Strange Buildings of the World. Surprisingly, No Modern Catholic Cathedrals Made the List

January 3, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

Most of these edifices are pretty weird. Some are aggressively, stupidly weird. A couple (# 6, for example) are actually rather appealing. And some are reminiscent of certain modern cathedrals that have been ~~inflicted on us~~ built in recent years.

What do you think?

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Let St. Philip Neri Help You Start the New Year Off Right

January 3, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
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6 Comments

If you’re looking to deepen your love for God, our Lady and the saints, and your neighbor, this series of admonitions and counsels from the great St. Philip Neri, arranged by month, can help. In addition to your regular reading of Sacred Scripture and other daily devotions, such as praying the rosary, ingesting these spiritual one-a-day vitamins can give your interior life a real boost.

JANUARY:

1. WELL! when shall we have a mind to begin to do good?

2. Nulla dies sine linea: Do not let a day pass without doing some good during it.

3. We must not be behind time in doing good; for death will not be behind his time.

4. Happy is the youth, because he has time before him to do good.

5. It is well to choose some one good devotion, and to stick to it, and never to abandon it.

6. He who wishes for anything but Christ, does not know what he wishes; he who asks for anything but Christ, does not know what he is asking; he who works, and not for Christ, does not know what he is doing.

7. Let no one wear a mask, otherwise he will do ill; and if he has one, let him burn it.

8. Spiritual persons ought to be equally ready to experience sweetness and consolation in the things of God, or to suffer and keep their ground in drynesses of spirit and devotion, and for as long as God pleases, without their making any complaint about it.

9. God has no need of men.

10. If God be with us, there is no one else left to fear.

11. He who wishes to be perfectly obeyed, should give but few orders.

12. A man should keep himself down, and not busy himself in mirabilibus super se.

13. Men should often renew their good resolutions, and not lose heart because they are tempted against them.

14. The name of Jesus, pronounced with reverence and affection, has a kind of power to soften the heart.

15. Obedience
is a short cut to perfection.

16. They who really wish to advance in the ways of God, must give themselves up into the hands of their superiors always and in everything; and they who are not living under obedience must subject themselves of their own accord to a learned and discreet confessor, whom they must obey in the place of God, disclosing to him with perfect freedom and simplicity the affairs of their soul, and they should never come to any resolution without his advice.

17. There is nothing which gives greater security to our actions, or more effectually cuts the snares the devil lays for us, than to follow another person’s will, rather than our own, in doing good.

18. Before a man chooses his confessor, he ought to think well about it, and pray about it also; but when he has once chosen, he ought not to change, except for most urgent reasons, but put the utmost confidence in his director.

19. When the devil has failed in making a man fall, he puts forward all his energies to create distrust between the penitent and the confessor, and so by little and little he gains his end at last.

20. Let persons in the world sanctify themselves in their own houses, for neither the court, professions, or labour, are any hindrance to the service of God.

21. Obedience is the true holocaust which we sacrifice to God on the altar of our hearts.

22. In order to be really obedient, it is not enough to do what obedience commands, we must do it without reasoning upon it.

23. Our Blessed Lady ought to be our love and our consolation.

24. The good works which we do of our own will, are not so meritorious as those that are done under obedience.

25. The most beautiful prayer we can make, is to say to God, “As Thou knowest and willest, O Lord, so do with me.”

26. When tribulations, infirmities, and contradictions come, we must not run away in a fright, but vanquish them like men.

27. It is not enough to see that God wishes the good we aim at, but that He wishes it through our instrumentality, in our manner and in our time; and we come to discern all this by true obedience.

28. In order to be perfect, we must not only obey and honour our superiors; we must honour our equals and inferiors also.

29. In dealing with our neighbour, we must assume as much pleasantness of manner as we can, and by this affability win him to the way of virtue.

30. A man who leads a common life under obedience, is more to be esteemed than one who does great penance after his own will.

31. To mortify one passion, no matter how small, is a greater help in the spiritual life than many abstinences, fasts, and disciplines.

Go here for St. Philip Neri’s advice for the rest of the year . . .

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A look back at 70 years of LIFE

January 3, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
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TIME Magazine's 2009 Person of the Year?

December 29, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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9 Comments

I’m sure Ben Bernanke is a nice man and all, but why is he being touted as the “Person of the Year”?

Back in the olden days, back before I became at least somewhat politically astute and hip to the ways of the world, I used to read TIME Magazine. Yes, I confess it, and I have repented of that folly. In fact, I stopped reading TIME years ago because its editors and writers seemed to be pathologically incapable of presenting commentary on the news in a balanced and objectively honest way. Not only are the stories and editorials imbued with liberal cant, the selection of stories is perpetually reflective of a distorted leftist weltanschauung that perceives everything only in shades of gray, pink, and rainbow.

Which brings me to this blog piece from the PIME Missionaries (a congregation of Catholic priests who minister primarily in India and Asia), who comments, “As the world waits for hyperinflation and a world government, Bernanke becomes ‘Person of the Year.'”

The piece includes a number of good observations about why Ben Bernanke is an odd choice for this honor, including this one: “What better achievement to put in the resume of an otherwise average economics professor from Princeton, without much theoretical work or publications to his name.”

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A Caller to My Radio Show Asks Why I Kicked Him Off My Facebook Page

December 29, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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82 Comments

This audio clip is from a recent show in which a caller wanted (I think) to publicly put me on the spot over why I “de-friended” him on Facebook. As you’ll hear, the reason was because of some things he said to some of the women there about their having had an abortion.

The problem was that he branded such women as “murderers” because 1) abortion is murder and 2) they had aborted one or more of their children. His logic is correct, at least in a sense, because abortion is murder. But the way he put that logic into practice was, in my view, wrong-headed and counterproductive, and in this audio clip, I explain why. Take a listen . . .

What do you think?

Also, for any woman reading this blog post who may be struggling with feelings of grief, self-hatred, and remorse (to name a few common emotional reactions women feel after having had an abortion), I would like to encourage you to get in touch with the following welcoming and very helpful organizations:

Bethesda Healing Ministry and Rachael’s Vineyard.

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Some Advice for Catholics Who Want to Study Scripture More Deeply

December 28, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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2 Comments

On my “Open Line” radio show last week (Thursdays from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. ET), I took a call from Ryan in Baton Rouge. He asked for some advice on resources for studying Scripture in a systematic way. Here’s what I told him. Take a listen . . .

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Newt Gingrich's Prescription to Fix U.S. Gov: "Replace, not Reform"

December 28, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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1 Comment

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Leftist Blogs Gleeful Over Attack on Pope Benedict

December 28, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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4 Comments

In view of the widespread orgy of gloating among those who were delighted by the Christmas-Eve attack on the Pope at the start of midnight Mass in Saint Peters, I offer up to the Lord this scriptural prayer of encouragement for the Holy Father, that He would continue to protect and strengthen him in the face of his enemies:

May God “deliver you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech,who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil; men whose paths are crooked, and who are devious in their ways” (Proverbs 2:12-15).

Conservative columnist Theodore Kettle comments on the shameful display of glee in some circles about the attack on the pope:

It was only minutes after Pope Benedict XVI was violently attacked on Christmas Eve by a woman described by authorities as mentally deranged, but leftist blogs lit up with joy over the assault.

The Daily Kos’s “Late Afternoon/Early Evening Open Thread,” for example, featured this posting at 8:10 PM Eastern Time: “Having just about enough of this male dominance bull—t, one bold Italian woman ran up and knocked down the Pope and a Cardinal!”

The woman, Susanna Maiolo, 25, was actually Swiss-Italian, and while the Pontiff himself came out of the episode unhurt and able to complete his celebration of Midnight Mass, 87-year-old French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray was left with broken bones requiring hip replacement surgery.

The comments that soon appeared on blogs known to be critical of the social teachings of the Catholic Church were so harsh that even fellow bloggers of similar ideological bent were outraged.

In a Dec. 26 a Daily Kos article entitled “Anti-Catholicism,” a “former Republican” Catholic woman and “forester/biologist” from the Deep South wrote, “I logged onto HuffingtonPost.com and read about the Pope getting knocked over by a mentally disturbed woman.

While several people pointed out the Pope’s age and how this could have easily resulted in a broken hip, many more rejoiced in the event.” One blogger’s “attack on Catholicism and Catholics was met with near universal approval within the HuffingtonPost community.”

She added, “I have read numerous, nearly identical comments and posts at Daily Kos.”

A number of HuffPost bloggers were also amazed at the venom of some of the responses, like one woman who observed, “This incident with the Pope has brought lots of Christmas cheer to the HP community. Wow.” . . . (continue reading)

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Competition Heats Up in the Apologetics Biz

December 28, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
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4 Comments

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Game Changer: Alleged Northwest Airline Leg-Bomber Doesn't Fit the Profile

December 26, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

7 Comments

Here is one of the first photos of former British university student, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, being arrested on Northwest Airlines 253 after allegedly trying to blow up the Airbus A330 filled with 11 crew members and 278 passengers, as it was on its final landing approach to Detroit Metro Airport. (Photo CNN.)

This unfolding story of the man who attempted (nearly successfully) yesterday to blow up Northwest Airlines 253 in mid-air is nerve wracking on several levels. Yes, he’s a Muslim and, apparently, a self-proclaimed “jihadist,” which does fit the prevailing “airline terrorist” profile. But that’s not what concerns me here. The fact that he is black — black African — is something, at least ethnically, that has not been part of the standard Muslim terrorist paradigm.

Until now.

Consider a few points. First, this “leg-bomber” and/or his accomplic(es) managed to smuggle liquid and powder bomb components onto this trans-Atlantic flight, assemble them in flight, and ignite the mixture is cause for grave consternation for every law enforcement agency with any role to play in preventing this kind of thing. If this jihad-addled yahoo got this close to killing 289 innocent people, my hunch is that there are other such yahoos out there all ginned up and ready to go on similar airline slay rides.

Second, as someone who does a lot of airline travel each year myself, foreign and domestic, I know that the man who is being credited with foiling the terrorist in the act of igniting the explosive device (or whatever it was that he had strapped to his leg), was very possibly the only thing that prevented the attack from being successful.

It’s possible that Abdulmutallab, the wannabe bomber, is simply an inept bumbler, though if his claim that he was dispatched on this mission by Al Quaeda or some derivative group plays out as true, then perhaps that means that, thanks to the relentless campaign against them by the U.S. and Britain, they have been reduced to conning bumblers into doing their dirty work. But regardless, thank God that heroic passenger had the awareness and the fight in him to lunge at the bomber and, with his bare hands, rip the already burning bomb off his leg so it could be squelched before it could explode. God bless that man!

Other passengers on this flight helped subdue the attacker (God bless them, too), once they became aware of the danger, only moments later, but the Dutch man who got to him first is very likely the one who prevented the plane from disintegrating in a fiery explosion, somewhere over Detroit, as the plane made its landing approach. I know from experience, traveling fairly often on long, trans-oceanic flights that, because the clear and present danger of in-flight terrorism has not abated one whit since 9-11 (remember, the conventional wisdom, with which I wholeheartedly concur, is “if, not when”), it can be nerve wracking for those passengers who are alert to the danger while in the air. I know this not only from my own experiences, but also as
a result of conversations about this very issues, while flying, with flight attendants, dead-heading pilots, and other aware, concerned passengers.

Within a few hours of this story breaking on the Drudge Report and other major news sites, a close friend of mine who travels on business frequently between Detroit and Amsterdam’s “Schiphol Airport, texted me: “I take that same flight all the time — it’s my primary one. I’ll be on it in a month, twice. Unbelievable!” I can readily understand my friend’s unease over this. I feel his pain.

True story: A few years ago, I was seated in business class on a flight on a major US airline from Chicago to New Delhi, India. The 777 was configured in that class as 2-4-2, and I was seated on the left-hand aisle of the middle section. About 9 or 10 hours into the flight (it’s a 14-hour haul) I watched in shock as a man dressed in a traditional Pakistani outfit literally ran up the right-hand aisle toward first class. The cabin was dark, most everyone was asleep, and a flight attendant who was alert enough to this guy stepped out from the galley into the aisle and physically blocked his way from moving past her toward the front of the plane.

She barked loudly and firmly, “Sir! You cannot come into this cabin!” a few passengers seated nearby stirred, sat up, and looked around to see what was happening. The guy seemed to hesitate for a moment or two and then said he was trying to get to the bathroom. The flight attendant pointed to the back of the plane and told him firmly and audibly enough to be heard by everyone in business class, “I’m sorry, sir, but you can only use the lavatories in that part of the plane. You cannot come into this part of the plane.” And with that, he turned and walked casually toward the back. I didn’t see him again during the remainder of the flight, but I admit that my thoughts revolved around the previously publicized theory that Muslim terrorist engage periodically in “testing” the reactions of airline crews during flights as a way to determine what methods of attack will and won’t work during a real attack.

A few minutes after that unsettling altercation took place, I made my way to the galley and told the flight attendant that I had watched the whole thing and asked what she thought it meant. She seemed tense and kind of nervous and she said she had already alerted the captain and the rest of the flight crew about it. About all I could do was let her know that I’d be awake and watching, if she needed any help. How I prayed that nothing would happen that would bring things to that stage. Nothing did, obviously, thank God. But that incident branded on my mind and took up residence in the “what-if” section of my imagination.

What if that guy, or several, had tried to do something bad on that flight? What would I have done? Anything? Nothing? It’s impossible to say. All I know is that I tell myself I would act, if the situation ever required it (thank God it never has). Who knows what any of us would actually do if faced with mortal danger in mid-f
light. Thank God that the Dutch passenger on yesterday’s Northwest’s flight sprang into action when he did. I shudder to imagine what would have happened if the attacker had succeeded.

This British press report discussed how he tried to blow up the plane, as does Politico.

And finally, third, it’s being reported — and the pictures that are starting to come out indicate — that the terrorist did not fit the racial stereotype of what we have come to assume in-flight attackers would look like. He is not an Arab, he’s Nigerian. He speaks presumably excellent English with a British accent. Unlike the “shoe bomber,” Richard Reid, He doesn’t look “the part.”

Racial profiling? Ha. This incident is a game-changer. This changes everything. Wait and see.

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