St. Athanasius and the proper formation of the laity

Today is the memorial of St. Athanasius, the great fourth-century bishop of Alexandria. He was so fabulous a bishop that three separate emperors exiled him from his see five different times. Yeah, you rock!

Among all his truly amazing and even miraculous deeds and achievements, including being one of St. Antony's closer disciples and writing his life, which played a most instrumental role in the conversion of St. Augustine of Hippo, etc., etc., one of the ones that most stands out for me was his extraordinary formation of the laity of Alexandria.

During his third exile, in the mid-350's, the self-indulgently semi-Arian Emperor Constantius tried to impose one of his lackeys, a priest named George, as bishop in Athanasius's place. After listening to him preach for a while, the people decided they'd had quite enough of his heresy, so they dragged him out of his (really Athanasius's) pulpit and lynched him in the market just outside.* That's what I call "Catholic Action!"

(It should be noted that this was a political thing, really, and not mere random violence, since the soldiers - Arians by association at the very least - had murdered some dozens of the faithful when they had come to arrest Athanasius and impose George and the (false) bishop. By killing George, they were explicitly rejecting Constantius's interference in the local Church. The clear message was "George sleeps with the fishes." He who lives by the sword, etc.)

Anyway, Constantius was no doubt deeply pissed, but he didn't try to impose another Arian lackey as (false) bishop. Not too long after, he died, and his cousin, Julian -- the last remaining relative of Constantine the Great, later called "Julian the Apostate" -- permitted all the exiled orthodox bishops to return to their sees.

St. Athanasius, confessor and doctor of the faith, pray for us. By your holy example and intercession, may we so love and believe the true and holy Catholic faith, that we defend it as worthily.

* NB, please don't take this as any kind of endorsement of violence, political or otherwise. The fourth century was a violent age; in that context, this action might be seen as admirable in defense of the faith. In the abstract, Christ who died for us, certainly does not desire us to kill for him. Certainly in today's politics, such an action would not be commendable in any way.

Eclectic Tradition

When I was a youth, I lived in a place where hot cross buns were indispensable for Easter. My own family's preference ran to zeppoli and canoli, so I learned to like them only with great effort ("Nope, not yet... Lemme have another."). My wife, however, comes from the Land of the Overwhelmingly Large Cinnamon Roll. From this eclectic mix, after no little experimentation, comes the surprisingly delicious Hot Cross Cinnamon Roll, pictured above. To our children's delight, we frosted them this year with red glaze crosses. They really are as satisfyingly good as deep fried dough goodies -- must be the lard!

Most joyous Easter to all my readers. Smiter is waiting for you to join the Church next year, if you haven't already. I'll keep the rolls warm for ya, 'cause food is love.

Manly Spirituality

Inspired by this post at the Anchoress:

Batter my heart and deep-fry it,
Mince my will into sausage and dry it,
My want BBQ
Till I want just for You,
Till I'm Yours and no one can deny it.

A funny thing happened on the way to Damascus (or, some doggerel attributed to that Ananias who cured St. Paul of his blindness, but I don't suppose he could really have written them, 'cause the historical-critical method would say the lymeric hadn't been invented yet...)

The thing about making theology rhyme,
whenever I give this a bit of my time,
is that I'm afeared
I'll put out my beard
'cause I can't find a rhyme for Damascus.

And others more Logos-ly gifted than I
did tremble, and whimper and sniffle and cry,
and fall from a horse --
I mean Paul of course --
when asked to make rhymes for Damascus.

So Old Rome and New Rome and Third Rome and more
got down on their knees on the cold marble floor
and prayed to our Lord,
"Avert ye the sword!
'Cause we can't make a rhyme for Damascus!"

And finally Paul got the courage to ask us,
and once it came out he got bolder to task us.
With a mighty oration,
Divine inspiration
said, "There's only one rhyme for Damascus..."

My muse...

...has gone south for the winter.

Political Unrest

The archdeacon sought out his patron of note
To query for whom he should probably vote;
But all of the candidates seemed to be full
of qualities which in the pews are called "bull."
And straight-shooting Midwestern farmers should know,
'Cause that's what they use to make so much corn grow.

Quartet of Bishops on Respect for Life

Here is a handful of some of the more powerful statements or homilies I've found on Respect Life Sunday/Month. God bless and strengthen our bishops for preaching and teaching the truth clearly and with charity!

Archbishop Dolan, in a 10/3 homily, teeing off from the first reading

Archbishop Chaput, in a 10/3 homily (audio), leading with a rather good set-piece on prayer and respect for life, before his even better homily on faith and integrity

Archbishop Vigneron, in a 10/3 address to a conference on stem cell research

Bishop Nickless, in his diocesan newspaper, with wonted clarity