Today marks William Shakespeare’s 445th birthday.
Today also marks the 393rd anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death.
Some note that there is a record of his baptism on April 26,1564. With many important figures such as Shakespeare, it is common to list the date of birth and death as the day when accurate records lack.
Whatever the case is, we honor the Bard today.
The gloominess of today’s weather leads to a gloomy feeling that all is not well in the world. Of course, it is Holy Saturday which in itself is a bittersweet experience: the Paschal Mystery is intense and the drama of the sacred Liturgy causes me to reflect more deeply on important matters: human desire, cooperation with truth, faithfulness, interior and exterior peace, love, salvation, God, Chris’t atonement, etc.
The spiritual intensity of the day has led me to think of how some cultural commentators are looking at life through the lens of Christian faith seeing a dismal experience of Christianity and the reduction of man and woman to the courseness of existence. I am beginning to see that we are living a dark period of history. Let me give three examples that depress me, all come from today’s edition of the New York Times: “Washington Churches Eye a Prize: The Obamas,” “In Another Recession Sign, an Uptick in Vasectomies” and “Spain Steps Into Battle With Itself on Abortion.” For me, these articles show to what extent that many people are willing to go to reduce the experience of faith to a commodity, life to a matter of “rights and progressivity” and the sexual intercourse to economy and self-centeredness. All three articles strike me as examples of desperation because know of them really demonstrate to me that following Christ (or any religious sensibility) means anything. Has truth, the dignity of human life and a healthy sexuality been totally replaced by radical subjectivity, nihilism and hedonism?
The Spanish interlocutors make the claim of trying to change the current abortion law as a matter of humanity suggesting that not to change the law is to live in a barbourous society. It’s quite the opposite: you’re humanity is diminished by acting selfishly and cruelly toward the unborn. How is killing the unborn giving a woman a dignified humanity when abortion is part of the matrix? The abortion proponents argue that they want a state that is “progressive,” like other Western nations except Ireland. To what are they progressing? Death? A culture where death is the hallmark and not life.
On Holy Saturday I have to say that our society is leaping toward madness and not to great freedom and certainly not toward communion with God and life with Him.
The martyrdom of Japanese Christians in the 17th century is the subject of a film being produced by the Italian-American director Martin Scorsese. The film is based on the novel Chinmoku (“Silence”) written by Japanese Catholic writer Endo Shusaku [1923-1997]. He describes the persecution suffered by Japanese Christians during
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is supporting a change in law that would open the door to Catholics being a monarch. But this may also open the door to a Muslim or a Hindu being a King or Queen of England. Interesting. Read about it. But there’s criticism, too.
Sometimes I get weary about blogging because of the time it takes and some days it seems so boring. So I ask questions like: is it useful, for whom am I writing, for what reason, is this just an ego-trip, etc. I came across a few lines of Pope John Paul II which gives me slight encouragement. He said:
The special challenge before you, is to find ways to ensure that the voice of the Church is not marginalized or silenced in the modern arena of the media. You have a role to play in ensuring that the Gospel is not confined to a strictly private world. No! Jesus Christ must be proclaimed to the whole world; and therefore the Church must enter the great forum of the media with courage and confidence.
I am the Great Sun
(from a
I am the great sun, but you do not see me,
I am your husband, but you turn away.
I am the captive, but you do not free me,
I am the captain you will not obey.
I am the truth, but you will not believe me,
I am the city where you will not stay.
I am your wife, your child, but you will leave me,
I am that God to whom you will not pray.
I am your counsel, but you do not hear me,
I am the lover whom you will betray.
I am the victor, but you will not cheer me,
I am the holy dove whom you will slay.
I am your life, but you will not name me,
Seal up your soul with tears, and never blame me.
Charles Causely
Charles Causley was born and has lived, apart from six years in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, in Launceston,
In case you’re hearing noises from THE piazza, or just from your computer’s speakers, you should know that the ever effervescent Father Guy Selvester has resumed his blog, Shouts in the Piazza. He took the last few months off from blogging.
Father Selvester is a parish priest of the Diocese of Metuchen in
He brings wit and wisdom to the often dowdy blogosphere. You will see on Shouts in the Piazza a lot about ecclesiastical heraldry, some stuff about Church life in general, his own thoughts, homilies, etc.
Last autumn, www.ilsussidiario.net, an internet news portal edited by the Foundation of Subsidiarity directed by Giorgio Vittadini, sponsored a special “On the Spot” section with articles from US-based writers on aspects of the presidential election. This was a start for what will now be a new regular English-language section of the site.
The editors are happy to announce the birth of the English section of the daily “Il Sussidiario” divided in three sections: Politics & Society, Economy & Finance, Culture, Religion & Science.
Add this link to your favorites:
http://www.ilsussidiario.net/articoli.aspx?canale=103
The “On the Spot” section will feature news and opinion pieces on all aspects of life in the
Looking for writers. There is a need to produce at least two or three original articles weekly of about 450-650 words. In addition, some of the articles would be translated into Italian for a daily audience of 3000 people.
If you would like to join us in this venture, please write to clairityrose@gmail.com.
A new drama about the life of Abraham Lincoln and the role that his fourteen years in Spencer County, Indiana, played is being planned for the bicentennial of his birth in 2009.
According to Matt Bai’s article “Newt. Again.” in the March 1st NYTimes Magazine, Newt Gingrich, 65, is coming into full communion with the Catholic Church, or at least that is what he reported. The author made a simple parenthetical statement that Newt was entering his wife’s faith. Thanks be to God.