped an extremity and began to pull it down. I could see a small foot hanging from the teeth of my forceps. With a quick tug, I separated the leg. Precisely at that moment, I felt a kick - a fluttery "thump, thump" in my own uterus. It was one of the first times I felt fetal movement. There was a leg and foot in my forceps, and a "thump, thump" in my abdomen. Instantly, tears were streaming from my eyes - without me - meaning my conscious brain - even being aware of what was going on. I felt as if my response had come entirely from my body, bypassing my usual cognitive processing completely. A message seemed to travel from my hand and my uterus to my tear ducts. It was an overwhelming feeling - a brutally visceral response - heartfelt and unmediated by my training or my feminist pro-choice politics. It was one of the more raw moments in my life. Doing second trimester abortions did not get easier after my pregnancy; in fact, dealing with little infant parts of my born baby only made dealing with dismembered fetal parts sadder.

Kathleen Gilbert, reviewing Harris’ article at LifeSiteNews.com, notes Harris’ confirmation that abortionists’ experience often more closely matches pro-lifers depiction of abortion, even as their values are in sharp contrast.  Harris recognizes the prevailing sentiment that “frank talk like this is threatening to abortion rights.”  While many of Harris’ colleagues may be angry at her openness, she feels that honesty is necessary in addressing the abortion argument.   As society continues to examine its values regarding pregnancy and early life, honesty will be a help to us all.

The British Museum

There’s one major problem with my sightseeing in England.

It looks just like my sightseeing in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel.

With my first trip to London leading to the British Museum, the artifacts there looked remarkably familiar.

Very old, and very Middle Eastern.

“Egypt me!” you exclaim, as you scroll through these new shots.

But you’d  be wrong.  These are Assyrian.

At least until you get back outside.  Down the street you find the much more contemporary Oratory of Saint Philip Neri.

Near which you’ll find this statue commemorating Newman, whose beatification may be just around the corner.

Not this corner, though: down the street you find the Natural History Museum.  With some artist’s conception of what it looks like to enter into Earth Studies.

Having arrived back in Rome a week ago, these photos are themselves becoming history . . . but I’ll have more soon from Northern England.

Heavy Rain? = Hire a Navy!

Whenever life has you jumbled, or you need to jumble something, an anagram clears things up. These are from wordsmith.org's Anagram Hall of Fame:

• Slot Machines = Cash Lost in'em
• Clothespins = So let's pinch
• The centenarians = I can hear ten "tens"
• The Morse Code = Here Come Dots
• A Decimal Point = I'm a Dot in Place
• Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one
• Elvis = Lives
• A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss = Stroller on Go, Amasses Nothing
• Snooze Alarms = Alas! No More Z's
• New York Times = Monkeys write (by Andrew Glines)
• Twenty thousand leagues under the sea = Huge water tale stuns. End had you tense. (by E.L. Benfer)
• God save us all = Salvaged soul (by Dawn Amos)

Meal for a Day, Food for Life

Every once in a while you come across an idea so brilliant you ask, 'Why wasn't that thought of before?'.

Combined with the fact that this one comes from Scotland, so you can read about it with the voices of Braveheart, and you have an incredible combination.

Mary's Meals has been picking up momentum since its founding based on a simple concept: in the desperately poor regions of the world, what is needed is not only a meal for today, but the formation for a future. Combining those two elements, Mary's Meals creates what so many parents long for, but have been unable to provide for their children. By providing a daily meal in the school setting, the project ensures for children the ability to continue (or even begin) in school, where before when famine struck, education was the first thing to be lost.

This innovative combination moves beyond the conflict between providing help for today or for the long term, by opening the door for one by supporting the other. Amazingly, feeding about 375,000 children today, Mary's Meals does this at a cost of about $13 per year per student.

Click over to the brief video clips to catch a glimpse of what is already happening today, and what you can be a part of for a little more than a dollar a month. From Albania to Zambia, you can help change the world.

Out of Tune

Maybe this would help Obama sell his plan:

Definitions

Sometimes to learn the meanings of words it's helpful to see them used in context:

• Mushroom: When all my family get in the car, there's not mushroom.
• Shoulder: My friend didn't know how to drive so I shoulder.
• Texas: My fren always Texas me when she’s wondering where I'm at!
• July: Ju told me ju were going to wash the car but July to me! Julyer!
• Chicken: My wife wanted me to go to the mall but chicken go by herself.
• Wheelchair: We only have one piece of pizza left, but don't worry wheelchair.
• Chicken wing: My wife plays the lottery so chicken wing money.
• Body wash: I want to go to the bar but no body wash my kids.
• Cheese: My sister says she will, but cheese crazy.
  
• Budweiser: That woman go into the store, budweiser car still running?

Lighting Candles

Youth ministry has a slightly different tone over here in England.

I've been involved in youth work for years. So I was happy to assist at the parish here while in the neighborhood. Certainly there were similarities with back home, like the enthusiasm that accompanies getting a group of kids together.

But some things aren't replicated in States. Our gathering took place in a renovated barn . . . built in the 1600's. The stone walls and oak rafters have seen a few more generations than any youth center I've been in back in America. While the ping pong, foosball, and pool tables with the piano on the side were added by the owner a bit more recently, the green meadows surrounding the farm were still being grazed by sheep and cattle as they had been for centuries.

Also surprising was stepping into the kitchen--and having the whole group singing happy birthday around a candlelit chocolate cake: they had connections to know it had been my birthday, and I had no idea that was coming.

And it was a good cake.

New Insights from New Clairvaux

If you've been wanting to learn more about wines, and wanted to be able to identify a red table wine, the Trappists at Vina can help you. Leave it to the monks to simplify things.

Nun Sense

This just in from Maryland: 10 nuns will be becoming Catholic on Thursday.  The Episcopalian sisters from the Society of All Saints' Sisters of the Poor have spent seven years in discerning the step, and pointed to orthodoxy and unity as being the attractions to Catholicism.

The Lost Files: Tombs of the Kings

More accurately, a walk through the valley of the Tombs of the Kings, and then a visit to a Tomb of a Queen, specifically, the Temple-Tomb of Queen Hatshepsut.

Along the ravine where ancient pharaohs attempted to make their bodies disappear, so that their gilded splendor could escape grave robbers and be ready for the resurrection, you find little digs like this one:

Unfortunately for you, the interior of the many passages tunneled into the rocks have a vigorous no-photo policy, vigorous at least until a pound or two were to emerge . . . and you just weren’t worth it.  So the elaborate hieroglyphic script and vividly colored memorials will have to remain in my memory alone.

This remote valley was across the river from the contemporary town of Luxor where we were staying.  Father Severhino and I were able to drive with two parishioners up into the hills to find what had been hidden for centuries.

Our two guides had a different philosophy than Father Doan in Cairo had had.  While there, as he led us to the Cairo market, he cheerfully explained that the bombing there two weeks prior was a good sign, “Because a mortar never hits the same crater twice.”  Here in Luxor, our friends waited until after we had visited our next sight before describing in detail the massacre of several years before, when 63 tourists had been gunned down by terrorists.

Which would have explained the presence here as everywhere else of machinegun equipped guards.

Remote though it was:

Deir el-Bahri was begun over 4,000 years ago.

Mentuhotep II, whom I’m sure has always been of great interest to you, was actually the first to be buried here.  Hatshepsut, one of the longest reigning and most prosperous of female pharaohs, then expanded the site to hold her mausoleum.  Unfortunately, as I’m sure you remember, under Thutmose III and his son, her memory was attempted to be eradicated, so they did things like knock the faces off her statues.

These guys made it, though:

Here photos could be taken of the cool paintings and such:

With the requisite hieroglyphics.  Below of course you recognize the lower golden oval (cartouche) representing the aforementioned Thutmose III—apparently sometimes called by his loving people ‘stork-threebean-shovel-beetle guy’.

Keeping You Up to Date

For your insight and discernment:

1. Did you hear about the thief who stole a calendar? He got twelve months.
2. The calendar's days, though, are numbered.
3. And then there’s the math professor went crazy: he did a number on the blackboard.
4. Now, giving away dead batteries: they’re free of charge.
5. This just in: If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine!
6. When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.
7. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.
8. The chicken crossing the road? Poultry in motion.

High Five

Abraham Heschel demonstrates that the launch point of celebration is found in Genesis with the introduction of the Sabbath: for the first time a component of this universe is consecrated and a moment in time is found for encountering God.

From this weekly return to communion with God emerges the entire calendar and the unfolding of time as a marking of God's engagement in our lives. Thus from the Sabbath you find the Jewish calendar blossoming into an abundance of feasts, with Passovers, Rosh Hashanas and Yom Kippurs.

Each of our lives is marked by the calendar, and as the years go by, birthdays, anniversaries and annual commemorations begin to chart the life that is developing. For the Church as well certain days have universal meaning, including the two days we have just witnessed, the 14th and 15th of August.

On August 14th, 1941, Father Maximilian Mary Kolbe breathed his last in a starvation bunker in Auschwitz after a camp doctor gave him a lethal injection. That date when he gave his life in place of another man was significant, as his passing in the evening placed him in the vigil of his most beloved lady, the Virgin whose Assumption into heaven is celebrated on the 15th of August.

These commemorations of Saint Maximillian and Mary's Assumption took on a new meaning for me five years ago, when in 2004 I was ordained a priest on the 14th and celebrated my Mass of Thanksgiving on the 15th of August.

Ever the pilgrim, I found myself five years later traveling on planes, trains, and an automobile, as well as a bus thrown in for good measure, as I journeyed from Italy to England. I celebrated Mass on my ordination anniversary in a small chapel just blocks from where Father Kolbe had celebrated his own first Mass in Rome over 90 years before. Having then soared on wings of steel I celebrated the Mass of the Assumption in England, arriving in a nation that in centuries past was renowned for its love of the Blessed Mother and shows glimmers of reawakening today.

These five years have raced by so quickly, but one theme continues to return to the forefront in all the many settings I have been: the fidelity of God manifested in the generosity of others, particularly the love of parishioners, family, and friends. God created the Sabbath as a meeting point between himself and those whom he loved, and as I look toward future anniversaries, I am glad most of all for those many meetings which lead into the fellowship of eternity.

Roman Return

It’s hard to describe how beautiful the evenings are here in Rome.

While the days are hot and heavy in these August doldrums, and the streets are empty except for map-bearing tourists, the golden sun in evening paints the city in warm tones that cause the centuries-old walls to glow.

I flew back into the city Monday, and while I leave again for several weeks of work on Greek and Hebrew soon, even a brief return to the city revivifies its beauty.

The last few weeks of whirlwind summer travel have brought woeful neglect to this blog, leaving me with many overdue posts yet to create.  The Lost Files catalog will have to be expanded, as photos from Egypt, Jordan, Amman, Petra, Galilee and many more still linger unviewed.  Likewise, the upcoming weeks of study in England promise to hold a sight or two worth noting.

And I think I came across a new joke about some angels . . .

A Window on Dor

Do some farming.  Find a 6th century synagogue.

That was on the to-do list for the members of the kibbutz Bet-Alpha back in 1928.  Their find contained one of the nicest mosaic floors discovered in Israel, so on a road trip yesterday four of us decided to swing by the northern location.

Three segments run down the center of the Jerusalem-facing synagogue.  Closest to the apse is an image of an Ark flanked by lions and two menorah (menarot, if you want to be technical).  In the middle is the full zodiac, underscoring how important the calendar is for Jewish ritual, and recalling the belief that the temple was a microcosm of the entire universe.  Finally, at the bottom, Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac is depicted, which coincided with yesterday’s first reading for Mass from Genesis.

From there we continued to the nearby site of Gideon’s selection of his warriors.  Ma’ayan Harod still has a running spring today, made famous by Judges 7.  Even after Gideon has cleared anyone who was hesitant to fight and 22,000 men go home, God still wants to thin down the remaining 10,000.  So it’s from this spring that Gideon sifts his men—those kneeling down to drink vs. those who ‘lapped with their hands to their mouths’.  He sent home the kneeling crew, so he was left with 300 men.

When you’re there the true meaning of the text is clarified: ‘kneeling down’ actually meant diving into the swimming pool there:

Heading west brought us to the coast just south of Haifa.  There was the Templar ruin of the fortress Atlit, also known, in an apparent tribute to this blog, as Castle Pilgrim.  Built in 1218, it was never taken in siege.  Unless you count it’s being besieged today by the navy base that surrounds it, which means this is about as close as you can get to it:

Continuing south we arrived at Dor, winning the day’s prize for longest occupied site, with its origins going back about 4,000 years.  It shows up in Joshua 11 to its own misfortune: teaming up with a whole crew of kings and armies against the newcomers Joshua and Co., Dor is trounced and the king, among others, is killed.

Various groups lived there over the millennia, including the Romans with temples left behind, the Byzantines with a church, and crusaders fortifying the area—after which it appears to have been abandoned.

Centuries of the Mediterranean doing what the Mediterranean does have worn away the bay and headlands, leaving behind beautiful rock formations and tide pools.

Which were met by a sun-drenched beach, which we also researched.

Indiana Jones: Lose

You heard it here first: it turns out the movie was wrong. Ethiopia has the Ark of the Covenant, and tomorrow's the big unveiling.

It's been a long time since it was misplaced--the Babylonians stormed into Jerusalem in 586 BC and ruined the temple, but what happened to the ark was a mystery. Now the Orthodox Patriarch of Ethiopia, perhaps having seen the reruns of Indiana Jones, wants to set the record straight.

Corresponding to Jewish legends that the ark disappeared into Ethiopia via Egypt 2,600 years ago, the Patriarch announced earlier this month to Italian news agency ADNKRONOS that his church has had custody of the Ark up till today. And so tomorrow, June 26, ADNKRONOS confirms, "Il mondo conoscerà l'Arca dell'Alleanza". Which is Italian for, "The world will know the Ark of the Covenant." Just don't ask what their name means.

All this, of course, barring a lawsuit from the Indiana Jones franchise.

Is the Abortion Debate Over?

Here's a great article by the same name coming from Micah Watson: looking at how the discussion has developed in the last 30 years, he gives a very clear summary of the main points of the argument.

Sign Right Up

If you've been puzzling over what to put up on the sign out in front of your church this week, puzzle no more:

1.  Give God what's right -- not what's left.

2.  Man's way leads to a hopeless end! -- God's way leads to an endless hope.

3.  A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing.

4.  He who kneels before God can stand before anyone.

5.  Don't put a question mark where God puts a period.

6.  Don't wait for six strong men to take you to church.

7.  Church: prayer-conditioned.

8.  Plan ahead -- It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.

9.  Many want to serve God, but only in an advisory position.

10.  Truth decay? Brush up on your Bible.

11.  Worry: the darkroom where negatives develop.

12.  Give Satan an inch & he'll be a ruler.

13.  Be fishers of men -- you catch them, He'll clean them.

14.  God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Happy New Year!

The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart yesterday kicked off the new Year of the Priesthood, proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday. Tuesday was also the The year also commemorates the 150th birthday of the Curé d'Ars, Saint John Vianney, patron saint of parish priests and newly made patron of this upcoming year. Of course, all things cool have web pages, so click over for footage and updates. The year was "meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal", writes Pope Benedict. This renewal corresponds to "the new springtime which the Spirit is now bringing about in the Church".

"The priest is not a priest for himself, he is a priest for you.” Saint John Mary Vianney

The Lost Files: The Temple of Karnak

Thebes didn’t have just one temple, of course.  And the temples they did have kept getting expanded and enlarged by pharaohs who realized that bigger was better.

Definitely bigger.

Witness Karnak, the sprawling temple complex just north of the temple of Luxor.  Remodeled and tinkered with for over 1,300 years, it has a lot of carved rocks left behind today.

Like these guys by today’s entrance:

Unfortunately, what you can’t see from these photos is the scale: these columns are absolutely massive—with diameters of over three meters, they are over 21 meters—almost 70 feet—tall.

They also had the tallest obelisks in Egypt there:

The tallest currently in Egypt, I should say.  I learned that all of Egypt’s tallest obelisks are in Rome.  I thought I’d seen these things somewhere before.

Father Severhino and I spent hours hours wandering through the vast complex.  You get thirsty after a while.

Enough to lose your head, it seems:

Though the place was named Karnak, I didn’t see any cars anywhere.  Or anyone who had a knack for one, as far as I could tell.  There sure were plenty of names lying around though, or at least carved into the rocks.  Using bugs and such as symbols.  So that you would never forget who these people were.

The Lost Files: The Temple of Luxor

One of the misleading elements of a blog is that it gives the impression of keeping one up-to-date on the adventures and escapades of the blogger, which could very well be the case, except when the blogger is a slacker.

Like myself.

In such a case archives of photos and events build up that should be posted, but instead languish away in obscurity. In an attempt to (begin to) rectify this egregious delinquency, witness the beginning of ‘The Lost Files’.

Beginning with April’s trip to Egypt. Based on what was posted, you’d never know we got past the pyramids. Two of us, however, remained in Cairo as the rest of our group bussed back to Israel. Going first to celebrate Mass with the Missionaries of Charity, they told us about the Franciscans in Luxor, which was our next destination.

Far up the Nile River in the heart of Egypt, Luxor was once the capital of ancient Egyptian, known then as Thebes. Taking the night train that followed the Nile, Father Severhino and I arrived in the city at dawn, which today boasts the most extensive temple complexes of the ancient pharaohs, as well as many of their tombs.

Our early arrival gave us a view of the main temple in the morning sunlight.

Going right in, we had the site virtually to ourselves.

Not counting guys like this, of course.

One of the most spectacular things of walking through the ancient ruins was the sheer magnitude of the scale. Everything was so massive.

Our research confirmed: there remains the remembrance of those who walked like an Egyptian.

All in all, it was a monumental site:

With much to ponder (so we sphinx).

Spending two nights in town (more photos yet), we were able to get to know the Franciscans and meet the Catholic community, as well as celebrate Mass for the sisters who ran a grade school. Definitely an experience worth chronicling.

Back to School

I know this is a very long quote, but it's a selection worth reading in its entirety: Pope Benedict's answer to a child last Saturday who asked how we can help proclaim the Gospel. Benedict, ever the teacher, highlighted several points:

First of all, prayer. Prayer is a reality: God listens to us, and when we pray, God enters into our lives, he becomes present among us, active. Prayer is a very important thing, which can change the world, because it makes the power of God present. And it is important to help each other to pray: we pray together in the liturgy, we pray together in the family. And here I would say that it is important to begin the day with a little prayer, and also to end the day with a little prayer: remembering our parents in prayer. Pray before lunch, before dinner, and on the occasion of the common celebration on Sunday. A Sunday without the Mass, the great common prayer of the Church, is not a real Sunday: the heart of Sunday is missing, and with it the light of the week. And you can also help others – especially when there are no prayers at home, when prayer is unknown – you can teach others to pray: pray with others and introduce them to communion with God.

Next, listening, which means really learning what Jesus tells us. Moreover, knowing the Sacred Scripture, the Bible. In the story of Jesus, we come to know the face of God, we learn what God is like. It is important to know Jesus deeply, personally. This is how he enters into our lives, and, through our lives, enters into the world.

And also sharing, not wanting things for ourselves alone, but for all; sharing with others. And if we see another who may be in need, who is less fortunate, we must help him and in this way make the love of God present without big words, in our little personal world, which is part of the big world. And in this way we become a family together, where each respects the other: bearing with the other in his uniqueness, even accepting those we don't like, not letting anyone be marginalized, but helping him to be part of the community. All of this simply means living in this big family of the Church, in this big missionary family.

Living the essential points like sharing, knowing Jesus, prayer, listening to each other, and solidarity is a missionary activity, because it helps the Gospel to become a reality in our world.

Ha Ushpizin

You may never have had visitors quite like these--this 2004 film set in Jerusalem takes you into the celebration of Succoth, traditionally a time for welcoming guests. A riveting glimpse into a faith and prayer of Orthodox Judaism, this whimsical yet moving holiday story is well worth your time.

A group of us sat down to watch it last night, and in addition to the fun of seeing local streets on film, Ha Ushpizin also left you with music running through your head.

This clip isn't a trailer, but the song from the closing credits--here remixed with clips from the film:

The refrain--'For You are Holy, and Your Name is Holy"

Pontifex

. . . means ‘bridge builder’ in Latin, which is what Jerusalem has in Santiago Calatrava.

I brought along my camera for my afternoon run yesterday, and was able to catch a few shots of his piece, one of Jerusalem’s most recent additions.

Northern Californians will immediately recognize Calatrava’s work, being familiar with the graceful Sundial Bridge crossing the Sacramento River in Redding.

Calatrava’s 72 string bridge in Jerusalem doesn’t cross over any water, though.

The route under Calatrava’s bridge would be better traversed by car than by kayak:

Calatrava modeled the bridge after the theme of a harp, recalling King David and the many subsequent temple musicians.

Calatrava cites Psalm 150 as one of his inspirations—one of the most exuberant of the Psalms: “Praise Him with a blast of the trumpet; praise Him with the lyre and harp!”

“Praise him with really tricky balanced cables making you dizzy when you try to run under them while looking upwards!”