Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Mark Perry's piece about the conflict between Stanley McChrystal and Karl Eikenberry over how to proceed in Afghanistan--a conflict little documented in our myopic press--makes for riveting reading: The State Department's frustration extended into the embassy in Kabul, where the US ambassador, Karl Eikenberry, was having his own problems with McChrystal. The appointment of Eikenberry …
Continue reading "When Both Sides are Wrong About Afghanistan"
The form and structure of liturgies is something that churches which employ these in worship either take for granted or argue over intensely. But very few people understand how a) these came into being or b) how they should be revised or replaced in times of liturgical change. What kind of theology is embodied in …
Continue reading "The Canon of the Mass: The Anaphora of St. Basil"
In a non-Biblical way, that's what Google CEO Eric Schmidt is telling everyone: Eric Schmidt suggests you alter your scandalous behavior before you complain about his company invading your privacy. That's what the Google CEO told Maria Bartiromo during CNBC's big Google special last night, an extraordinary pronouncement for such a secretive guy. The generous …
Some people are just too sensitive: Pencils and notebooks resembling President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign ads have been sold in at least one Columbia school and other public schools, causing the company that distributes the materials to travel around the state yanking the supplies out of machines. “Don’t be mad at us,” said Greg Jones, …
Continue reading "When “Change We Can Believe In” is all we have left"
The form and structure of liturgies is something that churches which employ these in worship either take for granted or argue over intensely. But very few people understand how a) these came into being or b) how they should be revised or replaced in times of liturgical change. What kind of theology is embodied in …
Continue reading "The Canon of the Mass: The Paleo-Hispanic Anaphora"
I was expecting an eventual response to my piece Why I Don’t Agree With the Concept of the “Sacrifice of the Mass” and received it from Fr. Greg. You can find it here. In his response, he's shifted the discussion from the purely theological to the ecclesiological, and that brings up many issues. But let …
I'm currently in the middle of a series on ancient (and a couple of modern) anaphorae, taken from Cipriano Vagaggini's The Canon of the Mass and Liturgical Reform. It seems that Dom Vagaggini wasn't afraid of controversial topics. Consider this, from a 2003 article on Catholic women deacons: The question of women deacons has been …
Continue reading "Women Deacons: The View of “Canon of the Mass” Cipriano Vagaggini"
The form and structure of liturgies is something that churches which employ these in worship either take for granted or argue over intensely. But very few people understand how a) these came into being or b) how they should be revised or replaced in times of liturgical change. What kind of theology is embodied in …
Continue reading "The Canon of the Mass: The Early Roman Canon"
It is with sadness that I note the death of Prince Alexandre de Rethy, whose 1965 visit to Palm Beach (and our home) was documented in the piece A Royal Visit: Prince Alexandre de Rethy’s Visit to Palm Beach. He passed away 29 November 2009 due to an acute pulmonary embolism. He was 67. My …
Continue reading "Death of Prince Alexandre de Rethy (Belgium)"
This, from Ivan Krastev, in the Washington Post: Obama himself is largely viewed in Russia as the American Mikhail Gorbachev, but Russians are less impressed than other Europeans have been with Obama's brilliance and rock-star popularity. They remember the Gorbi-mania that conquered the globe at the moment the Soviet Union was about to crumble. Russians …
Continue reading "The Russians are Right About Barack Obama"
Positive Infinity 