Category: Culture

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved. 

William Shakespeare

Why the face?

BRF.jpgBitchy Resting Face (BRF) is a syndrome that portrays a sour expression. Thoughtfully sad and silently suffering people, typically women. (There is a male version which I will leave alone for now.) Do you find it hard to match the others joyous attitude in an honest way? Are you smiling?

Societal expectations say that you SHOULD smile all the time. Do you need surgery or just give the person suffering from BRF a break? Here’s the parody.
On a serious note, there are many are pop-psychologists and take every opportunity to diagnose what you are thinking and feeling based on a perceived BRF.

Remembering Gerard Manley Hopkins, priest

hopkins.jpg

On this date in 1889, Jesuit Father Gerard Manley Hopkins died. He was a convert and a poet. Hopkins struggled with having good physical and mental health.


Hopkins’ poetry is extraordinary and innovative in the use of language and form. It is said the was influence more by the Franciscan school than the Thomists.


O God, You did raise Your servant, Gerard Manley Hopkins, to the sacred priesthood of Jesus Christ, according to the Order of Melchisedech, giving him the sublime power to offer the Eternal Sacrifice, to bring the Body and Blood of Your Son Jesus Christ down upon the altar, and to absolve the sins of men in Your own Holy Name. We beseech You to reward his faithfulness and to forget his faults, admitting him speedily into Your Holy Presence, there to enjoy forever the recompense of his labors. This we ask through Jesus Christ Your Son, our Lord. Amen.


Father Andrew Greeley, RIP

Andrew Greeley.jpgThe famed Chicago priest, sociologist and novelist Father Andrew Greeley died on Thursday. He was 85 and in poor health since 2008. He died in his sleep.

The Mass of Christian Burial will be Wednesday, Noon, at Christ the King Church, 9325 South Hamilton Avenue.
Father Andrew Greeley was a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago for 59 years. He assisted as priest on Chicago’s south side.
With so many personal and professional accomplishments, Andrew Greeley’s identity was that of a priest.

Peter Steinfels’ NY Times obit for Greeley is worth a good read even if you disagree with Greeley’s critical remarks about the Church. Steinfels brings out some interesting points about Father Greeley and the context in which he existed.
His autobiography is Confessions of a Parish Priest.
The Chicago Archdiocese published this obit for Greeley.
NBC Chicago 5 has a remembrance.
Mary, Queen and Mother of priests, pray for us.
Saint Andrew, brother of the Lord, pray for us.
Saint John Vianney, pray for us.

Learning Latin is still possible, and encouraged

Reg Foster.jpegThe Latin language is far from being extinct even though you only hear it at times in Church. Our common experience today at Mass prayed in the Ordinary Forum is often in the language of the people. The official language of the Catholic Church, however, remains Latin: the texts of the church, the texts of the pope, and importantly, in the prayer of the Church. Fear not. The “house” language today, the daily work of the curia is Italian. It is possible that at some point English will replace Italian.

The Carmelite friar Father Reginald Foster is the renown contemporary father of the Latin language. He spent several decades in Rome working, teaching and writing in Latin. Now he’s retired from active teaching but he keeps his hands in the field by consulting, developing teaching materials, writing and attending some initiatives. One of his works is Corpus Latinitatis.
A recent Reuters article brings to life in a brief fashion the influence of Father Reg in “Spreading the word that Latin lives…”
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A working cardinal: O’Malley really does work

Cardinal O'Malley mowing the lawn.jpgBoston’s Cardinal does outdoor work.

From being a candidate in some people’s eyes for the Petrine ministry to doing menial tasks, Sean Cardinal O’Malley gives good example.
One can only guess what the papacy would be like today had O’Malley been elected. It makes no sense to speculate, and yet one wonders.

I doubt one can say that the estimation he enjoys is due to this kind gesture, but I do think it helps. Cardinal O’Malley knows that hard work means getting his hands dirty and collaborating with others.
Work gives dignity to man’s life; it gives to joy to the heart seeing a task completed as well as can be.

On this feast of Saint Matthias, may his intercession before God give us more bishops like this one.

Saints Matthias and Francis, pray for us.