Yes, it is finally out. Spiderman 3 has been released!
Did you know that tomorrow is the anniversary of the Sack of Rome in 1527? It is the day the new Swiss Guards traditionally make their oaths of service to the Roman Pontiff, the splendid ceremony of the "Giuramento".
Perhaps I will go again this year.
In the meantime, I am having some thought provoking pain in my right arm and hand. I think it is from typing and mousing: at least that is when it hurts the most. In a way, I am glad there is not so much to write about today.
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….well ya fooled me. I was about to jump out of my chair. Now I need an anti-depressant, or a beer. Whatever comes first.
Yeah, that was kinda cruel. I am sure I will laugh about it…someday.
Could be one on the all time great blog post titles ever!
I was out to dinner last night with three friends, one of those friends being a monumentally motu-skeptical priest.
“As one on the inside,” he believes the bishops will never concede to the MP as it means the end of everything they’ve fought for these past forty years. He’s a priest of one the most liberal dioceses of the Northeast, and has suffered much even for celebrating the Novus Ordo in a worthy manner. He is a lonely and grieving man.
When Benedict was elected, Father was full of hope, but last night his disappointment was so profound that as we left his rectory, he took his beautiful portrait of the Holy Father down from his wall and gave it to me.
This delay is breaking hearts, and in some cases devastating lives. How long, O Lord?…
And I especially liked how they added the current crisis in the church and had Spiderman save the Motu Proprio from Venom and Sandman, instead of focusing on that annoying Mary-Jane Watson! Well done Sam Raimi!
UPDATE: SEE BELOW!
Vincenzo: ROLF! I guess that confirms me as an “ultra-conservative Tridentine Rite spin doctor”.
I must admit that while I am mainly a DC sort of guy, this is the only Marvel character I enjoyed as a kid. But shouldn’t my web shootin’ hand be the other way?
ROFL
Oops! Fixed:
Motu proprio issued a long time ago…
APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION
QUO PRIMUM
Pope St. Pius V – July 14, 1570
Well, look at it this way- if the Holy Father did in fact issue this Motu Proprio, would anyone care? I mean of course, would any Bishops even bother to acknowledge it?
In my Diocese most Catholics dont even know the Old Rite still exists. Granted this is an especialy liberal Diocese, with a multitutude of problems, and with Catholic education relegated almost entirely to pathetic school system, but still. That many Catholics are ignorant of their own past it very sad. At school we are taught that at one time Mass was in latin, the priest had his back to you and if you didnt sit still and shut up Sister Anne-Marie would wrench back your ear and give you a thump over the head.
Could be Carpal Tunnel Fr. Z.
R.Catti:
I agree with you, from the theological/theoretical point of view. But the MP would validate you, me and everyone else in the ghetto.
Not very nice, Father. I can tell you, though I hate to admit it, that I am really starting to loose hope in this pope. How much longer must we wait?
An excellent “gotcha,” Father. Well done. I am almot fell out when I read it.
Ole Doc: So… you’ll be going to see Spiderman?
There is not a more splendid sight than an early morning spider web fresh with dew.
Saw the Spider on Friday at the 12:10am showing. It was decidedy the best of the three!
Love the pic of our resident hero in Rome! Better find that Motu Proprio before Nick loses hope, though…
Fr. Zuhlsdorf, a DC guy? Not me…in fact my summer will not be complete until the Silver Surfer arrives!
Gordo the Byzantine
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/02/ANNSILV002.jpg/403px-ANNSILV002.jpg
Do you use the “arrow keys” on the keyboard? I use them all the time, and that’s the biggest thing that hurts my wrist.
So I switched the mouse to my left hand. It took only a few hours to get used to it, and it has helped. It’s still my right wrist that hurts, not my left — which I think proves that the arrow keys are the problem.
I almost had a heart attack!
Please, don’t do this again!
I used to have pain when mousing, too, but I got a Contour Perfit Mouse Optical (http://www.contourdesign.com/pmo/index.htm), which among other things, is oversize, and it’s completely gone away. Also, I programmed the mouse so that I can double-click by clicking one on the middle button, which eliminates a big source of the problem.
Vincenzo: ROFL!!! As Father can’t get that Bugatti, I guess he
has to take to the web. Oh, wait, he already has! (the world groans)
Father: If you don’t already have a mouse pad with a wrist rest,
I recommend one. Or, you could get rid of the mouse altogether
and just use the keyboard or a touchpad (if you have one on your laptop).
About the mouse thing: here I have two mice of differing shapes and I trade off. In the USA (at The Sabine Farm) I have three, one of the them a stable unit with a trackball. Perhaps I need another alternative here.
Cruel is the word that springs to mind and insensitive: there are many people out there that are really suffering while to you it all seems like a game, but I guess from your cushioned Roman niche what is going on in the real world doesn’t much matter to you. While enjoying lots of meals at your favourite Roman restaurants, spare a thought for many who do not have access to the traditional liturgy at all and perhaps you will not be so flippant in the future
RECIPIENT OF THE PRESTIGIOUS
SOUR GRAPES AWARD
Ah, another prime candidate for the sour grapes award.
domenico,
I thought that THAT is precisely what Father Zuhlsdorf has been up to in Rome all these years! (helping facilitate the wider use of the TLM in the Latin Church, that is…) Notwithstanding the delicious meals to be had in Eternal City, I would hazard a guess that Father has thought of little else than the good of the Church (except when he takes a break to watch a good Spidey flick!)
I will also point out that there are far more opportunities to celebrate the TLM than the Byzantine rite in the US. Yet, we always make do…we even start missions blessed by our hierarchs to gather people to pray according to our traditions.
Gordo the Byzantine
Gordo: Apparently it will somehow help the cosmos turn in the direction “domenico” wants if I mope and eat bad food while in Rome.
Our new motto:
EAT POORLY
SPREAD THE GLOOM
I would have the older form of Mass celebrated frequently and far n’ wide, but my real focus has been on better translations of the Novus Ordo, considering that a) it is here to stay, b) it will remain the dominant rite, and c) there is actually a chance I can have some impact on the issue.
to Dominico and others who gripe about the Novus Ordo Mass:
At least it’s Mass, and it still brings us Christ’s Body and Blood. It’s better than no Mass at all, which is what folks in some countries have.
One of my fellow secular Carmelites is a former benedictine nun, who is old enough to have had many years experience with the older latin Mass. I asked her recently, “If you had a choice, and both forms of the mass were available, which would you prefer, the TLM or Novus Ordo”?
Her answer: “ANY Mass is beatiful!!”
Simple, wise answer. I go with her answer, too. Any Mass that brings us Jesus’ Body and Blood is beautiful. So maybe we should be more thankful for what we do have, while we wait for something better?
Ceteris paribus switching off among your mice is probably a good thing, or at least harmless. But if none of your mice are really well-designed, then …. I really had to swallow hard when I spent the dough for the mouse I mentioned above—they ain’t cheap—but I’ve never regretted it. Would you buy an ill-designed maniple? Good tools repay a workman many times over their cost. I ought also to mention that I’ve had very good technical support from Contour the one time I needed it.
Father Z wrote:
“Our new motto:
EAT POORLY
SPREAD THE GLOOM”
http://i11.tinypic.com/4mhfvab.jpg
Vincenzo: UGH… that stings! It reminds me of what we used to call “General Absolution”:
McPenance
Father Z,
Christ is Risen!
Well, as they say, miserere loves company! :-)
Wishing you well in Roma…
In ICXC,
Gordo the Byzantine
Gordo: Truly He is Risen!
αληθώς ανÎστη
At least it’s Mass, and it still brings us Christ’s Body and Blood.
But, Janet, that’s exactly why it matters so much. If Christ were not Really Present, what difference would it make how the Mass were celebrated? For instance, it didn’t bother me greatly when I recently read of an Episcopal “clown eucharist”, because it was not His Real Presence that was profaned. But it hurt me deeply when I heard of a Catholic “Clown Mass”, because it was Christ Himself who was mocked there.
Surely it doesn’t solve the problem simply for me or you to receive Christ individually with the same awe and reverence — even with the same personal feeling of his transcendence — at a quiet daily Novus Ordo as at a solemn pontifical TLM. Because it’s not about us. And it’s not about those who may be truly happy with and satisfied by whatever they see at even the most casual Sunday Mass. It’s about Him.
So a liturgical order that permits or even encourages indifference and abuse by others must be a source of anguish for us, however beautiful we ourselves may find each valid Mass of whatever manner of celebration. For when the Body and Blood of Christ are treated with indifference and disrespect, we must share His pain if we truly love Him.
Henry,
Yes I agree with you that when the Mass is turned into a silly parody of what it should be, that it is profaning Christ. And honestly I can’t say I’ve ever been present at such a ‘performance’. I’ve been lucky to have been in a rather orthodox N.O. parish, and also have EWTN’s chapel 15 minutes away when I choose to take it to a closer approximation of the TLM. I’m spoiled. :-)
But think what it would be like to live in China or a Moslem country, or Russia during the Communist years. To not HAVE a priest, to not HAVE any Mass whatsoever. Compared to that desolation, even one of those silly California style parodies of a Mass would be better than nothing!
And even closer to home, there are small country communities in Alabama where there simply isn’t a priest. The one small parish is run by a nun or the parishioners, they receive Communion without mass daily, and only get a visiting priest for one Mass on Sundays. And that is happening just 60 miles south of Birmingham.
When viewed through the lens of near-total deprivation of the Mass, I can say with my fellow Carmelite, “Any Mass is beautiful”, if that’s all I have.
Janet,
I mentioned those “silly parodies” only to illustrate the problem by extreme case. But it does not consist only (or even mostly) of such travesties.
I believe the real and present problem is the most typical Sunday Mass in Everywhere, USA where Our Lord’s Blood and Body is routinely handled and received with casual indifference as though he were not Really Present, because that’s how the prevalent manner of celebration of Mass in recent years has encouraged so many people to behave.
I too am able to attend Mass in a “rather orthodox N.O. parish” where few overt abuses occur. But surely our 10% of the parishes (if that’s what it is) don’t make up for the other 90%. They owe Him the same respect and reverence and adoration in everything they do and say at Mass.
Father,
Switch the mouse to your opposite hand for about one frustrating week. It works for me.
Animadversor,
Thank you for that link! I have been looking for a good left-handed mouse.
HAHA Love the McPenance pic! Fr, try getting a wrist pad to put in front of your mouse, helps a lot!
Dear Father Z — count me as another vote for ambidextrous mousing. I had serious pain in my right hand, which built over a period of months, so that I avoided shaking hands, carrying things, etc. It was getting to be dangerous, as I found myself driving with mostly just one hand. In a hopeful move, I started mousing with the left hand, and after about a month was almost completely healed. Now I take care to switch hands frequently while mousing, and to have the mousing arm horizontal and fully supported all the way from elbow to wrist. I also find it much more comfortable on the wrists to type with the keyboard tilted, so that the side facing me is higher than the opposite side. Good luck.