Seven Quick Takes (vol. 3)

Once again I am giving an update on the week and things that have occupied my mind... check out all the Seven Quick Takes over at Jennifer's blog at Conversion Diary.

1. Alright, many of us have suspected that soft drinks weren't especially good for us for some time. Whether because of the extra calories and high fructose corn syrup in the regular variety, or the artificial sweetenings of the diet variety, my assumption has been that it just isn't worth it (unless I happen to be REALLY thirsty and nothing else is available).

Well, new evidence confirms that cola isn't good for women, especially. The Baylor Innovations magazine (Winter 2009 issue) has an article about a study results that show that cola tends to lead to lower bone mineral density in women, whether diet or regular. The study seems to indicate that this is peculiar to colas. Other beverages, such as orange drinks and ginger ales, seem to have no effect. Also, the colas don't appear to affect men in the same way. The targeted suspect is the phosphoric acid in the colas (added for tartness). So... if you are one of those who starts her day with a diet cola... think about a switch...

2. In the same issue, results of a study on fertility yield information on 10 things you can do to increase your fertility.
They are:
Avoid trans fats found in many commercially prepared and fast foods,
use more unsaturated vegetable oils, such as olive oil or canola oil,
eat more vegetable protein, like beans, nuts, whole grains and seeds; eat less animal protein, choose whole grains and other carbs that are lower glycemic,
drink a glass of whole milk or have a small dish of ice cream or full-fat yogurt every day, take a multivitamin that contains folic acid and other B vitamins,
get plenty of iron from fruits, veges, beans and supplements -- but not from red meat, beverages matter -- water, coffee, tea and alcohol (in moderation) are ok; leave the sodas alone,
aim for a healthy weight -- if you are overweight, losing 5-10% of your weight can help ovulation,
daily exercise can help (unless you are already an exercise nut and don't have enough body fat -- this was never my problem).

3. I have finished the book for our book club this month, Angels and Devils, by Joan Carroll Cruz. It was quite interesting. I particularly liked the first part, about the angels. In our family, we have a habit of including the Guardian Angel prayer in our prayers with the boys before bedtime... the book has reinforced my belief that we should be aware of the help and love offered to us in our journey to God by our Guardian angels. It also warns of the dangers of dabbling in the occult.

4. One of my sisters sent me a subscription for Magnificat. The first issue I received was for February. Well, this week has been my first opportunity to begin reading it daily. I have enjoyed it so very much. The various articles on the lives of saints, the monthly chant hymn (this month's hymn is absolutely beautiful -- Aurora soli praevia, for the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes), the morning and evening prayers and readings, as well as daily Mass readings are very nicely put together. I have the big Christian Book of Prayer, with the Liturgy of the Hours for morning and evening prayer and like it also, but I find the specific information about each day that is contained in the Magnificat is also very nice and seems to be helping me to do my readings each day a little bit more diligently.

This morning our family attended the 7 a.m. Mass at our parish. It was very nice to have my Magnificat to follow along with the readings. We are hoping to make Friday Mass as often as possible as a family.

5. There is much consternation among the musicians of the Church Music Association of America this past week or so. The issue in question is eloquently described by Jeffrey Tucker in his posting at the New Liturgical Movement in his article from a couple of days ago here. Also, he has a new article at Inside Catholic here. As I see it, even if a music composer wanted to compose Mass settings in English and make them available for free to all church musicians for use in the liturgy, ICEL still wants its royalty (at least the way the rules seem to stand now). This seems to me to be a very sad situation -- one that encourages commercial publishers in their source for income and that discourages the free exchange of music by individual composers. Do we really want to be saddled with another ubiquitous setting of English Mass music like the Mass of Creation with the release of the new translation? I hope not.

6. This week I have been working away at completing my plans for Lent, Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday for the schola. I think I have a pretty good plan that is not too ambitious for the schola to achieve. I am waiting for our pastor to let me know what changes he would like on the first drafts. Some of the music (if plans are approved) will be:

Lent:
Offertory Hymns: Parce, Domine and Attende, Domine
Communion chant: Qui meditabitur (we'll use it as a seasonal chant)
Palm Sunday: Hosanna filio David (antiphon)
Offertory: Gloria laus
Communion: Pater, si non
Good Friday: Veneration of the Cross: Popule meus
This is a very long piece with alternating refrains (two different refrains) with verses sung by a cantor. The words are amazingly perfect. Here is a short excerpt:

Popule meus, quid feci tibi? Aut in quo contristavi te? Responde mihi. Quia eduxi te de terra Aegypti: parasti Crucem Salvatori tuo. My people, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me! I led you out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom, but you led your Saviour to the cross.

Gospel of John: Three cantors (still discussing this possibility - I have a wonderful setting I bought from St. Meinrad while still in Shreveport, but never got to use)
Communion: Pater, si non
Holy Saturday: This will be a bilingual Mass, so readings will alternate between English and Spanish. I also have set the responsorial psalms alternating between English and Spanish. This was only my second time to set psalms into a psalm tones in Spanish. (I did it recently for a Spanish Wedding Mass.)
Exultet: chanted in English (another wonderful St. Meinrad setting I bought)
Sprinkling Rite: Vidi aquam
Offertory: Exultemus et laetemur

I would love to do the shortened version of the Te Deum at the end of Mass at the Easter Vigil, but I think that would be pushing it... it will probably be something else (perhaps the English version of it -- Holy God, We Praise Thy Name).

7. The neighborhood children have had a wonderful time out in the woods behind our house this entire winter. With no poison ivy to be concerned with, the fort-building and game-playing has been a constant thing. Every day nearly, the boys have wanted to head outside to work on their 'bases', pocketknives in hand, during their recess periods. When they hear the school bus drive by each afternoon, bringing their friends home, they can't wait to gather them together for fun and play. It is usually starting to get dark by 6:30 pm or so -- that's when the fun ends...

Tuesday I got a guided tour of the three main 'bases'. They have shown a great deal of ingenuity in using the tree branches for structures, cut grass for a roof, yucca leaves to weave various things... I am not anxious for the poison ivy to begin sprouting... it is very difficult to keep it at bay here in summer. They told me yesterday that they had talked about it and have a plan in mind: When they grow up and have wives and kids, they want to move back here and live in this house together so that their children can play out back as they have... I told them I think that is a fine idea!

Seven Quick Takes vol.2

Once again, I am trying to put seven thoughts together in one post in response to Jennifer's blog over at Conversion Diary. Here is the news for the week:

1. I have managed to spend a good portion of the week working on various chant projects. I transcribed the music for the Easter Vigil Exultet, and the Gospel of John reading. Also, the responsorial psalms for the rest of Ordinary Time of the church year through week 7. I know I should be getting better at singing psalms without music in front of me, but it is so much easier with it. I am getting very adept at using the St. Meinrad's square notation font.

2. We had quite a nice little ice storm here. What a difference a week makes. Last week, I was allowing my boys to play in swimsuits with the water hose in the backyard. This week we had school closures, trash pickup postponements, sheets of ice everywhere... Yesterday morning the temperature outside was only 19 degrees...

3. Last night was my Catholic Women's book club meeting. We talked about the Miracles of the Eucharist book that I have been reading. The conversation also wandered to a discussion about how young First Communion catechism classes are going (one of the members teaches them), personal experiences of a supernatural nature, The Shack (while a nice enough Protestant novel about forgiveness, it does have a few things that were troubling to those of us who had read it), and the Eucharistic texts of so many traditional Latin chants. One of the book club members who also sings in the schola with me had brought her Parish Book of Chant. She read the translations of Ave Verum Corpus, Ecce Panis Angelorum and a few others to give them the idea... The theology behind the texts of those chants makes One Bread, One Body seem very insipid in comparison.

4. My sweet husband made coffee and had it all ready for me this morning. That was a nice way to start out the day.

5. I had not baked anything sweet or particularly good for my boys since Christmas baking. It was time to make them something, so I decided to make cookies. They participated and did a nice job of finishing their schoolwork in a timely manner... Perhaps a good batch of Ginger snaps. I have a really great recipe:

Gingersnaps (preheat your oven to 350 degrees)

3/4 c. butter, softened 2 c. sugar 2 eggs 1/2 c. molasses
2 tsp white vinegar 3 3/4 c. flour 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ginger 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. cloves

Cream butter and sugar; add molasses, eggs and vinegar. Add dry ingredients, small quantities before the flour, mixing well. Roll into balls; then roll in granulated sugar. Bake 2" apart for about 10-12 minutes. This recipe makes about 6 dozen 3" cookies. They are nice and chewy (I have another recipe for crunchy -- maybe next time).

6. I watched the film Made of Honour and had a couple of thoughts. It was a film that had a sort of redeeming quality in that it did make me laugh several times and had a sort of message. The message was that, in the end, sexual promiscuity does not make one happy. However, it also seemed to say that another person can ultimately fulfill all your needs and desires. We know that only God can do that. Aside from the fact that it is definitely a 'chick-flick' and focuses on romantic love as the be-all and end-all, it had several parts with bad language and sexual references that were unnecessarily crude. This was a PG-13-rated film. I would NOT let my youngsters see this film.

and finally,

7. I finished reading Fr. Richard John Neuhaus' article in the February 2009 First Things, "Secularizations". I recommend it very much. Also, in this month's journal, I particularly liked Mary Eberstadt's "The Will to Disbelieve" and Gilbert Meilander's "Progress Without Pause". I also finished reading Fr. Neuhaus' "The Public Square". He must have had an inkling that his time left on earth was not long. Here is a short excerpt from the final pages of the issue:

"As of this writing, I am contending with a cancer, presently of unknown origin. I am, I am given to believe, under the expert medical care of the Sloan-Kettering clinic here in New York. I am grateful beyond measure for your prayers storming the gates of heaven.

Be assured that I neither fear to die nor refuse to live. If it is to die, all that has been is but a slight intimation of what is to be. If it is to live, there is much that I hope to do in the interim. After the last round with cancer fifteen years ago, I wrote a little book, As I Lay Dying (titled after William Faulkner after John Donne), in which I said much of what I had to say about the package deal that is mortality. I did not know that I had so much more to learn. And yes, the question has occurred to me that, if I have but a little time to live, should I be spending it writing this column. I have heard it attributed to figures as various as Brother Lawrence and Martin Luther -- when asked what they would do if they knew they were going to die tomorrow, they answered that they would plant a tree and say their prayers. (Luther is supposed to have added that he would quaff his favored beer.) Maybe I have, at least metaphorically, planted a few trees, and certainly I am saying my prayers. Who knew that at this point in life I would be understanding, as if for the first time, the words of Paul, "When I am weak, then I am strong"? This is not a farewell. Please God, we will be pondering the world for years to come. But maybe not. In any event, when there is an unidentified agent in your body aggressively attacking the good things your body is intended to do, it does concentrate the mind. The entirety of our prayer is "Your will be done" -- not as a note of resignation but of desire beyond expression. To that end, I commend myself to your intercession, and that of all the saints and angels who accompany us each step through time toward home."

Been reading books...

In the past week I have read three novels and am in the midst of the fourth. I don't usually binge on books this way, but between traveling and having my mother give me a stack of books I hadn't read, I couldn't help myself.

The most recent titles:

Stone Cold, by David Baldacci
Cat & Mouse, by James Patterson
Simple Genius, by David Baldacci
The Simple Truth, by David Baldacci

I got started on this list from a wish to follow the antics of David Baldacci's characters in the book The Camel Club. Stone Cold is a sequel to it... Then, the others just seemed to follow in type of plot. I must admit I don't much care for novels with lurid descriptions of gratuitous sex. I much prefer legal or crime thrillers with interesting characters.

Now, each of these books took me, maybe, one day to finish... so they are not heavy reading [but very enjoyable]. So... if you are looking for light diversion...

Advent Reading

I am in the midst of reading a collection of short meditations by Pope Benedict. This book, The Blessing of Christmas, has been such a great book to get in the mindframe of Advent. Each meditation is rather short; the artwork in the book and the quality of the paper and printing is wonderful. I know I am a bit ahead of the Advent season, since the first Sunday of Advent is next week...

This would be a great gift for a friend who likes to read!

C.S. Lewis' Book, The Great Divorce

Whilst picking up the Military History Quarterly for my dear husband, I chanced upon a book I have been wanting to read for some time -- The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis. I read it yesterday in between kids' school subjects. I found it very thought-provoking -- because it is a work of fiction, the underlying theological ideas were woven into the various characters, their actions and words... It was a quick read, yet one that left me thinking about it and the various ideas it held.

I have to wonder how this idea of how a vision of heaven and hell could be (in the book) compares with the vision granted the children of Fatima. This book, along with The Screwtape Letters, really does give another way of looking at sin, forgiveness, love, how someone could choose hell over heaven, how one could be happy in heaven even if a loved-one chooses hell...

I liked the book very much and think I'll read this one again...

Book Review: A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell

I just finished the second of three books my husband and boys bought me for my birthday this weekend -- A Thread of Grace, by Mary Doria Russell.

The book was set in Italy during WWII. The main theme of the book was the experience of Jews and how warm and caring the Italian people were, hiding them, feading them, welcoming Jewish refugees from other countries. Although fictional, the author stated:

"... my intent was to present an accurate portrayal of the 1943-45 German occupation of northwestern Italy. Hundreds of histories, memoirs, and published interviews contributed background, but I must single out the two books that provided impetus for this novel. ... "The Priest, the Rabbi and the Aviator" in Alexander Stille's historical study Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism... (and) Alfred Feldman's memoir One Step Ahead: A Jewish Fugitive in Hitler's Europe."

I was very touched by the tale she wove of the loving and generous nature of the northern Italians and their acceptance of those who needed help. Also touched upon as a thread in the novel was the question of the value of human life. The idea of the 'Uebermensch' and 'Uentermensch' in the Nazi idealogy... the belief that the handicapped and unproductive persons being nothing more than a drain on society's resources held by that regime (and, of course their response to it being forced euthanasia) was contrasted with the attitude of a mother of a child with Down's syndrome and her care and love for the child in a time when the syndrome was not understood...

The author , Mary Doria Russell, attended Catholic schools as a child and is a big supporter of one of them in the Cleveland area, but has recently converted to Judaism.

This book was another winner, in my mind.

The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber -- Book Review

On my birthday, my husband and boys gave me three books they selected for me from the local bookstore... knowing how much I love to read, it is always a sure bet. The first one I have read was The Book of Air and Shadows, by Michael Gruber. It was originally published in 2007; I have the paperback edition.

This was a very enjoyable read... interesting from the standpoint of being able to learn things about literature, bookbinding, reading old script, perhaps some idea of the attitudes prevalent at the time when Shakespeare lived... At the same time, I liked the style of the writing... it jumped back and forth, intertwining the historical parts with the modern parts...

The author did a nice job of developing some very interesting characters in the book... touching on many different issues... monogamy, abuse of women, dishonesty, greed, lust...at the center of the story was a intellectual property lawyer ( whose sister is a madam and whose brother is a Jesuit priest) who was unwittingly drawn into the mystery of the possible existence of an unpublished work of William Shakespeare's.

At many different points in the book, I happened to notice that Catholicism was a part of either the character or the subplot -- was William Shakespeare a Catholic in secret? While the author didn't gloss over certain problems with the Church, neither did he demonize it. In fact, I would say, overall, Catholic beliefs and characters in the book came off pretty well. This was quite refreshing to me.

I recommend reading this book... it was a lot of fun and quite interesting.

Book Review -- Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana

Only one day after receiving my copy of the book in the mail, I have finished it and begun to ponder several of the details in this book by Anne Rice. Many years ago I had read two or three of her books of the vampire genre and found them entertaining and very readable. This book was no disappointment in that regard. The story flowed well and was generally a very quick read.

At the outset, I was surprised to find it written as if in the words of Our Lord. The story tries to imagine what our Lord's thoughts were -- his doubts, his temptations, etc.

I'm still ruminating on several details that are not really questions anyone can answer in this life assuredly. Among those questions are the manner of the death of St. Joseph. Our Roman Catholic tradition indicates that St. Joseph died in the loving arms of the Blessed Virgin Mary and with Jesus present. I thought that was one reason he was the saint to whom many Catholics pray for his intercession for a happy death (and why he is often pictured holding a lily). In fact, in a book written about the visions of Ven. Anne Katherine Emmerich, Light on Light , Sr. Emmerich describes it in that way. From the Emmerich account:

"According to Sister Emmerich, when Jesus was thirty, Joseph, then about 75 years old, experienced a holy death in Mary's arms, with Jesus by his side and angels in attendance. As would happen to the body of His foster-son three years later, Joseph's remains were laid in a beautiful tomb provided as an act of charity by a good man."

In Anne Rice's version, she describes a different death, with Jesus not present (in her version, at the time of St. Joseph's death, Jesus was being tempted in the desert after his baptism in the Jordan). I am puzzled as to why she took this particular turn away from traditional accounts of this. Perhaps she had other apocryphal sources, of which I am unaware, upon which this was based.

Another interesting point in the book has to do with the 'brothers' of Jesus. According to what I had learned in my studies, the Aramaic word for 'cousins' was the same as that for 'brothers', so there wasn't a specific word to differentiate in the normal speech. Now, I realize that the Eastern Orthodox tradition holds that Joseph was married and a widower before he married the Blessed Virgin Mary. They apparently teach that Joseph had children from his first marriage, who would have been called his brothers. I was surprised that she chose to use the Eastern Orthodox thinking.

A counterpoint: from the same book by Emmerich, her visions seem to coinicide with the Roman Catholic tradition, in that all the near relations that were considered 'brothers' of Jesus were in actual fact cousins. From Light on Light:

"Sister Emmerich's visions confirm that Jesus had no natural or step-brothers or sisters. His nominal "brothers and sisters" were indeed what we would call cousins, related to Jesus through the Blessed Virgin Mary's older sister, Mary Heli, or more distantly through her mother, Anne, or her father, Joachim. Specifically, they were:

* sons of Mary Heli, viz., Sadoch, Jacob (or james), and Heliachim (all Jesus' first cousins, who followed John the Baptist before they followed Jesus);

* the daughter of Mary Heli, viz., Mary Cleophas (Jesus' first cousin);

* Mary Cleophas' sons and daughter by her first husband, Alphaeus, viz., James the Lesser, Simon Zelotes, Jude Thaddeus, and Suzanne (all first cousins of Jesus, once-removed); and

* Mary Cleophas' son by her second husband, Sabas, viz., Joses Barsabas (a first cousin, once-removed)."

Happily, she does not give credence to the many heretical teachings that Mary had other children born after Jesus.

Now, as these visions of Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich are private revelations and therefore, the Catholic Church has not taken an official position on whether they are worthy of belief or not, in some ways this new book of Anne Rice's may also seek to fill the desire to know more about the smaller details of Jesus' life.

The problem I see in some of the so-called spurious "Gospels" is that they were used by heretical sects of the early church. In fact, as one scholar [Philip Jenkins, The Hidden Gospels -- How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way] commented: "Far from being the alternative voices of Jesus' first followers, most of the lost gospels should rather be seen as the writings of much later dissidents who broke away from an already established orthodox church."

One last point... again not something we can know for sure on this side of heaven... Anne Rice's story shows Jesus living in very close quarters with a large extended family. Certainly that is at odds with Sr. Emmerich's writings and the traditional Catholic teaching that Jesus, Mary and Joseph lived alone in a humble home. Certainly this story gives a vivid picture of perhaps typical Jewish life at the time with a large extended family, and, if for no other reason, is very interesting.

I was very pleased that, at least in this book, she did not choose to give fuel to the crazies out there in the cult of Mary Magdalene. Much of the book seems to be completely fictional, although the intertwining of the young couple being married at Cana and their possible relationship to Jesus was somewhat plausible to me, it seemed such a huge step to make the leap to proposing Jesus' personal feelings toward the bride.

I enjoyed the book very much, although I was quite sorry there were no references to any of the sources of hers she used in her research. In fact, there were absolutely no footnotes or references of any sort. On the other hand, perhaps it is better this way, since it doesn't seem to make a case for this account being anything other than fictional.