Toddler bleg

Anyone have any practical tips for dealing with toddlers who fight tooth and nail, especially when mom is tied down nursing the baby? Noogs and Babs are big enough and active enough to leave scratches and bruises on each other -- they both look appalling. And of course neither of them take it very seriously when I'm sitting in the arm chair trying to get the baby to sleep and quietly bellowing, "Both of you stop it right now! I mean it! If I have to count to three and get up, you two are in Big Trouble!"

Science & Religion, Compatible or Not?

John Farrell linked to a really interesting post on Dispatches From The Culture Wars yesterday, which talked about the controversy within the pro-evolution side of the creationist/ID/evolution debate over whether religion and science are compatible.

The author, a self described deist, takes Dawkins, Dennett and their various blogsphere supporters to task for asserting that science and religion are totally incompatible, and that true intellectuals are "too smart" to be religious.

Normally, when I wade into the evolution controversy, I'm arguing either against fellow Christians who assert that evolution is untrue, or secularists who insist that religion has been disproved by science. So it's interesting reading someone who is not in the religious camp (being a deist but not of any particular religious creed) dealing with a similar set of questions. The author's comments are general sensible and well thought-out, but perhaps more interesting is the range of opinions displayed by the commentors (most of whom disagreed with the author and asserted that religion and science are incompatible.)

Definately worth a read.

The Christian in the World

Christians are indistinguishable from other men neither by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrines. With regard to dress, food, and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives. They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law.

...To speak in general terms, we may say that the Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body. As the soul is present in every part of the body, while remaining distinct from it, so Christians are found in all the cities of the world, but cannot be identified with the world. As the visible body contains the invisible soul, so Christians are seen living in the world, but their religious life remains unseen. The body hates the soul and wars against it, not because of any injury the soul has done it, but because of the restrictions the soul places on its pleasures. Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its enjoyments.

Christians love those who hate them just as the soul loves the body and all its members despite the body's hatred. It is by the soul, enclosed within the body, that the body is held together, and similarly, it is by the Christians, detained in the world as in a prison, that the world is held together. The soul, though immortal has a mortal dwelling place; and Christians also live for a time amidst perishable things, while awaiting the freedom from change and decay that will be theirs in heaven. As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so Christians flourish under persecution. Such is the Christian's lofty and divinely appointed function, from which he is not permitted to excuse himself.

--Letter to Diogenes

Celiac disease and First Communion

Every now and then there's a flap about a family leaving the Church because special accomodations aren't made for their child with celiac disease (in which the child cannot digest wheat, and so can't receive the Host). Here's how an faithful Catholic family dealt with problem of celiac disease:

Sparky made his First Holy Communion on Sunday. It was a very special day of course, but even more special, in a way, because he has celiac disease. Celiacs cannot digest wheat and so Sparky could not take Jesus in the form of bread. Instead, he took only the Precious Blood.

Our pastor did a lovely job using Sparky's special circumstances as a teaching moment. In his homily he spoke of how Jesus, Body and Blood, is present in both the form of bread and wine.
...on Sunday, my heart lept for joy. I wept joyfully as my son took the chalice into his hands. All that mattered was that Sparky really loves Jesus and was thrilled to be partaking in Holy Communion. The wheat thing didn't matter at all.

Read the whole story, including Maureen's OSV article about her pain at realizing that her son could never receive the Host and the current options for sufferers of celiac disease.

My Civility Score

Which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Are You?

YOU ARE RULE 8(a)!You are Rule 8, the most laid back of all the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. While your forefather in the Federal Rules may have been a stickler for details and particularity, you have clearly rebelled by being pleasant and easy-going. Rule 8 only requires that a plaintiff provide a short and plain statement of a claim on which a court can grant relief. While there is much to be lauded in your approach, your good nature sometimes gets you in trouble, and you often have to rely on your good friend, Rule 56, to bail you out.
Take this quiz!








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h/t Speculative Catholic

Divorce and Canon Law

Jay Anderson at Pro Ecclesia has up a post about the Bai Mcfarlane divorce project:

The appellate court case involves William (Bud) Macfarlane, a self-professed practicing Catholic who left his wife Marie (Bai) Macfarlane in July, 2003, and sought a no-fault divorce. The divorce was granted against Bai’s objections, and Bud was given permanent custody of the children. The court criticized Mrs. MacFarlane’s opinions and the Catholic Church’s teachings on the sanctity of marriage in its decision to grant custody to her husband, and to forbid her to continue homeschooling the children.

Mrs. Macfarlane laments: “I was forced to stop homeschooling because the court psychologist stated it was bad after second grade, despite the fact that my children scored well on standardized tests. My youngest child is in daycare although I want to care for my children at home. Now, I have no right to make any decision regarding their upbringing. Finally, although we as a family poured our lives into building a non-profit foundation, my husband runs it and I have been ordered to get another job.”

“The court’s ruling gave the father, who works full time, permanent custody and their stay-at-home mom visitation time,” her lead attorney, Safranek said. “This occurred despite the fact that the father did not have a single family member or friend or even an employee who could testify on his abilities to serve as a custodial parent. However, a veritable blizzard of family and friends testified on behalf of Mrs. MacFarlane.”

Mrs. MacFarlane hopes her husband will be ordered to follow the arbitration process required by his church law before seeking civil divorce. “Courts order people to follow the rules they choose in their own contracts everyday; marriage should be no different,” says Mrs. Macfarlane.

Mrs. MacFarlane has taken her case on a parallel track before the Church Tribunals and she is publicizing all these efforts on her website.

Jay brings up some interesting points in his comments box, namely that marriage law is not and should not be treated like contract law because marriage is more than just a contract. Also, requiring courts to recognize Catholic canon law would be setting up a parellel legal system. Do we really want American courts allowing cases to be settled by Sharia law? This is, in principle the same thing.

It seems to me that the problem with demanding that the court order Mr. Mcfarlane to comply with canon law is that the court has no business insisting that anyone follow the dictates of his own religion, nor should it. It's not the job of the courts to enforce religious observance, and in this country we can thank God for that. As Jay points out: "Clearly, no-fault divorce was and is a full-frontal assault on the institution of marriage, and should, for public policy reasons, be abolished. But that's a legislative argument, not a judicial one." Mrs. Mcfarlane's foundation would be better served in pushing for an end to no-fault divorce through legislative means, or in educating Catholics about canon law issues surrounding divorce and annulments, or in establishing better marriage preparation classes or mediation systems. I'm not against canonical penalties for Catholics refusing to abide by Church teaching, even up to the level of excommunication. But I don't think that civil government should have a hand in enforcing those penalties at all. That's not the role of civil government, nor should it be.

And now a few personal notes:

1. Divorced families attempting to homeschool is a BAD idea, in my book. I've always thought that there needs to be a certain minimum parental unity to maintain a good homeschooling environment, both intellectually and spiritually. It is detrimental both to the child's respect for the parent and to the parent's ability to support him- or herself. Though some conservative Catholic parents would dispute it, homeschooling is not always the best way to educate one's child, and some family situations should preclude it altogether. In this I speak from experience: divorce and homeschooling DON'T mix.

2. I think that Bud Mcfarlane writes lousy fiction. His style is deplorable. But his lack of skill as a writer doesn't say anything about his abilities as a husband or father, and since his wife is the only one going public, we don't know his side of the story. This is not a minor consideration.

3. Divorced families attempting to homeschool is a BAD idea.

Matchmaker, matchmaker, give me a degree

That girls should not be in universities flows from the nature of universities and from the nature of girls: true universities are for ideas, ideas are not for true girls, so true universities are not for true girls. -- SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson

When I was 16 or 17, my family had dinner over at the home of some friends. As I was browsing the bookshelf, I came upon a textbook: Acting Is Believing. My hostess mentioned that she had been a theater major in college.
"Were you an actress?" I asked.
"No, I didn't really want to act," she said. "I was just interested in theater."

Believe it or not, it had never occured to me that you could study a subject at college without intending to pursue a job in that field. I'd always seen college as a glorified vocational school, and I wasn't at all interested in teaching, which is what my acquaintances with English degrees did (English degree (noun): that catch-all program for kids who like to read). But here was a real person who'd studied theater (something I was truly interested in) not because she was an already accomplished actress or planned to do movie work, but just because she liked theater. And though I still didn't know what I wanted to do, I decided that I would study theater, and even chose Franciscan University of Steubenville because of the conservative Catholic colleges I'd heard of, it was the only one with a real drama department. And so I went to college and met Darwin within the first few weeks at one of the ubiquitous freshman mixers.

I knew plenty of girls who went to college to get their MRS degree, and even some who dropped out of school to get married. Once they'd found a mate, college had served its purpose, and since they planned to stay at home with the children, they didn't need any further vocational training. And what better place to meet a good Catholic guy than at an orthodox Catholic college? (Oddly enough, none of these girls were engineering students or Computer Science majors, which would have been the most useful places to be if you wanted to attract the attention of a bunch of future wage-earners.)

Now I'm a stay-at-home mom with a heavy debt load and a firm grasp of intentions and objectives in scoring a script for acting. I'd always intended to stay at home with children when I became a mother, and I figured that one day I'd get married. But for me, going to college was not about finding a husband, although I did that. College was where I learned to think well -- to encounter an idea and examine it on its merits; to express concretely why elements of the faith had always felt right to me; to formulate a logical argument for why I believed that certain things were wrong; to read critically. I don't see a dichotomy between staying at home with a family and having a well-honed, educated mind -- though perhaps the good bishop would disagree, since

to attract a man so as to marry and become a mother, to nurture and rear children and to retain their father, she needs superior gifts of feeling and instinct, e.g. sensitivity, delicacy, tact, perspicacity, tenderness, etc. by which her mind will correspondingly be swayed, which is why no husband can understand how the mind of his wife works! For to do the work of generation, i.e. to ensure nothing less than the survival and continuation of mankind, God designed her mind to run on a complementary and different basis from her man's. His mind is designed not to be swayed by feelings but on the contrary to control them, so that while his feelings may be inferior to hers, his reason is superior. And reason being meant to rule in rational beings, then he is natured to rule over her (Gen. III, 16), as can be seen for example whenever she needs to resort to him for her feelings not to get out of control. (Bishop Williamson, Girls at University, Sept. 1 2001)

In my opinion, the bishop could have taken the opportunity at college to hone his writing and reasoning skills. That's why I went to school, sir.

Summer Drinks

If it wasn't before, it's now definitely summer in Texas. Forget Memorial Day. When you have to turn the cooler on every day, it's summer.

And that, of course, brings up the topic of summer drinks. In civilized times, which I define as times when the high is under 75F, my preferences lean towards Scotch and darker or Belgian varieties of beer. But you can't drink Scotch straight up (the way it deserves to be drunk) when it's ninety degrees outside. And beer that's nearly black in color or over eight percent alcohol suddenly becomes a bit much when it comes to hot weather.

This is the season for amber and brown ales under 6% alcohol. And it's the season for mixed drinks.

The favorite drink in the Darwin household right now is that basic but reliable stand-by, the gin and tonic. Simple yet eminently drinkable (and definitely refreshing on a summer day) the G&T has the advantage of only requiring one hard liquor ingredient, plus two mixers which are cheap and readily available.

Top shelf gin is not required, in fact I'd tend to feel that Bombay is wasted on a G&T. Something in the range from Gordon's to Beefeater is fine. Drop a couple ice cubes into a 8-10oz tumbler. Add a squirt of lime juice (or squeeze a wedge or two of lime in). Add 1.5 to 2.5 oz of gin. (Less than 1.5 will give you with very little gin taste. 2+ will leave MrsDarwin excessively vulnerable to suggestion.) Fill the rest of the tumbler with tonic water and you're all set.

Mmmmm.

One of the Lucky Ones

I can't recall where I ran into this last night, so I apologize if I'm failing to hat tip someone... This Telegraph story from the UK tells the story of Harrison Green, a two-year-old with Down's Syndrom who survived against the odds.

Britain's National Health System now provides screening for Down's Syndrom for free to all 'at risk' women, and many doctors put a great deal of pressure on women with prositive diagnoses to abort. 62% of Down's Syndrom cases in the UK are now diagnosed pre-natally, and 92% of those diagnosed abort. Thus, the UK has now reached the point where the majority of infants conceived with Down's Syndrom are aborted.

Lisa Green believes that if she'd been diagnosed earlier, the extreme pressure from her doctor might have landed her in the 92%. But Harrison wasn't diagnosed with Down's Syndrom until he was 35 weeks along. The doctor pressured her to abort anyway, but given that she'd already named him, and knew that he would be fully viable (he was estimated at 7lbs at 35 weeks) she refused.

"We don't know what we'd do without him - he's so adored," says Mrs Green. "The frightening thing is that, had we been told by the same doctor about the Down's syndrome earlier in the pregnancy, there is a chance we might have decided to abort. That decision would have been based on incomplete and biased information."

But by the time of diagnosis, the Greens already knew that their feelings about their son were unconditional. In the end, the couple decided to act on biased information of their own: love.

Hunting and Gathering

Yesterday afternoon while the toddlers were napping, I clothed myself in my metaphorical bearskin, armed myself with Visa and Discover cards, and made my way into the jungle of suburban commerce to get food for my mate and offspring.

There is a certain satisfaction to watching the groceries move down the checkout belt and knowing, "I worked to earn this food," which is disproportionate to the actual difficulty of obtaining food in our modern world of warehouse stores and supermarkets. Roughly speaking, 12-15% of my takehome income goes to paying for groceries and household consumable goods. Compared to the 35% that goes to the mortgage, the food budget just isn't that large a line item.

But you don't stand in line watching your house get rung up each month when you pay the mortgage. In fact, barring financial disaster, you don't really think about the mortgage at all, since the payment is the same every month and so as far as spending money goes, it's as if that income never existed in the first place. I think there may be more to it than that, though. There's a strong innate urge, as a father and provider, to make sure that everyone is fed. Physically seeing the food come in (even if you get it via supermarket rather than mastodon hunt) reassures you that you're doing your job. There it is. The fruit of my labor. This week we eat.

One could look at these as the left-over instincts of overgrown primates who long ago left behind the hunter and gatherer lifestyle, however I think there's actually a very important truth that these instincts touch on. There's a strong tendency in the modern world, because our means of achieving our goals in life are often so distanced from the actuals goals, to confuse proximate and ultimate goals.

At an animal level, our goal in life to to feed ourselves, mate, and raise healthy offspring to propagate the species. At a rational level, our goal is to understand ourselves, others, and the world and to appreciate truth and beauty. At a spiritual level, our goal is to know, love and serve God and be happy with him one day in heaven.

And yet, it's terribly easy to get hung up on proximate goals which may help us reach one of these ultimate goals. Some people think that it's a moral necessity to homeschool. Others that it's a parent's duty to get his or her children into the best schools and colleges. But in fact any school (home or institutional) is a means to an end, not an end unto itself. Some may be better means than others, but they remain means.

One of my female coworkers commented to me recently (on hearing that my wife stayed at home with the kids), "I suppose I could afford to do that for a while, but it seems so important for everyone to have a good career." Now, there are a lot of good reasons to have a 'good career'. Income. Mental stimulation. Creative outlet. Competitive environment. Accomplishing an important service. But having a career in and of itself isn't an important thing. It's what you might accomplish by having a career that's important. If having a career is the best way to achieve one's ultimate goals, then clearly one should do so. But it's those goals, not the career itself, that are important.

Sitting at a dask doing web development or marketing analytics doesn't feel like directly providing for my family the way farming or ranching might. I do the work, I get paid, the pay gets deposited, we go shopping. But its the connection between what goes on at my desk and providing for the family that's actually important. There's not an objective value to climbing the corporate payscale separate from what it allows you to accomplish, either in work done or others provided for. Which is what I realize as I watch the groceries move through the checkout each week.

The Other Bishop of Rome?

I'm used to hearing 'Bishop of Rome' used as a way of referring to the pope by denominations which don't want to concede that the pope is the pope. However, I find myself wondering, irrelevently, if there are other bishops of Rome. Is there an Anglican/Episcopal bishop of Rome? An Eastern Orthodox metropolican in Rome? It must be an oddly second string existence, but is seems likely that someone has a bishop of Rome other than the Catholic Church.

LOST and Rifle Trivia

MrsDarwin and I didn't get around to watching the latest episode of LOST till last night, so of course we missed out on the usual discussion thread over on JulieD's blog.

Now, here's what struck me as someone who spends a little too much time reading about military rifles -- and maybe it's just a question of the props deparment not knowing what they're doing or maybe it means something.

The cache of rifles the castaways found in their hatch has in the past appeared to be a mix of AK-47s and bolt action hunting rifles. Michael ran off with a bolt action when he went to chase down the Others. Jack had an AK when he, Sawyer and Locke were surrounded by Zeke and Co. and force to turn in their guns. Now, the AK-47 has been floating around the international arms market on the cheep since the '60s. The Soviety Union and Eastern Bloc countries made literally millions of them, and shipped them off to revolutionary movements around the world. To this day, you can pick one up for 300-400 dollars. They may not be the most accurate things in the world, but they're cheep, rugged, and spray bullets around.

However, when we saw the Others guarding their hatch in Michael's flashbacks, they were carrying what looked like M-14 style rifles. The M-14 was the primary US battle rifle from the late fifties to the late sixties, and they're actually pretty hard to get hold of. The US make a bit over a million of them, but never released them to the civilian market. Some were sold to allies, many were destroyed. There are some civilian models available, but they start at about $1000 used and go up rapidly from there. It's a very high quality, hard hitting, accurate rifle, but getting hold of them takes some work.

However, the Darma initiative was apparently started back in the early '80s. That was before the US gave away and destroyed most of its M-14s. So if the Others have M-14s floating around, that brings up the question of whether perhaps Darma was government connected -- or there is or was some other kind of government initiative going on on the island. If that were the case the M-14 would be an obvious sort of thing for the government to have issued them.

Of course, it could also just be the props people being sloppy...

Fenced-in Like a Dog

Boulder CO has the reputation of being the Santa Monica of the Rockies. (Or come to that, the Austin TX.) Home to tea company Celestial Seasonings, and hundreds of thousands of almost unbelievably well meaning people, it is so concerned about the least vulnerable members of society that it's building a giant fence to protect them. Who are they keeping out? INS agents? Planned Parenthood 'doctors'?

No, actually this mini-Berlin Wall is designed to protect prairie dogs. The critters are such pests that the Boulder Little League teams have had to abandon five of their playing fields and use school fields (that haven't yet been infested) instead. But nonetheless (as detailed in a charming front page story in the weekend WSJ) Boulder has banned any extermination of prairie dogs in the county.

Neighboring counties aren't so prairie dog-friendly, however. Broomfield County has been exterminating prairie dogs that move into populated areas, and generally for good reason: they breed like rats and they carry disease, as well as digging up any expanse of grass in sight. This is too much for the kind hearts of Boulder County, however. They're constructing fence along the border with Broomfield County in order to keep erstwhile prairie dogs from wandering into the killing zones. It's been tricky, though. The prairie dogs have a keen sense of manifest destiny and have so far managed to evade any attempt to keep them bottled up in Boulder.

And people wonder why animal rights advocates are sometimes accused of being silly...

Back Inside the Box, Please

Bearing Blog has a post up about the architecture of confessionals, which is in turn inspired by a post by Rich Leonardi about the virtues of not having to confess face to face.

If a silver lining of the abuse scandal is that someone gets the 'new' idea of building confessionals with a wall between the priest and penitant and separate doors (so one one can even imagine that impropriety could take place) then that's all to the good.

As Bearing notes, I think that the face-to-face confessional has only accentuated the impression which many Catholics and some priests seem to have that confession is primarily a means of therapy, not salvation.

Wisdom of Fr. Fox

Fr. Martin Fox has had a couple of really good posts up over the last week.

He wrote a very good post about confession, providing a seldom seen priest's perspective on the topic.

He also has a post up about the Tridentine mass.

And another post about discussing both the old and new rites of the mass.

The Graduates

This weekend say three of our young siblings graduating from college: One each at University of Dallas, Thomas More College and the Pontifical College Josephenum.

From now through Wednesday when the baby gets baptised (with two of the new graduates serving as godparents) the population of the Darwin household will be fluctuating between 8 and 12, up from its usual 5. So posting is going to be fairly light -- especially as I'm going to be very, very busy on the days that I'm in at work this week.

In the mean time, if you haven't seen it already, do pay a visit to Jimmy Akin's site where he's received permission to reprint a very good short story titled "Through and Through" by Catholic science fiction and fantasy author Tim Powers. There's discussion of the story here.

School Days

A few days ago a commenter asked if Darwin and I would talk a bit about our experience at Franciscan University of Steubenville. I meant to do so right away, but things got wacky (or wackier), but here I am now, Anonymous -- I didn't forget you, I promise!

I can't offer any "celebrity" stories: I never met Scott Hahn or took any of his classes; I was never stuck in the elevator with Fr. Michael Scanlon; the only theology classes I took were on the Austrian campus (and those, by the way, were very good). However, I can report that it is possible to get a very good education even at a second-tier institution if you put your mind to it. Both Darwin and I were in extremely small majors -- he was one of two majors to graduate in Classics his year, and I was English with a Drama concentration with five other students. (The school has since added a Drama major, but the concentration was intensive enough to effectively be its own department.) Our professors were dedicated and thorough, and communicated a love of their chosen field that was informed by their faith. Overall, I'd rate our classroom experiences very highly.

The thing about going to a strongly Catholic college like Steubenville is that, while you don't have to deal with productions of the Vagina Monologues or dorm staff handing out fruit flavored condoms as party favors, the fact that everyone is Catholic (and most of them pretty faithful Catholics at that) means that all of the campus political struggles are family quarrels. On the other hand, having the quarrels be between basically faithful Catholics (at least most of the time) allows one to relax and think, "At least we're all Catholic." Darwin has been known to say that one of his primary reasons for picking Steubenville over a secular college is that, while he thought he'd successfully retain his faith at a secular college, he was afraid that in such an adverse environment he'd become increasingly bitter and reactionary, and end up condemning more than he actually had to just in an effort to stave off the ravening hordes. And instead of staving off ravening hordes, he met me, and that's ended up much more pleasantly.

One thing that often struck me about Steubenville was that Academia and Student Life were competing with each other for the heart and soul of the school. On the one hand, I believe that there's been a push to make Steubenville more of an academic powerhouse, and most of the professors I dealt with were serious about their subjects and about expecting a level of maturity and committment from students. On the other, Student Life played Spiritual Big Brother, relishing the parent-protector role to excess . Those who attended Steubenville during the same years we did will no doubt remember the flap about placing large windows in the doors of the common rooms, one of the few places on campus where members of the opposite sex could sit together with any degree of privacy. Perhaps someone's virtue was protected by this move; many dating couples found that it put a large amount of stress into their relationships by removing the one sanctuary from the inquisitorial glance of the small religious institution. Or, to give a lesser example, the affair of the kiosks -- brought in to better regulate student postings; removed because they became a standing practical joke and started reappearing in odd locations.

The prevailing spiritual atmosphere of Steubenville in the 80s and 90s was charismatic. I believe that was beginning to shift by the time we arrived. Many more students were becoming interested more traditional and less demonstrative forms of worship, and most of the professors I knew were actively against the excessive emotionalism bred by the charismatic style. (There's another example of the dichotomy between Steubenville's religious reputation as a Charismatic center and the trend toward a more academic identity.) The once a month Latin Mass was well-attended and the Sunday evening Vespers service was also very popular. Darwin and I, along with many other older students, went to Sunday Mass at St. Peter's, the downtown church attended by many professors and their families.

I don't at all regret attending Steubenville (though at the time Darwin and I often chafed under the more juvenile restrictions of campus life). Those who just want a four-year retreat and less focus on academics can certainly find that experience there. But especially in the smaller departments there's a combination of personal attention, academic rigor, and Catholic formation that makes for an excellent education for those who willing to pursue one.

Addendum: if any FUS grads want to agree, disagree, or offer their own experiences, please do, if only for the sake of our anonymous friend in Ypsilanti who wanted to know. :)

A prayer for Jack

We've been praying for BarbfromCincy's nephew Jack, who is eight years old and suffering from brain cancer. Rick Lugari suggested a novena to Venerable Louis and Zelie Martin (the parents of St. Therese), who need a miracle to advance their canonization process. Louis and Zelie understood suffering and a holy death:

Though beset with the loss of four children in infancy, plus Helene at age five, and Zelie's valiant battle with breast cancer which claimed her life at age 46, the Martins submitted to God's will in all things; to show the Creator's love to their daughters regardless of any trial remained the primary concern.

...In 1888, Louis Martin became a close companion to suffering; he developed amnesia, or what some French doctors of the time regarded as dementia. When Celine and Leonie could no longer provide appropriate care, he humbly accepted entry to the sanitorium at Bon Sauveur in Caen. Louis bore his cross with heroic patience; illness and the stigma of incarceration at the notorious mental asylum plagued him. Bon Sauveur housed some of the most bitterly tormented souls who suffered from mental ailments. Those who stayed there for even a short duration, endured much criticism from their peers. Louis Martin retained enough lucidity to know what a stay at Bon Sauveur would translate in others' opinions. Undaunted, God's will would be done, regardless of the personal cost. Consequently, the townsfolk cynically cackled that any man who would surrender five daughters to the convent in lieu of marriage deserved the fate of a mental malady. They could not comprehend loyalty to Catholicism nor conformity to God's decrees. As death approached, Louis longed to see his daughters once more.

St. Therese's final encounter with her father occurred in May 1892; now released from Bon Sauveur, he courageously advanced toward the Carmelite grille in a wheelchair with Celine and Leonie, paralyzed and barely able to speak. With Marie and Pauline beside her, St. Therese and Louis Martin could do no more than gaze at each other. With difficulty he pointed his index finger upward and was heard to whisper, "Until Heaven!". Not even illness and encroaching death could drown his faith and hope of bliss.

One of Louis's daughters (perhaps Celine?) describes her father here.

So perhaps we should ask for their intercession for Jack's healing.

Venerable Louis and Zelie Martin, Servants of God,
You offered many prayers for your own sick children.
We unite our prayers with yours for Jack's healing.
May God look favorably on your intercession and, in His Mercy, grant us our request.
May His will be done in all things.

Venerable Louis and Zelie, pray for us!


To communicate favors received from the intercession of Louis and Zelie Martin, write to: Postulazione Generale, Carmelitani Scalzi, Corso d'Italia 38-00198 Rome, Italy.

Foreign Made Junk

This morning's Wall Street Journal featured an article about what constitutes an 'American made' car. You see, it seems that the new Ford Mustang is made of of 65% american manufactured parts, while the Toyota Sienna is made of 90% American made parts. So, which is the icon of Americanism?

I get my share of grief for driving a Toyota Camry -- especially given that several of our friends parents and/or grandparents rely for a living on the solvency of the GM pension fund. But as GM and Ford increasingly buy parts from overseas, and even have their cars assembled abroad, the distinction between American and Foreign-made gets increasingly fuzzy. I'm not sure you can even get a Sienna minivan in Japan. Not only are they manufactured in the US, but the whole concept of a 7-8 seat van with more cup-holders than the mind can grasp is very alien to just about any market other than the US. The Sienna is, in its way, as much a product of American driving tastes as the lumbering Ford Excursion.

At the end of the day, I shop pretty strictly by car quality rather than assembly location. I think one of the reasons the Big Three auto makers got so far behind the curve in the 80s is that there were way too many people willing to buy American regardless of design or quality. As more and more Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans and even BMWs (none of those X5 and X3 BMW SUVs have ever seen Bohemia) roll off assembly lines in the American South and Southwest, it seems to me that Ford and GM need to come up with a better explanation of why people should buy their products than that buying a foreign brand will put American workers out of a job.

Growing Up in the Faith

GOB Soccer Mom writes about dealing with the question of "Why we go to a different church than Christians who aren't Catholic, and what the difference is" with her 7 1/2-year-old daughter.

Aside from kids from the parish school, all my friends growing up were the kids of my parents set of friends from college -- in which they were some of the only Catholics. So this brings up fuzzy memories of trying to understand the differences between our Church and their churches at ages four to eight. However, after some early confusion, I think growing up mainly among Protestants (though in my case mostly Episcopalians and Methodists rather than Evangelicals) is actually one of the things that helped me form such a strongly apologetic/doctrinal mindset.