A Still More Excellent Way

The painting above is "L'escarpement de Nazareth" or "The Brow of the Hill near Nazareth" by James Tissot.

From the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, it depicts part of the Gospel read at Mass today -- the account from the Gospel of Luke in which Jesus is driven out of Nazareth after saying, "Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place."

All of the readings at Mass today were meaningful. The first reading contained the well-known passage from Jeremiah:

"The word of the LORD came to me, saying: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you."

The second reading was the passage from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians that is often proclaimed at weddings. Despite hearing it so frequently, the words never fail to hit home:

Brothers and sisters:

Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way.

If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy, and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.

For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.

At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.

So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Mike posted a reflection on this passage at Googling God.

A Concord Pastor and Deacon Greg also have fine homilies on the readings for this Sunday.

Flashback: 2007

Comfortable with Complexity

Mark Oppenheimer has penned an interesting piece for Mother Jones about NYT columnist Ross Douthat.

Some asinine editor or headline writer called this otherwise good read "Ross Douthat's Fantasy World."

Nut graph:

And so we know at least three things about Ross Douthat—the devoutly Catholic, anti-porn, pro-abstinence, pro-life prodigy of punditry. First, he's not always sure that he's right. Second, he has gay friends. Third, he cares what they think. Which is consistent with what I have learned in conversations with Douthat, his parents, and many of his friends and colleagues, and in reading nearly everything he has ever published. His comfort with complexity, and with those who disagree with him—along with his somewhat unconventional upbringing, his unorthodox ideas on abortion law, and his embrace of both popular culture and highbrow literature—make him a surprising conservative writer. More surprising than most of his Times readers would ever know, and compelling in ways his fellow conservatives may not like to admit.

The piece has some good background on Douthat. For example:

He first gained attention for Privilege, a bittersweet 2005 memoir of his years at Harvard, where the drinking, partying, and hooking up left him feeling alienated. Of one alcohol-fueled fling, he wrote: "Whatever residual enthusiasm I felt for the venture dissipated, with shocking speed, as she nibbled at my ear and whispered—'You know, I'm on the pill.'...On that night, in that dank basement bedroom, she spoke for all of us, the whole young American elite. Not I love you, not This is incredible, not Let's go all the way, but I'm on the pill."

Hat-tip: Sully, who added, "Ross' conservatism is in the Buckley lineage. He may be the last one left."

The illustration above is by Steve Brodner.

The Power of Transformation

The clip below was posted this week by old college buddy, Katie.

I don't agree with Eve Ensler on some domestic political issues. But, she makes good points in these remarks, particularly about Congo and the status of women in other parts of Africa.

Check it out:

I ♥ Tracey Ullmann

Pitch perfect:



Hat-tip: Meghan

In Memoriam: Jimbo Iglar, 1936 - 2010

I learned today, via the Observer-Reporter, of the January 23 death of Martin "Jimbo" Iglar.

This great character from my hometown of McDonald, PA, died too young at the age of 73.

Jimbo was an active supporter of my State House races. He always had a ready smile, a word of encouragement -- and a good story about my opponents. :-)

He'll be missed.

Jimbo served in the U.S. Marines. In memoriam, here is a rendition of the Marines' Hymn:

Right to My Door

For this week's "YouTube clip for a peaceful weekend," here's the new tune "Angels and Demons" by the English-Italian sibling trio Miccoli.

Pace:

Next, A Walkie-Talkie Preamble

Exactly:



Hat-tip: Dave

$50 for Your Favorite Candidate?

Yale Law Professor Bruce Ackerman and Congressman David Wu (D-Oregon) penned an intriguing commentary for Wednesday's Wall Street Journal titled "How to Counter Corporate Speech."

Pull quote: "Every American should get a $50 tax credit to donate to a candidate."

Some graphs:

The Supreme Court's decision last week in Citizens United v. FEC fundamentally changed the nature of political campaigns. In a 5-4 ruling, the court held that corporations have a constitutional right to spend millions of dollars in independent campaigns that attack or support particular candidates.

Critics of the decision worry, with good reason, that corporate interests might now exhibit outsize influence on campaigns.

We need to embrace a market solution to this problem. The answer to the disproportionate influence of big money is to give ordinary citizens the financial capacity to compete effectively in the political marketplace.

The place to begin is with a tax cut. Each American should get a refundable federal tax credit of $50 that they can use to make contributions to federal candidates during presidential years, and a suitably smaller sum during off-year federal elections.

Each American should be allowed to claim a $50 refundable tax credit when filing an income tax return. Oregon and other states already do this. It's time to bring this plan to the rest of the nation.

Modern technology provides opportunities for enhanced convenience and access. Donations to campaigns could be made electronically, with the money automatically refunded to each citizen's credit card or bank account. Call these electronic transfers "democracy dollars."

About 120 million Americans went to the polls in 2008. If each citizen also had a chance to contribute democracy dollars, their donations would overwhelm the sums that corporations are likely to spend under the recent Supreme Court decision.

I'd say it's an idea worth a try.

New 'Burgh Bloggers

Heidi Price Brayer, a dear friend and fellow O-R alum, has penned an interesting piece for Pop City about several new Pittsburgh bloggers.

Here's an excerpt:

Bite of the Burgh: Julie Gongaware, Mandy McFadden, Sarah Sudar, Laura Zorch

You can never go wrong with a Primanti's Pitts-burger Cheese Steak and an IC Light. 'nough said.

"We're not afraid of food, never have been," says Laura Zorch, one of the four authors and a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University. "I have never been one for diets or even moderation. I said if its good, I'll eat it."

The four friends started Bite of the Burgh in July after the mutual realization when they talked, they often dished about food. Their blog offers up dishes they make at home with thoughts on local dining spots. "I liken it to a 'Have you eaten here?' What's good?'" Zorch says.

Coauthor Mandy McFadden worked for two years as a social media specialist at a firm in the Strip District. She was laid off in July and one of the things she missed most about working in the Strip was all the walkable lunchtime opportunities.

"My favorite is Enrico Biscotti. A lot of people know they have pastries and breads, but they also serve an amazing lunch," says McFadden, who also maintains a personal blog and a photography blog. "I love food. It's a wonderful part of life when you can sit down with people and have a meal and enjoy a conversation. Why wouldn't you take part in that?"

How can life get any better? You have not lived until you have tried Pamela's famous crepe pancakes. (And having them at a very un-breakfasty time makes them even better!)

And while McFadden recently secured a new job in social media, she will miss the former lunchtime opportunities offered by the Strip. But there's hope. "I'll be working in downtown Pittsburgh. The new job's very exciting, but so are the lunch opportunities," she says, adding that she's now within walking distance of Franktuary, another favorite haunt. "They serve all sorts of amazing hot dogs."

Co-author Julie Gongaware, 27, says the four friends are united by their love of food as well as a desire to celebrate the city's unique food offerings. "Pittsburgh food is unique. People underestimate it. If I wanted Ethiopian, I would go to Abay. If I wanted Indian, I go to Ali Babba," Gongaware, 27, says. "There's so many good places in Bloomfield and Lawrenceville."

I don't usually stray away from my go to, cheeseburger. Sometimes that isn't always an option though, say at an Italian restaurant. So I had the next closest thing, angel hair pasta with pesto… I made a fantastic choice which really shouldn't surprise you because I'm full of those. That pesto was the best I've had since high school which is a long story and I don't want to bore you. Just know it was good. Actually better than good.

Gongaware says plans are in the works for a new feature, a "Girls versus Food" with a local Pittsburgh restaurant that's similar to the Travel Channel show Man Versus Food. They're on the hunt for a local food challenge. Any takers?

The photo above of blogger Mike Beattie at 61c Cafe in Squirrel Hill is credited to Brian Cohen.

"The Card Game"

Tonight, while on the elliptical at the gym, I watched the PBS Frontline documentary "The Card Game." It's a report on the credit card industry and the new federal law that attempts to regulate it.

The program provided ample food for thought. Here's the beginning:

The Nuts vs. The Creeps

Peggy Noonan's column in this Saturday's WSJ was an engaging read.

Good bit:

... Speaking broadly: In the 2006 and 2008 elections, and at some point during the past decade, the ancestral war between Democrats and Republicans began to take on a new look. If you were a normal human sitting at home having a beer and watching national politics peripherally, as normal people do until they focus on an election, chances are pretty good you came to see the two major parties not as the Dems versus the Reps, or the blue versus the red, but as the Nuts versus the Creeps. The Nuts were for high spending and taxing and the expansion of government no matter what. The Creeps were hypocrites who talked one thing and did another, who went along on the spending spree while lecturing on fiscal solvency.

In 2008, the voters went for Mr. Obama thinking he was not a Nut but a cool and sober moderate of the center-left sort. In 2009 and 2010, they looked at his general governing attitudes as reflected in his preoccupations—health care, cap and trade—and their hidden, potential and obvious costs, and thought, "Uh-oh, he's a Nut!"

Which meant they were left with the Creeps. ...

R.I.P. Jean Simmons

The old-time movie actress Jean Simmons died Friday at the age of 80. Among other great roles, she played Sergeant Sarah Brown in the 1955 movie version of "Guys and Dolls."

In memoriam, here is a clip from that flick:

"Because God Wants It"

The readings at Mass today are particularly meaningful.

In the Gospel, Jesus goes to the synagogue in Nazareth where he reads a messianic passage from Isaiah and then proclaims, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Over at Beliefnet, Deacon Greg has an excellent homily on today's readings. Here's a section:

Grant Desme is a 23-year-old minor league baseball player - in fact, one of the most promising athletes in the country. He was considered a star prospect for the Oakland A's. He was a figure of incredible talent and potential - he'd hit 31 home runs, stolen 40 bases. He thought, any day, to get the call from Oakland to join the majors and begin a stellar career - one that would likely reap him millions.

Well, he got a call. But it wasn't the one he expected.

Friday, Grant Desme told a stunned group of sportswriters that he was giving up baseball.

Instead, he was going to study for the priesthood.

"I love the game," he said. "But I aspire to higher things. I really had to get down to the bottom of things - what was good in my life, what I wanted to do with my life, and I felt that while baseball is a good thing and I love playing, I thought it was selfish of me to be doing that when I really felt that God was calling me more." He concluded: "It took me a while in my life to really trust and open up to it and aim full steam toward Him."

At a time when the world needs good priests more than it needs good baseball players, pray for Grant Desme. Pray for more men like him, especially in this Year for Priests.

Pray also for Emmanuel Buso. Emmanuel is not a priest or a seminarian. He's a student who lived near the presidential palace in Port au Prince Haiti when the earthquake struck. He was buried under the rubble, unable to move. For 10 days, he waited, and prayed, and dreamed. He dreamed he could hear his mother crying. He slipped in and out of consciousness. Finally, on the 10th day, defying all the odds, an Israeli rescue team discovered him and pulled him to safety. Emmanuel was dehydrated and weak, but he's expected to make a full recovery. Friday, he talked to reporters from his hospital bed.

"I am here," he whispered, "because God wants it."

In Grant Desme and Emmanuel Buso, you have two lives that have suddenly been changed - each, in his way, like Christ, announcing a new beginning. Here are glad tidings -- good news of enduring faith, and boundless trust.

Emmanuel Buso's words say so much, for each of us: "I am here because God wants it."

Of course, his very name, Emmanuel, means that "God is with us." And that, too, perhaps, is part of his message - and part of Christ's message in this Sunday's gospel.

It is a message to all who are captive - whether trapped under rubble from an earthquake...or shackled by weakness and sin.

It is a message to all who are blind - whether it is because their world has collapsed around them...or because their vision has been clouded by darkness or fear.

God's faith in us, and His love for us, unlocks the shackles, and lets in the light.

God is with us.

Significantly, Luke begins his gospel by addressing it to "most excellent Theophilus," a Greek name that means "beloved of God." Whoever Theophilus may have been, it's clear that the gospel is addressed to all of us. We are all Theophilus. We are all "beloved of God."

No matter how weak, or wounded, or broken by sin.

I hope that we never forget that.

And I hope that we never forget Grant Desme and Emmanuel Buso, either.

The spirit that inspires a baseball player in California and a student in Haiti -- THAT spirit endures. It's one reason why our Church has prevailed. The Holy Spirit continues to guide us through every challenge and setback, every sudden reversal, every earthquake and aftershock.

Flashback: 2007

The painting above is by James Tissot. It is part of the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

"Torture for Most People"

As someone who once worked in politics, I concede that these thoughts by Tyler Cowen rang true:

Political jobs would be torture for most people. You have no freedom. You are underpaid and over-bugged. You lose a lot of your privacy. You have to stop writing emails or saying what you think. You don't get to read many good books or go for many quiet walks. It's hard to be a non-conformist. And so on.

Yet it's really hard to get top political jobs. So who gets them? People who truly, deeply love the power. ...

Hat-tip: Sully

Inhaler Alert

The clip below is dated by a few days but still worth a look.

Here's Jon Stewart at his best, especially at the end:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mass Backwards
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Hat-tip: dotCommonweal

Already in Love

Also related to the Roe anniversary, this clip from "All in the Family" provides good food for thought:



The wisdom of Edith at 8:19: " ... Oh, Gloria, I'm already in love with that baby."

Hat-tip: Deacon Scott via Fran

Praying for Life & Peace

Today is the 37th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision in the case of Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion throughout the United States.

Here is a prayer to mark the day:

Prayer for A Culture of Life & A Culture of Peace

Almighty God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

We pray that Your holy presence surrounds us,
enveloping us during our pilgrim days and nights upon the Earth.
You are the air we breathe.
You are our daily bread.

We pray that our eyes and ears and hearts welcome
the images and sounds and impulses
that You send to shepherd us.
We pray that we are fertile soil for the seeds You plant.

Thank You, God,
for the Universe and the Earth
for every human life, born and unborn
– in the past, in the present and in the future
and for every part of Your Creation.

Thank You, God, for all of Your blessings.

Almighty God,

We pray for a Culture of Life and a Culture of Peace to reign
in our thoughts, on our lips,
in our hearts, in our guts,
in all that we are, and in all that we do -- seen and unseen.

We pray for a Culture of Life and a Culture of Peace to reign
in our families and among our friends,
in our homes, workplaces, schools and places of worship,

in our cities, towns, villages and farms,
in our states and in our nation,
and throughout the World.

Almighty God,

We pray that, through Your grace,
we may know an end to
abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia,
war, poverty, racism,
and all forms of violence and injustice.

Almighty God,

We pray that, through Your grace, we may have the
love, faith, hope, courage,
wisdom, tenacity, and imagination
to be Your instruments in building
this Culture of Life and this Culture of Peace upon the Earth.

And, Almighty God,

We pray that, when our pilgrim journey has ended,
we will be with You forever
in the warm embrace of Your love.

Amen.

Love Me to My Soul

For this week's "YouTube clip for a peaceful weekend," below is the tune "Queen Bee" by the blues musician Taj Mahal.

Peace:



Hat-tip: Heidi Price Brayer

A Nagging Question

Sr. Bernadette Reis, a Daughter of St. Paul, penned a reflection for Busted Halo in time for tomorrow’s anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

The essay, “Pro-Life or Pro-Active?,” raises good questions. Some excerpts:

... I personally can never vote for a pro-choice candidate when a comparable pro-life candidate is also running. However, I have lived through the presidency of three pro-life presidents, as well as a Republican-led Congress. As far as abortion is concerned, not much has changed. With a track record like that, I can understand my peers who don’t get the logic behind voting for pro-life candidates as the answer to the abortion debate. ...

… What would happen if every one of us were involved, if every one of us made it our responsibility to change the reality of abortion, regardless of whether Roe v. Wade is overturned?

This question has been nagging me ever since my brother, Dominic, and his wife, Cynthia, took in a young woman with a brand new baby. Cynthia befriended her while volunteering at a local home for unwed mothers; but once she gave birth to her daughter, the young mother had nowhere else to go. Dominic and Cynthia were newly married — and they took her in. When they looked for a different apartment, and later for a house, they looked for one that had adequate room for themselves, their guest and her baby. For the last three years, they have provided a home for her and her daughter. It was a delight for me to hear the little 3-year-old girl ask Cynthia if she could call my nieces and nephews her cousins too. Not only have she and her mother been given a place to stay, they have a new “family” of sorts as well.

… what would happen if the 51 percent of Americans who have now identified themselves as pro-life decide to become pro-active in the lives of the actual women they know who are pregnant and need help?

What would happen if every parish bulletin listed the contact person for any woman who was pregnant and scared (and if that person were visible within the church community)?

What if our focus changed from a debate about the constitutionality of abortion — which requires very little personal sacrifice on our part — to directly helping the women who may potentially have an abortion? …

Upsetting Conventional Wisdom

Nothing gets my goat more than telling me something is impossible.

Want to get me fired up? Talk to me about conventional wisdom.

It used to be conventional wisdom that a Republican candidate would not win a U.S. Senate seat from the Democrats' stronghold of Massachusetts.

Tuesday night, that sentiment was turned on its head by the election of that "little-known state senator" Scott Brown.

I did not sufficiently study the positions of Senator Brown or his opponent to have a truly informed opinion of the race. And, as native Pennsylvanian who lives in Manhattan, my recommendation would not have been very consequential.

But, I do know this:

No one political party should dominate any state's government for decades.

No legislative seat should ever be "safe."

No race should ever be a sure bet.

What occurred Tuesday in Massachusetts was healthy for representative democracy -- both for the Bay State and the nation. We need to keep the political class guessing.

The photo above of Boston's Old North Church is from Sam.