feminine-genius

A blessed new year to all!

As we enter this new year, let us follow in the footsteps of the Holy Family, imitating their piety, mutual affection, and trust.

[To receive a plenary indulgence today, pray the following prayer, with the usual requirements.]

Veni, Creator Spiritus
Come Holy Spirit, Creator Blest

COME, Holy Spirit, Creator blest,
and in our souls take up Thy rest;
come with Thy grace and heavenly aid
to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.

O comforter, to Thee we cry,
O heavenly gift of God Most High,
O fount of life and fire of love,
and sweet anointing from above.

Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts are known;
Thou, finger of God's hand we own;
Thou, promise of the Father, Thou
Who dost the tongue with power imbue.

Kindle our sense from above,
and make our hearts o'erflow with love;
with patience firm and virtue high
the weakness of our flesh supply.

Far from us drive the foe we dread,
and grant us Thy peace instead;
so shall we not, with Thee for guide,
turn from the path of life aside.

Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow
the Father and the Son to know;
and Thee, through endless times confessed,
of both the eternal Spirit blest.
Now to the Father and the Son,
Who rose from death, be glory given,
with Thou, O Holy Comforter,
henceforth by all in earth and heaven.
Amen.

On the Feast of Stephen

Evidently, the martyr Stephen wasn't the only Christian to suffer violence on that day. This year 45 Catholics (mostly women and children) were killed the day after Christmas in their parish church in the Congo, bringing the week's total deaths from such attacks to 189. Bruno Mitewo, head of the Catholic aid agency estimates that the number is closer to 400. Ugandan rebels are blamed for the deaths.

"All villages were burned by rebels... we don't know where exactly the population is because all the villages are empty," he told the BBC. "We have almost 6,500 displaced who are refugees in the parishes of the Catholic Church around the city of Dungu, more than 20,000 people displaced are running to the mountains," he said.

It's hard to exaggerate the complete chaos in this region, where the marauders have rampaged for decades. Their reign of terror includes kidnapping children, inducting the boys into their "army" through drugs and oppression, and using the girls as sex slaves. Uganda, South Sudan and DR Congo have allied in the attempt to stop their madness, to little avail.

Camps have been set up for the displaced, but they're terribly overcrowded. Malaria, cholera, dysentery and Aids-related illnesses take their weekly toll. There are many, many orphans who attempt to stay together by family, with the older taking charge of the younger. Women who survive must work incredibly hard just for sustenance and basic survival. There is little hope of returning home or of gaining any sort of normalcy any time soon.

Much to pray for. Much for which we should be grateful.

A lovely woman

A fellow blogger has lost a mother; the music world has lost a bright light; the wider world has been privileged to have this great soul for so long. Cuban Olga Diaz won a contest in 1958 which brought her to the US, providentially, allowing her to escape being trapped in Castro's "paradise." She used her talents as a pianist to bring joy to many around the world while sharing much innate joy.

After I graduated high school and started college, my mom decided to go back to school and she obtained her Masters in Piano at the University of Miami School of Music. Even without a great command of English, she wrote a thesis and got her graduate degree in her fifties.

My mom would play you a Lecuona piece, followed by Duerme Negrito, followed by Chopin, Cole Porter, Bernstein, Piazzola and Gershwin. It was a thrill to see her play Rhapsody in Blue with the Miami Symphony Orchestra many years ago.

My mom was a major talent just as many other exiled artists here are and were. Sadly, the media pays more attention to those who chose to play under fidel than those that chose to play in freedom. Besides being a great artist, she was a wife to my father for over 30 years, a great mother and a loving grandmother to my two children. And to those that knew her and loved her, she was the greatest friend you could ever have.

Her son's genuine affection and admiration themselves speak volumes about her life. May she rest in peace.

UPDATE: Devoted Son has now added a short sample of her music with slideshow. All I see is joy.

Holy Family -- not

I hate to spoil the mood, dears, but three stories have been in a holding pattern here on my desk and the Feast of the Holy Family is as good a time as any to remind people why Christianity exalts women, safeguards children and holds fast to the domestic environment best suited to the preservation of humanity.

We'll begin with polygamy, which is outrageously degrading to women -- who deserve one-on-one relationships in which both partners can give themselves totally to the other and provide a gift of self that honours each as a dignified subject. Finding that Mr Right has another Mrs Handy in his back pocket does little to foster marital bliss and can even lead one to drastic responses:

The death of a model who learnt that her husband was already married has shone a light into the murky world of Muslim polygamy in Britain. Sahar Daftary, 23, fell 150ft from the twelfth storey of a block of flats where she had gone to collect her belongings at the home of a businessman whom she had married in a religious ceremony last year.

Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, the head of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain, told The Times: “This story is very common, unfortunately. We have tried to plug some of the holes in the whole system, but unfortunately our clerics do not live on this planet.

Unfortunate, yes. Ironically, in a beauty pageant, Sahar Daftary was chosen as the "Face of Asia" -- all the more telling, given her tragic suicide (she was quite a beauty, which gave this story its legs). And remember that the Archbishop of Canterbury had endorsed the shari'a laws that these "extraterrestrials" insist on using, which only makes sense since his church has already abandoned ship on contraception, abortion, and same-sex unions. What's a little polygamy after that?

Secondly, since I posted a lovely icon representing the birth of Christ, a friend brought to my attention the stark differences in the way that Christians and Muslims see Christ here through a study of that image:

1. It is an image of human beings, which violates the traditional Islamic prohibition of images;

2. It depicts Jesus not as a Muslim prophet but as the incarnate Son of God (his halo reads ο ων, the One Who Is, a title of divinity derived from the name of God that God gives to Moses in Exodus 3:14), in violation of the oft-repeated Qur'anic injunction that Allah has no Son (4:171; 9:30; 25:2; 39:4; 72:3; etc. etc.);

3. In line with #2, it depicts what Muslims would consider to be idolatry, as the holy child's mother kneels and adores him;

4. In the beam or spear coming from heaven down to the child in the cradle, it depicts the activity of the Divine in the world, assuming the doctrine of the Trinity, which is rejected somewhat imprecisely in Qur'an 4:171 and 5:116;

5. The cradle resembles a casket, foreshadowing the redemptive death of Christ, which is denied in Qur'an 4:157.

Then the writer goes on to remind us that the free will so cherished in Christianity -- indeed that characteristic through which we most mirror God Himself -- is nowhere in Islam, which exercises force to bring about "faith," which is all about coerced submission. (Remember our dear sister Martha, still imprisoned and probably listening to the whimpering cries of her starving children.)

Finally, Diana West sheds light on a dastardly dimension of US intelligence gathering operations here. It seems that Afghan's tribal chieftans would quickly sell each other out for a handful of little blue pills.

For some U.S. operatives in Afghanistan, Western drugs such as Viagra were just part of a long list of enticements available for use in special cases. Two veteran officers familiar with such practices said Viagra was offered rarely, and only to older tribal officials for whom the drug would hold special appeal. While such sexual performance drugs are generally unavailable in the remote areas where the agency's teams operated, they have been sold in some Kabul street markets since at least 2003 and were known by reputation elsewhere.

"You didn't hand it out to younger guys, but it could be a silver bullet to make connections to the older ones," said one retired operative familiar with the drug's use in Afghanistan. Afghan tribal leaders often had four wives -- the maximum number allowed by the Koran -- and aging village patriarchs were easily sold on the utility of a pill that could "put them back in an authoritative position," the official said....

 As a firm supporter of our troops and their mission, I must say that this is wretched stuff indeed. I understand the difficult trade-offs that need to be made constantly, but this seems to be done without any moral qualms. None [shrug.] God will not be mocked, guys. This -- to me -- is far worse than water-boarding. Where is the outrage, the discussion, the chatter?

The link includes a collection of photos of the some of the unfortunate children who will only suffer more because of the availability of these "man-treats." Imagine the beloved GI's who hand out candy to the little ones who sidle up to them on duty, giving sweets to the girls while slipping the vile pills to their geriatric husbands. Shame.

Love enfleshed

A dear priest friend was privileged to say Mass in Saint John Lateran on this feast of Saint John the Evangelist. He has posted his homily, which is particularly lovely:

We know that we are not just physical beings, not merely bodies occupying space. We are also spiritual; we have a soul.

But what does a soul look like? You cannot tell what another person’s soul looks like because it is invisible. You do not know if it is dark, occupied with hatred, anger or jealousy. Perhaps it is a soul filled with light, surrendered completely to love and compassion. We could never know such a thing.

But when persons express themselves—using their speech, actions, mannerisms—then we begin to catch a glimpse of what is happening in the soul. We cannot know everything, and we should always be careful not to make hasty judgments, but we can begin to see that which had been hidden.

I will give you an example. Let us say that a father has a deep and abiding love for his daughter. Well, what does that mean? What does it look like? But imagine that this little girl is out playing in the back yard, and suddenly she falls and is hurt. The father rushes out to her, scoops her up in his arms and holds her close to himself. Now we can see, in a concrete way, what it means to say that this father has a deep and abiding love for his daughter.

The body, in fact, and only it, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine.

His point is that the theology of the body, which we're finally hammering out at this stage of salvation history, is very much present in the Gospels, especially in that of Saint John. It has come to light due to our rampant abuse of the body -- especially in the sexual realm -- but it is far more than that. The body is both sacramental and gift, being both sign and essence. Only with the sacramental vision can we see the love of God made flesh and manifest in our own lives.

And that is precisely what St. John the Evangelist is saying in our first reading this morning. We listen to those words here, in this basilica dedicated to St. John, on his feast day. We hear his own words, his eyewitness account of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ:

Beloved: What was from the beginning,what we have heard,what we have seen with our eyes,what we looked uponand touched with our handsconcerns the Word of lifefor the life was made visible;we have seen it and testify to itand proclaim to you the eternal lifethat was with the Father and was made visible to us (1 John 1:1-2).

We have seen Him, St. John declares. We listened to His voice, we touched His body. The invisible God has been made visible to us, and now we proclaim this Christ to you! This is John’s message to all the world. He burns within to make it known, to announce to every person this Good News about the God who first loved him.

Do we share that ardour, that burning desire to share God's love? I have always been intrigued with the way that John defined himself, not by name, but by the appellation, "the one whom God loved." That we could all make that the defining detail of our lives -- unworthy as we are. Without receiving that love, what would we share with others?

Ignominy shall become honour

What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of Days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infant's bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honour, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness (Saint John Crysostom).

Gratifying rescue

This woman prayed for others. When the time came for her to receive divine assistance, God was with her.

The survival of Donna Molnar, buried for three days in a farm field snowdrift, defies all the odds, says her family. “Another hour, and she might have been dead,” said husband David Molnar, 55, yesterday.

But it was not just her physical strength and endurance that kept her alive, Molnar said. It was her faith.
“She is a strong Catholic ... and spends a lot of time praying for others involved in personal tragedies and family issues,” he said, fighting to keep the exhaustion clearly etched on his face at bay. “I believe the reason she survived is because God literally reached down and cradled her until they could find her.”

The healing process is complicated, since her body temperature was significantly reduced. She may lose extremities and is not out of the woods. This caught my eye, being so close to where I lived as a child. Perhaps it will focus many on the ChristChild in the coming days, as His intercession will be sorely needed.

Elsewhere in Ontario, a snowbank in Windsor was the scene of an unexpected delivery:

Newborn twins and their mother are under close watch by hospital doctors and the Windsor Essex Children's Aid Society after the woman delivered them in the street just before midnight Tuesday.

Both babies are recovering, with one listed in serious condition Wednesday, while the other and their mother were in good condition, said Gisele Sullens, a spokeswoman for Windsor Regional Hospital. The premature babies — one weighing four pounds, the other three pounds — are being treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Finally, take some time to remember this lovely young family, in which the mum just died of cancer. Much to pray for.

Martha's martyrdom

As you trundle about, finishing the shopping, checking for all the food items needed in the coming days, and perhaps hit a holiday party or two, please remember to pray for Martha -- not the sister of Mary concerned with the mundane details, but the Martha arrested this week, beaten, raped and forced to endure the starvation of her two little children unless she denies Christ.

Martha Samuel, an Egyptian Muslim who converted to Christianity 5 years ago, was arrested at Cairo airport on Wednesday as she and her husband and two sons (4 and 2) were leaving for Russia (AINA 12-17-2008). Her name was on the observation list of people prevented from leaving the country.

The Egypt for Christ Ministry is reporting that Martha Samuel has been subjected to sexual assault by Egyptian police officers at El-Nozha police station as well as at the National Security office in Heliopolis. She has also been beaten and tortured in an attempt to force her to return to Islam. The police have promised to release her if she returns to Islam.

Martha Samuel and her children, who are also under arrest, is to be transferred from the National Security office in Heliopolis to Al-Qanater prison after seeing the "renewal judge." The children are not being provided with food deliberately to pressure their mother to return to Islam. Fadl Thabet, Martha's husband, has been taken to the National Security office in Alexandria (Somoha District).

Martha Samuel, whose former name is Zainab Said Abdel-Aziz, and her family were trying to travel to Russia using a passport of her Christian name, in order to escape from the continuous persecution by the Egyptian police and her own family, who have been trying to kill her for 5 years as a result of her conversion.

This echoes the story of the Holy Family in many ways, not to mention the tales of many who gave all they had for Christ. It truly brings home the question:

Who is the Babe in the manger and what would we offer to Him?

Poor, dear Martha -- God give her strength and may angels surround them, guiding them in the paths of righteousness.